Hundreds of kilometers away from any city, an inn stood in the wild, desolate mountains. Unlike the Peace Inn, however, this was just an ordinary establishment, managed by a taciturn, quiet middle-aged Shopkeeper.
Ning Qingzhu, Old Chen, and Qiu Zhiya had been traveling for several days before finally stopping here to rest.
Taking a bite of the roast meat on the table, it tasted like night and day compared to the dry rations they had been eating for days. After so many bland days, flavor returned to their mouths, awakening their taste buds in an instant.
“Dry biscuits and rations taste okay, but this roast meat is so much better!” Ning Qingzhu said indistinctly, her cheeks stuffed full like a little hamster sneaking food.
Qiu Zhiya didn't reply, simply resting her forehead in her hand in utter helplessness.
Over the past few days, she had gradually accepted this reality.
Not only did she have to take care of Little Qing, but she also had to trek through the jianghu with an old man in tow.
When Qiu Zhiya had seen Old Chen accompanied by Ning Qingzhu at the city gate that day, she had assumed the old man was merely there to see them off.
Who could have guessed he was actually coming along to cause trouble?
Left with no alternative, Qiu Zhiya had resignedly set off with both of them.
Meanwhile, Ning Qingzhu still naively believed that Qiu Zhiya had intentionally waited for her and had been willing to bring Old Chen along for her sake.
Qiu Zhiya leaned back against her chair, feeling drained.
Although the sword had been delivered to a hidden location, it was only a matter of time before the Martial Alliance uncovered their identities. The Martial Alliance's intelligence network might not be the absolute best, but it was certainly top-tier.
“No matter what, we must leave this place as soon as possible.”
This area was no longer safe. The message delivered by carrier pigeon yesterday indicated that the Martial Alliance was already making moves.
Looking at the "old and young" pair in front of her, she rested her forehead in her palm once more in helplessness.
Ning Qingzhu possessed not a single shred of a sense of danger. She even felt that the past few days had been a bit boring—nothing but endless traveling, completely different from the jianghu she had envisioned.
As for Uncle Chen, he was even worse.
—His young master was Jiang Moran!
The mask in his bundle was comparable to a nuclear deterrent.
Anyone who used it knew its terrifying power.
These two oddballs—one clueless, the other arrogant—had left a profound impression on Qiu Zhiya, who remained completely in the dark.
She couldn't bear to look...
“Once you two finish eating, go get some rest. We continue our journey first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Our allies have already arrived at the rendezvous point. It's just another hundred li or so.”
With that, she went upstairs, leaving the two of them to finish their meal.
“We actually have allies meeting us!” Ning Qingzhu's eyes lit up. Finally, this felt like traveling the jianghu.
Old Chen nodded as well. The girl had prepared her operation quite thoroughly, at least taking an escape route into consideration.
As the old man and young girl were chatting, three burly men at the neighboring table stared passionately at Ning Qingzhu, their eyes burning with lust. A young girl with such a stunning face was an exceedingly rare sight in these desolate, wild mountains.
The people who frequented this inn were either jianghu travelers on the move or hunters making a living deep in the mountains—every single one of them a rough, muscular brute.
At this moment, the three made no attempt to conceal the crude lust in their eyes, brazenly sizing up Ning Qingzhu's delicate frame.
Their blatant gaze naturally caught Old Chen's attention. He let out a cold snort and glared at them with hostile eyes. Yet instead of backing down, one of the men stood up with a sinister smirk and began walking over toward Ning Qingzhu.
Ning Qingzhu knitted her willow-leaf brows slightly. She strongly disliked their appraising gazes, which made her feel deeply uncomfortable.
“What brings a little sister to a place like this? Looking for a bit of excitement, are we?”
“Hahaha!!”
As the man spoke, a burst of coarse laughter erupted around the room, thick with frivolous mockery.
Her disgust reaching its peak, Ning Qingzhu shed her previous meekness and fixed him with a frigid stare.
“You'd better get lost within three seconds.”
The man froze for a moment upon hearing this, clearly not expecting such words from the young girl in front of him.
Once he processed it, he felt humiliated and lost face.
“You'd better strip tonight—”
Bang!
A snapped wooden stick bounced twice on the ground. The rest of the man's words remained unsaid, never to be spoken again.
Everyone watched in shock as the girl held the remaining half of the wooden stick, stunned by her ruthless strike.
She had used her full strength, striking the man squarely on the temple. He instantly collapsed to the floor, convulsing; anyone with eyes could tell he was as good as dead.
Perhaps there was still a sliver of hope to save him.
But this was the wilderness.
“Wooden stick, ten coppers,” the Shopkeeper huddled behind the counter suddenly spoke up, his voice rasping and harsh.
In truth, ten coppers for a wooden stick was outrageously expensive.
Yet Old Chen did not hesitate. He reached into his robes, pulled out ten copper coins, walked over to the counter, and set them down, without casting a single glance at the burly man on the floor or caring about the surrounding gazes.
This scene left the onlookers even more rattled with doubt and fear.
“Such ruthless temperament, and the old servant is so calm and composed—they are definitely no ordinary people!”
“We should have known. How could ordinary people show up in a desolate wilderness like this?”
“That guy was just unlucky...”
The crowd murmured amongst themselves, but their words no longer held any hint of disrespect toward the girl.
The previous guy's corpse was still right there...
“How sickening. People like that are truly disgusting!”
After this incident, neither Ning Qingzhu nor Old Chen had any appetite left for food, so they went upstairs to their respective rooms to rest.
The crowd fell silent as they watched the two head upstairs, only growing lively again after their figures vanished.
The Shopkeeper slowly emerged from behind the counter, grabbed the corpse by the arm, dragged it out of the inn, and casually tossed it into the wasteland nearby.
The patrons inside the inn were long accustomed to such a sight; conflicts broke out here almost every day.
A dead body here was worth less than a cup of wine.
The patrons in the inn drank late into the night, the minor incident earlier not dulling their spirits in the slightest.
Creak—
Amidst the continuous din of chatter, the grating creak of the door opening sounded especially abrupt, instantly drawing everyone's gaze.
Two men stepped through the doorway, arrogance etched across their faces like novices who had just ventured into the jianghu.
However, the crowd's eyes landed on the wooden tokens hanging at their waists, which were carved with the wild, arrogant character for “Martial.”
“The Martial Alliance...”
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