"Do you think you're still a member of Jinyiwei?"
Hou Jue still remembered the words that the young man asked with a cold face on that soft-breezed and gentle afternoon.
Stripped of his official rank and demoted to a commoner, Hou Jue remained calm. He just stood in the sunlight and spoke in an even tone,
"I think I am."
After that, Hou Jue took off the embroidered uniform he was wearing and threw it, along with the Embroidered Spring Knife, to the other, then turned and left.
Hou Jue had long known that Jinyiwei had no place for him. It might have been because his abilities were too outstanding, or perhaps it was his mouth that kept earning him extraordinary achievements. A long time ago, when he said to Lord Qianhu during a gathering, "Here's some fine bran for you, Lao Deng," Hou Jue knew his time in Jinyiwei wouldn't last.
But what Hou Jue hadn't expected was that the arrogant Qianhu, who looked down on everyone, wasn't angered by his words. Instead, it was the new junior Hundred Households who set a trap for him, making him inadvertently utter the infamous, "General Fei is just blowing 'Gou Ba'; aside from getting lost, he's useless," which eventually led to a grim-faced General Fei ending his career in one fell swoop.
However, Hou Jue did not give up on his ideals.
As a Jinyiwei member who had been stripped of his official status and lost his Dragon Tiger Qi, Hou Jue did not slide into decadence and become a bandit enforcer. He chose to do what he had long wanted to do.
Educate the martial world.
Yes, Hou Jue's dream was grand and abstract. His father was once the celebrated "Lightning Knife Guest," Hou Deguang, in the martial world, who gave up his life of crime and retreated into the forest after encountering Sister-in-law Gun, Li Gan, during a heist.
After several years of loving bliss, which resulted in the birth of their son, Hou Jue, Hou Deguang and Li Gan passed on their life's learnings to him. The family lived together, engaged in petty thievery, and were quite happy.
Then, the government officials they had once robbed tracked them down, and with their lives, gave Hou Jue a vivid and tragic lesson.
Matters of the martial world are difficult indeed.
After that, Hou Jue, who had originally planned to join the Shuntian Escort Bureau and walk the martial world, changed his mind. He saw the people of the martial world as a bunch of base brutes, a group of pig-headed fools who were self-righteously unreasonable.
Therefore, Hou Jue joined Jinyiwei, wanting to use the power of the Government Office to correct the martial world.
In the end, he found that Jinyiwei was even worse than the martial world.
He had long since found out that the Horse Bandits from the south were planning to cause trouble at Spirit Vulture Mountain, and he had passed this information on to his previous superior, the same Hundred Households who had set him up. But faced with such concrete intelligence, the Hundred Households only mocked him coldly and did nothing further.
Of course, Hou Jue had anticipated this, or rather, he approached the Hundred Households just to sever his own wishful thinking. Now, he no longer hoped to rectify this chaotic world by depending on the strength of others.
Spirit Vulture Mountain, North Peak.
Gazing down at the breathtaking view below, Hou Jue held a long stick in his left hand and pressed down on a broken blade with his right, standing motionless on a protruding boulder, steady as Mount Tai.
As a swordsman from the Fourth Realm, even though his Dragon Tiger Qi had been stripped away, Hou Jue had enough confidence to contend with thirteen Horse Bandits in this treacherous forest terrain. After all, at this great height, those horse-loving bandits would never dare to risk bringing their steeds to the mountain top. Thus, Hou Jue just needed to wait quietly here.
Whoosh.
Many people say that the wind is the martial world's breath. When the wind blew, that coarse, alcohol-laden scent would drill into Hou Jue's nostrils from afar. He slowly opened his eyes, a fleeting light passing through them, a burst of splendid colors.
Hmm?
Then, he saw thirteen Horse-loving Bandits.
Hmm??????
Watching the Horse Bandits painstakingly climbing up the mountain with their steeds on their backs, Hou Jue's previously accumulated momentum instantly solidified and then dissipated completely, almost causing him to lose his grip on the fine steel long blade in his hand.
The flustered Hou Jue stumbled, tumbling down from the rock, and, regardless of his left buttock being punctured by another sharp stone, hurriedly hid in the dense forest beside him, watching the laboriously advancing Horse Bandits with a shocked expression.
No way, are you guys playing this twisted?
The Horse Bandits generally cultivate the Horse Adapting Spirit Technique, an ordinary Spirit Technique of the Third Realm. Cultivating this spirit technique can deepen the bond between horse and rider, allowing them to communicate with their hearts.
At the same time, the cultivators would also impart some of their obtained Spirit Qi to their warhorses, enhancing their physical capacities. When cultivated to the extreme, it could even make "horses fly like boats, never stopping" a reality.
But that's not the most crucial point; the power of this Spirit Technique lies in the mutual enhancement provided by this Spirit Qi. In other words, as long as they have their horses by their side, Horse Bandits can display strength that is three or four times greater than normal.
If it were Horse Bandits without their horses, Hou Jue would have full confidence in taking on thirteen of them, after all, he is a Fourth Realm Gun Master himself, and his cultivation is in the superior Spirit Technique [Great Thunder Stick].
In the martial world, Spirit Techniques like [Great Thunder Stick], which can harness natural forces to attack enemies, are extremely precious and rarely exchanged for money. Plus, Hou Jue also possessed skills with a short blade.
But the problem was, he never expected these Horse-loving Bandits to simply carry their beloved steeds up the mountain. In this way, even if the Horse Bandits couldn't ride into battle, the Spirit Qi fed back to them by the warhorses was nothing to ignore. Moreover...
Looking at a handsome man dressed in red, riding a high horse with a green mane, Hou Jue's eyes flickered with surprise. He had seen this man in the [Southern Bandit Register] at the Government Office; his name was Xu Ziyi, the second in command of the sixth hall of the Horse Bandit gang, a Third Realm Gun Master.
But when Hou Jue saw the real person, he realized that the opponent's strength seemed to be on par with his own.
Fourth Realm Gun Master...
For a moment, Hou Jue hesitated. He wasn't a fool; he knew his own capabilities well. Although he was confident that within his level, he was peerless, he was now up against a Fourth Realm Gun Master leading thirteen horse bandits mounted on warhorses. If he truly clashed head-on, he guessed he'd be meeting his parents in the afterlife tomorrow.
Let's follow them for now...
After a moment of doubt, Hou Jue chose to tail these people and see what was going on. If he could catch them in a slip-up and hit them with a stick from behind, that would be good. Therefore, behind the stealthily moving Xu Ziyi, another started to lurk and track.
Yes, another one.
"You found this thing?"
Grasping a tree branch with one hand and half-suspended in the tree leaves in an astonishing posture, Zhou Li looked down at the young girl crouching in the water and asked in confusion, "Why is there even a stick following us?"
Focusing on the man skulking in the grass ahead with a stick on his back, Zhou Li stroked his chin, squinting and sizing him up for a moment. Then he came to a conclusion.
"Looks like an Eastern Depot eunuch."
"Eastern Depot?"
Tang Wan blinked in confusion, "What's the matter with that?"
Zhou Li chuckled mischievously, and without any ambiguity, he flipped down from the tree. He then pointed at Hou Jue's bizarre gait and explained to Tang Wan, "This guy squats and walks with his hips unconsciously spread apart, veering to the right, a typical eunuch's walk. Look at his tracking technique too, no need to guess, he's definitely one of those overbearing Government Office masters who only knows how to barge into people's homes for inspections."
Having finished, Zhou Li jutted his chin out matter-of-factly and said, "Think about it, a eunuch who works for the Government Office and does inspections all the time, who else could it be if not an Eastern Depot eunuch?"
"Oh~~~"
Realizing the point, Tang Wan was instantly convinced by Zhou Li's meticulous logic, "I see, I've been enlightened."
"But what is this Eastern Depot eunuch here for?"
Zhou Li, at this moment, was intrigued. As the current Son of Heaven's right-hand man, Jinyiwei does not participate in court politics, lacks an official rank, but still enjoys the same amount of Dragon Tiger Qi as a martial commander.
The Eastern Depot, on the other hand, answers directly to the Son of Heaven. Though they also refrain from court politics and lack official grades, the Eastern Depot eunuchs cannot receive Dragon Tiger Qi; they can only cultivate Spirit Qi. Therefore, for a private Eastern Depot eunuch to appear here was indeed worth pondering.
"Is the current Son of Heaven dying?"
Tang Wan, never one to mince words, started with a statement explosive enough to wipe out nine clans. Even Zhou Li stumbled, nearly taking a fall.
"You really dare to say that."
Zhou Li wasn't actually offended by criticisms of the Son of Heaven, considering he himself was a transmigrator. If the Ming dynasty had turned into the Qing, he would have long sought an opportunity to assert, "In the end, princes and generals are no different from the rest."
The main issue was that he truly hadn't expected Tang Wan to be so unrestrained with her words. Previously he thought she was just low on social intelligence, but now it seemed that she had no filter whatsoever.
"There's just not that many possibilities, after all."
Tang Wan stated matter-of-factly, "Look, the Pool of Rebirth has only one medicinal effect, and the Eastern Depot are the Emperor's hunting dogs, so it's logical. Connecting the two suggests that it's a disease only the Pool of Rebirth can heal, which is why the Eastern Depot people are sent to fetch the spring water."
"No no no, there's one thing that's not logical."
Zhou Li shook his head, displaying top-notch tracking skills, he proceeded to analyze pointedly:
"Think about it. If the Emperor, who is regarded as the highest of high, falls ill and needs the Pool of Rebirth for treatment, would he just send some worthless eunuch to trail a bunch of horse bandits? Don't you think that's too demeaning? So, it's very likely, the Emperor has contracted a disease he doesn't want others to see."
"A disease he doesn't want others to see?"
Tang Wan seemed to be walking in the water, yet there was not a trace of sound or splash, even her shadow seemed to vanish in the mist. She looked at Hou Jue ahead, who appeared to have a stick poking out of his rear, and after pondering for a moment, she furrowed her brows and said,
"Hemorrhoids?"
"Close."
Zhou Li nodded, but then shook his head again, "But not private enough."
"I suspect it's a sexually transmitted disease."