Chapter 1098

But when Zhu Jia heard these words, he was overjoyed at once and said,

"As long as Brother Gai is willing to go, that already gives me, Zhu, tremendous face.

Don't worry, I'm only going with a stroke of luck in mind; I'm not determined to fight it out.

If anything seems off, Brother Gai may simply take his leave."

"Good!"

Gai Nie raised his wine cup and drained it in one gulp once more.

Zhu Jia, however, understood that this was Gai Nie seeing him off.

He too drained the wine in his cup and withdrew from Gai Nie's storeroom.

After Zhu Jia had withdrawn, Gai Nie still felt uneasy.

He rose quietly, performed the Guigu Vaulting Art, and slipped to the westernmost guest room of the inn.

This was precisely where the Six Fiends of the Yellow River were staying.

Arriving atop the guest room, Gai Nie quietly pried loose a small tile and looked down below.

He did not expect that below, wreathed in mist, there was faintly a graceful figure bathing in a tub.

"Ah? This…"

Gai Nie startled; he was a gentleman and would never spy on a lady.

He dared not look any longer and replaced the tile.

"Sixth Sister, Sixth Sister, how long are you going to keep washing?"

Just as Gai Nie's face flushed red, the voice of the fourth brother among the Six Fiends of the Yellow River rose from below.

It turned out the one bathing was the sixth sister of the Six Fiends of the Yellow River.

Gai Nie never imagined that among the Six Fiends of the Yellow River, with such a chilling nickname, there was actually a woman.

"Fourth Brother, what's your rush?

Second Brother takes a dump and you rush him, I take a bath and you rush me too?

No wonder your surname is Cui—you're a life-hurrying ghost."

The sixth sister of the Six Fiends of the Yellow River, though shapely, had not the slightest bit of a good temper.

She let loose a torrent of abuse at the fourth brother outside.

The fourth brother, scolded so thoroughly by her, did not dare talk back.

Gai Nie then recalled that earlier at the town entrance, he had heard the Six Fiends of the Yellow River say that the Fire Monkey had been discovered by the sixth sister.

It was just that she alone could not stand against that group of people.

He secretly found it amusing now, realizing he had unwittingly done something base.

Very well! Since the Six Fiends of the Yellow River were going to seek the Fire Monkey tomorrow, he would simply tail them covertly tomorrow.

He no longer listened to the sounds below and went straight back to his own storeroom to rest peacefully.

But he also channeled his qi to his ears, constantly listening for the Six Fiends of the Yellow River's movements—except he deliberately spared the sixth sister's sounds.

The night passed without incident.

The entire night, the Six Fiends of the Yellow River said nothing further about the Fire Monkey.

They only chatted about unrelated jianghu anecdotes, which made Gai Nie feel oddly at home.

Once, when he had roamed the jianghu with his junior brother Wei Zhuang, wasn't he likewise surrounded by all manner of people like these?

Now things had changed, but the jianghu was still this jianghu.

Junior brother Wei Zhuang's whereabouts were unknown, and he himself had gone from being the chief sword-sage of the Qin court to a fugitive roaming the world.

By the second dawn, when the sky was just beginning to brighten.

All the various jianghu folk who had come for the treasure of the Great Zhou, within this frontier inn, vied to set out before daylight.

For tonight was the night of the full moon.

The Six Fiends of the Yellow River also stuffed themselves with food, then agreed to set out together with the main crowd.

But they were not going solely for the Baozangzhi Sect; they also hoped to follow the sixth sister and find the legendary Fire Monkey.

Zhu Jia, leading a group of Zhuge Shennong disciples, had also been waiting early outside Gai Nie's door.

With Zhu Jia at the head, they all held their breath, afraid of disturbing Gai Nie's rest.

Gai Nie observed for a while and found that Zhu Jia treated him with truly great deference.

In his heart he also decided: if the Baozangzhi Sect truly existed, and the treasure within truly held the Stone of Yinguang,

as long as it did not conflict with his own mission to obtain the Fire Monkey, then helping Zhu Jia claim it would not be impossible.

Among the six hall masters of the Zhuge family, Zhu Jia was indeed the most renowned in the jianghu.

After all, Zhu Jia was charitable and had saved countless lives—a famous great hero of the jianghu.

A man like this becoming the Zhuge family's Hero-Chief, regardless of what the Qin court thought, would at least be a blessing for the common folk of Qin.

Having made up his mind, Gai Nie opened the door.

"Hero Gai, you're awake."

The mask on Zhu Jia's face immediately shifted to delight,

"Could it be that our standing here disturbed Hero Gai's rest?"

Gai Nie had not slept all night, afraid of losing track of the Six Fiends of the Yellow River and thus missing news of the Fire Monkey.

Naturally, there was no question of whether Zhu Jia had disturbed him.

Besides, Zhu Jia had brought his men to the door without daring to make a sound.

Gai Nie merely smiled, shook his head lightly and said,

"Brother Zhu, you speak too gravely! Let us set off now!"

"Good!"

The Zhu family was overjoyed, clapped their hands, and a group of disciples cleared the way in unison.

Hearing Gai Nie walked shoulder to shoulder with the Zhu family, heading down toward the inn's lower floor.

Afterwards, the disciples of Zhuge Shennong Hall followed closely behind, clustering around the two of them as they headed outside.

This Feihuang Town sat at the southern foot of the Manghuang Mountain; once past Feihuang Town, one was almost already inside Manghuang Mountain.

Because Manghuang Mountain bordered the Hundred Thousand Mountains, since ancient times there had been流传 legends of mountain demons and tree spirits within the mountains choosing people to devour.

At first, the citizens of Great Qin did not believe it either, thinking it was nothing more than ignorant country folk spreading rumors, scaring themselves.

Later, a peerless-level expert from nearby, thinking the feng shui of this place was quite good, wanted to establish a sect here and pass down his own Dao lineage and Wu Gong.

After hearing the legends of the mountain demons and tree spirits, he felt his own skills were not bad, and that even if he really ran into some mountain demon or tree spirit, he could still escape.

He promptly told the villagers some bold and heroic words, and stepped into Manghuang Mountain.

Three days after he went in, roars of strange beasts echoed through the mountain, shaking countless common folk into panic and unease.

Three days later, this expert fled out of Manghuang Mountain like a madman.

When seen by people again, he had already become nothing but a lunatic.

No matter what anyone asked him, he would only shiver and babble, saying over and over that there were mountain demons and tree spirits in the mountain, that there were demons and monsters.

From then on, the villagers within a hundred li nearby grew more fearful of Manghuang Mountain with each passing day.

So much so that more and more villagers moved away from the Manghuang Mountain area.

Until later, when the Heavenly Dao Hundred Flowers List actually exposed that the Hundred Thousand Mountains had terrifying demon beasts within them.

Only then did the nearby villagers understand that the terrifying legends of Manghuang Mountain might very well be demon beasts from the Hundred Thousand Mountains coming over to cause trouble.

But thinking that those demon beasts were not only bizarre in shape, but could also swallow clouds and spit fog, breathe fire and command water, and all manner of strange abilities.

How could ordinary experts possibly fight them?

Therefore, the villagers instead gave up any thought of entering Manghuang Mountain, and the number of people leaving the Manghuang Mountain area grew even greater.

Since Hearing Gai Nie's group had entered Manghuang Mountain, along the way the Zhu family had been picking up these amusing tales and recounting them to Hearing Gai Nie.

Listening to the past events of Manghuang Mountain by his ear, Hearing Gai Nie's heart was utterly unmoved.

The legends of Manghuang Mountain were most likely caused by demon beasts from the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

He himself had also seen images of demon beasts when the Heavenly Dao Hundred Flowers List published Lin Yue Ru.

He had compared before—if he himself ran into such demon beasts, even if he couldn't defeat them, escaping would not be difficult.

After all, Lin Yue Ru was only at the half-step Realm of Heavenly Beings, yet could rely on the Lin family sword art to slay demon beasts.

He himself was now also already at the half-step Realm of Heavenly Beings, so why would he still fear demon beasts?