Chu Li frowned, "Ferric Demon Ridge…"
"Yes, it is said to be a small mountain on the Path of Zhao Jing Hai, it's not very well-known."
"Are they mad? They actually dared to waylay and rob the Public House?"
"It seems they didn't know that it's our Public House's items."
Chu Li said thoughtfully, "Oh, it seems that it is indeed something important, delivering in secret and not revealing the identity, Ferric Demon Ridge has bad luck... being able to make Master Siao Tie Ying lose his temper, it is definitely not an ordinary thing."
As the eldest young master of the Public House, Master Siao Tie Ying lived an extravagant life since young. He was irreverent towards ordinary things, hence, to cause him to lose his temper, it must be something very rare and valuable. Ferric Demon Ridge was in deep trouble.
Xue Ling said, "Mater Siao Tie Ying has sent someone to investigate. The Ferric Demon Ridge are doomed this time!"
Chu Li smiled, "What item was it? "
"A mere Ferric Demon Ridge was insignificant, we will soon chase them down," Xue Ling scoffed, "These guys should be damned! "
Chu Li said, "Yeah, they will meet their end for doing evil all the time. They must have done this kind of things a lot of times. We should get rid of them if we can, and help the martial arts world wipeout these scourges."
Xue Ling strongly agreed with Chu Li's view, she harbored deep hatred towards these bandits, imagine how many innocents were victimized.
"Master, this matter has nothing to do with us." Xue Ling said, "Master should think about how to build the Glory's Will Courtyard. How many people does Master intend to select?"
"I have not decided yet," Chu Li said.
Too many people will be troublesome and too few people will be inconvenient. He could not make up his mind at the moment. He needed to consider carefully and see what will happen. If he chose them rashly, it will be troublesome to replace them in the future. Fortunately, Lady Siao Qi did not urge him and gave him plenty of time.
"Should we set up the workplace in our courtyard?"
"What do you think?"
"Let's choose another place," Xue Ling quickly said.
She now viewed the small courtyard as her home and did not wish others to come and disturb.
Chu Li said, "Where should we choose?"
"Master, if you choose the Guardian of Jade Island, the Scribe can only be a woman," Xue Ling said, "Lady Siao Qi does not like men at her side. She thinks they are an eyesore."
Chu Li let out a roar of laughter.
Xue Ling widened her eyes and said seriously, "It is true!"
Chu Li laughed, "The Protectors of the Guardian of Jade Island are not men?"
Although there were female Protectors on the Guardian of Jade Island, there were quite a lot of male Protectors too. However, he knew that Siao Qi was obsessive with cleanliness, she did not like men to go near her.
Xue Ling said, "Male Protectors only guard the perimeter. Did you see any man inside the Guardian of Jade Island?"
Chu Li nodded slightly, what Xue Ling said was true.
Xue Ling said, "In my opinion, it is better to build it outside the island."
Chu Li frowned and shook his head.
Xue Ling said surprisingly, "You really want to build it here?"
"It cannot be outside the Guardian of Jade Island," Chu Li said.
Xue Ling looked at him perplexedly.
Chu Li said, "Our courtyard is used to plant spirit herbs and they are all rare spirit herbs. It wouldn't be good to allow outsiders to find out about it. The purpose of Glory's Will Courtyard's name is to mask it and if we really set up a courtyard outside the island, it would be meaningless."
"Oh, Glory's Will Courtyard is actually used as a cover, we do not have to care about it, isn't it?" Xue Ling had a sudden realization.
Chu Li was smiling, "If somebody mentioned Glory's Will Courtyard, they would not think of Spirit Herbs, then it is for the best. "
The function of Glory's Will Courtyard was to find out any informants in the Public House, which is similar to secret service. They will be successful if people trembled with fear when they heard this name, but if there was no such deterrence, this would prove his incompetence.
Xue Ling smiled, "If so, where should it be located? Surely not the Lady's Tower of Stargazing!"
Chu Li said, "The courtyard next door was empty, right?"
"Yes," Xue Ling nodded.
"Then let's set it up next door," Chu Li said, "It's convenient too."
"You can only find female Scribes and female Protectors," Xue Ling stared at him unblinkingly.
Chu Li smiled, "Depends on the situation."
Xue Ling curled her red lips.
Chu Li said, "We won't hire anyone temporarily, we will wait and see."
Glory's Will Courtyard was responsible for finding informants but he did not have to hunt for them himself. Women would be more meticulous and patience. They will able to tolerate those cumbersome affairs.
However, the management of these women would be troublesome. He did not want to command a group of women all day long, losing all authority and influence, and let others laughed at him.
"Trash! Trash!"
Siao Tie Ying threw the teacup onto the floor hard and ceramic chips scattered everywhere.
He was breathing hard and pacing around, his handsome face was livid.
Two people were standing in the main hall. It was Lin Quan and a middle-aged man, and their facial expressions were not any better.
Siao Tie Ying paced back and forth over a dozen times. He suppressed his anger forcefully and said, "Elder Tie, you tell me, a small Ferric Demon Ridge can rob our Longevity Grass, do you believe it? If this news was spread outside, it is enough to make a cat laugh!"
The middle-aged man was helpless, "Master, the people from Ferric Demon Ridge are really strong. We had wrongly estimated their strength, and even worse, there was a martial artist with top-notch levitation, he grabbed the Longevity Grass and ran. We tried our best but we could not catch up to him!"
"Who?!" Siao Tie Ying asked coldly.
The middle-aged man shook his head, "He covered his face. We could not recognize him."
"You guys don't know how to verify?!" Siao Tie Ying said petulantly, "You don't need me to teach you this, do you?"
"Master, we interrogated the people from Ferric Demon Ridge but they didn't know too!" the middle-aged man said with resignation, "They were very angry as well, they believed that they were cut off from their success by that guy and that all their efforts had helped that guy instead!"
"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind [1], humph!" Siao Tie Ying sneered, "What a good scheme!"
The middle-aged man said, "This person has a short and skinny stature. His levitation is top-notch and he is an Innate Master!"
"A Grandmaster could not stop an Innate Master, heh!" Siao Tie Ying curled his lips, "It seems that this guy's levitation is indeed sublime, this is not difficult to verify right?"
An Innate Master in the face of a Grandmaster was like a kid facing an adult, this was everyone's deep-rooted concept. If it wasn't for Chu Li who killed a Grandmaster last time, Siao Tie Ying will never believe this.
An Innate Master who was able to escape from the hands of a Grandmaster would require a really powerful levitation, and someone like this, in the martial arts world, can be counted with a hand. After that, they can compare their statures and they will roughly know who was it and it will be less difficult to verify.
The middle-aged man said, "My preliminary guess is: it might be the "Celestial Monkey"!"
"'Celestial Monkey' Jiang Kuai?" Siao Tie Ying frowned, "Could it be that our information was leaked?"
"It's impossible!" The middle-aged man shook his head and said, "We used the most trustworthy people and it's impossible that our information is leaked!"
"Then how did Jiang Kuai know?"
"Maybe it is a coincidence."
"Humph, what a coincidence!" Siao Tie Ying said coldly, "Because of this coincidence, we lost Longevity Grass, that Jiang Kuai might have already eaten it!"
"Master, most people don't recognize Longevity Grass," the middle-aged man said.
Siao Tie Ying scoffed, "Do you know who is Jiang Kuai? How could he not recognize Longevity Grass?!"
On one side, Lin Quan, who had white hair but a ruddy complexion, did not speak during the whole conversation, interrupted with one sentence this time, "Master, if it is Jiang Kuai, we can't blame Elder Huang."
Siao Tie Ying nodded with a grim face.
Jiang Kuai's levitation was sublime, and a levitation this good was rare in this world, even Grandmasters could not be compared to him.
"If it's Jiang Kuai, Master, I fear the Longevity Grass has been…," Lin Quan said with resignation, "We can only think of another way."
Even if Jiang Kuai did not eat the Longevity Grass, it will be impossible to recover it. Jiang Kuai's levitation was sublime, even if they sent several Grandmasters, they will still not be able to chase him down.
"Master, do you want to leak out the information?" the middle-aged man clenched his teeth and scoffed, "We could not get it back but we can't let Jiang Kuai get all the benefits. Once people know that it is the Longevity Grass, they will fight to get their hands on it!"
"It's useless!" Siao Tie Ying's handsome face become gloomier.
Jiang Kuai's levitation was sublime and he was secretive in his conduct too. They will never be able to even touch his shadow.
"Damn!" Siao Tie Ying hit the sandalwood coffee table and ground out the words between his clenched teeth, "Jiang Kuai—!"
He went through countless hardships and he finally got this Longevity Grass. As long as second younger sister ate it, her body would recover and she would no longer be sick or suffer from her illness, but it was all for naught at the last moment because of Jiang Kuai. He itched to tear Jiang Kuai apart.
"Master, Third Lady is here," someone outside the hall reported.
Translator Notes
[1] A Chinese metaphor that illustrates someone's short-sightedness, thinking of plotting against others but has no idea that somebody else is scheming against him too, just like mantis who preys on the cicada but is ignorant of the bigger predator behind him—the oriole. In other words, it means coveting gains ahead without being aware of the danger behind.