Chapter 5 A Coward?
“How can that happen?” Zheng Longxing touched those three strands of long beard under his jaw lightly, seemed very surprised and said, “Isn’t Li Mu a weak scholar? How did he become a master of martial arts? Although the strength of the Joint-Forces is not much, it is still something in the world of heroes. But they were also killed within one second. Is there any chance that the news from the capital wrong?
Zheng Longxing had another role except being a Dian-shi janitor of Taibai County, that was, one of the four masters in Bloody-moon faction.
And it was he who organized and promoted the assassination of Li Mu.
He was a martial arts master himself.
Although Joint-force level was the primary level of martial art, it still contained Joint-qi level and Joint-thoughts level and so on. However, those who had entered the joint-force level obtained basic rough inner strength and could be called a third-rate martial art warrior in the underworld.
And Bloody-moon faction sent smart and alert martial art warriors to assassinated Li Mu. Those warriors were made of five third-rate joint-force level warriors and a leader of a joint-qi level fighter, who could be a master of third-rate warriors. And those people should be capable of killing a weak scholar under fifteen years old. However, they not only failed but also lost two people.
“Maybe because Li Mu hid his ability. I have never heard he knew martial arts.” one warrior in black bowed down and said.
Zheng Longxing thought of the moment when he saw Li Mu in the government office during the daytime.
The boy sat in the official chair, seemingly calm, but in fact, very nervous, and he pretended to be calm, and it was easy to see him through in terms of his behavior or his breath, which definitely showed he was a rookie. There was not any sign that he was a scholar or a martial arts master, so was it camouflage?
If he could really disguise like this, then he was too scary. And he absolutely was a sophisticated person.
This time, Zheng Longxing took the risk and pushed Bloody-moon faction to kill Li Mu on his way to Taibai. In fact, his intention was to get the magistrate’s position.
In the Western Qin Empire and even the whole mainland, the status of the martial art factions and clans was very special, which was close to being able to stand up against the government. Many of the great empire politicians were born in the martial art factions or clans. It was said that underworld and the government shared ruling power. Even according to the law, people from underworld were given some priorities. Zheng Longxing once was only an armed escort, but later he joined the Bloody-moon faction and made great achievements, so he was promoted as a master. Under the operation of Bloody-moon faction, Zheng Longxing became the envoy of Taibai County and mastered some military power.
Now, the Western Qin Empire’s political order was chaotic and government officials were corrupt, which were the signs that the empire was going to meet its doom.
Zheng Longxing had already planned everything. As long as the new county magistrate was assassinated, he would then quickly killed Zhou Wu, the deputy county magistrate. Afterward, he could use Bloody-moon faction’s power and definitely be the new county magistrate after some operation.
Zheng Longxing was very ambitious.
In his view, Taibai County was in an excellent position. If it was properly managed, it would become a wealthy paradise, which would give him an opportunity to slowly accumulate strength and recharge its batteries. And it would not be impossible for him to become an overlord sooner or later.
But now, at the early stage of this plan, there occurred some accidents.
In the secret room, he meditated for a long time, and finally, he showed a fierce look. “The plan must not change. I cannot wait anymore, and I will order stronger masters of our faction to assassinate Li Mu. I must kill him before he starts his career. There must be no delay in my plan.”
One night passed by quickly.
The Sun rose in the eastern sky.
There were two suns, one big and one small, one after the other.
It was sunny with an enjoyable breeze.
With a squeak, the door opened.
Li Mu walked out of the room, feeling never so energetic.
“Young Master, you…” the dullard little boy Mingyue stared at Li Mu, but after a while, he screamed, turned around and ran. “You smells so bad. You stink… Young Master, what’s that black thing around you? How can you smell like shit?”
Li Mu felt speechless.
He spent the whole night practicing Xiantian Skill last night and entered a state of immobility that he had never experienced before. One night was just like a moment to him, and Li Mu did not look carefully when he walked out of the room. Startled by Mingyue, he found out a layer of fine black dirt that was discharged from the pores of his skin.
A sour odor lingered around him.
Even he himself felt sour and smelly.
“Hello? Prepare the hot water… I want to take a bath…”
Li Mu screamed to attract attention.
There were miscellaneous servants in the county government. Soon hot water was ready and sent to Li Mu’s room with the bathtub.
After the shower, Li Mu felt refreshed.
He was surprised to find that after washing off the black dirt on his skin, his skin was much more smooth. Looking in the mirror, his hair grew a lot overnight. Last night the hair was very short and today some could be combed together. Even his height seemed to be higher.
“This Xiantian Skill is really amazing, and it also has a cosmetic effect.”
Li Mu was very surprised.
But he became worried soon.
Because he had nothing to wear except the official outfit.
He did not intend to wear his sneakers, sweatpants, and vests brought from the earth again. After all, They were incompatible with the world and wearing them would be too conspicuous and made people gossip. However, they could be kept as memorials and it might be useful when returning to Earth after twenty years.
Li Mu came up with an idea after those thoughts.
Li Mu vaguely remembered that when he finished touring around those offices, in the alchemy room of the former county magistrate, there seemed to be several boxes containing some clothes. Perhaps he could wear them temporarily. Once he got his salary and had enough money, he would ask those two attendants to buy some ready-to-wear clothes.
Damn. Being a county magistrate like this was surely miserable. He was seen as a joke even on the very first day, and now he did not have even one little penny.
Li Mu angrily walked crossed the corridor of back office and came to the alchemy room.
Location of alchemy room was very quiet. Li Mu had to pass through the secret door of the front exercise room in order to enter into. There were not only alchemy stove, grid cabinet, futons, leaf fans, medicine cabinets, and other necessities, but also a pile of neatly arranged hard firewood… Anyway, everything related to alchemy could be found in the room. Just at one glance, anyone could find the former owner did a lot of work to arrange the alchemy room.
All of those gave Li Mu a familiar feeling.
Because on Earth, the old faker’s Zen chamber had a similar layout style in Randeng Temple.
He just took a glance and came to the front of those black wooden boxes to open it.
He did not remember wrong and there were actually several sets of clothes in it.
However, when Li Mu took them out, he saw six different good-quality robes of different colors. All of them were actually stitched with fine gold silk. And the size and style of the different robes were slightly different with silver silk thread embroidered on the top of the pictures of sun, moon, stars, cranes, kylins, the eight diagrams, pagoda, dragon, phoenix and so on. Each of the six robes had its own inner shirts, trousers, and boots. They were not only extremely complete but also very clean.
“Oh, it seems that the former owner lives a delicate life.”
To be honest, Li Mu was really curious about his predecessor who resigned and went deep into the mountains to find his way.
He quickly put on the inner shirt and a blue robe, and he surprisingly felt very fit.
The material of the robe was very comfortable and seemed like pure cotton.
Li Mu walked out of the alchemy room and returned to his own room. He was very satisfied after looking into the bronze mirror.
The teenager in the mirror was slender, tall and vigorous. Wearing the blue golden silk robe, Li Mu had a unique temperament and just looked like a Taoist immortal.
“Quite good.”
Li Mu was very pleased with his look.
The only drawback of this outfit was that the sleeves were too big and a little longer.
He thought he had to pull up those sleeves first when fighting against an enemy.
Anyway, the problem of dressing was finally resolved temporarily.
Then, breakfast was sent by a servant.
Those two young fellows seemed not too surprised to see Li Mu dress like that when they had breakfast together.
“Young Master is finally normal.” Qingfeng seemed relieved and just looked like a hard-working old father who saw his stupid son returning to normal.
Mingyue was very joyful and cheered. “Young Master is very handsome.”
Later, Li Mu learned that the Western Qin Empire advocated Taoism. Many nobles, celebrities, and upper-class people often wore Taoist robes as their regular clothes, and they highly respected this kind of clothes. Besides, those robes were quite popular among ordinary people too. So it was not strange that Li Mu, the county magistrate, appeared in Taoist robes.
Not before they finished their breakfast, one servant reported to Li Mu that Zhou Wu, the deputy county magistrate, came and sought for governmental advice from Li Mu with others.
“I don’t see them. I don’t have time.” Li Mu was very capricious and simply refused.
He just did not want to see outsiders to avoid being found any flaws.
“Oh… Young Master, you have to be diligent…” Qingfeng seemed to regard Li Mu as a loser.
Li Mu waved his hand and immediately got up and went back.
Behind him, Mingyue burst into laughter heartlessly.
In a blink of an eye, three days passed.
At the front government office.
“He is still not willing to see us?”
Zhou Wu, the deputy county magistrate, looked at Mingyue who came to answer him, seemed difficult to understand and said, “Doesn’t the county magistrate want to know something about the county political affairs?”
Mingyue, this cute little girl, who had been eating and drinking in the county office for a few days, had pretty eyebrows and eyes, beautiful red lips and white teeth now, smiled, nodded and said: “My Young Master said that Mr. Zhou can be in charge of all the government issues. Yes, he is not interested at all.” After that, thinking that there were still a few pieces of braised pork that she had secretly hidden after lunch, she suddenly turned around and ran away.
“So…”
Deputy county magistrate Zhou Wu and other government officials just looked at each other, lost and awkward.
In the past few days, they had already prepared a play to teach Li Mu some lessons. But who knew that this small county magistrate shrunk like a tortoise, hiding in the back office and did nothing. Nobody could see him. So, they did not know if he really had no interest in government power, or knew that he would be messed around and therefore hid.
…