Thousand-Faced Mortal

Hanyu stood awkwardly where he was, at a loss for what to do. It was obvious he'd just happened to stumble upon someone else's family business.

The woman only noticed Hanyu then. Her face flushed, but she quickly composed herself. After clearing her throat a few times, she scolded Cousin, who was still stuck in the wall.

"Get down here already. We have a guest. What kind of behavior is that?"

Cousin didn't budge. He remained embedded in the wall, perfectly still.

The woman furrowed her brows and snorted. "I'm counting to three."

That did the trick. Before she'd even started counting, Cousin hurriedly pulled himself free and scampered over.

"I was just worried you were still mad, Cousin!"

Cousin's image in Hanyu's eyes was more or less ruined. At that moment, he was grinning like a lackey.

"If my uncle hadn't written to say you stole a whole pile of mechanical schematics, you would've fooled me. I really thought you'd just gone out to have fun."

The woman glared at Cousin in a fit of anger and said indignantly.

Cousin was terribly embarrassed. He hurriedly cut her off. "I know I was wrong. I'll go back later."

After a little more small talk, Cousin quickly pulled Hanyu over and introduced him.

It turned out that the woman was a disciple of a major sect, sent out into the secular world to serve as the local guardian. She was beautiful, and even her name was lovely: Su Wanjun.

It sounded like the gentle name of a delicate young lady. Who would've thought she had such a fiery temper?

Hanyu only dared to think it to himself.

Meanwhile, Su Wanjun looked at Cousin and frowned. "I promised your uncle that I'd drag you back as soon as I saw you."

Cousin hurriedly took a few steps back, his face creased in a wry smile. "Cousin, you can't! If I go back now, they'll break my legs."

"At least wait until they've cooled off before I return."

Su Wanjun nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. She seemed to understand her elders' tempers. She rolled her eyes at him and said, "Fine. Stay here with me for a while. Then I'll go back with you, so they don't actually break your legs."

Cousin felt bitter. If he stayed here, how was that any different from going home? He hurriedly changed the subject. "Cousin, what about the things I left with you?"

"They're in the room you used to stay in. No one's touched them."

Su Wanjun pointed to the side chamber.

As soon as he heard that, Cousin grabbed Hanyu and ran. He called back over his shoulder, "I'll grab my things and take my friend out for a bit. We'll be right back."

Before Su Wanjun could react, he dashed into the side chamber, came out carrying a large bundle, and ran off.

Hanyu finally understood why Cousin had been beaten when they met. With that habit of lying to gods and ghosts, he'd be stuck in the wall again the next time he ran away.

After escaping the Prefectural Yamen, Cousin dragged Hanyu along for another stretch before finally slowing down. He patted his chest, still shaken, and noticed Hanyu looking at him. With an awkward smile, he said, "Sorry you had to see that. My Cousin is usually very gentle."

Back to business: now that they had the tools, they could set out to find Mortal. Hidden Moon Peak was twenty li outside Shuzhou City, quite a distance away.

Neither of them wanted to go by Iron Kite. Perhaps for a while, that thing would haunt their nightmares.

That left them in a bit of a bind. Cousin could fly on his own sword, but Hanyu said he couldn't fly, and it wasn't easy to carry someone on a flying sword.

After discussing it, they finally settled on riding horses!

Soon, two swift horses galloped out of the city, their hooves pounding as they headed south.

This place no longer belonged to the southern region, so there weren't many mountains. The land was mostly flat plains. They raced along, and even when they saw a mountain, it was little more than a small hill.

They'd heard that the central region was vast and rich in resources, with every prefecture especially large. Unlike the poor, remote countryside, where mountains were many and arable land scarce, the prefectures there were actually quite close to one another.

About half an hour later, Cousin reined in his horse, slowing down. Hanyu stopped alongside him and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Cousin took out his Command Token and pressed the small dot in the middle. The token in Hanyu's arms vibrated at the same time.

Was this how they contacted the other person using the distress function?

Soon, Cousin's token began to vibrate too. It wasn't rapid, but it kept going for a little while before stopping.

Hanyu could more or less guess what the other person meant. They'd sent a reply, then continued sending distress signals instead of sending them nonstop. Perhaps that meant they weren't in immediate danger, but were in a difficult situation.

Cousin quickly confirmed his guess. "Mortal really has run into trouble. He might be trapped or unable to get away."

Surprisingly, the direction indicated by the token really was Hidden Moon Peak.

Since Mortal wasn't in life-threatening danger yet, they should proceed carefully, lest they arrive and find themselves unable to handle whatever awaited them.

They exchanged a nod and mounted up again...

Hidden Moon Peak.

It was named after Crescent Lake.

The peak wasn't particularly tall. Trees grew thickly all around it, and near the summit lay a deep ravine, as if someone had sliced the entire mountaintop in half.

Below the ravine was a secluded valley. A winding path led into its depths, where insects chirped and the wind beat like a drum. Farther inside, the delicate fragrance of flowers and grass filled the air. In the valley was a small, crescent-shaped lake. Whenever the moon hung high overhead, its light reflected on Crescent Lake, as if the moon itself were hidden in its waters. That was how Hidden Moon Peak got its name.

When someone said they were going to Hidden Moon Peak, they didn't necessarily mean they were climbing the mountain. More often, they meant they were entering the valley.

But the valley floor seemed rather unsettled these days. A group of people had arrived a few days ago and surrounded the entrance. No one knew what was going on.

At the mouth of the valley, a dozen or so cultivators in yellow brocade robes gathered, their murderous gazes fixed on the valley.

Just then, a good-looking woman hurried toward the exit. The generous curves of her chest bounced with every step, drawing the cultivators' fascinated gazes, though they remained wary.

"Stop!"

A cultivator immediately blocked the exit and held out a hand to stop her.

"There are bad people inside!" The woman flailed her arms as she pointed toward the valley, her face panicked.

"Search her. She can leave after we've searched her."

The cultivator ignored her and replied coldly.

A few cultivators, however, leered at her and crowded forward, volunteering to search her themselves.

"You... you shameless people..." The woman's face was full of shame and indignation. She looked ready to burst into tears.

"There's someone inside we're looking for. If you won't let us search you, you can't leave," the cold-faced cultivator continued.

"I'd rather die than let you touch me..." The woman's face flushed red. She clenched her teeth and charged toward the exit. The few cultivators who'd been itching for a chance rushed forward first.

"Heh heh!"

One of them reached out with a lecherous grin, but before his hand could climb the heights, the woman grabbed it and snapped it.

"Ah..." At his scream, all the cultivators swarmed her. The woman threw the lecherous cultivator aside and tried to charge through again, but after only a few steps, she slammed into a wall of flesh.

The cultivator was tall and broad, with a bluish face. He fixed his eyes on the woman and let out a low growl. After only a few exchanges, he sent her flying.

"Hmph!"

With a cold snort, the woman used the force of the blow to retreat rapidly back into the valley.

Another quarter of an hour passed before an old man with white hair and unsteady limbs came tottering out.

Naturally, the cultivators stopped him too.

"You cultivators are lawless! Picking on even an old man!" the old man wailed, beating his chest.

"We have no intention of making trouble for you. You can leave after we search you," one of the cultivators said.

But the old man refused. Leaning on his cane, he swayed as he tried to leave.

This time, however, the tall cultivator suddenly attacked. With a roar, he curled his fingers into a claw and lunged for the old man.

The old man's expression changed abruptly. He hurriedly backed away, no longer showing the slightest sign of infirmity.

"Damn you. Just you wait!"

After spitting out those words, the old man fled back into the valley.

Two figures had been hiding halfway up the mountain for some time. They crouched there furtively, and a closer look revealed them to be Hanyu and Cousin, who had come all this way!

Hanyu had watched those two scenes in stunned silence, but couldn't make heads or tails of them.

Cousin chuckled beside him. "Those two were both Mortal in disguise. Surprised?"

He really was. They were clearly two completely different people—not only in their expressions but also in their figures and movements. There wasn't a single thing about them that was the same.

Cousin exclaimed in admiration. "I've known Mortal for ages, and I've never even seen his real face. You never know which face is real. You don't even know how many of the hundred people you meet in a day might be him."

Hanyu shuddered as he listened. Could anyone really be that terrifyingly good at disguises?

He looked toward the mouth of the valley again. No one had come out for a long time. Mortal had probably given up on breaking through that way.

"How about we break in and pull him out?" Cousin said, watching the guards at the entrance.

Hanyu hurriedly stopped him, shaking his head. "If they dare to leave so few people guarding that place, they must have something up their sleeve. We might run into a high-level cultivator and get trapped there too."

After glancing at the ravine, Hanyu came up with an idea. He pointed to a cliff face. "We'll climb down there."

"Climb down? We'd still draw attention and get spotted," Cousin said, frowning and shaking his head.

"Not climbing." Hanyu grinned.

At the cliff beside the ravine, Cousin leaned over to peer at the valley floor and felt his legs go weak.

"Maybe we should just fly! Going down your way is no different from looking for death."

Cousin shook his head repeatedly, his face turning pale.

Hanyu's plan was to slide down the cliff face on one side. That way, they'd be extremely hard to spot.

"It'll be fine. It's perfectly safe. I've jumped before."

Hanyu cited his plunge over the cliff with Big Yellow Ox as an example.

Cousin clearly didn't believe him. He shook his head like a rattle drum.

"If it gets really dangerous halfway down, we can fly."

In the end, they settled on a compromise. Even so, Cousin's face remained ashen.

"Get ready."

Hanyu looked back at him. Cousin nodded, his face pale. Only then did Hanyu grab him, leap off the edge, and slide down the cliff. He held Cousin in one hand and clung to the rock face with the other, fingers curled like claws.

The rapid descent turned Cousin's face livid. Several times he nearly cried out, but for fear of alerting anyone, he clamped a hand over his mouth.

As they slid down, Hanyu kept an eye out for larger rocks and did his best to avoid dislodging any.

They picked up speed, and Cousin was ready to summon his Flying Sword. But Hanyu said in a low voice, "Not yet. We're almost there."

The moment the words left his mouth, both of them plunged into the leaves. A deep thud echoed across the ground.

Hanyu landed steadily. His bones trembled all over, making a series of sounds like drums and gongs ringing together.

After pausing to catch his breath, he slowly exhaled a mouthful of stale air, then set Cousin down.

Cousin sat on the ground, his face livid and his expression dazed. Suddenly, he let out a "Waaah!" He scrambled beneath a tree, braced himself against it, and vomited violently.

Hanyu watched him helplessly. A strong body really did have its advantages.

The third chapter today will be posted tonight. Little God of Wealth fans who like this book, please show your support with recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and collections. Many thanks!