Missed

Outside the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, the crowd surged, a ceaseless flow of patrons.

Though it was not yet night, merely dusk, the stream of guests at the entrance of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion was already endless.

A carriage parked by the roadside continuously drew the gazes of passersby.

The horse was pitch-black with a single horn on its head, faint flames flickering between its hooves, while the carriage body behind it was opulent and luxurious, emblazoned with a large "Xu" character on the side, a black Coiled Dragon winding around the frame, lifelike, especially those dragon eyes.

Surrounded by a group of bodyguards, a handsome young master in brocade robes emerged from the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, pulling a slender woman wearing a bamboo hat into the carriage.

The appearance of the two caused the passersby to cast sidelong glances and engage in heated discussion.

Standing among the crowd on the street, two men of exceptional bearing also gazed toward the carriage.

One was dressed in black martial attire, his face resolute and handsome.

The other wore luxurious white robes, still holding a folding fan despite the cold winter wind.

The man in martial attire looked at the extraordinary Xu Changtian and asked the man in white beside him with curiosity:

"Brother Li, why do these pedestrians have so much to say about that young master?"

Li Muchen glanced at the carriage, gently shook his folding fan, and replied with a smile:

"Brother Qin, you are new here, so you don't know. That man is the third young master of the Xu family, Xu Changtian."

Qin Mo murmured in a low voice: "The Xu family. Which Xu family?"

Li Muchen shook his head and smiled: "Naturally, the biggest one."

Qin Mo was slightly stunned, murmuring:

"The Prime Minister's Estate?"

The Xu family, the Prime Minister's Estate—this he naturally knew.

He just didn't know if this Xu family was related to the gentle-mannered Miss Xu he had encountered during his travels.

Her identity seemed quite mysterious.

"Let's go."

Amidst the silence, Li Muchen patted Qin Mo's shoulder affectionately and flashed a smile that every man understood: "If Brother Qin is interested in making his acquaintance, I can introduce you when the opportunity arises. But since you saved me during this merchant trip, let us drink until we drop tonight!"

Qin Mo nodded gently and smiled slightly.

Li Muchen's offer to introduce him was clearly just a polite excuse.

If Li Muchen truly had a good relationship with the third young master of the Xu family, he wouldn't be standing here just watching; he would have already stepped forward to converse with him.

Li Muchen came from a wealthy merchant family, but his family was far inferior to the Xu family of Xu Yuan.

However, Qin Mo thoughtfully did not expose Li Muchen. He walked along with him, subconsciously touching his chest as he went.

Seeing Qin Mo's small gesture, Li Muchen assumed he was worried about the expenses and said with a smile:

"I'll host tonight to welcome you, brother."

"Ah, that's not it." Qin Mo shook his head with a smile: "I came to the Drunken Immortal Pavilion to find someone."

"Find someone?" Li Muchen was taken aback, then smiled slightly: "Is it a lady you admire?"

His tone became a bit hesitant: "However, the ladies in this Drunken Immortal Pavilion..."

Qin Mo said softly: "I am here to find Miss Jinxuan."

"Miss Jinxuan?" Li Muchen looked enlightened, but then, as if thinking of something, his expression turned strange.

Qin Mo explained: "Miss Jinxuan and I once made a wager."

Li Muchen's expression grew even stranger: "A wager?"

Qin Mo fished a demon core from his robes and smiled gently: "If I could retrieve the demon core of a monster from the Wind Crow Forest within this month, she would play a song for me alone."

Looking at the demon core, Li Muchen's pupils contracted slightly.

Born into a merchant family, he had handled no small number of demon cores.

With just one glance, he could tell that the demonic energy contained within this core was roughly at the seventh rank.

With the current situation in turmoil and demons and ghosts running rampant, the various departments under the Heavenly Supervision Bureau were unable to control the four directions, while local sects and noble families only swept the snow from their own doorsteps. The appearance of a single monster often meant a blood debt for a village.

Qin Mo's breath was steady, but he should only be an eighth-rank martial artist. For an eighth-rank martial artist to slay a seventh-rank monster was no simple feat.

Such a genius was indeed worth befriending.

However, Li Muchen then thought of the matter regarding Jinxuan, shook his head slightly, weighed his words, and said softly:

"Brother Qin, you might not be able to see Miss Jinxuan today... or perhaps, you may never see her again."

Li Muchen ultimately chose to speak the truth.

Qin Mo's eyes stalled, and he frowned: "Brother Li, what do you mean by that?"

Li Muchen glanced at the black dragon carriage and stopped at the point: "Because of Xu Changtian..."

Hearing this, Qin Mo felt a sense of loss and asked softly: "Miss Jinxuan has a special status in the Drunken Immortal Pavilion. If she is unwilling, can she not refuse to entertain guests?"

Li Muchen looked around, leaned in, and whispered: "That is true. The Drunken Immortal Pavilion indeed does not force its courtesans to sell themselves, but..."

As he spoke, Li Muchen let out a faint sigh, "But Brother Qin, that Xu Changtian is the Third Young Master of the Prime Minister's Estate. He even forcibly canceled the debut date for Miss Jinxuan that had been set just a few days ago after invitations were widely distributed."

"..." Qin Mo.

Through a stroke of coincidence, Qin Mo knew something about the forces behind the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, but it was clearly impossible for them to fall out with the Prime Minister's Estate over a single woman.

Li Muchen hesitated slightly, pointing toward the few guards running alongside the black carriage that had just started moving:

"Brother Qin, look at those guards beside the carriage."

Qin Mo narrowed his eyes and looked over: "What about them?"

"Every one of them is at least Seventh Rank, and there are even a few at the Sixth Rank."

"Sixth Rank and above?" A flicker of astonishment finally crossed Qin Mo's eyes.

The oldest of those guards couldn't have been more than thirty, yet such young Sixth Rank cultivators were merely ordinary guards.

Li Muchen grinned, his expression tinged with a bitterness that was hard to decipher: "I suspect these people are only the guards on the surface; there must be experts of the retainer level sitting in the shadows."

"Fifth Rank Soul Condensation Realm?" Qin Mo frowned, thinking of the strength of the retainers in Li Muchen's own household.

Qin Mo subconsciously narrowed his eyes to look.

But apart from those ordinary guards, he could only see a bearded man driving the carriage in front.

The bearded man had an easygoing smile on his face, a long sword strapped to his back, and he held the reins in a slouching, carefree manner.

Before Qin Mo could even show a look of confusion, The very next moment, The bearded man's gaze swept directly toward where Qin Mo was standing!

It was a gentle, smiling gaze.

Yet, even so, it made the hair on Qin Mo's arms stand on end.

That look made him realize that the conversation he had just had with Li Muchen had been heard in its entirety by this man.

However, the man had no intention of making a move; instead, he grinned at him and, with a touch of malicious humor, pointed toward the carriage behind him.

"..."

Seeing this gesture, Qin Mo was stunned for a moment, then his pupils constricted slightly.

The memory of what he had just seen surfaced in his mind.

The woman in the bamboo hat whom Xu Changtian had led into the carriage—was that Jinxuan?

Qin Mo's fists tightened slightly.

The man simply turned his head back with a chuckle, ignoring Qin Mo entirely.

It seemed that to him, teasing Qin Mo was no different from teasing an ant when he had nothing better to do.

After Zhou Chen withdrew his gaze, he pulled the reins, and the black unicorn-horse began to move, the carriage slowly rolling forward.

As if hearing the laughter from outside the carriage, a gentle voice drifted from within:

"Mr. Zhou, why do you laugh?"

Zhou Chen shrugged nonchalantly:

"It's nothing. I heard two people talking about Miss Su and the Third Young Master. They must be admirers of Miss Su, and I found it amusing, so I teased them a little."

"Is that so? Jinxuan is truly popular."

Xu Yuan didn't seem to care, instead softly instructing:

"Mr. Zhou, if you have nothing else to do, have someone go buy me a few copies of the recent gazettes."