The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 293 Going down the mountain
On the 16th day of the eighth month of the 24th year of the Jiajing reign.

early morning.

If the martial arts practitioners atop Junji Peak felt a sense of dramatic twists and turns and turbulent waves that night, then the martial arts practitioners gathered outside the gates of Songshan Sect felt nothing but utter boredom.

There were thousands of martial arts practitioners who came to join Lord Li's moon-viewing banquet. Apart from the "upper class" who were qualified to go up the mountain and the "lower class" who were waiting at the foot of the mountain, the most distressed were the "middle class" who were stuck outside the gate of the Songshan Sect.

If they had better backgrounds and higher martial arts skills, they could have reached the summit of Junji Peak and witnessed this unprecedented event in the martial arts world; if they were less capable, they could have simply given up the idea and waited at the foot of the mountain, finding peace of mind in that situation.

It was this awkward situation—unable to rise higher yet unwilling to fall—that forced them to gather outside the mountain gate, hoping that the important figures would directly turn against the Embroidered Uniform Guard and start fighting, so that they could sneak in and join in the fun.

Of course, with Li Miao around, the situation they were hoping for would never happen.

Fortunately, there are other exciting things to join in.

Although Li Miao's battle with Yingzhou and Penglai largely avoided the crowds and moved to the other side of Mount Song, the commotion was still considerable.

Those who had reached Mount Song at this time were not reckless fools, and none of them moved for a while. Only after the fighting stopped did some skilled and daring martial artists cautiously sneak over.

They were so terrified at the first glance that they stood frozen in place, speechless for a long time.

After a long pause, one of them murmured.

"Brother Wang... is this even something a human could do?"

His companions, who had come with him, also fell silent for a moment, unsure how to respond.

Just as these people were filled with shock, they heard a rustling sound in the distance, and then the Imperial Guards rushed out of the forest.

So these people scattered and fled again.

The man who had just exclaimed fled for a while, then pondered for a moment and decided that fleeing down the mountain now would make him more conspicuous. There were dozens of martial artists who had gone to check earlier, and the Imperial Guards hadn't seen his face. It would be safer to simply return to the gates of the Songshan Sect and blend into the crowd.

So he went around in circles again, returned to the outside of the mountain gate, mingled with the crowd and waited for a while. When he saw that the Imperial Guards had not chased after him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, a voice called out from behind him.

"Brother Qi!"

He turned his head and was overjoyed.

"Brother Wang!"

The person who greeted him was none other than his companion who had gone to investigate with him. They had separated during the escape, but unexpectedly, they had the same idea!
He gave a signal with his eyes, and the other person nodded. The two then walked out of the crowd and went to a secluded corner.

"Brother Wang, we've thought of the same thing."

He smiled, then suddenly frowned, looked the other person up and down, and asked curiously.

"Hey, Brother Wang, what's going on...?"

The other person smiled and pulled up their shirt.

"Oh. Before I left, a member of the Imperial Guard glanced at me. Although he didn't see my face, he saw my clothes clearly. So I 'borrowed' some clothes from a fellow martial artist and even threw away my weapon, just in case those henchmen came looking for me."

He then realized what was happening and laughed.

"Brother Wang is right to think things through. In a little while, Brother Wang, come with me to 'borrow' a new outfit, and we'll go down the mountain together."

The other party smiled and nodded, then got down to business.

"By the way, Brother Qi, when the Imperial Guards arrived just now, I vaguely saw you pick something up from the ground and put it in your pocket before you ran away. May I take a look?"

This one sentence made him frown.

He didn't want to share the discovery. The signs of the struggle there were so horrifying, and the Imperial Guards arrived so quickly. It might be related to the "Heavenly Inheritance" that the Sword King Pavilion had mentioned. What he had obtained might be a clue.

He wanted to keep it all to himself.

But then he thought again that the matter was of great importance, and the other party was a friend he knew well, so it would be good to have a helper. So he took out a cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to the other party.

"Before I fled, I saw some faint light reflecting off the ground, so I grabbed a handful. I couldn't tell what the fragments were. I'd like to ask Brother Wang for his opinion."

The other person took the cloth bag and unfolded it in their palm.

The cloth bag contained a pool of tiny fragments mixed with mud, the material resembling both iron and jade, shimmering faintly like water in the moonlight.

"Brother Wang?"

He frowned.

After the other person unfolded the cloth bag, they remained silent and motionless, standing there with an uncertain expression, their brows furrowed, staring intently at the handful of shards.

"What, Brother Wang, do you recognize this?" He glanced around, took a few steps toward the other person, and asked in a low voice.

The other party finally breathed a sigh of relief and said.

"I recognize it."

He leaned closer to the other person and asked in a low voice with surprise.

"What is it?"

"This object is called Yao Kun."

As the other person spoke, they reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He glanced at the other person strangely, but before he could speak, suddenly, a surge of true energy flowed from his hand's Shaoyang Sanjiao Meridian into his heart meridian.

"you--"

His face had just shown a look of shock and anger when he stopped moving. The opponent's true energy had already locked his meridians, and the sharp true energy was like a dagger pressed against his heart meridian.

If he makes any unusual move, the other party can kill him in an instant.

The martial arts practitioners closest to them faintly heard the strange noise, turned their heads to look in their direction, and saw the two walking hand in hand into the forest. Seeing nothing amiss, they turned back around.

In the dense forest.

His eyes widened in terror.

The face of the "brother king" who had just spoken to him gradually became distorted and deformed, and his figure gradually grew taller, transforming into a completely different person in front of him.

He suddenly remembered the rumors he had heard before: the Iron Palm Clan had been wiped out, and some evil masters were trying to use disguise techniques to impersonate others.

If the other party is a friend he knows, he still has a chance to plead for mercy; but if the other party is not... then from the moment he reveals his true colors to him, he has no chance of survival.

"Your Mightiness--"

The words had barely left his mouth when he felt a sudden pain in his chest.

Then he lost consciousness.

"Brother Wang" did not look at the unseeing corpse again, but took out the cloth bag from his bosom again, opened it in his palm, and looked at it for a long time.

"Ugh--"

He sighed.

"Zheng Ming's xiao (vertical bamboo flute) was broken into pieces."

“Zheng Lingsen, Lian Tukun, and Xu Ruiguang should not have escaped either... These are the four celestial beings, plus one ‘family member’.”

"Back then, only Zheng Lingchuan escaped from Yingzhou. Even if we include the few remaining people from Penglai, it would be impossible to keep them all here. They couldn't break this flute either."

"Then, it's Li Miao."

He slowly clenched the cloth in his palm.

“If I hadn’t arrived a little late, if I had been discovered and held back by Ruan Mei, who came with the Imperial Guards to clean up the scene, I would probably have died at his hands as well.”

"A seedling that was lost back then has quietly grown into a towering tree..."

"The message must be sent back to Yingzhou as soon as possible."

He turned to head down the mountain.

Suddenly, shouts from martial arts practitioners came from the direction of the mountain gate.

"They're coming down! All the seniors who went up the mountain are coming down!"

"This, this is!"

"Sect Leader Liu, where's your sword?!"

"Chief Dong, how did you get injured like this!"

"The Kongtong Sect Leader was carried down... and so was the Kunlun Sect Leader! And this—there's more to come!"

"What on earth happened up there!"

Amidst the clamor of voices, as those who had attended the banquet were successively injured and descended the mountain, news of the moon-viewing feast gradually spread throughout the martial arts world.

(End of this chapter)