Why did you provoke me?

As Yu Meng listened to what the cripple said, she thought to herself, "Sure enough, he knew."

Yu Meng no longer concealed anything, "I've seen their features, many of them. As for their combat strength? I haven't fought them, so I don't know."

"Wait a minute? They've already gone into seclusion. Where did you see them?"

"Retreat from the world? Does retreating from the world mean losing all desires? If they stop eating grains and cereals, they won't get fevers or illnesses." Yu Meng spoke these words very slowly.

The cripple couldn't refute these claims. "I just asked casually, did you have to get so worked up?"

Yu Meng coughed. "I'm not targeting you personally. As long as they have these kinds of things going on, they won't truly hide from the world. It's just that the world doesn't recognize them. And I just happened to overhear them revealing their identities."

The lame man sounded a little nervous. "So you met them?"

"I already said I heard it."

"It's alright, it's alright."

Yu Meng looked at him with a half-smile. "It seems you're quite familiar with this organization, so tell me about them."

This time, the cripple didn't refuse. "Yan Dian, in the beginning, was just a very small gathering team. They were all related. There was a very clever person among them, and under his coordination and command, their income was always very high."

Yu Meng sighed inwardly, "Something bad is about to happen."

The lame man didn't stop; he continued telling his story.

"With more income, there's extra money to send the women in the family to upgrade the mask-revealing masters' levels. This is a good thing in itself, but then someone had some designs on it."

The lame man looked out the window. "In a family with one woman, resources are concentrated on that one person, and she progresses very quickly. Conversely, if there are two or three women in the family, the resources won't be enough."

Although everyone could see all of this, the harvested supplies were distributed proportionally among the men who had contributed their labor, and no one complained.

But as you said, who doesn't have desires? Who doesn't have selfish motives? Then one day, a sculptor created the first medicinal stone. The precarious balance was broken.

"If these people start acting dirty at this point, they won't amount to anything," Yu Meng commented.

"Yes, but they are also ordinary people struggling to make a living at the bottom of society. Their sudden wealth made them think they were something special, so they decided to break up and go their separate ways."

"Huh?" Yu Meng was surprised. "Is that how the story unfolded? This little group just fell apart like that?"

"It's over. The suggestion was made by the smartest person. But no one objected, so the small group fell apart very quickly."

"And then?"

"Later, some people approached the group, hoping to team up with them. Some agreed, some refused. But they all died mysteriously during the collection process. But one person survived, the smartest one."

Yu Meng glanced at the cripple. "The smartest one didn't die. What's so special about him?"

The cripple gave a wry smile. "He's lucky."

"Hmm, that's a talent no one can match. And then? Wait, don't tell me, let me guess," Yu Meng said, intrigued. "They all died. The smartest one was probably hunted down too, but he was lucky. Was he rescued by someone, or by a woman?"

"You are really smart."

"Don't praise me like that. I think it's better to be a little slow at this time." Yu Meng already had a vague guess in her mind.

"Do you want to hear more?"

"Listen! Of course you should listen to things like this; it'll teach you a lesson!"

The cripple continued, "You're right, this man really was saved by a woman, and a woman of high status at that."

"They're in love?" Yu Meng asked curiously.

After a long pause, the lame man continued, "No."

"That's not right, that's not how the script was written!" Yu Meng said, becoming unusually talkative at this moment.

"The woman is the eldest daughter of a large family and a bone painter. The man is too ordinary. He has an ordinary status and an ordinary appearance. His only advantage is that he is arrogant about his intelligence."

"Oh, it's because you feel inferior."

The cripple ignored Yu Meng's words, seemingly lost in some kind of memory. "But the young lady was so kind to him. Not only did she care about everything, but she also helped him establish a new mining group and let him lead her own warriors and guards. This gave him a dominant position in the newly formed team. He was very grateful to the young lady, and he would risk his life to fulfill any request she made of him."

And so they stayed together for ten years. Finally, the young lady got married, and he gave her the entire mining group as part of her dowry. By then, the group had grown to several hundred people.

Yu Meng sighed, "It's all for nothing. Your career and love life are now someone else's. Don't you regret it?"

"Why regret it? I have plenty of time," the cripple retorted instinctively to Yu Meng's words.

Yu Meng chuckled softly. The cripple suddenly realized what she meant and stared blankly at Yu Meng. "You tricked me?"

"No, as you said yourself, I'm very smart. You were talking so enthusiastically, of course I could guess it."

The cripple waved his hand. "You can go now. I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Yu Meng tactfully stood up as well. "Aren't you leaving?"

The cripple was a bit agitated. "I said I didn't want to talk anymore, not that I was leaving."

"Oh, then I'll come back another day." Yu Meng didn't care about his attitude. She had really gained a lot this time. At least with this big Buddha here, the conflict with the Yama Palace was reduced to a minimum.

Before Meng could even reach the door, the lame man called her back, "You still haven't told me where you ran into the people from the Underworld?"

Yu Meng waved her hand in his manner, "In the first battlefield."

She wasn't lying; Mi Lin was indeed on the front lines at that time, though Yu Meng didn't specify the exact location.

The cripple sensed that Yu Meng wasn't lying, but he was even more confused. What were the people from the Yan Palace doing at the First Battlefield? There wasn't anything good there!

He casually patted his small pocket and pulled out something that looked like a jade pendant, as if he wanted to ask something. But in the end, he put it back. Oh well, might as well go!

Yu Meng walked back happily. The person who assassinated her shouldn't be from the Yan Palace. That means there's another force lurking in the shadows—the one with the celestial pet?

Clearly, this cripple knew something, but unfortunately, he couldn't resist exposing the other man's secrets.

Next time, bring Niannian along. She loves hearing stories like this and is always the most supportive. I just hope he won't hold this against her and can talk about something else next time.

Jing Er, who was following behind Yu Meng, silently turned around and followed her back. He had thought that Yu Meng would also go out this time, and he had made preparations to learn something new. But Yu Meng went into that gatehouse and didn't come out. Now that she's come out, she's not leaving.

He felt dejected and stomped his feet, lamenting his bad luck.