"Feng Boar? Is your name really Feng Boar?"
Sister-in-law Qi covered her mouth and laughed for quite a while.
"Hahaha, Feng Boar is even worse than Qingqiu. Qingqiu at least leans a little toward the demon side, but Feng Boar is practically no different from a beast."
Feng Boar was recorded in the Records of the Hidden Within as a ferocious beast shaped like a pig.
"Feeling better now? That's why we beasts have to help each other."
Su Che took a teacup and poured Qingqiu, sitting opposite him, a cup of tea.
She was also the first member of the Mount Zhong Association he had met face-to-face.
"You are a beast. I'm a demon."
Qingqiu had a rather lively personality. On one hand, she could spout dirty jokes without restraint; on the other, she seemed utterly guileless.
"Hey, who did you see at today's meeting? Did Gushe go this time?"
Only now did Su Che completely dismiss the killing intent in his heart.
This little demon really was a member of the Mount Zhong Association.
"Gushe didn't go last time?"
"No. It's common for everyone not to be able to gather." Qingqiu looked at Su Che. "Hey, hey, did Zhongyuan grant you a divine ability?"
"Yes. He gave me a method for cultivating the Mirage Shadow Primordial Sword."
"Hmph, what a miser. The thing he gave you isn't worth much at all, just an entry-level sword technique from the Eastern Sea Sword Repository." Qingqiu looked like she was standing up for her new underling. "When I have time later, I'll find you a few powerful ones."
"Then many thanks."
"What are you thanking me for? You can barely be considered someone I brought into the association. Looking after you is only right."
Qingqiu picked up the teacup beside her and took a sip.
"By the way, did they say what the next mission is?"
"We're to investigate the changes in the depths of Mystic Mountain."
"Mystic Mountain?"
Qingqiu furrowed her brow tightly, looking utterly weighed down by worry.
"It seems things really are rather troublesome."
"Troublesome?"
"You've never traveled the martial world, have you?"
Su Che calculated that, across both his lives, the closest he had ever come to life in the martial world was watching movies.
The Five Hundred Million Dollar Detective, Brother Pheasant, Big Heavenly Two, Crippled Hao, Ah Rong, and the like.
Or else Iron-Gallant Divine Marquis, Xiong Ba, or Liu Huaqiang...
The martial world had truly been very far from his life.
"Please enlighten me."
"When I first came to Shanyin County, it had nothing to do with the association. An elder in my family calculated that a great opportunity awaited me between Shanyin and Guobei, so I came here to settle down."
Big Sister Qingqiu held her tea bowl and took a sip of cold tea, then gently set it down, signaling for her newly acquired underling to fill it.
Su Che hurriedly topped up his boss's cold water.
Big Sister Qingqiu gave him a look that said he was fairly sensible.
"I stayed around these parts for a long, long time, and finally got to the bottom of one matter. Back then, there was an expert named Lion Azure Lotus Perfected Tathagata, who possessed unsurpassed divine abilities. He once passed through this place, and it is very likely that he was buried here."
Su Che very much wanted to tell Qingqiu that it was not merely very likely. It was already certain that the Old Lion was in the depths of Mystic Mountain.
"You ordinary mortals who have only just begun cultivating may not know what Third Grade means. A Third Grade Sage of the Confucian School, a Third Grade True Person of the Daoist School, a Third Grade Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva, or Arhat of Buddhism—once they reach that realm, they can all live forever and behold the ages."
As Qingqiu talked more excitedly, Su Che discovered that she truly was a chatterbox. Once she started talking, she simply did not stop.
"Which one of such figures was not an outstanding hero of their generation? They certainly would not lack good things on them. Tell me, what an enormous opportunity is that?"
"It certainly is. But where does the trouble lie?"
Su Che decided that he ought to play the straight man properly.
"The trouble—the trouble is that too many people know about it. With grave-robbing and treasure-seizing like this, every person who knows less means one more share of the chance to get it. But if it becomes known throughout the realm and alarms the imperial court, it's like a little fox wanting to steal chickens, only for every snake and weasel to set out together. They alarm the household, and by the time the owners react, feathers fly and eggs break, and no one gets anything in hand."
"Your metaphor is rather spirited."
Su Che praised her sincerely. This clearly came from lived experience. He added quite a bit more cold water for the little fox.
Still, although this matter was some distance from being known throughout the realm, it had indeed alarmed the imperial court.
"As far as I know, the imperial court should already have caught wind of it."
"When I came to the Central Land, the elders of my family told me to beware the Imperial Demon Hunters and the Night Pacification Bureau. It seems they really are formidable. They reacted so quickly."
You are quite right. This humble one had also made a tiny contribution.
That person had once mentioned that those in the association were either burdened by deep blood feuds or filled with towering ambition. Yet the little fox before him looked entirely devoid of scheming.
Why had Zhongyuan gathered such a group of people? What was his purpose?
"Miss Qing." Su Che looked at Qingqiu. "I have a proposal. I ask Miss Qing to consider it."
"You're speaking so politely. Is there something you want to ask of me?"
"I would not dare ask Miss Qing for anything extravagant. I merely have a small suggestion."
"What suggestion do you have? Let me hear it."
Sister-in-law Qi looked lazy and listless.
"To speak frankly, the Mount Zhong Association is full of shifting clouds and treacherous waves. I think you should have sensed that as well."
Qingqiu looked at Su Che suspiciously, not knowing what he intended.
"I believe Miss Qing and I can cooperate."
"Why? You're so weak. Cooperating with you would just be adding baggage to myself, wouldn't it? I refuse."
Qingqiu rejected Su Che with complete decisiveness.
This little fox spoke so directly that Su Che felt a little hurt.
"Precisely because I am the weakest, I am the most sincere." Su Che looked at Qingqiu. "Miss Qing, if Wu Zhiqi were the one asking to cooperate with you, would you dare trust him?"
"I refuse. In the end, the benefit you can offer is no more than wanting to collude in evil with me." Qingqiu shook her head.
Collude in evil? Your command of idioms has caught up with Captain Nojiri's.
"Speaking of which, there is something I find quite interesting. I wonder whether Miss Qing would be interested in hearing it."
"Go ahead and tell me."
"Don't you think the structure of the Mount Zhong Association is very prone to problems?"
Qingqiu frowned tightly.
"According to Miss Qing, the contact between you and me could be said to be the result of that person's guidance."
"May I presumptuously ask, what opportunity led you to join the Mount Zhong Association?"
Qingqiu looked at Su Che. "Me? I met Zhongyuan in the Eastern Sea."
Good. He had caught one piece of information: Zhongyuan actively traveled the realm, searching for people worth cultivating.
Moreover, Zhongyuan must be highly skilled in some kind of movement divine ability or possess a magical artifact for such travel.
A movement divine ability or magical artifact of that level should be extremely rare. If he could make a list of people with similar abilities, then identify those who liked roaming about without a fixed abode, perhaps he could pin down Zhongyuan's true identity.
But the chances should be slim. So long as Zhongyuan was ancient enough and did not appear on any known list, it would still be difficult to discover who he was.
"Thus, a line forms between everyone. If someone keeps investigating me, they may have the chance to follow the vine and find Miss Qing, then confirm the existence of the Mount Zhong Association and Zhongyuan. At least in Great Liang, the Censorate, the Imperial Demon Hunters, and the Night Pacification Bureau could all notice the problem here."
Su Che continued, "And don't you find it strange? According to Zhongyuan, we either bear deep blood feuds or possess some sort of ambition. Such people will always become the focus of every faction's attention. Seeking out people like us only greatly increases the danger of the Mount Zhong Association being exposed, doesn't it?"
"So I have a feeling that perhaps we are merely bait."