Chapter 56: The Wus Selection Contest Begins (1/2)

Chapter 56: The Wu's Selection Contest Begins

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

”An ordinary man is free of guilt and fear, but one with wealth has to watch his back!”

In a cave on the cliff side, Junior Leopard arranged all that Xue Wuya had left behind, and took one last glance at the instructions for the ”Silver Moon Sword Technique”. Just then, he happened to notice a small mark on it; as he got closer, he could see that it had the words ”Yangzhou, He Yun” carved into it.

The name He Yun reminded him — wasn't Xue Wuya pursued by Lu Shaoyou because he had slaughtered a family of the surname He? Could it be that the reason he slaughtered this family had something to do with these instructions?

Carrying this type of thing around with him would clearly be inviting disaster, but he could simply seal the three Inner Elixirs that he had found in grease, and then put them with the Spiritual Stone and the exotic pearl in a little black bag to bury at the bottom of this cave.

I certainly shall not take all of these things back with me, lest I come upon any incident; and although I don't know what material this black bag is made from, it seems like it's air-tight enough — if I bury it in this desolate place nobody will ever find it. And if by chance it's somehow discovered, then that is unfortunate but much better than someone finding it being carried on my person!

After he had finished burying the black bag, he clapped his hands together to get the dirt off and took one last look around before throwing himself into the air, exiting the cave.

The speed of the Bloodfire Gang that Xue Wuya had used was extremely fast, and in a short space of time, he was already hundreds of miles deep into the Misty Mountain. It was lucky that Junior Leopard had remembered the direction of Xue Wuya's retreat, and that he had made big advances in the practice of his Yanfu Inner Strength and Lightness Skill. In the daytime he made use of the sun in the sky, at night time he took advantage of the starlight; and in only five days he was almost out of the Misty Mountain.

Although it was admittedly quite nerve-wracking, with the sharp coal dagger in his hand and the uniqueness of the Three Realms Division, he knew that he was in no danger.

After he had left the Misty Mountain, he dared not delay; he just quickly clarified his direction of travel and pressed ahead relentlessly, continuing throughout the night until finally, at dawn, he had reached his home.

As he entered the courtyard of his home, he felt a sense of relief coming over him.

Ah, the atmosphere here is so peaceful!

Junior Leopard hesitated, stroking the pit of his stomach, and did not enter his house; instead, he turned and entered the woodshed, approaching a pile of wood, and pondered carefully.

Should I pretend that I've just got home?

No, in this village I already have fame… this kind of thing, I cannot keep concealed from other people, just from one look it's easy to see how much I've changed in this last month, I just need to think of a suitable explanation…

Today Old Zhou was in a bad mood, because Junior Leopard had returned.

As far as Old Zhou was concerned, all his other sons put together were worth less than one Junior Leopard. However, it was obvious that this son's ability to make trouble and ability to make money was about even. That day he awoke early, and opened the woodshed, only to see someone sleeping inside it. He gasped in surprise, believed himself to have discovered a thief; but no, it was his own son.

Seeing that his son with the best future prospects had returned, he would normally have been overjoyed by this turn of events; but this way of being reunited was not as he had pictured it. In fact, as soon as he saw his son lying in a pile of wood in the woodshed, he felt like something terrible had happened; and the events which followed proved that this premonition was not in error.

Of course, Junior Leopard was not able to relate in detail to Old Zhou what had happened to him, he could only briefly summarize it as saying that he had provoked some serious trouble, and he absolutely could not let anyone discover why he had been missing for a month, and needed the family's help to cover it up. He also spat out some blood at a suitably timed moment, worrying Old Zhou out of his wits.

Old Zhou was merely a mountain villager and had seen little of the world. His understanding of the pugilist world was limited to rumors, and seeing his son's downtrodden appearance, he did not need for Junior Leopard to say much to trust him implicitly.

What most made Junior Leopard feel blessed was that in the last few days it had been raining continuously and the road was impassable; so Wang Tianlei and the others had not been to Qingyang Market. To Junior Leopard, this was very good news; this meant that Wang Tianlei had not been to Qingyang Market in the month since Junior Leopard had left, so the news that he had disappeared would not have reached them. This gave Junior Leopard a much better chance of remedying the situation.

And it made what Junior Leopard needed to do to remedy things much simpler; he needed only to make up a story.

”Old Zhou, where are you going, so early in the day?”

Passers-by who saw Old Zhou on the road, carrying a large pipe and with a small hoe in his hand as he hurried out of the village curiously asked him this question.

”Oh, I've just been digging up some medicine to take back for Little Shiba, the boy has a bit of a chill! He's having a lie down at home.”

”Little Shiba, didn't he go to Qingyang Market to become an apprentice? Oh, that's right, I heard that he's already a teacher in the blacksmith's shop, even the people from Black Dragon Triad praise him… he really has a great future!”

The passers-by spoke with a tone of surprise and admiration.

”Oh, it's nothing, he's a bright little boy who works hard, that's all!” Old Zhou said, blushing as he waved his hands and quickened his pace.

”When did he get back?”

”He's been back for some time, but he has a cold so he's just staying at home... he hasn't been out at all!” Old Zhou said ambiguously. After a few words, he was already out of the village and hurried toward the old forest.

By the time he re-emerged at noon, he had with him a stack of medicinal herbs. In these mountains, those medicinal herbs were a folk remedy used for treating colds, and on the way back it was unavoidable that he would repeat the same conversation with the villagers he ran into.