Xu Xiao and Jiumozhi landed on the island, then headed inland with Jiumozhi leading the way.
Truth be told, Jiumozhi did not know why Xu Xiao had come, either.
Everyone said that the Gusu Murong Family's Huanshi Water Pavilion housed martial arts from all under heaven, making it a place every martial artist in the jianghu dreamed of visiting.
But that certainly did not include Xu Xiao, who was walking beside him. With his abilities, what martial art could possibly catch his eye?
Could it be revenge? That can't be right. If the Murong Family had offended someone like him, they should have been wiped out decades ago. How could they have lasted until today?
Jiumozhi was also full of curiosity about why Xu Xiao had captured him and demanded that he lead the way to the Murong Family in Gusu.
He simply could not guess Xu Xiao's motive.
While Jiumozhi was lost in thought, Xu Xiao stopped beside him, and Jiumozhi hurriedly came back to his senses.
He was just about to say something when a man's cold voice rang out nearby.
"What business do you two have landing on my Murong Family's island uninvited? I don't recall inviting either of you here!"
As the voice fell, a man dressed as a scholar in a black-and-white robe emerged from around a bend in a nearby path.
He fixed Xu Xiao and Jiumozhi with a piercing gaze, his eyes full of scrutiny.
Murong Fu? Did I come too early? Has this fellow not left the island yet?
Looking at the man who had appeared, Xu Xiao took him for Murong Fu.
After thinking it through, he reasoned that he had flown faster than Jiumozhi had traveled on horseback with Duan Yu in the original story, so he had probably arrived just before Murong Fu left home.
But it did not matter whether the man was Murong Fu. Xu Xiao had come only to find those two distinctive beauties.
Unlike the grudge or whatever other messy reasons Jiumozhi had guessed at, he had come here purely for A Zhu and Wang Yuyan.
A gentleman too was by nature drawn to food and beauty!
As the Internal Energy he absorbed grew, Xu Xiao's body was no longer entirely unresponsive to feminine beauty. On the contrary, certain thoughts were rising ever more strongly within him.
He had looked down on the singing girls and concubines of the Dali royal residence, and he had no interest in ordinary women. Naturally, Xu Xiao intended to save his first experience for these distinctive beauties from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils.
Having finally come to a martial arts world like this, and possessing the power to sweep aside everything in his path, who wouldn't want to indulge the wicked thoughts in his heart between more important matters?
As it happened, the beauties of this world each had their own charms, so he would collect them too.
In any case, he had already instructed the Dali Duan Clan not to let Duan Yu leave. As for the girls Duan Yu had originally been meant to take into his harem, Xu Xiao would gladly accept them in his stead.
One good turn deserves another. Duan Yu, to spare you the tragedy of your family being ruined and your loved ones killed as in the story, I'll take those cousins of yours off your hands.
Xu Xiao had never claimed to be a good man. Everyone had desires, and his were even stronger.
Otherwise, he would not have risked his life fighting after obtaining his cheat.
Why did a man seek power? Why did he seek authority?
Wasn't it so he could do whatever he wanted, just as he pleased?
As it happened, women were also something someone like him, who had struggled to survive at the bottom of society in the apocalypse, had never been able to experience.
And so, believing the man opposite him to be Murong Fu, Xu Xiao spoke without the slightest courtesy:
"Are you Murong Fu? I hear you have two maids, A Zhu and A Bi, who are both charming and pretty. I happen to be short a pair of maids, so I came especially to ask you for them."
???
???
Not only was A Zhu, who was disguised as Murong Fu, stunned, but Jiumozhi beside Xu Xiao was stunned as well.
Neither of them had expected Xu Xiao to state his desire so bluntly. This... how was this any different from abducting women by force?
Leaving the somewhat stupefied Murong Fu aside, Jiumozhi was the one who felt worst.
Damn you! You beat this old man into such a state just to get two maids, and even made me lead the way!!
Jiumozhi was so furious he wanted to laugh. A mouthful of old blood rose to his throat, only for him to force it back down.
Had he known Xu Xiao had come for a pair of maids, he would have brought a hundred with him when he came to Dali from Tubo!
No, two hundred beautiful young women!
He had thought Xu Xiao had some tangled grudge with the Murong Family, only to find that his request was so simple and unadorned.
Jiumozhi's face turned ashen, then purple. He nearly died of rage on the spot.
Leaving Jiumozhi aside for the moment, attention returned to the stunned Murong Fu, or rather, A Zhu disguised as him.
What did a young woman feel when a strange-looking man opened his mouth and asked her master to give her to him? (At this point, he had only grown back some of his flesh. He was no longer a skeleton wrapped in skin, but he was still only somewhat human in shape.)
A Zhu felt a little pleased at first, then grew angry.
She was a living, breathing person, not merchandise for others to trade at will.
Even in the Murong household, she was a person with the right to make her own decisions.
Shameless scoundrel! Even the young master never treated me like a servant, yet you dare look down on me.
A woman's love and hate were just that strange: pleased one moment, resentful the next.
But with Murong Fu's face on, A Zhu could not show her own feelings directly. Instead, she began to speak as she thought Murong Fu would.
"I don't know your name, sir, but you have quite the nerve, coming to my Murong Family and demanding people the moment you arrive."
"Do you think the Murong Family's name is a joke?"
She was using the family's influence to intimidate him. As A Zhu understood it, few people in the jianghu were unafraid of her young master.
But she had overlooked one thing: Xu Xiao did not play by the jianghu's rules at all, much less care about the Murong Family.
Nothing but a fish that slipped through the net when a false state founded by nomads fell, and he dared speak to me so loudly?
Courting death!
Buzz! Buzz!
In a foul mood, Xu Xiao naturally acted as he pleased!
He had always believed in one saying: if you could use your fists, never waste your breath.
A shard of iron shot out with an explosive crack, heading straight for A Zhu, who was disguised as Murong Fu.
A Zhu was dumbfounded too. She could not even see the speeding shard clearly; she only felt her heart quail.
Is the jianghu really this dangerous? He attacks the moment we disagree!
At that moment, she bitterly regretted her decision to disguise herself as Murong Fu and come probe him.
After all, apart from her consummate skill at disguise, she did not know the slightest bit of martial arts.
Faced with such an attack, she could only sit and wait for death.
By sheer accident, the beauty Xu Xiao himself had come to claim was one step away from dying at his hands.
"Ah!!"
A Zhu screamed and squeezed her eyes shut in terror.
A woman! Could it be...
With only a few centimeters to spare, the hovering shard was held in place by Telekinesis. At its nearest point, it was only a finger joint's length from "Murong Fu's" forehead.
Fortunately, Xu Xiao's control over his Telekinesis had grown increasingly precise, and he had not attacked with his full strength. Only then was he able to stop it at the crucial moment.
The next second, Xu Xiao's Telekinesis became an invisible hand and pulled Murong Fu, whose eyes were shut in fright, straight toward him.
Her eyes were still tightly shut, and she had yet to recover from the terror of death.
This also allowed Xu Xiao to recognize who she was. The next second, she arrived in front of him.
A faint, almost imperceptible fragrance wafted into his nostrils, and Xu Xiao reached out and swept her into his arms.
She was soft and warm to the touch. There was no question of her being a man; she was unquestionably a beautiful young woman.
"So it really is you, A Zhu."
The disguise mask was lifted from A Zhu's face, revealing a beautiful, pitiful face with its eyes tightly shut.