After leaving the watchtower, there was another long series of twists and turns before he returned to the inn.
He went upstairs in the inn. Just as he was about to turn into the corridor, he suddenly saw Qiao Qie’er’s figure standing guard outside Nan Zhu and the others’ room door. Frightened, he quickly drew back his form.
Coincidentally, Qiao Qie’er also subconsciously glanced in this direction. The two more or less caught a glimpse of each other.
Yu Qing was startled. He did not know what he was thinking, but he felt somewhat guilty, like a thief. He hurriedly went downstairs and ran away.
“Why does that cloaked masked person look somewhat familiar…” Qiao Qie’er was stunned for a moment, then immediately realised something. She quickly turned and chased after him in quick steps.
Yu Qing, who had hurried downstairs, went straight to the inn’s courtyard. He found the place where he had climbed down earlier, and quickly climbed back through the window into Nan Zhu and the others’ room.
Originally, the reason he had taken the stairs was that he felt climbing in from outside was inappropriate. Coming out of the room was nothing, but climbing in from outside would give the suspicion of being a thief. He was afraid of misunderstanding. So, who would have thought Qiao Qie’er would actually be standing guard outside Nan Zhu and the others’ room door.
Thus this farce occurred.
As soon as he jumped through the window, he quickly closed it.
Seeing him return, Nan Zhu immediately said in a low voice, “My little ancestor, you certainly took a long time bathing. They have knocked on the door many times. If you had not returned, even with my silver tongue, I really could not have held them off any longer.”
Yu Qing quickly took off his cloak and threw it to Mu Aotie. He was about to open the door and go out.
Nan Zhu grabbed him and pointed up and down at him. “Do you think she is blind or what? Do you look like someone who has bathed?” He pointed behind the screen.
Yu Qing quickly understood. He hurriedly ran behind the screen, undressed, stripped naked, and jumped into the bath barrel. He submerged himself in the water. Only after poking his head out from the water did he breathe a sigh of relief. Wet, he leaned against the barrel wall in comfort.
Mu Aotie hung up the cloak. He turned around and saw Nan Zhu scratching his head in puzzlement. “Strange. What are we nervous about? Why are we afraid of that woman? Why are we all acting like thieves?”
In the inn’s courtyard, Qiao Qie’er quickly walked around but found no suspicious person. She suddenly turned her head and glanced at the row of guest rooms on the second floor. She did not know what she thought of. Lifting her skirt, she quickly ran back and went straight upstairs.
Arriving outside Nan Zhu and the others’ room, this time she did not even knock. She was not polite either. She directly used magic to lift the door bolt and barged in without hesitation.
Ignoring Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie’s completely stunned reactions, she glanced coldly toward the screen that provided cover, then directly barged over there.
“Ah, this…” Upon seeing this, Nan Zhu quickly went to stop her. “Miss Qie’er, what are you doing? How can a woman watch a man bathe…”
Qiao Qie’er waved her hand, brushing aside his entanglement. She suddenly flashed to the side of the screen and looked into the bath barrel. Instantly, she was dumbstruck.
Yu Qing, who had his arms resting on both sides of the barrel rim, was leaning wet against the barrel wall listening intently. He slowly turned his head back. The two of them locked eyes.
He had heard the commotion of Qiao Qie’er barging in and was listening. He had not expected the other party to directly flash over. He simply had not reacted. How could there be such a woman?
The two of them stared at each other with wide eyes.
A thought flashed through Qiao Qie’er’s mind. Could he have just climbed into the bath barrel? She even associated it with whether he had not even undressed properly before hurriedly diving into the water. Her gaze subconsciously looked down into the water.
Well, the water in the bath barrel had long gone cold. There was no steam. It was clear. It was very easy to see things one should not see. Her face instantly flushed completely red.
Only then did Yu Qing show a face full of shock. The small moustache above his lip was twitching and trembling violently. He suddenly quickly bent his knees and clamped his legs together. His hands splashed into the water. Amidst water flying everywhere, he frantically covered his crotch. In extreme terror, he said, “What are you doing?”
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie had also flashed in. The scene before them instantly caused the two to freeze as if their acupoints had been struck.
Even Mu Aotie, who normally had no expression, had a wonderfully colourful reaction at this moment.
Qiao Qie’er, whose face was red like a monkey’s bottom, dared not stay. Even with thousands of questions, she could not withstand it. She quickly turned her head and left, fleeing the room as if running for her life.
The room fell into silence. Yu Qing’s face was truly frightened pale. Even when he was nearly killed by Yun Xi, he had not been this terrified.
Men are sometimes more shy than women in certain respects.
In short, he was truly frightened this time. His heartbeat nearly stopped from fright. After a good while, he said in full grief and indignation, “Is this woman sick?”
“Pfft…” Nan Zhu suddenly held back a laugh, then nearly laughed himself to death. He turned around and laughed while leaning against the wall, occasionally pounding the wall.
Mu Aotie also grinned with his mouth open, smiling happily.
“What are you laughing at? What is so funny? What is wrong with you two? How could you not even stop a woman? Old Seventh, was it deliberate?”
The humiliated and angry Yu Qing was furious, scolding repeatedly.
The sect leader today felt he had encountered the greatest humiliation of his life.
Nan Zhu, who was leaning against the wall, suddenly laughed with a pig-like sound. One hand waved backward repeatedly, indicating no. He simply could not catch his breath to explain.
Grinning with a mouthful of white teeth, Mu Aotie, who could not close his mouth from smiling, turned and left from behind the screen. He went to close the guest room door.
The two martial brothers had truly not seen their Old Fifteenth so frightened in many years.
After finally catching his breath, Nan Zhu walked to the side of the bath barrel again. He placed both hands on the barrel rim and looked into the barrel. “Did she see everything?”
He mentioned the very thing Yu Qing did not want to hear. Yu Qing said with a black face, “Scram!”
“Hehe, why cover it so tightly? If women can look, can men not look? Besides, I saw you when you wore open-crotch pants. As for your little bird…”
Nan Zhu turned and walked away, speaking as he walked. His fingers even made a “I flicked it” gesture.
The furious Yu Qing waved his hand to splash water, but Nan Zhu, who had been on guard, dodged it. Yet Yu Qing himself dared not jump out naked. He had trapped himself.
The laughter from behind the screen did not stop.
Yu Qing in the bath barrel quickly washed up with splashing sounds. By the time he was dressed and came out, he already had an appearance of nothing having happened.
After all, he was a man. Moreover, his face was indeed rather thick. He could be so ashamed he wished to find a hole to hide in, yet he could also quickly get over it. At least on the surface he had to be like this. Otherwise, the more certain people saw he cared, the more they would use it to tease him.
Nan Zhu temporarily set aside this joke and began asking about proper matters. Yu Qing explained the general situation.
Afterward, Yu Qing seemed to dawdle in this room, somewhat unwilling to return.
Yet Qiao Qie’er also somewhat changed from her usual pattern. Yu Qing had been gone from his room for so long, yet she had not come to knock on the door again.
Later, seeing Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie always looking at him strangely, Yu Qing, for the sake of his self-respect, got up and left with an indifferent appearance.
Before leaving, he asked Nan Zhu, “Old Seventh, right, I have been forgetting to ask you. What was the name of that prefect’s daughter?”
Nan Zhu instantly could not laugh anymore. His face immediately turned black.
Only then did Yu Qing swagger out the door with a pleased expression.
Returning to the other room, he and Qiao Qie’er glanced at each other. Qiao Qie’er’s face instantly flushed red again.
The two did not speak. Yu Qing showed no tenderness toward the fairer sex. He occupied the only couch himself and sat cross-legged in meditation.
One man and one woman seemingly passed three days as if nothing had happened. During this period, there was almost no communication. The woman frequently blushed.
Three days later, Yu Qing again used bathing as an excuse to go to the other room.
In reality, he masked his face, threw on his cloak, and slipped away. He went to the watchtower again. He obtained the item and immediately returned.
Once bitten, twice shy. This time he was more careful upon returning, and no more embarrassing incidents occurred.
When the three martial brothers met in the guest room, Nan Zhu immediately asked, “How was it?”
Yu Qing took off his cloak and threw it to Mu Aotie. From his bosom he pulled out a sheet of paper for Nan Zhu. Mu Aotie quickly leaned in to look.
They saw nine ancient place names listed on the paper. Each ancient place name was followed by its modern place name. For nearly half the place names, there were even two or more modern names. There were annotations above. Because the ancient place names given had similar names in ancient times, the modern names of both places had been found.
The origins of the names and such were all explained clearly. The watchtower’s way of handling matters seemed quite responsible.
Of course, they did not care about the other ancient place names. Their gazes quickly locked onto the annotation behind the place name “Golden Valley.” They discovered there were actually two place names.
The first was within the borders of Jin Kingdom’s Shen Province. It was still called “Golden Valley” to this day. It was a canyon. The reason for this name was that a place near this canyon had discovered gold deposits in ancient times. Thus in ancient times it was called Golden Valley. Today this canyon was also an important route for merchants and travellers.
The second was within Yin Kingdom’s borders. The modern place name was “Rift Valley Manor.” It was occupied by a family-style sect that had been passed down for a long time in Yin Kingdom.
That place likewise had a canyon. It was originally called Golden Valley. Later, with the establishment of “Rift Valley Manor,” the name Golden Valley slowly disappeared, becoming merely a record in historical texts.
“So there really was a place called Golden Valley in history. Golden Valley in Jin Kingdom, Rift Valley Manor in Yin Kingdom. There are actually two places. What a coincidence, one in each kingdom. Could it be one of these two?” Nan Zhu held the paper’s contents in one hand while rubbing the fat on his face and muttering.
Seeing the two had finished reading, Yu Qing pulled the paper back and immediately crumpled it into fine powder.
Mu Aotie said, “Which place to go to first?”
Nan Zhu said, “Which place to go to is not important. What is important is that neither is near. Old Fifteenth, how much money do we have left?”
They all understood his meaning. If they really had to run back and forth between Jin Kingdom and Yin Kingdom, not to mention finding anything, just the back and forth travel would take several months. Next year’s twenty million was not generous in terms of time. Wasting time on the road was too uneconomical.
Yet flying back and forth would cost too much money.
Yu Qing said, “How much money I have left, you know clearly. After buying the Ice Soul, there was roughly seven hundred thousand left. The round trip to Mati Island, the journey there cost one hundred seventy thousand taels. The return journey had an extra person, so it was two hundred twenty thousand taels. Buying this information from the watchtower cost another fifty-four thousand. Some scattered expenses I will not count. You tell me, how much is left?”
Nan Zhu pondered for a moment and muttered, “That is to say, you have roughly two hundred sixty thousand or so left on hand. This is only enough for one flight. Changing to a second point is even farther. The remaining money is definitely not enough to fly again.”
Yu Qing said, “Do you not each still have one hundred thousand on hand? Adding what you have on hand, the money for a round trip to both sides should be enough.” Seeing the two’s unwilling faces, he immediately blocked their mouths with words first. “This time I mean what I say. As long as we find it, the benefits will be split equally among us.”