Chapter 147 - Leaving Saint City Alone (1/2)

"Long Yue moved, laying low for two days, and you've finally lost patience, departing back to Gu Xia City already?"

In the saint city lord's manor, saint city lord Shi Buyi reached out to the soul lamp and he mumbled, "You can't trust me, can you? Suspecting that I'll make short work of you because you've acquired the [Monster God Ming King Art] right? That's why, you want to avoid me, leaving the saint city as soon as possible back to the little nest you've built. My dear disciple, soon, you will come to understand the old saying that the older gingers are spicier than the younger ones…."

"Lang Qingyun, the heart of a wolf filled with wild ambitions, half of his blood belongs to the monster race while the other half is of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. He suspects you only because he was worrying that you might replace him. So if this soul lamp was accidentally stolen away by him, he must be very happy to tell your whereabouts to your enemies."

Shi Buyi smiled and said, "How can my own disciple die by my own hand? Wouldn't it be better to kill him with the borrowed hand of others? Don't you worry, Lang Qingyun will definitely be able to steal this soul lamp away … what I'm going to deal with, is Yu Xuanji's teacher, the Lord of Jade Dragon Keep and Hu Qimei's teacher, Lord of Luo Ying City — these two old brats, how dare they have their eyes on my [Monster God Ming King Art]

Xian Kong Saint City, Jade Dragon Keep's assembly building – Yu Xuanji, Hu Qimei, Hei Hu, Hu Qingqing, they all stood reverently below an old man and a beautiful woman whose faces were solemn, while the atmospheric air was also thick and heavy.

"The [Monster God Ming King] is very important, Shi Buyi will definitely prohibit his cultivation technique from being leaked, Xuanji and Qimei will surely be exterminated by him!"

The old man was Yu Xuanji's teacher, the Lord of Jade Dragon Keep. He said solemnly, "Now, the problem is, how are we going to send them back safely. With his prowess, Shi Buyi can easily kill either one of us, he could hang us up and batter us!"

The beautiful woman smiled and said, "We split up."

Lord of Jade Dragon Keep shook his head and said, "Splitting up will only allow him to break us down one by one, it'd be even worse!"

"No, I mean, splitting up into dozens of groups, and leave at the same time!"

The Lord of Luo Ying City softly clapped her hands, one after another, female Qi Practitioners of the Luo Ying City walked out from the back of the hall, all of them were grasping lutes in the arms. Standing alongside with Hu Qimei, even their clothes and ornaments were the same as Hu Qimei. From appearance alone, it would be nigh impossible to distinguish the real Hu Qimei among them.

"Masks," Lord of Luo Ying City then behested.

The female Qi Practitioners then raised their hands up and all of them donned masks of the same patterns. While one of the ladies tucked a mask into Hu Qimei's hands. This additional measure made it even harder to identify the true Hu Qimei among this sea of doppelgangers.

The Lord of Luo Ying City glanced at them and her eyes filled with unbearable grief, "You are all honorable Qi Practitioners of our fox race. Today, for Qimei, I need you all to be her scapegoats, and I don't know how many of you can make it back to Luo Ying City…."

The female Qi Practitioners answered in unison, "The city lord need not say anymore, for the fox race, we are willing to die in place of Qimei!"

Hu Qimei took a step forward, she turned and knelt down onto the ground, crying and sobbing as she spoke, "Qimei thanks the senior martial sisters…."

The harried sounds of the ladies speaking could be heard, "Quick, quick, get up, the [Monster God Ming King Art] relates to the revitalization of our fox race, it must not be lost. We aren't doing this for you, but for the fox race!"

The Luo Ying City Lord then turned to the Jade Dragon Keep Lord and said, "Keep Lord, this is my stratagem – a diversion! Preoccupy Shi Buyi with these look-alikes so that he wouldn't be able to neglect one in place of another. Like this, he would surely be unable to identify the real Hu Qimei. And not only that, I'll personally bring one of the ladies myself to attract Shi Buyi's attention so that Qimei can escape away easier."

The Jade Dragon Keep Lord pondered earnestly before saying abruptly, "Alright! My Jade Dragon Keep will do the same to protect Xuanji! Hei Hu, get me our warriors and form a death squad, let Xuanji return back to the Jade Dragon Keep safely! And pick the closest-looking one, I'll personally bring him along to mislead Shi Buyi!"

Hei Hu bowed, turned and left while Yu Xuanji said shudderingly, "Teacher…."

The Jade Dragon Keep Lord laughed and said, "Don't you think too much, as long as you live, everything will be worth it. Rest assured, your teacher won't die, I'll live long enough to see you ascend to be the next Lord of Jade Dragon Keep!"

Yu Xuanji went all down onto the ground and kowtowed, "If your disciple, I, survives this, I'll never forget what teacher and the other senior martial brothers have done for me today!"

Lord of Jade Dragon Keep supported him up by the arm and said, "The one that enlightened and warned you all was the closed door disciple of Shi Buyi, Long Yue? He is worth making friends with. Sadly, the time is not our friend, we don't have time to meet with him. From what I see, he is in an even more dangerous position, Shi Buyi will definitely not let him walk away alive. But judging from his intelligence, he would've known of his precarious situation already. I am certain that he will surely leave the saint city as soon as possible!"

It was midnight and the moon was at its zenith. The Xian Kong Saint City was inundated with killing intent. Although the totem pillars on the sides of the streets have illuminated the city to be as bright as day, other than this saint mountain itself, the surroundings were completely steeped in darkness.

In the Fengbo Palace, there were dozens of coffins among the congratulatory gifts from the major forces. Naturally, Zhong Yue would not bring any along with him; and he did not bring any of the gifted soul weapons either, he had concerns as to whether these soul weapons were marked and that if he were to bring them along, they would provide a beacon with which his enemies could traced him down.

These past two days, he had extracted all of the Gold Qi and Wood Qi out from the soul weapons that the envoys had gifted him to nourish his five elemental Sword Qi. However, other than the coffins and soul weapons, he had brought along all of the medicinal pellets given by the major forces.

There were quite some high caliber medicinal pellets among the gifts, and if he was hurt, these medicinal pellets could have saved his life!

"Now, it's time to leave this chaotic saint city and return back to the Gu Xia City. Although that place was still dangerous, the Gu Xia City belonged to the Gu Hongzi and with his wild ambitions and high aspirations, he would not tolerate any other monsters wreaking havoc in his territory! Especially when I'm one of the lords under his territory despite having become the closed door disciple of the saint city lord. Surely, he wouldn't sit by and watch as I'm exterminated by the other forces!"

Rays flashed in Zhong Yue's eyes and he walked out of the Fengbo Palace under the cover of darkness and headed straight for the city gate.

Just as he left, the next moment, the servants in the Fengbo Palace all moved, they went out and reported his movements to the monsters that were hiding beside the Fengbo Palace.

It was never a problem for the major forces that held resentments against Zhong Yue to bribe the servants in the Fengbo Palace.

The saint city was menacing with dangers and perils. One after another, Qi Practitioners of the major forces moved and waited on the side of the pathway to Gu Xia City, lying in wait to ambush him.