Chapter 10 Someone hit her, and she hit back.
"The hundredth! Done!" Ji Mingran cheered, raising his arms.
It was exactly the fifteenth day. After working tirelessly day and night, she finally completed all the tasks assigned by Boss Jiang at the hour of Chou (1-3 AM).
"Congratulations." Seeing her beaming, Yu Tianxing's eyes warmed. "Rest well, we still have to go to the shop later."
Ji Mingran stuffed the items on the table into his bundle before looking up at Yu Tianxing, who was sitting on the bed with a face ashen as a corpse: "You were lucky to survive the night before last. Take good care of your injuries. I'll go there by myself today. It's the perfect time to leave now."
Yu Tianxing frowned: "But you haven't slept a wink tonight."
"It's just tonight, I can manage." Ji Mingran was determined to leave. "This isn't the first time I've walked at night, I know it very well."
"We need to bring the sword."
"Okay, okay, okay." With her bundle on her back and a sword at her waist, she left without looking back, waving her hand, "Go and rest."
Carrying a large bundle and setting out in the fading light of dawn, tiptoeing as he opened and closed doors, Ji Mingran felt more like a fugitive thief than a shop assistant.
Clearly, the person on the other side did not think so.
"Where is Uncle Yu?" the young man asked.
Ji Mingran stared in astonishment at the person who had inexplicably appeared in the courtyard: "Huh? Who? Who are you?"
She didn't recognize the man, but the docile animal lying at his feet looked familiar.
My ankle wound is throbbing with pain.
Isn't this the vicious dog that bit her a few days ago?!
"Ji Mingran, a notorious nemesis in town, is the newly accepted disciple of Master Jiang. He first injured my cousin, and then kidnapped my sect's senior master." The young man looked Ji Mingran up and down, his gaze landing on Ji Mingran's broken leg. He sneered, "Even a child couldn't defeat him. It's all because my senior master has a reputation that gave you an opportunity to take advantage of him."
Pan Dou followed the scent left by his senior brother Yu outside the residence and tracked it all the way here. He lay in ambush outside the shop for two days and observed that, apart from ordinary customers, the only ordinary person entering and leaving the shop was the lame child in front of him.
He couldn't believe that the perpetrator of such atrocities was a emaciated little girl.
But Wang Mao, who had just woken up from his coma, reluctantly admitted under repeated questioning that the person who stabbed him in the backyard that night and then went out through the hole in the wall was indeed her.
It was perfectly normal for Wang Mao to be beaten; he had long expected this day to come, but he hadn't anticipated being brutally beaten by children.
But considering that the person who was beaten was Wang Mao, this is still not surprising.
As for her senior sister, by sacrificing her own life, she could break one of her opponent's legs.
The opponent was just a child.
Such a disgrace to Hong Qizong!
The young man frowned deeply: "Wang Mao begged me not to hurt you. If you honestly hand over your master, I can spare your life. Otherwise, it won't just be a broken leg."
"I am Ji Mingran, that's true, but I don't understand a word of what you said about the rest?" The child's eyes showed confusion, and his face was full of bewilderment and surprise.
However, there was none of the fear that a normal child would feel if they saw a stranger in the courtyard late at night.
Trying to fool him? That's wishful thinking.
“Hongqi Sect, Meng Yingyang.” The vicious dog at the young man’s feet stood up. He patted the dog’s head and looked down at Ji Mingran. “Everyone in the cultivation world knows that Wang Mao is my cousin and Yu Yuerong is my senior uncle.”
Who knows who he is? Ji Mingran didn't care about what he told her; she only cared about one thing: "Where's Xiaocan?"
The shop door was closed as usual, but Xiaocan was nowhere to be seen. However, everything inside the shop was as neat and orderly as ever, so she assumed that Xiaocan was in the courtyard.
To my surprise, this was the only person I saw upon entering the courtyard.
Meng Yingyang crossed his arms and snorted coldly: "If these evil creatures are not controlled, they may harm the human world. I have long heard that Master Jiang is secretly studying evil arts. Now that the evidence is conclusive, I will go back and report to the Ten Sects of Cultivation, requesting that Master Jiang come out of the mountains to eradicate their spiritual roots and abolish their cultivation."
Ji Mingran looked around but couldn't see Xiaocan anywhere. His heart sank slightly: "It's just an ordinary shop assistant doing ordinary business. It's unreasonable for the Taoist priest to break into the shop at night, make baseless accusations, and fabricate charges against me."
“Ordinary.” Meng Yingyang repeated the two words sarcastically. He looked around, kicked the coffin next to him, wrinkled his nose in disgust, and casually picked up a paper figure and threw it at Ji Mingran’s feet. “Dilapidated and full of evil spirits. It’s unbelievable that Master Jiang has fallen to such a state, only playing with crooked and evil things.”
Her paper doll! Without thinking, Ji Mingran lunged toward the direction where the paper doll had fallen.
He stumbled and fell to the ground, but at least he caught himself.
Ji Mingran breathed a sigh of relief, but said with dissatisfaction, "Preaching is fine, but don't destroy other people's property indiscriminately. These are just ordinary burial items; the Taoist priest might have a use for them someday. Why make such a fuss?"
The courtyard was filled with paper figures she had been painstakingly making for over ten days. Following the arrangement of the paper figures from the night she first entered the backyard, she meticulously placed them in a spiral pattern around the coffin, just as she remembered them from the first night.
Although the rows of paper figures standing under the moonlight were indeed somewhat eerie, they were only scary to look at.
"I begged for a bowl of rice, and Boss Jiang gave me rice." Ji Mingran grabbed the paper figure, touched his cane, and got up from the ground. He sighed helplessly, "The Taoist priest is doing well himself, so he should also give others a way to live."
Ji Mingran, who was just in a sorry state, now covered his ears with his hands, looked up at the sky, and muttered to himself, deliberately making a babbling, disobedient manner.
They clearly don't take him seriously.
He was always the one who looked down on others; no one had ever dared to look down on him! Meng Yingyang's neck veins bulged as he roared, "So unruly!"
The fierce attack, accompanied by a chilling wind, instantly struck in front of Ji Mingran.
"Heaven and earth were in primordial chaos, the initial desire was profound and boundless, the void was solidified and boundless, the abyss was full..." Ji Mingran, clutching the paper figure, hurriedly bent down and rolled forward, dodging the attacks coming from the left and right in mid-air, and leaped wildly towards the back courtyard corridor. Even so, her lips did not stop speaking, she recited extremely fast, hundreds of words pouring from her mouth in the blink of an eye, so fast that no one else could hear them clearly, "The Dao has not been spoken, yet it is you, hanging at the easternmost point, Gan Zhen Dui divination..."
The attacks came in rapid succession. She dodged left and right, relying on the terrain to barely evade them.
Meng Yingyang saw through her thoughts and, together with Pan Dou, surrounded and forced her away from the corridor, making her escape to the courtyard.
"So stupid and dull-witted, do you really think you can get away with it again?"
A voice tinged with anger rang out behind her, accompanied by the roar of Pan Dou, and an intense pressure approached as a fierce attack was about to strike.
Ji Mingran tensed up, using all her strength to throw the paper figure in her arms, hitting the spot where it had been pulled out. At the same time, she finished reciting the last four words, "Only those who arrive will arrive," and turned around, her eyes fixed on Meng Yingyang. She raised her arms and pointed forward, "Start!"
The hundred paper figures flew up in response, instantly meeting Ji Mingran's attack. With a loud bang, they blocked and neutralized Meng Yingyang's attack. The strong pressure generated by the collision of the two forces, like a tornado, lifted Pan Dou high and threw it away violently.
Meng Yingyang was startled. His expression turned solemn, and his arrogance vanished. He resisted the pressure and took two steps back. He recited technical terms rapidly, changed his hand gestures, and suddenly leaped towards the group of paper figures.
Ji Mingran did not stop. She had already hidden among the paper figures, waiting for an opportunity to ambush them. When she saw Meng Yingyang's figure flying close and fighting with the paper figures, she quietly jumped out from her hiding place and slammed her wooden staff at Meng Yingyang.
Caught off guard in his fight with the paper figures, Meng Yingyang was struck hard on the back. His magic momentarily paused, and the paper figures, covered by blankets and mats, rendered him unable to see. They then delivered a series of powerful blows, precisely targeting his vulnerable areas such as the back of his head, neck, and ribs. The final blow struck him squarely behind the knee, causing him to bend over and kneel on the ground.
The sharp blade pressed silently against his throat.
"Where's Xiaocan?"
In less than a moment, their situations were completely reversed.
Meng Yingyang looked up abruptly, his face filled with disbelief: "Impossible!"
Ji Mingran didn't care about his mindset and was about to ask him when he was gently patted on the shoulder twice.
"Boss Jiang?"
Where did she come in from?
Her beautiful and charming face was full of disappointment, and she pouted, "This won't scare you. How boring."
With a clang, the blade was thrown back. Ji Mingran regained her senses and gripped the hilt, but the spell struck, and she had no time to dodge.
Just then, she was suddenly pulled into someone's arms with one hand. Amidst the wafting fragrance, her whole body was turned around, and then she fell to the ground with a "thud".
Ji Mingran looked up.
Hahahaha!
Boss Jiang stood where she had just been, looked down and saw her stunned expression, laughed so hard he bent over, and casually waved his left hand, completely dispelling the magical attack behind him.
"Did I scare you this time?" she said with amusement. "Such a precocious little brat, always pretending to be serious, so annoying."
Boss Jiang turned to face the person who had attacked him, his gaze falling on the person kneeling on the ground. He said in a mischievous tone, "Oh, isn't this the once-in-a-century genius that Hong Qizong cherishes? How did he end up on my turf?"
She realized what was happening and quickly got up to peek out from behind Boss Jiang.
Meng Yingyang took a deep breath, swayed as he stood up, stared at Boss Jiang, and asked sternly, "My sect and Master Jiang have always kept to ourselves, so why did you hide Master Jiang's disciple after he seriously injured my senior master?"
Mr. Jiang tossed a few strands of hair that had fallen across his face behind his ear and said casually, "There must be a mistake."
“Pan Dou is the spirit dog of my sect, and there is no mistake. My master’s aura is still in this shop.” Ji Mingran was clearly hiding behind him, but Jiang Xiaoyi denied it so confidently. Meng Yingyang’s already pale face turned even whiter with anger. “Moreover, after I questioned her, she attacked and injured me. This was witnessed by a real person, and there is no way to deny it.”
“I mean, you’ve got it wrong.” Boss Jiang lazily raised a finger and pushed Ji Mingran, who was leaning against his leg, away. “She’s not my disciple, just a handyman.”
impossible!
Meng Yingyang stared at Ji Mingran, who was lying on the ground, in disbelief.
Seeing Meng Yingyang's astonished expression, Jiang Xiaoyi felt a surge of satisfaction. She had never gotten along with the old man from Hongqizong. "Even a lowly handyman in my shop can defeat Hongqizong's precious genius. In the end, I'm still the best." She drawled out the last syllable, her tone laced with sarcasm. "Your Hongqizong is no good."
First, he was seriously injured, and then Jiang Xiaoyi mocked the sect. Meng Yingyang was so angry that he trembled all over: "You can't distinguish right from wrong and you're protecting your disciple's misdeeds. I've learned a lot from your actions, Master."
“If I hadn’t intervened just now, you would have been stabbed to death by her sword. I didn’t even see you kneel down to thank me for saving your life.” Boss Jiang said leisurely, “Disrespectful to elders and utterly ungrateful, is this how the Hongqi Sect teaches its disciples? I’ve learned something new now.”
The sect elders had always warned that one should avoid Jiang Xiaoyi at all costs. Now he finally understood why; this person distorted right and wrong, lacked any semblance of decorum, and arguing with her would only drive one mad. Meng Yingyang didn't want to argue with her anymore and said in a deep voice, "Please, Master, release my senior uncle."
"Where are my men?" Boss Jiang retorted.
Meng Yingyang remained silent for a moment, then, with a livid face, took a brocade pouch from his waist.
Boss Jiang beckoned with his finger, and the brocade pouch flew from Meng Yingyang's palm. As it reached mid-air, it gradually grew larger, and the opening of the pouch revealed a small piece of white paper shaped like a person.
Upon landing on the ground, it transformed into a large human form.
"Little Advisor!" Ji Mingran exclaimed in surprise.
Xiao Can looked around blankly, but when he saw Boss Jiang, his unfocused eyes gradually focused, and then his eyebrows curved into a smile as he said softly, "I'm sorry to have worried Boss Jiang."
Boss Jiang looked back at him and saw that he was missing hands and legs but was otherwise complete. She frowned slightly and nodded gently, "Go back and rest." She changed her gesture, and a ray of golden light emanated from her fingertips and entered between Xiaoshen's eyebrows.
“You are performing a soul-nourishing technique, which is no different from demonic possession,” Meng Yingyang said abruptly. He glanced at Xiao Can and looked back at Jiang Xiaoyi, who was watching him quietly. “The sect leader used the soul-tracing technique on me. If anything happens to me, they will find out about it when they trace back. The ten sects of Daoist cultivation will not let you do as you please. If you return my master and let us go back, I will not reveal a word.”
Upon hearing this, Boss Jiang remained silent, his expression gradually turning cold.
She glanced at Ji Mingran sideways, as if pondering something.
Ji Mingran could see it clearly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Boss Jiang glanced at the coffin in the courtyard.
"Boss Jiang, I'll buy this coffin; the labor cost will be deducted from it." Ji Mingran said this very softly and quickly, almost inaudibly.
Boss Jiang swayed slightly, as if she had grown tired of standing, and took two steps back, sitting down on the coffin with extreme elegance and naturalness.
"Young friend, there's something you might not know. I don't want to cause trouble, I'm just too lazy to deal with it. But when it comes to money, everything is negotiable."
She leaned back, one hand on the coffin lid, one leg raised, and gave a leisurely, disdainful laugh.
"The Daoist sect's ten cultivation methods are a joke. The Hongqi sect is nothing but trash. If you combine jokes and trash, what can they possibly do to me?"
A note from the author:
Happy Winter Solstice everyone! Let's move forward together!
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