Martial King's Retired Life

Inside the Golden Shrine

Tang Ye had stopped counting the number of times he regretted following Hong Jiu’s revenge plan. Hong Jiu’s spirit when he roared at the moon and declared that he would dig up the truth behind his late friend’s demise. The problem was he was in too deep.

Hong Jiu dragged Tang Ye off at night, camped in a run-down shrine and then never left.

“Brother H-”

“Sh.”

“… Second Brother.”

“Sh.”

“I’m trying to ask y-”

“Don’t speak. Why do you talk so much for someone so young? Save your energy for serving the country. You’ll scare people off if they come.”

“When have you seen anyone here?!”

Instead of knocking on some doors or questioning people, Hong Jiu immediately staked out in the abandoned shrine after dragging Tang Ye along. They had yet to eat anything or even use the loo.

“How much longer are we going to wait here for?”

“Sh.” With his index finger over his lips, Hong Jiu continued, “What do you know? I’ve seen and heard it all through my life. You think your method of investigation will cut it? Let me give you some life advice. This strategy came from the greatest strategist of all time. He said, ‘Hope for a windfall while betting on someone else’s ruin’.”

“… And why would someone’s ruin be here?”

Tang Ye wanted to bring up the terrible severed-arm ploy, but he was unwilling to listen to more rhetoric that he could not comprehend. Meanwhile, Hong Jiu still had a look of, “That’s right. Admire me, greenhorn” on his face.

Tang Ye widened his eyes. “What do you see?”

“A shrine.”

“To hell with your shrine.”

Hong Jiu shook his head and sighed. “Did you know that this rundown shrine is the golden location of Hangzhou called Gold Shrine? This shrine is located central to all of Hangzhou’s martial community members and the most prosperous zones. For anyone plotting to infringe on the law, this makes the best secret meeting spot. If there is truly trouble brewing in Hangzhou, you’ll be able to catch one or two culprits waiting here. How do you think I know about such a secretive place? It’s because I’ve slept everywhere imaginable in the wilds. This is anecdotal knowledge, real knowledge, personally-experienced knowledge; it’s far better than your fancy-schmancy tricks.”

As he gazed at the small ray shining through the hole in the ceiling, Tang Ye thought it would be wiser to return to Yan Manor and wait for Ming Feizhen, assuming the latter would be more than willing to clock Hong Jiu if he knew what sort of stupidity Hong Jiu was engaging in. By the time he looked back in Hong Jiu’s direction, the latter was gone. Next to his ear, he heard, “Sh. The fish has bitten the bait.”

Seeing as Hong Jiu used Voice Transmission to communicate, Tang Ye instantly held his breath, blending into the environment. During his long journey’s Tang Ye had to conduct ambushes for hunting purposes more often than he ate, so stealth was not a foreign concept to him. Though his qi did not flow ideally at the moment, he had been in the shrine for long enough to know the best hiding spots.

Someone meandered into the shrine, the interval each step being unexplainably long, but it did not seem as though he was using qinggong. Only once he had a peek did Tang Ye understand the reason for the bizarre pattern. Two people entered the shrine. The ultra tall and lanky man was the one who walked with a peculiar gait. He was so tall that he had to bend over to get through the door and blocked out some of the sunlight when standing straight up. His companion did not make any sound when travelling. Besides his unkempt grey robe, nothing about him particularly stood out, but he would have flown under the radar had Tang Ye not taken a look and seen him.

Tang Ye shut his eyes, then suppressed his surprise. Based on the ordinary-looking individual’s skill level, it was unlikely he needed his vision to detect Tang Ye, after all.

After they ensured nobody was snooping around, the taller man grouched, “Why are we meeting here?”

Smiling, his companion loudly answered, “Did you know that this rundown shrine is the golden location of Hangzhou called Gold Shrine? Our meeting is meant to be a secret, so it’s only natural that we select a safe place.”

Tang Ye: It wasn’t just Brother Hong’s nonsense?

The shorter man continued, “Any news on Hua Yumeng?”

“There has not been any traces or news of him for days. His qinggong is on another level. I tried to tail him a few times, but he seemed to catch on to me. I think we’ll need to assign someone else to the task if we want to tail him.”

“Funny. If you can’t keep up with him, who could? On second thought, worst-case scenario, let’s avoid a direct confrontation with him. It’s not worth winning a battle if it means losing the war. His background is shrouded in mystery. We have nothing to gain from making an enemy out of him. What’s the plan for tonight?”

“You mean those two morons?” The tall individual chuckled. “They follow orders decently enough. They actually challenged him to a duel, so there will be a show to see tonight. Let’s stay on topic before this gets all tangled.”

As the shorter man went to speak, he changed his demeanour and gestured for his ally to hush. “Who’s there?”

“Right here, prick! How dare you cause trouble in Hangzhou?! Are you sick of living?!”

Hong Jiu punched his way out from underground, much to Tang Ye’s shock.