El viaje de un mendigo alrededor del mundo

Capítulo 84

The scholar's large, broad hand gently patted her back, gradually calming her incoherent speech. Then she heard his voice above her head; although it was his usual calm and indifferent tone, she could hear undisguised anger in it.

"Alas, you have frightened my wife."

53 The Man with Seven-Colored Auspicious Clouds

All that could be heard was the endless wailing and lamentation; all that could be seen was corpses strewn everywhere and rivers of blood flowing. The Xiaoyao Teahouse had been transformed into a scene of carnage in an instant…

That's an exaggeration, let's start over.

Fan Qingbo shook off the novel scenes that popped into his mind due to his professional habits. Looking at the pale-faced martial arts figures all over the ground, he finally realized that they were all serious. They were not stunned by the scholar's words and actions, but were ambushed.

The murderer was obviously neither she nor the scholar, so the most likely possibility was—

"Alas, you have frightened my wife."

Following the scholar's gaze, Nan Wuyao was still lounging lazily, but the languid expression on his face vanished, replaced by a captivating gaze and a smile playing on his lips. In Fan Qingbo's dictionary, that smile had a specific adjective—alluring yet arrogant.

"You're not a master healer, so who are you?" a weak accusation rang out.

Even she could see the difference, so these martial arts practitioners certainly couldn't miss it either. Unfortunately, "Nan Wuyao" ignored them, only looking at the scholar and asking curiously, "When did you realize I wasn't Nan Wuyao?"

"When I addressed you as my senior brother."

"Na Wuyao" asked in surprise, "You and Na Wuyao are not fellow disciples, are you just testing me?"

The scholar shook his head. “Human nature is inherently good. I have never hesitated to assume the best intentions of others, so this was not a test in the first place.”

"Namo Medicine" frowned: "Then how exactly did you discover it?"

The scholar seemed to recall something amusing and chuckled, "You shouldn't have asked your master."

"Namoyao" paused for a long time before realizing that the scholar had already answered his question. His lips twitched slightly. "Are all you Central Plains people so annoying? Can you answer my question all at once instead of making me ask it one by one?"

These words expressed the sentiments of everyone present; pausing and hesitating during such a tense moment of decryption was simply unbearable. Fan Qingbo, a man of little patience, decisively decided to take matters into his own hands.

He tugged at the scholar's sleeve and said, "Explain in one hundred words how many flaws there are in total."

"There are two flaws. First, my senior brother has always been ashamed of our master and never cares about his life or death, so there is no way he would ask me about his whereabouts. Second, under the influence of my senior sister-in-law, my senior brother is good at making money, so there is no way he would provide medical advice to others for free."

After reciting these three points in one breath, the scholar paused and looked at Fan Qingbo somewhat nervously, "Wife, how many words are left?"

"With the addition of punctuation, there are 76 characters. Good job! I'll give you a verbal praise."

The scholar's left cheek seemed to say, "My wife praised me," while his right cheek seemed to say, "I'm so happy." He smiled with satisfaction and joy. The crowd's pale faces darkened, and they fell silent in disappointment, seemingly beginning to accept the idea that the scholar had become a top-tier henpecked husband.

"Namoyao" then chuckled, "I never imagined that all my calculations would be in vain because I overestimated the bond between you and your master. That makes sense, given the old man's character, his master and junior brother wouldn't be much better off."

It's fair to say that this fake Namo Medicine lost unjustly.

Those in the martial arts world only knew that Nan Wuyao was a master of both medicine and poison, and that Yin Shusheng possessed unparalleled martial arts skills, but they had never known where these two came from. Upon hearing that these two seemingly unrelated people were actually fellow disciples, any martial artist would inevitably want to find out. The fake Nan Wuyao was already being cautious, only mentioning half a sentence, but who knew that those half-sentences would expose him.

"May I ask where the real Master Nan is?" Li Chengxi suddenly asked, seemingly worried about the safety of the master. As expected of the number one young master in the martial arts world, even when he was poisoned and lying on the ground, subdued by others, he still maintained a transcendent demeanor, with an elegant and charming smile always playing on his lips.

The fake Namo Medicine took a box out of his sleeve and threw it in front of Li Chengxi.

“Ah Jiu is pregnant again. The old man is busy taking care of her and doesn’t have time to play with you. This is half of the deposit he asked me to return. As for the other half, he said to consider it as a gift for the child’s future meeting. He and his wife would be impolite to refuse it.”

A murmur of astonishment rippled through the crowd. While they knew the Master's behavior was unpredictable, to abandon the entire martial arts world by simply sending someone to deliver a message was utterly absurd! Just because his wife was pregnant? Holy crap! Has the world been taken over by henpecked husbands? Besides, the person he found wasn't just anyone; he was a poison-wielding demon! A demon! Wait, a demon…

"You...you are...the leader of the Miao Jiang Seven Treasures Sect—the Gu King Night Owl!" someone exclaimed.

The Gu poison that makes Nan Wuyao immune to all poisons was planted in him by the Gu King Ye Xiao, so the two have a close relationship. Tao Jinjin is his ex-wife and subordinate, which explains why he is here.

"Demon! What poison did you use on us? Hand over the antidote!" Upon recognizing his identity, someone finally panicked.

"No, no, no." Night Owl shook his finger and stood up. "I never poison anything. I just... added a few little insects to your drinks. And these insects can't help but dance when they smell my special wine." In everyone's eyes, Nan Wuyao was a drunkard, always incoherent. So, pretending to be him drinking and spilling wine all over the place, letting the aroma permeate the air, no one would care. Little did they know, this was precisely the trigger for the poison.

Recalling her two attempts to go for tea, Fan Qingbo felt a little scared, but fortunately the scholar stopped her.

"You knew all along that there was something wrong with the drinks?"

"Yes, I have some knowledge of Miao Gu."

When he discovered that the medicine was counterfeit, he knew the wine was strange, but it wasn't until he smelled the rich aroma that he confirmed it was a poisonous insect called the Wine Worm. When this poison takes effect, it feels like a thousand ants are crawling on your heart—itchy and painful—but it's not fatal because the Wine Worm only lives for three days; the person afflicted suffers for a maximum of three days. It's clear that Night Owl's intention wasn't to kill, which is why he remained aloof and observed the situation.

Night Owl walked into the hall, untied the unconscious Tao Jinjin, and examined her body. Only after confirming there were no external injuries did he relax, take a small black pill from the gourd at his waist, and feed it to her.

“Master Ye, Tao Jinjin still has unresolved matters with several sects, so I’m afraid you can’t just take her away like this.” Li Chengxi, who had been silent since learning about the real Nanwu Yao Wuai, spoke up again.

Night Owl chuckled. "Why not? I went to great lengths to seal away all her memories of contact with those pretty boys from the Central Plains, and you even went to the trouble of organizing this conference to remind her again. I haven't even settled that score with you yet, and you're already trying to negotiate with me? Li Chengxi, do you think you have the right to make demands of me in your current state?"

His words reminded the other martial artists that only one person could help them now: "Silver Scholar! Quickly capture that fiend! Don't let him take the demoness away and wreak havoc on the martial world!"

What is the scholar doing, the one everyone is turning to for help?

"Wife, Shouheng went to buy groceries and it took him a long time. He'll be worried if he can't find us when he gets home."

"Yes, he tends to disturb the neighbors when he's in a hurry, and they'll complain. We need to go back quickly."

The saying "if you leave someone to die, you'll do it again" applies to this kind of behavior. The scholar personally felt that since his senior brother Nan Wuyao had sent this night owl to deliver the message, there must be a reason, and he shouldn't interfere. Besides, now that all the troublesome martial arts figures had been taken down, why not leave? Fan Qingbo's thoughts were much simpler. She felt that since she hadn't helped Tao Jinjin last time, she should treat all the martial arts figures the same way this time.

So the couple, whose thoughts were clearly diametrically opposed but ultimately converged, found themselves in sync once again. Hand in hand, they chatted as if no one else was around and started walking outside.

"Wait a minute," Night Owl suddenly spoke up.