404 An Unexpected Clue

Six Bags Beggar had seen too many chivalrous righteous young masters who thought that they could restore the justice in this world completely, yet always ended up being taught a painful lesson. If those people were from any aristocratic families or reputable sects that one could not afford to mess with, he would ask any senior in his sect or family to take them away after beating them up. If they were just nobody, he could sell them to anyone in need!

After all, the world was such a huge place. Who would know where they went missing?

However, he felt that Meng Qi was someone special because his valiancy and masculinity were imposing, even his long saber had faint traces of lightning dancing around the blade body, anyone could tell it was not an ordinary saber. Therefore, he forced himself to control his anger and aggression, then said in a deep voice, "May I know which sect you belong to? Please don't be taken advantage of by others and end up incurring hatred with us in the Beggar Sect for nothing!"

"Did you see the beggar holding the child entering this yard? You must know that footprints can be deceiving!"

Meng Qi had been tracking down the beggar earlier very closely. Hence, his senses could never be deceived unless someone at the Exterior level played some kind of tricks. Even if there was someone at the Exterior level, that person could have assaulted him straightaway once he was led into the tunnel, there would be no need for dragging and delaying all this while.

"I am nobody but a Rogue Cultivator who belongs to no sect, and I did see the beggar holding the child entering here with my own eyes." Meng Qi raised his saber slightly, not revealing his identity at all.

He did not boast by using the names of the Wang family from Zhou County or Sword Washing Pavilion for two reasons. The first reason being that he wanted to end such a misdeed once and for all. Frightening them with the names of reputable sects could at least make them hand over the child but would not stop them from abducting more innocent people. Secondly, he wanted to know how frantic and evil these scumbags from the Beggar Sect could be.

Six Bags Beggar squinted as his words and started to have a sense of viciousness and mocked, "So you will not give up on searching this place then? Just because you think you saw what happened with your own eyes? Humph! So sad that your eyes have started failing when you are still so young."

Other beggars who were holding either sharp bamboo poles or swords and blades gradually gathered around and shouted,

"You have no evidence! You are doing us wrong!"

"Everyone could see the beggar earlier running towards the entrance of the alley! I say you are definitely blind!"

"Sue us at Six Fan School if you want! Together we surely have more pairs of eyes than you. Your evidence will not stand!"

"You look not bad at all. Maybe some rich men are into the kind of young boys like you."

"Or maybe a woman who lost her husband will want to take you in, that's making me really jealous of you..."

"How dare a bastard like you mess with the Beggar Sect!"

"If any punk like you was in the Southern State, you would have been beaten so badly by now that you wouldn't even be able to stand up!"

As those beggars mocked and cursed Meng Qi, they also moved to different positions to block his escape route completely.

Seeing Meng Qi still having no intention to retreat, Six Bags Beggar sounded more furious as he had a nasty look on his face, "It seems like I have to teach you a lesson then! Brothers! Let's go and kick his butt!"

The six bags on his back showed that he not only had someone with authority to back him up, but also possessed outstanding capabilities. With his unpredictable palm movements, he was rather confident in his strength among all who had enlightened Nine Apertures. When he attacked, a huge amount of energy in his palms burst forth, powerful and fierce, as if two dragons were breaking out of the ocean.

Others slashed or stabbed at Meng Qi from all directions. It seemed that he could never escape even if a pair of wings had grown on him.

Instead of feeling irritated, Meng Qi smiled and thought that those beggars were really bad at recognizing someone as famous as he. With only the abstract portrait on the Ranking List of Young Masters and several facial traits passed on to others by word of mouth, it may indeed be difficult for one to recognize Meng Qi meeting for the first time. However, if the person was a genuine master, he should have long sensed Meng Qi's vital energy and identified him based on it.

"On the other hand, it's also good that they didn't recognize me!"

He retracted his smile and swung his saber again and again, like a heavy giant wheel to attack his opponent's palm energy head-on. A dead thud was made as these two strands of energy clashed.

"Thud!"

The long saber seemed to have long predicted Six Bags Beggar's palm movements as it slashed with the center of his palm despite being the latter to attack.

At the same time, Meng Qi was hit by some bamboo poles and sabers as well.

"Ouch!" A shrill cry was heard as Six Bags Beggar stepped back immediately. His Protective Upstanding Qi was broken by Meng Qi's single slash, and half of his right palm had also dropped onto the ground.

He was not like Aunt Bai whose strong genuine Qi and body could avoid her being hurt by any Precious Weapons. Hence, half of his palm was chopped off as he tried to attack head-on against Meng Qi's powerful saber.

When Meng Qi's face started giving off a faint golden glow, he shook his body and those beggars who hit him were pushed away from him immediately. Their mouths had blood oozing from the corners. Apparently, they were already dead from being hit by Meng Qi's burst of energy.

That was the reverberating power of Eight Nine Mysteries and Golden Bell Shield techniques!

He dashed forward like a chariot to knock the opponents beside him into the air. The attacks by those poles and swords felt like tickles to Meng Qi as long as they did not hit his weak points.

Meng Qi then pursued Six Bags Beggar with another attack. Apparently, he did not intend to leave him any time to pause for a breath!

Six Bags Beggar's eyes turned red and seemed to be about to burst soon under the immense pressure. Judging by his opponent's strength and the long saber, Six Bags Beggar gradually realized whom he was up against.

"Damn it! If you told me who you were earlier on, I would definitely show you some respect and let you go!"

"I'll let you..." Before Six Bags Beggar even finished his words, Meng Qi's saber had already reached him . The attack was just as aggressive and fierce as the thunder from the sky.

Six Bags Beggar had no choice but to deal with the attack with his left palm. His palm movements were as flexible and swift as fish in the sea. By using countless variations of moves, he was hoping to be able to withstand this heavy attack.

"Bang!"

He was forced backwards again, and this time there was blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. The strength of this attack was way beyond his ability to control. Luckily, his left palm was spared from being chopped off since Meng Qi had somehow changed his attack to using the back of his saber.

"You guys have been kidnapping innocent children!" Meng Qi shouted as he lashed out with the back of his saber again, forcing Six Bags Beggar to fend for himself. He could not help but step backward again as blood spurted from his mouth. A few more beggars were knocked into the air as energy was given off again by Meng Qi's faint golden glow.

"And abducting young women!" His voice was as deafening as a thunderstorm. Six Bags Beggar's left palm was blown away by his saber, which sliced the front of his chest, breaking his Protective Upstanding Qi completely. Other beggars had long been knocked into a daze, losing their ability to move and escape despite wanting to.

"There's not a single kind of atrocity you people have not committed!" Meng Qi's voice resembled bursts of thunderclaps. At that moment, Six Bags Beggar's sight had blurred and was covered in darkness, leaving him with only his natural instincts to handle the attacks.

"You should absolutely die!"

Meng Qi took a leap to initiate a downward attack with his saber. He was still using the back of saber at the time.

"Bang!" Six Bags Beggar was knocked to the wall behind him. Blood could be seen trickling from all his Seven Apertures as he slowly collapsed.

Who could have believed that he was killed by shock waves!

Some of the remaining beggars began to flee in panic upon witnessing that moment, while the others dropped onto their knees to beg for a chance to live.

"Master, please let us live this time, we did what we did only because our Vice Branch Chief forced us to..."

"Please spare us, master!"

Meng Qi remained silent and wandered about as he attacked the weak points of the beggars as slick as a shadow. The remaining beggars soon fell one by one.

The last few beggars were about to kill Meng Qi by sacrificing their lives as they realized that their begging was useless. However, they were no match for Meng Qi who slayed all of them within seconds.

Meng Qi finally let out a sigh of relief as he saw the corpses lying on the ground. "You expect me to spare your lives, so you can have the chance to let the Beggar Sect have their revenge? No way! For the likes of you who were utterly devoid of conscience, it was better to die early and have an early reincarnation..."

"One must be much fiercer than the bad guys if one wishes to uphold justice! Otherwise, the corpses of those who are chivalrous and righteous would be seen all over the world!"

"They mentioned their Vice Branch Chief, which means there's also a Branch Chief..." Meng Qi continued his thoughts as he opened the door to the yard to find the entrance to a dungeon. He then pushed open its stone door.

Just as the door was open, the crying of children, the screaming of young women and the shouting of men were all heard.

A few beggars on guard were about to stop Meng Qi as they noticed his entry, among them was the beggar who had kidnapped the child earlier.

"He, he, he's here!" That beggar stuttered as he threw a few darts subconsciously.

The darts were knocked to the ground with a clank upon hitting Meng Qi, as if hitting metal, and all beggars were too shocked to speak as they saw it.

Top masters on the Ranking List of Young Masters could be harmed by concealed weapons at enlightenment period, but they often had entered the Imperceptible Realm under Heaven-man Connection, which granted them the ability to sense the flow of genuine Qi and dodge concealed weapons even before they were used. The only type hard to predict was the concealed weapons that function based on specific mechanisms. If the weapon had the power to break Protective Upstanding Qi, it could cause harm as well. However, the techniques Meng Qi practiced had enabled him to have an invulnerable body, so there was no need for dodging any weapons as long as they did not hit any of his weak points.

He walked forward slowly as the saber slashed at his will. Instead of harming Meng Qi with their attacks, the beggars collapsed one after another.

All those captured in the dungeon stopped crying and screaming as they were taken aback upon seeing what Meng Qi did, unable to realize what was happening just yet.

When there was only one beggar left standing, Meng Qi suddenly asked him in a casual tone, "Where's your Branch Chief?"

"He, he left to meet a friend. All, all the valuables are with him! Please spare my life!" That beggar knelt in front of Meng Qi out of despair.

"Which friend?" Meng Qi asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Fearing Meng Qi's strength, the beggar told him everything he knew, "I don't know who, only that it's some injured person who requested our Branch Chief to find the cure to his wounds and help him leave Ying City."

"An injured friend who needs to leave Ying City... Could it be Wolf King?"  Meng Qi tightened his grip on his saber as the thought struck him.

"Maybe he was too weak to leave by himself this time. So he had to find some helpers?"

He continued asking a few questions in the same indifferent tone and took the beggar's life mercilessly as he realized that the beggar did not know much either.

"Having mercy on the evil is the same as committing a crime against ordinary people!"

He held the iron lock on the dungeon's door and twisted it with force, the lock immediately cracked, and the door was open.

It wasn't until then that the abducted ones realized what had happened. They all burst into tears and screams that grew from a shriek into a loud and unrestrained cry. It seemed that they had been suppressing their fear and insecurity for too long.

Meng Qi listened to them in silence, then said gently, "It's okay now, please follow me outside."

"We will be forever grateful for your saving grace." An educated person nodded and thanked Meng Qi, then everyone else did the same.

After they calmed down, Meng Qi led them out of the dungeon. Just as he entered the yard, a monk in a yellow frock standing among the corpses and blood came into view.

He had a young ordinary look, with low eyebrows and droopy eyes that made him look rather steady. A string of Prayer Beads from Shaolin Temple hung around his neck. Even though there was flesh and blood all around him, his entire body was spotless, as if his surroundings were clean and pure.

"Amitabha, the way you dealt with them was too cruel and malicious." The young monk said.

Meng Qi had never met this monk before, but he knew there could only be a few young monks as imposing as he. He then said with a smile, "Young uncle master, we shall not show mercy to evil people. Only by killing them all can the world return to a clean and pure state."

The monk sighed and said, "If you chose to stop killing, you would become a Buddha immediately."

His acquiescence in how Meng Qi addressed him showed that he was Xuan Zhen, Buddhist Heart Palm.

"Young uncle master, are you that determined to change the way I do things?" Meng Qi's eyebrows raised as he asked.

Xuan Zhen looked at the women and children behind him, then said, "Praying to Buddha is both a form of self-cultivation and salvation from the world, but I shall not force others against their will. As long as you do not disobey the rules of this world or torture the innocent, there's no way I would interfere in your methods."

Meng Qi chuckled a bit and said, "There are not many monks in Shaolin Temple to my liking, but you are definitely one of them."

"In order to prevent the Beggar Sect from seeking revenge, I planned to take them to Six Fan School through the tunnel. Since you are here now, would you please help me with this matter instead? Shaolin Temple has a great reputation and foundation, I believe they have what it takes to deal with this matter."

"Amitabha. Saving one life is better than building a Seven-Storied Stupa." Xuan Zhen did not reject Meng Qi's suggestion.