Just like the previous trip to the Nether Sea, in order to keep his son in check, Silver Mountain River was once again sent along as someone trusted by the Red Orchid Pavilion Master. He was quite helpless about this himself, but his demeanour towards outsiders was another matter entirely.
“Fun?” Xiang Lanxuan was noncommittal about this statement, one could say she was half believing and half doubting. Smiling, she gave a reply, “I hope so. Best not to cause trouble here.”
Silver Mountain River said calmly, “How would I dare? Great Walker Xiang is overthinking.”
Xiang Lanxuan shrugged, looking as if she would disturb them no further, then turned and went out.
Outside the hall, her attendant greeted her as she emerged, walking alongside her and glancing back at the great hall several times.
As Xiang Lanxuan walked gracefully, she suddenly said, “The young master of Red Orchid Pavilion has arrived. He has already registered for the meeting under an assumed name, saying he came to participate in the competition. This doesn’t seem like that fellow’s style. I don’t know what he’s up to. Arrange for more people to keep an eye on him.”
The attendant acknowledged, “Yes.”
“Could it be related to those few fellows?” Xiang Lanxuan suddenly muttered to herself, and the shadow of Yu Qing suddenly flashed through her mind.
The grudge between Long Xingyun and the Top Scholar was no secret. Her side even knew that Long Xingyun had met the Top Scholar at the Mirage City. As for what happened between the two, outsiders were not quite clear, but one could imagine that with Young Master Long’s character it would not be anything good. And since the Top Scholar was able to return safely, Young Master Long probably did not gain any advantage.
According to intelligence, Silver Mountain River, who had returned to Red Orchid Pavilion, had injuries on his face. She had just confirmed with her own eyes that the man did indeed have scars on his face.
She somewhat suspected that the young pavilion master was here this time for that Top Scholar.
The attendant tried to guess, “Is the Great Walker referring to the Top Scholar and the others?”
Xiang Lanxuan nodded slightly, “This young pavilion master and that Top Scholar are old enemies. According to what I currently know, the Top Scholar’s enemies who have come this time are probably not limited to just this one. I’m afraid they will appear in clusters.”
The attendant was puzzled, “Clusters?”
Xiang Lanxuan gave a mischievous smile, smiling without saying a word…
Behind the crack in the upstairs window, Ke Ran was staring at the small building diagonally opposite, observing the movements of Yu Qing and the others in that small building.
Actually, he didn’t need to keep watch like this personally. He only did so occasionally. In the small building where he stayed, the other three people were all his men who had been arranged to enter one after another.
The reason he was personally keeping watch this time was because there weren’t enough people on rotation duty by his side.
“Sir.” Someone poked their head in from outside the door to greet him. It was one of the four participants in the small building.
Ke Ran gave an “Mmm,” and the person outside came in, standing by and saying, “Let me do it.”
Ke Ran asked in return, “What’s with that fatty?”
Speaking of this, the newcomer looked somewhat bitter, saying, “Same as the past few days, still wandering around the various hills in District Ding, roaming around everywhere, striking up conversations with everyone. I don’t know where he gets so much nonsense from. Just before I came back, he was chatting with a few people on the hill in District Ding-Wei.”
Ke Ran said, “That fatty suddenly wandering around alone these past few days must have a reason. No matter what nonsense he’s chatting about, I want to know the content of the conversations.”
The newcomer said, “Sir, with our current manpower it’s impossible. Look, we only have four people. We need someone to watch the front of the target small building, and you assigned someone to watch the back. Now we still need to divert manpower to watch that fatty. And that fatty is someone who can strike up a conversation even with a dog he sees. To grasp the content of his conversations with everyone is not only too time-consuming and labour-intensive, but if we keep this up we will definitely arouse everyone’s suspicion.”
Ke Ran frowned, “Is that fatty really so talkative?”
The newcomer nodded repeatedly, “He really does talk a lot of nonsense. If we must grasp the content of his chats, we would need at least three more people to follow up. Otherwise one or two people having to both track and confirm chat content simply can’t manage it. There’s another way, directly let Kunling Mountain intervene to help. They would definitely be able to record every single word that fatty has chatted about.”
Ke Ran immediately raised his hand to stop him. It was not appropriate to let Kunling Mountain get involved in this matter. The Great Walker had already made it clear that it was her personal curiosity about what those few fellows were up to. He warned, “Handle this matter ourselves. Do not enlist any outsiders without permission.”
The newcomer had no choice but to comply, “Yes.”
Ke Ran turned his head to look at him, “After following for several days, apart from nonsense chats, haven’t you obtained any useful information?”
The newcomer immediately seemed to remember something, “Right, I actually did find out some rather special circumstances. That fatty strikes up conversations with everyone he meets. He ran into a few people who had moved away from this hill. When those few people heard the fatty was from District Ding-Yin, they all mentioned the same thing. They all said they moved away because they couldn’t afford to offend Chan Shaoting, and the people applying pressure in the middle were Xiao Changdao and Wu Ronggui from over there.”
Ke Ran was puzzled, “Why would Chan Shaoting do this kind of thing?”
The newcomer said, “At first, hearing one or two people’s accounts, I also thought Chan Shaoting was bullying others with his power. But after hearing several people give the same testimony, it felt somewhat off. I feel Chan Shaoting may have also been set up by Xiao Changdao and Wu Ronggui. Those two fellows seem to be the real ones bullying others with their power, foxes borrowing the tiger’s might. They seem to be using Chan Shaoting to force away competitors with real strength from District Ding-Yin. The fatty has inquired so much, he should have also detected those two fellows’ tricks.”
Saying it like this, Ke Ran understood. It was nothing more than fame and profit. He didn’t care much about this. It was none of his business, and he had no intention of getting involved…
At the foot of the mountain, by a large tree, Nan Zhu quickly dodged behind the tree with a sideways movement. Holding his breath and concentrating, he quietly sized up his surroundings, afraid someone might see him acting furtively.
Although he wasn’t doing anything, he was also afraid it wouldn’t look good if Kunling Mountain people saw him.
Fortunately, the surroundings were quiet and serene, and no abnormalities were detected.
After waiting a while, he slowly poked his head out, quietly exposing his line of sight to look out. He saw a Kunling Mountain disciple around forty years old walking while looking around, heading towards a large courtyard on a flat piece of ground.
When that person reached the courtyard entrance, he turned around to look at the surroundings again, then walked into the courtyard with relief.
Only then did Nan Zhu emerge, quickly walking over.
Reaching the courtyard entrance, he poked his head in to look and found the courtyard empty. Under the eaves were several room doors. Judging from the layout, this place was clearly a warehouse. No wonder this place was so deserted.
Considering the other person’s identity, coming to this kind of place was not unusual. The key point was that all the doors were shut, and the person from just now had disappeared.
He didn’t know which room the person had entered. He wanted to step into the courtyard to investigate, but was also afraid of being discovered. After hesitating repeatedly, he simply retreated, went around to the side of the courtyard along the wall, and tiptoed along the base of the wall carefully listening all the way.
After circling more than half the courtyard outside, while crouching and passing under a window, he suddenly heard humming and hawing sounds coming from inside, occasionally with muttered dialogue. Listening closely with his ear, it was faintly the movements of a man and woman.
As someone with experience, he felt this movement was somewhat stimulating. Crouching under the window, Nan Zhu scratched his ear, wanting to see what was going on but having no way to do so. These were all cultivators. The method of directly poking through the window paper definitely wouldn’t work. He would definitely be discovered.
Afterwards, he noted the location of this room, then went back around to the courtyard entrance. This time he walked in boldly with confidence.
His gaze calculated the position, confirming the location of the room he had eavesdropped on earlier. He crept over, tiptoeing closer. He listened at the door for a while to the movements inside, confirming it was correct, then quietly retreated to the door of the adjacent room. Because he had seen earlier that the door here was not shut tightly, he now used his hand to support the door, channelling his power to steady it so it wouldn’t make a sound, and slowly moved the door open.
Normally he wouldn’t dare to be so bold. Now he estimated that the people in the courtyard wouldn’t be paying attention to the outside, and estimated there wouldn’t be other people in the courtyard. Otherwise the people in the room probably wouldn’t act like this in broad daylight. Hence he dared to approach boldly.
He slipped in sideways quietly, finding it was an accounts room, with writing brushes, ink, paper and registers and such placed on the table.
Naturally he wouldn’t be interested in these things. He only wanted to know what the situation was in the adjacent room, who the people were.
Reaching the wall panel, he pressed against the crack in the wall, straining his gaze to look in. Unfortunately the gaps between the wall panels were too small, and he didn’t dare to enlarge them. He could only switch between one crack after another to peek in. The lighting on the other side was also not very good. In the slightly larger wall cracks he only glimpsed what seemed to be a mosquito net, and then inside there seemed to be a pair of man and woman hugging and kissing non-stop, fleshy and plump, clearly both stripped naked.
Before long, the man and woman hugging together inside began doing even more stimulating things.
Unfortunately the wall crack was too small, and he simply couldn’t see the situation in the adjacent room clearly. The sounds were heard quite clearly though. Nan Zhu looked as if he wished he could stuff his eyeballs into the wall crack.
In the end there was truly no way. He didn’t want to listen to the chaotic sounds from next door anymore either. Listening too much would make him heated up. In any case, confirming that the people next door were engaged in the affairs of men and women was sufficient.
He quietly withdrew. Passing by the desk, he glanced at the writing brushes and ink, slightly startled. His gaze flickered, feeling that “Qian Wutong” was acting furtively, and his relationship with the woman next door didn’t seem like a normal man-woman relationship.
Qian Wutong was the Kunling Mountain disciple he had followed all the way here.
He too had been wandering around everywhere, inquiring discreetly everywhere, before learning that District Ding had dedicated vehicles travelling to and from the Kunling Mountain sect, specifically for transporting allocated supplies or consumables and such. And this Qian Wutong was one of the three drivers responsible for transport.
So he wanted to get to know this Qian Wutong in a roundabout way. Who knew that before he could even approach and get acquainted, he discovered this person’s behaviour was somewhat furtive, not knowing what he wanted to do. Out of curiosity he wanted to follow and see. He never dreamed he would witness this scene.
After pondering for a while, he lightly picked up the brush and dipped it in ink. On the paper he wrote the four characters “The mountain man was here.”
Lightly setting down the brush, he lightly lifted that paper into his hand, quietly went out the door, quietly crept up to the door of the room with the movements, listened to the intense sounds inside, then lightly inserted that paper into the wall crack so it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, then quietly retreated.
After leaving the courtyard, he then strode away. However, he didn’t leave directly, but quietly climbed to a nearby hilltop. After finding a suitable position, he picked up a stone from the ground, swung his arm and threw it with force.
He wanted to confirm whether the person in that room was Qian Wutong. After all, he hadn’t seen Qian Wutong enter that room. At the same time, he also wanted to see who that woman was.
The stone whistled as it flew across a distance of several dozen zhang, flying towards that courtyard, clattering as it struck the roof tiles.