Chapter 62 Eagle Gate and Night Armor
Chapter 62
However, the old man returned with Bai Cen and Zhao Tong earlier than Wang Sumo had expected.
Before noon, the three of them caught up.
It was quite a sight; when we caught up, the old man was holding a tree branch, looking both exhausted and too angry to speak.
Zhao Tong was capable of keeping a gloomy face and not speaking all day, and he was also expressionless.
Only Bai Cen sighed softly, then was forced to speak, "Master, there was a small accident along the way..."
"What kind of minor accident is this?" Although Wang Sumo hadn't known Bai Cen for long, he was certain that Bai Cen wasn't the kind of person who would knowingly go to Shanhe Town to stir up trouble when the town was currently in a state of chaos.
Bai Cen has something to attend to.
Bai Cen: "..."
Bai Cen blinked, pondering how to organize his thoughts.
The old man was furious and blurted out, "He had nothing better to do than steal the Night Armor of the Eagle Sect leader. The Eagle Sect has set up a bunch of dogs on the gate tower of Shanhe Town to look for him! Luckily, he's quick on his feet and bold enough to sneak out!"
Wang Sumo: (⊙o⊙)…
Bai Cen shrugged. "That dog is looking for someone, not me."
Wang Sumo: "..."
Bai Cen corrected, "That dog was sent by the imperial court to the Eagle Gate to find the person they wanted to arrest, not me. The Night Armor worn by the Eagle Gate leader wasn't originally his either. He didn't dare to make a fuss about it being stolen, much less send a pack of dogs to search for me so openly. By the time he finished dealing with things in Shanhe Town, the dogs wouldn't even remember the scent anymore. As for the Night Armor, only heaven, earth, the boss, the old man, I, and Brother Zhao know. The Eagle Gate won't even bother looking for it! This matter is over..."
“But no one at Bazhenlou has ever committed petty theft!” the old man interrupted.
Bai Cen was stunned.
The old man was furious. "Don't bring your messy habits from the martial arts world to the Eight Treasures Pavilion! Today it's Eagle Gate, tomorrow it will be..."
Bai Cen interrupted, "That wasn't originally Su Wuji's thing."
This was the first time Bai Cen had interrupted the old man.
Moreover, his tone was unusually calm, so calm that it was somewhat unexpected.
Wang Sumo and Zhao Tong were both stunned, and the old man also stood frozen in place.
Bai Cen lowered his head and said, "That was left to me by my mother. It was stolen when I was traveling the world, and I don't know how it ended up with Su Wuji... It's my mother's keepsake, and I have to get it back. I'm sorry, I won't be so reckless in the future..."
After Bai Cen finished speaking, he slowly propped himself up.
The old man wanted to speak, but hesitated and stopped.
Zhao Tong looked at Bai Cen's back and suddenly remembered that Bai Cen had been chattering all the way back, and that the old man had been chasing him around. Zhao Tong lowered his eyes indifferently.
After Bai Cen returned to the carriage, Wang Sumo also came to her senses and gently comforted the old man, saying, "Grandpa, he must have been thinking of his mother."
Zhao Tong also looked at Wang Sumo.
The old man's eyes were filled with a mixture of shock, surprise, annoyance, guilt, and lingering anger from before. These complex emotions were difficult to calm down for a while.
Wang Sumo comforted him, "Grandpa, give him some time."
However, the old man also looked towards the carriage, and the emotion in his eyes gradually faded.
Wang Sumo continued, "I'll go see him later, don't worry."
It was Wang Sumo's words, "Don't worry," that struck a chord with the old man.
The old man nodded silently.
Wang Sumo then looked at Zhao Tong, "Brother Zhao, what about your side?"
The best way to leave a topic behind is to start another one.
Zhao Tong also snapped out of his thoughts and said calmly, "I arranged with Bai Cen to meet at a certain time and place. If I don't see him, I will go into the city to look for him."
"Shanhe Town isn't big. I told him where to buy the supplies, so it's easy to find him. Bai Cen is quick-witted and has good lightness skills, so there's nothing to worry about. But time flew by and the agreed time had passed."
"At that time, the city gate was no longer easy to enter but strict to leave. As dusk approached, we saw that old people and young women would be detained together. By night, people were no longer allowed to leave the city. I thought it was not a good place to stay, and I was also afraid that you would worry, so I found a safe place that I had found when I was waiting for Bai Cen, crossed the city wall, and sneaked in."
"Because the news that people were not allowed to leave the city from the city gates reached the city, a sense of panic began to spread. At the time when people should have been closing their doors and windows, many people were outside trying to find out what was going on. Some people also sensed something was wrong and began to hoard their daily food and oil, so the city was brightly lit very late last night."
"With so many people in the city, it's hard to find Bai Cen. I've been keeping an eye out for Bai Cen's whereabouts while also inquiring about what's going on in the city. I've heard quite a bit. It seems that the person we're looking for this time is an important official in the imperial court."
Wang Sumo rested her chin on her hand and sighed softly, "A high-ranking official in the court?"
The kind where someone commits a crime?
Zhao Tong nodded. "Their official rank and grade have not been revealed, but it is said that it was directly authorized by the Emperor, so no one dares to be careless. However, this matter is of great importance, and before last night, there was no definite conclusion. The city could only keep an eye on it, and last night they started detaining people to prevent them from leaving."
The old man looked at him and said, "You can find out about this kind of thing just by asking around on the street?"
Zhao Tong calmly said, "I arrested a government official for questioning, and then thought I'd scare him a little, but there was really nothing around to scare him. Just then, a trained eagle from Eagle Gate swooped down at me..."
The force of an eagle swooping down is so great that even an ordinary expert cannot withstand it.
Zhao Tong said in a deep voice, "It must have seen the person I captured and came to rescue him. I don't know when the people of Eagle Gate started working for the imperial court. I haven't used a knife in a long time, so I killed the eagle that swooped down at me."
"I originally just wanted to scare that court official once, but I ran into this trouble. After I resolved the problem, the court official was completely stunned. Before I could even speak, he saw me turn to him and couldn't wait to start talking. He couldn't stop himself from saying everything, whether I wanted to or not."
Wang Sumo: →_→
Old man: →_→
Zhao Tong continued, "We can't go any further north, we need to head east to avoid it."
Eastward?
Wang Sumo and the old man both crossed their arms and looked at Zhao Tong. People tend to become more and more alike when they spend a lot of time together. At least, in Zhao Tong's opinion, the old man and Wang Sumo's crossed arms had become so synchronized that even their expressions and demeanor, apart from their individual characteristics, were gradually converging.
Zhao Tong suddenly wondered if one day he would also be like that, and that even an unintentional action of his would suddenly bear the mark of Bazhenlou.
But for now, Zhao Tong still needs to continue. "After knocking that court official unconscious, I also dealt with the eagle. The fish-slaughtering knife technique is unique and easily recognized. To avoid unnecessary trouble in the future, I disguised it as a knife technique from another school. For the time being, it will not be associated with the fish-slaughtering knife, nor will it cause trouble for the Eight Treasures Pavilion."
Wang Sumo recalled that when he was in Carp Town, he was very casual about slaughtering chickens, fish, and ducks, and he wasn't afraid of being known.
The current situation is indeed due to the Eight Treasures Pavilion.
The Eight Treasures Pavilion travels far and wide, and will inevitably encounter fellow travelers in the martial arts world. It's better to avoid trouble.
Wang Sumo rested her chin on her hand, "Won't these eagles smell their own kind on you?"
Wang Sumo recalled that a storyteller had mentioned that there were sects in the martial arts world that relied on taming animals to establish themselves, and one of the stories was that these tamed animals had a connection with each other.
If Zhao Tong kills one of them, his body or knife will be stained with the eagle's blood, which should attract other eagles.
Sure enough, Zhao Tong nodded. "Indeed, a few eagles have been eyeing me. I suddenly remembered that, so I found some clothes in town, changed into them, and threw away my old clothes."
"Where's the knife?" the old man asked.
Clothes can be thrown away, but his fish-cleaning knife can't be easily discarded.
Zhao Tong calmly replied, "I found a place and buried it in a jar. I'll come back and dig it up when I have time."
The old man: "???"
The old man looked at him as if he were reading a fairy tale. Was he buried?
"Go back and dig it out again when you have time?!" The old man's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Are you referring to his fish-cleaning knife?
Although the old man uses the Cloud Piercing Mountain Breaking Hand technique and doesn't carry many weapons, everyone knows that most people always carry their weapons when traveling the martial arts world. Even if they change their weapons, they won't feel comfortable using them. This is especially true for the "Fish Slaughtering Knife" that he has used for so long and whose fame is almost as great as his own.
The old man didn't understand.
But Wang Sumo's chin-resting posture had naturally changed to covering her mouth and laughing.
Others didn't know, but Zhao Tong had told her.
His fish-cleaning knife was originally used for cleaning fish, and he was so used to it that he never changed it.
But for a cook, it's certainly better to use familiar knives, but unfamiliar ones can be gradually mastered, at most they'll just be less user-friendly; unlike a true江湖人士 (jianghu person), for whom the sword is their life, and the sword's breakage means certain death.
For Zhao Tong, it was just a matter of temporarily switching to a fish-cleaning knife that he wasn't used to. He would retrieve his original fish-cleaning knife when he had the chance to return later.
The old man simply couldn't understand such a simple and straightforward logic.
Wang Sumo understood.
Zhao Tong paused for a moment, then nodded again, "If there's no chance to dig it out, then so be it."
That's it?
The old man has truly lived a long life and seen a lot; this has broadened his horizons.
"And then?" Wang Sumo couldn't help but laugh.
Zhao Tong continued calmly, "Later I saw Bai Cen, who was being chased and had to hide. It seemed that something was going on in the town at that time, and the garrison was searching for him all over the streets. I bumped into Bai Cen, reached out and dragged him into an alley, temporarily avoiding the people from Eagle Gate."
“He stole…” Wang Sumo changed her words, “He was caught taking the Night Armor?”
Zhao Tong nodded, "That should be the case, but not everyone in the Eagle Gate is chasing him. When I was looking for him, I heard the people from the imperial court telling the Eagle Gate that it was an old man with a girl of sixteen or seventeen years old. This girl may also be disguised as a man."
An elderly high-ranking official of the imperial court was with a girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old...
Wang Sumo sensed something amiss.
Zhao Tong continued, "I pulled Bai Cen into an alley and told him to hide for the time being. Then I went out to scout out if there were any other convenient ways to leave. On this trip, I overheard the Eagle Gate people telling their subordinates to put the Night Armor matter aside for now and not to delay important matters. If this matter is messed up, the entire Eagle Gate will not be able to bear the consequences."
If this is serious business and we mess it up, the entire Eagle Gate will be in serious trouble...
It's getting more and more mysterious.
Sure enough, nothing good ever comes from getting involved with the imperial court, so heading east was the right thing to do.
The old man sighed and said, "So that brat was lucky; the Eagle Gate people stopped chasing him."
Zhao Tong nodded. "Besides Eagle Gate, I also saw other sects in the city, mostly small sects in the martial arts world. Eagle Gate is considered large among them, but it's still a sect that people can name. It seems that some people in the imperial court are trying to win over these sects to do things for the court."
Wang Sumo blinked. "Aside from defending the borders against enemies, there are also floods and droughts. It's rare for martial arts sects to get involved with the imperial court."
“That’s right,” the old man affirmed. “But this time it seems different. Either the benefits have been sufficient, or they have been threatened. But the person behind the scenes who can control so many martial arts sects must be extraordinary.”
The old man said in a deep voice, "Perhaps these small sects are just the beginning, and who knows how many more martial arts sects will be dragged down with them..."
Wang Sumo and Zhao Tong both fell silent.
Wang Sumo recalled the first time she met Bai Cen; the ripped relief grain bags on the dock were filled with impurities...
There must have been sects working for the imperial court, or for certain people within the court, for a long time.
"Let's go, we can't stay in this kind of place any longer." The old man propped himself up.
Wang Sumo looked at Zhao Tong and said gently, "Thank you for your hard work, Brother Zhao. Also, here's your fish-cleaning knife..."
Zhao Tong disagreed, saying, "I haven't used a knife in a long time, but this is my first time killing an eagle. It's worth it."
Wang Sumo has a big head.
Zhao Tong had also gotten up to help the old man, but then, as if remembering something, he turned back to look at her and asked, "Do you know Su Wuji, the leader of the Eagle Gate? Are you familiar with him?"
Wang Sumo was completely bewildered and shook her head in confusion.
She had heard of Eagle Gate, though mostly from storytellers.
But even if Su Wuji had heard of the Eight Treasures Pavilion, he shouldn't know her.
She had no connection with Su Wuji.
"That's good, I must have misheard." Zhao Tong didn't say anything more.
Wang Sumo didn't really care that Zhao Tong misheard her sentence. Instead, she turned to look at the carriage that Bai Cen had just gone to.
— That was left to me by my mother; I have to get it back.
Having grown accustomed to Bai Cen's usual antics with the old man, Bai Cen's sudden appearance just now made her feel somewhat uneasy...
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