The Black Face Man wearing a black hat saw the middle-aged man enter the forest. He did not follow directly, but went around to the other side and entered carefully from there.
The forest was dense with trees and there were shadows everywhere. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. Everything went black and he went unconscious.
Meng Qi carried his sleeveless shirt back to the middle-aged man and threw it in front of him. Meng Qi said without emotion, “Be more careful when you walk.”
Although the oasis with plenty of moisture was much cooler and more comfortable than the surrounding desert, it was still not as nice as the Central Plains in the spring. The middle-aged man had felt hot, but now all of the sweat on his sleeveless shirt and forehead had turned cold. An eery cold came over him. Someone had followed him! Someone had followed him and he had no idea!
“Yes. I was careless.” He replied anxiously.
Whenever Meng Qi and Gu Changqing would meet with him, they would wear a disguise. They would dress like desert tramps: black headscarves, black robes, and facecloth.
“What information have you got?” Meng Qi played with a few pieces of silver. The middle-aged man’s mouth began to water.
He calmed himself and carefully replied, “I asked at the inn, tavern, and all around. Indeed, ten days ago a young master wearing a grey robe had come through. He had no money so he begged. Even though he was clumsy in speech, he was handsome and looked honest. Many were willing to give to him, so they remembered him. He asked for directions to where the natural disaster had occurred and headed off in the direction of Che Lie Gorge.”
There were seven or eight ways to get from the oasis to Bo Mi. Two of those ways required passing through Che Lie Gorge.
Meng Qi gently nodded. The description matched Junior Brother. “Any other information?”
The middle-aged man furrowed his brow and said, “Yes. But I feel it may be fake, and wouldn’t want to waste your time.”
“Don’t worry. Tell us.” Meng Qi said.
The middle-aged man thought for a minute and said, “Some people said that the grey-robed young master was crying and making a scene on the street, begging those who passed for money. They said he finally headed back east to the Verdant Hill… that’s all the information I have.”
Meng Qi contemplated this and threw the silver pieces to him. “Be careful on your return.”
Seeing the shining silver pieces, the middle-aged man excitedly replied, “I will, I will.”
Gu Changqing watched the man leave. With doubt in his voice, he said, “The last piece of information seems too fake. It is not like the Zhen Hui you describe. If the horse bandits wanted to purposefully mislead us, they should have at least used more believable lies.”
Meng Qi grinned and said, “An obvious lie. It is part of their plan.”
“What plan?” Gu Changqing didn’t fully understand.
Meng Qi chuckled. “Even though the information is so obviously a lie, the description of Zhen Hui is still accurate and yet a little key information is misleading. I think this is deliberate. Although Ze Luoju is the head of the horse bandits and dominates the Immensity Sea, he only leads thirty percent of all horse bandits. There are other horse bandits with the same amount of power as him.”
There were many horse bandits who opposed Ze Luoju!
“Are you saying the first piece of information could be fake also?” Gu Changqing said, “That makes sense. Like what I said, that lie seemed too fake. Obviously, this is the doing of Ze Luoju’s opponents, alerting us to his trap. He must have many opponents in the Immensity Sea.”
His tongue was loosened. “For example, Ze Luoju’s influence does not reach my home at the Gu Castle in the golden oasis. The area belongs to Shen Du Liao, also known as The Mad Flurry Sword… ”
The Mad Flurry Sword was another great horse bandit in the Immensity Sea. He was also an Exterior Top Class Master Pro. He did not get along with Ze Luoju. Rumor had it that he had the support of Ashura Temple of the Nine Evil Paths—in other words, supported by Meng Nan, the champion of the West Regions who had cultivated Asura.
Shen Du and Ze Luo were the transliterations of West Region names. An Guo was the Central Plains name for a West Regions person.
Gu Changqing’s voice became softer as he spoke because he was speaking about his weakness. Those from the Gu Castle were righteous, but now they had to ask the help of a horse bandit. Perhaps for this reason, he reminisced about his ancestors who had also lived in the Immensity Sea. They were righteous and were remembered for defeating horse bandits. So he had unconsciously led his talk to these heroic histories.
Meng Qi nodded and remained silent, protecting Gu Changqing’s dignity.
Gu Changqing chuckled bitterly. He sighed and said, “Meng Qi, am I laughable? I say I am righteous, but my family privately relies on the leaders of the horse bandits. If your opponent were Shen Du Liao, not Ze Luoju, I am not sure if I would have the courage to help you, for fear of bringing my family into the matter…”
“If you claimed to be righteous but didn’t protect your family, I would have no respect for you. What kind of righteous man does not first protect his family?” Meng Qi comforted Gu Changqing.
Gu Changqing looked Meng Qi in the eyes and saw that he was sincere. He was relieved. “Then should we find the horse bandit leader who spread the false information? If he is enemies with Ze Luoju, he will definitely help us by giving us accurate information.”
Meng Qi waved off the suggestion. “Let’s not rush into it. Perhaps the hostility towards Ze Luoju is also deception.”
He had encountered this type of trick within a trick many times before, and would not be fooled by it as easily as before. By now, he was experienced in the world of Jianghu.
“What?” After Gu Changqing’s surprise subsided, he carefully thought. It made sense, one could never underestimate a horse bandit’s deceit.
He saw Meng Qi more awedly. Junior Master Zhen Ding was also unsettled; he was sensitive to the deceitful plan.
Compared to Meng Qi, he was dull and inexperienced.
“Then what should we do?” He asked sincerely.
Meng Qi pointed at the unconscious Black Face Man on the ground. “We still have him.”
Saying this, he kicked the Black Face Man to wake him up.
The Black Face Man slowly opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and he had no idea where he was. When he saw the two desert tramps in black robes with faces covered standing over him, he came to his senses. Surprised and scared, he said, “What are you doing!?”
“I’m going to ask you what you are doing? Speak up! Why are you tailing after our follower?” Meng Qi spoke with power, doing his best to imitate a gangster leader.
“I… I wasn’t up to anything. I just came into the forest to relieve myself.” The Black Face Man answered nervously. “Please let me go! I don’t know anything!”
Meng Qi stepped on the man’s finger with his right foot. He slowly applied pressure. The Black Face Man grew tense and shouted, “Stop! Please stop! Don’t step any harder!”
“I never call me a cruel man. But when I am cruel, I can no longer be described as a human!” Meng Qi “threatened”.
The Black Face Man looked at Meng Qi and collected himself. He sighed and said, “Good hero, if I tell you the truth, will you spare my life?”
“Of course, I am a good person.” Meng Qi could hear Gu Changqing holding back his laughter.
The Black Face Man took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I work for the Big Dangzi. My job is to find out information in this area of the oasis, particularly focusing on the merchants. This time, the Big Dangzi ordered me to find out who ask about the little monk and the old monk. That is why I followed him here.”
“The Big Dangzi?” Meng Qi was not familiar with this bandit name.
Gu Changqing explained, “The Big Dangzi Shen Zui escaped to the Immensity Sea from the Central Plains because of some wrong he had committed. Here, he gathered a gang of horse bandits and started going by the name The Big Dangzi. His influence and power are great. Rumor has it that he has opened Six Apertures and has the help of many masters who have opened five or Six Apertures. In addition, he has a brilliant strategist by his side, “Smiling Fox” Yu Lin.
“They are active in this area. I didn’t think they would secretly be helping Ze Luoju.”
Meng Qi nodded and continued. “So you purposely fed us false information about Che Lie Gorge to lead us into a trap?”
“It is not false information. The little monk has headed off toward Che Lie Gorge. I just made sure the innkeeper and merchants kept one thing secret.” The Black Face Man answered honestly.
“What is that?” Gu Changqing asked.
The Black Face Man wrestled with himself for a moment. “The Big Dangzi’s camp is set up in a valley near Che Lie Gorge, so anyone following the little monk there would be walking into an ambush.”
“What about the little monk?” Meng Qi continued to ask.
The Black Face Man answered in a low voice. “He has been captured by the Big Dangzi who is planning to give him to Leader Ze Luo to be used as bait.”
“You have answered honestly. I will spare your life.” Meng Qi used his right leg and kicked the Black Face Man hard in the head, rendering him unconscious again.
After a while, the Black Face Man came back to his senses. He found himself alone in the forest. He got up quickly and headed back in the direction of the community.
At this moment, two more shadows appeared in the forest. They were Meng Qi and Gu Changqing.
“Why don’t we go to Che Lie Gorge to rescue Zhen Hui?” Gu Changqing didn’t understand why they hadn’t left yet. This matter was urgent!
Meng Qi laughed and replied, “You can’t believe everything you hear. No matter what information you are given, you must always verify it.”
“How can we verify it? Should we find another horse bandit from a different gang?” Gu Changqing asked.
Meng Qi pointed at the Black Face Man who was walking and checking his surroundings to keep from being followed. “Follow him, of course. Otherwise, why didn’t I kill him?”
Didn’t you refrain from killing him because you are a monk? Gu Changqing thought to himself.
Meng Qi walked out of the forest with hands behind his back. He said, “Changqing, you wait here.”
They were already familiar with each other and did not need to address each other with formalities.
“Watch out! You will be discovered if you follow him like that!” Gu Changqing had never seen someone follow another so boldly. All the Black Face Man would have to do would be to look back and he would discover Meng Qi.
Meng Qi continued on in the same way. The only thing he changed was he uncovered his face so as not to attract the attention of others. With hands behind his back, he followed behind and slightly to the side of the Black Face Man, seemingly with no intention to go undiscovered.
The Black Face Man continued to check his surroundings out of habit, but it seemed that Meng Qi escaped his vision! He scanned the distance, as if Meng Qi were not there!
Seeing Meng Qi boldly following the Black Face Man, and the Black Face Man completely unable to detect him despite the clear daylight, Gu Changqing was overcome with an eery feeling.
What was going on?
