“How about this, Li Shi Xiong,” Mo Fei Chen pointed at Qu Xiruo and said, “Miss Qu wants to travel around Jiang Hu, but now she is homesick, if it is convenient for Li Shi Xiong, I wonder if you can send Miss Qu back?”
“Oh that’s right, Mo Shi Di, you have Lu Da Xia as your company and it’s safe. What am I going to do by following you? And that Miss Qu, do you mind if I send you back?”
Qu Xiruo raised her eyes and looked at Li Du for a while, her cheeks blushing slightly, “Then I’ll trouble Li Shao Xia.”
“Good, good then.” Don’t be fooled by the fact that Li Du was a guy, Mo Fei Chen knew that he was very sensible. In the past, when he had occasionally been ridiculed by other senior martial brothers on Mount Kun Yun, Li Du had always been the first one who noticed at first glance that he was unhappy while enduring it.
After the four of them finished their breakfast together, Li Du suddenly remembered something, leaned over to Mo Fei Chen and said, “Before I stayed at this inn last night, I think I saw Yu Jin on the way here.”
“Yu Mutou?” Mo Fei Chen was a bit surprised, why did Yu Jin who escorted Dian Zhao to the Ding Chan Temple but took this way? Isn’t that a big detour?
“I didn’t talk to him, ‘persons who walk different paths, go separate ways’1[道不同不相为谋: lit. persons who walk different paths can not make plans together].’” Li Du didn’t say any more. He knew that Mo Fei Chen and Yu Jin were very close, so although he hesitated for a moment, he still told him about him seeing Yu Jin.
“I didn’t talk to him, now it’s a different path.”
“Thank you.”
After that, Li Du helped Qu Xiruo onto his horse and drove with the reins in the direction of Yu Lin Sect.
Qu Xiruo kept looking back, but unfortunately Lu Qingmo did not even look at her for a glance.
“Let’s go, Lu Dage! We have to hurry up too.” Mo Fei Chen smiled as he picked up his bundle wrapped in a cloth and walked towards the door.
“I thought… you would choose Li Du…”
“Choose him?” Mo Fei Chen shook his head, “I promised not to harbor any grudges towards you, although saying and doing are two completely different things… but since you said you would return me to He Yunfeng, I believe you.”
Lu Qingmo smiled, and followed Mo Fei Chen under the light of the early morning sun.
He didn’t want much and since now he had gotten it all.
The horse-drawn carriage had not yet left the town when he saw a child in ragged clothes running and shouting, ‘Help me!’
As Mo Fei Chen peeked out his head of the carriage,the foot travellers on the street stamped on their feet, because suddenly countless rats rushed out from the ground, rushing towards that child with unprecedented speed.
Lu Qingmo’s sword qi swept across the ground, then the rats were ripped open and fell to the ground. Countless tiny insects emerged from the rats’ wounds. There was no need to think about it, it was probably Gu worm that Ye Su had raised.
Mo Fei Chen only felt disgusted, while that child, frightened, sat on the ground and cried out in no time.
Lu Qingmo went forward to help and held the child up, then asked in a low voice, “Why are you being chased by those rats?”
“There was a woman … who used rats to bite the wet nurse to death… and… also hanged the big brother who protected us…”
As soon as Mo Fei Chen heard this, “Are you the one who called ‘Dian Zhao’?”
That child froze, not knowing how to answer, someone must have told and warned him again and again, by all means, not to say his name to outsiders. Mo Fei Chen changed his question, “Is the big brother who protects you named ‘Yu Jin’?”
He finally nodded his head.
Mo Fei Chen’s heart sank, if Yu Jin was caught by that demon woman Ye Su, he didn’t know how much he would suffer.
“Where is he now? I wanna go to save him!”
“In… the room at the Peng Lai2[朋 Peng means friend or gather around, while 来 Lai means come or arrive so the inn’s name indicated a place or inn for friends or people to gather around] Inn…”
Mo Fei Chen, regardless of the consequences, rushed out of the carriage and ran towards the Peng Lai Inn using his Qing Gong. Lu Qingmo picked up the child and followed him. The two of them were very good at their lightning skill, and in a matter of minutes they arrived at the inn.
The front door of the inn was closed with a sign saying ‘Closed today’.
“Ridiculous, an inn still has a closed day?” Mo Fei Chen was just about to kick open the door when he was stopped by Lu Qingmo.
Lu Qingmo flicked his finger, and a bowl-sized hole appeared in the door, only then was Mo Fei Chen surprised to see what appeared to be countless silk threads tangled up inside the door, with spider-like insects spitting out silk on top.
This was probably another Gu Worm from Xi Yu.
“Shall we take the boy in?” Mo Fei Chen asked.
“We can only take him in. If we leave him outside, won’t Ye Su have the chance to send someone to take him away?”
“Okay, good boy, follow behind this big brother.” Mo Fei Chen touched Deng Zhao’s head, but the boy was still not yet recovered from a fright, tugging on Lu Qingmo’s leg, not wanting to go in.
Lu Qingmo picked him up easily and with a flick of his finger, his sword Qi surged into the inn’s maneuvering room and with a circle round move, he swept those Gu Worms into the ground.
Mo Fei Chen crouched on the ground as he pressed his palm to the ground and poured out his inner strength, after that, the wooden floor of the inn shook up and then fell back down, just like a wave, and soon the silence was returned.
Those Gu worms which had fallen down and died between the cracks of the wooden boards.
“Let’s go.”
The three of them walked in, that child lying on Lu Qingmo’s shoulder.