Martial Cultivator

He had never been to the town before. Ever since his teacher had brought him up the mountain, he had remained on the mountain, cultivating. This was his first time venturing down. Fortunately, the town was small, and after asking a few locals, he quickly found Chen’s Bakery.

Glancing at the Chen’s Bakery, Chen Lin found it unremarkable. It was tucked away in a remote corner, as if the owner did not have the money to secure a better location. Inside, the lighting was dim, and behind the counter sat an old shopkeeper with a head full of white hair, currently dozing off.

Chen Lin stepped inside, glanced at the old man, then tossed a skygold coin onto the counter, saying rather impatiently, ”Give me one of each pastry.”

The skygold coin rolled across the counter before coming to a stop right in front of the old shopkeeper. Only then did the man open his turbid eyes, glancing not at the coin, but at Chen Lin himself.

”Did Daoist Master come from the mountain?”

The old shopkeeper spoke slowly, his tone calm.

Chen Lin frowned. ”What nonsense are you talking about?”

Before coming down, he had deliberately removed his daoist robe to avoid drawing attention from the townsfolk. Yet, he had not expected his identity to be exposed so quickly.

The old man chuckled. ”Daoist Master, if you weren’t one of the immortals cultivating up on the mountain, you wouldn’t be spending money so extravagantly.”

”Since it’s Daoist Master’s first time here, why not try some of this old man’s pastries first? See what you like before buying?”

The old shopkeeper suggested kindly, ”There used to be a daoist master who came often, he loved my mung bean cakes the most.”

Chen Lin originally had not intended to eat anything, but hearing the old shopkeeper’s words, he hesitated for a moment before picking up a piece of mung bean cake and taking a bite. He did not find it particularly delicious, but since it was likely Yu Lu’s favorite, he instructed, ”Pack more of the mung bean cakes.”

The old shopkeeper nodded and quickly got to work. Before long, the pastries were packed and handed over to Chen Lin.

Chen Lin took them without another word, turned around, and left.

After Chen Lin left, the old shopkeeper chuckled to himself as he reached for the wooden door planks, muttering to himself with a grin, ”Today’s a fine day. Sold out early, I can grab a jug of alcohol and take the rest of the day off.”

Hearing this, the nearby vendors began teasing him, calling for the old shopkeeper to treat them to a drink.

The old man rolled his eyes and cursed, ”That’s my coffin money! Anyone eyeing it won’t have a good ending.”

This naturally drew a round of laughter from the crowd.

After securing the door planks, the old shopkeeper hung up a ”Closed” sign.

Then, he slowly left the shop and made his way to a secluded courtyard.

Pushing open the door, he entered a dimly lit room where several figures clad in black stood waiting.

Straightening his back, the old shopkeeper grinned. ”Just as the Lord Warden Commander predicted, Yinli took the bait. Everything over there has been handled, everything is proceeding according to plan. Go report back to His Excellency immediately, make sure nothing goes awry.”

The black-clad figures nodded without a word and silently departed.

The old shopkeeper stroked his beard and chuckled.

……

……

Chen Lin carried the pastries back to the Infatuation Daoist Temple. Just as he left the town and neared the foot of the mountain, a few figures suddenly emerged from the forest. They were dressed in daoist robes, all disciples of the temple.

Chen Lin froze, his first instinct was to run.

”Chen Lin! Trying to run?”

”Are you courting death?!”

A young daoist shouted, dispelling Chen Lin’s thoughts of fleeing.

He forced a dry laugh and said, ”Senior Brothers, what brings you here?”

The young daoist laughed coldly, ”I should be asking you that! You’re supposed to be watching over the herb fields. What are you doing sneaking off the mountain on your own?!”

Chen Lin turned stiff. He knew that going down the mountain without permission was a serious offense. But then he thought about Yu Lu’s standing within the sect and felt somewhat reassured. He was just about to say that he had gone to buy pastries for Senior Brother Yu when a sudden realization struck him - Yu Lu had not explicitly told him to buy pastries. Turns out that this was what Yu Lu was worried about?

A wave of shock rippled through Chen Lin’s heart. He had felt that he could already guess Yu Lu’s thoughts, but now he realized he was still far from it.

”It was this junior brother’s fault, this junior brother got greedy and went down to buy some pastries. It was a violation of the sect rules. Since this is my first offense, could Senior Brothers be lenient with this junior brother? After all...”

Before Chen Lin could finish speaking, he was interrupted by that young daoist with a frown, ”Nonsense! You must have used buying pastries as an excuse to carry out something shady!”

Chen Lin shook his head. ”Senior Brother, please don’t slander me. This junior brother truly only went to buy pastries.”

”What’s the point of all this talk? Seize him! Send him to the Disciplinary Hall. After he’s tortured, the truth will come out!”

The young daoist snorted coldly and was about to order his fellow disciples forward.

Terrified, Chen Lin took a few steps back. Suddenly, black blood began trickling from the corner of his mouth. In mere moments, he collapsed to the ground, and his body began convulsing.

The young daoist quickly stepped forward and squatted down to check on him. But just as he raised his hand, Chen Lin had already stopped breathing.

This scene left the surrounding disciples somewhat at a loss.

The young daoist frowned and said, ”There’s something seriously wrong with this. He had poison hidden in his mouth all along. Now that he’s been exposed, he killed himself rather than let us learn the truth. He must be a spy from the Great Liang.”

One of the disciples asked, ”Senior Brother Gan, what should we do now?”

”What should we do?”

Senior Brother Gan made a swift decision. ”You two, bring his corpse back to the mountain and report to the elders. Tell them to send people to the town immediately. The rest of you, follow me, we’re going to check out that pastry shop!”

”Understood!”

Two disciples promptly carried Chen Lin’s body away, while Senior Brother Gan and the others headed toward the town.

15 minutes later.

Senior Brother Gan and the others waited in front of that Chen’s Bakery for the cultivators from the temple who had come down from the mountain.

An older daoist among them frowned at the messy shop and asked, ”What’s the situation?”

Senior Brother Gan shook his head. ”Chen Lin did come here to buy pastries, many of the townspeople saw him. But this shop is also suspicious. The old shopkeeper has disappeared. It looks like Chen Lin disguised himself at dawn to come down the mountain and pass on some intelligence here. But before we could find out anything, he had already taken his own life. Presumably, this shop was a hidden outpost for the Great Liang’s spies, but now there’s not a single person left to question.”

The daoist furrowed his brows. ”A traitor like Chen Lin deserved to die long ago. But we still need to investigate what information he managed to pass on. Keep searching, I’ll return to the mountain and report to Martial Uncle Shouyi.”

Senior Brother Gan acknowledged the order, and the daoist departed swiftly.

”Continue searching.”

Though Senior Brother Gan knew it would likely be fruitless, he still gave the order.

The other disciples nodded and began combing through the shop once more.

……

……

The events in town quickly reached the mountain.

First, they were reported to Daoist Shouyi, and then the news made its way to Daoist Yinli.

Daoist Yinli listened to the report from his subordinate, then dismissed him. Only then did he turn to the black ox and say, ”Just as I expected, Yun Jianyue was beguiled by that young martial artist, which is why he dared to attack me. But the ridiculous thing is that Yun Jianyue still remains in the dark, never realizing that from the very beginning, that young martial artist intended to get rid of him.”

The black ox, as if awakening from a dream, sighed in realization. ”I had thought their plan from the start was to harm you, Sage.”

”Idiot. With my present cultivation, do you think I can be harmed so easily?” ”Only an idiot like Yun Jianyue would believe he could kill me. He thought himself clever, yet he never realized he had been manipulated by someone else all along. Though I didn’t kill Yun Jianyue myself, in a way, I helped that young martial artist once. But if he thinks Infatuation Daoist Temple will wither away now, he’s gravely mistaken. Yun Jianyue may be the number one young genius of Daoism, but does he think our Infatuation Daoist Temple can’t find a second genius to replace him?”

Daoist Yinli said indifferently, ”I saw through that young martial artist’s scheme long ago and simply went along with it. He wanted to eliminate Yun Jianyue, why wouldn’t I want him gone as well?”

”This round, both of us got what we wanted. But I also managed to eliminate a Great Liang spy along the way, so I’d say I won by six points.”

The black ox lamented, ”That young martial artist is so cunning at such a young age, isn’t that rather impressive too?”

Daoist Yinli nodded with a smile. ”He is somewhat impressive. But he’s just a fool who thinks he’s smart. Let him believe he’s winning for a while, he’ll grow arrogant soon enough. And when he least expects it, that’s when I’ll kill him.”

The black ox said, ”With someone like Sage here, it’s hard to imagine anyone in this world who could ever surpass Sage.”

Daoist Yinli chuckled lightly. ”Tell me, with things as they are, how is that fool of a senior brother of mine supposed to be better than me? Back then, Master chose him as the temple master - what a foolish decision.”