The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 240 A Clumsy Rendezvous Like a Spy Drama

After the assassination in Hangzhou, the handsome face of Yanzu and the face of the kind-hearted citizen Brother Liu had already spread throughout the world. Even if the portraits were not very similar, Wu Chengyu could no longer use them. It was okay for Brother Qingyun, but it was a real pity for Wu Chengyu that Yanzu's handsome face had to be banned.

This was his first disguise after his transformation, and he also used his bone-shrinking technique to change his body shape. His current height of over 1.8 meters immediately became a little over 1.7 meters, and his figure was also much slimmer, far from the short and stocky figure he had after using the bone-shrinking technique.

But here's the problem: the Bone Shrinking Technique can't shrink the skull. Now that Wu Chengyu is so thin, his head immediately looks huge, like a bean sprout. Fortunately, Wu Chengyu immediately had a flash of inspiration and changed his face to one that he liked very much in his previous life.

She has a round face, a decent nose bridge that is somewhat prominent, but a short and slightly inward-pointing chin. Most importantly, her eyebrows, the corners of her eyes, and the corners of her mouth all droop downwards, giving her a sullen and listless appearance.

At first glance, this face seems honest and simple; at second glance, it seems somewhat pathetic; as for the third glance, most passersby won't look at it a third time. It's just an ordinary, harmless face, without any aggression, and you'll forget about it in the blink of an eye.

It has to be said that such a face paired with a head that now looks a bit large immediately becomes very harmonious.

That's right, it's the face of Lei Datou from later generations. Wu Chengyu liked him a lot in his previous life, so he doesn't feel uncomfortable having this face now.

He changed his clothes, dressing as an ordinary江湖人 (jianghu person, a member of the martial arts world), and a low-level江湖人, more like a small-time hoodlum. His overall image was almost identical to Lei Datou's cameo appearance in the TV series "Longmen Express".

The Five Grains Sesame Oil Shop was located in the south of Chang'an City, near the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was already evening, and there weren't many people coming to buy oil. The shopkeeper, Liu Laoman, was sitting behind the counter with a worried look on his face. Apart from occasionally taking out a fan to swat away flies, he looked rather dejected.

The shopkeeper's hair was mostly white, and his face was full of wrinkles. He looked to be at least sixty years old. He must have been a spirited young man of sixteen or seventeen when he first joined Wang Chongyang's uprising, but his spirit had long been left in the past. Now he was just a thin, old man.

There were two other employees in the oil shop, who didn't look very bright, and they were busy working in the shop.

Just then, a young man who looked just as dejected as the shopkeeper, Liu Laoman, walked in. The difference was that Liu Laoman's expression was somewhat dejected, while this young man simply looked dejected.

A waiter immediately stepped forward to greet the customer: "Sir, are you here to buy oil?"

The disheartened young man, Wu Chengyu, shook his head and said, "I'm looking for your shopkeeper."

The waiter didn't say much and immediately led him to the counter. The shopkeeper behind the counter then looked up at the man and said, "Sir, is there anything I can do for you?"

Wu Chengyu gestured for the waiter to leave, and first carefully examined Liu Laoman. He found that the old man looked extremely unwell, with red eyes, as if he hadn't slept for several days. In particular, his heartbeat was much faster than normal.

This is clearly the state of someone who is constantly anxious. Wu Chengyu pondered to himself, without making any rash judgments. He simply whispered to Liu Laoman, "If one's heart always seeks purity, that is the true shortcut to cultivation."

Upon hearing this, Liu Laoman appeared to perk up, but in reality, his heart was beating even faster, and a flush appeared on his cheeks.

He looked Wu Chengyu up and down, and seemed somewhat surprised to see the visitor's appearance. However, he was more cautious and did not immediately acknowledge him. Instead, he carefully asked, "And who is this, sir?"

Wu Chengyu looked somewhat helpless, then revealed a jade pendant from his sleeve. When Liu Laoman saw it, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said, "So it's an old friend. It's been so many years since we last met that I didn't recognize you. It's my fault. Please come to the back room to talk."

As Wu Chengyu completed the rendezvous, he inwardly grumbled.

This rendezvous was set up like something out of a spy drama, but who would go to an oil shop to chant sutras for a secret rendezvous, not to beg for alms? The words he just recited were from Wang Chongyang's "Complete Collection of Truth," and their content was completely out of place with the environment. Anyone with a discerning eye would immediately notice something amiss.

Moreover, the secret code should have been a two-way exchange, but the shopkeeper didn't respond at all because there was no follow-up. In the end, the relationship was confirmed by a jade pendant that Ma Yu gave to Wu Chengyu, which was a token of the Seven Masters of Quanzhen.

What if the shopkeeper here isn't the real contact person? Wouldn't the visitor be completely deceived?

Wu Chengyu followed Liu Laoman into the inner hall, constantly reminding himself that this was a martial arts world, not a spy drama.

As soon as the two entered the inner hall, Liu Laoman grabbed Wu Chengyu's sleeve and asked anxiously, "Has Daoist Qiu already returned to Zhongnan Mountain? I heard he was seriously injured. I wonder if he is alright now?"

Wu Chengyu did not reply immediately. He was observing Liu Laoman. After entering the inner hall and finding no one around, Liu Laoman seemed to relax a bit, as if he had escaped someone's surveillance. Most importantly, Wu Chengyu seemed to sense that the person in front of him was somewhat guilty.

Wu Chengyu has extraordinary hearing and even more acute intuition. Over the years, he has often tried to sense other people's emotions by listening to their heartbeats. It's not very accurate, but he can sense whether a person is guilty or not. According to his observations, the heartbeats of guilty people are also different.

This shopkeeper is acting very strangely. Just as Wu Chengyu had suspected before arriving here, this place might really be unsafe.

He didn't answer immediately, but instead found a chair and sat down. He first looked around at the interior layout and found nothing unusual.

Then his senses activated a three-dimensional map, allowing him to observe the activity within a hundred meters of the oil shop. Sure enough, the shop assistant who had been greeting customers earlier secretly slipped out of the oil shop and ran to a stall more than twenty meters away to talk to someone.

What they said was much more professional than the previous code words; at least it fit the context—this stall sold snacks.

"A guest came to the shopkeeper's house, and I took advantage of the shopkeeper's absence to be lazy and buy some steamed buns to eat."

"The steamed buns are good today. Do you want them with filling or without?"

"Of course they have filling, give me one."

"Come and buy if you want to eat it, there's plenty."

Wu Chengyu immediately understood that at least this waiter must be the mole, telling the other party that a guest had arrived, which meant that a stranger had suddenly come to the shopkeeper.

The explanation for the filling is related to the Quanzhen Sect. After all, the oil shop is small, and Wu Chengyu's words from the Taoist scriptures are too abrupt, so it's hard for the shopkeeper not to notice.

Taking a steamed bun indicates that someone has come alone, and that they can buy it if they want to eat it, and that they need to report any news immediately.

Okay, this is all just Wu Chengyu's imagination, but judging from the behavior of Liu Laoman and his assistant, it's now certain that this oil shop is completely unsafe.

(End of this chapter)