Chapter 189 : Long Tao’s Strength
Chapter 189: Long Tao’s Strength
Shi Wenyuan could no longer restrain himself and suddenly rushed toward the tightly shut wooden door, only to be firmly dragged back by the companion beside him.
“Wenyuan! Calm down! Don’t make another meaningless sacrifice!”
“Boxiao! I should have stopped him!” Shi Wenyuan dropped to his knees, his fist smashing viciously against the ground. “How could I just stand there and watch him…”
His desperate cries echoed through the silent village, yet received no response.
At that moment, a girl with double hair buns suddenly pointed the spearhead of blame at Mingzhu and Long Tao.
“It’s all because of you! Ever since you, this demoness, arrived, Boxiao has been acting strangely!”
Mingzhu, who had merely been a bystander, had never expected the fire to suddenly burn onto her. She looked in astonishment at the ordinary-looking girl before her, momentarily unsure how to respond. Having been a Golden Core True Person for several hundred years, she had long forgotten the last time a mortal had scolded her to her face like this.
“Yingxia! Don’t talk nonsense!” another young man hurriedly tried to stop her. “This was Boxiao’s own decision. What does it have to do with Miss Mingzhu?”
The girl called Yingxia only grew more agitated.
“Oh really? All of you have been bewitched by this demoness, haven’t you? Since yesterday I’ve noticed something wrong with the way you men look at her! Boxiao too! From yesterday until today he kept muttering about this demoness—otherwise why would he act so impulsively just now!”
True Person Mingzhu was momentarily speechless.
Naturally, she understood the attraction she held over mortal men.
The Long Tao standing beside her was the best example. If a man picked flowers for her and fell from a cliff, or wasted away from lovesickness, she could barely accept the blame for that. But this time Ji Boxiao had clearly acted on his own initiative, using himself as an experiment.
Though his courage was commendable, there was no way the blame could be placed on her.
Still, considering that the other party had just lost a companion and was emotionally unstable, Mingzhu chose not to argue.
Unexpectedly, Yingxia became even more agitated. She suddenly drew a hand crossbow from her waist and aimed it at Mingzhu and Long Tao.
“Yingxia! Stop!”
“Sister Yingxia, don’t do this!”
Now both men and women spoke out to stop her. If it was just a few insults directed at Mingzhu, some of the other girls might even secretly agree in their hearts—but taking action was far too extreme.
Yet Yingxia’s emotions had clearly spiraled completely out of control. The hand holding the crossbow trembled violently as she actually pulled the trigger. Whether intentional or accidental was unclear, but two bolts had already shot through the air!
Before the startled cries of the crowd could even escape their mouths, Long Tao had already casually raised his hand. With a light movement of his fingers, he firmly caught both arrows between the gaps of his fingers, as easily as if catching two falling leaves.
“Oh?” Mingzhu slightly raised her brow. “It seems you haven’t been slacking in your martial training.”
Mingzhu did not care much about the sudden attack. Instead, she was somewhat surprised by Long Tao’s response. Judging from such reflexes and the steadiness of catching arrows with his fingers, the youngster had clearly put in considerable effort.
Long Tao, however, seemed to recall some unbearable memories and replied with a bitter expression.
“True Person, you have no idea how Senior Brother Fang and his Master, True Person Yan, trained me these past few months.” He put away the arrows in his hand. “Catching hidden weapons like this is nothing.”
He turned toward Yingxia, who was already frightened stiff.
Though there was a trace of dissatisfaction on his face, he considered that the girl had stayed in this bizarre place for so long and losing control of her emotions was understandable.
Furthermore, they would still need to exchange information and cooperate later, so he ultimately did not make things difficult for her.
Of course, the matter would not simply end here. Later, he could conveniently use it as an excuse to squeeze a bit more information out of Shi Wenyuan.
“A repeating crossbow, huh? Quite interesting.”
Yingxia stared blankly at the arrows in his hand, then looked down at the crossbow in her own hands. Suddenly she burst into loud sobs and collapsed to her knees.
Shi Wenyuan hurried over at this moment and bowed deeply toward the two of them.
“I sincerely apologize. Yingxia, she…”
“It’s fine.” Mingzhu gently waved her hand. “When emotions run high, people inevitably do irrational things. Especially after witnessing a companion disappear with their own eyes.”
After witnessing Long Tao catch arrows with his bare hands, the others looked at him with a mixture of awe and fear. For these youths, their greatest form of protection was usually these hand crossbows—yet in his hands they seemed as harmless as children’s toys.
Long Tao returned the two bolts to Shi Wenyuan and calmly suggested,
“Since the atmosphere is so tense, how about I go knock on the door again normally? Perhaps we might find some clues about Brother Ji.”
“Th-that… then we’ll trouble you.”
Shi Wenyuan knew that the other party’s real intention was merely to knock on the door and obtain new clues. The matter of Ji Boxiao was only incidental. But after what had just happened, Long Tao’s proposal now made it seem as though their side owed him a favor.
As Long Tao once again walked toward the eerie wooden door, everyone unconsciously stepped back several paces, each holding their breath in fear that something terrifying might burst out from inside.
However, after Long Tao knocked three times, a middle-aged woman soon opened the door from within and looked at him somewhat warily.
“What do you want?”
“Madam,” Long Tao politely bowed slightly, “did a young man enter your house just now?”
“No! I’m a respectable married woman. You come here talking nonsense about men entering my house—are you trying to ruin my reputation?!”
“Ah… no, no. It’s just that I thought I saw someone knocking randomly on your door earlier and then pushing it open and barging in. So I wanted to ask.”
“You’re young, but your eyesight seems quite poor.” The woman sneered. “Everyone in this village is decent. Who would behave so rudely—entering before the people inside open the door? Unless it’s their own home. Otherwise it would have to be some drifter from outside. People like that are bad and should be driven out of the village.”
Her words immediately sharpened Long Tao’s attention. This was clearly the information and clue they had obtained. If his guess was correct, the other party would soon drive them away.
Sure enough, the woman soon waved impatiently.
“You’re a man standing at my doorstep like this—what kind of behavior is that? Go, go!”
The door slammed shut with a bang, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
Long Tao expressionlessly stepped back onto the village road and repeated the entire conversation word for word.
A heavy gloom immediately settled over everyone’s faces. Although the exact situation remained unclear, Ji Boxiao… most likely had little chance of survival.
Just as the group stood there unsure what to do, a figure suddenly emerged from the backyard of the house.
It was the Village Chief who appeared and disappeared like a ghost. The same puppet-like kindly smile hung on his face, but now it made people feel even more horrified.
“Oh my, why are so many people gathered here? There’s still plenty of work to be done in the village.”
The Village Chief spoke with a smile, yet that gentle gaze made everyone feel as if they were being watched by something.
“Village Chief… why did you come out from there? Isn’t that someone else’s backyard?”
Summoning his courage, Shi Wenyuan asked with a trembling voice.
“Oh! This household just had a relative arrive, so I came to make a record. Our village may be small, but we still abide by the law. People of unknown origin can’t just come in. Their identities must all be verified.”
At that moment, Long Tao also asked curiously,
“Then our identities… should also count as unknown, right?”
“Ours?” The smile on the Village Chief’s face deepened further, wrinkles squeezing together into eerie grooves.
“You all have travel permits issued by the authorities, so naturally there’s no problem. Otherwise, why would this old man have allowed you to enter the village?” He waved his hand and slowly turned away. “Alright, alright, this old man still has to check the eastern side of the village. I won’t chat with you any longer.”