Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 605 The Uninvited Guest (Part 2)
Night, Licheng County.

On the longest street in the county town, four lanterns bearing the characters "福" (fortune), "安" (peace), "客" (guest), and "栈" (inn) swayed in the night wind, casting a flickering glow on a faded wine flag beside them.

Inside the inn, in a medium-sized room, two men who had just removed their disguises were sitting at the table eating.

The food at tonight's table is really good.

Neither Sun nor Huang expected that they would be able to enjoy a meal in such an obscure small town inn, with a taste that was no less than that of a fine banquet.

However, the drinks offered at this restaurant are relatively ordinary, at least not worthy of the chef's skills.

Just as the two were enjoying their meal...

dong dong——

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

No more, no less, just two strokes.

Strangely, there seemed to be no sound of the waiter's footsteps approaching outside before the knocking.

If it were someone else, they might instinctively convince themselves at this point, "Maybe I just didn't notice?"

But Sun and Huang are cunning people, aren't they? Especially since they're currently being hunted by various forces, they're even more vigilant than usual. Therefore, upon seeing this situation, the two immediately tensed up...

A moment later, without even exchanging a word, the two of them tacitly put their fake beards back on their faces.

Three seconds later, the two of them had tiptoed behind the door and stood on either side of it in perfect unison.

At this moment, Sun Yixie calmly called out to the person outside the door, "Who is it?"

"I am Murong Xiao." The next second, Xiao's calm voice came through the door.

Upon hearing this, both Sun and Huang showed obvious surprise.

After a pause, Ah Xiao continued, "My visit tonight is unannounced and out of necessity. I hope you two will forgive me. But I wonder if Brother Sun, Brother Huang... would you allow me to come inside for a chat?"

"You... wait a minute." Huang Donglai replied casually at first, then took a few steps away from the door and lowered his voice to Sun Yixie, "Hey, isn't that so-and-so?"

"I remember it was the one from the Murong family who was in a wheelchair?" Sun Yixie also moved a few steps away from the door and replied in a low voice.

"That explains why there were no footsteps..." Huang Donglai read aloud.

"Damn it! That doesn't matter anymore, right?" Sun Yixie complained first, then said, "The key question is how he found us? And after finding us, why didn't he plan to ambush us, but instead chose to come knocking on the door directly..."

"Maybe he's just trying to distract us?" Huang Donglai said, then glanced at the window on the other side of the room. "Then there must be other ambushes in other directions..."

Don't be fooled by their harsh whispers; based on the intelligence they currently possess, their logic of "judging others by their own standards" isn't entirely wrong.

Regarding the current situation faced by their Hunyuan Star Gate...

Being pursued by the imperial court was secondary, since the court's forces only received a "secret order" and did not issue any arrest warrants or post wanted posters in public.

It's not hard to see from this that the Emperor showed leniency in his pursuit of them.

If Zhu Yi really wanted to "deal with this severely," he would have already confiscated Sun Huang's house and arrested all his family members first.

The reason he didn't do that was because the people of the Hunyuan Star Gate were still considered "meritorious" in protecting the country. Moreover, whether the "Lin Yuancheng abducted the princess" story was true and the details of it still needed to be verified. Even if the investigation revealed that it was true, there was still a lot of room for discretion in the subsequent handling of the matter.

If this was just Lin Yuancheng's personal act, then it doesn't necessarily have to involve everyone in the Hunyuan Interstellar Gate. Besides... what is the princess's attitude? That's also very important.

Ultimately, this is a family matter of the Zhu family, but because it involves the dignity and face of the imperial family, it cannot be ignored.

However, we can't manage it too blatantly either...

For example, Zhu Yi issued a royal proclamation to the whole country: "My daughter has been kidnapped by a boy named Lin Yuancheng. Does anyone have any clues?"

That would not only make them a laughingstock, but could also put the princess in danger.

Therefore, after considering all factors, this matter can only be investigated secretly and discreetly... So, once it reaches places outside the capital, the intensity of this investigation will naturally be significantly weakened.

Another point worth mentioning is that before Shuang Xie entered the pass, Feng Manlou wrote a private letter to Zhu Yi, in which he told him about how Shuang Xie helped him defeat the Northern Yuan army and even saved his life.

From Zhu Yi's perspective, since his brother Feng had already said so, could he, as the younger brother... no... as the emperor, still persecute such a loyal minister as Sun Huang?

Therefore, even if members of the Hunyuan Star Gate were captured by the imperial court, they wouldn't really be punished. Even the Eastern Depot wouldn't dare to mess with them. At most, they would just say something like, "We invite you to our Independent Commission Against Corruption for a cup of coffee, but the coffee is terrible and the air conditioning is too cold."

If we're talking about their real threat, it's actually the "martial arts world" side right now...

Although many people are skeptical of the "sixteen-character message" on Shaoshi Mountain, believing it to be a clear frame-up, the fact that Hunyuan Star Sect was originally a fictional sect casually coined by Sun Huang led everyone to discover that there was an unusually low level of information about them in the martial arts world, making the matter even more perplexing.

You say they aren't that kind of people, then what kind of people are they? Nobody had ever heard of the Seven Heroes before, and their deeds were completely untraceable.

You said they had some deeds after the Seven Heroes Gathering, but it seems there weren't many in total, and the people involved in those deeds... the composition seems a bit complicated, with thieves, assassins, traitors...

Moreover, those events themselves are highly questionable: a martial arts sect, one day organizing a selection for the leader of the Green Forest Sect, the next day colluding with the imperial court... In addition, it is said that some "bad things" happened at Wujian Manor, and many of the eyewitnesses still look embarrassed, even painful and nauseous when they talk about it, and they fall silent when pressed for further information... This is indeed very suspicious.

And the most crucial point is—where exactly is their sect located?

Where are there any reputable sects that don't even know the location of their base?
They went to ask their sect leader, Master Di, who was in charge of the four sects and three gangs. He said he only knew that the Hunyuan Star Gate was located in Wawu Mountain, but he didn't know where the mountain gate was.

When asked how many disciples the other party had, how much property they owned, whether their sect had a uniform, what martial arts they usually used when traveling the martial arts world, etc., he knew nothing.

When asked again, "How did you get them to join the Four Gates and Three Gangs when you knew nothing about it?" he started complaining of a stomachache and then asked, "Do you have medicine?"

In short, the more they investigated, the more suspicious these people became, and none of them came forward to say anything after the incident at Shaoshi Mountain.

As is customary in the martial arts world of the Central Plains, we can only proceed with the principle of "presumption of guilt" first. Let's arrest the members of the Hunyuan Star Gate and then deal with the rest.

This is the real threat that Sun Huang, and those who are currently elsewhere and have close ties with him, are facing.

"Hmm..." Murong Xiao's hearing was now quite good, so even though Sun Huang was separated from him by a door, and they had kept their distance and lowered their voices, he could still hear their conversation clearly. So he cleared his throat outside the door, interrupting the two bastards' rant, and replied directly, "Gentlemen, forgive my bluntness, but if I really wanted to harm you, I would have plenty of ways to do so. There was no need for the kind of ambush you mentioned, let alone for me to personally take action."

This makes sense, because in Sun Huang's memory, Ah Xiao was still a person who did not know martial arts and could not even stand up. Anyone could do the "feint attack" but it would be inconvenient for him to do it.

However, as Ah-Xiao uttered these words, new questions arose.

"Can you hear us?" Two seconds later, Huang Donglai asked again in the same whispered voice.

“Yes, I can.” Murong Xiao faced the other party’s probing with composure. “And now I can stand.” He paused, as if afraid the other party wouldn’t understand, and then added after a second, “In fact, I can defeat both of you single-handedly…”

These three sentences contain a lot of information.

Although Sun Huang mainly dealt with Murong Shu when they were in Cangzhou and didn't have much interaction with A Xiao, they must have heard about the saying that "Murong Xiao has been a cripple since childhood".

Now this "useless person" claims to be able to move freely and has high martial arts skills. He has even provided evidence in terms of "ear skills" and "lightness skills". Given Shuang Xie's cunning, it is not hard to think that... this kid may have practiced some kind of peerless divine skill.

And if we think about it further, the answer to where the Silkworm Ring went... probably lies here.

At this moment, Sun and Huang said nothing more. The two exchanged glances and then revealed their weapons.

Here we should mention that Huang Donglai's "Village Good Sword" and his various inventions are not currently in his possession.

When Shuang Xie went to the cave where Feng Shunshui interrogated the Poison Master to dance the YMCA, he only brought a music player with him, leaving all his other luggage at the local inn. Later, they were suddenly "teleported" to Europe, and they couldn't go back to retrieve it.

Fortunately, the Niu brothers, who had changed their names to "Niu Nuowei" and "Niu Siji" respectively, were still with Sun Huang at the time. So after they went missing, the Niu brothers helped them keep their luggage safe.

Later in the story, when the two meet again, Huang Donglai finally retrieves his weapons and inventions—but that's another story…

At the moment, Huang Donglai was only holding an ordinary longsword, so he naturally stepped back and let Sun Yixie, who had a precious weapon, be in charge of opening the door.

After carefully and quickly opening the door, Sun Yixie took three steps back in a flash, positioning himself in a pincer formation with Huang Donglai.

With a creaking sound from the hinges, the door swung open to its widest point due to inertia.

Outside the door, on the veranda.

The old lampshade high up seemed to taint the light with a layer of aged gloom.

The silhouette of the person outside the door was slowly sculpted from this hazy outline.

His calm and composed demeanor contrasted sharply with the tense atmosphere between the two men inside the room.

His tall, robust, and elegant appearance instantly overturned the image of "Murong Xiao" in Shuang Xie's mind.

Ah Xiao glanced at Sun and Huang, completely unconcerned that they had drawn their weapons. He calmly stepped in, closed the door behind him, and then smiled as he raised a large jar of wine he was carrying: "Gentlemen, good food deserves good wine."