Inner Demons Volume 1 Chapter 8

Li YunXin only needed a moment of their hesitation.

They may be strong, but they were too young.

On the other side, Li YunXin was not a 100% 14-year-old boy.

Apart from that, he didn't think that his parents were "traitors of the True Martial School" and knew only talisman techniques.

They were more likely to be…pigment priests!

Right at that moment, the cloud patterns on the wooden table flowed away from it and became real clouds. The 2 priests found themselves tied up by the clouds in the blink of an eye.

ChiSongZi frowned, and tried to break the restraints. However, he failed since he found that the spiritual power in his sea of Qi was spreading and could not be gathered.

Li YunXin jumped out and stomped on the ground really hard.

The priests didn't know what he was doing, but they realized that they had made a mistake.

It seemed…the old priest they killed was not honest to them – half of the information he provided was bulls.h.i.+t.

The old priest said: "This poor priest has been observing him for more than a month, and I've found that he's just a child with a yellow beak*. It was funny that the couple didn't teach their child any of their talisman skills. They changed their name and hid here. If that thunderstorm didn't happen, I wouldn't have been able to find them."

However, today they had found that the boy had deep thoughts and knew when and how to act – His beak was not yellow at all!

Being intense, the priest bit the tip of his own tongue at once and spat the blood on his sword. As he did this, the sword started to shake, and the fogs on his body disappeared.

They didn't know what the strange spell Li YunXin had cast was, but they still couldn't use the spiritual power inside them after they had cleared out those clouds. They could only try to catch the boy with their martial skills.

When they had taken only one step forward, they found that the scene in the yard had completely changed – the whole place became dark and the weather suddenly changed. The tree in the yard started to sway like an animal or a ghost.

These events all happened 7 days ago, and it was the beginning of Li YunXin's journey from the village in which he had lived for 14 years.

However, his journey was not as fantastic and hopeful as he thought. Now he was sitting by the tree, waiting for himself to recover from exhaustion and leave this dangerous place.

Those 2 priests sealed Li YunXin's sea of qi with a talisman when they were chasing him, so the manhunt became a fight between 3 mortals.

If his sea of qi was not sealed, he could deal with those 5 constables by himself, instead of risking his life to call Lord Nine for help.

A few torches were seen in the distance, and faint voices could be heard. Li YunXin pushed himself to stand up. He searched the dead bodies, and found a some copper coins, a few broken silver pieces, and a 1 tael silver sycee. After that, he walked to the river, and kept walking along it to its lower reaches.

Sycee, a kind of silver or gold ingot currency. Tael is their unit. 1 tael≈37.75 grams.

On the sh.o.r.e covered by white sands, the branches of the willows hung down. It was a beautiful scene of warm spring.

A group of people were walking along the sh.o.r.e. In the front were 2 guards on horseback. Behind them were 4 young men with swords. The 3 carts behind them left deep wheel tracks on the ground. It seemed that they were carrying a lot of goods. There were people on the carts, too, but the most eye-catching one was the girl on the last cart.

The teenage girl was in short black clothes*. She wore a ponytail, and some of her hair drooped down from the sides of her forehead, making her look like a jianghu woman. Holding a willow twig in her hand, she looked around with her lively bright eyes. Her pouted lips showed that she was in a bad mood.

They had been traveling for 3 days. The scenery along the way was pretty good but other people were rarely seen. For her, even the cooking smoke rising from distant mountains could be a source of excitement.

Qiao JiaXin* started to regret begging her dad to take her along with his escort team. If she had stayed at home, she would be catching fish in the river, keeping those lovely transparent fish and shrimps in earthen jars, and watch them swim everyday.

A  escort team

She twirled the twig between her fingers, blocked the suns.h.i.+ne coming from the east, and then turned towards the middle-aged man on the other side of the cart that she was in. "Hey, Old Liu*, play a trick for me."

The old man in Taoist robe frowned, and answered: "This poor priest is not a street artist, I'm a painter instead. I won't do tricks…"

Qiao JiaXin curled her lips, and said: "A few days ago in Hun City, I saw that you played a trick for a woman on the street. You drew something on a piece of paper and set it on fire by waving your hands, which scared the woman so  she ran away."

The old priest's face turned red. He stopped her from talking, and said: "Nonsense! A real priest like me would never do such a thing. You must have got the wrong person."

Hearing this, the driver laughed and turned his head to tease the old priest: "I trust JiaXin, because I saw you going into the Jadeite Restaurant."

Now the old priest's face turned dark. "I, I, I, I am the leader of the Mysterious Insight School, why would I ever go to that kind of place."

The girl giggled: "I know, I know your Mysterious Insight School – the school of one man!"

The carts stopped when she had just started becoming amused.

Looking to the front, she saw that her father Qiao DuanHong was riding on his horse, talking to someone.

"Who are you?"He asked.

Qi JiaXin's heartbeat became really quick – Is that a bandit? He must be a bandit!

She jumped down from her cart, and saw a young man.

A young man in dark blue robe, who looked like a scholar, but a sword was hung on his waist, and that made him look weird. He was standing there and looked at them curiously. He was raising one of his hands and making a thumbs-up gesture.

Qiao JiaXin didn't know what the gesture meant, but she was stunned and slightly blushed, because she thought… the young man was so handsome.

Unlike those guards in their escort team – their skins had turned dark and red after years of outdoor work – the young man's skin was pale under the suns.h.i.+ne. He looked so slim in his clothes, that it seemed as if he could be blown away by a gust of wind.

Oh, what am I thinking!?

She saw the young man scratching his head with a embarra.s.sed smile on his face. "Are you an escort team?"He asked.

Qiao DuanHong stared at his sword for a while, and said: "We are HongFu Escort Team* from Wei City*."

The young man looked relieved. He folded his hands in front of himself and said: "I have heard of your great escort team for a long time, and it's my honor to meet you. I'm Li YunXin. I'm also heading for Wei City. Could you please give me a ride?"

Qiao JiaXin couldn't help laughing. It was her first time going with an escort team, but she had seen a lot of people in jianghu before, so she recognized at once that the young man was hahahah a baby bird. That was how her uncles called those young guys from wealthy families. Every time when she heard them talking about those lads who pretended to be experienced travelers, she would laugh with them.

She also knew why he asked for a ride. Traveling in the wilderness alone is definitely dangerous. Even if you are not caught by bandits, wild beasts will get you.

The old priest Liu was a hitchhiker, too.

Qiao DuanHong frowned, and hesitated. He was afraid the young man was a spy of the bandits. Organized bandits would send their spies into the caravans, who would then light up hypnotic smokes or put purgatives in their food. After that, they would send a signal to call the rest of the bandits to attack them.

However, HongFu Escort Team had traveled between Luo City* and Hun City for many years, and had never been attacked by a huge group of bandits. This area was an important agricultural center of the Great Qing Empire after all, large groups of bandits were not allowed to appear here.

After thinking for a while, he said: "I'm Qiao DuanHong, and I'll give you a ride, but…"

If the young man was not a spy of the bandits, then he must have been from a wealthy family, and now he was on a trip. His fingers looked clean, thin and smooth - it was impossible to see them on the hands of a man who works. His clothes were not luxurious, but couldn't be afforded by a needy family. He communicated with him with ease, and that couldn't be done by a child from a peasant family.

…and that was why he wanted to explain to him that he needed to pay for the ride. He thought that a young man from a wealthy family didn't understand their rules.

However, before he finish his words, the young man took out a silver sycee from his sleeve and threw it to Qiao DuanHong. "I got it. Is this enough?"He asked.

Belongings in sleeve

Aha, it seemed he was quite generous. A tael of silver would be enough for a farmer's family to live for a month.

Now Qiao DuanHong was really relieved. Putting the silver into his clothes, he said: "That's enough. Please choose a cart to sit in, Mr. Li."

Li YunXin folded his hands in front of himself and walked towards the carts.

Qiao JiaXin had come back to her cart, and was looking at him curiously. Back home, most people she saw and talked to everyday were those who had learned martial arts and lived on their skills, so she was not shy like those little ladies from wealthy families.

Being watched by such a beautiful girl, boys usually blush or get nervous, but this one didn't. He looked at them with interest, like it was his first time seeing an escort team.

It was true. He had lived in that little mountain village for 14 years, and it was his first time leaving his home. Of course he was curious about everything he saw.

He smiled and nodded to Qiao JiaXin when he found her looking at him.

Qiao JiaXin was surprised, and lowered her head unconsciously, but soon she lifted her head again because she found that even more embarra.s.sing.

Then she felt the cart shake – the young man had gotten on the cart and sat by Liu the old priest.

She felt relieved, but was also a little bit disappointed.

Footnotes:

A child with a yellow beak: Used to describe someone who is really young and naive, because young birds usually have yellow beaks. Short clothes: Short clothes are not shorts or clothes with short sleeves, they are actually non-robe clothes. Robes/dresses are commonly wore by both men and women in ancient China, while trousers are only wore by (male) farmers, workers and soldiers. Qiao JiaXin乔嘉欣: Name of the escort team leader’s daughter.

Jia=Nice

Xin=Joyful

Liu刘: Family name of the old priest. HongFu Escort Team洪福镖局:

Hong=A flood/So huge, like a flood

Fu=Happiness

Wei City渭城:Wei=Name of a river Luo City珞城:Luo=A jade on necklace Hun City珲城:Hun=A beautiful jade

Translator:

Editor: Dropped

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