Chapter 68

The Qingyu Sect, Zhanglong Sect, Dongyang Sect, and the Lu clan of Tianmu Mountain, the four prominent Jingxiang sects, dismissed the rogue cultivators and almost returned to their respective sects hand in hand, leaving the rogue cultivators everywhere very helpless. No one knew how they talked or what they talked about, and no one dared to ask, as if overnight, the world had become clear and bright.

Liu Xiaolou and Tan Ba stood at the foot of the mountain, looking at the dozen or so wooden stakes lined up, examining the rogue cultivators hanging on the stakes one by one. Their corpses swayed in the wind like paper, and their hearts were greatly shocked. Fortunately, after looking for a long time, they did not find a single fellow daoist of Wulong Mountain among them, which was a great relief, but they could not help but feel a sense of "the rabbit dies and the fox grieves."

Where is a rogue cultivator not a rogue cultivator? Rogue cultivators are just so undignified!

Dai Shenggao also returned. He also looked at the stakes and sighed, shaking his head at Liu Xiaolou and Tan Ba: "The Qingyu Sect acts like this... a prominent sect, hehe..."

Liu Xiaolou could not bear it in his heart: "Senior Dai, should we take them down? These people, they are very wronged."

Dai Shenggao pondered for a moment and nodded: "That's fine."

It was not just a matter of being wronged; the key was that hanging them like this would have a huge psychological blow to the fellow daoists of Wulong Mountain. Of course, they could not sit idly by.

So the three of them took action, digging pits on the spot under the stakes and burying them right there.

After burying them, they sawed off the stakes, leaving only one person's height to serve as a tombstone. It was just that these wrongly killed guys had no items on them that could identify their identities, so they could not be engraved on the tombstones.

Tan Ba was very angry: "Rogue Dai is right. The Qingyu Sect acts like this, where is there any appearance of a prominent sect? Everything was searched clean, not even a fragment of silver was left. Busy for a day, worked for nothing!"

The fellow daoists of Wulong Mountain returned one after another from their hiding places. Everyone carefully checked the Heavenly Pit Drum, but there was no harvest, as if the demon vine had come out of thin air, and after being burned, it turned into foam with the wind, not even leaving a leaf or a vine branch.

Liu Xiaolou returned to Gan Zhu Ling, only to see his small courtyard with a thatched gate in a mess. He was not angry, though. Since he went up the mountain at the age of eight, he had experienced this once every year or two, and he was used to it.

The only thing he could not let go of was the grave of his teacher, Mr. Sanxuan. The first thing he checked was here. Fortunately, the Qingyu Sect people had not reached the point of insanity and had not done anything to destroy the grave or dig up the tomb, and it was still well preserved.

Preparing to repair the courtyard, he suddenly slapped his forehead: how could he have forgotten Da Bai? And his own belongings had not been brought back! So he hurriedly went down the mountain and rushed to Wuchao Town to pick up the big white goose.

After the blockade of the Zhanglong Sect, Wuchao Town had been quite depressed these past few days, and it would probably take a month or so to restore its old appearance. Passing through Toutiao Lane, he found that Zhang Ma and Qing Jie were not there, which made him very curious. He walked into this alley that he had only viewed from afar but had never entered.

There were several courtyards on the left and right of the alley, and now they were all tightly closed with iron locks. Knocking on the door knocker brought no response, and he did not know where they had gone.

Just as he was pondering, a person walked in swaying. Liu Xiaolou originally thought it was a guest looking for flowers and willows, but after seeing clearly, he discovered it was an acquaintance, a person he would avoid at all costs—the Qingyu Sect patrol deacon, Hou Sheng.

Hou Sheng blocked the entrance of the alley, looking Liu Xiaolou up and down, with a smile that was not a smile on his face.

Liu Xiaolou's chrysanthemum tightened, he was stunned for a moment, and squeezed a smile on his face: "Haha, long time no see, so it's Hou Zhishi. I have been rude. Is Hou Zhishi also here to look for Zhang Ma and the others? I'm afraid it's not the right time. I checked, the doors are tightly closed, and I don't know where they have all gone..."

"They went to Dongting." Hou Sheng answered this question very neatly: "My Qingyu Sect wants to open the Yueyang Market in Dongting. To add some popularity, we moved them all there."

Liu Xiaolou secretly thought it was bad. Looking at it this way, Hou Sheng appeared here just to wait for himself?

"Ah... this..." A look of regret appeared on his face: "I still wanted to find Qing Jie. Alas, it seems I have to go to Dongting... Hou Zhishi, I'm going to Dongting. Is it Yueyang? Is it on the edge of Dongting? It doesn't matter, I'll just ask when I get there..."

He wanted to walk out, but Hou Sheng blocked the alley entrance, showing no intention of moving aside.

"Hou Zhishi? Do you... have anything else?"

Hou Sheng's eyes carried a playful look, and he said: "Liu Xiaolou, after I, this deacon, came to Wulong Mountain, I have been looking for you. It is not easy to find you."

Liu Xiaolou was stunned: "What is Hou Zhishi saying? I am always waiting for summons. If there are orders, I will obey without fail!"

Hou Sheng said: "Then why were you not on Wulong Mountain?"

Liu Xiaolou said helplessly: "Hou Zhishi also knows that your sect occupied Wulong Mountain with great fanfare, shouting about suppressing bandits. Although I have always been good, I have never participated in the attack on the Zhou family manor, but I was inevitably implicated by fellow daoists in the mountain... others. I was afraid that I would not be able to clear my name when the time came, so I had to avoid living elsewhere. I hope Hou Zhishi will understand."

Hou Sheng was noncommittal and said: "A yellow-mouthed child, you have cleared yourself quite cleanly... Let me ask you, when did you leave Xingde Mountain?"

Liu Xiaolou's heart skipped a beat: "What does this mean..."

Hou Sheng said coldly: "Think clearly, don't play dumb, you know why!"

Liu Xiaolou blinked his eyes and looked up to the sky to recall: "Hou Zhishi knows that I asked Xingde Jun for help in refining the array plate. The refining of the array plate requires the owner to accompany at any time, especially when it is completed. The whole set of array plates took three months, it should be... February of this year... um, February."

Hou Zhishi pursued: "February? When in February? What day?"

Liu Xiaolou said: "It should be late February. I don't remember the specific day."

"And then? Where did you go?"

"I went to the Tianmen Mountain Market. There is a place called Yang Liu Bay southeast of the market where I went into seclusion, because I had some insights while serving to refine the array plate on Xingde Mountain, so I couldn't wait to return to the mountain... At that time, I cleared the Qie Sect acupoint."

"Hmm, seclusion? A very good reason... Continue, when did you finish seclusion?"

"Roughly in early March. I really can't remember which day. Why? What does Hou Zhishi want to ask? You can just bring it up openly. I will answer honestly and will never hide anything."

"Where did you go after finishing seclusion?"

"Hou Zhishi, you are questioning me like this without saying what it is, so I have no way to answer."

"Answer whatever I ask you!"

"Hou Zhishi, did I make any mistakes? I ask myself that I have never offended Hou Zhishi, why be so aggressive?" Liu Xiaolou's face was very unhappy.

Hou Sheng said disdainfully: "Offend me? Just by you? If you really offended me, do you think you could still live to this day? I, a dignified inner sect deacon of the Qingyu Sect, can kill you as easily as turning over my hand! Asking you questions today is only to find out the truth. You only need to answer honestly. Don't have any other thoughts, otherwise, I'm afraid you will have to suffer a little."

Hou Sheng's cultivation was at the tenth level of Qi Refinement, far higher than Liu Xiaolou's, and as an inner sect deacon of a prominent sect, he didn't know how many treasures he carried with him. If they really fought, Liu Xiaolou would be wiped out in an instant. Therefore, although his words were very impolite, Liu Xiaolou could only swallow his anger for the time being: "Hou Zhishi, you are exaggerating. How would I dare to have other thoughts? I recalled carefully, it was probably March 5th?"

"No, you went to Tianmen Market on March 2nd!" Hou Sheng stared at Liu Xiaolou and said word by word.