The insect cried tears streaming down, understanding his meaning, choked with sobs, “Young master, Young master Shiheng is a good man, he won’t abandon us.”
Xu Fei was speechless, thinking to himself, how much do you really know about him? You know nothing at all!
But at this moment, it was not good to say more.
Ahead, Yu Qing took off the soldier’s clothes he was wearing as he walked, shouted, “Brother Xu, this can’t be worn anymore.” He did not explain why it could not be worn, tore a strip of cloth from the clothes, and casually tied his hair into a ponytail.
Xu Fei did the same, also took off his clothes and tied a ponytail, but his hands were empty, his knife had already fallen into the waterfall below.
The insect was the only exception, he found a suitable branch, simply processed it into a hairpin, coiled up his hair and secured it, he still preferred the normal man’s hairstyle.
At the foot of a mountain, Yu Qing told the two to wait a moment, climbed to the mountain top himself, stood high and looked around in all directions.
Based on the direction of sunset, he figured out east, south, west and north, but merely knowing these directions was useless. Walking in one direction could indeed get them out of the ancient tomb wasteland, but it was impossible to roam freely there, too dangerous.
He hoped to spot smoke rising from a fire to shorten the risky distance.
He remembered the place where they were attacked had already started a big mountain fire, probably hard to extinguish in half a day. Moreover, in that situation, alertness came first, no one would spare effort to fight the fire for a while, so the sky above that place must be covered by thick smoke. As long as he found that position, there would be a direction to rejoin the group.
No matter what happened, Shiheng’s matter was the priority, he must complete the journey to the capital for the imperial examination.
However, he could not see it. He checked the horizon repeatedly, but found no sign anywhere of a big fire having burned.
Done for! Yu Qing knew there was trouble. They had drifted around in the underground river for half a day, not knowing where the rapid current had carried them. Judging by the situation, they were probably quite far from the original fierce battle site. Even if they found the original place, by the time they ran there, the examination candidates would have long gone, impossible for them to specially stay and wait for the three.
They were definitely more than fifty li from the official road, surely already inside demon territory.
Disobeying the fifty-li agreement and trespassing into demon land, that was the real big trouble. Now what they had to avoid was not just the demons who attacked the examination group, but all the monsters in the entire ancient tomb wasteland.
He regretted it. Yu Qing regretted being greedy for money, otherwise how could he have fallen into this.
Things had come to this, they could only take one step at a time, regret and worry were useless. He waved towards the foot of the mountain, calling Xu Fei and the insect to come up.
On the way up earlier, he had spotted a cave that could shelter them. The sky was almost dark, they would endure tonight first and talk when daylight came.
After the three gathered some dry grass in the cave to make a place to rest, the sky was completely black, outside the cave the stars filled the sky.
Yu Qing and Xu Fei agreed to take turns keeping watch at the cave entrance. Yu Qing would take the first half of the night, Xu Fei the second half. The insect keeping watch was just for show, so he was exempted.
Xu Fei lay down and soon snored thunderously.
The insect also fell asleep quickly amid the noise, snoring softly.
Yu Qing sat outside the cave, leaning against a rock looking at the stars, pondering how to leave this place. In the current situation of complete darkness, if only he could get a map of the ancient tomb wasteland.
Just as his thoughts turned, he suddenly saw a “star” on the horizon flickering. He was stunned, stared carefully, and realised it was not a star, it should be a campfire.
He slowly stood up and gazed, not knowing whether those who lit the fire were humans or demons. From the direction, it seemed to be in the mountains on the other side of the river.
After a little thought, he still decided to go and investigate, so he turned back into the cave, patted the soundly sleeping Xu Fei.
Xu Fei did not respond. Yu Qing was furious, how could he sleep so soundly in such a place? He immediately covered Xu Fei’s mouth and nose with one hand.
After a moment, Xu Fei woke up, eyes wide, struggling.
Yu Qing released his nose to let him breathe, only covering his mouth, whispered, “There seems to be someone on the other side of the river, I will go and check, you guard the cave entrance.”
Xu Fei nodded.
The two went out of the cave one after another. Xu Fei asked in a low voice, “Where?”
Yu Qing pointed to the light. Xu Fei looked carefully and said worriedly, “Be careful.”
Yu Qing gave a sound of agreement and was about to step away.
Xu Fei suddenly grabbed Yu Qing’s arm again, “Brother Shiheng, you must come back safe. As long as Insect and I can reach the capital safely this time, I am willing to give you four thousand taels of silver as reward.”
He had wanted to say this when they came ashore earlier, but worried it might sound insulting, so he had not dared to speak. Scholars, after all.
Now seeing Yu Qing about to go alone, he was very afraid Yu Qing would never return.
Putting himself in the other’s shoes, in this environment bringing two burdens, anyone would find it troublesome, so he had to offer this ‘insulting’ price.
Those twenty jin of spirit rice were worth two thousand taels, right? Risking life for two thousand taels, Xu Fei felt doubling it to four thousand should move the other.
Sure enough, upon hearing four thousand taels of silver, Yu Qing’s eyes lit up instantly, feeling the trip was worth it. The danger level in his mind dropped rapidly, but he still spoke politely, “Brother Xu, what kind of relationship do we have, talking about money is a bit vulgar…” Then his tone suddenly changed, “Besides, where do you get four thousand taels? Even your luggage is gone, you are probably penniless now, right?”
Xu Fei heard this and knew there was hope, his judgement was correct, money was still the most direct and effective for this fellow. He immediately became spirited too, too lazy to talk about vulgarity or elegance, spoke plainly, “I am penniless now, but once we reach the capital I will have money. My uncle does business in the capital. Though it is small trade, four thousand taels he can still take out. With my current status as a recommended scholar, borrowing four thousand taels from my uncle is no problem. Brother Shiheng need not worry about this.”
Yu Qing raised his hand to stroke his ponytail, gave a dry laugh, “Words from an empty mouth, just listen, how can they be taken seriously? If you don’t give it later, I can’t do anything to you.”
Xu Fei said seriously, “I can write an IOU for you. Too bad there is no paper and pen now. As soon as we find paper and pen, I will write the IOU immediately as proof.”
Yu Qing immediately turned back to look at the firelight, muttering in his heart, seems borrowing paper and pen is necessary.
He had never planned to abandon them to die. If there was no way, he would not easily give up the two, it was just something along the way. He did not expect there would be money to earn.
No choice but to face reality, right? He knew after entering the capital to complete the task he would return to Linglong Temple to live in seclusion and cultivate. Who knows how long this seclusion would last. If he could earn some money along the way, he could not be polite.
In his heart he was not polite, but his mouth still was, “Brother Xu, you put me in a difficult position like this. Sigh, I also know what you are worried about. If I do not agree, you probably won’t eat or sleep in peace. Fine, put your heart at ease, I will agree for now, and will definitely protect you fully.”
Seeing him still acting as if forced, Xu Fei inwardly spat, but still cupped his hands in thanks, “Thank you, Brother Shiheng, much obliged.”
Yu Qing patted his shoulder, turned and quickly went down the mountain.
Along the way he moved stealthily to the riverbank, jumped into the river, crossed swiftly with his cultivation, got ashore and headed straight towards the light.
After sneaking about four or five li, he climbed a mountain, quietly reached halfway up, the source of the firelight, climbed a tree and spied.
Halfway up the mountain was also a cave, outside the cave was a flat area, a campfire burned, a pot hung over the fire, two men and one woman sat around the campfire cooking something.
The two old men and one old woman did not attract Yu Qing’s attention. Instead, it was a woman who just walked out of the cave that made Yu Qing’s gaze unable to move away.
She wore a bamboo hat, wrapped in a cyan cloak, under the hat her face was covered by a cyan gauze, half her face exposed, making it hard to see clearly.
When passing the fire, the firelight lit up half her face under the hat. With Yu Qing’s eyesight he could see that half clearly.
Her skin looked very fair, a bright vermilion dot between her brows, bright eyes like water, long curved lashes, very beautiful eyes. Most importantly, in her graceful movements, there was a gentle elegance, a quality on her body that drew Yu Qing’s gaze.
Though he only saw half her face, though he had not seen her full appearance, Yu Qing subconsciously already decided this should be a great beauty.
When the woman stood quietly at the edge of the mountain, looking up at the starry sky, the campfire was behind her. Through the light, her figure under the cloak was hazy, graceful and slender, the wonderful charm of her body faintly visible in the glow made Yu Qing’s young heart stir.
Yu Qing had not spent much time in the secular world, had never properly contacted women, still a novice in this regard. His knowledge of women basically came from his little martial uncle’s stories, because his little martial uncle seemed to understand women very well.
When he reached boyhood, he began to yearn for women, had all kinds of beautiful fantasies, but his little martial uncle said women down the mountain were like tigers, pouring cold water on him many times.
At this moment, Yu Qing felt his yearning for women was rekindled by the graceful charm of the woman before him, a longing for a beauty he had never had.
The woman stood silently at the mountain edge for a while, gave a soft sigh, then turned around.
In the instant she turned, Yu Qing’s eyes were dazzled by a faint gleam, his gaze instinctively followed.
It was a round iron clasp hanging at the woman’s waist, black, the size of a copper coin. When the firelight shone on it, it felt like cold faint light wandered over it.
Seeing the form of this iron clasp, Yu Qing immediately understood what kind of person this woman was. The people here should all be merchants from Youjiao Bu.
The iron token was called ‘Youju Token’, something only those who obtained residence qualification in Youjiao Bu could have. One side carved with patterns of the You Cliff, the other side carved with the shop name of Youjiao Bu merchants. It was issued by the You Cliff who controlled the rules of Youjiao Bu, and used to prove the identity of Youjiao Bu merchants.
This item was hard to forge. He did not know what method You Cliff used to refine it. Just like the faint light Yu Qing saw, the ‘Youju Token’ only reflected such lustre on its true owner. Once it left the original owner it would immediately stop reflecting light, quite miraculous.