Chapter 5: Listen To The Wind Tower
The two men in black were slightly stunned, as if they hadn’t expected to be discovered so quickly.
“Run!”
The two seemed unwilling to tangle with Ji Qing and turned to flee.
“Clang.”
Ji Qing drew his sword.
With one slash, the blade light flashed past like a startled swan.
The two had excellent lightness skill and narrowly avoided Ji Qing’s slash.
A trace of surprise flashed in Ji Qing’s eyes.
His Thirteen Fast Blades had now reached the “Perfection” realm, unbound by forms, with every gesture as if naturally formed.
Even without using a “ultimate move,” it was not something an ordinary martial artist could block.
Yet these two in front of him had both dodged it?
The man in black farther from Ji Qing had already jumped off the roof and was about to vanish into the night.
Ji Qing held nothing back anymore.
“Whoosh.”
A brilliant expanse of blade light shone in the darkness.
“First Line of Sky!”
Ji Qing unleashed the ultimate move he had just comprehended.
The man in black was greatly shaken.
Looking at this brilliant blade light, it seemed as if it was the only thing left in his vision.
“Young Master Ji, spare my life…”
The man in black suddenly snapped awake and shouted.
“Hm?”
Ji Qing raised an eyebrow, and the sword in his hand deviated slightly.
“Pfft.”
The slash still came down.
The blade light grazed the man in black’s cheek, severing a few strands of hair, and his right ear was sliced off, blood flowing freely.
“You know me?”
Ji Qing used his sword to lift the man in black’s face cloth, revealing an unfamiliar face that Ji Qing didn’t recognize.
“Speak, who are you?”
“Young Master Ji, spare my life. My name is Ge Er, and I’m from Listen to the Wind Tower.”
“Listen to the Wind Tower?”
“It’s a force in the jianghu that specializes in selling intelligence…”
Ji Qing understood upon hearing Ge Er’s explanation.
It turned out the other party was from Listen to the Wind Tower, and their goal was to track Ji Qing’s whereabouts.
Ji Qing was now a hot topic in the jianghu.
Intelligence about Ji Qing was very valuable.
After all, with a thousand taels of silver bounty, who wouldn’t be tempted?
Ji Qing grabbed Ge Er and jumped back into the room.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Young Master Ji, after you caused trouble in Liang City, Listen to the Wind Tower thoroughly investigated the Ji Residence and found no young corpses among the bodies there, so…”
Ge Er’s gaze fell on Ji Yao, who was sleeping soundly on the bed.
Perhaps Ji Yao was too tired, as even all that noise earlier hadn’t woken her.
And Ji Qing immediately understood.
His whereabouts hadn’t actually been exposed, but traveling with Ji Yao made the feature too obvious.
Listen to the Wind Tower lived off intelligence and naturally noticed many details others overlooked.
When Ji Qing arrived at the mule and horse inn with Ji Yao, he was spotted by people from Listen to the Wind Tower.
But Listen to the Wind Tower wasn’t certain, so they sent Ge Er and his companion to the inn to gather news and confirm Ji Qing’s identity.
“Young Master Ji, we have no grudge. Please spare my life.”
Ge Er immediately knelt and kowtowed, full of desire to survive.
“You want to live? Your companion’s lightness skill is good.”
Ge Er gritted his teeth and said, “My companion is Liu Fifteen. That lightness skill is just an ordinary third-rate one called Grass on Flying. Liu Fifteen merely trained it to Major Accomplishment. I also know Grass on Flying. If Young Master doesn’t mind, I’ll write it out and give it to you.”
Ji Qing directly took out paper and pen and placed them in front of Ge Er.
Ge Er immediately wrote out Grass on Flying.
“How can I join Listen to the Wind Tower to buy intelligence?”
Ji Qing asked again.
“Young Master Ji, here’s a token called Listen to the Wind Token. Holding it allows entry to Listen to the Wind Towers in various cities to buy all sorts of intelligence or sell intelligence.”
Ji Qing took the Listen to the Wind Token.
“Alright, you can go.”
Ji Qing waved his hand, letting Ge Er leave.
After all, Ge Er’s companion had already escaped, so his whereabouts would definitely be exposed. Killing Ge Er would only create enmity with Listen to the Wind Tower, which wasn’t worth it.
“Thank you, Young Master Ji.”
Ge Er covered his ear and prepared to leave.
“Wait.”
Ge Er’s body stiffened.
Could Ji Qing have regretted it and decided to silence him?
Ji Qing pointed at the roof and said indifferently, “Hand over all the silver on you. You broke the inn’s roof—don’t you need to compensate?”
“Uh…”
Ge Er took out all the silver on him, then used lightness skill to vanish into the night.
“Ji Yao, wake up.”
Ji Qing woke Ji Yao and quickly packed their belongings.
“It’s not safe here anymore. We need to leave quickly!”
Ji Yao obediently climbed into the woven basket, and then Ji Qing went to the inn’s lobby.
“Shopkeeper, checkout. Here’s silver for fixing the roof…”
Ji Qing tossed down the silver and turned to leave.
“The roof?”
The shopkeeper hurried to the guest room and stared at the large hole in the roof, his expression somewhat dazed.
“This is a true great hero—breaks the roof and still compensates with silver…”
The shopkeeper weighed the silver; it was enough, and he’d even make a profit after fixing the roof.
Ji Qing didn’t know that in the shopkeeper’s mind, he’d become a “true great hero” because of a few taels of silver.
Knowing his whereabouts were exposed, Ji Qing quickly left the mule and horse inn.
Ji Qing’s destination was An Yang City.
He needed to settle Ji Yao safely in An Yang City.
Otherwise, traveling the jianghu with Ji Yao was too dangerous.
His identity would also be easily recognized.
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.
News of Ji Qing spread throughout the land as time went on.
A thousand taels of bounty silver was no small amount, enough to attract many jianghu people to risk ambushing Ji Qing.
Thus, Ji Qing stuck to small paths along the way.
Fortunately, he used his remaining origin point to raise Grass on Flying lightness skill to Minor Accomplishment.
With lightness skill, Ji Qing traversed mountain forest paths as if on flat ground, making travel much easier.
On this day, dusk fell.
Ji Qing planned to find a place to shelter from wind and rain for the night.
But the area was too desolate, with no village ahead or shop behind. Ji Qing searched for a long time before finding an abandoned temple that could barely provide shelter for the night.
Ji Qing set down the woven basket.
A small head poked out rustling from the woven basket.
“Brother, I’m so hungry.”
Ji Yao’s stomach growled loudly from hunger.
“I caught a wild chicken earlier. I’ll roast it for you today.”
“Great! Finally, some meat.”
Ji Yao drooled greedily.
Over this half month of travel, Ji Qing had mostly taken mountain forest paths, avoiding cities and inns, enduring wind and dew in the wild, extremely arduous.
Ji Yao hadn’t eaten anything good along the way.
Ji Qing skillfully gutted the wild chicken, and soon a rich meat aroma filled the ruined temple.
Just as the two were devouring the roasted chicken, chaotic footsteps came from outside, as if many people were heading toward the ruined temple. Even the sound of vehicles crushing pebbles could faintly be heard.
“We are escorts from Wei Yuan Escort Agency. Seeing dusk fall and the road ahead difficult, we wish to borrow this treasured place for the night. We hope the friends in the temple will accommodate us—we would be deeply grateful!”
The voice was full of vigor, echoing in the mountain area, showing the speaker had substantial internal energy.
However, after the words fell, no response came from the temple for a long time.
The Wei Yuan Escort Agency group exchanged glances, perplexed.
There had clearly been firelight in the temple just now, meaning someone was definitely inside.
Why was there no reply?
