After letting the Three Heroes of Western Shu go, Zhang Qingyuan continued on his way.
To him, there was no need to take their lives over such provocation. Ultimately, he was a Daoist, not an assassin.
A Daoist ought to have a compassionate heart.
And so, the three left with their tails between their legs.
Was it humiliating?
Utterly humiliating. They had been knocked flat with a single move.
In another decade or so, they might no longer think that way. Instead, they might count themselves lucky.
Just like Kakuzu in Naruto: "I fought the First Hokage!"
Sitting on his horse, Zhang Qingyuan pondered. The people behind this really were clever.
They knew such public accusations would not hold water, so they had posted a bounty of two thousand taels through the Martial Arts Alliance.
A handsome reward always brought forth brave men. As long as someone killed him, his guilt in the massacre of Cloud Dust Manor would be nailed down.
Because the dead could not defend themselves, and he had only just entered the martial world and hardly knew anyone. No one would clear his name, either.
After traveling for a while, Zhang Qingyuan dismounted.
He could see the sky gradually darkening, the sun sinking westward.
There were no signs of human habitation anywhere nearby.
"In days of old, carriages and horses were slow; a lifetime was only enough to love one person." Those words did not actually apply only to love.
They fit just about anything.
Because travel really was slow. Anyone leaving home had to be prepared to sleep in the wilderness.
Zhang Qingyuan took all his gear off the horse, found a gentle slope, and chose a spot against a large tree as his temporary shelter.
The slope offered shelter from the wind, and the open grass before him was convenient for getting things done.
He gathered some dry firewood and lit a fire. The moment the flames shone, his weariness was swept away.
To make himself a little more comfortable, he found some dry grass and spread it over the ground.
He recalled Master Bear's wilderness survival techniques from watching Man vs. Wild in his previous life.
Thinking about it, he found it rather interesting.
He took the dry rations out of his bundle. They were mostly flatbreads.
Flatbreads kept well, took up less room than steamed buns, and staved off hunger longer, so people traveling the martial world liked to carry some for emergencies.
He looked up at the sky. The weather was fine today, with countless stars drifting overhead and the river of stars shining brilliantly.
The blue-violet Milky Way adorned the dark sky, dazzling and resplendent.
"The night drags on; sleepless, I rise before the steps. The scattered river of stars nears the dawn."
That line by Bai Juyi really was beautifully put.
Setting a flatbread beside the fire, he thought he ought to get a small iron pot, too.
Then he would not have to eat nothing but parched dry rations. If he gathered some wild greens, he could even make soup.
Once the flatbread was hot, Zhang Qingyuan picked it up and took a bite. It was dry and hard, but to fill his stomach, he still finished the whole thing with some water.
He had just finished the bread and was about to drink some water when he saw two figures, a man and a woman, approaching from a short distance away.
Zhang Qingyuan watched warily, holding the waterskin to his lips and taking a small sip.
How had he known they were a man and a woman from so far away?
Their silhouettes alone made it clear: one was heavily pregnant, her belly protruding, while the other carefully supported her.
Only when they drew closer did Zhang Qingyuan get a clear look at their faces.
The two appeared to be husband and wife. The man looked simple and honest, dressed in coarse-cloth trousers and a jacket. The woman wore a headscarf, her belly so large that the baby seemed ready to break out of its shell at any moment.
They looked very familiar.
The couple were also wary, but when they saw that Zhang Qingyuan was a Daoist, they visibly relaxed.
The wife looked at the fire with some anticipation and said, "Daoist, could the two of us warm ourselves by your fire?"
Zhang Qingyuan gave them a slight nod in greeting.
The husband seemed a little slow-witted and nodded back.
"Th-thank you, Daoist."
The husband brought over a relatively flat stone, then took out a piece of flannel and spread it over the stone. The woman gently sat down, and her husband took out a water flask.
Zhang Qingyuan glanced at the woman and asked with a smile, "How many months?"
"More than eight now." The woman tenderly stroked her belly, her eyes full of affection.
"Eight months already, and you're still running around outside instead of staying home?"
The woman gave a bitter smile, raised her head, and said, "We have no choice. We're poor, and we have to earn food for our unborn child. We can't let him end up like us after he's born, never knowing where the next meal will come from."
"That is hard indeed," Zhang Qingyuan said with a sigh.
Looking at the pregnant woman, Zhang Qingyuan remembered watching Douyin in his previous life, where some trolls said things like children left behind in villages were pitiful, and people should not have children if they had no money.
But go back three generations, and whose family had not been rural? If that was how they wanted to put it, then nobody should fucking live.
Especially in ancient times, when poor people were even more numerous. How many wealthy people were there?
By those people's logic, did all these poor people deserve to die?
Fucking bullshit.
Just then, the husband suddenly looked at Zhang Qingyuan, appearing awkward and a little nervous.
He said, "May I ask, Daoist, could you tell whether my wife's carrying a boy or a girl?"
Seeing how hopeful he was, Zhang Qingyuan could only smile. "I'm truly sorry. I don't know much about medical texts, and my studies of divination haven't been very deep, either."
"Ah?" The husband looked somewhat disappointed.
"Not deep, but I have studied it."
Transmigrators actually shared a flaw: they tended to think too highly of themselves.
After all, they had transmigrated with memories of a technological age, enjoyed the conveniences of modern technology, and learned and seen a great deal.
So after transmigrating, many of them carried, to varying degrees, that sense of superiority a modern person felt when looking at primitive people, thinking everyone beneath them.
Zhang Qingyuan had that flaw, too, but he could keep it under control.
With pretentious bastards, he could put on an even bigger show than they did. But with the weak at the bottom, he could also treat them as equals and help those in need.
That was why Zhang Qingyuan had kept a smile on his face with these two.
"The Eight Trigrams and the Book of Changes are required studies for us. If you don't mind the possibility of an inaccurate reading, this humble Daoist can do one for you."
Divination, whether the Six Ren or the Eight Trigrams, was actually a matter of mathematics, whatever method one used.
Take the Eight Trigrams, for example. A reading amounted to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing directions, times, and locations to arrive at a result in the hexagrams.
It sounded simple, but mastering it and producing accurate readings was very difficult.
"Not at all, not at all. If you're willing to give us a reading, Daoist, we couldn't be happier."
As she spoke, the pregnant woman held out her hand and asked, "Will you be reading my palm?"
Zhang Qingyuan shook his head.
"No. For this reading, I won't ask for your birth date and hour, nor the time or location. The signs have already revealed themselves."
"Oh?"
The pregnant woman was very curious and asked, "May I ask what the signs say, Daoist?"
Zhang Qingyuan let out a long breath and said under the couple's expectant gazes, "The signs show that if you don't take this job, your child will be born safely.
"If you take this job, I'm afraid the child will be very hard to save."
The woman froze, and so did her husband.
Their expressions instantly turned icy, their earlier simple honesty vanishing.
"How did you discover us?"
Zhang Qingyuan smiled. "After I left Taiyin Dao Palace and came down the mountain, I saw you in the town at the foot of Taiyin Mountain.
"I rode for a full day before reaching this place.
"Yet you, with that big belly and traveling on foot, arrived here at almost the same time as me. Tell me, would a pregnant farmer's wife walk that fast?"
The two exchanged a glance, and three throwing knives appeared in the man's hand.
Zhang Qingyuan continued, "Also, you have a flexible sword around your waist. You've concealed it so it looks just like a belt.
"But why would a truly pregnant woman cinch a belt around her belly?"
"To think the two of us had so many flaws."
"You followed me the whole way. You probably didn't strike immediately because you weren't sure how strong my martial arts were, so you waited for the Three Heroes of Western Shu to attack first and reveal my strength."
"Correct. Unfortunately, those three were so inept they didn't even make you sweat."
"In that case, why would you two still attack?"
The pregnant woman smiled bitterly. "Like I said, we have to earn food for our child."
As she spoke, she looked down at her belly again.
She really was pregnant. Her belly was real.
But,
it was also true that they wanted to kill him.
As a modern man, it was equally true that Zhang Qingyuan could not bear to see someone still having to work while pregnant.
"I want to persuade you both to give up."
"Sorry. We can tell that you aren't the fiendish Daoist they say you are, Daoist Qingyuan. You're very kind. Even knowing we came to kill you, you haven't struck first.
"But my husband and I are up to our necks in debt, and you're worth two thousand taels of silver."
"You could take the Six Doors' wanted notices. Why insist on targeting me?"
"The Six Doors has plenty of wanted notices, but those people either aren't worth much or are very hard to find. Our creditors are forcing us to repay them, and we can't afford to cross them.
"You don't conceal your whereabouts and are easy to find, so we can only take the risk."
Zhang Qingyuan nodded. The next instant, the throwing knives left the man's hand, flying straight at his vital points. But just as they were about to touch Zhang Qingyuan, a taiji diagram suddenly appeared before him.
The throwing knives were blocked by the taiji diagram, then jolted back and fell to the ground.
"I'll give you one chance. For your child's sake, don't take this job."
With that, he looked up at the tree trunk overhead.
"Come out, all of you."
The moment his words fell, a crowd sprang out of the trees and bushes.
Holding all manner of weapons, their eyes vicious like hungry wolves spotting meat, they surrounded Zhang Qingyuan.
Zhang Qingyuan stood, lifting the Questioning Heart Sword in one hand.
A handsome reward always brings forth brave men. The ancients truly did not deceive me.
Just as the pregnant woman before him had said, among all the wanted people, his bounty was relatively high, and he was also very easy to find.
At that thought, Zhang Qingyuan decided to wait at ease for his exhausted foes.
"Everyone, this humble Daoist has no wish to kill. If you feel your strength is inadequate and don't want to throw your life away, please step aside."
The band of martial-world roughnecks exchanged glances. Though they hesitated, none withdrew.
A loud shout rang out: "Brothers, get him together!"