Chapter 273: 265 Arrival

In the evening, an old man with graying hair crossed the dense forest and arrived at an abandoned village deep in the mountains.

Jiugao Mountain is remote, and there were never many mountain villages in it to begin with; later, as the Yin Calamity became frequent, they were all abandoned. This mountain village of no more than thirty or fifty households had been abandoned for more than a year or two, and there were no intact houses left, only some broken walls and ruined remains.

Behind the broken walls, in a wind-sheltered spot, someone sat motionless. Although it was daytime, the sunlight was blocked by the shadow of the wall, leaving his face blurred.

The old man saw that person from afar and said in a low voice, "Who is pushing the mill?"

That person raised his head and said, "There must be a ghost."

Having matched the code, the old man breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It really is you. I have come, and I have brought the things; hurry up and give me the payment."

That person beckoned and said, "Very good, come over here, let us sit and chat."

The old man looked at the shadow of the wall with full vigilance, as if five hundred swordsmen and axemen might jump out from there, and said, "I am not going in, you come out. Let us trade right here outside."

That person sighed and said, "If you won't come in, then don't. With 'The Ghost Pushes the Mill' as a guarantee, you are not the first to trade, what are you afraid of? Since you are so afraid, why not choose to trade in the city? Or go to Yinhuo Township to trade, wouldn't that be safer?"

The old man sneered, "The city here is the old home of that old ghost Xue Laotou, how is that safe? And Yinhuo Township, Yinhuo Township may not have outsiders, but is that a place for people to go? Anyway, I am not going. Stop talking nonsense, hand over the goods, hand over the money. I have brought the things, hurry up and give me the money." As he spoke, he pulled an object from his bosom; it was actually an invitation, vaguely inscribed with the words "Zhuoyu Villa".

That person stood up—it turned out he had been sitting on a box—and said, "I have brought everything you wanted, come and verify the goods yourself." With that, he kicked the box open, revealing it to be full of gold and silver; even in the shadow, it still shone brightly.

Beside the gold and silver were several pieces of material; a rough glance showed they were all extraordinary items. The value of this small box alone was unimaginable.

The old man took a deep breath, unable to suppress his greedy expression, and said, "If it weren't for these things, I would insist on taking the invitation up the mountain to see that old man Xue Laotou make a fool of himself face-to-face. Now, it is fine as it is; so many people want to make things difficult for him, he won't be able to laugh even if he wants to, and I feel happy just thinking about it."

He took out another cloth bag and placed it on the ground, saying, "This is your requirement: my life story, interpersonal relationships, and living habits are all recorded here. There are two sets of clothes I often wear, and a human skin mask exquisitely made of my face. I promise you I will hide in a secret room for a month and will never appear in public."

That person nodded and said, "I will inspect it." Having said that, he walked a few steps.

The old man shouted, "Don't come over!"

That person sighed and said, "Fine, you don't trust me, I will let someone else look." Having said that, he reached out a hand, and a thin, small boy emerged from behind the wall; he looked to be only ten or so years old, with thin arms and legs and a timid appearance. "You go and check."

The boy walked over. The old man sized him up a few times and felt that the small frame was indeed no threat, so he threw the cloth bag to him and said, "Look, look, I came with sincerity."

The boy took the cloth bag, pulled out a stack of paper, scanned it a few times, and read aloud, "Zhang Cheng Yi, male, age sixty-five, native of Qu City, Yang Prefecture, at age three once..."

The old man's face turned red upon hearing this, and he shouted, "Stop reading, reading your grandfather's... You dead child, you dare to..." He reached out to grab the boy.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the boy, the other party suddenly looked up and smiled. The old man was stunned, then felt the world go black and fell backward.

The boy retracted the hand that had suddenly chopped at his neck and laughed, "The second one—" As he spoke, his entire body's bones suddenly rattled, his body grew several feet taller out of thin air, and his physique became several times stronger; he was now a normal young man, no longer the frail boy from before.

The person opposite laughed, "Tell me, this man is truly a stubborn fool. He refused to come find me and insisted on dying at the hands of his elder brother, causing me to lose money again."

That elder brother laughed, "Are you saying that if you did it yourself, you wouldn't pay me for killing this man? I charge a fee just for showing up; participation counts as success. It is better that I do it myself; at least it is worth the price."

That person shook his head with a smile and said, "What do you think of him? Is it convenient to impersonate a sixty-year-old man? If it is not convenient, we will change to the next one."

That elder brother raised his eyebrows and said, "Weise, exactly how many pieces of prey have you prepared?"

Weise smiled without answering.

The elder brother was surprised in his heart: the first step of their mission was simple, which was to kill and replace this person's identity to infiltrate a certain troublemaking team. Of course, this old man was originally going to be replaced by someone else, and they were actually going to replace the person who was replacing the old man, so they had to kill both the buyer and the seller, and finally pretend to be the imposter who had already successfully traded and put on the human skin mask to stir up trouble.

It was a nesting doll situation.

For assassins like them, killing was not difficult; even if the enemy had stronger martial arts, they could still kill by surprise. Disguise and acting were slightly more difficult, but these were also basic skills; what was difficult was intelligence.

As far as this matter was concerned, to complete the mission without making a sound, one not only had to know who both parties were but also the specific location and method of the trade in order to wait for the rabbit and snipe them separately. One must know that this trade was extremely secretive; even 'The Ghost Pushes the Mill' was only a middleman, and even Lady Hua Rong could only vaguely know of the trade's existence without knowing the specific details. How could Weise know such precise intelligence? And it even involved several pairs of trades—he could choose whichever one he wanted?

Where did their intelligence come from? Was it an insider? What kind of insider was so useful?

Of course, as a professional assassin, the elder brother would not ask, only saying, "An old man is an old man. Actually, that woman last time wasn't impossible, it was just tiring to learn her way of speaking and walking. This time it is an ordinary old man, pretending for a few days is nothing."

Weise nodded. The number of candidates in his hands was actually not many; the key was that because too many people disappeared due to the trade, it inevitably aroused suspicion. Fortunately, the elder brother was not picky, and he smiled, "With the elder brother's ability, isn't it easy to handle men, women, old, and young? In that case, I will trouble you, elder brother. I will not accompany you for the next leg of the journey; I wish you a smooth mission."

The elder brother smiled, "I will send you the bill."

This was the first time Yun Xiyan had come to Zhuoyu Villa.

How should she put it?

Hmm...

Plain and unremarkable?

Although it seemed to be letting down Brother Tang Zhao, she truly felt this way.

The scenery of Zhuoyu Villa was actually quite good, with green mountains and clear waters, blue skies and white clouds, but all in all, it was not extraordinary. Yun Xiyan loved to travel; from the south of the sky to the north of the earth, from ice fields to the great sea, she had traveled alone with her sword, and she could only say that this Zhuoyu Villa could not yet give her a sense of amazement. Except for a large expanse of shimmering water and the refreshing breeze on the water's surface, there was nothing else particularly worth seeing.

But on second thought, this was Tang Zhao's home; home should prioritize warmth and peace, so why did it need to be magnificent or possess supernatural craftsmanship?

From this point of view, Zhuoyu Villa should be exactly like this. Moreover, it had produced outstanding figures like Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi, which showed it was a Dong Tian Fu Di where the spirits of heaven and earth gathered.

Although Yun Xiyan had not heard the essay "A mountain need not be high; it is famous if there is an immortal," she naturally understood this principle. To put it bluntly, it was just loving the house and its crow.

She and the guests were arranged by the side of a marsh, where a new Reception Hall had been built, far from the residences of the Disciples, and it was decorated quite exquisitely. With the strength of a villa, being able to build a new Reception Hall showed that Zhuoyu Villa had spent a great deal of capital. Although there was an order of magnitude difference between the capital of Zhuoyu Villa and the capital of Longyuan, one of the Seven Great Factions, it showed thoughtfulness everywhere; the decoration of each room was different, and the rooms had been planned long before everyone was on the list.

The room arrangements this time were purposeful; it seemed they did not arrange all the good friends together or circle the troublesome guests in one place, but mixed them up. Yun Xiyan and Lady Hua Rong were quite far apart, but they were not far from the residence of that old woman, Heroine Xun.

After checking in, a Disciple introduced the Sword Casting Conference and hoped that all the guests would linger in this valley before the conference and not disturb the Disciples living normal lives outside the valley. In this valley, there were natural ponds for guests to walk, play in the water, or ride boats; next to it, there was a large open ground contracted by White Jade Shines, where there was a Recreation Fair and a large marketplace; those who liked liveliness could go over there.

Yun Xiyan was a friend, so naturally, she was indifferent and followed the arrangements of Zhuoyu Villa. However, she always felt that others might not be.

After all, most of the people serving in the Reception Hall were just ordinary Disciples, polite and thoughtful, but their martial arts were not good. That True Jade Disciple surnamed Deng who hosted the Reception Hall was also not as outstanding as Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi. The only exception was the nominal master of the Reception Hall, a short and thin old man who only appeared once and seemed to be an expert; even Yun Xiyan could not see through him.

Yun Xiyan guessed that this old man should be the expert holding down the fort for the Reception Hall and was also a figure of Zhuoyu Villa's foundation. It seemed that Zhuoyu Villa was also prepared.

With this old man as a trump card, friends like her and Lady Hua Rong could help fill in the gaps, and presumably, they could handle general situations.

It was just that those imposters mentioned by Lady Hua Rong, those enemies climbing over the mountains from the periphery to attack from inside and outside, were probably not so easy to deal with.

Although Yun Xiyan felt a headache for Tang Zhao and the others just thinking about it, she did not know what to do for the moment. At this time, there were still seven or eight days until the Sword Casting Conference, and those people outside preparing to climb the mountain for a sneak attack definitely had not arrived yet. It was possible that spies posing as identities had mixed in among the guests, but could she distinguish the spies?

She did not even know what the people's original identities were, so how could she distinguish the true from the false? For example, the old woman who came with her—she did not even know the woman's name or identity, let alone how to distinguish her.

Seeing that she was actually becoming anxious, Lady Hua Rong could not help but laugh and said, "Big sister, when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight. This is our home field; one way or another, someone will step up, what are you worried about? Take advantage of these two days of relaxation and go play in the water."