Luring the Snake Out of Its Hole

Yang Family Martial Arts Hall, on the training ground.

New large wooden barrels had been set out on the sand, filled to the brim with water. Several apprentices struggled one after another to stir the stone balls inside, but they simply couldn't form a whirlpool.

Bang! Bang bang!

On the other side, Meng Yue's eyes were cold, his expression gloomy. An air of menace radiated from him from head to toe as he punched and kicked, shaking the jujube-wood stake again and again until gravel sprayed from beneath it.

"Damn it, is that brat Hong some kind of turtle? Does he only know how to hide in his turtle shell?"

In the blink of an eye, another three days had passed, and Meng Yue still hadn't thought of a way to lure Hong Yuan out of the martial arts hall.

He had pushed Li Hai and another apprentice attached to him to invite Hong Yuan twice more, and whenever Hong Yuan instructed the apprentices, he himself would go up from time to time to curry favor and get close.

But it was no use.

"What do I do? What do I do? Mr. Cui is already getting very impatient. I can't drag this out any longer. Should I try drugging him? But..."

While Meng Yue was frantic and racking his brains for a plan, he heard the apprentices calling "senior brother." His gaze shifted, and he saw that Hong Yuan was not wearing his usual training clothes today, but had changed into a fitted black cloud-brocade martial outfit, with a long saber at his waist.

Meng Yue's heart leaped, and a certain thought sprang up.

"Senior Brother Hong, are you going out?" an apprentice asked.

"Yes!" Hong Yuan nodded. His gaze swept over the dozen or so apprentices in the training ground, and he smiled. "I'm going to Little Lone Mountain outside the city to cultivate the Ape Movement Technique. All of you train properly. Don't slack off."

Of the Body Strengthening Method Yang Erhu had taught, the tendon-stretching and bone-drawing within the Rock-Solid Skill, the lifting of stone locks and stirring of stone balls, and the like could all be practiced in the martial arts hall. But the Ape Movement Technique, which trained movement skills, was somewhat cramped if performed only in the hall's grounds.

And the Ape Movement Technique was originally derived from imitating the movements of apes climbing, leaping, and rolling, so naturally it was best practiced among mountains, wilderness, and forest.

Hong Yuan greeted everyone, then strolled unhurriedly out through the martial arts hall's gates.

On the training ground, Meng Yue watched Hong Yuan's gradually receding back, and for an instant, he actually felt like tears were about to fill his eyes, like a daughter-in-law of many years finally enduring until she became the mother-in-law.

It had been too damn hard. This turtle Hong was finally willing to go out.

At this point, Meng Yue could no longer care whether he would arouse suspicion. He called Li Hai over and asked him to request leave from Yang Erhu on his behalf, using the excuse that something had happened at home. Then he slipped out of the martial arts hall like a wisp of smoke.

"Little Lone Mountain... Little Lone Mountain, is it! This trip will make sure you go and never return."

Meng Yue gritted his teeth, ruthlessness flaring in his heart. Without stopping, he quickly crossed a long street, intending to seek out the contact person Yan Tieshan had arranged.

"Ah! I never provoked anyone or offended anyone, yet there are always unruly subjects who want to harm this emperor..."

A slender figure stood at the corner of an alley, his face hidden in the shadow of the wall, letting out a low sigh.

It was precisely Hong Yuan!

After his comprehension had risen once more, Hong Yuan had also gained a touch of mysterious, hard-to-describe mental perception.

Although Meng Yue usually acted very attentive and respectful toward him, Hong Yuan could still sense traces of malice from him from time to time.

Moreover, during this period, when those idlers and peddlers on the streets passed by the martial arts hall, they would always peer inside intentionally or otherwise, their gazes often landing on him, which made Hong Yuan even more wary.

Hong Yuan had not forgotten the incident at Jade Wutong Immortal Realm. The reason he cultivated so diligently was also to resist Wei Zhenzhu's retaliation, which might arrive at any moment.

The first thing he suspected was that Wei Zhenzhu's people had found their way to him, but afterward he felt that didn't fit, because Meng Yue had already been in the Yang Family Martial Arts Hall for two years.

Hong Yuan had always been a man of action. Since he felt Meng Yue was not right, he naturally could not spend a thousand days guarding against a thief. Thinking over how apprentices had invited him to gatherings several times recently, he faintly suspected that Meng Yue was urging them on from behind the scenes, so he simply went along with his wishes.

Lure the snake out of its hole!

"I hope I'm just suffering from persecution paranoia. Otherwise, after leaving that Fat Pig Manor, for my first saber strike to land on the head of a fellow disciple would truly make one's heart ache... Oh! Seems he can't really be called a fellow disciple. Then never mind."

Hong Yuan still had leisure to let his thoughts wander. He followed behind Meng Yue at an unhurried pace, neither too fast nor too slow. Only when passing a general store did he casually toss out a bit of broken silver and take a bamboo hat to wear on his head.

In truth, ordinary commoners mostly used copper coins or bartered goods in their daily expenses, but Hong Yuan found copper coins troublesome to carry, so the spare money on him was all silver.

After pressing down the brim and covering half his face, not many people paid attention to him anymore.

With chaos spreading across the realm and bandits rising everywhere, saber- and sword-wearing wandering knights had also been as plentiful as crucian carp crossing the river these past dozen years.

Meng Yue did not have much vigilance. After all, he could not imagine that someone would be following him. He only occasionally looked back out of habit, but Hong Yuan was always able to avoid his line of sight in advance.

The Ape Movement Technique was naturally best cultivated in mountains, forests, and the wild.

But with Hong Yuan's excellent aptitude, these technique-based skills were not restricted by location for him. He could learn them after watching once, and after a little training, he became as adept as an old hand.

After Meng Yue turned this way and that, he walked rapidly for roughly a quarter of an hour and arrived at a quiet, independent little courtyard.

Meng Yue knocked on the main gate. At first, no one answered, so he had no choice but to knock harder, making the door bang and bang. Only after a while did a burly man come over cursing and open the door, ushering him inside.

There was an old locust tree on the left side of the courtyard. Its trunk was thick, and its branches stretched into the courtyard wall.

If there were any thieves, they could climb in along the branches without even needing to set up a ladder.

However, Hong Yuan knew that if there were guards inside, this spot would be watched most closely. He directly circled around to the back of the house, exerted a little force through his feet, and his body became as light and nimble as an old ape. With a leap of his legs and a grip of his hands, he went up onto the roof over a zhang high.

His feet stepped on the roof tiles, landing without a sound.

Noise and clamor came from the large room beneath his feet. From the jumble of voices, it was clear there were quite a few people inside, and the smell of wine was spreading upward.

Hong Yuan lowered his body, lifted a roof tile, leaving only a narrow crack, and peered inside.

The room was spacious. Wine was warming over the stove, steam rising.

In the weather of early autumn, a dozen or so burly men sat bare-chested around two tables, drinking wine and eating meat, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Hong Yuan drew back his gaze and swept it over the entire little courtyard. He felt his caution had been entirely unnecessary; everyone was enjoying themselves inside the house, and no one was standing guard in the yard.

Meng Yue's earlier heavy knocking had disturbed these people's pleasure. Now, as he was being led into the room, someone, eyes bleary with drink, cursed, "Damn it, who's here?"

Meng Yue's brows furrowed deeply.

Just then, someone still sober caught sight of Meng Yue and hurriedly rose with a smile. "Oh, Brother Meng's here. Come! Hurry and sit! Drink, drink!"

Meng Yue's face turned livid. He took a deep breath and asked, "Is Military Advisor Qian here?"

Military Advisor Qian was that Poison-Heart Scholar under Yan Tieshan. Meng Yue had no desire to chatter idly with this bunch of local ruffians and hooligans, and directly asked for the person who could make decisions.

"Military Advisor Qian? Military Advisor Qian naturally went back to Third Master's side. Brother Meng, there's no hair on your lips and no steadiness in your work! You still haven't lured out that brat surnamed Hong, making it so we can only drink here to pass the time..."

A man three parts drunk slanted a look at Meng Yue, swaying as he walked up, and "heh"ed a breath of liquor right into his face.

Meng Yue was so furious he hurriedly dodged aside.

The man laughed loudly, thrusting out his belly as he headed outside. "Mm... I'm going out to take a piss first. I'm about to burst."

"Brother, wait for me!"

At once, two more men cheerfully got to their feet and walked out together.

Meng Yue smelled the room's pungent reek of alcohol and looked at the dozen or so men before him. More than half of them were drunken and drowsy. His brows knitted even tighter as he said in a low voice, "That brat surnamed Hong went out today. Go find Military Advisor Qian at once and have him arrange an ambush. Don't miss this good chance."

"Hm? That little bastard finally showed his head. Good! Where is he? Hurry and tell me!"

"Right! He made us brothers wait around for so many days. I'm going to work him over properly!"

At once, several drunks began shouting loudly. One of them even staggered to his feet, failed to stand steady, and fell straight to the ground. Half his body sprawled on the floor, he was still shouting with a thick tongue, "Where's my knife? Who hid my damn knife... hurry and give me my knife. I'm going to kill someone!"

Blue veins bulged on Meng Yue's forehead. His hands clenched tightly into fists, and he wished he could slaughter a few of these people first just to vent his anger.

Though in his heart he knew this was because he had been unable to lure Hong Yuan out for so long. According to the habits of these street-corner scoundrels, they could barely endure two or three days, but dragging it out for nearly ten days had made them cast off all restraint outright.

They were only drinking wine and eating meat inside the house; the fact they had not tied up a few women and dragged them over for lewd entertainment already counted as restrained.

The few ruffians who were still fairly sober exchanged glances. Looking at the brothers beside them dead drunk, their scalps all went a little numb. These people could not even walk steadily—what killing were they supposed to do?

"Leave someone here to watch the brothers. The rest whose heads are still clear, come with me. Brother Meng, let's go find Third Master together."

A ruffian who looked like a leader steadied himself and spoke.

"Good. Let's do that!"

Meng Yue also nodded.

The leading ruffian immediately strode past Meng Yue and walked ahead. When he neared the half-closed door, he suddenly seemed to recall something and turned his head. "Right, Brother Meng, is anyone keeping watch on that brat surnamed Hong? Don't let him finally go out after all this trouble, only for us to lose him."

"Don't worry. He went to Little Lone Mountain outside the city," Meng Yue said.

"That's good..."

Rip!

Before the ruffian leader's word "good" had even fallen, a sudden light tearing sound rang out. Before the ruffian leader could react, he only felt his chest go cold.

He lowered his head blankly. A steel blade had stabbed in from outside the half-closed door, piercing him straight through the chest where he stood by the doorway.

The ruffian leader's pupils widened, the smile on his face freezing. Violent pain surged up, but before he could even cry out, there came a booming bang. In an instant, the door shattered into four or five pieces, fragments flying everywhere.

Wooden chunks shot out in all directions, striking the people inside the room. At the same time, that ruffian seemed to be whipped by a tremendous force, his body rising through the air and smashing toward Meng Yue and the others.

Meng Yue reacted fastest. His figure retreated, avoiding the impact of the ruffian's body, and with a hook of his foot, a steel blade flew into his hand. He raised it across the air to block!

Clang!

Almost the very instant he blocked, a streak of saber light shot in swiftly from outside the room and collided with the long blade he had braced crosswise, bursting into a string of sparks. At the same time, the newcomer gave a light laugh, turned his body, abandoned Meng Yue, and with quick, shifting steps, threaded through the few sober ruffians.

Only a series of hissing sounds could be heard. Saber light linked into a single line, as if a startled swan had swept past. The throats of those ruffians had already been cut open, great sheets of blood gushing out. One by one, they fell to the ground in utter terror, clutching their throats, yet no longer able to make a sound.

Swish!

The newcomer flicked his arm, flinging off the blood spattered on the blade. Only then did he turn around, look at Meng Yue, and say with a light laugh, "Junior Brother, you've disappointed me greatly!"