Chapter 50 Chapter 50: Too Smart for Your Own Good
Yun Bushan frowned when he heard this. The direct line just received news that the female disciple recently accepted by the head of Xuantian Sect often came to Luohua Town to play these days, and asked their family to seize the opportunity to send someone to build a good relationship with her and win her over.
It was their lecherous old father who had the idea to use the beauty trap.
Then he picked out the two brothers from among his many children, sent them to take over the restaurant, and took the opportunity to seduce Yun Miao.
They brothers knew since they were young that they looked better than their other siblings, and because of their looks they had received many advantages from their elders. Now that their eldest brother had just died, it was the right time for them to come to the fore, so they agreed immediately.
They thought that a fifteen-year-old girl was at the age of first falling in love, and that it would be easy for the brothers to seduce such an inexperienced young girl. But...
"Let's put this matter aside for now. What we need to deal with most right now is the pile of troubles at hand."
Yun Bushan sat down at the table and knocked on it with a grim expression. They had only recently taken over the restaurant when they discovered it was reduced to a charcoal mess. Yun Lujia, Hu Bo, and the others' storage bags and clothing had been completely consumed by the flames. Not a single spirit stone was left.
They went home again and wanted to withdraw some of the monthly income from the restaurant from the account, but they found that Yun Lujia reported a loss every month. Not to mention sending spirit stones to his family, his family even secretly gave him more spirit stones every month.
Of course, the matter of the spirit stones was easy to deal with. They quickly rebuilt the Yunlai Restaurant after paying for it out of their own pockets. But before they could be happy, a more difficult problem arose.
Yesterday, a businessman who claimed to have paid a deposit came to their door, and they discovered that Yun Lujia was actually reselling Xuanxin Mine in private!
Although it is only a low-grade Xuanxin ore, it is well known that the Xuanxin ore in the Xuantian Mountains is the private property of the Xuantian Sect. Whoever touches it is digging into the Xuantian Sect's territory. Even the direct descendants of the Yun family are jealous of this business but dare not get involved.
Yun Lujia was so bold as to actually do this, was he really going to die?!
...wait, he's dead, oh, that's okay.
In short, the merchants are now waiting for the goods, but they don’t have any Xuanxin ore on hand!
Yun Bushan: "This matter must not be exposed. Otherwise, not only will the Xuantian Sect cause trouble for our family, but our clan will also directly kill us and use our corpses to beg for forgiveness from the Xuantian Sect."
Yunbu Temple: "What should we do? The merchant said he must see the goods tonight."
"What else can I do? Of course..."
Yun Bushan made a gesture of wiping his neck.
Yun Bu Si became even more anxious. "But that merchant is a master in the Golden Core Stage, and we are only in the Foundation Establishment Stage. Father is in the Golden Core Stage, but that damn old man is just a product of pill consumption. There is no way we can defeat him."
Yun Bushan: "Didn't the family send another retainer who is at the Jindan stage? Let's go find that retainer and kill him with a borrowed knife. Once that merchant is dead, we'll naturally be safe."
Yunbu Temple's first reaction was that it was not possible. The retainer was sent by the family and it was impossible for him to keep it secret for them.
"Then let's not let our retainers know this secret."
Yun Bushan asked his brother to lean over and whispered a few words to him with a sneer.
*
Bang!
In the afternoon, a loud noise woke up half of the people in Luohua Town. Yun Miao and the other two who were feeding chickens and ducks in Grandma Hua's yard suddenly looked up and saw a striking black smoke rising in the distance.
Then Yun Bushan’s loud shout resounded throughout Luohua Town.
"Who on earth are you? How dare you come to my Yun family's territory and cause trouble?!"
"My fellow comrades, if anyone can help me capture those murderous and robbing bandits up ahead, I will reward you handsomely!"
Huo Xin: "That direction... is it the Yunlai Restaurant? What's going on?"
Tan Xiaobai: "A robber who kills and steals? Who is he?"
Yun Miao’s player radar sounded, is this a side quest?
"You'll know when you go and take a look."
Being a person of action, she dumped the vegetable leaves on the ground and jumped over the courtyard wall on tiptoe. Tan Xiaobai and Huo Xin followed immediately. The three of them walked on the eaves as if it were flat ground and soon stood on the roof of the Huangmao Tavern.
From this position, one can clearly see that most of the fifth floor of the Yunlai Restaurant has been blown to pieces. The inside is in a mess, with several bloody corpses hanging on the edge of the broken railings.
Thick blood dripped down the railing like beads from a broken string, onto the plaque on the first floor. The black characters "Yun Lai" (Clouds Come) outlined in gold gradually turned an ominous scarlet. The street was littered with broken tiles, broken wood, and gray stones of various sizes.
Pedestrians hid in nearby buildings. The mortal shop owners skillfully accepted passers-by, then closed the shop doors and only peeked at the situation outside through the cracks in the doors and windows.
The monks in the town gathered together, some standing on the nearby rooftops, some hanging directly in the air, looking at the tragic situation of the Yunlai Restaurant in confusion.
The Huangmao Tavern was not closed. Manager Pan and a few burly men were standing outside the store, eating melon seeds and watching the excitement.
Huo Xin, who was standing on the roof, asked below, "Manager Pan, what happened?"
Shopkeeper Pan said he was not quite sure what happened. He just heard a loud bang outside, and then broken tiles, broken wood and a lot of low-grade dark stones fell around like raindrops.
Several figures flew out from the fifth floor of the Yunlai Restaurant. The two new young masters of the Yun family and a group of thugs soon chased out. The loud shout that Yun Miao and others heard just now was made by one of the young masters of the Yun family. At that time, his left arm was covered in blood and hung limply, probably because he was injured.
The purple-clothed corpse on the railing belonged to a cultivator who often came to buy large quantities of Obscure Stone. Over the years, there were only a few big customers doing Obscure Stone business in Luohua Town, so Shopkeeper Pan recognized him at a glance.
"I've heard that Yun Lujia was also secretly dealing in obscure stones. I guess the two young masters of the Yun family were just discussing business with someone on the fifth floor when a group of robbers suddenly attacked them."
"Since the Yunlai Restaurant opened, there have been fires and robberies. It's been much busier than our little shop. Tsk tsk, I think it's probably bad feng shui."
Shopkeeper Pan made no secret of his gloating. He then raised his hand and asked Huo Xin and the other two if they wanted to have some too.
Huo Xin was about to decline when Yun Miao jumped down to grab a handful. Tan Xiaobai followed suit and asked for some. Huo Xin followed suit silently, but still didn't ask for any melon seeds.
Yun Miao thanked Shopkeeper Pan and said, "By the way, where's the chicken feather?"
Shopkeeper Pan: "The boss went out yesterday for something and hasn't come back yet."
Yun Miao looked thoughtful: Ji Huangmao is a killer, not a robber, and he left yesterday, so it seems that this matter has little to do with him.
Tan Xiaobai munched on sunflower seeds and commented, "It's just opened and it's already like this. This Yunlai Restaurant is really unlucky. It's a good thing the boss didn't accept their invitation, otherwise we would have been saddled with bad luck as well."
Huo Xin: "The Yun family is an aristocratic family after all. These robbers actually dared to come here to kill and rob. The identity behind them must be quite powerful."
Yun Miao glanced at the purple-clothed corpse on the fifth floor, with a Jindan stage indicator above its head. "The Jindan stage cultivators all died so tragically, but the Yun brothers were only in the Foundation Establishment stage and only injured an arm. I think this might be a case of the thief crying 'stop thief'."
In her opinion, everything in front of her was just the prelude to the side quest.
There may be countless coincidences in reality, but holographic games are constructed by humans, and every plot here must have a deep meaning.
The Yun Lujia from before was clearly a cannon fodder NPC. The Yun family is the player's enemy faction, and the brothers of Yunbu Mountain and Yunbu Temple are also hostile NPCs. The game has been laying the groundwork for so long, so naturally, it wouldn't just let the player kill an ordinary robber monster.
Based on her many years of gaming experience, she was certain that this side quest might be the beginning of a series of quests.
As long as she follows this side quest, there will be countless small quests related to the Yun family. One after another, the player will be guided to dig out the big secret of the Yun family.
The final outcome of the mission is either to wipe out the Yun family or for the player to completely destroy the Yun family.
Yun Miao hated the Yun family and refused any attempt to whitewash them, so she chose to assume the utmost malice towards the Yun brothers. The thief crying "stop thief" trope had long been rife in TV dramas, novels, and games, so she thought of this possibility almost without hesitation.
Huo Xin and Tan Xiaobai felt that it was unlikely. Yun Lujia had previously withdrawn five thousand taels of spirit stones from the restaurant's account, and then there was the fire. She could understand that the restaurant had no money in its account, but she was a child of a noble family after all. Even if she was short of money, she should not do such a stupid thing as killing the chicken to get the eggs, right?
Moreover, the business of dark stone is characterized by small profits but quick turnover. The payment that the merchant brought with him should not be enough to attract the Yun family’s children, right?
"Who knows, maybe there's a bigger secret hidden in there."
Yun Miao recalled the previous casual conversation at the Huangmao Tavern and said in a deep tone, "Maybe it's related to the Xuanxin Mine."
She had simply combined the keywords of recently acquired quests, as players often do, but it startled anyone who heard it. Shopkeeper Pan stopped eating sunflower seeds and pricked up his ears.
Huo Xin knew that this kind of thing could not be talked about on the street, so he pulled Yun Miao to an empty alley.
Huo Xin's face was serious: "Are you saying that what they are trading is not the Dark Stone, but the Mysterious Heart Ore?"
Tan Xiaobai was suspicious: "But even if the deal fails, there is still righteousness. Why would they kill people?"
Huo Xin frowned and mentioned an incident that happened not long ago. Many people took advantage of the Yun family's absence to go to the ruins to try to find something, but they accidentally discovered something strange about the ruins.
They did not find any melted gold or silver or broken porcelain pieces inside, and there were very few copper and iron blocks. The coke produced was also more than half less than normal. Judging from the intact coke, they should all be the frames of the restaurant, and there was no trace of any tables, chairs, or cabinets.
It was as if... someone had taken away all the gold, silver, porcelain, chests, tables and chairs in the Yunlai Restaurant before the fire.
"Some people even mocked the killer who had brought fortune to the Treasure House, saying he was so broke that he was selling scraps after killing someone. But another guess is that the killer had searched through the restaurant's drawers and cabinets looking for something. Since he didn't find anything, he simply took away every possible storage container and container."
Tan Xiaobai clapped his left hand with his folding fan. "Perhaps what he's looking for is the Xuanxin Mine, and it might even be a top-grade Xuanxin Mine. Someone accidentally learned that Yun Lujia had the top-grade Xuanxin Mine, so they bribed the assassins at Zhaocai Jinbao Tower to kill people and steal the treasure!"
Huo Xin: "It could also be something else, involving greater interests and deeper secrets. And that thing may have been taken away by the killer. When the businessman came to take it, the Yun brothers couldn't give it to him. The two sides may have had an argument or some other conflict, so they simply killed him to silence him.
Yun Miao was stunned. She had just said it casually, but she didn't expect Huo Xin and Tan Xiaobai to cover it up for her.
Huo Xin spoke responsibly, "The destruction of the Yunlai Restaurant overnight is indeed full of suspicious points. Luohua Town is right at the foot of our sect, after all, and the Yun family are all very shifty... Let's go back and tell Senior Brother Niu first."
Yun Miao hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not reveal that he was the "killer" who picked up garbage. The three of them first went to say hello to Grandma Hua, and then began to fly back on their swords.
Little did they know that just as they left the alley, an old man walked out of the Yunlai Restaurant with a frown on his face, and flew towards the direction where the Yun Bushan brothers had left.
*
Yun Miao and the other two rode on their flying swords, the whistling wind filling their ears as Luohua Town was quickly left behind. Below them, the golden farmland transformed into lush green mountains, overlapping peaks.
Tan Xiaobai was still chattering about what treasures were hidden in the Yunlai Restaurant, his tone full of pride as if he had discovered someone else's secret.
But the next moment, the scenery around them suddenly changed. All they could see was a blur, and then their feet went empty, rapidly falling towards the river below.
At the critical moment, Yun Miao immediately used the Water Control Technique to save himself. A column of water rushed out from the river, and like a dragon's tail, it quickly knocked the three people in the air to the shore.
Bang bang bang!
The three of them fell to the shore together. Yun Miao stood up and calmly dusted himself off: "That was a close call. We almost fell into the river."
Huo Xin supported himself on a big tree beside him with one hand and slowly stood up without changing his expression.
Only Tan Xiaobai stood up with tears in his eyes, holding his buttocks: "Boss, my buttocks are almost broken in two, it's better to fall into the river!"
Yun Miao smiled lovingly: "Silly child, human buttocks are made in two halves. You should cry if your buttocks were born as one."
Tan Xiaobai was bewildered: "Is... is that so?"
Huo Xin: ...It’s bullshit!
"Miss Yun, we meet again."
The sudden sound made Yun Miao and the other two look up warily. They saw Yunbu Temple on Yunbu Mountain and an unfamiliar old man slowly descending from the sky. The flying sword that Yun Miao had just disappeared was in the old man's hand.
Yun Miao glanced around and saw that all three were Red-named monsters, and the old man was even a Golden Core-stage Red-named monster. He immediately chose to save the game.
On the other side, Huo Xin's hand had already touched the disciple token, but he found that he could not send the message for help to the sect at all.
Yunbu Temple sneered, "Don't waste your energy. This is an ancient relic, a secret realm opened up by ancient masters using their immense magical powers. The communication jade slips are useless here. The same goes for your disciple orders."
Huo Xin frowned: "Ancient ruins?"
She looked around and saw a dark, gloomy forest ahead, a rushing river behind, and a gray sky, with neither sun nor clouds. She couldn't hear any insects or birdsong, as if they were the only living creatures here. The situation looked very strange.
Yun Bu Si looked at their wary expressions, feeling a sense of relief. "Don't you want to know what that killer was looking for in the restaurant, rummaging through everything? It's actually very simple: he's looking for the key to this secret realm. Unfortunately, those idiots don't know that only our Yun family knows how to use this key."
Yun Miao's eyes lit up: "So how do we use it?"
Yunbu Temple: "Of course first..."
"No need to waste time talking to them."
Yun Bushan interrupted his brother. He dropped his usual modesty and looked down at Yun Miao. "You're really smart. You even figured out that we were crying thief and figured out the matter of the Xuanxin Mine. We underestimated you before."
They had originally told Uncle Wang that Yun Lujia had previously traded with the merchant for dark stones. Now the merchant had come to pick up the goods, but the restaurant had no money on its books. So they asked Uncle Wang to stage a murder and robbery, a thief crying "stop thief," to fill the hole in the account. After the deed was done, Uncle Wang would get half of the profit.
Things were going smoothly, but they didn't expect that the little girl they looked down upon would reveal their true colors. When Uncle Wang came to question them, they were completely stunned, and they still find it a little unbelievable.
Fortunately, the retainer they sent this time, Uncle Wang, was a greedy man. They gritted their teeth and gave him their entire fortune in exchange for his promise not to inform the clan. Otherwise, once the three of them returned to Xuantian Sect and told them about it, they wouldn't have survived until tomorrow morning.
Thinking of this, Yun Bushan looked at Yun Miao with a hint of fear in his eyes.
"You're only fifteen, yet you were able to see through our carefully planned scheme based on just that little hearsay. You're truly incredibly intelligent. No wonder the Xuantian Sect's leader accepted you as his personal disciple."
"Unfortunately, being too prominent isn't a good thing. The matter of the Xuanxin Mine must not be leaked. So I have no choice but to ask you to go to Huangquan first. Uncle Wang, get started."
"yes."
Having earned a large sum of spirit stones, Uncle Wang was in a good mood and was willing to give the Yun brothers some face. He responded respectfully and walked towards Yun Miao and the other two.
As Wang Bo raised his foot, Yun Miao, Huo Xin, and Tan Xiaobai rushed towards him. The emerald ball transformed into a meteor and smashed into his solar plexus. The flaming blade of the long sword swung towards his neck, and three balls of lightning flew straight towards his eyes and heart.
Seeing this, Uncle Wang smiled calmly, and simply stopped and waved his palm forward. A huge earth wall immediately met the three attacks.
At the same time, Yun Miao and the other two, who had been rushing towards him like arrows, had already reached a position three steps away from him. Suddenly, the three of them leaped up! And then...
A tattered iron sword materialized out of thin air beneath Yun Miao's feet. Huo Xin and Tan Xiaobai leaped onto it in unison, the three of them leaping over Wang Bo, Yunbushan, and Yunbusi with the swiftness of goats.
Wang Bo/Yunbu Mountain/Yunbu Temple: ???
Yun Miao: [Run, run, run! That old man is at the fifth level of the Golden Core Stage. We can't defeat him. Quickly activate the defense array on your disciple uniform!]
Although she likes to fight to the death occasionally, she is not a fool. There are three people in the Qi Refining stage on their side, and one in the fifth level of the Golden Core stage and two in the third level of the Foundation Establishment stage on the other side. What the hell is the point of fighting? If she doesn't run away now, when will she run away?
Because the Broken Iron Sword was just ordinary iron that the senior sister bought in bulk to cut wheat, it was not a magic weapon and could not be enlarged or shrunk, so the space for the three people to stand was limited.
Yun Miao stood in front, steering the boat, Huo Xin stood in the middle, holding her waist, while Tan Xiaobai stood at the back, also holding Huo Xin's waist. The three of them were like young birds clinging to each other in the wind and rain, afraid of being blown out of the nest.
Tan Xiaobai: "Boss, they're catching up! Ah, something's poking my butt!"
He was so scared that he felt like he was electrocuted all over. Fortunately, the disciple uniforms of the three people had already turned on the defense mode. The hazy light enveloped their whole bodies, which did not give him the opportunity to hit his teammates.
"You stand in the middle!"
Huo Xin freed one hand to grab Tan Xiaobai's belt, and quickly let go of Yun Miao's waist with the other hand. With just a turn of her body, she and Tan Xiaobai switched positions.
Doing this in the air was undoubtedly extremely dangerous; if you weren't careful, you'd fall and get smashed into a pulp. Tan Xiaobai was startled and quickly hugged Yun Miao's waist tightly.
Yun Miao gasped and hurriedly asked him to loosen up, but the wind was so strong that Tan Xiaobai behind him couldn't hear her. She had no choice but to switch to communicating with her spiritual sense: [Let go, you're strangling me.]
Tan Xiaobai's eyes were filled with the countless earth spikes flying towards him from behind, and he paid no attention to Yun Miao's words: "I'm almost scared to death, Boss, turn the corner quickly!"
Yun Miao had the spiritual awareness to take care of the rear, so he naturally saw the attack from behind. He hurriedly urged the ladder to rush forward, while controlling the flying sword to dodge left and right in the air.
Unfortunately, only she can enter the ladder to heaven. She has to wait until she reaches the Jindan stage at least before she is able to lead others in or lock up the enemy.
Damn it! Ultimately, she's just too weak. Farming can't save the players. She'll have to work hard to level up when she returns!
Although Yun Miao tried his best to dodge, there were still a few that slipped through the net and flew towards them. Tan Xiaobai and Huo Xin immediately took action, one used a ball of thunder to blow away the earth spikes that were far away, and the other swung a knife to cut off the earth spikes that were flying close.
However, the gap between the Jindan stage and the Qi Refining stage is too huge. Even if the attack power of an earth spike is only one thousandth of Wang Bo's attack power, it makes the two of them feel very tired, and sweat gradually appears on their foreheads.
clang!
Huo Xin's long sword trembled and let out a whine. She tightened her grip on the sword and looked down to see an ugly crack on the blade that she had wiped carefully.
Half of the earth spike that she split into two parts bounced onto Tan Xiaobai's side buttocks, and he immediately let out another roar.
Seeing that this was not going to work, Yun Miao gritted his teeth and plunged into the gloomy forest, trying to block the pursuers behind him with the help of the towering ancient trees in the forest.
The dense branches and leaves seemed to strike their faces and bodies like countless slaps. Although they couldn't break the defenses of the disciple uniform, this harassment did slow Yun Miao's progress.
They thought that the pursuers behind them would be slowed down, but unexpectedly a huge ochre-colored handprint came towards them like a tidal wave. Wherever it passed, countless towering ancient trees fell down one by one, making bursts of broken wails.
"Well, if the tiger doesn't show its might, you guys would really think I'm a sick cat."
Tan Xiaobai yelled angrily, took out a yellow talisman and threw it out.
The yellow talisman suddenly exploded in the air, with a deafening rumbling sound.
-----------------------
Author's words: Tan Xiaobai: Tian Laokou, my butt seems to be a little dead. What should I do? QAQ
Tian Laokou: Speak more politely. And call me by my honorific.
Tan Xiaobai: Okay, Tian Laokou, my buttocks seem to be a little dead, what should I do? QAQ
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