Chapter 88

“Sister, do you know how to get to Qinglu Village?” Lin Du asked casually, standing up since the others were still eating, not feeling like sitting down again. He directed the question to the Lady Boss, who was resting by the door.

The woman was already of a certain age, short in stature with a round face and large eyes, still retaining a bit of youthful charm. When she heard the young boy call her “sister,” her face lit up with a smile. She wiped her hands on her apron before responding, “Qinglu Village? What business does a young master like you have there?”

“I heard there’s season to eat in the village at this time of year,” Lin Du replied.

The woman chuckled at this and turned to ask the busy man in the shop, “Lao Miao, do you know where Qinglu Village is? I seem to have forgotten.”

The man was in the middle of cooking noodles. With a swift motion, he scooped up the white rice noodles, which bounced elastically in the air before he skillfully dropped them into a porcelain bowl. Without even lifting his head, he raised his voice over the din of the shop to reply to his wife.

“You woman, Qinglu Village is the same as Village! Wasn’t it your great-grandmother who came from there? Before she passed away, she even asked her children and grandchildren to bury her in Village. We searched for a long time before we found out it was renamed Qinglu Village about five hundred years ago.”

The Lady Boss suddenly realized, “Ah, now I remember! Young master, if you leave the city and head west, the village is located at the foot of the mountain closest to the city. That’s the one.”

“That village, Zhaiqian Village, is situated in front of several mountain and Gu villages, nestled by both mountains and rivers. It’s a beautiful and spiritually rich place,” she added.

Lin Du thanked her, then turned to see that Tao Xian had gotten into an argument with someone.

“You ate fourteen bowls of noodles! Why did you only pay for two?”

Lin Du thought to herself, “Why do all bullies claim people ate more than they did?”

“Don’t argue! I’m telling you, boss, I saw it clearly. They only put down money for two bowls!”

The Lady Boss was about to say something when Tao Xian shouted, “I only ate one bowl! She only ate one bowl too, so of course, we paid for two!”

The shop owner, wielding the knife he had been using to slice the braised meat—a blade with a black hilt and a gleaming edge—pointed at the table. “Look! There are fourteen empty bowls on that table, and you’re telling me you only ate one?”

“I really only ate one! If you don’t believe me, I can… I can vomit it out right now to prove it!” Tao Xian said, clearly upset at being falsely accused.

Lin Du and the other two had finished their noodles quickly and were now standing by the entrance. Twelve bowls, stacked neatly in three piles, were still on the table. Tao Xian had been eating slowly and had only just finished.

Meanwhile, a few bystanders, eager to fan the flames, started chipping in. “And here I thought they were disciples from the Feixing Sect. Eating without paying? How shameless!”

“Don’t worry, boss! We’ve got your back. If they try to make a run for it, we won’t just stand by and watch!”

Tao Xian, growing more anxious, exclaimed, “No! There’s no way two people could eat that much. I only ate one, and she—” He pointed toward the crowd, where Mo Lin and Tian Wu were waiting by the entrance. Only Lin Du was still inside, standing next to the Lady Boss, looking thin and pale.

The shop owner glanced at Tao Xian, his expression saying, “Do you really expect me to believe that?”

The Lady Boss, realizing her husband had misunderstood, tried to push her way through the crowd to clear things up, but the rowdy spectators formed a wall, blocking her path.

“I’ll handle this,” Lin Du said calmly.

The Lady Boss turned toward the sickly-looking young master, who stood beside her, holding a dark fan. With a simple gesture, Lin Du released a surge of energy, gently pushing aside the crowd. The cold chill in the air made the onlookers instinctively step back.

Lin Du didn’t leave right away. “Sister, go ahead. It seems the boss has misunderstood,” she said.

The Lady Boss hurried over to talk to her husband while the rowdy bystanders continued to pester Tao Xian.

Tao Xian, red-faced and fuming, looked like a rooster ready to fight as he faced off against the local troublemakers, almost ready to throw punches. Just then, a heavy iron fan appeared between them, cutting off the altercation.

Lin Du’s voice, slightly hoarse from the spicy food, cut through the tension. “How exactly do you plan to prove that you saw my friend eat fourteen bowls of noodles?”

“I saw it with my own two eyes!” the man shouted, glaring at Lin Du. Seeing that it was just a pale, weak-looking boy, his confidence grew. “What, am I not allowed to remind the boss?”

Lin Du suddenly smirked. “You saw it with both eyes? Seems like your eyesight isn’t very clear. How about I personally deliver your two eyeballs into my friend’s stomach, so we can see how many bowls he really ate?”

Her voice, roughened by the spice, was cold and menacing. The sun was setting, and the dim shop hadn’t yet lit its lamps. In the fading light, her cold eyes gazed up at the man, a quiet yet intimidating aura radiating from her.

Sensing the danger in her stare and noticing the growing crowd around her, Lin Du raised her eyebrows in challenge.

Mo Lin, standing by the door, had been holding his sword. When he glanced back and realized his young master had disappeared into the crowd, he panicked. “Junior Master!” he shouted.

Tian Wu quickly turned around, equally alarmed. “Junior Master!”

Lin Du raised her hand, sending out a wave of force that parted the crowd. By now, the Lady Boss had explained everything, and the shop owner was apologizing profusely, dragging his ear in shame.

Mo Lin, towering over everyone in the shop, quickly spotted Lin Du and strode over with his sword in hand. His stern expression sent a chill through the room as he approached.

The crowd watched as a tall young man in red robes and black garments, carrying a sword staff, pushed his way through. With furrowed brows and a tight-lipped frown, he stood protectively in front of Lin Du and asked, “Junior Master, what’s going on?”

The shop owner, having sincerely apologized, didn’t dare offend the troublemakers who had initially accused Tao Xian. He merely admitted his own mistake.

Lin Du glanced at the group of men. Their clothes were made from the indigo-dyed fabric typical of the western part of Yunnan, and nearby were their raincoats, staffs, steel knives, and spears, many of which bore dark stains of rust.

One slash from those blades would likely cause tetanus, not to mention other magical effects.

Lin Du was now certain—they were stirring up trouble on purpose.

“Why are you glaring at us? We’re just trying to help. Do you think being from a big sect makes you better than everyone else? If you’re so tough, why don’t you settle this outside?”

“Especially you!” one man sneered, pointing at Lin Du. “You don’t look like a good person at all! And you’re putting shackles on a woman? Are you even a real Feixing Sect disciple?”

The man then tried to grab Shao Fei, who had been silently sitting at the table the entire time, but a dark gold staff suddenly appeared, blocking his arm.

“Mo Lin, first-generation disciple of the Supreme Sect, under orders from the sect master to escort a dangerous rogue cultivator. May I ask, friend, did you fail to notice the Supreme Sect’s seal on those restraining cuffs?” Mo Lin asked, his voice ringing clearly through the room as he gripped the staff in one hand.

“The Supreme Sect fights evil and spares the innocent,” he added, his dark eyes fixing on the man with such intensity that the troublemaker, despite his earlier bravado, slowly lowered his arm.

Lin Du, thoughtfully twirling her fan, eyed the group. With a flick, a short blade appeared in her hand. “Let me ask you, friend—you knew full well that we three ate those twelve bowls of noodles, yet you deliberately misled the shop owner to think they hadn’t paid. Why?”

Her gaze shifted from Shao Fei to the group behind them.

“The lamb noodle soup is terrible today. Forget it, let’s go,” said one of the men, who had been silently puffing on a bamboo pipe in the back.

Lin Du suddenly understood and, with a smile, asked, “Looking to herd some sheep, are we?”

Now she realized why these people had suddenly picked a fight over not paying for the noodles—they were local bandits from the western part of Yunnan.

The books she’d read mentioned that the city of Phoenix had lax regulations, with brawls, extortion, and robberies happening frequently. She had thought the accounts were exaggerated, but now she saw it was all too real.

Shao Fei, once a forest bandit herself, was naturally familiar with the thieves’ jargon. It seemed likely she had communicated with them through slang or hand signals while the others were preoccupied at the door.

The group of bandits went pale when they realized the kid not only understood their secret language but had also directly exposed their plot to stir up trouble and rob them.

With a pleasant smile, Lin Du addressed them, “Gentlemen, would you like a lesson from the disciples of Supreme Sect?”

The whole group shook their heads in unison. They had assumed the three were just ordinary noble kids, never expecting them to be from the renowned Supreme Sect.

No matter how ignorant a mountain bandit might be, they would never dare provoke a sect like Buddha.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice interrupted, “Masters, don’t fight here! If you’re going to fight, take it outside or to the martial hall!”