Chapter 59 Building the Plank Road in Open Sight

"Master Huiming, Boss Bao, it has been a long time."

Xue Muhua casually pointed a finger, and a burst of internal energy shot forth, releasing the mute acupoint on Bao Qianling. With a smile, he asked, "What important business brings the two of you here so late at night?"

His master had set off for Bianliang right after finishing dinner. Not only was he delivering a message, but he would most likely also scout for information ahead of time. Among the eight disciples of Hangu, his social acumen was the best, so currently, the valley's affairs, big and small, were primarily handled by him.

As for his grandmaster, Wu Yazi...

Ever since he was brought back from Wuliang Mountain, without waiting for that vixen Li Qiushui to come looking for him, he had remained somewhat depressed. Except for the times when he could perk up while discussing martial arts with others, the rest of the time he was either admiring flowers, the moon, and the scenery, or tending to the medicinal herbs cultivated on the peak of the back mountain—embodying the very definition of self-isolation.

As a side note, when Grandmaster Wu Yazi returned, he had specifically begged Uncle Zhang not to go looking for that vixen Li Qiushui or his senior martial sister.

Perhaps having spent a long time around Uncle Zhang, he was too lazy to hide his displeasure and disgust toward Li Qiushui in his heart. If his master hadn't overheard and scolded him, he probably would have blurted it out directly in private.

Bao Qianling moved his mouth there to get used to speaking again, and said, "A few days ago, I happened to be near Bianliang and heard that the imperial court was going to dispatch troops to擂鼓山 [Legu Mountain]. On top of that, my hands were itching, so I sneaked into the capital to scout around everywhere. I happened to overhear something: the imperial court's dispatch of troops is a fake. In reality, the imperial court's top inner-palace experts, along with Western Xia and Dali, have gathered hundreds of martial artists, planning to storm Legu Mountain tomorrow night at the Hour of Hai."

Tomorrow at the Hour of Hai? Experts from three nations?

Xue Muhua found it a bit hard to gauge. After thinking for a moment, he felt it was somewhat plausible.

First, the news of the imperial court dispatching troops spread much too quickly, and the official proclamation was even sent over specifically. While that might make some sense if they were dealing with ordinary bandits and outlaws, it seemed rather strange when facing martial arts sects.

After all, people with profound martial arts could simply leave, and the army could never catch up to them. Viewed in this light, it felt somewhat like a delaying tactic.

The imperial court sending inner-palace experts was understandable—how could one allow others to snore peacefully beside one's couch? Dali was even more pathetic; the heir apparent Duan Yu and the eminent monks of Tianlong Temple were all staying in the valley, and the reigning Emperor Baoding, whose monastic name was Benzhen, was among them. Moreover, the One-Sun Finger and the Six Meridian Divine Swords had been leaked outside; one could practically call it a deep, irreconcilable grudge.

Why would Western Xia get involved?

Merely because the Four Evils of the Elixir Mansion and Helian Teshumu were dealt with?

That didn't quite make sense.

Xue Muhua was slightly puzzled as to why Western Xia would meddle, but he quickly cast the thought to the back of his mind. Whatever the reason might be, as long as they were enemies, that was all that mattered.

Such a trivial matter did not require waking up Uncle Zhang in the middle of the night. He made a few hand gestures toward the shadows and then said, "Guests are guests. Please come in, the two of you."

Huiming and Bao Qianling exchanged glances and followed him into the valley.

Before returning from Suzhou City, Legu Mountain had never had a moment of peace. Everyone who was captured, without exception, was at the very least a renowned senior expert in the jianghu. Furthermore, Uncle Zhang was excessively high-profile, drawing people who came to Legu Mountain to gather intelligence, people who wanted to break in and cause trouble, and people who wanted to rescue their senior martial elders.

Scattered about, on average one or two such people arrived every day. Legu Mountain was not particularly small, and the surroundings consisted of nothing but mountains and forests. Anyone with a bit of martial arts skill and some dry rations could cross mountains and ridges to somehow sneak near the Deaf-Mute Valley.

Moreover, the Deaf-Mute Sect originally had few members and had no way to monitor every single corner of the entire mountain; they could only take turns keeping watch inside and outside the Deaf-Mute Valley day and night.

Before they were taught martial arts by Uncle Zhang, they had relied entirely on the formations of the Five Elements, Eight Trigrams, and Qiimen Dunjia left behind by Master Su Xinghe to maneuver. After all, even Ding Chunqiu couldn't break them for a time. Many reckless youths who broke in would wander around until they were exhausted or starved, at which point the Deaf-Mute Sect disciples would simply toss them out.

Now things were much simpler—they could just directly take action, though that also brought more troubles.

Uncle Zhang had indeed said that after his seclusion, the others could pack up and leave Legu Mountain, but where exactly they would go remained an unsettled matter.

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Early the next morning, inside the valley, at the pavilion.

"Coming to ambush Legu Mountain?"

That certainly showed quite a bit of imagination.

Zhang Chengyi smiled, wondering which clever mind had come up with that idea.

"Speaking of which, how did the two of you end up together?" he asked with some curiosity.

Bao Qianling rolled his eyes. At the mention of this, he looked utterly speechless. He glanced sideways at Huiming for a moment, and seeing that the old bald monk remained silent, he said, "Originally, the task I took on from you, Uncle Zhang, was going very well. You should ask him what he did."

Huiming still lowered his head in silence.

Bao Qianling took a deep breath before recounting what had happened in the past.

His method of dealing with Master Huiming's desolate temple was simple and crude: he sneaked into the local magistrate's residence, gathered a large amount of evidence of his corruption, and used it to threaten the magistrate while simultaneously making a overnight dash to deliver the evidence to the desk of a famously incorruptible upright official.

Everything was moving in a good direction. Just as he went back to report his success and happened to find that Zhang Chengyi and his party had already left, he figured he would see the matter through to the end.

Dealing with officials in any era was never a matter of a day or two. Northern Song's management of official corruption had loopholes, coupled with problems like punishments not applying to scholar-officials and officials shielding one another, making the bureaucratic process exceptionally long.

While the magistrate certainly didn't dare to explicitly seal off the wild temple in broad daylight, he hadn't been idle behind the scenes and kept making trouble on the sly.

Originally, if Huiming had endured for a little longer and waited until the magistrate was exiled, it would have been fine. Who would have known that he simply couldn't hold it in, arranged for someone to send the young monk he had taken in away, and charged into the yamen alone brandishing a precept blade.

Afterward, to save him, Bao Qianling also directly became a wanted criminal, and could only flee everywhere with Huiming. That magistrate might have been exiled, but the crime of attacking the yamen that the two of them committed could not be erased.

Fleeing to the vicinity of Bianliang was just to see if there was any chance to find someone to appeal their grievance or something similar.

[I'm afraid that magistrate must have done something that the monk Huiming simply could not endure.]

[And this way of handling things is truly full of things to complain about. It would have been simpler and more direct to just kill the magistrate outright. Relying on an upright official to uphold justice for the people while also wanting to find someone to appeal to—what a mindset and logical train of thought full of the era's characteristics.]

Zhang Chengyi glanced at Huiming, who maintained a steadfast silence, and said, "Alright, alright, it's all in the past. If the two of you have nowhere to go, go to Suzhou. I will write a letter for you; you can find Xiao Feng and tag along with him."

Anyway, it had nothing much to do with him, and he didn't plan to meddle any further.

Bao Qianling's expression was somewhat unnatural as he changed the subject and said, "Uncle Zhang is joking. If you have no further instructions, the two of us will take our leave."

As they were talking, Xue Muhua suddenly walked over in a hurried manner, leaned close to Zhang Chengyi's ear, and said in a low voice, "Uncle Zhang, Hero Xiao Feng has brought people here."

Oh? What a coincidence?

Zhang Chengyi was somewhat surprised. Xiao Feng, who had accepted court amnesty, brought people charging over early in the morning on the very day the tripartite coalition was about to conquer Legu Mountain.

Did this mean he wasn't planning to continue being an obedient subject of the Great Song?

As for whether Xiao Feng was going to turn around and oppose him...

He figured that Xiao Feng, who had only reclaimed his original surname a few months ago, probably wouldn't dare to think such a thing.

Having experienced the events in Suzhou City, everyone around held him in awe as a god.