Chapter 55 Doing Good Deeds [Second Update] "Stand back a bit, don't let your skirt..."
Dai Guangbai suddenly turned his head and stared at Mu Meng in disbelief.
He almost doubted his ears; had Mu Meng really said those words?
Before he could react, Mu Meng instantly drew a dagger from his waist, his wrist flicking with lightning speed, and thrust it straight at Dai Guangbai's throat.
Dai Guangbai was taken aback for a moment, and awkwardly dodged to the side. He was not unprepared, but he never expected Mu Meng's technique to be so fast. The longer the sword, the more life you have. She only took a dagger, and in an instant, it was as light as a cold star, forcing him to break free of the encirclement like a beast caught in a dense net.
Lu Zhaoxin watched only a few moves before smiling and casually watching the fight with his arms crossed. He glanced at the man beside him and said lazily, "Relax, can't you tell who's going to be unlucky?"
Perhaps he spoke too casually, for Zhe Qing's expression remained unchanged. He kept his brows furrowed and his eyes fixed on the two fighting in front of him, as if he were ready to rush in and help at any moment if he noticed anything amiss.
Lu Zhaoxin opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then closed it again. He could see very clearly that Zhe Qing was obviously worried, but he didn't dare to overstep his bounds since Mengmeng had just said she wanted to handle it herself.
They're just too lovable, oh well, let them be.
Mu Meng cornered Dai Guangbai in a dozen moves, watching him gradually lose his footing while sneering, "Dai Guangbai, I haven't even used my spiritual power against you yet, and this is all you've got? If I didn't want to capture you alive, would you even have a chance to breathe right now?"
The image of Dai Guangbai shaking his head and saying that she was "nothing special" was still vivid in Mu Meng's mind. She narrowed her eyes slightly and struck even faster and more ruthlessly.
We'll show this snake what she's got to do with being his great-aunt!
With a single slash, she moved like a shooting star, her blade flashing with ethereal light. Dai Guangbai, however, turned deathly pale, struggling to stay afloat, his earlier arrogance completely gone.
With nowhere left to retreat, Dai Guangbai's body was already pressed against the stone wall behind him. Mu Meng swung his knife backhand, slashing a long, bloody gash across Dai Guangbai's face, and shouted sharply, "Who is the ugly monster?!"
Lu Zhaoxin was the first to break down and laugh out loud. He had thought Mengmeng had become more and more rational and mature over the years. Just now, he saw her beat Dai Guangbai to a pulp and look so cool. But the first thing she asked was this.
Why are you acting like a child, always looking for the same old place?
He glanced at Zhe Qing: But he could understand. If it were him who was being insulted, he would just think the other person had spat dog shit, but that was Zhe Qing's personality.
No matter how much Mengmeng changes, she is still extremely kind-hearted.
Zhe Qing's thin lips moved slightly as he watched Mu Meng slash Dai Guangbai's face and hear her sharp question. His beautiful phoenix eyes widened slightly, like a pool of shallow water, flowing with dazzling light.
In a secluded corner where no one was watching, he subtly touched his heart.
Hearing Lu Zhaoxin's unseemly laughter, Mu Meng turned around and glared at him impatiently: "Stop laughing! Be quiet!"
She turned her head and slashed Dai Guangbai's face with the knife again, tearing off several snake scales in the process. "I'm asking you a question! Who's disgusting?!"
With her making one cut after another, and not saying anything, who knew what she was going to do next? Dai Guangbai immediately stammered, "I, I'm ugly, I'm disgusting."
Lu Zhaoxin's shoulders shrugged, and he clapped his hands and laughed, "Mengmeng did a good job, slash him again! He didn't even recognize me as the Ghost King! I am a great name, damn handsome, and he just glanced at me casually? Where did this backward old monster come from? As expected, the Northern Frontier is a poor and remote place, he really has no knowledge at all."
Ignoring Lu Zhaoxin's nagging, Mu Meng grabbed Dai Guangbai's collar with one hand and yanked him hard, causing him to stumble and be thrown in front of Zhe Qing.
“Apologize,” Mu Meng said in a deep voice.
Dai Guangbai stared wide-eyed in disbelief, looking up at her angrily and saying, "Mu Meng, do whatever you want with me! Is this some kind of place that talks about morality? Do you think this is your Celestial Clan?"
An apology? An apology? Bah! Who has he ever bowed his head to in his life?
Dai Guangbai rudely pointed a finger at Zhe Qing, "I'll apologize to him?"
He emphasized the word "he" heavily—what a joke! If he really lost to the Heavenly Princess and the Ghost King of the Ghost Realm, it would be one thing for him to lose face, but this man—what kind of thing is he?
Seeing his resistance, Mu Meng didn't repeat himself. Instead, he stepped hard on the back of Dai Guangbai's head, and with a "bang," Dai Guangbai's forehead slammed straight to the ground.
Mu Meng stepped firmly and looked up at Zhe Qing.
"He's already kowtowed to you, so don't take what that stinky mouth of his said to heart." Mu Meng pointed at the man whose head she was stepping on and said casually to Zhe Qing.
Her posture was arrogant, but her tone was exceptionally gentle, even somewhat like coaxing a child with meticulous care.
Zhe Qing couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips, then pursed them, but couldn't suppress her smile, her lips still curving uncontrollably. "I know. I never intended to take his words to heart."
Forget it.
He's the kind of person who insists on admitting fault even when he's not, so how could he not take Dai Guangbai's hurtful words to heart?
If Dai Guangbai had been cursing Lu Zhaoxin, or someone else, she wouldn't have gone to such lengths to save face for him.
In short, you could tell from Zhe Qing's expression that he was pleased. He hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "Thank you, young lady."
Lu Zhaoxin reminded him: "What girl? She's a princess."
Seeing that Zhe Qing was about to change his mind, Mu Meng quickly waved his hand, "Alright, let's skip these formalities."
She released Dai Guangbai, glanced at him, and asked, "Are you planning to answer me lying down, or standing up?"
Dai Guangbai wasn't stupid: "I use Gu to kill people, and you won't forgive me in the end. Whether I answer your questions or not, you will kill me anyway."
With a flick of his wrist, Mu Meng hurled the dagger, which pierced Dai Guangbai's wrist, which was hanging limply to the ground. Amidst Dai Guangbai's screams of agony, Mu Meng nodded: "I understand. So you want to answer me while lying down."
"You snake gu have always kept your tails between your legs in the northern borderlands, but you've been getting quite the limelight lately, haven't you? I wonder which deity you've latched onto? Could you introduce me to them?"
Mu Meng slowly squatted down, glancing down at the man who was still screaming in agony. "Dai Guangbai, let's not waste time. The Heavenly Clan could have either gotten involved in this mess or not, but you disrespected the Crown Prince first, then captured the Heavenly Clan's young master, and now you're desperately trying to establish a relationship with the Heavenly Clan—now that I'm here, if you try to evade the issue, don't blame me for losing patience."
Dai Guangbai gasped in pain, swallowed hard, and stubbornly stuck out his neck: "Fine, if you want to know, I won't hesitate to tell you. Mu Meng, sometimes ignorance is more blissful than knowledge; at least you won't live in constant fear."
He sneered, "Don't think you're anything special just because you killed me and wiped out all the snake worms. Just wait, someone will avenge me. You probably don't know this, but your life has been targeted for a long time."
At this point, he took a breath and let out a chilling laugh. "Mu Meng, what's there to be so arrogant about? You were just born with a Crimson Heart Pill, so what? You're just luckier than others, possessing such a supreme treasure. But fortune and misfortune are intertwined; who knows if this will be your calamity? Do you believe me...?"
"Believe it or not, one day, your prized 'pure heart,' which you're so proud of, will be ripped out along with your heart... Hahahaha," he laughed maniacally for a long time, raising his ugly eyebrows triumphantly, "You must be very curious about who he is, right? Let me tell you, he is—"
Zhe Qing's eyes flashed sharply; the cold light reflected from the silver mask paled in comparison to the intensity of his gaze. His face was ashen as he stared intently at Dai Guangbai, his hand slowly clenching into a fist at his side, awaiting his answer.
At the same time, Dai Guangbai suddenly choked, his body convulsed violently a few times, and a trace of black blood slowly gushed from his mouth.
"Holy crap..." Lu Zhaoxin rushed to his side, flipped up his collar and glanced at him, then cursed, "What the hell! He's been cursed. This kind of throat-locking curse can be controlled at will from thousands of miles away. It's strange that someone has been watching this lousy place all this time."
He stood up and looked around. All he could see were dark caves, and he wondered who had silenced Dai Guangbai in time. The thought sent chills down his spine.
Lu Zhaoxin wasn't nervous at all, and put his hands on his hips: "It's really amazing, there are more and more masters in this world."
Undeterred, Mu Meng picked up a small twig from the ground and poked Dai Guangbai twice. Seeing that his face was ashen and his snake scales were gradually becoming cold and hard, he knew that the man was dead. He had no choice but to throw down the twig and stand up. "Let's go. Let's rescue and release the humans imprisoned here first."
Zhai Qing did not move immediately.
Mu Meng turned to look at him: "What's wrong?"
Without saying a word, he walked straight over, glanced at Dai Guangbai who had been dead for a long time, bent down and used his spiritual power to examine his body, and then looked over his chest, wrists, and behind his ears where there might be remnants of spiritual incantations.
He seemed slightly unwilling and wanted to find clues to identify the person who cast the curse. Mu Meng smiled and advised, "Don't look anymore. Since it was to silence him, he naturally wouldn't leave any clues. That person was really after me, and he will definitely appear in the future. Don't waste your time on him."
I wonder what good things Dai Guangbai's backer promised him that made him cause such a commotion in the Northern Frontier, even going so far as to defy his own clan's crown prince and kidnap the Heavenly Clan's young master, constantly drawing the Heavenly Clan's attention. It must be for her sake.
Dai Guangbai just said that the man wanted to cut off her heart.
However, he probably didn't realize that he was just an insignificant pawn, and that person was merely using him to probe his true intentions.
Zhe Qing naturally understood that Mu Meng was right. After looking through it, he could only sigh softly, "I was too careless."
"Hey—you, you're taking the blame again?" Mu Meng exclaimed in amazement, then chuckled helplessly, rubbing his forehead. "He has a hidden curse on him that even he doesn't know about. How would you know? Even if you did know, how could anyone break someone else's curse?"
Zhe Qing seemed a little tired. He pinched the bridge of his nose, finally ignoring the corpse on the ground, and stood up briskly: "Let's go, let's save people first."
...
Zhe Qing was very reliable. His spiritual fire seemed to have a mind of its own, only burning where it should burn. The cave where the humans were imprisoned was completely clean, without any trace of burning.
A rough count revealed about seventy or eighty people, but few were conscious; many had been deeply infected by the snake venom and some had become half-demon.
Mu Meng walked in and glanced around, already having a general idea of what was going on. She quickly stepped forward, walked to the woman closest to her, and gently lifted her eyelids.
Fortunately, although their snake-poisoning techniques had been rampant for a while, they remained unchanged in their methods, sticking to the old ways, and had been deciphered years ago. Luckily, they hadn't come up with any new methods, making these poisons relatively easy to deal with.
As Mu Meng pondered this, she drew the dagger from her waist. Suddenly, a person rushed out from the side, pointed at her, and shouted, "You are the Heavenly Clan Princess!"
Mu Meng glanced over and saw that the person opposite him had wide eyes and was staring at him with an unfriendly expression. Recalling Lu Zhaoxin's instructions earlier, he understood what was going on.
She ignored it, pulled a clean silk handkerchief from her bosom, and casually wiped the blade of the dagger.
She ignored him, but the man spoke up:
"We don't need the Celestials to save us! The Celestials are unworthy of the title of the Great Way of the World, claiming to be righteous, but in reality they turn black into white and indiscriminately kill innocent people! You have made arbitrary accusations without investigating the matter, wronging innocent people. How can you face your conscience? How could His Highness the Crown Prince do such a thing?"
He pursed his lips and gritted his teeth, saying, "Even if—even if he did it, he has achieved countless military exploits and made countless contributions over the years! What good reputation does the Celestial Clan have? How much of it was earned for you by him alone? Shouldn't his merits and demerits be balanced and judged fairly? Why do you only consider his demerits and not his merits? How can you take his life in such a cruel way? He has no title, no rank, no tomb, and to this day, his corpse is still hanging in the air at the bottom of the Endless Cliff! Can a person be erased simply because of bloodline? Is the Celestial Clan too superior? I know His Highness the Crown Prince; he is not the kind of person you describe. I know he is not..."
"Excuse me, may I pass?"
The man was speaking passionately and getting to the point when he was suddenly interrupted by a soft voice.
Like a bucket of ice water extinguishing a raging fire, it instantly brought calm to the tense situation. Zhe Qing's voice was low and hoarse, and his face was expressionless as he simply walked between the man and Mu Meng.
Mu Meng found it somewhat amusing, yet a touch of tenderness welled up within him—this hole was so big, where else could he not pass through? Why did he have to squeeze between the two of them?
Seeing that the man's words were interrupted by Zhai Qing's action, and he was momentarily stunned and unsure of what to say, Mu Meng seized the opportunity to interject, "Judging from your sword, you should be a cultivator from the Chen family of Xialing. The Chen family is quite famous in the mortal realm; I've heard of them. Young Master Chen, if you hadn't been poisoned by the Gu and were helping to heal the other wounded, you wouldn't have any reason to stop me from saving this sister, would you?"
The man sneered: "This is my wife. We are husband and wife, and we share both glory and ruin. We do not need the help of the Heavenly Clan."
“Is that so?” Mu Meng nodded, bent down and pulled out a silk handkerchief with a corner showing from the clothes of the unconscious woman in front of him. He slowly unfolded it and stared at the delicate small characters in the corner. “The sword pendant worn by the Chen family has names engraved on it, but I see that your name is not the same as the person your wife is thinking of.”
Mu Meng curled her lips into a smile, coldly throwing a handkerchief at him. "Young Master Chen keeps saying he understands Mu Qingheng, but to what extent? Have you ever met him, spoken to him, or worked with him? You don't even know what the person next to you is thinking, so how dare you say you understand a stranger?"
The man's expression betrayed his anger. He unfolded the handkerchief with a grim face, and after seeing the words in the corner, he paused, looking up at Mu Meng with a blank expression.
Mu Meng licked his lips, his smile playful and mischievous. "I was just teasing you. Your wife is devoted to you, how could she possibly have any other name? I just wanted to take this opportunity to remind Young Master Chen to change his habit of believing everything others say. We've only just met, and you already believe me so readily, even doubting your own first wife. How can anyone believe in the innocence of the person you hold dear?"
The man was completely speechless, his face turning pale and then red. Finally, he pursed his lips, turned his head away, and stopped looking at Mu Meng.
Mu Meng didn't pursue the matter further. She picked up the dagger again and wiped it clean, pondering as she did so: Mu Qingheng's reputation in the Northern Frontier was far greater than she had imagined, and he was even more revered.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. If there had been no past life, if he hadn't hurt his sister, she would definitely have protected him in the same way.
Mu Meng shook her head, holding the dagger to her slender, snow-white arm, about to strike, when she was grabbed: "Mengmeng, no need."
Turning around, he saw Lu Zhaoxin, who drew his dagger and gestured with his lip from the side.
Mu Meng looked over and saw that Zhe Qing was holding a large, thick leaf, folded into a bowl shape, filled with fresh blood.
At this moment, he dipped his uninjured hand into the blood, using it as a spiritual guide to penetrate the foreheads of those afflicted with the curse, removing the curse from them one by one.
He placed the bamboo stick quietly on the ground, which slowed his movements considerably, but his posture remained as upright as bamboo, gentle and graceful.
He was serious and focused when he did things. After removing the curse from someone, he would ask a few questions in a low voice. After receiving a thank you, he would just shake his head and then go to the next person.
Mu Meng quickly rolled up her sleeves, snatched the dagger back from Lu Zhaoxin's hand, and walked towards Zhe Qing while turning back to scold him: "Why didn't you help?"
Lu Zhaoxin said aggrievedly, "How could I not help? Didn't you see how bright this cave is right now?"
That's true... Is this the only thing he can shine in? Oh well, there are a dozen or so glowing will-o'-the-wisps scattered throughout the cave, illuminating it brightly. Let's give him credit for that.
Mu Meng had nothing to say to him, and quickly walked to Zhe Qing's side to take Ye Zi from his hand: "You are injured, use my blood from now on."
However, after holding the leaf, he realized that he seemed to have no use for it anymore—who told him to bleed so much at once?
Seeing Mu Meng's momentary daze, Zhe Qing smiled and said, "No need, the blood I've drawn is enough. You can put the dagger away."
"This..." Mu Meng felt a little frustrated. She should have ignored that guy surnamed Chen first. She raised her small face and asked seriously, "Then... then is there anything else I can do to help you?"
"Stand back a bit, don't get your skirt dirty."
Oh… Mu Meng blinked, and unconsciously took two more steps with Zhe Qing, watching him remove the snake poison from the next person. This person's poisoning wasn't severe; he quickly opened his eyes, thanked Zhe Qing earnestly, and then his gaze fell on Mu Meng:
"Your Highness."
Mu Meng raised an eyebrow slightly: "You recognize me?"
This person had a weathered appearance; if converted to the lifespan of the Celestial Race, he would probably be about the same age as her father.
"Yes, I am Chen Guanye, the current head of the Chen family. Although I was in a daze just now, I overheard some things happening outside. My little disciple has always been spoiled and speaks without thinking, so please forgive him, Your Highness."
Mu Meng smiled, her eyes crinkling: "No, no, he was rude, but I was just as rude. We're even."
She was poised and graceful, waving her hand with a smile. Zhe Qing stood beside her with gentle eyes, his hands still moving, but he turned slightly to her and slowly raised a smile.
“Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness. You don’t know, but during the Mo Sha Rebellion back then, His Highness the Crown Prince… well, I hope you don’t mind me calling him that,” Chen Guan also seemed a little flustered. Seeing Mu Meng shake his head nonchalantly, indicating that he could speak freely, he continued, “That battle was not easy. The people of the Northern Frontier suffered, and he suffered too. Without him, this place would have long been a wasteland of bones, and how could we have the prosperity we have today? Of course, I’m not mentioning this to criticize Your Highness. I know that many things are not for outsiders to comment on, but…”
Chen Guan also looked up, his words earnest: "However, His Highness the Crown Prince is not dead; he has returned."
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