MOF Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Using Wisdom at Mount Wangen to Lure Luo Huaiji, Azurefall Rides the Wind and Strikes, Like…

Xie Yiling said, “Did you think you could avoid it by covering your ears? You’re small but clever.”

A Si shouted loudly, “I can hear!”

Xie Yiling was amused by his appearance and laughed, “Good that you can hear, saves us the effort of explaining it to you.”

After he finished speaking, he turned back and asked Nangong Ci, “Shifu, how far is Mount Wangen, which we mentioned earlier, from Peace Town?”

Nangong Ci said, “I’ve never been there either.”

Xie Yiling turned to ask, “A Si, do you know the way?”

A Si walked over, sulking, “Whether I know or not, aren’t we still going? That grandma said there are bad people on the mountain, aren’t you afraid something will happen to me!”

His protest didn’t earn him any sympathy from the two, but instead, Xie Yiling flicked his forehead, “Maybe you’ll run into them and bring back some information.”

A Si’s eyes widened as he looked at Xie Yiling in disbelief, “Brother Xie Ci, you’re so cruel!”

Xie Yiling bent down, quickly stuffing something into his clothes while patting his shoulder, and winked at him, “A Si, I’m counting on you.”

A Si glanced at him, grunted ambiguously, turned his face away, and strode down Yuhua Terrace.

Watching A Si walk away, Xie Yiling retracted his gaze, “Shifu, are we going back to the inn now?”

Nangong Ci nodded, “Jiaojiao is still there, let’s take it with us.”

Xie Yiling raised an eyebrow slightly, “It’s normal for others to call me that, but for Shifu to call me that,” he seemed to deliberately drag out his tone to say the following words, “it’s more than what others would, a cuteness that doesn’t fit your status.”

Nangong Ci’s expression remained unchanged, but his ears were slightly hot, “People have names, so we call them by their names, isn’t it the same for animals?”

Xie Yiling nodded in agreement. He helped the unconscious Gu Huanzhi up, put an arm over his shoulder, and said, “Shifu, let’s go, let’s go back and get Jiaojiao.”

Nangong Ci also stepped forward, helping Gu Huanzhi on the other side, sharing half of Xie Yiling’s burden, but his heart was not as calm as it appeared on the surface. Perhaps Xie Yiling himself didn’t notice that he had called Gu Huanzhi “Third Master Gu” earlier.

A person wouldn’t suddenly change their address after settling on a name for someone else.

Although it was just a small guess, it was enough to stir up waves in Nangong Ci’s heart.

The title “Third Master Gu” was definitely not something an ordinary person could call out. Unless they had called him that before and had an impression, they would suddenly say it.

Perhaps… Xie Ci’s memories might still be recoverable.

The two quickly returned to Peace Town under the cover of night. Every house on the street was lit, the doors and windows were tightly closed, but no shadows could be seen flashing inside.

Xie Yiling looked at the brightly lit inn, afraid of an ambush, so he stopped.

Seeing this, Nangong Ci asked, “What’s wrong, are you worried that there are Hua Jieyu’s people inside?”

“Huh?” Xie Yiling seized the key point in his words, “Shifu, who is Hua Jieyu?”

Before Nangong Ci could answer, he had a flash of inspiration and said, “That Lady Yuhua?”

Nangong Ci nodded and said, “That woman’s name is Hua Jieyu, and she’s about the same age as you.”

Xie Yiling leaned closer to him as if he had smelled something unusual, and asked sourly, “How did Shifu get to know her?”

A trace of helplessness flashed in Nangong Ci’s eyes, “It was just a chance encounter, each minding our own business, I only know her name.”

“Oh.” Xie Yiling looked uncomfortably at the inn, “I’ll go get Jiaojiao and let it carry Junior Brother Gu.”

Nangong Ci said “Be careful,” and seeing Xie Yiling put Gu Huanzhi down by the door and stride into the inn, he followed him anyway.

“Oh no!” Xie Yiling was suddenly startled, turned his head, and stared at Nangong Ci with wide eyes, “We bought cakes for Jiaojiao when we entered the town, and we also asked the waiter to feed it something before we left!”

Nangong Ci comforted him with a complex expression, “Don’t worry, I’ve seen it, Jiaojiao is more intelligent than ordinary animals, it shouldn’t eat anything given by others.”

“As for the cakes,” he looked at Xie Yiling, as if he couldn’t bear it, “the cakes were too small, probably won’t have much effect on Jiaojiao.”

So only he, Xie Yiling, suffered the consequences of that damn cake?

Xie Yiling’s expression froze slightly, and he grinded his teeth and said, “That’s good.”

When they arrived at the stable, they indeed saw Jiaojiao half-lying on the ground, leisurely wagging its tail. Seeing them return, it lazily raised its eyelids and stood up in advance when it realized that they were going to take it away.

“Okay,” Xie Yiling patted its back, “You’re indeed intelligent, not ordinary!”

“Let’s go,” Nangong Ci said, “to Mount Wangen.”

The two led Jiaojiao, the latter carrying Gu Huanzhi, and returned the same way, heading straight for Mount Wangen.

On Mount Wangen, A Si waited for a long time, but no one came. He flipped through the array map that Xie Yiling had stuffed to him with one hand, and tugged at the grass roots on the ground with the other, complaining indignantly, “He actually let me come alone to find the medicine, Brother Xie Ci really fell for that hypocrite’s trick!”

The sound of branches being crushed underfoot sounded behind him. A Si’s back stiffened for a second. He looked back and saw a man in black clothes, holding a lantern in one hand and shaking a folding fan in the other, walking slowly towards him.

“That’s really rare.” His eyelids drooped as he glanced at A Si, who was probably not even as tall as his waist, and his voice was as ethereal as if it was floating over, “This mountain is rarely visited, how could a child suddenly appear?”

A Si quickly closed the array map and stuffed it into his somewhat tattered clothes, stood up without losing momentum, and asked, “Who are you, state your name!”

The man raised his eyebrows, his words full of the air of a master, “I’ve lived here for several years, it should be me asking you.”

“Okay.” A Si scratched his head, very aware of the situation, “Then why do you live here?”

“Naturally, I don’t want to contact people. Alright, little ghost.” The man’s patience was exhausted, and he lifted the lamp in front of A Si, to get a good look at him, his tone becoming colder, “Who are you, what are you doing here?”

A Si was extremely good at observing people’s expressions. Seeing his attitude change, he slowly retreated, “I, I’m called A Si, I’m lost, I don’t know how to get out.”

“Lost?” The man narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at him, obviously not believing him. When the light shone on the array map exposed in his clothes, his eyes suddenly turned gloomy, “How do you have that book? Where did it come from?”

“I picked it up!” A Si immediately said loudly, “What I picked up is mine!”

While he was saying that, he covered his clothes with his hand, not letting people see.

“Aren’t you lost?” The man suddenly softened his tone, the corner of his mouthUp, withdrew the fan, turned the fan towards himself, and then stretched out a hand to him, his tone with a few points of seduction, “I’ll take you out, okay? As a thank you, let me see your book, how about it?”

A Si tilted his head, blinked his eyes and said, “I’ve already told you my name, you have to tell me your name too.”

“My name?” The man smiled, but it was very fair, answering word by word, “Luo Huaiji, do you know which characters they are?”

A Si shook his head and said, “I don’t know, I don’t know how to read.”

“Let’s go, I’ll take you out.” Luo Huaiji urged him.

A Si looked at Luo Huaiji’s still outstretched hand, his gaze following his arm, seeming to fall on his face. Just as he was about to reach out his hand, his face suddenly changed in surprise, looking behind Luo Huaiji, and shouted, “Ah! There’s a snake!”

Luo Huaiji was startled by his sudden shout, and thought it was something, but when he heard it was just a snake, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief impatiently.

In this mountain, dense forests are everywhere, with a lot of poisonous insects and snakes. He turned around habitually, and a cold light flashed into his eyes.

Luo Huaiji’s heart was suddenly startled, his mind was still bewildered, but his body had already responded.

The lantern in his hand was shaken to the ground, and when the iron fan collided with Azurefall, both of them were violently shocked.

Seeing the person who came, Luo Huaiji turned his head fiercely, the little ghost from just now had long since disappeared.

Nangong Ci continued to slash at Luo Huaiji with his sword, the latter leaned back, the tip of the sword barely brushed past his neck, and a string of blood droplets fell, seeping into his black collar.

Luo Huaiji’s face sank, but he wasn’t too surprised and opened his mouth, “People from the Southern Return Heavenly Pavilion?”

Nangong Ci didn’t speak, Azurefall rode the wind and struck, like a bamboo splitting open.

Xie Yiling and A Si hid behind a tree and saw the two fighting back and forth, but it was not difficult to see that Nangong Ci was better.

“Brother Xie Ci,” A Si raised his face and looked at him, “Did I do a good job as bait?”

Xie Yiling gave him a thumbs up, “You did a good job, no one is better at pretending to be stupid than you.”

A Si waved his head, “Hmph, that’s for sure!”

Xie Yiling said, “After Shifu subdues this Luo Huaiji, takes the medicine, and cures Junior Brother Gu’s poison, I’ll take you out for a big meal.”

“Ugh!” With a cry of pain from Luo Huaiji, the two’s attention was quickly drawn over.

Nangong Ci quickly tied Luo Huaiji up tightly with a rope, and then unhurriedly picked up the lantern on the ground.

Xie Yiling jumped out, ran to Nangong Ci’s side, and clung to half of his shoulder without any restraint and shouted, “Shifu, you’re really amazing, teach me sometime.”

Nangong Ci’s expression was indifferent, accepting this praise, “It’s not difficult, I’ll teach you later.”

A Si stuck out his tongue behind him, with a look of disdain.

Luo Huaiji looked at Xie Yiling, his eyes lit up for a moment, “So it’s you, Hua Jieyu’s next sacrifice.”

Xie Yiling’s originally happy expression suddenly converged, giving a cold glance, not paying attention to his words at all, and asked in return, “Were you the one who used puppet techniques at Yuhua Terrace?”

Luo Huaiji smiled, “No, it wasn’t me, but I know who that person is.”

Nangong Ci said bluntly, “It’s the person who gave you the array map.”

Luo Huaiji’s face stiffened, then he smiled again, “Have you been to my house?”

The autumn wind rose at night, Xie Yiling rubbed his somewhat cold arms, approached Nangong Ci who was holding the lantern, and absorbed some warmth, “We also saved your pitiful blood relatives who were trapped in front of the grave by you, this unfilial son.”

“Hahaha, pitiful?” Luo Huaiji seemed to have heard some joke, “They deserved it!”

“Alright.” Xie Yiling didn’t want to listen to his crazy talk, “Shifu, A Si and I will go find the medicine first, this person is left to you.”

“No.” Nangong Ci refused without thinking, “I’ll go with you.”

“But…”

Xie Yiling hesitated, and A Si appropriately opened his mouth and said, “Then leave it to me! Anyway, the pseudo… Immortal Lord Fufeng has already tied him up, he definitely can’t run away. I’ll lead him, and follow behind you, okay.”

Nangong Ci said, “Don’t worry, I’ve sealed his acupoints, once he uses his spiritual power, it will inevitably backfire.”

Xie Yiling agreed, and the two began to look around for the antidote.

“Shifu,” he suddenly remembered a very important question, “What does the root of the plant actually look like, do you know?”

Nangong Ci heard Xie Yiling’s words, and was about to answer, when he heard Luo Huaiji interject behind him, “Immortal Lord Fufeng, are you looking for the antidote to the Three Severance Gu? Why don’t you ask me.”

“Brown stems and leaves, the flowers are small and round, blue, the blue gradually fades and turns white near the stamens…” Before Nangong Ci finished speaking, Luo Huaiji said again, “Are you really not considering asking me? Maybe I’ll tell you?”

Xie Yiling suddenly stopped, paused for two seconds, and turned to look at him, “Young Master Luo really has a good mood, even at this time, you still have the mind to joke.”

“I’m not joking.” Luo Huaiji’s face was serious, “As long as you beg me, I might really tell you.”

“Compared to that,” Xie Yiling’s tone became serious, “I want to know more, when will your companions come to save you.”

Luo Huaiji laughed, “What do you mean by this?”

“Didn’t you tell us?” Xie Yiling spoke clearly, “You said you knew who used puppet techniques at Yuhua Terrace, but from your performance, you don’t care about Hua Jieyu, which means Hua Jieyu is not someone who can give you orders, you should be at the same level, right?”

“The one you truly follow is likely the one who uses puppet techniques and gave you the array map.”

Luo Huaiji’s smile gradually solidified, becoming gloomy.

Xie Yiling glanced triumphantly at Nangong Ci, and continued in a light tone, “When my Shifu saw the Soul Confinement Formation you set up, he said that although the formation setter’s technique was clumsy, the method was not low-end. It shows that your strength should be good, but from the fight you had with my Shifu just now, it’s not the case.”

“You were beaten by my Shifu without any ability to fight back, it’s more like the spiritual power you cultivated was taken away, and your body is as withered as ruined cotton. Eh—”

Xie Yiling seemed to have discovered something interesting, and a gleam of light gathered in his already bright eyes, “Young Master Luo, who do you think could do this to you?”