“Isn’t it kind of funny that we always seem to find ourselves in situations like this?” Lei said as they were surrounded by potential enemies.

“Haah...” Bing sighed. “I guess in some sort of sick twisted way, it could be seen as funny.” He agreed.

“All we did was ask a question and suddenly we’re enemies to the entire city.” Lei laughed.

“Shut your mouths and answer our question! What is your relation to the criminal Liuxian Xun?!” The captain shouted, his spear pointing towards them.

“We don’t even know the guy. We don’t know what he looks like, what realm he’s at, his personality, nothing! We’re just looking for him!” Bing admitted.

“We do know he’s a young fella!” Lei added.

“Do you think these two are his allies?” The captain’s right-hand man whispered to his captain.

“Everyone in the city should know of Liuxian Xun by now. These two must have just entered into the city but for what purpose? I don’t know.” The captain whispered back.

“Why are you looking for Liuxian Xun?!” The captain asked

  Bing and Lei immediately knew that they shouldn’t say anything about their true objective. Based on how many men were ready to capture them just by saying that they were looking for the guy, revealing that they were here to rescue him would probably get them killed on the spot. This captain and his buddy were at a higher stage than them while everyone else was equal or lower than them. Fighting to escape wouldn’t be impossible but fighting was the last thing either of them wanted to do.

  Their goal here was to rescue one man. Not kill anyone, not fight anyone, and definitely not reveal their identities as Golden Serpent Sect disciples. If they planned on escaping with everything they had, these guys couldn’t stop them. So, Bing and Lei locked eyes with one another and nodded but then Bing suddenly shook his head left from right. Lei turned his head in confusion as Bing began to speak.

“To receive the stones for his head of course!” Bing bellowed with his shield.

“Stones?”

“Did the Emerald Grass Slaying Sect already place a bounty on his head?”

“I guess the Sect Leader really wants to find the man that led his daughter astray.”

“Quiet!” The captain shouted.

“So, you two are planning to kill Liuxian Xun?” The captain’s aide sneered.

  An old man and some fatty working as bounty hunters? While the fatty’s cultivation stage was impressive for his age, none of them looked the part at all. The fatty was most likely some visiting noble or clan heir. His relation to the old man was something that he couldn’t gleam at all. A body guard wouldn’t be weaker than the young master he’s guarding.

“What other business would we have with a man we don’t know.” Bing arrogantly asked back.

“Perhaps, trying to help him out in his time of need?” The aide added a possibility.

“An old man like me and a plump fellow like him? How could we be of any help at all even if were on good terms with Liuxian? With our strength combined, it still wouldn’t be enough to put a scratch on the Emerald Grass Slaying Sect’s forces.” Lei tried to reason.

“Eh, we’ll see about that. Mingxia, go test them out and don’t hold back.” The aide ordered while his captain was somewhat confused.

  The captain didn’t believe these two had anything to do with Liuxian and even if they did, what could they possibly do to aid him? A pair of 9th stage Qi Gatherers can’t do much against the City Lord’s soldiers and the Emerald Grass Slaying Sect’s disciples. This was just wasting time that they could be using to look for Liuxian. So, he ordered a majority of his men to come along with him and leave Jiayi to satisfy whatever urge he wanted with these two.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“This is quite good for us. We’re no longer surrounded.” Lei whispered.

“I really just want to run away but if we do there’s no doubt we’ll be wanted in this city next...” Bing sighed.

“I can take her on for you if you wish.” Lei said.

“Nah. It’s fine Lei. Remember we’re supposed to look like we’re not capable of helping the Xun guy. I got this.” Bing stepped up to his female opponent.

  She was a 9th stage Qi Gatherer just like him but with some viciousness in her eyes. It was like he could see her murdering him in just her eyes, how terrifying... He already had issues with violent and pushy women. Now he had to fight a girl just like that who looked more than happy to fill him with several little stab wounds.

“Get him.” Jiayi commanded.

  She shot off with her bone knife with a mad smile on her face. Those perfectly white teeth in combination with her cute roundish face would normally be something that Bing could see in his dreams but that cuteness along with the madness he could feel radiating off her soul, no thank you. Bing placed his shield forward like a frightened little turtle and surprisingly was sent sliding backwards when she leapt and tried to stab her knife into his chest. His eyes narrowed on Mingxia’s small figure. She was a lot stronger than she looked...

  Mingxia slashed her knife non-stop in hopes of seeing Bing bleed, which he did without his consent. After each dodge, Bing would progressively get sloppier and sloppier in his movements. Which led to even more blood leaking from his body because of his inability to dodge the slashes. It wasn’t until he was forced on his back with Mingxia rapidly stabbing his shield dripping with sweat and blood that Jiayi was satisfied.

“Stop Mingxia.” Her knife stopped attempting to skewer his shield. “These two are obviously not related to Liuxian.” Mingxia licked the blood coating her knife as she looked at Bing’s pathetic lying figure with hearts in her pupils.

  She returned next to Jiayi’s side and he flicked over a pill to Lei. Lei caught it and recognized it as a recovery pill. So, it seems he wasn’t totally devoid of any humanity. He walked over to Bing’s body and inspected him.

“Most of those wounds are superficial... It looks like your spars with Ying and Tao has really paid off.” Lei complimented.

“Please don’t refer to the hell I went through as sparring...” He politely requested.

“Your defensive skill has grown greatly. I’m sure you could’ve evaded all of her attacks if you were trying.” Lei continued to compliment him.

“No. She was strong. I got cut a few more times than I was intending to. If that guy didn’t call her off, I would’ve had to reveal more of my skill if I didn’t want to be cut somewhere important.” Bing shook his head.

  Once Mingxia and Jiayi were out of sight, Bing shot straight up and dusted himself off. His previous wounds started to quickly recover at a visible pace.

“Oh? I’m surprised, couldn’t you have just blocked her knife with your shield?”

“Yeah, but avoiding her attacks entirely? Impossible.” He spoke.

“So, how are we going to find a wanted man that’s gone into hiding in a large city like this?” Lei asked with a smile.

“All we need to do is find one of those wanted posters. I’ll describe to you what he looks like and then we’ll walk around the city until you find someone that matches the description.” Bing suggested.

“Wanted posters? They made some for him already?” Lei questioned.

“I guess. How else does everyone in the city know who he is? Was there a large event before we got here and the fool just for some reason decided to reveal himself to everyone in the city and get on their bad side?” Bing brought up an impossible scenario.

“I think we came on this task with too little information...” Lei was starting to think.

“No, that’s not the problem. It’s the issue that the man we need to rescue is surrounded by enemies for some reason! Our original plan of asking around for him was perfectly fine.”

“So, what do you suggest we do if there are no wanted posters?” Lei asked.

“Pray that Qing managed to find him for us.” Bing shamelessly answered.

“She is not going to be happy when she finds out that the man we need to find is actually wanted.”

“Do you wanna break the news to her or let her find out on her own?” Bing definitely wasn’t going to get yelled at by her.

“I’ll do it. It's better to get difficult things over with quick than let them grow over time into even more difficult problems.” Lei shared as he sent a message to Qing.

“And this is why you’re a bigger man than me.” Bing complimented.

“You’re still young.” He chuckled. “Give it time.” Qing’s reply came.

“Of course, something had to happen... I knew this task seemed too simple. Meet up with me at the center of the city next to the giant statues. My butterflies should be able to find him soon enough.” She replied back.

“Aren’t we lucky the Empress told Qing to come along with us? We’d probably be stuck here for days if we had to rescue Liuxian on our own.” Bing smiled, more than happy to sit on his behind and let someone else do all the hard work.

“She has excellent foresight.” Lei agreed.

“Let’s go find these statues then.” Bing started walked.

“It should be to the north of where we entered from.” Lei said.