Great Li Martial God

For a moment, Theft Saint Bai Wuying and Bai Xiaotang stared each other down.

But very quickly, Bai Xiaotang wilted under a guilty conscience, turned her face away, and pretended to look in every other direction, "Aiya, what are you so worried about, old beggar? For someone as exceptionally gifted as me, martial world experts falling over themselves to hand me techniques, isn't that completely normal?"

At those words, Bai Wuying nearly laughed through his irritation, "With that talent of yours? In front of any truly gifted martial prodigy it amounts to nothing. You think anyone would bother looking twice at you?"

As he said this, he slapped the table with a sharp crack, "Talk. Who taught you that finger technique? And if you don't, don't blame me for stringing you up."

At those words, Bai Xiaotang flinched. Back in her days as a young beggar, she had not received a shortage of beatings from the old beggar in front of her. The Theft Saint might have a name that commanded respect throughout the martial world, but when it came to hitting people, he beat her like a coachman flogging a mule.

In the next instant, she saw Bai Wuying set down his wine jar and start rolling up his sleeves, clearly ready to follow through. Bai Xiaotang could not hold her ground any longer, and immediately waved her hands, "Let's talk this through properly. Why are you getting physical? I'll tell you, all right?"

At those words, Bai Wuying stopped with a cold laugh, "Then who was it?"

Bai Xiaotang muttered something under her breath, then stretched out a hand and pointed at the Grand Manager of the Treasure Assembly Trading House beside them, "It's the person I asked him to find."

Bai Wuying's brow creased. He looked at the Grand Manager, who immediately waved his hands repeatedly, "Elder Brother Bai, this humble one hasn't started looking yet. I have no idea who the person is."

The Theft Saint glared at him, then turned back to Bai Xiaotang, "What is that person's name? Which sect do they belong to? What are they known as in the martial world?"

"I have no idea. I just saw his finger technique looked pretty good, so I learned it. I didn't have time to ask about all of that."

Bai Xiaotang told the lie without so much as a blush, then raised her chin with a little toss of her head, "Old beggar, I told you already, that person's skills are something else entirely. A frog in a well like you would probably turn and run the moment you saw him."

"Rubbish. I'd be afraid of him?"

Bai Wuying slapped the table again, but after a brief moment of thought he picked up the wine jar beside him and took a long drink.

Then he looked at the Grand Manager of the Treasure Assembly Trading House, "Find that person, and I might be willing to help you."

As he said this, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he asked with a hint of curiosity, "Intestinal Fiend Worms are extremely rare. What sort of dangerous enemy have you managed to make, you dog, for them to do something this vicious and plant a thing like that in your head?"

At those words, the Grand Manager felt a surge of private delight, but then showed obvious hesitation.

He looked at Theft Saint Bai Wuying, and in the end seemed to make up some kind of decision. He closed his eyes, dipped a finger into the teapot, and wrote a line of characters on the table with the tea.

Bai Wuying looked at the characters, and his brow furrowed slightly, "Him?"

The Theft Saint Bai Wuying naturally had no small amount of history with the Great Xuan emperor. The martial world even carried a rumor that years ago he had broken into the Great Xuan imperial palace and carried off one of the emperor's consorts, an act that had become the Great Xuan emperor's most humiliating disgrace of a lifetime.

The rumor was in fact true, though there were certain details of the matter that the outside world had never known.

"Why would he do this?"

Bai Wuying's expression gradually turned more serious as he looked at the Grand Manager and asked.

At those words, the Grand Manager said nothing, only closed his eyes and continued writing in tea water, "For the Demonic Cores. And of course, for the Treasure Assembly Trading House."

The Grand Manager was writing rather than speaking in order to prevent the Great Xuan emperor from eavesdropping through the Intestinal Fiend Worm. Of course, this could only delay things. If the Great Xuan emperor used the Soul-Searching Technique on him, nothing would be hidden.

Theft Saint Bai Wuying looked at the words on the table, his expression thoughtful. He seemed to guess at something, but only shook his head and raised a hand to cut off any further conversation with the Grand Manager. He clearly had no desire to get entangled in any of it.

He then waved a dismissive hand and said coolly, "Get out of here and find the person. But let me be clear upfront: I might help you, but I make no promises about whether I actually can."

At those words, the Grand Manager showed a look of relief, "Elder Brother Bai's words alone are enough for this humble one. Life and death are matters of fate. Whether your younger brother lives or not is in the hands of heaven."

With that, the Grand Manager said nothing further and immediately left to have the trading house's people begin their search.

Theft Saint Bai Wuying watched him go with narrowed eyes, muttered something under his breath, and then went back to drinking on his own.

With the Grand Manager gone, the main hall held only Bai Wuying and Bai Xiaotang.

"Knead my back. Unless you'd rather take a beating."

Bai Wuying gave Bai Xiaotang a flat look. Bai Xiaotang instinctively hunched her shoulders, and with no other option came around behind him.

But the moment Bai Wuying could no longer see her face, she immediately pulled an elaborate grimace at his back.

Then she poured everything she had into her fists and began hammering at him with ferocious force, as though trying to flatten him entirely, "Old beggar, one day you're going to regret this."

...

At the same time, the large black cat had not been idle.

With the Demonic Core Li Musheng had given it clenched in its mouth, it was ranging across the rooftops of the streets and wards around the inn.

As a cat with limited worldly experience, it had no idea where one went to find members of the demonic world, especially in a place as unfamiliar as the Great Xuan imperial capital.

In order to trade the Demonic Core for gold, the large black cat had no choice but to wander around and hope for a lucky encounter with one or two members of the demonic world who would know the value of what it was carrying.

Of course, what mattered most to the large black cat was that whoever it ran into absolutely had to be someone it could handle.

Otherwise, if it could not beat them and ended up having the Demonic Core snatched away before it could get any gold, that would be a terrible loss.

Driven by a deep longing for gleaming yellow gold, the large black cat leaped from ridge to ridge across the high dark rooftops, one ear cocked to listen to the sounds coming from the rooms below, gradually moving further from the inn's location.

And as the large black cat earnestly searched for any sign of demonic world figures and landed lightly on the roof of a small courtyard, its ears suddenly twitched. It stopped in place at once.

The large black cat crouched its massive body down, lying in silence along the roof ridge, tilting its ears to listen to the sounds coming from the room below.

But very quickly, its interest began to fade, because it found that the people in the room below did not seem to be from the demonic world at all. They appeared to be figures from the righteous sects of the martial world.

"The Great Xuan court played with fire and got burned. All these years tolerating the three great demonic sects, using them against the seven major sects of our side, and now it is reaping what it has sown."

"If only the Great Xuan emperor had not dropped dead so suddenly. If he were still alive and watched the demonic cult gather all nine Demonic Cores and obtain the Demonic Patriarch's legacy, I'd like to see how he could live with himself."

The voices drifted up from the room below, and the large black cat, which had been about to move on, suddenly perked right up the moment it heard the words "Demonic Core."

It immediately stopped and pressed its ears flat to listen harder to what the people below were saying.

Meanwhile, inside the room below, a group of disciples from the seven major sects were in the middle of discussing their plans for dealing with the demonic sects going forward.

Word of the three great demonic sects gathering all nine Demonic Cores had not only reached the Great Xuan court. The seven major sects had received the same intelligence.

Upon learning of this, the sect masters of the seven major sects had held emergency discussions and immediately dispatched their most capable members to the Great Xuan imperial capital, intending to prevent the demonic sects' scheme.

The people gathered here were an advance party from those seven sects, while the rest of their numbers were still on the road and would arrive before long.

"The court's dogs were absurdly foolish to lock down Taixuan City like this. It's going to delay our various sects' experts arriving by a considerable amount of time. If the demonic cultists gather all nine Demonic Cores before we're ready, it will be too late."

"Steady. There are no signs of demonic activity in Taixuan City, which means those demonic figures may not have fully assembled all nine Demonic Cores yet."

"Exactly. We still have a chance. If the three demonic sects had already obtained the Demonic Patriarch's legacy, there would be no way this city would be this quiet."

The disciples of the seven major sects exchanged views back and forth. The large black cat listened carefully, though it found the conversation somewhat dull, since it did not seem to have much bearing on its goal of trading the core for gold.

But then someone in the room below spoke up, "Even though the rest of our people have not arrived yet, we cannot simply sit and do nothing in the meantime. Even if our current strength is not enough to match the three demonic sects' experts head-on, we can think of another approach."

"If we could intercept a Demonic Core before the three sects have fully gathered them, that alone would cut off the three demonic cults' scheme of obtaining the Demonic Patriarch's legacy and crush the demons' hopes entirely."

At those words, the people from the seven major sects broke into a lively discussion. Some agreed, while others raised doubts.

"If the three demonic sects are bold enough to gather in Taixuan City and jointly unlock the Demonic Patriarch's legacy, that means they must already have a clear picture of where all nine Demonic Cores are located. There is even a very real possibility that the three sects have already collected all of them and are simply on their way to Taixuan City."

"And we from the seven major sects have absolutely no leads on the Demonic Cores. Trying to intercept the demonic cult's plans would be like searching for a needle in the ocean. It is virtually impossible."

At those words, the disciples of the seven major sects fell into silence.

For even though the idea had occurred to them, they had no idea where to begin. And with Taixuan City now under lockdown and court soldiers patrolling everywhere, their movements were severely restricted, making it extremely difficult to gather leads on the Demonic Cores at short notice.

Just as everyone was feeling completely at a loss, a sudden and conspicuous cat's meow came from the rooftop above their heads.

The people from the seven major sects immediately showed unusual expressions and looked upward with full alertness.

By any reasoning, with the martial cultivation these people possessed, not the faintest sound within the area should have escaped their notice. And yet somehow, none of them had had any awareness of when a cat had arrived on the roof.

The room fell into immediate silence. Everyone exchanged glances and prepared to have several people act simultaneously and go up to the roof to investigate.

But just at that moment, from outside the room's door came the sound of claws scratching at it, accompanied by the same meow from before.

At the sight, the people from the seven major sects were even more baffled, and the alarm in their eyes deepened.

"Go open the door and see."

A middle-aged man with a heavy black iron sword across his back spoke up, gesturing to another man built like an iron tower to go and open the door.

At those words, the large man frowned, but circulated his true qi and walked toward the door as instructed.

Among everyone present, the powerfully built man from the Great Spirit Sect was the best at body tempering and had the strongest defense. Having him open the door was the most sensible choice. Even if there was danger, he would not be taken out in an instant.

The door creaked open, the large man's body radiating surging blood energy and swirling true qi as he opened it inch by careful inch.

Everyone inside found themselves looking at an enormous black cat, roughly the size of a medium dog, sitting primly with its legs together and a pair of round green eyes, quietly crouched just outside the door.

Seeing that they had finally opened the door, the large black cat let out a meow and gave its tail a leisurely wag.

As the large black cat saw it, since it was planning to do business with these people, a degree of courtesy was appropriate. Otherwise, it would simply have made a great leap straight down from the rooftop into their room a long time ago.

The people from the seven major sects were even more puzzled now, completely unable to figure out what this enormous black cat wanted.

They were all somewhat taken aback by its sheer size, after all, none of them had ever seen a cat this fat.

But a cat was still a cat, and unlike a person it could not speak. Even if they wanted to ask it what it was doing here, there was no obvious means of communication.

The large black cat seemed to notice their confusion, and immediately began gesturing with its paws in an attempt to convey that it wanted to do business with them.

But the gathered people obviously could not read the large black cat's meaning at all. Every pair of eyes simply stared at it curiously, expressions of puzzlement and nothing else.

Seeing this, the large black cat was clearly somewhat annoyed. Its eyes rolled, and it came up with a new approach.

It extended its paw and began scratching marks into the door frame. The large man at the door watched with a deepening frown, but what the large black cat was drawing with its paw looked to him like meaningless scrawl, completely impossible to interpret.

The others in the room sensed no particular hostility from the large cat, and out of curiosity moved toward the door to see what it was doing.

After a moment, the large black cat withdrew its paw, then pointed at the collection of marks it had made on the door frame, indicating that everyone should have a closer look.

Then it settled back on its haunches, its pair of cat eyes scanning the expressions of the group, watching to see whether anyone had understood its meaning.

The disciples of the seven major sects did indeed look carefully at what it had drawn, and sure enough, someone began to make something out.

"These scratches... this large cat appears to know how to write, though not very well, and its writing is quite a mess."

A young woman furrowed her brow and spoke, and in the next instant the large black cat shot her a pointed glare.

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