Mo Feng led everyone into a place called the ‘Cloud Inn.’
“Lin Yue, Wang Pangzi, you guys settle the luggage. Starting tomorrow morning, go check the accounts at each ‘rent collection point’ in town. The Nine Heavens Sect protects the peace in this region. Their annual tribute payments, not a single one can be missing,” Mo Feng ordered with a stern face.
To put it bluntly, this mission was about collecting protection money.
The Nine Heavens Sect provided personnel to clear out demon beasts and bandits in this area; the merchants and farmers in the town provided spirit stones and money.
“Yes,” Lin Yue responded lazily.
After settling into his room, Lin Yue didn’t idle around.
He slung the heavy sword over his back and swaggered into the town’s black market alley like a hoodlum out for a stroll.
He needed something.
To be precise, he needed some materials that could conceal the ‘specific aura’ on his body.
The strange fragrance from An Xiaoxiao’s ‘Love-Binding Fruit’ hadn’t completely dissipated yet.
Mo Feng’s ‘Demon Revealing Mirror’ might have been temporarily fooled, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be trouble later.
In the alley.
The light was dim.
The stalls on both sides were piled with strange and bizarre things.
There were rusted iron swords, tattered scrolls dug up from who knows where, and some medicinal herbs emitting peculiar smells.
“Old timer, how much for this ‘Spirit-Veiling Grass’?”
Lin Yue squatted in front of a stall run by a skinny old man and asked.
The old man opened his murky eyes, glanced at Lin Yue’s attire, then looked at the conspicuous iron pillar behind him, and sneered, “A disciple of the Nine Heavens Sect also comes to buy this kind of low-grade trash?”
“My constitution is special, I naturally attract mosquitoes,” Lin Yue casually lied.
“One tael of silver per piece, take it or leave it.”
“Too expensive.”
Lin Yue hefted the heavy sword in his hand.
“That iron lump looks heavy on you. Want me to help you ‘lighten the load’?”
He released a tiny thread of the ‘Piercing Mountain’ force.
The stone brick under the old man’s butt instantly cracked with a thin fissure.
The old man’s expression changed.
He put away his contempt and said in a low voice, “You have some skill, young man. I can give you the Spirit-Veiling Grass at half price, but you have to do something for me.”
“Speak.”
“Deliver a letter for me.”
The old man pulled out a tightly wax-sealed letter from his robe.
“Deliver it to the ‘Yuelai Barbecue Stall’ at the west end of town. Give it to the boss, the one surnamed Zhang. Remember, don’t you dare open it.”
Lin Yue raised an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Lin Yue took the letter, tossed down half a tael of silver, grabbed the herbs, and left without looking back.
Night in Qingshui Town, with its sparse lantern lights.
Since there was no curfew order from the sect, many cultivators were wandering the streets.
Lin Yue carried the letter and, following the old man’s directions, found that Yuelai Barbecue Stall.
The stall was extremely remote, located at the end of a dead-end alley.
A few lamb skewers were grilling over a weak charcoal fire.
A middle-aged man with a stubbly beard was slumped over the table, dozing off.
“Letter delivery.”
Lin Yue slapped the letter onto the table.
The middle-aged man jolted awake.
He glanced at the wax seal on the envelope, and his eyes instantly turned sharp.
But he quickly masked it, smiling as he put the letter away.
“Thanks for the trouble, young man. Here, try my special lamb skewers, on the house.”
Lin Yue sat down.
He wasn’t afraid of being poisoned.
With his current body, ordinary poison would probably just make him sneeze.
“Boss, your business… seems slow,” Lin Yue made small talk.
“Just scraping by,” the boss replied deftly flipping the skewers.
“Judging by your build, young man, are you a strength cultivator from the Nine Heavens Sect?”
“Something like that, just a laborer,” Lin Yue said, picking up a skewer.
Just as he was about to take a bite, his movement froze.
In his sea of consciousness, the ledger issued a warning.
Ding!
Detected killing intent fluctuations.
Distance: Three hundred meters.
Target: This barbecue stall owner.
Source: Unknown. Suggestion: Finish eating and run. Don’t look back.
Lin Yue nonchalantly slid the meat into his mouth, chewed a few times, and praised, “The meat’s good, just the heat’s a bit off.”
“Is that so?” The boss smiled, but his eyes drifted unintentionally toward the alley entrance.
Lin Yue sensed an extremely restrained aura approaching.
It wasn’t the vast sword energy of the Nine Heavens Sect, but something more like a venomous snake, slithering close to the ground, almost soundless… the aura of an assassin.
‘Damn, out of the frying pan and into the fire.’
Lin Yue cursed inwardly.
He didn’t move.
At times like this, running faster meant dying sooner.
At the alley entrance, a blurry figure appeared.
The person walked very slowly, each step seeming precisely calculated.
Strangest of all, the person was holding a large bundle in their arms, from which the hilt of a black blade faintly protruded.
Lin Yue tightened his grip on the hilt of the heavy sword behind him.
He could sense that the person’s target wasn’t him, but the boss who was grilling the meat.
However.
Just as the figure was about to enter the light of the charcoal fire, the wind in the alley suddenly stopped.
The person halted.
As if sensing Lin Yue, this ‘uncertain factor.’
The atmosphere froze solid for a full ten seconds.
Then, the figure actually… turned and left.
They left with extreme decisiveness, without a hint of hesitation.
“Whew—”
The barbecue stall boss let out a long sigh of relief.
His whole body seemed drenched, sweat instantly soaking through his clothes.
He looked at Lin Yue, his eyes full of fear and gratitude.
“Young man… you, you saved my life.”
Lin Yue was utterly confused.
“What did I do?”
“That person… was an assassin from the Azure Clothes Sect,” the boss said, his voice trembling.
“She must have thought that iron pillar in your hand was some powerful magical treasure, that’s why she didn’t dare to act. Thank you, truly, thank you!”
Lin Yue looked at the pitch-black, dust and grease-covered iron pillar in his hand and fell into deep contemplation.
‘This thing… can also work as a bodyguard?’
That night, at the Cloud Inn.
Lin Yue lay on the bed, playing with the Spirit-Veiling Grass.
He was thinking about that figure earlier.
Although it was just a blurry outline, he had sensed an extremely familiar ‘karmic’ flavor.
“Ledger, who was that just now?”
“A hint: She hasn’t eaten yet, and her temper is on the verge of exploding.”
The ledger let out a gleeful laugh.
“Also, she originally planned to have some barbecue here. But because of your presence, she thought it was a trap. Now she can only go back to her inn and gnaw on hard steamed buns.”
Lin Yue sighed.
“I can owe a debt for that too?”
“Nonsense. Making someone miss a meal is called the grudge of food theft. In your previous life, you tricked her into meditating and fasting with you, then ran off yourself, leaving her starving for ages. She woke up to find the man gone too. That debt, with compound interest, is almost due.”
Lin Yue looked at the ceiling and suddenly felt that life down the mountain seemed even busier than up the mountain.
“Tomorrow, you’ll encounter a bunch of bad debts that can’t be collected. And incidentally… deliver a real feast to that little assassin who’s about to starve to madness.”
Lin Yue closed his eyes and hugged the heavy sword to his chest.
“Sleep. Tomorrow’s problems are for tomorrow.”
In his dream.
There were no assassins.
Nor was there An Xiaoxiao.
There was only that bowl of Yangchun noodles with extra scallions, steaming hot, warm as ever.