Chapter 36: Thinking Too Much

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

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

As the saying goes, appearance is born 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, which is not really a superstition, but rather an empirical theory derived from summary and induction.

Take Zuo Lishan: this person is nearly forty, in his prime, but there are already some fine lines at the corners of his mouth. This means this person is always pursing his lips in thought, with a heavy mind.

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

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

The wrinkle-free corners of his clothes, the neatly tucked-in collar, and the neatly trimmed fingernails indicate that Zuo Lishan has a rigid, obsessive-compulsive personality.

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, pouring a cup 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 bit. Even within 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 commands, the other nine battalion commanders have all left the capital and have names in the martial arts world. Only you have always been in Shuntian Prefecture, so few in the martial arts world know of you."

"I also heard of your name by chance."

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

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

Li Miao answered indifferently: "More or less."

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

"Zuo has no intention of competing with the imperial court for profit."

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

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

"It would just take a little more effort."

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

Mei Qinghe, listening from behind, was filled with anger, her hand involuntarily gripping the sword hilt, the veins on the back of her hand bulging.

The Huashan Sect was indeed struggling under the suppression of the Taishan Sect and had indeed been on the verge of extermination in recent years.

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

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

If Li Miao were not 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.

He didn't have much opinion about the imperial court burying a nail in the Five Mountains Sword Sects; instead, he held a welcoming attitude.

All under heaven is the King's land; 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 planted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Arranging a nail like this openly is instead a sign of the imperial court's tacit approval of the establishment of the Five Mountains Sword Sects.

In Zuo Lishan's view, Mei Qinghe being 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 perspective of Jianghu rules, the Huashan Sect's move had already cut itself off from Jianghu peers.

With this handle, the Huashan Sect would never be able to compete with the 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 to press down, stopping Mei Qinghe's slow movement of drawing her sword, signaling her to be calm. He turned to Zuo Lishan and said: "Sect Leader Zuo, you have many ideas."

"Excessive wisdom leads to injury. People with too heavy a mind generally don't live long."

Zuo Lishan frowned, staring tightly at Li Miao's eyes: "What... do you mean?"

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

"What you think has some truth, but from the beginning, you thought wrong and thought askew."

"You see the Embroidered Uniform Guard didn't kill their way to the Taishan Sect directly, but I, a battalion commander, came single-handedly to cause a scene and bring you down here, so you think I want to talk business with you?"

Zuo Lishan did not speak, but looked at Li Miao with a bewildered expression, 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 you don't intend to take action and want to negotiate conditions, what else could it be?

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

"But if I bring you down and kill you first, it will be easier to exterminate your sect later?"

Li Miao said lightly.

Fei Junxuan, standing to the side, changed his expression and walked quickly out of the door, 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 the case, he would have personally led Zuo Lishan into the Embroidered Uniform Guard's trap, and he would be unable to atone for his crime even with ten thousand deaths.

But he poked his head out tentatively to look outside; there were only bustling crowds on the street, and a few Jianghu figures were poking their heads around outside, hurriedly turning away to pretend they were passing by when they saw him.

There were no elite soldiers, no strong crossbows, no ambushes.

Fei Junxuan was not at ease; he walked onto the street to look left and right, even grabbing a few Jianghu figures to ask in detail, and used light-body techniques to go up to the roof to observe, but found nothing unusual.

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

Li Miao also said: "Rest assured, there are indeed only the two of us here."

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

Zuo Lishan did not answer, tacitly agreeing with this statement.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 37 =====