Meeting by Chance is Karma

Mo Ci asked with concern, "Wicked disciple, what are you planning? Don't you dare think about using that stuff against Su Chunyi; cultivators above the Qi Condensation realm won't be affected by it."

Chen Ye laughed, "Master, I'm a little devil, not a little fool. Besides, Miss Su and I have a relationship of mutual respect; there's no need for such methods."

"Then what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Cui County is, after all, the fief of that Princess Hongyu. According to Miss Su's investigation, the order to forcibly conscript young boys and girls came from the imperial court. It's such a coincidence that this Princess Hongyu is coming to Cui County. I don't believe for a second that this has nothing to do with her."

Mo Ci chuckled, "Heh, you little devil, you want to use a honey trap."

Chen Ye laughed as well. It wasn't that he truly intended to bewitch Princess Hongyu and take her hostage, but he did want to find a breakthrough sooner.

The affairs of the imperial court were intricate and complex, and even finding the county magistrate might not be effective. Since Princess Hongyu was coming, why look further afield?

However, to see the princess, he ultimately needed fame.

Chen Ye stuck to his original plan and headed to the teahouse. Retrieving his bundle was secondary; the main goal was to see how his reputation as a "little immortal" was faring and if he had become renowned throughout all of Cui County.

He had expected that upon returning to the familiar spot, the teahouse waiter and the proprietor would greet him with smiles.

But what Chen Ye saw was a teahouse with its doors tightly shut, and a waiter squatting in front of the entrance, looking utterly miserable. The man's right leg was in a splint, and his face was covered in bruises and cuts.

Chen Ye walked over, puzzled, and asked, "What happened to the teahouse?"

The young waiter looked up, saw the masked Chen Ye, and asked in confusion, "Who are you?"

Chen Ye untied his face cloth, revealing his true features. The waiter stared blankly for a long time before finally snapping back to reality.

The waiter said with a sob, "Immortal Master, you've returned?! You've finally returned!"

"Calm down, tell me what happened."

After Chen Ye offered a few words of comfort, the waiter tearfully explained, "Forgive me, Immortal Master, but the bundle you left behind was stolen. They didn't just seal the teahouse; they also injured the proprietor. It's all my fault, I was too loose-lipped..."

Chen Ye listened patiently to the incoherent story, his brows furrowing deeply.

This was entirely an unprovoked disaster.

The performance Chen Ye had put on with Su Chunyi that day had indeed made him famous, which in turn had brought much more business to the teahouse.

But with more customers came the wicked ones.

The waiter said miserably, "I was just bragging about how your appearance and that of the immortal lady were peerless, and they accused me of lying. I argued with them for a bit, and they broke my leg, smashed the shop, and beat the proprietor."

Chen Ye asked, "Did you report this to the authorities?"

"I did, but the yamen said the county magistrate was too busy to hold court and told us to go back and wait. I heard they sent quite a bit of silver to the yamen..."

Chen Ye sighed.

It seemed Zhao Hezhou was right; the Cui County magistrate was indeed a corrupt official.

The waiter cried, "Immortal Master, your bundle was stolen, and because I was loose-lipped, I implicated you. Please forgive me. I beg you to save the proprietor; he was hurt because of me, and his injuries are severe. The doctor said he might not last much longer."

Chen Ye looked at the waiter's broken leg, where blood was still seeping through, seemingly never properly treated, and asked, "Have you been waiting here for me the whole time?"

"I had no other choice. The proprietor has been like a father to me. I beg you, Immortal Master, save his life. All the fault is mine."

He took out a medicine bottle and handed it to the waiter.

"For external injuries, take one with warm water; it should save his life. You take one too; your leg will heal faster."

The waiter took the medicine bottle and hurriedly kowtowed to Chen Ye.

Chen Ye helped him up and asked, "Where are those thugs? What are their names?"

The waiter quickly replied, "There were over a dozen of them. I don't know their names, but they were all together. The reason they attacked was that I was bragging about how their young master's looks were peerless in the world. I couldn't stand it and retorted a few times, so they attacked. They left a message: if we wanted to find them, we should go to the Hengdao Inn, room number four of the Heaven wing."

Chen Ye was speechless. Where did this inexplicable sense of vanity come from? What use was it to be better-looking? After a hundred years, everyone would be nothing but dry bones. Besides, the waiter was arguing over someone else's looks—it was truly absurd.

Chen Ye waved his hand and said, "Go now, and stop getting into such verbal disputes in the future."

The waiter thanked him profusely and limped away.

Chen Ye watched his stumbling back and sighed.

Mo Ci's voice came from the Ten Thousand Soul Banner again, "What, feeling soft-hearted again? Going to act like a chivalrous hero?"

"I wouldn't call it soft-hearted, it's just..." Chen Ye remained silent for a long time before speaking again, "Master, if I hadn't met you, I might have ended up in a worse state than this waiter. If he hadn't met me, who would have saved him? It is truly unpleasant that there is no such thing as karma in this world."

Mo Ci retorted, "Why don't you say that if he hadn't met you, he wouldn't have been beaten like that in the first place?"

Chen Ye shook his head, "With a county magistrate who takes bribes to protect evildoers, he was bound to get beaten sooner or later. It has little to do with whether he met me or not."

Mo Ci laughed, "You brat, it's a pity you don't study the Kaikou Chan. Why don't you just join the Nirvana Sect? They don't have any requirements for taking disciples, and it doesn't matter if you've killed their people; just recite 'lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot' and you're set."

"Who would want to be a monk if they have hair? I still want to marry and have children."

"Wait until you've broken your pure yang body before you say that."

The master and disciple bickered as Chen Ye kept walking, heading toward the Hengdao Inn.

Whether it was to act with chivalry, perhaps to kill and refine souls, or simply to stir up some trouble to see Princess Hongyu... Mo Ci didn't ask, and Chen Ye didn't say. Both master and disciple knew the reason didn't matter.

To encounter it at the right time—that was karma.

Hengdao Inn is the place with the strongest martial arts atmosphere in Cui County.

This is simply because the innkeeper was once a renowned hero, though he washed his hands of the martial world ten years ago, relying on his savings and reputation to run this inn in Cui County.

Standing at the entrance is half a stone lion, with a long saber thrust into it.

This is the precious blade the innkeeper used back when he roamed the martial world; despite years of wind and rain, it shows no signs of rust and still glimmers with a chilling light.

This blade is also the inn's signature.

Staying at Hengdao Inn means no drawing of blades or guns, a rule tacitly accepted by all martial artists. Anyone who breaks this rule loses their head.

Such an arrogant rule has gone unbroken for ten years, and the powerful figures of Cui County turn a blind eye to it, which shows that the innkeeper not only holds a high status in the martial world but also has significant connections within the officialdom of Cui County.

Since Hengdao Inn is well-connected in both the underworld and the legitimate world, it has naturally become the top choice for all sorts of people.

Recently, the incident of the forced conscription of young boys and girls in Cui County has caused a massive uproar, and the large Hengdao Inn has long been fully booked.

Chen Ye walked through half the city to get from the teahouse to Hengdao Inn, and his feet were starting to ache.

Coming to this place wasn't because Chen Ye truly cared about the losses in his luggage, but because in this vast Cui County, there were simply no other inns left to stay in.

The matter of the young boys and girls had already drawn many martial artists to cause trouble in Cui County, and while quite a few homicides had occurred, they were still being kept under wraps.

With the rules in Cui County becoming stricter, ordinary inns no longer accept outsiders like Chen Ye who clearly look like they belong to the martial world, leaving him with no choice but to pick Hengdao Inn—a move that felt somewhat like centralized management.

Arriving before the inn's main gate, the thing that caught Chen Ye's eye most was the precious blade thrust into the half-broken stone lion.

The blade shimmered with a cold light, embedded in the fractured stone, and its imposing design and murderous atmosphere caused the martial arts soul from Chen Ye's previous life to flicker back to life.

What youth hasn't dreamed of becoming a dashing hero, picking up a perfect branch to slash away at fields of rapeseed flowers, imagining themselves as a hero who kills with every ten steps taken.

This martial world, it seems, is starting to get interesting again.

Chen Ye strode into the inn; since he came today to make a name for himself, he might as well bully the mortals a little.