Great Li Martial God

Even as she cried, the small beggar was sneaking glances at Li Musheng between wipes of her eyes.

But she found the person before her utterly unmoved, simply watching her in silence without a word.

And so, little by little, the small beggar’s wailing lost its energy, her voice growing smaller and smaller, until at last she simply slumped face-down at Li Musheng’s feet without moving or making any sound, quietly recovering her strength on the quiet.

”Of all things, a supposed hero with not a shred of sympathy?”

The small beggar thought to herself, then noticed Li Musheng had taken out the item she had stolen and was turning it over in his hands, examining it.

”Why did you steal this?”

At that, Li Musheng suddenly asked.

The small beggar raised her head and looked at him, then her eyes darted about, and she arranged her face into an expression of pitiful aggrievement, ”My lord, I was so hungry I had gone faint. I just happened to pick this up while I was trying to find something to eat.”

”If you want it, please take it and do as you like...”

As she said this, the small beggar batted her large eyes at Li Musheng with an expression of complete sincerity.She was hoping that the sight of her like this might soften his heart enough to just let her go.

But Li Musheng looked at the beggar and shook his head, ”If you do not want to say, then forget it.”

At those words, the small beggar’s expression went briefly still, and just as she was about to say something else, she heard Li Musheng speak again, ”My requirements are not high. As long as you answer my questions honestly, I will let you leave.”

At those words, the whole pile of lies that had been about to leave the small beggar’s mouth came to a stop.

Her expression went through a rapid series of changes, and then she raised her head to look at Li Musheng, ”My lord, what do you want to know?”

Li Musheng narrowed his eyes slightly, ”That movement technique and martial art of yours are quite impressive. Where did you learn them?”

When they had been back in the tavern, Li Musheng had originally had no intention of involving himself in anyone else’s affairs.

But the small beggar hiding on the roof had caught his interest.

Though the small beggar had not told a single honest word with her mouth, the concealment technique and movement art she possessed were among the most remarkable Li Musheng had ever seen in any person.

Comparing them to the Kill-Saint of the Hidden Kill Pavilion’s movement technique, they were not inferior, and might even have had a slight edge.

It was obvious that this unremarkable-looking little beggar had a teacher of considerable standing behind her.

At that, upon hearing Li Musheng’s question, the small beggar’s eyes rolled rapidly.

Then she suddenly released Li Musheng’s feet, sat cross-legged on the ground, let out a knowing smile, and said with deliberate mystery, ”Since you have already seen through me, I will not hide it. I will tell you honestly... I have someone above me, and it is someone you could not afford to provoke.”

As she said this, the small beggar tilted her dirty face upward and looked down at Li Musheng with contempt, ”I am advising you, if you know what is good for you, you had best let me go. Otherwise you will learn that this is the single most regrettable thing you have ever done in your life. You will have provoked someone you could never, ever handle.”

With that, the small beggar’s entire bearing swelled with confidence, and she gave Li Musheng a heavy, disdainful snort, looking as though she had not the slightest concern in the world about him.

Seeing this, Li Musheng immediately raised an eyebrow, ”I ask you a question, and you stand there yammering about what?”

He had done nothing more than give the small beggar the mildest of compliments, and she had promptly lost all sense of direction and turned on a coin.

At those words, the small beggar heard Li Musheng and went visibly still for a moment, then quietly studied him.

She found his expression completely blank, showing not the slightest sign of being rattled by her speech, and a chill immediately ran through her inwardly.

”Of all things, a person who responds to neither soft words nor hard ones. How did I end up running into someone this difficult to deal with?”

Thinking this, the small beggar sat in a daze, her expression wavering between one thing and another.

At that, Li Musheng grabbed her by the collar and hauled her up off the ground, making her stand straight, ”Have you thought about how to answer?”

At those words, the small beggar looked at the young man before her who was not particularly old yet already infuriatingly formidable.

She took a sudden deep breath and said, ”Since you are so stubborn, I will not hide it either. Let me tell you clearly and you had better listen...”

”My Master is the figure who shakes the entire martial world, who makes all those who hear the name tremble with dread... the Theft Saint, Bai Wuying!”

As she said this, the small beggar fixed her eyes directly on Li Musheng, as though watching to see what expression of shock and fear he would produce.

But to her enormous surprise, Li Musheng’s face showed no change whatsoever from beginning to end.

Even upon hearing the words ”Theft Saint,” he showed not a ripple of reaction, simply giving a slow nod and saying, ”So it is connected to that Theft Saint. That would explain things.”

Li Musheng had naturally heard the martial world’s rumors about the figure known as the Theft Saint.

And the one thing he remembered most clearly was that years ago, the Theft Saint Bai Wuying had infiltrated the Great Xuan imperial palace and carried off one of the Great Xuan emperor’s consorts.

This scandal concerning the Great Xuan imperial palace had been suppressed, but before setting out for Great Xuan, Li Musheng had once heard Yu Jin go through the documented accounts of people who had actually managed to infiltrate the Great Xuan imperial palace. The Theft Saint Bai Wuying’s supposed abduction of the Great Xuan imperial consort had been the only account on that list that seemed plausible and credible.

And so after hearing the small beggar name the Theft Saint, and having personally observed the remarkable movement technique the girl possessed, Li Musheng no longer had any doubts about the claim. If this movement art had come from the Theft Saint, that was entirely believable.

The small beggar, seeing that Li Musheng appeared to have accepted her words, could not help muttering under her breath, ”I said a whole pile of things and you did not believe me. Then I finally tell you the one true thing and you actually believe it.”

She then shot Li Musheng a fierce glare and said, ”So now that you know my Master’s name, you are finally afraid? Next time keep your eyes open wider. I am not the kind of person someone like you can afford to provoke.”

With that, she turned on her heel and prepared to make her exit.

But she had not even taken a full step before Li Musheng reached out from behind and pinched the back of her collar, lifting her off the ground.

”What do you want now?”

The small beggar dangled in mid-air, her legs churning out a blur of motion, craning her neck to shout back at Li Musheng in bewilderment.

It was plain that if Li Musheng had been even a fraction of a second slower in grabbing her, her legs would have reached full speed and she would have vanished in an instant.

”Write out that movement technique of yours from memory for me. I want to take a look at it.”

Li Musheng said this in a completely calm tone, without the slightest embarrassment at having forced a small beggar into doing his bidding.

At those words, the small beggar’s eyes went wide and she stared at Li Musheng furiously, ”Is this some kind of joke? I have not stolen anything from you. And you have already taken the thing I did steal. I am already losing everything I had, and now you actually want to covet a beggar’s martial art on top of it all?”

”Is this how people are treated? Is there any justice left in this world? Is there any law?”

...

At those words, Li Musheng remained completely composed and entirely unconcerned, ”Do not worry. I will not let you come out of this on the losing end. I can teach you a martial art no weaker than your current movement technique in exchange.”

Li Musheng’s self-developed movement technique was called the Shadowless Divine Stride. The technique was something he had derived from a basic double-spring footwork method.

Though he was confident that in terms of speed, he could move to the point of being invisible and leaving no trace, with virtually no one in the entire martial world able to match him.

But though this movement art pushed speed to its absolute limit, it lacked variation in the forms of movement itself.

The small beggar’s movement art, while also excelling at speed, placed greater emphasis on change, and was remarkably elusive and unpredictable in its variations.

Moreover, looking at this technique with a critical eye, Li Musheng found it had room for significant improvement and refinement, even if it was already comparable to the Kill-Saint’s movement art.

This had naturally piqued his interest.

Even without learning the Theft Saint’s movement art, Li Musheng was certain that no one could surpass him in speed.

But the Theft Saint’s technique clearly had its merits, and since he happened to have encountered it, he was curious to study it.

At that moment, hearing that Li Musheng wanted to trade a martial art for her movement technique, the small beggar nearly burst out laughing from sheer indignation, ”This is the Theft Saint’s most closely guarded secret, something that allows one to roam the world freely, to come and go without a trace, to enter the Great Xuan imperial palace as though walking into an empty field.”

”And what are you going to exchange for it? What shabby martial art of yours could match even one hair’s worth of the Theft Saint’s secret technique? Not even a single hair.”

At those words, Li Musheng looked at the small beggar dangling from his hand, and furrowed his brow slightly.

He had no real intention of using the Life and Death Talisman to force the issue. From what he could see, the small beggar was just a young girl who was not particularly old.

And moreover, she had not actually done anything to him. It was he who was interested in her martial art.

Given that, he could not really bring himself to use something as cruel as the Life and Death Talisman, which could make a person wish they were dead, on someone who had not provoked him.

If he did that, he would truly be behaving like an unscrupulous scoundrel.

After a moment’s thought, Li Musheng kept hold of the small beggar, and in the next instant the two of them vanished from the alley without a trace.

At the same time, the small beggar who had been in the middle of another heated remark immediately fell silent.

Her eyes went wide as she stared at the scenery around her blurring past at blinding speed, too shocked to form a single word.

Having learned the Theft Saint’s movement art herself, she naturally understood exactly what she was witnessing.

But before she could collect herself, there was a quiet thud.

The small beggar found herself deposited on the ground, and the blurred scenery around her cleared all at once to reveal the interior of the tavern’s main hall.

”This... how is this... how can anyone be this fast?”

The small beggar sat where she had landed, looking at everything around her in total disbelief.

She had fled from this tavern without pausing for even a breath, running at full speed for half a pot of tea’s worth of time before reaching that distant back alley in the city.

And yet it had taken nothing more than the blink of an eye for Li Musheng to bring her right back.

This speed was staggering, far beyond anything she had imagined, and even if the Theft Saint personally arrived, they would very likely not be faster than this person.

And so the small beggar sat in a daze for a good long while, and when she finally came back to herself, she looked at Li Musheng with an enormously complicated expression and asked, ”You are already this fast. Is there really any point in wanting my martial art?”

At those words, Li Musheng raised an eyebrow and said with complete composure, ”Do not talk nonsense and damage my reputation without cause. How could I possibly covet your martial art? I am simply interested in your movement technique, and I want to exchange one martial art for another. That is all.”

”And what if I refuse?” the small beggar immediately asked.

Li Musheng shook his head, ”If you refuse, I will not force you. But when the people from before come back, I will hand you over to them.”

As he said this, Li Musheng looked at her with unhurried ease, ”Whatever else you might say, stealing is wrong. The item should be returned to its rightful owners. At the very least you should apologize to them, should you not?”

With that, Li Musheng took the item he had retrieved from the small beggar and placed it back on her person.

And at that moment, the small beggar suddenly realized with alarm that at some unknown point she had become completely unable to move. Running away from under Li Musheng’s eyes again was entirely out of the question.

She turned a furious glare on Li Musheng, only to find him simply waiting quietly, as though he expected the previous group to return at any moment.

”You cannot be serious about this,” the small beggar said, a flash of panic crossing her eyes, and she spoke hurriedly, ”Those people are from the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult. They are one of the three great demonic sects within Great Xuan, and they kill without blinking. Everyone in the martial world treats them as enemies fit to be cut down on sight.”

”Surely you would not help those villains and actually hand me over to them? They would make my death absolutely horrible.”

...

”Besides, me stealing from them is upholding justice and robbing from the rich to give to the poor... I am one of the good people...”

...

Li Musheng listened to the small beggar with complete indifference, and casually sealed her mute acupoint.

At the sight, the small beggar was genuinely frightened, and tried desperately to say something conciliatory, but could not produce a single sound.

After a short while, Li Musheng glanced down slightly, and saw the small beggar on the ground furiously blinking her eyes up at him.

At the same time, the man from before and the two black-robed elders came back through the tavern entrance, having clearly returned empty-handed.

At that, Li Musheng looked at the small beggar, and his gaze narrowed slightly, ”Have you made up your mind?”

At those words, the small beggar immediately blinked at him with desperate speed, nearly wearing her eyes out doing it.

”There, that was all it took.”

Li Musheng gave a quiet nod. The girl was simply too stubborn for her own good. She had forced him to play the villain before she would come around, which was not something he had enjoyed.

At that moment, the man and the two black-robed elders had naturally also noticed Li Musheng and the small beggar in the main hall.

One of the black-robed elders in particular immediately recognized that the small beggar was the same person who had collided with him on the street.

”Found you at last, you little wretch. Hand over what you took.”

The elder moved immediately, coming to stand directly before Li Musheng and the small beggar.

The man and the other elder saw this and immediately closed in, surrounding the two of them.

”So you are involved in this after all.”

The man’s expression was dark as he fixed his gaze on Li Musheng.

He had already sensed something off about Li Musheng’s group the first time he noticed them. Now it was clear they must have come specifically because of him.