Chapter 9: Mountain God Temple

Wilderness, dense jungle.

From the dense branches and leaves that covered the sky, a few strands of moonlight penetrated, illuminating a dilapidated small road.

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

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

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 other two, one in his twenties, with a clear face and a vigorous figure, was roasting a cake on the fire.

One looked to be in his teens, with a petite figure and the look of a girl next door, was holding a long knife and grinding it seriously on a whetstone.

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

In the agricultural era, going far away was a troublesome thing. Eating and drinking, sleeping in the open, and different sounds every hundred miles. Sometimes they arrived at a village, but no one could speak the official language, so they couldn't stay, and 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. In those days, traveling more than fifty miles could turn into a life-and-death separation.

It had been over a month since Li Miao took the task in Yanjing, and they had only just entered the Qi and Lu 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, just staring at the fire.

Wang Hai and Xiao Si had some ambiguity, and they wanted to sit together and talk, but 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 and the sound of Xiao Si grinding the knife.

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

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

Of course, they were just habitually defensive, without 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 whole sect of experts like Emei.

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

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

There were no fewer than a thousand dart-escort agencies in the world called "Huwei," and he didn't know which one it was.

Wang Hai waited for this group to walk to the front, opened the door, and greeted: "Gentlemen, greetings."

The leader was Zhao Dehua, the dart-head of Huwei Dart-Escort Agency, who was also an old experienced traveler, and stepped forward with a smile and 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-escort men behind him also took their hands off their weapons one after another.

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

In fact, 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 act the most was broken temples; I don't know who set the rule.

Anyway, as long as the dart-escort men entered a broken temple, it was easy for something to happen, and now it had become a kind of unwritten rule. Before entering a broken temple, dart-escort men had to hold their weapons tightly and prepare to fight.

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, naturally it's fine. It's just that my family has occupied the middle of the house, so I have to trouble you to squeeze to the side."

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

Wang Hai let this group into the temple.

Several dart-escort men carried the things to the corner and put them down, packing 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 seriously again, turned around, and went to make a fire and cook.

After this group of dart-escort men made a fire and sat around the fire eating, one of the girls in her early twenties quietly said to Zhao Dehua: "Dad, that person lying on the ground doesn't even look at you properly, why do you have to bow to him? Isn't that losing the prestige of our dart-escort agency?"

This girl was Zhao Dehua's daughter, Zhao Ying, whose Wu Gong was practiced quite well, and this was her first time escorting darts.

In fact, she was a little angry when she saw Li Miao didn't take her father seriously just now. But she also knew that when dart-escort men went out, they followed the dart-head's meaning in everything. Now that they were settled, 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 the three Li Miao, so Zhao Dehua smiled and said: "People let us in, it's already giving us enough face."

"They have few people, we have many people. Not only did they take the initiative to send one person to greet us and 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 their etiquette is comprehensive."

"What prestige or not, anyway, there is no one else 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 the three Li Miao, 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 energy foundation must not be bad. His hands are long and powerful, but there is not a trace of calluses, he is not playing with weapons. The Wu Gong he practices must be high-level, not the external skill of bitter grinding strength and tempering skin."

"Look at the young one, looking at the 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 is there to be hard to provoke?"

"People without Wu Gong are easy to provoke, but people who dare to take a little girl who doesn't know Wu Gong to sleep in this wilderness broken temple must be hard to provoke."

"You have practiced Wu Gong since you were a child, and you have achieved a little success by the age of twenty, so I dare to take you to escort darts."

"This little girl's bone structure, I'm afraid she can't even beat a big chicken. But people dare to let our dozen people rest with them, and don't care at all, eight out of ten they have something to rely on."

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