At this moment, a messenger from the Xingxuan Envoy of the Wuji Association came over:
"Master Qi Zheng, we received a secret report saying that a member of the association has found clues to the emperor's whereabouts..."
Chapter 103: Mortal Eyes (3k
At the foot of the southern side of the Qingming Mountains.
"Go, go, go, hurry up."
In the small Taoist temple, the nun Lingling was urging several female monks to pack their bags and leave the temple.
Master Lingling was a chubby Taoist nun who always had a kind face and looked calm and composed. But at this moment, she became a little anxious and kept urging several female disciples to get out.
"Master Lingling, are you going on a long journey today? Why don't you leave someone to look after the temple?"
A pilgrim who was about to enter the Taoist temple to burn incense was surprised to see Master Lingling and all the people in the small Taoist temple coming out.
"What are you looking after... The Goddess of Childbirth that you worship is in the hearts of the people. If there are people who believe in her, there will be people who burn incense. Now that we monks are not here, you will not worship her?"
Master Lingling was usually a slow-tempered person, but at this moment he was extremely anxious. Even the pilgrims who were familiar with him on weekdays did not say much and hurried out.
"I've had a sudden impulse recently, and I'm afraid something big might happen. As a small cultivator, I dare not get involved in the major events of the nine major sects..."
"In this world today, the power of incense and vows is the way forward. The monks who practice according to the ancient methods are just clinging to their shortcomings and are naturally far from being able to compete with them."
She muttered something quietly and walked out step by step.
"Ah Zhen, what are you still dawdling about? Normally you fall asleep when I'm teaching or preaching, but now you're dawdling again at such a critical moment. I don't know what you're doing all day."
"... ..Ah Zhen, why are you walking so fast again? Didn't you see your Junior Sister Canxue walking behind you?"
"Ah Zhen, quickly help your Junior Sister Canxue. She can't walk fast because she can't see."
"Master." The female cultivator called Ah Zhen said helplessly:
"Junior sister has entered the immortal path. She is no longer the blind person she used to be. She can move freely and is not an ordinary person. Why does she need my support?"
"And can't she open her eyes a little? It seems that she just can't see clearly."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Qiao Canxue stagger. She was clearly walking on flat ground, but she almost fell to the ground.
Ah Zhen blinked and was about to step forward, but she saw a fat, round shadow that was faster than her. It rushed in front of Qiao Canxue in almost the blink of an eye and held her with a fat hand.
"After all, he is a Taoist monk... How could he fall flat on his face? And even if he fell to the ground, it would be a small matter. Our master is too obviously biased." The female monks started to make a noise:
"That's right."
"If you doze off less often, I'll listen to you. I really don't know where I found a bunch of lazy people like you." Master Lingling spread his hands helplessly and looked at Qiao Canxue's already opened white left eye.
"These are not eyes that mortals can possess. Even if you have already entered the immortal path, it is too early for you. Don't open your eyes."
Ever since Qiao Canxue was able to open her eyes, she found that what she saw was completely different from reality.
In her eyes, a flat land may look like a deep ditch, and a hillside may look like a vast ocean.
What's even more strange is that the scenes in her eyes are constantly changing. When she opens her eyes in the morning, the hillside is a small river, but when she opens her eyes again in the evening, the hillside has become a deep ditch.
Even she herself found it difficult to figure out what was going on with her strange eyes, and she only had a vague guess.
"good."
Qiao Canxue obediently closed her eyes again and continued to follow the female cultivators.
As we were on the road, we heard faint sounds of horse hooves coming from afar, getting closer and closer.
The female cultivators had already retreated to the grass at the edge of the road, and only a few wanderers on horseback were seen galloping past on the road.
Qiao Canxue seemed to have sensed something, and regardless of Master Lingling's instructions, he quietly opened his eyes and looked.
In the rapidly changing vision, I saw a young man in bright clothes riding a horse galloping past, raising a trail of dust on the road.
The young man wore a long sword on his waist, had red lips and white teeth, bright eyes, a slender and strong figure, and had the temperament and demeanor of a chivalrous knight.
The young man rode past on his horse in a flash, leaving only a simple silhouette behind.
"Senior Sister Zhen, that person just now..." Qiao Canxue pulled the corner of the senior sister next to her.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a sense of familiarity towards the strange young man she met for the first time.
"Is that person in white good-looking..." she asked.
"Uh..." The female cultivator Ah Zhen was choked for a moment and turned to look at the back of the old man in white.
She didn't look at the man's appearance carefully just now, but it was obvious that he was just an old man with slightly gray hair. He was so old, so why would he care about whether he was good-looking or not
Is it the killer from behind? My junior sister's eyesight is not very good, she can't see things clearly, it seems that she saw it wrong...
She thought about it and felt that he was just a stranger she met by chance. Even though he was an old killer with a back view, it was not a bad thing to leave a good impression in front of her junior sister who had poor eyesight.
So she whispered:
"Although that man is a little older, he is still very handsome. If only he were a little younger, I would have wanted to return to secular life right there."
Qiao Canxue paused in shock and almost opened his eyes on the spot.
That young man is still quite old, and Sister Ah Zhen said that if he was younger, she would immediately return to secular life. This is a bit too aggressive...
She couldn't help but move a little further away from the female cultivator Ah Zhen. There was something wrong with this senior sister...
... .
Knock knock knock.
Qiao Mu rode a fast horse, and galloped away with Wu Qizhen and the masked Xing Xuanshi, the horse's hooves raising a trail of dust on the official road.
Although they occasionally saw monks and nuns on the road, they did not look at them for long.
A Taoist wearing a Taoist robe is not necessarily a cultivator. He may also be a charlatan who cheats and deceives people, or a servant of a sect who practices martial arts, or even a remnant of a Taoist sect from the old days of the martial arts world.
Their attention was all on the whereabouts of the Great Yan Emperor.
"Envoy Xingxuan, is the source of this information reliable?" Wu Qizhen asked solemnly.
Although they had just witnessed Taoist Chiyang appear at the foot of Qingming Mountain, the matter was related to the Emperor of Dayan, so they had no choice but to act seriously.
If the source of the information is accurate, they must immediately notify the Martial Saint and assassinate the emperor as quickly as possible.
The gate of immortality is in the light, while the gate of martial arts is in the dark.
In order to avoid being exposed, Wu Ji will have to act in secret.
In addition, the immortal cultivators of Xuantian Sect have never looked down upon ordinary warriors. If Wu Qizhen really discovered the emperor's trace on the road, he would have a good chance of escaping unscathed.
Xing Xuan Envoy replied, "Old Mo, who passed on the secret report to me, has been working in the Wu Ji Association for twenty years. He is already over sixty years old and acts calmly. He is no longer an impulsive young man. He has never made any mistakes in these years."
"He reported that someone who looked like the Great Yan Emperor appeared in Tiger City, which is also near the Qingming Mountains."
"This matter is of great importance, so he immediately reported it to his subordinates."
The Qingming Mountains are a huge mountain range that stretches across Southern Province, stretching for who knows how many miles. It is said that monsters roam rampant in the deeper parts of the mountains, and it is rarely visited by humans.
It is said that the Xuantian Sect's headquarters is located in an unknown area deep in the Qingming Mountains.
Qingyun Temple and Qingming Town at the foot of the mountain are actually just on the east side of the mountain range, close to Yancheng and other Dayan cities, and are not sparsely populated.
If the Qingyun Temple was built too remotely, close to the inner side of the Qingming Mountains, then even if it was a holy place of immortals, there would probably not be many believers who could travel all the way through mountains and rivers to the Taoist temple to burn incense and worship gods.
This time, the Tiger City that Qiao Mu and others were going to was on the southeast side of the Qingming Mountains, not far from Yancheng.
Tiger City is larger than Yan City, and the city walls are old. Although there are soldiers questioning people at the city gate, with the abilities of the people in the Wu Ji Society, entering Tiger City is naturally a piece of cake.
"Master Qi Zheng, Mo Mingzhi lives in the north of the city. He opened a sect of his own, imitating the name of the immortal sect, and gave it the resounding name of 'Ming Yue Sect'. He is also a well-known figure in this Tiger City area, with many disciples. Let's go directly to the sect."
"Mingyue Sect?" Qiao Mu felt vaguely that the name sounded familiar.
Thinking about it carefully, he remembered an event that happened a long time ago.
When he first met Yancheng Lord Guo Yan on the street in Yancheng, Guo Yan saw through the blue-clothed swordsman Jiang Chen's swordsmanship at a glance, and said that he was a disciple of Mingyue Sect and would come to visit and apologize in person someday.
It is called Mingyue Sect, but it is actually a local sword sect in Hucheng.
"Is the so-called Master Mo of the Mingyue Sect also a member of the Wuji Association in secret?"
"No wonder Guo Yan could see through them at a glance. It turns out they are all members of Wu Ji Hui." Qiao Mu thought.
The Wu Ji Hui is a secret force established by the Martial Saint, standing on the corpses of famous sects such as Shaolin and Wudang. Both in terms of the number of martial arts techniques it has mastered and the size of its members, it is far superior to any previous famous sect.
Not only Guo Yan, but also Sect Master Mo of nearby Hucheng has been a member of the Wu Ji Society for twenty years.
Because it concerned the Emperor of Dayan, the group moved quickly and without stopping, heading straight for the Mingyue Sect in the north of the city.
The so-called Mingyue Sect is a spacious mansion with a large area of buildings, with the three words "Mingyue Sect" inscribed on it.
Although the name "Ming Yue Sect" may seem like an exaggeration, but in this small Tiger City, Ming Yue Sect is not a small force, and the local city lord has to look up to it.
There were blue-clothed disciples wearing swords waiting at the door. When they saw Wu Qizhen and others, they welcomed them in.
But after entering the courtyard, Wu Qizhen suddenly stopped.
"Xingxuan Envoy, is the Mo clan leader you mentioned really acting in a safe and stable manner? Is there any problem?"
Envoy Xing Xuan also fell silent at this time.
The Mingyue Sect is such a large sword sect, but once you enter the gate it is very quiet, with almost no people to be seen. This seems to be a problem no matter how you look at it.
"It's impossible that Mo Mingzhi, who has been a member of the Wu Ji Association for twenty years, has rebelled? If we fail to find the emperor's trace and instead fall into an ambush by the Immortal Sect, that would be really fun..." Qiao Mu sighed in his heart.
Chapter 104: Harmony with the Light (4k
"Rebellion? Don't say that casually." Xing Xuan Envoy's voice also showed some rare emotional fluctuations, and he was a little out of control:
"Mo Mingzhi has been in the Wuji Association for twenty years, and he was also the Xingxuan Envoy of the previous generation. How could he possibly rebel?"
"So what's the situation now?" Qiao Mu looked around and could clearly sense that the atmosphere was not right.
The wind started to blow, and the leaves in the courtyard made a rustling sound, which further highlighted the eerie silence inside the sword sect.
Along with the breeze came a faint smell of blood.
Wu Qi, who was standing by, said nothing, but glanced at Envoy Xing Xuan calmly:
"Now is not the time to act on impulse."
"... It was my fault." Xing Xuan restored his usual calm voice and introduced:
"Mo Mingzhi was a fourth-rank warrior at his peak, but as he aged, his energy and blood declined, and when he was seventy, he gradually dropped back to the sixth rank, and also resigned from the position of Xingxuan Envoy."
"After that, although he still served as an informant for the Wu Ji Association, he was actually semi-retired and did not participate too much in the internal affairs of the Wu Ji Association."
Xing Xuanshi is the local intelligence chief of Wu Ji Hui.
Any organization, once it is large, must have talents from all walks of life; force is not a necessary factor.
For example, in the Great Yan court, Wang Shanhe was just a weak scholar at the beginning, but he was able to have a successful career and was promoted to the second rank in the Great Yan court.
There are many warriors who are good at fighting in the Wu Ji Association, and Xing Xuan Shi is usually not needed to go into battle to kill the enemy, so the strength of Xing Xuan Shi is not very important.
It was more than half a year ago that the Martial Saint wiped out the entire Qiao family of Heyang and took away the "Eternal Fist Manual".
Before this, although the Wu Ji Hui also had top internal skills such as "Pure Yang Wuji Gong", but in terms of the effect of "aging without decline", it was naturally inferior to "Changsheng Quan Jing".
As the former Star Xuan Envoy, Mo Mingzhi could naturally exchange for top-notch martial arts such as "Chun Yang Wuji Gong" from the Wu Ji Association, which was naturally a piece of cake.
However, possessing top-notch skills is one thing; being able to practice martial arts to a high level and not let your Qi and blood decline is another matter entirely.
"Let's go in and take a look. We can't just stop there if we suspect it's a trap." Wu Qizhen made the decision, his eyes sparkling:
"The Martial Saint should be on his way here. If this is really a trap set by the Immortal Sect, it would be a good idea to capture the Xuantian Sect's cultivators and force them to reveal information."
Wu Qi was leading the way, while Qiao Mu and Xing Xuanshi were slightly behind. Several people walked towards the main building of Mingyue Sect.
The intuition developed by Wu Shengling Xijue pointed to the main building ahead.
Qiao Mu glanced at Wu Qizhen's back and wanted to take a step forward and stand at the front. After all, it was always others who looked at his back, so why should he look at others' backs
But after thinking it over carefully, Qiumu slowed down his pace a little and did not rush to the front of the crowd as he did before.
First of all, even if Mo Mingzhi rebelled, these were all internal affairs of the Wu Ji Society. He only cooperated with the Wu Ji Society to assassinate the emperor, which did not mean that he had joined the Wu Ji Society camp.
Secondly, Qiumu is old.
If you die again before you get the spiritual cultivation technique, it will often mean physical aging, and your Qi and blood may begin to decline, which is not very cost-effective.
"Like dust, like dust, like dust, this is what I should do at my age..."