Right after her cry, the blood on the ground wriggled into new characters:
"Qi Xia saved Ding Changsheng from the pain of being controlled by the Mind-reaving Pill. She will be awarded 10 Karma Points for accomplishing this side quest."
"Huh?" Meng Qi and Jiang Zhiwei didn't expect that they would see the notification of other people completing side quests.
"Nice. Big Sister Qi is certainly more alert than I am." Jiang Zhiwei said happily yet also slightly self-mockingly.
Then she smiled joyfully and said, "Maybe Big Brother Zhang and Qing Jing saw our notification too. Then we don't need to worry that they would be sneak-attacked by Master Ma and Master Tan."
"That's not for sure. Maybe only people that have accomplished the side quests will see the notifications. Otherwise, it would be too easy for people that are still working on them," Meng Qi said with a frown. He didn't think the "Owner of the Samsara" would be so kind-hearted. Even though Cheng Yong and the other masters were very skilled at Kungfu, but in his opinion, they were still much weaker than Jiang Zhiwei, Zhang Yuanshan, and the others. Even Qi Xia could kill Ding Changsheng.
Therefore, if they knew the masters were controlled by the Mind-reaving Pill, Zhang Yuanshan and Qing Jing wouldn't get into trouble even if they acted separately.
Jiang Zhiwei thought it over and also decided that they shouldn't consider the "Owner of the Samsara" as a good person. She nodded and said, "Let's meet up with Big Sister Qi first, and then head for the central hall. On our way, we should be alert to any mission-accomplished notification."
"Eh?" As she spoke, she suddenly realized something weird. "If Cheng Yong and the other three masters were already controlled by the Mind-reaving Pill, why would the owner of Yin Huang Castle still lock them inside secret chambers? I don't think it's because he already knew we will come for a quest, so he set up a trap for us beforehand!"
Meng Qi realized that there's something wrong too. He blurted out, "Unless the trap was not for us!"
Jiang Zhiwei's lips became white due to her injury. "I think so too."
She paused for a moment and continued. "Actually I have been confused ever since we have accepted the quest. Why would the four masters intrude Yin Huang Castle when there were only four of them? They could have waited for help. The more people you have, the stronger you are. I don't think they didn't understand this reasoning."
"Maybe they didn't have time and needed to stop the owner of the castle from carrying out a plan as soon as possible. Also, that plan might be what the owner is trying to do now in the central hall. The four masters took the lead and came here first; while at the same time they wrote letters to their friends, so they could anticipate help and backup. Therefore, maybe many masters will arrive soon after, and the traps were aimed at them." Meng Qi and Jiang Zhiwei began to speculate the truth behind the incidents.
"No matter what, we would need to accomplish our quest." Jiang Zhiwei shook her head and stood up by supporting herself on the stone gate.
"Ms. Jiang, how is your injury?" Meng Qi asked with concern. Even though he had just killed Master Cheng Yong, he didn't become overly proud. He understood clearly that without Jiang Zhiwei, some random men in black could kill him easily. Of course, he also thought about their bond and friendship, which stemmed from fighting side by side and experiencing a life-or-death situation together.
Jiang Zhiwei seemed to have given up on correcting "Ms. Jiang". She answered with a bitter smile, "No big deal regarding my upper body. However, my lower body is sore and weak. Not to mention running and leaping on walls and roofs, I can barely walk in a normal way. I will need to take some medicine and rest for some days to recover."
When Cheng Yong attacked, she displayed determination and resolution and chose to fight back with her sword instead of passively defending herself. It was her bravery and smart decision that forced Cheng Yong to restrain his power. For this reason, her injury was much less serious than Meng Qi had expected. She could still fight with her sword, but walking was a big problem as her lower abdomen had been wounded.
"Ms. Jiang, let me carry you on my back and be a substitution for your legs." Seeing his life as the most important thing, Meng Qi suggested after a little while of thinking.
Jiang Zhiwei was a little bit surprised. Then she said embarrassedly, "Little monk, I owe you this."
Her word choices made her seem like a Jianghu master who had the highest morality and the most righteous spirit, but on her face, there was a suspicious blush.
Born in modern society, Meng Qi definitely wasn't as conservative. He teased Jiang Zhiwei cheerfully, "Ms. Jiang, we are Jianghu people. We don't need to care about trivial etiquette."
As he spoke, he walked to Jiang Zhiwei and handed over her long sword.
"Of course! Why would you think I don't know this?" Jiang Zhiwei raised her head and stared at the stone wall above her. Now her white neck turned red too.
Meng Qi turned around and kneeled on the floor. He then felt a body that was much lighter than he had expected.
He held onto Jiang Zhiwei's legs and slowly stood up in silence. Abruptly, he laughed and said, "Hehe. You are much lighter than the water buckets that I carried."
Jiang Zhiwei laughed, too. "Were you carrying iron buckets?"
Thanks to Meng Qi's joke, the atmosphere between them was no longer awkward.
"They were wooden, but there is a difference between carrying on one's shoulders and on one's back," Meng Qi answered honestly.
Jiang Zhiwei replied with a lengthened "Oh", "True…To be honest, I really feel sorry that I have to make a little child, like you, carry me."
While they chatted, she waved her sword to adapt to the situation.
Meng Qi stared at her sword, wanting to discover the secret behind her moves. Jiang Zhiwei didn't stop him and approved his stare. If you didn't learn the fundamental arts first, the sword moves would just be a decoration. Otherwise, the sword arts of Xi Jian Pavilion would have been easily stolen by other people during fights and battles.
"I think I can utilize 50 to 60 percent of my original strength. It's pretty much enough." Jiang Zhiwei concluded after becoming used to the new situation.
All of a sudden, she tapped on Meng Qi's shoulders and said in a low voice, "Be careful. Someone is coming."
Meng Qi was very surprised. After a few more breaths, he could hear people walking. He also heard someone talking, "Left three, right four. Don't mess it up."
"It seems like even without opening the Ear Aperture, entering the Qi-cultivation phase will improve one's hearing significantly…" Meng Qi thought to himself.
"Block the gate," Jiang Zhiwei whispered.
Meng Qi walked forward without hesitating and stood beside the stone gate. He instantly blocked the gang inside the tunnel.
There were seven to eight of them, with everyone wearing light and comfortable clothes. The person in front was a middle-aged scholar. He asked with a hidden weapon in his left hand, "My two young friends, why are you blocking the road? Have you seen Brother Cheng, Cheng Yong?"
At this moment, one of them who looked like a monkey saw Cheng Yong's corpse through the gap. He began to scream. "Owner Ge, they have killed Master Cheng! I recognize that pair of boots!"
Jiang Zhiwei's clear voice sounded rather deep. "I am Jiang Zhiwei. I have come with my teacher to help Master Ma."
The leader of the group, Owner Ge, seemed to be a reasonable person. He raised his hand to stop the people behind him from using their hidden weapons and signaled Jiang Zhiwei to continue.
"After entering Yin Huang Castle, we have captured hostages and known from them that Master Ma and the others are trapped in separate rooms in the castle. Therefore, my teacher ordered us to act separately and save the masters. On the other hand, he has already gone to where the owner of the castle is."
"I arrived at this room and found Master Cheng behind the stone gate. However, he was already under the control of the Mind-reaving Pill and sneak-attacked me, causing me to bear a severe wound. Due to my counter-attack, Master Cheng was heavily injured as well, and when he attempted to retaliate, Little Brother Zhen Ding finished him off."
With half of it being true and the other half made-up, Jiang Zhiwei explained their background and what they had experienced.
"How could that be possible?" The monkey-like man said with disbelief. "Little girl, you are so young. Even if you had started to learn Kungfu when you were still in your mom's womb, you wouldn't be able to defeat Master Cheng!"
He felt pity in his head that such a beautiful little girl would tell a lie like this.
Jiang Zhiwei didn't say a word. She straightened her back, pushing out her long sword as fast as a lightning and then retrieved it back.
"What are you doing?" The monkey-like man shouted with anger, astonishment, and confusion.
Owner Ge signaled the man to be quiet and then said with a salute, "The greatest heroes are always the youngsters. Ms. Jiang, your sword techniques are very impressive. Alas, seeing incredibly talented young friends like you make me realize how old I am. May I ask for the name of your teacher?"
"My teacher is Su Wuming. He has lived in seclusion for many years so Owner Ge might not have heard of him before. Um, my teacher had a nickname in the past, "Outer-sky God Sword", has Owner Ge heard of it before?" Meng Qi caught the glimmer of a smile in Jiang Zhiwei's eyes. He realized immediately that she was talking about her real teacher, yet these people definitely wouldn't have heard of him before.
"Su Wuming… I think I have heard this name from Uncle Xuan Xin?"
"I am truly ignorant for not having met such a great hero. Please introduce us to him later, Ms. Jiang." Owner Ge temporarily puts away his suspicion and decided to deal with it later. He then introduced himself. "I am Ge Chongshan, the owner of Luo Yan Heights. I have gathered many strong helpers after receiving letters from my friends Ma Liang Han, Cheng Yong, and the others. However, we arrived a day late and weren't able to meet up with them. My two young friends, please allow us to meet our friend for the last time."
Jiang Zhiwei whispered beside Meng Qi's ears, "Let them in, but only one by one."
Meng Qi leaned to one side to let the group in and stared at them with vigilance. After Ge Chongshan and the others entered the secret chamber and started to examine Cheng Yong's body, he said to Jiang Zhiwei in a quiet voice, "I think I know now. The purpose of the side quest is to make us spend more time here. Only then can we would receive help from other Jianghu masters. If we went to the central hall directly, we would be fighting against the owner of the castle on our own."
"The traps were aimed at them," Jiang Zhiwei replied in a similarly quiet voice.
After finishing examining the corpse, and making sure that the wounds matched Jiang Zhiwei's descriptions, Ge Chongshan said with a sigh, "My two young friends, if it were not you who opened this stone gate first, the person who would be severely wounded or even dead would be me."
Right after he finished his sentence, he and Jiang Zhiwei simultaneously looked to the outside. From the other secret gate, Qi Xia and a group of swordsmen walked out.
"Big Sister Qi, are you all right?" Jiang Zhiwei greeted her delightedly.
"Brother Liu, where is your brother?" Ge Chongshan asked the person who walked beside Qi Xia.
The person had dark skin and looked like a fisherman. He answered mournfully, "My brother was killed by Ding Changsheng!"
"What?" Ge Chongshan and the others immediately lost their voice.
Qi Xia said with fear, "Little Sister Zhi Wei, I didn't know that Master Ding was already under the control of the Mind-reaving Pill. If Master Liu didn't walk in before me, I would not have survived. I was worried about you just now…"
Seeing that Jiang Zhiwei's face was pale, but her breath was normal, Qi Xia felt relieved.
After the two groups had met up, they headed for the central hall. Only a few men in black blocked their way and were easily taken care of.
During the process, Jiang Zhiwei and Meng Qi practiced their cooperation. Eventually, as soon as Jiang Zhiwei gave orders like "left three, right skewed four, back two", Meng Qi was able to quickly react and follow the orders. They intentionally kept the orders simple and vague so that only they could understand, and thus preventing enemies like Cheng Yong from changing their moves beforehand.
"It would be better if you understood the Eight Diagrams. Our cooperation is way too simple…" Jiang Zhiwei said with a sigh.
Earlier she had suggested using the Eight Diagrams to indicate directions, so their orders could be more than simply going up, down, left, and right. However, Meng Qi knew little about the Eight Diagrams, and couldn't learn it thoroughly in a short period of time.
"It's better than nothing." Meng Qi comforted her.
Jiang Zhiwei looked around and at Ge Chongshan's group, who were exploring the path. She then asked with concern, "This is where we have promised to meet up. Why haven't Big Brother Zhang and the others arrived yet? On our way, we didn't see any notifications either."
From Qi Xia, they have confirmed that only people who have accomplished a side quest would see related notifications.
"Don't worry. Big Brother Zhang is very strong. Nothing will happen to him," Qi Xia worriedly comforted Jiang Zhiwei.
Bang!
An object flew in from the outside. Jiang Zhiwei pushed out her sword and stabbed it into the ground.
"Ah!" The moment Jiang Zhiwei and Qi Xia saw what the object was, they uncontrollably screamed. Meng Qi was as well extremely shocked and alarmed.
On the grayish stone ground, Qing Jing stared at them with his eyes opened wide, and his brows raised high. His head was the only thing left!