13 Help (2/2)
At this moment, one of them who looked like a monkey saw Cheng Yong's corpse through the gap. He began to scream. ”Owner Ge, they have killed Master Cheng! I recognize that pair of boots!”
Jiang Zhiwei's clear voice sounded rather deep. ”I am Jiang Zhiwei. I have come with my teacher to help Master Ma.”
The leader of the group, Owner Ge, seemed to be a reasonable person. He raised his hand to stop the people behind him from using their hidden weapons and signaled Jiang Zhiwei to continue.
”After entering Yin Huang Castle, we have captured hostages and known from them that Master Ma and the others are trapped in separate rooms in the castle. Therefore, my teacher ordered us to act separately and save the masters. On the other hand, he has already gone to where the owner of the castle is.”
”I arrived at this room and found Master Cheng behind the stone gate. However, he was already under the control of the Mind-reaving Pill and sneak-attacked me, causing me to bear a severe wound. Due to my counter-attack, Master Cheng was heavily injured as well, and when he attempted to retaliate, Little Brother Zhen Ding finished him off.”
With half of it being true and the other half made-up, Jiang Zhiwei explained their background and what they had experienced.
”How could that be possible?” The monkey-like man said with disbelief. ”Little girl, you are so young. Even if you had started to learn Kungfu when you were still in your mom's womb, you wouldn't be able to defeat Master Cheng!”
He felt pity in his head that such a beautiful little girl would tell a lie like this.
Jiang Zhiwei didn't say a word. She straightened her back, pushing out her long sword as fast as a lightning and then retrieved it back.
”What are you doing?” The monkey-like man shouted with anger, astonishment, and confusion.
Owner Ge signaled the man to be quiet and then said with a salute, ”The greatest heroes are always the youngsters. Ms. Jiang, your sword techniques are very impressive. Alas, seeing incredibly talented young friends like you make me realize how old I am. May I ask for the name of your teacher?”
”My teacher is Su Wuming. He has lived in seclusion for many years so Owner Ge might not have heard of him before. Um, my teacher had a nickname in the past, ”Outer-sky God Sword”, has Owner Ge heard of it before?” Meng Qi caught the glimmer of a smile in Jiang Zhiwei's eyes. He realized immediately that she was talking about her real teacher, yet these people definitely wouldn't have heard of him before.
”Su Wuming… I think I have heard this name from Uncle Xuan Xin?”
”I am truly ignorant for not having met such a great hero. Please introduce us to him later, Ms. Jiang.” Owner Ge temporarily puts away his suspicion and decided to deal with it later. He then introduced himself. ”I am Ge Chongshan, the owner of Luo Yan Heights. I have gathered many strong helpers after receiving letters from my friends Ma Liang Han, Cheng Yong, and the others. However, we arrived a day late and weren't able to meet up with them. My two young friends, please allow us to meet our friend for the last time.”
Jiang Zhiwei whispered beside Meng Qi's ears, ”Let them in, but only one by one.”
Meng Qi leaned to one side to let the group in and stared at them with vigilance. After Ge Chongshan and the others entered the secret chamber and started to examine Cheng Yong's body, he said to Jiang Zhiwei in a quiet voice, ”I think I know now. The purpose of the side quest is to make us spend more time here. Only then can we would receive help from other Jianghu masters. If we went to the central hall directly, we would be fighting against the owner of the castle on our own.”
”The traps were aimed at them,” Jiang Zhiwei replied in a similarly quiet voice.
After finishing examining the corpse, and making sure that the wounds matched Jiang Zhiwei's descriptions, Ge Chongshan said with a sigh, ”My two young friends, if it were not you who opened this stone gate first, the person who would be severely wounded or even dead would be me.”
Right after he finished his sentence, he and Jiang Zhiwei simultaneously looked to the outside. From the other secret gate, Qi Xia and a group of swordsmen walked out.
”Big Sister Qi, are you all right?” Jiang Zhiwei greeted her delightedly.
”Brother Liu, where is your brother?” Ge Chongshan asked the person who walked beside Qi Xia.
The person had dark skin and looked like a fisherman. He answered mournfully, ”My brother was killed by Ding Changsheng!”
”What?” Ge Chongshan and the others immediately lost their voice.
Qi Xia said with fear, ”Little Sister Zhi Wei, I didn't know that Master Ding was already under the control of the Mind-reaving Pill. If Master Liu didn't walk in before me, I would not have survived. I was worried about you just now…”
Seeing that Jiang Zhiwei's face was pale, but her breath was normal, Qi Xia felt relieved.
After the two groups had met up, they headed for the central hall. Only a few men in black blocked their way and were easily taken care of.
During the process, Jiang Zhiwei and Meng Qi practiced their cooperation. Eventually, as soon as Jiang Zhiwei gave orders like ”left three, right skewed four, back two”, Meng Qi was able to quickly react and follow the orders. They intentionally kept the orders simple and vague so that only they could understand, and thus preventing enemies like Cheng Yong from changing their moves beforehand.
”It would be better if you understood the Eight Diagrams. Our cooperation is way too simple…” Jiang Zhiwei said with a sigh.
Earlier she had suggested using the Eight Diagrams to indicate directions, so their orders could be more than simply going up, down, left, and right. However, Meng Qi knew little about the Eight Diagrams, and couldn't learn it thoroughly in a short period of time.
”It's better than nothing.” Meng Qi comforted her.
Jiang Zhiwei looked around and at Ge Chongshan's group, who were exploring the path. She then asked with concern, ”This is where we have promised to meet up. Why haven't Big Brother Zhang and the others arrived yet? On our way, we didn't see any notifications either.”
From Qi Xia, they have confirmed that only people who have accomplished a side quest would see related notifications.
”Don't worry. Big Brother Zhang is very strong. Nothing will happen to him,” Qi Xia worriedly comforted Jiang Zhiwei.
Bang!
An object flew in from the outside. Jiang Zhiwei pushed out her sword and stabbed it into the ground.
”Ah!” The moment Jiang Zhiwei and Qi Xia saw what the object was, they uncontrollably screamed. Meng Qi was as well extremely shocked and alarmed.
On the grayish stone ground, Qing Jing stared at them with his eyes opened wide, and his brows raised high. His head was the only thing left!