Chapter 907: A Lucky Day (7)

There had been a minor incident, but in the end, Qing managed to resolve it smoothly.

Still.

The fact that a Transcendent Realm master had just popped out of nowhere on the road... lodged itself as a deep anxiety in Qing’s chest.

No—no matter how “continental” this place’s scale was, no matter how it was supposedly a vast landmass stuffed with countless people, wasn’t it crossing a line for a master like that to appear with zero warning?

Of course, the Transcendent Realm master could feel wronged.

A Transcendent Realm martial artist was still a person. They weren’t a tree rooted in one spot. Of course they could travel.

From a Transcendent Realm perspective, everyone they passed was simply... part of the number of people who happened to run into a Transcendent Realm master.

So if you put it that way, it wasn’t “illogical,” exactly, but still—yeah.

This couldn’t continue.

Either she needed to hit Transcendent Realm fast and start walking proud anywhere, in front of anyone... or she needed some method that let her contend with Transcendent Realm.

Because right now, even with the other side holding back, she still couldn’t finish the job.

Sure, she could flap her mouth, piss him off, push him past anger into losing all reason—maybe an opening would appear.

But then she’d be gambling her own life too...

No.

Strength. She needed strength.

Overwhelming strength.

She needed something bigger.

Qing burned with fresh craving—

—but craving didn’t summon power out of the air. It wasn’t the kind of thing where some pointless serious voice would drift in like, Do you require power.

The completion of Nine Swords of the Lone Sword was postponed indefinitely because Heavenless Emperor was sulking.

And it wasn’t like she could suddenly jump into Closed-Door Seclusion Training, grit her teeth, and pop into Transcendent Realm.

So if she wanted power right now—if she wanted to strengthen her overall fighting strength—

Then in the end, she had only one path:

Gather all ten of the world’s ten great demonic arts.

She wasn’t that far, either.

First, once she collected Heaven-Sundering Reverse-Blood—or whatever the rest of the name was—then with the Merit she’d stacked up, she could manage at least two Merit Exchanges.

Honestly, there was a high chance she could do three, but the problem was she couldn’t guarantee it.

If she spent it carelessly and got stuck at two... then—

Finding one out of the remaining three ten great demonic arts, and then finding the very last one, would become three times harder just by raw numbers alone.

Maybe it wasn’t “three times” in a strict probability sense, but she had no memory of ever being close friends with mathematics in her life.

Of course, if this trip ended in nothing, she could just exchange anyway—and if she ran short on Merit, she could refill it the old-fashioned way:

Beat up bad guys until it topped off.

In other words...

A full mobilization.

A full mobilization posture for gathering the ten great demonic arts.

Qing lit her resolve on fire.

She didn’t have time to sit around.

She had to comb Changbai top to bottom—starting now.

“Lu Bu. Come here. Let’s go.”

Qing called Lu Bu—the horse currently standing beside the Plunderer Demon, snorting and puffing, shamelessly flirting.

No, seriously. Why is he doing that over there?

HIIIIIH!

At Qing’s call, Lu Bu answered with a huge whinny—then, as if to show off, rubbed his nose ridge all over the Plunderer Demon’s shoulder.

“Heh. What a charming horse. Looking at him, you’d think he was the most vicious warhorse alive.”

“Lu Bu?”

HIIHIIING! Lu Bu whinnied again at Qing.

Even if Qing could speak the languages of every kingdom on earth, she still didn’t have a feature that translated animal noises.

But with that stiffly lifted head, those glaring white eyes, and that “looking down on you” stare—

somehow, it sounded like this to Qing:

I do not listen to the words of the weaker.

And that wasn’t all.

Lu Bu actually dropped to his knees right beside the Plunderer Demon.

A horse was an animal that felt most comfortable standing on four legs. The only reason it lowered its body to kneel was—

Get on, human. Run with me.

“...Huh?”

Suddenly, it felt like Moyong Jun’s young voice echoed in her head.

—There are horses like that, boss. They’re sensitive to the master’s presence... (and so on)

Thinking back, wasn’t Lu Bu the same horse that—right after his previous owner died—showed not a shred of mourning and immediately swaggered over to act cute?

And now he was leaning into the Plunderer Demon and throwing flirt signals.

True to the name Lu Bu, it seemed he was already ready to welcome an “official” third owner.

With behavior like this, he’d probably had plenty of owners before. But when Qing named him Lu Bu, at least the only owners were that—what was it—whatever barbarian, and her.

A vein bulged on Qing’s forehead.

Wait. This bastard—he loses once and immediately swaps owners without even looking back?

“Lu Bu, you little shit. Get over here.”

—HIIHIING!

“You’re dead. Tonight’s dinner is horse meat. I hear raw horse is delicious—tonight’s the day we all burst our bellies.”

—HIIIIIH!

Lu Bu panicked and hid behind the Plunderer Demon.

Horses were big animals, so hiding behind him didn’t actually hide anything, but still.

No, this was hilarious.

The instant an angle appeared, instant betrayal. The instant he saw a stronger master, instant owner swap—that personality, no, that horse-nature was already something else.

But more than that, the confidence was incredible.

The baseless positivity that said: If I swap owners, I’ll be accepted, no matter what.

It wasn’t funny?

Sure, everyone who saw Lu Bu made a fuss about “a thousand-mile horse” and all that—so who would throw away a prized warhorse that rolled in for free?

Qing’s eyes went cold.

She glared at Lu Bu viciously.

And that was it.

Because Qing was brave to the weak and meek to the strong—and she couldn’t exactly demand, Give me my horse back, from the Plunderer Demon.

So the best she could do was clamp her mouth shut and... act pathetic.

Mumble. Fidget. Look pitiful.

Honestly, it really was the best move.

Because even if she said, Sir, that beast is trying to swap owners—please send it back here, would he really return it?

A martial-arts robber who stole other people’s arts—would he not steal a horse?

He’d probably just grin and say, It wants to follow me? and try to take it outright.

But if Qing just kept her mouth shut, he might think, Huh. That horse is affectionate, and leave it at that.

If she pretended she didn’t see it—

“Plunderer Demon, it seems this beast has switched owners. As expected of a creature that cannot speak—truly a fitting course.”

Gongryang Sayoon, standing beside them, immediately lit the fuse.

The Plunderer Demon went, “Hm.”

“I already have a horse I ride. But it feels wrong to drive away an animal that came to me on its own.”

“Then shall we have horse meat for dinner?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s obviously a fine horse. Why would we slaughter it?”

“Aren’t you curious? Whether a fine horse tastes as fine as its reputation? I am extremely—most—very curious. Surely there have been people who ate fine horses. And it’s a beast that rolled in for free, so it isn’t that wasteful, is it?”

“Hm... true. A horse that changes owners this easily will leave the moment it meets someone it likes better. If that’s the case, it may not be a bad idea to fill our bellies at least once.”

“GULP.”

“Mm. There’d be a lot of meat.”

HIIIIIH—!

Lu Bu let out a horrified whinny and performed a miracle of skittering sideways—CLACKCLACKCLACK—rapid little steps that carried him away from the two of them.

Then, as naturally as breathing, he approached Qing and rubbed his nose against her like nothing had happened.

“What, you’re not leaving? If there’s a horse-meat feast, I’m going too. I’ll eat until I’m stuffed.”

HIIIIIH! Lu Bu whinnied with pure injustice, shoving his mane forward and peeking at her with the exact eyes of a pet dog that knew it had done something wrong.

With a sour expression, Qing dipped her head slightly toward the Plunderer Demon.

Talking about eating it was one thing, but a horse was expensive property. If you sold it, you wouldn’t have a horse-meat feast—you’d have a horse-meat festival for two months.

He’d pretended not to notice and let it go. Common decency said she should at least show gratitude.

“GULP. What a shame. Heavenly Flower Sword, if you ever lose affection for that beast, please tell me.”

Gongryang Sayoon seemed utterly sincere—her eyes flashed like a cross. Lu Bu shuddered, his voice trembling.

Anyway.

Qing mounted Lu Bu.

She sat down and squeezed his barrel with her thighs—hard—packed with pure resentment.

Lu Bu snorted with dramatic suffering and stared at the far mountains like a wronged victim.

Seriously, this bastard. Just when she thought she’d started to get attached, she fell out of love instantly.

“Come on. Let’s go.”

Qing lightly flicked the reins.

Lu Bu walked forward quietly, docile as a lamb.

Not the horrible, bouncing, gut-wrenching ride from his earlier violent gait—this was smooth, elegant movement.

Wait—this bastard could walk like this the whole time?

Fine. No special feed for a while. You’re eating tasteless grass and reflecting on your sins.

And so, they set off again.

*****

...Except?

Qing spoke with an extremely, extremely sour face.

“Excuse me?”

“Mm? What is it?”

“Were you also headed to Huanin City? If so... should I take a different road?”

“Oh. You were going to Huanin City?”

“Then where are you going?”

“Where would I go? I’m following you.”

The Plunderer Demon answered calmly.

Unfortunately, the content was not calm at all.

Qing’s expression rotted on the spot.

“No—why are you following me? We said we’d meet in a month.”

“Dueling is in a month. We never said we couldn’t travel together.”

“Isn’t this violating the agreement? What if you follow me and I can’t go somewhere—what, are you going to tie me up and lock me away if I try to head to the Martial Alliance?”

“I’m not that lacking in propriety. And if you’re Heavenly Flower Sword, your fame will spread anywhere you go. It may be bothersome to find you, but it wouldn’t be impossible.”

“Then why follow me? And are you unemployed? Do you have no job? Are you just someone who does nothing all day? You’re not even an unemployed bum—why are you following me around?”

By Qing’s hometown standards, that was an outrageous insult for someone calling him “sir.”

By Central Plains standards, it was just as bad.

But the Plunderer Demon only chuckled.

Because Qing was pushing precisely as far as she’d judged she could.

“I’m busy too. I have an assignment I must do right now. Don’t I? You there—wasn’t that a fairly important assignment?”

“Absolutely. Without fail. That is what I heard.”

Gongryang Sayoon answered.

The Plunderer Demon nodded.

“You heard her. I’m a busy man.”

“No, you said you have work—important work—so why are you following me?”

When Qing asked in disbelief, the Plunderer Demon said something else entirely.

“I’ve been collecting martial arts for... five years, was it? In all those martial artists I met, how many truly worthwhile studies do you think I obtained—aside from the common trash that’s spread everywhere?”

“How many?”

“One. The one you taught me is the first.”

Damn it. Qing’s face went sour again.

He’d been robbing people for five years and never got a single red-bordered art? The first one he ever got was the one she just handed over?

No wonder he was losing his mind.

“Collecting martial arts isn’t as easy as you think. The ones who open their mouths lightly are the mediocre ones with common arts. The ones who possess true arts never speak. And even if they do, they try to fake the oral formula.”

A sudden confession of hardship. A sob story.

But that was his problem, wasn’t it?

“So?”

“You’re going to the Manchu lands, aren’t you?”

“Uh... why?”

“Once you pass Changbai, it’s either Goryeo or Manchu.”

Goryeo had disappeared long ago and the current national name was Joseon, but to the people of the Central Plains—who believed they were the center of the world—the name of those eastern barbarians didn’t matter whether it was Goryeo, or Joseon, or anything else.

And to Qing, this was already some discount knockoff “Central Plains” anyway, and it wasn’t her Joseon either, so she didn’t feel obligated to correct him.

“Goryeo doesn’t matter, but in Manchu there’s a master with a nasty temperament. He’s one move—no, maybe two moves—above me. And as far as I know, he’s holding a pretty serious grudge against you.”

“Huh?”

Qing jolted.

One or two moves above the Plunderer Demon meant that guy was also Transcendent Realm.

And that kind of master had a grudge against her?

“Why? I don’t even know who it is—what did I do? Who is that master?”

“I can’t say. I have my own circumstances. In any case, if you go to Manchu and die on the spot, what happens to my martial arts?”

Why were her martial arts suddenly his martial arts?

Her martial arts were hers. Granted, some were Shaolin’s, some were Namgung’s, and the ownership situation was... complicated in places, but still.

Anyway, Qing’s attitude softened a notch.

So there was an unknown Transcendent Realm in the Jilin lands who hated her, and if she died, the martial arts she’d “left in deposit” would vanish—so he was coming along to mediate—

“No, mediation won’t work. I told you. He’s nasty. He won’t let go of a grudge. If you run into him, I’ll hold him back, so you can run.”

Not mediation—just making sure she could run.

Qing’s face twisted into something... complicated.

“Uh. Um. Thanks?”

She offered an awkward gratitude.

Either way, he was following her because he intended to “protect” her—so she could escape. And he was even tossing aside an “absolutely, without fail” assignment to do it.

Granted, her trust in that part was shaky.

A Transcendent Realm master throwing away an important assignment just to strip martial arts off her—was a new martial art really that urgent and desperate of a problem?

But then again, Heavenless Emperor was also completely insane about martial arts.

If the choice was “duties” versus “personal self-realization,” it wasn’t so incomprehensible that someone could pick the latter.

And either way—if she framed it like that—

Maybe a martial-arts robber following her wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

So.

With a lump on each side—

The Changbai Trip, departing again.