"Tsk!" The sound of a whistle rang out as a cold light flashed towards Chu Li.
However, Chu Li ducked to the side and avoided it.
"Amitabha Buddha!" From the forest, a clear buddha-like chant rang out and reverberated through the entire forest.
The voice of a monk was heard. "Almsgiver Chu Li, it's truly an honor for a mere monk like myself to meet you!"
Chu Li scoffed, "Monk! I spared your life and now you're trying to give it away?"
"Care for a fight, Almsgiver Chu Li?"
As soon as their conversation ended, the monk and two other monks in grey robes appeared. They stood ten meters away from the women and lifted their heads up to look at Chu Li. Their expressions were calm yet solemn.
The monk wore a smile on his face but the other two middle-aged monks were expressionless; all they did was stared coldly at Chu Li. Even when they lifted their heads up, they looked at him arrogantly as if they were looking at an unworthy follower.
Meanwhile, Chu Li glanced over at Zhao Ying and hinted for her to stand aside to watch the fight.
In anticipation of the fight, he flew five steps away from the monks. However, Chu Li could tell that the two monks were brothers with one look, as their features looked so alike — bald heads as flat as a plate — the looks of a naturally-talented master.
Even though the two of them looked so thin to the point where they looked like they had been dried out and were suffering from nutrient deficiencies, Chu Li could still tell that they had very powerful forces within their bodies. The levels they were currently at were not as terrifying as the main monk's, but the forces of three of them combined would pose a threat to his life.
The two middle-aged monks looked at Chu Li and then towards Zhao Ying before turning their eyes towards the women. They furrowed their brows; their face filled with resentment as if they had just seen some ugly creatures.
As Chu Li could tell what they were thinking, he shook his head.
They despised women as they believed that femininity was the root of all evil, that they were the cause of their followers' downfall. It is because of the attractiveness the women exudes, no self-control would be sufficient and so, it had caused them to lose control of themselves. They were the main culprit of the disaster!
Chu Li could feel the killing intent they had towards the womenfolk.
"Almsgiver Chu Li, you're so young but so powerful that I feel ashamed. It seems like we'll have to fight you together," said the monk with a smile.
"Well, if you're willing to leave, I won't stop you. You just have to turn around and walk away," retorted Chu Li with a smirk. He knew that the monk was just trying to distract him, making him lower his guard so that they could take him down.
"Almsgiver Chu Li, how about we spar for a little longer?" asked the monk with a smile.
Chu Li nodded. "My sentiments exactly!"
"Please!" The monk's smile widened; it was filled with the intent to kill.
More so, the two other monk's eyes moved and blinked rapidly. The murderous intent filled their chests.
All three of them had the same intentions to kill Chu Li. With that, they worked together to form a Triplet Formation between the three of them, thus increasing their overall power dramatically. Even with Chu Li's ability to connect with the Gods, there was little chance of escaping now.
Chu Li leaned on his sword and sighed. "So are you not going to give up until you die, monk?"
"Why would you say such a thing?" The monk replied with a smile. "It's only a practice!"
Chu Li shook his head. He had nothing to say about the fake mannerism that came from the monk. It was rare to see such fake mannerism, much less coming from a monk since monks were not allowed to lie as it was a strict rule in Buddhism. Despite that, the monk was borderline lying.
Chu Li raised both his hands up in a sudden movement.
"Swush! Swush!" Two light rays flashed out of his hands.
Both the middle-aged monks were stunned as they held onto their throats and stared at Chu Li with their eyes wide open. They could not believe it.
"Thump, thump!" Both monks fell to the floor with their face up, a flying blade lodged in their throats. Immediately, the blood gushed out and stained the dried leaves surrounding them.
Chu Li looked at the monk without a change of expression.
The smile on the monk's face stiffened as he looked at his juniors before he looked back at Chu Li in disbelief.
"You… You…"
A faint golden light illuminated his face as he circulated the Sentient Menace.
"Amitabha Buddha…" chanted the monk as he put his hands together, and his expression turned serious. He looked at his juniors with a sad expression before he lifted his head up to look at Chu Li. "Almsgiver Chu Li, are you not afraid of being hunted by the Tempest Temple?"
Chu Li smiled and said, "I am a Scribe to the Public House. The Tempest Temple will not be able to come into the Public House to arrest me, would they?"
"Are you certain the Public House will back you up?"
"Of course!" replied Chu Li.
"Alright… Very well then. I will leave," said the monk with a sneer. He took a long look at all the women before he left.
Chu Li watched the monk walk away without an intention to pursue him.
There was a weapon concealed under the monk's robe and he was ready to shoot it towards the women at any given time. If Chu Li were to make a move, he would shoot another weapon at Chu Li to distract him.
As Zhao Ying landed swiftly next to Chu Li, she took a brief glance at the two monks who lied dead on the ground and sighed helplessly. This scene was the very scene she had dreaded the most but in the end, it still happened.
The monks were already killed. However, she was only worried about Chu Li's life. She urged him, "Brother, chase him down! If he gets away, the Tempest Temple will know!"
Chu Li shook his head and said, "It's fine. Let him go."
"Brother, how can you let him slide?" said Zhao Ying impatiently. "You have to catch him and stop him from spreading the news!"
Chu Li smiled. "Our guards from the Public House aren't afraid of the Tempest Temple, so let's go."
The monk had no semblance of kindness that was expected of a monk. He was cruel and he did things without regards for the means, in which Chu Li should not have allowed him to leave. However, with all the women here, he had no choice but to send them to the Chong Ming Town first before planning the next move.
Zhao Ying stomped her feet on the ground as her eyes widened and she impatiently said, "Brother, I don't know what to say about you!"
"You'll have to be careful from now on. The Tempest Temple might come after you too. I'd suggest you not to go out and about so often!" said Chu Li.
"I …" Zhao Ying furrowed her brows and yet she slowly nodded.
She was actually worried about this. The Tempest Temple operates in such a tyrannical manner that they would definitely say that she was part of the gang that had killed the monks and come after her as well. This was a real headache!
This time, she glanced at Chu Li and shook her head.
Chu Li smiled. "No worries, no matter how unruly the Tempest Temple is, they will not dare to cause trouble in Chong Ming Town!"
"I hope so," said Zhao Ying with a sigh.
The women were getting worried too, and so they urged them to leave the area as quickly as possible. Hence, they left during the night and arrived at Chong Ming Town the next day, late in the evening.
With a team of more than a hundred horses arriving at the gates, it had startled the crowd. Even the town guard was wary of the large herd. Nonetheless, the guard let down his guard and smiled at Chu Li apologetically when Chu Li showed him his waist tag.
The Public House directly oversaw the business of Chong Ming Town. If the guards of the Public House had to go about their businesses, there was nothing the lowly town guard could do except let them do as they please.
Over fifty pretty women entering the town at once had attracted many attentions and they were eventually surrounded. Even though they did not necessarily qualify as the most beautiful in the world, they were still beautiful women with each of their own unique beauty. It was sufficiently so that everyone around them could still find a lady that suited their own cup of tea.
However, Zhao Ying rode a horse back to look for Li Yue while Chu Li brought the women to their new residence.
When they arrived at the house, Li Yue had already opened the gate and was waiting for their return. He knew that there were a lot of people but when he saw all the women, his eyes widened — he was obviously startled. He looked at one lady and then another, and felt as if he would not have enough time to look at all of them.
"This….this…" He pulled Chu Li over. "Where did all these women come from?"
Chu Li shook his head and smiled. "We'll talk about it later. Settle them down for now."
"At least tell me something!" Li Yue was getting more curious. "Where did all of them come from?"
"I'll tell you soon, so go back to work," Chu Li said as he gave Li Yue a push.
Hence, Li Yue had no choice but to go ahead and attend to their needs.
In the past two days, he had already familiarised himself with the residence, and so he could efficiently assign the rooms to the women. Although there were many rooms, it was not enough to give each one of them their own room. So, the women had to share one room between any two of them.
Then, Chu Li pulled Zhao Ying over and told her to get the women settled down. More so, he told her to get a tailor to make two sets of clothes for each of them, as well as clean the house. He then told her to bring them on a walk to allow them to become accustomed to their surroundings.
Zhao Ying nodded. "Not a problem, leave it to me. Brother, where are you going?"
"I'm going after the monk!" said Chu Li.
"Isn't it too late to chase him?"
"I'll try."
"How would that be possible?"
"Either way, I'll have to try."
"You're better off not going!" exclaimed Zhao Ying as she shook her head. "You won't be able to chase after him. Even if you catch him, the news would've spread. There's no point in wasting your effort, is there?"
Chu Li shook his head. "The monk is very dangerous, we need to get rid of him!"
"What if he still has other help? It's better to be careful," said Zhao Ying. "If he can find two, he can surely find more."
Despite Zhao Ying's advice, Chu Li nodded and left silently.
As Zhao Ying starred at the silhouette of his back, she furrowed her brows and wore a worried look on her face. The monks from the Tempest Temple were not people to make light of!
"Where's Chu Li?" Li Yue walked over and asked, "Zhao Ying, are you alright?"
"Nothing." Zhao Ying hid her worried face. "Thank you for everything, Brother Li Yue."
"Hah, just some chump's job. It's such an honor to be able to help so many beautiful women," said Li Yue while he waved his hand. "Why are there so many beautiful women though?"
"I'll let Chu Li tell you about it," said Zhao Ying with a smile.
Li Yue pouted. Then, he nodded helplessly and sighed. Everyone was so tight-lipped, but his gut feeling told him that the background of this group of beautiful ladies should be a little problematic.
Fortunately, they were easy-going and not crafty nor unruly.
Chu Li glided out of the town and without a horse, which showcased the extent of his light-body technique. As the spiritual force around him all rushed into his body endlessly, it allowed him to perform his light-body technique at its peak.
When he finally arrived at the place where they had initially rested, Chu Li traced the monk's footprints with the Omniscient Mirror. The mirror covered a radius of three miles and this allowed Chu Li to find the monk's footprints without him having to stop to investigate.
Chu Li tried to track him without a pause until dawn broke, where he arrived at the tip of a mountain and stopped in front of a stone wall that was more than ten meters tall. Halfway through the stonewall was a cave where the monk was meditating in with his legs crossed on the floor. Immediately, he felt Chu Li's close presence and he opened his eyes.
He quickly probed around, but Chu Li just stood under the stone wall and waved. "Monk! We meet again!"
"What do you want?" The monk's expression was gloomy as he got up. He stood at the cave's entrance and yelled, "Is it possible that you want to kill me? Without any mercy?"
"Isn't this the same thing you did to us? I'm merely re-paying my dues," said Chu Li as he glided up into the air.
The monk suddenly took a pill and threw it into his mouth. His face immediately turned red as if he was drunk, neither did he attempt to avoid Chu Li's sword. Slowly, his face was covered in a layer of purplish-gold color.
Comments