The Reticent Blade-Chapter Ninety-Two - Chance Encounter

Pah Pah!

A crisp sound cracked through the air as a whip struck a conical hat.

"Get up, we can see the city already."

Xue Niang sat on the yoke of the ox cart, peering at the city that was beginning to take shape in the distance.

"Ugh..." Xue Qiming stirred from where he lay in the cart. Lifting the conical hat that covered his face, he groggily sat up. "Ah...ha, where are we?"

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He stretched lazily, shielding his eyes with his hand as he looked into the distance.

"Hmm... What city is this?" Xue Qiming rubbed his throbbing temples. "I drank too much last night... How long have I been asleep?"

Xue Niang reached out, pulled a bundle from the cart, and took out a scroll of sheepskin. This was the map of Northern Qiang that they had bought in the previous city.

Xue Niang spread the map on her lap. Her fingers, red from the cold, traced out their tracks.

After a while, she handed the map to Xue Qiming, pointing to a spot and saying, "Look... this should be it, Taxue City. We are already deep in Northern Qiang territory." She looked up at the man who was much larger than her. "We are not far from their capital..."

"Taxue City[1]?" Xue Qiming yawned again. "What kind of name is that? Is it because many people have died and bled here?"

"No, the city was named after the snow." Xue Niang casually answered. She lowered her head and rolled the map back up to store away in the bundle.

Xue Qiming took the bundle from Xue Niang's hands and pulled out a tough piece of beef jerky to chew on.

"Then let’s hurry into the city... I don’t want to eat beef jerky anymore. It’s impossible to chew... Let’s go into the city and treat ourselves to something good."

Despite being so close to the capital of Northern Qiang, Taxue City was not nearly as prosperous as one might imagine. Perhaps the brilliance of the capital overshadowed everything about it. This city was merely a transit station.

Xue Qiming looked at the streets along the way with some disappointment.

"Sigh... It’s not even as busy as the last city. They don't even have an inn here, do they?"

"There is one." Xue Niang pointed the whip at a building called the Great Peng Inn across the street. "Even though its name sounds terrible..."

"Great Peng Inn... I guess the owner wanted to invoke 'The Great Peng rises with the wind and soars to a height of ninety thousand miles,' but ended up creating an awkward name.

"These Northern Qiang barbarians want to imitate the literary style of our dynasty but don’t understand it, making themselves look foolish."

"Then... are we eating here?" Xue Niang tilted her head cutely, her shoulder-length hair swaying.

"Just the thought of that name is off-putting, but... huh?" Xue Qiming suddenly squinted at the inn, with a surprised expression. "Isn’t that... heh, let’s eat here."

Xue Niang curiously looked over; several vaguely familiar figures walked into the entrance of the inn.

At the entrance of the inn, a waiter dressed in an innkeeper's attire blocked the way of Xue Qiming and Xue Niang.

"Shoo, shoo, shoo! If you want to eat, eat outside." The waiter waved his hand, shooing them away.

Xue Qiming turned to look across the street, his eyes widening. A few broken tables and chairs were set up on the roadside in the bleak wind.

"You, you, you..." Xue Qiming gasped in shock, pointing at the waiter, unable to speak for a while.

"It seems like the good food and drinks are inside." Xue Niang subtly took a piece of silver from her pocket and slipped it into the waiter's hand.

The waiter immediately understood as soon as he felt the silver in his hand. He weighed it lightly and instantly changed his attitude. "Ah! Two honored guests. Please come inside!" Putting on a big smile, he welcomed them inside.

"Hmph." Xue Qiming pouted, handing the whip in his hand to the waiter. "My carriage is far more precious than any good colt or treasured horse, so take good care of it!"

The waiter looked at the ox cart beside the man and chuckled awkwardly. "Uh... Of course."

Xue Qiming took Xue Niang into the inn. Upon entering the hall, his eyes scanned the entire space. The earlier figures were not present, they probably checked into a room.

At this moment, a server from the inn approached. "Honored guests, are you here for a meal or to stay the night?"

"Hmm..." Xue Qiming stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "First, prepare a superior suite for me, I want one on the second floor."

"Got it. One superior room! Please follow me upstairs, honored guest!" The server called out, leading the way.

Once they entered the room, the server stepped back and closed the door behind him.

Xue Qiming set down his things, pulled Xue Niang closer, and whispered, "I saw those people from a few days ago..."

"Hmm?" Xue Niang looked at him in confusion. "Who?"

"Those are the people we saw from the Qihuang Society!" Xue Qiming glanced at Xue Niang.

The girl suddenly understood and asked, "So what? What do you want to do?"

"Heh..." Xue Qiming grinned. "Have you forgotten? They seemed to be escorting something... aren’t you curious?"

Xue Niang shook her head. "I'm not curious."

"But I am curious!" Xue Qiming insisted, his eyes wide with righteousness.

Xue Niang blinked and ignored Xue Qiming, busying herself with organizing their bundle of supplies.

Xue Qiming felt disheartened. Awkwardly touching his nose, he pushed open the door to go outside.

Standing in the corridor, Xue Qiming gently closed the room door, and tiptoed through the halls to listen at the doors of various rooms. After passing by two rooms, familiar voices finally came from the third room.

A low voice said, "Ye Mingsha hasn’t caught up yet..."

"Do you think he might... get killed?" another different voice asked.

"That shouldn’t be the case... after all, he is a Tongluo-ranker. How could anyone in that small town be his opponent?" the low voice responded again.

As they went back and forth, Xue Qiming deduced that there were only these two men in the room.

Xue Qiming thought back... indeed, he had seen three people together that day. So... where did the other person go?

As he pondered, the low voice in the room continued, "Che Qianzi has good lightness arts, so he went ahead. It might not be a bad thing to wait here for Ye Mingsha."

"Hmm... I hope Che Qianzi doesn’t run into any more trouble..."

"Don’t jinx it! This concerns the war between two nations and cannot be taken lightly," the low voice scolded. "Hmph... The strategy of the Ruen Dynasty can only be described as despicable.

"Tens of thousands of their own people believed they wouldn’t do it, yet they really went ahead with their plan... If we, Northern Qiang, fall into their trap, we might really suffer heavy losses..."

"Haha, who's to say how things will turn out..." The other man sneered. "But since our Northern Qiang spies know about it, we have no chance of letting the Ruen Dynasty get the upper hand... As long as we—"

Bang!

The locked door was forcibly pushed open.

Xue Qiming strode in boldly and sat down at the table beside the two men with a strange smile.

"So, what are you planning to do now?"

1. 雪 snow and 血 blood are phonetically identical in mandarin, the city is called 踏雪城, whereas XQM confuses it as 踏血城. ☜