Chapter 119: Staying Overnight

"..." Pei Ye gripped the sword hilt again.

The black cat, which was licking water in the small lid, also raised its head to look at the person who came.

The blue-clothed young man adjusted his stance and gripped his sword hilt: "Water, dry food, silver... silver just needs two taels."

Seeing that Pei Ye just sat there without saying a word, he drew half of his sword and said coldly: "I'm not joking with you, hand it over quickly, I won't take your life."

Pei Ye still didn't move.

"... If your silver isn't enough for two taels, no matter, if it's less than two taels, I'll only take half."

Pei Ye looked at him silently for a while: "If you're short on money, you can borrow it; there's no need to rob."

"Oh," the blue-clothed young man was slightly stunned, sheathed his sword, and said, "Then, I'll borrow two taels from you."

"I'm not lending."

"..."

"Cross that mountain ahead, and there's a village; walk seven or eight miles ahead of the village and there's a town; you can go there to borrow," Pei Ye pointed to the small jade pendant on his waist, "This thing can be pawned for some money."

"This won't do," the young man subconsciously covered his waist, then looked back at the direction Pei Ye pointed with some hesitation, cupped his hands and said, "Alright, then, thank you."

He turned and ran toward that side, but just as he was about to run, he looked back and said: "You, you'd better leave here early; it might not be very safe."

Then the blue-clothed young man ran forward and disappeared at the bend of the road.

Pei Ye took another bite of dried meat, intending to follow the advice and leave, but when he turned his head, the horse was still lying on the ground.

So he sighed and sat down again, quickly finished his meal, and lit a fire in front of him—Master Huang was right, flint was truly indispensable.

Covering the flint and putting it away, Pei Ye untied the Glaze and placed it on his knees, reaching in to continue removing the dragon blood for it.

Pei Ye did this whenever he had free time these past few days, and now one-tenth of the blood crystals in the sword body had been removed. The process of absorbing was also the process of pulling out those "poisonous snakes," and now the core area of the Glaze had returned to clarity.

If the progress on the Glaze side couldn't be considered too obvious, the progress on the Ice Dew side was advancing by leaps and bounds.

Under the irrigation of dragon blood, the little sprout planted in the Dantian was nearly twice as large as when it first broke the seed; Pei Ye felt that it was already accumulating energy to branch upward, and in two days, or three days, perhaps he could reach the Second Life Realm.

Afterward, Pei Ye flipped open the *Cicada and Sparrow Sword* with his other hand and continued to study it.

According to Miss Ming's teaching, after getting a sword technique, one must avoid rushing to practice it after only half-understanding it; one must first read it thoroughly and understand it clearly in one's heart. When enough insight has accumulated and one's hands itch to practice, then perform it.

Pei Ye had already read it carefully once after packing his things yesterday, passed every sword move through his heart, and roughly understood the main theme of this sword art.

This is a sword of mutual reliance between strength and weakness, which fits the sword name *Cicada and Sparrow*. This sword is divided into the Cicada section and the Sparrow section, taking the meaning of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," and both the cicada and the sparrow are in this sword, while the enemy is that mantis.

The Cicada section is seven light sword moves, with a total of twenty-seven flaws, and the Sparrow section is three killing sword moves, the faster and lighter, the slower and heavier.

And between the sword moves of the Cicada and Sparrow sections, there are interfaces left for connection. To bring this sword to its peak, the cicada can become the sparrow at any time, and the sparrow can also disguise itself as the cicada.

Today, Pei Ye flipped it open for the second time. He read it much slower than the first time, starting to analyze the function of every subtle sword move and judging the connection between the upper and lower moves.

Pei Ye sometimes lowered his head to study, sometimes looked at the sky and pondered, and occasionally used a small wooden stick to gesture once or twice.

Gradually, the bright moon hung high, the night became more and more silent, the long insect chirps from near and far began to rise and fall, the fire in front of him flickered, and then dimmed; it was the last remaining embers burning out, leaving only a few flames.

Pei Ye didn't want to add more firewood, closed the book pages, and was about to stand up when a rustling sound came from the forest behind him.

Only this time it was much more urgent.

Pei Ye had just gripped the sword hilt and stood up when three men like wolves and leopards leaped out of the bushes.

The three were wearing ill-fitting peasant short shirts, but their fierce temperament and sharp knives and swords were clearly not what peasants could have.

They looked at Pei Ye's little camp at the same time, their aggressive eyes unscrupulously examining every detail.

Pei Ye raised his eyes to look back, his body slightly tense, and the black cat that was squatting and breathing also opened its eyes.

Seeing this fearless gaze, one person let out a cold laugh, and a long knife was drawn halfway from its sheath.

And then it was pressed down by the leader.

The leader had extremely short hair, rough skin, and a face like an owl. He hung two swords horizontally behind his waist, one long and one short, one wide and one narrow, one heavy and one light. Since coming out of the bushes, his movements were the fewest, and he gave Pei Ye the greatest sense of danger.

At this moment, he looked at Pei Ye and said coldly: "Did you see where that young man went?"

From the few glances at the campfire and the tired horse, he judged that Pei Ye had stayed here for a considerable amount of time and was very likely to have crossed paths with the blue-clothed young man.

"Across the mountain," Pei Ye pointed truthfully.

The man turned and took a look, not fully believing it, pointed to the other two directions and said: "You two go chase in these two directions for two quarter-hours respectively; if you can't find any traces, come back and meet with me."

The two obeyed and left.

The man didn't move, put his hand on the sword behind his waist, looked at Pei Ye, and said coldly: "You have one chance to change your answer."

Pei Ye frowned, looked at him without saying a word, his fingers rubbing the sword hilt lightly.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

After two breaths, the man's hand let go first, he let out a cold hum, turned, and walked away.

Pei Ye clearly felt his strong desire to strike, but tracking that young man was clearly more important.

"Really rude," Pei Ye said to himself, "If I meet them again next time, I'll help that young man—what do you think?"

The black cat looked at him: "I think you should mind your own business."

Pei Ye turned his head to look; the jujube-red horse was lying down quietly, although still listless, it finally stopped panting, and the sweat had fallen off.

Pei Ye held its reins: "Are you rested? Persist for a while longer, once we reach the inn, I'll let you rest for the night."

The jujube-red horse stood up, shook its mane, and let out a smooth snort.

Pei Ye laughed, patted it, reloaded the luggage, flipped onto the horse, and headed toward the mountain ahead.

——

Moving forward with all his might, by the time the night was deepest, Pei Ye finally descended the mountain. After reaching the plains, the jujube-red horse ran much more easily, and although it was already exhausted, it still arrived at Anxin Town at a trot.

The town in the middle of the night was silent, without a single candle light. Fortunately, the mid-month full moon was bright. Pei Ye walked along the street for a while before seeing the "extremely easy to find" inn that Master Huang had mentioned.

It was on the main street and was the only three-story building in the whole town.

Pei Ye hadn't even seen a three-story building in Fenghuai; at this moment, he looked up at it a few more times. There were no more candle lights in the rooms, only moonlight paving the eaves, and this place, which was bustling with people during the day, now seemed somewhat secluded.

Two red lanterns hung under the eaves.

Pei Ye relaxed his body, flipped off the horse, and came to the door. Inside, there was actually a voice, a somewhat coarse female voice, speaking very slowly and with a somewhat dull tone: "I... I definitely can't do it."

Pei Ye stepped forward and knocked on the door: "Staying overnight in the middle of the night, sorry to disturb. We are one person and one horse, is there any room?"

The voice stopped for a moment, and after a while, there was a rustling sound in the room, the door was opened from the inside, and a sturdy woman holding a candle appeared in front of him.

She was not much shorter than Pei Ye, and her shoulders were even wider. She was wearing a brown martial arts suit, the style was dull, but the fabric was quite good.

In the dim candlelight, she looked to be in her twenties or thirties, her messy broken hair half-covering her face, and the exposed part looked somewhat dull—different from the dullness caused by fatigue in the young man earlier, she seemed like the kind who wasn't very good at communicating with people.

She was holding a small cloth bag the size of a palm in her hand.

Meeting Pei Ye's gaze, she looked away first. Still in that somewhat muffled tone, "speaking" seemed to be something she needed to adapt to.

"You... you come in first, I'll go call the waiter for you."

Thanks to the boss Ji Yue Du Shang for the reward! ===== CHAPTER 120 =====