The Six Treasures

A few moments after Zhang Hu entered his room, six shadows landed in front of the front gate .

It was Yanhui and the five experts .

The woman looked around her carefully .

“The voice was from around here, right?”

The five nodded, and the group immediately walked towards the door . But as soon as they reached it, they all simultaneously turned, and walked alongside the wall .

After walking around the house once, the six people arrived at the gate again . They stopped . Yanhui looked pretty tired .

“Looks like she moved somewhere else . ”

The five experts clicked their tongues in disappointment . It looked like none of them were able to see the house .

Yanhui turned her back to the door to speak .

“She couldn’t have gone far . Let’s look around here . ”

The five experts began walking . Right then, one of the men in the group opened his mouth with a curious look on his face .

“Uhm, miss . ”

Yanhui stopped to look back .

“What is it?”

The man opened his mouth nervously .

“We looked over here a moment ago, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we did . ”

“Wasn’t there a house here before…?”

Yanhui nodded with a surprised look .

“You’re right! There really was . Wasn’t it around here? The house disappeared? It can’t be that the house came to life and moved on its own… In that case!”

Yanhui thought for a moment before looking at the front gate of Zhang Hu’s house . She lowered her voice and spoke up with a very serious tone .

“I think that… the Martial World’s famous 15 Strange Illusions Formation might be installed here . ”

The five experts all turned to look at the front gate with Yanhui . After a moment of silence, the group of six all burst out laughing .

“Puhahaha! What a joke!”

“Your sense of humor is wonderful as always!”

“One of the ten great formations, installed here? Bahahahah! Of course! Of course that would be it!”

Yanhui smiled before turning back .

“Let’s get going, now . She couldn’t have gone far . ”

“Yes ma’am!”

Yanhui took off with the five .

Inside Zhang Hu’s room in the house, the boy inside muttered to himself as he covered up his ears with his blankets .

“They’re weird…”

Though the spring already came a while back, the winds still got quite chilly once the sun starts setting .

Zhang Hu stretched his back after a while of plowing the fields .

“Phew . ”

He looked up at the red sky as he wiped the sweat off of his head . There was a smile on his face .

But the moment he saw a couple of people walking on the road next to him, his face stiffened . These people all looked quite savage, and each had a weapon on their shoulders .

They were practically advertising that they were martial artists .

“So that kid from the Xiawu Guild is around here?”

“I told you, yeah . Didn’t you hear about the six experts from the Tiger Phantom bandits searching this place like mad?”

“Hah . So what’s up with the girl anyway?”

The other man lowered his voice .

“Apparently she has one of the six treasures in her hands . ”

“The six treasures? Are you serious?”

“Yeah . I mean, there has to be a reason why the demon church, the alliance, and the Tiger Phantom Bandits are chasing after her . ”

“Hoh, makes sense . But when are the experts from the church and the alliance coming here?”

“Dunno man . But it won’t take long . That’s why we need to find her before then . ”

“Let’s see… I wonder where she’d be in that case?”

The men noticed Zhang Hu in the fields and immediately approached him .

Zhang Hu turned away, pretending not to notice, and started walking back home .

By that time, however, the men had already reached him .

“Hey kid, let me ask you something . ”

Zhang Hu let out a frustrated sigh .

“Go on, then . ”

One of the men took out a piece of paper .

“You ever seen a girl like this?”

Zhang Hu took a look at the woman on the paper . She looked incredibly similar to Liyuan .

But he ended up shaking his head .

“No, I haven’t . ”

“Did you even look properly?”

The other asked angrily .

“Yes, I did . ”

Zhang Hu walked away without saying anything more . One of the men grabbed his shoulder with an annoyed look .

“Hey, kid . Have you no respect? You dare…”

The other quickly tried to diffuse the situation .

“Hey, hey . It’d be strange if a woman like this was noticed by a kid like him of all things . There’s bound to be a lot of people looking for her here . Let’s not start trouble on the first day . ”

The man grabbing Zhang Hu’s shoulder let go reluctantly .

“Count yourself lucky, kid! Think of this as your second life and live respectfully from now . ”

“I already do . ”

Zhang Hu promptly walked away .

“Look, just look at that kid! He’s not even saying goodbye!”, said the man .

“That’s just what kids are like these days . Come, come . Now’s not the time for this . We have a girl to catch . ”

Zhang Hu kept walking without looking back even once . Soon enough, houses started appearing on the road he was walking on . After walking for quite a bit longer, he came to a stop in front of a small hill .

He started making a few gestures with one hand in the air .

Whoosh .

A door appeared in front of him after a small gust of air pa.s.sed by . Zhang Hu opened the door, and another gust took the door away just like that .

Zhang Hu stopped in front of Mrs . Nam’s door . He cleared his throat a few times .

“I’m back, mother . ” Zhang Hu spoke cheerily .

Mrs . Nam’s voice came through the doors .

“Oh? You’re back? You must be tired . Come in . ”

Zhang Hu stepped inside .

He found his mother sitting on the bed . She looked the same as always . Cheerful and happy . But there was something different about her today .

There was a woman on her lap .

Liyuan .

“You’re back, Zhang Hu? You must be tired . ”

The woman waved her hand at him with a bright smile . Zhang Hu’s eyes twitched ever so slightly in response .

Mrs . Nam smiled as she brushed Liyuan’s cheek softly .

“Little Yuan’s skin is so soft, isn’t it?”

Zhang Hu found himself muttering to himself softly .

“Little Yuan?”

Liyuan grinned .

“Yours is even better than mine, mother . Just how did you take care of yours? Your makeup must be fantastic . I want to use it too . ”

“Hohoho, I don’t use any makeup . I just eat well and sleep well is all . ”

Liyuan lifted her head in surprise .

“Wow! You were born with it? I’m so jealous!”

“Nothing to be jealous of . After all, it’s my first time seeing someone as pretty as you!”

Liyuan waved her hands in denial .

“You’re just as pretty . Speaking of which, don’t we look kind of alike? People would mistake us as sisters if we went out . ”

“Do we? Hohoho . Ah, it’s almost time for dinner, isn’t it? Would you like a pear before we eat?”

“Yes, mom!”

“Right . Wait here . ”

Mrs . Nam stepped out with a happy face . As soon as she was out of sight, Zhang Hu’s face turned almost demonic .

Liyuan let out a snort .

“What’s up?”

“You’re not leaving?”

“I am . ”

“You said you’d leave this morning . ”

“She told me to eat lunch, though, so I had to stay . ”

“So did you eat lunch?”

“I did . ”

“But I have to eat the pear now . ”

“Leave after that, then . ”

“What about dinner?”

Zhang Hu’s eyes twitched . Liyuan, on the other hand, was smiling .

The two glared at each other .

“So when are you leaving, then?” Zhang Hu initiated .

“I’ll leave when I want . ”

“When’s that?”

“Who knows? What, you planning on throwing me out?”

“If I have to . ”

“Try me . ”

“If I do?”

Zhang Hu’s voice turned icy . That moment, Liyuan let out a cry .

“Motherrrrrrr!”

The boy twitched in surprise . Clearly something that he didn’t expect .

Mrs . Nam walked in with a surprised face shortly after .

“Did something happen, Liyuan?”

Liyuan’s eyes stayed right on Zhang Hu the entire time .

“You see, Zhang Hu…”

“What did he do?”

“He said I was like a sister to him . ”

“Did he?”

Mrs . Nam turned to Zhang Hu for confirmation . The boy could only nod with an awkward smile .

“He told me he’d like me to stay a while . ” Liyuan said .

“Did you really?”

Mrs . Nam clearly seemed surprised . She turned to Zhang Hu once again . And again, the boy could only nod with a smile . His eyes, though, clearly held malicious intent directed towards Liyuan .

“This is strange . ”

Yanhui was quite troubled . It was quite strange . Liyuan’s tracks just… disappeared into thin air yesterday .

That itself wasn’t too surprising .

But the marker they placed on her couldn’t be erased at all . That in itself was impossible . Yanhui turned to the experts around her .

“The girl must’ve erased her marker for this to be possible . Do you think that’s really what happened?”

The five immediately shook their head . As far as they knew, there were only two ways for the marker to be erased .

One was for the person to bathe in a special herbal mixture .

But the Tiger Ghost Bandits were the only ones who knew how to create this mixture, so there was no way for this to be true .

The second way was for an expert to use their life force to burn away the marker .

But there were only fifty experts in existance who were skilled enough to perform such a feat .

Not even the leader of Liyuan’s organization could do it .

“What the h.e.l.l happened?”

Yanhui paced around with a frustrated voice .

“Liyuan, Liyuan . What in the world did you do?”

Han Liyuan .

Just saying the girl’s name made Yanhui’s eyes turn more and more vicious .

“Why do you hate that girl so much, by the way? You two got along well as children…” One of the experts asked .

“I was never friends with her! How could someone like me, the a.s.sociate leader of the Ghost Tiger Bandits, be friends with a girl from a family of gamblers?” Yanhui snapped back .

The five flinched . Yanhui was clearly furious .

“It’s not because she stole my pet cat after gambling with her! It’s not because she took away my first love either! I just hate the girl! I was never friends with her! Ever! Do you understand!”

The five nodded energetically .

“U-understood . ”

Yanhui seemed to have calmed down after that .

“There’s no time . We’ve delayed things for too long . The experts from the Righteous a.s.sociation and the Five Demon Wheels Church will arrive soon . Let’s search the hill where she disappeared again . ”

Yanhui took off towards the hill where Liyuan was last seen saying this .

“Oh? You won again! You’re very good at this, mom . ”

Liyuan let go of a stick in her hands saying this and extended her wrist .

“Three hits, right? Go on . ”

Mrs . Nam shook her head with a smile .

“It’s fine . In any case, this card game is pretty fun . ”

“Right? Do you want to try again?”

“Sure . ”

Liyuan smiled .

“Mother, don’t play this game with anyone other than me though, alright?”

“Why?”

Liyuan paused .

‘What do I say?’

Should she tell the lady a few scary stories to chase her away? Maybe that one story about Mr . Jin, the person who lost all of his riches just playing the card game?

‘I can’t tell her that I was the one who took his money, though?’

Liyuan couldn’t think of a proper response in the end .

“Just because . ”

Mrs . Nam tilted her head in confusion . d.a.m.n, what’s up with this lady being so innocent and cute?

‘I wish she was my mom . ’

Mrs . Nam asked a question .

“Not even with Zhang Hu?”

Liyuan’s eyes drifted off to a corner of the room . She could see the boy glaring at him with his arms crossed .

Liyuan glared back as she opened her mouth .

“But the boy doesn’t know how to play . ”

Zhang Hu’s lips parted right then .

“I do . ”

Liyuan smirked .

“Ah, so you do!”

So he’s had experience gambling a little with this kiddie friends, eh?

Tsk tsk, this kid…

Mrs . Nam tried to wave the boy over .

“Yeah? Would you like to play in my place, then?”

Zhang Hu tried to shake his head . But then, Liyuan waved her cards towards him with a mocking smile . She mouthed a few words at him .

‘How would you like to lose a few games?’

Zhang Hu’s lips curled upwards into an angry smile .

“I suppose I will . ”