Chapter 9: Mountain God Temple

Wilderness, dense jungle.

From the dense branches that covered the sky, a few strands of moonlight shone through, illuminating a long-neglected path.

This small path extended from the main road into the forest, about two or three hundred meters long. At the end of this path stood a dilapidated Mountain God Temple.

At this moment, three people in the temple were roasting a fire.

One of them looked to be in his early thirties, with a handsome face and a lazy posture. At this moment, he was leaning against a fallen table, throwing peanuts into his mouth one by one.

The remaining two, one in his twenties, with a clear face and a strong body, was roasting a pancake over the fire.

One looked to be in his teens, with a petite figure and a delicate appearance, was holding a long sword and grinding it carefully on a whetstone.

These three were Li Miao, who had accepted the task of "Exterminating the Five Mountains Sword Sect" from Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Zai and was rushing to the Mount Tai area, as well as his confidant Wang Hai and his servant Xiao Si.

In the agricultural era, going far away was a troublesome thing. Eating and chewing, sleeping in the open, different sounds for every hundred miles. Sometimes you clearly arrived at a village, but no one could speak the official language, so you couldn't stay, and you could only sleep in the wilderness.

The official road was also sometimes there and sometimes not. There were also highwaymen, wolves, insects, tigers, and leopards. At that time, traveling more than fifty miles could turn into a life-and-death separation.

It had been more than a month since Li Miao accepted the task in Yanjing, and at this moment, they had just entered the Qilu region.

Now, there was no village in front and no shop behind, so they were resting in this broken temple.

Li Miao's lazy illness had flared up, and he didn't want to speak, so he just stared at the fire and was in a daze.

Wang Hai and Xiao Si had some ambiguity, and they wanted to sit together and talk. However, Li Miao, the head of the family and the lightbulb, was sitting there, so they were embarrassed to speak.

The whole broken temple only had the crackling sound of the fire burning and the sound of Xiao Si grinding the sword.

Just in this awkward silence, the sound of several people talking came from the small path outside the door, sounding closer and closer, clearly heading toward this small temple.

Wang Hai immediately stood up, flashed to the side of the door, and looked out. Xiao Si's Wu Gong was slightly worse, so she hugged her sword and ran to Li Miao's side.

Of course, they were just habitually defensive, and there was not a trace of tension on their faces. With Li Miao, this great god, here, to pose a threat to them, at least it would have to be the entire force of a major sect like Emei.

Wang Hai looked carefully, and about a dozen people were coming this way, men and women, old and young, with a cart of things protected in the middle, covered with cloth, with the word "Huwei" inserted on it—it was a dart flag.

It was a dart team, and they should also be coming to this broken temple to rest.

There were no fewer than eight hundred dart bureaus in the world called "Huwei," and he didn't know which one it was.

Wang Hai waited for this group of people to walk to the front, opened the big door, and stepped forward to greet: "Gentlemen, greetings."

The leader was Zhao Dehua, the dart head of the Huwei Dart Bureau, who was also an old Jianghu hand. He stepped forward with a smile and also cupped his hands: "Little brother, good, are you also resting here? Is there still room for us to rest?"

Zhao Dehua returned the salute politely, and the dart masters behind him also took their hands off their weapons one after another.

Wang Hai coming out alone to greet was a release of goodwill, and they couldn't show a defensive posture that didn't give face.

Actually, it wasn't their fault for being cautious.

Since ancient times, the places where the most people died in the Jianghu were, first, broken temples, second, inns, and third, arenas.

Especially those who robbed darts, the place they liked to move the most was the broken temple, and I don't know who set the rule.

Anyway, as long as the dart masters entered the broken temple, it was easy for something to happen, and now it had become some kind of unspoken rule. Dart masters had to hold their weapons tightly and prepare to move before entering the broken temple.

Seeing that Wang Hai looked young, had a clear face, and was polite, he didn't look like a treacherous person, so they relaxed their vigilance slightly.

Wang Hai replied: "It's an ownerless place, of course it's fine. It's just that my family has occupied the middle of the room, so I have to trouble you to squeeze to the side."

"Polite, polite. First come, first served, we dart masters don't have so many rules." Zhao Dehua cupped his hands.

Wang Hai let this group of people into the temple.

Several dart masters lifted the things to the corner of the wall and packed their luggage. Zhao Dehua walked over first and bowed to Li Miao: "You let our group come in to rest, thank you."

Li Miao didn't raise his head, cupped his hands casually, which counted as returning the salute.

Zhao Dehua bowed again earnestly, turned back, and went to make a fire and cook.

After this group of dart masters made a fire and started eating around the fire, a girl in her early twenties quietly said to Zhao Dehua: "Dad, that one lying on the ground doesn't even look at you, why do you have to bow to him? Isn't that losing the prestige of our dart bureau?"

This girl was Zhao Dehua's daughter, Zhao Ying, whose Wu Gong was practiced almost enough, and this was her first time going on a dart trip.

Actually, she was a bit angry just now seeing Li Miao not taking her father seriously. But she also knew that when dart masters went out, they did everything according to the dart head's meaning. At this moment, after settling down, she went to ask Zhao Dehua in a low voice.

The broken temple was actually not small, and they weren't afraid of being heard by Li Miao and the three of them. Zhao Dehua smiled and said: "People let us in, that's already giving enough face."

"They have few people, we have many people. Not only did they take the initiative to send one person to greet us, let us rest assured, but they also let us come in to rest, which is already releasing goodwill. We have taken the benefit, so don't care whether people's etiquette is comprehensive."

"What prestige or not, anyway, there are no outsiders here to see."

Zhao Dehua paused and said to his daughter: "And, they are not easy to provoke."

He had the heart to teach his daughter the knowledge of walking in the Jianghu, so he guided Zhao Ying to use her peripheral vision to observe Li Miao and the three of them, without turning his head himself. After Zhao Ying had seen enough, he asked: "What did you see?"

Zhao Ying shook her head and said: "These three are all delicate, their clothes are not bad, looking like they are from a wealthy family."

Zhao Dehua frowned and said: "Still need to practice."

"Look at the young man who greeted us, his breathing is long, his steps are light, his internal cultivation foundation must not be bad. His hands are long and powerful, but there is not a trace of callus, so he is not a weapon user. The Wu Gong he practices must be high-level, not the external work of hard-grinding strength and tempering skin and flesh."

"Look at the young one, looking at her figure, she is clearly a little girl. Her steps are loose, her breathing is unstable, eight out of ten she has no Wu Gong foundation."

Zhao Ying wondered: "No Wu Gong, what's so hard to provoke?"

"People without Wu Gong are easy to provoke, but people who dare to take a little girl without Wu Gong to sleep in this wilderness broken temple must be hard to provoke."

"You have practiced Wu Gong since you were young, and you have achieved a little success at twenty, so I dared to take you on a dart trip. This little girl's bones are afraid that she can't even beat a big chicken. But people dare to let our dozen people rest with them, and they don't care at all, eight out of ten they have something to rely on."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 10 =====

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