Chapter 421: White Clothes Under the Moon (I)

For two consecutive days, Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku walked almost every corner of Huashan Town, but found no trace of the man in white.

In order to prevent Qin Ku from "losing both the wife and the army", Liu Xunyi decided to mobilize the power of the Xianwang Mansion. He drew the appearance of the man in white on paper and asked Ling Qing to secretly contact friends in the martial arts world to set up a dragnet in the small town of Huashan, vowing to find the man in white.

Time flies, another day passes, and there is only one night left before the deadline agreed with Teng Sanshi.

September 6th, evening.

Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku, who were almost in despair, finally received a piece of news pointing directly to a village in the west of Huashan Town that had been abandoned for many years, named "Xingyao".

Time waits for no one, set off immediately.

Liu Xunyi arranged for Ling Qing to lead his men to stay at the Qixing Tower, while he and Qin Ku rode fast to Xingyao Village under the dim moonlight.

The village stretches from north to south and has a very simple layout. In the middle is a narrow path covered with weeds, and on both sides are dozens of courtyards of different sizes. Now they are all in ruins.

Upon seeing such a village, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but recall his childhood life. He suddenly felt sad and filled with emotion.

"Look, look!"

Qin Ku's voice woke Liu Xunyi from his trance. He looked in the direction of his finger and saw a wisp of smoke rising from a dilapidated courtyard in the village.

"Xingyao Village has been abandoned for many years. Normally, not even a ghost can be seen. Why is there smoke from cooking?"

"Obviously someone has settled in the village."

After saying that, the two men smiled at each other, dismounted from their horses one after another, and quietly rushed towards the ruined courtyard.

Outside the courtyard wall, Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku clearly heard someone humming a tune in the yard.

At the same time, a strong aroma of barbecue came over the courtyard wall and into the mouths and noses of the two.

"It's him!" Qin Ku said angrily, "He made us unable to sleep for three days, but he hid here and enjoyed himself. It's really fucking unfair..."

"Why don't you come in for a drink, you two?"

Before Qin Ku finished speaking, a teasing laugh suddenly rang out from the courtyard.

Hearing this, Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku were stunned and smiled bitterly. They stopped hiding and swaggered around the courtyard wall, entering the courtyard through the doorway where only a broken door was left.

At this moment, a bonfire was burning in the yard, and the man in white who they had been looking for was sitting on a stone mill with his feet up, holding a branch with a baby pigeon on it in his hand, and roasting the delicacy with great interest.

Seeing Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku, the man in white was neither surprised nor flustered, and continued to concentrate on his own work. He just waved his left hand lightly, and with a gentle internal force, he threw the two jars of fine wine beside him to Liu Xunyi and Qin Ku.

"I'll buy you some wine." The man in white said with a smile, "But you won't get any squab. If you want to eat it, bring me five thousand taels in exchange."

"How dare you charge five thousand taels for a baby pigeon? Can it be inlaid with gold?"

Qin Ku took the jar of wine and gulped down two mouthfuls, which relieved his dry mouth.

"The pigeon is not worth it, but I am." The man in white took the pigeon closer to watch the cooking process and replied, "If it weren't for me, how could you have earned five thousand taels out of nothing?"

"The invitations to the martial arts conference are now being sold for tens of thousands of taels each." Qin Ku curled his lips and said, "Selling it to you for a mere five thousand taels, how can it be called 'making a profit for nothing'? I'm losing a lot!"

The man in white tore off a piece of pigeon meat, put it in his mouth and chewed it with relish, then shook his head in dissatisfaction, put the pigeon back on the fire, turned to Qin Ku and gave him a strange smile, saying meaningfully: "I'm not talking about the invitation, but the 5,000 taels of reward that Teng Sanshi gave you."

Liu Xunyi was secretly shocked, but he replied without leaving any trace: "It seems that you already know."

"Not only do I know that Teng Sanshi spent five thousand taels to ask you to find me, I also know that you secretly used the power of the Xianwang Mansion to send people to track down my whereabouts." The man in white smiled evilly and cast a playful look at Liu Xunyi, and said, "You are so young and you have taken the position of Hei Zhishan. It's true that you can't judge a person by his appearance."

"Brother, you are about the same age as me, so why do you have to act like a senior?" Liu Xunyi said with a smile, "Since you know why we are here, what are your plans?"

"What are your plans?" The man in white seemed not to understand Liu Xunyi's question, and a hint of suspicion flashed in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"To put it bluntly, will you go back with us on your own initiative? Or do you want us to beat you half to death and then tie you up and take you back?" Qin Ku put it bluntly.

"Why should I go back with you?"

Qin Ku complained: "How dare you ask? What good things have you done? Don't you remember? You stole other people's jewelry, stole the invitation from me, and put the blame on me, causing me to get into trouble for no reason..."

"Wait!" the man in white interrupted, "We made it clear that day that we would leave the inn without any debt. You said this yourself, why did you go back on your word?"

Qin Ku blushed after being teased by the man in white, and argued: "That being said, but...but I didn't know those things were stolen by you..."

"Even if I stole it, what does it have to do with you?" The man in white laughed, "Fatty, you keep saying you're doing business, but you don't even know the rules of doing business, do you? Who was it that swore so confidently that 'payment and goods are settled, no refunds after the deadline'? What's going on tonight?"

"I..." Under the aggressive questioning of the man in white, the usually eloquent Qin Ku became somewhat incoherent. After all, he was indeed in the wrong this time. "Actually, you buying the invitation and us looking for you are two completely different things." Liu Xunyi came to the rescue, "Brother Qin accepted five thousand taels from others. There is a saying that 'accepting money from others is to help them get rid of disasters'..."

"Haha..." Suddenly, the man in white laughed out loud and praised, "Your excuse is much smarter than the fat man's hesitant and specious arguments."

"I don't know, my dear..."

"Five thousand taels went into Fatty's pocket, not mine." The man in white took the pigeon off the branch and tore the tender pigeon meat with great interest, and answered nonchalantly, "Therefore, the person who should be explained to Teng Sanshi is Fatty, not me."

"You mean... you don't want to go back with us?" At this moment, Liu Xunyi's right hand had quietly touched the hilt of the sword.

"It's okay for me to go back with you." The man in white seemed to be defenseless, and said while eating, "Give me some benefits, and we can discuss everything."

Hearing this, Qin Ku's face immediately showed a relieved smile, and he shouted: "Why didn't you tell me earlier? You scared my heart so much. Since we are all in the same business, let's not beat around the bush and just talk about the price directly, how about it?"

"Fatty, I like you more and more." The man in white nodded with satisfaction, "You are more sensible than that brother who stole the sword."

Liu Xunyi blushed when the man in white exposed his little trick. For a moment, he didn't know whether to move his hand on the hilt or not, feeling very embarrassed.

"Meeting is fate. This time I'm going to risk it all, even if it means losing money to gain publicity. Just consider it as making friends with you." Qin Ku pretended to be "generous" as if he was giving up something with great pain, and slowly stretched out three fingers.

"Three?" The man in white hesitated, "Three thousand..."

"Thirty taels!"

Before the man in white could finish his words, Qin Ku interrupted him with a hoarse voice, "How about thirty taels of silver?"

When these words were spoken, Liu Xunyi and the man in white were stunned almost at the same time. The expressions on their faces were very different, and neither of them could describe the excitement.

"Thirty taels?" The man in white was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and jokingly said, "Fatty, you are such a stingy person. You took five thousand taels for yourself, but only gave me thirty taels?"

"Thirty taels is not a small amount." Qin Ku taught him seriously, "Young man, don't be too ambitious and too eager for quick success. It's almost impossible to get rich overnight. Back then, I started with three or five cents and worked my way up to where I am today. Is it easy? Now you can earn thirty taels just by talking. It's not often that you get such a good thing..."

"Ten thousand taels!"

Suddenly, the man in white straightened his eyes and directly stated his conditions.

"Ten thousand taels? Are you trying to blackmail me?" The "grievance" on Qin Ku's face disappeared instantly, replaced by a hint of shame. "I worked so hard to earn five thousand, and you just want ten thousand easily? Next time you have such a good deal, remember to tell me."

"disagree?"

"What do you say?"

"Even if the deal doesn't go through, we still have our righteousness. I just didn't agree." The man in white said with a look of regret, "Don't blame me for not reminding you. If you don't take me back, you have to pay me back tenfold. If you look up, it's 50,000, and if you look down, it's 10,000. You should know which is more important. In short, if you don't have 10,000 taels, don't even think about asking me to help you."

"Bullshit logic! Do I have to go bankrupt?" Qin Ku cursed, "Let alone ten thousand, even if I don't spend a penny, I can still bring you back, believe it or not?"

"Believe it!" The man in white stuffed the last piece of meat into his mouth, threw the pigeon bone in front of Qin Ku and Liu Xunyi, and said with a smug smile, "If you believe it, you will definitely be in trouble!"

"If you don't eat the toast, you will be punished with alcohol!"

"bass!"

With a loud shout, Qin Ku drew his sword in a flash, instantly rushed in front of the man in white, and slashed at him with the sword without mercy.

"You were so scared that your heart was beating wildly, weren't you? How dare you do that?"

"It's better to die of fright than to die of poverty!"

"Haha... interesting."

"call!"

"Oh!"

Before the two men finished their voices, Qin Ku's long-sky sword had already cut through the night sky, instantly splitting the white-clothed man sitting on the stone mill in half. At the same time, with undiminished force, he whizzed down and shattered the stone mill below with one blow.

The strange thing is that after the Changkong Sword chopped the man in white, there was no cruel scene of blood spilling and internal organs flying everywhere.

On the contrary, the man in white still had a smile on his face, looking contented, but his figure gradually became blurred in the night, until it completely disappeared into nothingness.

"Afterimage?" Liu Xunyi said in shock, "This person is even more powerful than I thought!"

……

(End of this chapter)