Hearing News of Xie Yanker, He Returned to the Capital to See His Foster Father

"Useless! You couldn't even handle such a trivial matter!"

A large hand swept sideways. In the next instant, his vision blurred and plummeted.

Zhou Ming deactivated the mark's function and thought, There really was someone behind those bandits. What bad luck—they were silenced for good just like that... However, although the person who acted was tall and powerfully built, he looked to be only thirty or forty, yet his face was smooth and beardless. Could he have been a eunuch?

Was it the Eastern Depot?

Or the Western Depot?

No matter. He had already memorized that man's appearance. Once he returned to the capital, he could search for him at leisure.

At this time, he passed through a town and stopped at an inn to rest.

The inn had a storyteller, who was currently recounting the deeds of a fairly renowned martial arts master, Dweller of the Sky-Scraping Cliff Xie Yanker.

"Hm? Why was he suddenly talking about Xie Yanker?"

Storytellers were an important channel through which many common people learned about the martial world and the wider world.

Yet aside from a few exceptionally skilled storytellers, most of them liked to tell romantic tales or ride the latest martial world trends in order to draw more customers.

For example, when the Plum Blossom Thief had once ravaged the martial world, storytellers in inns and teahouses across every street and alley had all spoken of the Plum Blossom Thief's exploits.

Thus, to some extent, the stories told by storytellers often reflected the martial world's current hot topics.

For someone in this little town to suddenly speak of Dweller of the Sky-Scraping Cliff Xie Yanker, there had to be a reason.

A moment later, Xia Feng returned and said, "Young Master, I asked around. It turns out that Dweller of the Sky-Scraping Cliff has reappeared in the martial world."

"Oh? Xie Yanker has entered the martial world again?"

Zhou Ming was surprised.

This martial arts master was solitary by nature and had few friends. He lived alone year-round atop the sparsely populated Sky-Scraping Cliff, studying martial arts.

That was why he had earned the elegant title of Dweller of the Sky-Scraping Cliff.

The most famous thing he had done was forge three Mysterious Iron Tokens and give them to his three benefactors, declaring that anyone holding one could ask him to do anything.

He had kept his word. No matter how difficult the requests attached to the first two Mysterious Iron Tokens had been, he had fulfilled them.

For a time, the third Mysterious Iron Token had instead become a treasure fought over by martial world figures.

However, several years ago, the third Mysterious Iron Token had appeared. Its holder was a little beggar, who had long since been taken away by Xie Yanker.

That little beggar was actually Shi Potian, the protagonist with the most absurdly heaven-defying luck in Jin-style Wuxia, known as Dog Brother.

As I recall from the original plot, Xie Yanker took Dog Brother to Sky-Scraping Cliff, intending to have him use the third Mysterious Iron Token so that he could free himself from the constraints of all three tokens. But Dog Brother never asked anyone for anything, so the two remained deadlocked, and Dog Brother ended up living on Sky-Scraping Cliff for years.

Later, someone broke onto the cliff and abducted Dog Brother. Only then did Xie Yanker reenter the martial world. If so, could Dog Brother's story already have begun?

Zhou Ming thought.

Unfortunately, the places where Dog Brother's story took place were all quite far away. Otherwise, seeing Dog Brother, with his pure childlike heart, in person would have been rather nice.

Come to think of it, Dog Brother had that nickname partly because of his background and partly because he raised a mongrel named Ah Huang.

This dog was no ordinary creature. When Dog Brother held it while sleeping, he accidentally circulated his internal energy and poured it into Ah Huang's body. By a fortunate coincidence, Ah Huang actually gained internal energy and learned internal cultivation.

It truly was the first dog under heaven to know internal cultivation.

Whether such a coincidence could be replicated, he had no idea...

Thinking of this, Zhou Ming said, "Chun Hua, after we return, keep a few dogs at home."

"Ah???"

Chun Hua froze. They had just been talking about Dweller of the Sky-Scraping Cliff. How had he suddenly started thinking about keeping dogs?

How exactly did her young master's mind work?

Still, she had accompanied him since childhood, so she was used to it.

"Yes, Young Master. I'll remember."

"Mm..." Zhou Ming nodded. "Since we're keeping dogs, and to keep them from getting lonely, let's keep a few cats as well."

"Yes..."

The capital.

"Ah... It's still more comfortable lying down in my own home..."

Zhou Ming said as he sank into a cushioned couch.

Even though the mechanical carriage crafted by Master Craftsman Zhu Ting had largely solved the problem of bumpiness, it was still far inferior to the trains and high-speed rail of his previous life.

Even more helplessly, every trip outside took two or three days on the road.

If he had not possessed martial arts, how could an ordinary person endure it?

"Young Master," Uncle Qiang said as he entered, "Master instructed that if you returned, you were to see him immediately."

"My foster father? All right, but I've just returned and am covered in travel dust. I need to change clothes first."

Many people envied Zhou Ming, believing that being taken in as the foster son of the current Grand Secretary was an immense stroke of luck.

Zhou Ming himself had far more complicated feelings.

Pei Ju... many people would find that name unfamiliar, but if it were replaced with another name, it would be absolutely thunderous.

Shi Zhixuan!

The Evil King, Shi Zhixuan!

That was right. Pei Ju, the Ming State's Grand Secretary and current Grand Tutor, was actually Shi Zhixuan, the Evil King from Six Paths of Demonic Cultivation in Twin of Brothers!

In the original story, Shi Zhixuan was a Grandmaster of the martial path born from the demonic sects, an extraordinarily charismatic villain.

Yet in this world of blended martial arts, who knew how he had ended up in Ming State and even become the Grand Secretary and current Grand Tutor.

Zhou Ming was grateful to his foster father for raising him, but he was also somewhat wary of him.

Not merely because of his status, but because of the hidden circumstances behind his adoption of Zhou Ming.

It had been shortly after he awakened the memories of his previous life, when this body had been about one year old.

In a picturesque little village, his gravely ill biological father had entrusted him to Shi Zhixuan.

Zhou Ming still remembered the implications revealed in the conversation between the two men.

His father had placed him in Shi Zhixuan's care on conditions.

Shi Zhixuan had only agreed to raise him after obtaining something from his father.

Later, his father died of illness.

He had then followed Shi Zhixuan to the capital and become his foster son.

Most importantly, Zhou Ming still did not understand why his foster father had sent him to the Quanzhen Sect to study martial arts.

Though the Quanzhen Sect had once been powerful, it had already shown signs of decline after the death of its founding patriarch, Wang Chongyang.

Moreover, the Quanzhen Sect's martial arts were not considered top-tier in this world. Wang Chongyang had indeed been a peerless talent, but he had died young and, at the time of his death, seemed to have reached only the master realm.

Shi Zhixuan, by contrast, had long since become a Grandmaster!

Would learning martial arts under a Grandmaster not have been vastly better than studying at the Quanzhen Sect, which did not even have a single master now?

Back then, Zhou Ming had truly worried that his foster father merely wanted an excuse to drive him away.

Fortunately, what happened later proved that his foster father had not thought that way.

Still, ten years had passed in the blink of an eye, and their relationship had inevitably grown distant.

In the half year since he descended the mountain, his foster father had been buried in affairs every day. Often, they could not see each other for ten days or even half a month.

Nor did he place any demands on Zhou Ming, allowing him to do as he pleased.

He had not expected that today, his foster father would summon him.

What could it be for?

Could it be because of the Plum Blossom Thief?

Zhou Ming thought, but then shook his head. Such a minor matter probably would not even catch his foster father's attention.

Never mind. Once they met, he would naturally learn the answer.

After washing up briefly and changing clothes, Zhou Ming followed Uncle Qiang to the study, where he met his foster father, Pei Ju.