Chapter 35

After Li Miao sat down, he was also observing Zuo Lishan.

Just by looking at Zuo Lishan's appearance, Li Miao could roughly judge Zuo Lishan's personality.

As the saying goes, appearance comes from the heart.

Judging people by their appearance is said to be a bad behavior, but in reality, in human society, judging people by their appearance is a survival skill that everyone uses every day.

Street fortune tellers also have the concept of physiognomy; in fact, it cannot be said to be a superstition, but rather closer to an empirical theory derived from summary and induction.

Take Zuo Lishan for example: this person is nearly forty years old, which can be said to be in his prime, but there are already some fine lines at the corners of his mouth. This means that this person is always pursing his lips and thinking, and has a heavy mind.

The vertical lines between his eyebrows are obvious, meaning that this person is habitually frowning and has a serious personality.

His clothing is simple; with Zuo Lishan's status and position, he should not be short of money, which means that this person does not care much about the evaluation of others and is relatively self-centered and conceited.

The lack of a single wrinkle on his clothes, the neatly tucked-in collar, and the neatly trimmed fingernails indicate that Zuo Lishan has a rigid temperament close to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Zuo Lishan observed Li Miao, looking at his Wu Gong.

Li Miao looked at Zuo Lishan, but looked at his personality—because Zuo Lishan's Wu Gong was not worth Li Miao's concern.

Zuo Lishan held his sleeve with his left hand and picked up the wine pot with his right hand, pouring a cup of wine for Li Miao.

"How should I address you?"

"Embroidered Uniform Guard Battalion Commander, Li Miao."

Zuo Lishan pondered for a moment: "The Four Seasons Battalion Commander?"

Li Miao smiled: "Sect Leader Zuo knows quite a lot; even inside the Embroidered Uniform Guard, not everyone knows this nickname of mine."

"Who told you?"

Zuo Lishan did not answer this question and continued on his own: "Of the ten Embroidered Uniform Guard battalion offices, the other nine have all been out of the capital and have names in the Jianghu. Only you have always been in the Shuntian Prefecture, so few people in the Jianghu know of you."

"I also heard your name by chance."

"You are a confidant of the Commander-in-Chief."

"Coming to the Mount Taishan Sect, is it the intention of Commander-in-Chief Zhu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

Li Miao replied indifferently: "More or less."

Zuo Lishan received a positive answer, looked up at Mei Qinghe standing to the side, and without much concealment, said directly to Li Miao: "If the Embroidered Uniform Guard needs the Huashan Sect, I can leave them alone."

"I have no intention of competing with the imperial court for profit."

"The integration of the Five Mountains Sword Sects is something I am determined to achieve, and I do need someone to be at the bottom, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the Huashan Sect."

"If the imperial court is interested, I can find another one; the Hengshan Sect is also fine."

"It's just a bit more effort."

Listening to his tone, it seemed that he didn't put the other four sects in his eyes. Suppressing another major sect seemed to him like just taking a small step back, a condition that could be paid for lightly.

Mei Qinghe in the back was furious, her hand involuntarily gripping the hilt of her sword, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

The Huashan Sect was indeed stretched thin under the suppression of the Mount Taishan Sect, and in recent years, it had indeed been on the verge of being wiped out.

When Li Miao first met Mei Qinghe, he had already said these things, but Mei Qinghe was unwilling to admit it at the time.

But right now, Zuo Lishan, the leader of the Five Mountains Sword Sects, had nakedly placed this calculation on the table, and in front of Mei Qinghe, a direct disciple of the Huashan Sword Sect, he was treating the Huashan Sect as a bargaining chip in his hand, pushing it around recklessly.

For Mei Qinghe, who valued sect heritage more than her own life, this was an unacceptable insult.

If Li Miao hadn't been sitting in front of her, Mei Qinghe would have already drawn her sword and stabbed at Zuo Lishan.

Zuo Lishan glanced at Mei Qinghe and didn't care.

The imperial court wanted to bury a nail in the Five Mountains Sword Sects; he didn't have much opinion on it, but rather held a welcoming attitude.

Under the whole heaven, is there any land that is not the king's? The imperial court indeed does not have the ability to eradicate every major Jianghu sect, but appropriate surveillance and control are inevitable; almost every major sect has secret agents buried by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Arranging a nail to be inserted like this, openly and honestly, is instead a sign that the imperial court tacitly approves of the establishment of the Five Mountains Sword Sects.

In Zuo Lishan's view, Mei Qinghe getting together with Li Miao meant that the Huashan Sect had already leaned toward the imperial court. From the perspective of sect survival, there was nothing wrong with that. But from the rules of the Jianghu, the Huashan Sect's move had already cut itself off from the Jianghu peers.

With this handle, the Huashan Sect would never be able to compete with the Mount Taishan Sect for dominance in the future.

Thus, giving the Huashan Sect to the imperial court in exchange for the imperial court's tacit approval of the integration of the Five Mountains Sword Sects was, in Zuo Lishan's view, a cost-effective deal.

Li Miao understood Zuo Lishan's meaning and smiled softly.

He raised his hand and pressed down, stopping Mei Qinghe's slow sword-drawing movement, signaling her to be calm and not impatient. He turned to Zuo Lishan and said: "Sect Leader Zuo, you have many thoughts."

"Wisdom leads to damage. People with too heavy a mind generally don't live long."

Zuo Lishan frowned and stared closely at Li Miao's eyes: "What... do you mean?"

"I said you think too much," Li Miao said with a smile.

"These things you think are somewhat reasonable, but you've thought wrong and biased from the beginning."

"You see the Embroidered Uniform Guard didn't directly charge up Mount Taishan, but I, a battalion commander, came single-handedly to make you come down, and you think I'm here to talk business with you?"

Zuo Lishan didn't speak, but looked at Li Miao with a confused look, as if saying "Otherwise what?"

You, a fifth-rank battalion commander, bring a first-rate subordinate to see me; if it's not to show that you don't intend to take action and want to negotiate conditions with me, what else could you be doing?

"Is there a possibility that the Embroidered Uniform Guard wants to destroy the Mount Taishan Sect."

"But it would be more convenient if I lured you down and killed you first, and then destroyed your sect later?"

Li Miao said lightly.

Fei Junxuan, who was standing to the side, changed his expression and walked out of the door quickly, looking left and right.

He was afraid that there were already Embroidered Uniform Guards outside with strong bows and crossbows surrounding the place, intending to end Zuo Lishan's life here. If that were really the case, he had personally lured Zuo Lishan into the Embroidered Uniform Guard's trap, and he would be unable to shirk his responsibility even if he died ten thousand times.

But he tentatively poked his head out and looked outside; there were only bustling crowds on the street, and a few Jianghu people were poking their heads out, and when they saw him, they hurriedly turned around and pretended to be passersby.

No elite soldiers, no strong crossbows, no ambush.

Fei Junxuan was not at ease, walked to the street to look around, even grabbed a few Jianghu people to ask in detail, and used light-body techniques to go up to the roof to observe, but found no abnormalities.

Only then did he feel relieved, turned back to the room, and nodded to Zuo Lishan.

Li Miao also said: "Don't worry, it really is just the two of us who came."

He looked at Zuo Lishan, who had been sitting in his original place as if nothing had happened: "Sect Leader Zuo must have been thinking that even if there was an ambush, with your Wu Gong, it wouldn't be difficult to retreat unscathed."

Zuo Lishan did not answer, tacitly acknowledging this sentence.

(End of chapter)