Riding a White Horse Doesn't Necessarily Mean He's a Monk; He Might Also Be...

That changed the situation completely.

Aside from the two foreigners who were obviously not from the Central Plains, the others who had been speaking in low voices all turned to look over almost in unison!

The scholar who called himself Ning Caichen, courtesy name Cai Chen, also went deathly pale. Clearly, he had no idea why these people were reacting so strongly.

What made everyone even more uneasy was that even the taciturn, plainly dressed man before them suddenly broke into laughter.

"Ning Caichen? Ah—good! Good! Good! Good name. Truly a fine name."

"Even Heaven is helping us..."

"I was wondering why the main—cough, why that thing would dump us in this desolate wilderness. We've been walking half the night and half the day without finding a single person to ask for directions, so all we could do was follow this road and try our luck. As it turns out, it was waiting for us here."

The man laughed, revealing a row of neat white teeth. At a glance, he seemed vaguely sinister, as if some wild beast had set its sights on them.

"Ning Caichen—no, Ning Scholar, Young Master Ning, may I ask where you're headed in that traveling outfit?"

Although he had no idea why the other man was laughing, Ning Caichen instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

"I—I have an important matter to attend to. I'm heading to Jinhua for the time being. I wonder if my benefactor..."

"Excellent! Wonderful! The few of us are headed to Jinhua as well. We merely lost our way halfway there and didn't know which road to take. As fate would have it, we happened to save Young Master Ning here. Clearly, our affinity runs deep. This must be Heaven's Will!"

As if he had heard wonderful news, the man clapped