Chapter 657: The Schemed Miao Wentang
The group of 19 people stepped out of the exit of the Kanas Airport. Tang Xiu then dialed the cell number Yuan Zhengxuan gave him, and after dialing it for the second time, a low and deep voice came out from the phone, “Jie Walie speaking. May I know who I am speaking with?”
“I’m Tang Xiu.” Tang Xiu directly told his name.
“Mr. Tang, my former platoon leader has already told me about you on the phone. Now I’m waiting for you outside. You… have you just come out of the Airport with a group of nearly 20 people? I just saw you.”
As his voice faded away, a middle-aged man with a full beard appeared in front of Tang Xiu. There was a knife scar in his eyebrows and he looked so burly and tall that he looked like a bear, and was followed by two young men behind him who were similarly robust and tough.
“Are you Mr. Tang Xiu?”
Tang Xiu ended the call, looked at Jie Walie and said, “I am. Thank you for coming to pick us up so late.”
“The friends of platoon leader are this Jie Walie’s friends as well.” Jie Walie shook his head and said with a smile. “Anyways, welcome to Kanas. We have five SUVs parked outside.”
Tang Xiu slightly nodded and introduced Shao Mingzhen to Jie Walie, and then the group quickly left afterward. After coming outside, everyone got on the cars, as the drivers were then instructed to stay behind under Tang Xiu’s request.
Inside the SUV at the forefront, Tang Xiu and Jie Walie sat in the backseat while Mo Awu drove the car and Shao Mingzhen took the front seat.
“Jie Walie, there’s an urgent matter, that’s why we came here in a hurry, so we need to get to Longquan Bay fast. We’re not familiar with the state of the roads here, so I will have to trouble you to give us directions.”
From Tang Xiu’s identity and the rest, Jie Walie knew that these people were not ordinary, and therefore replied happily, “No problem. It will take about three and a half hours to get to Longquan Bay from here. We’ll arrive there by 12:30 in the middle of the night.”
Tang Xiu nodded without speaking. He could feel a valiant aura from Jie Walie. Even if such a tough aura was common from the people in this region, yet he was very familiar with the aura coming out from him; it was the kind of aura of death caused by doing a lot of killings. Therefore, he asked after hesitating a bit, “Jie Walie, I’m sure your identity is not ordinary since you can get five Wrangler SUVs in a short time like this. May I ask what business you do?”
“Gold mine,” answered Jie Walie with a smile.
Shao Mingzhen, who was in the front seat, suddenly said, “There should be no gold mines here in Kanas region as far as I know. Other than stockbreeding, the other developed industries are usually related to tourism. I once visited Kanas, and its geographical environment is very beautiful and boast of many lakes; a good place for a relaxing holiday I may say.”
“Since you’re the platoon leader’s friends, then I won’t conceal it from you,” said Jie Walie with a smile. “Kanas is indeed a great place for a holiday. On the surface, though, there is no gold mines here, but there are several small and very secretive private mines which belong to us—the miners. We’re keeping the news about in check, thus there have been no problems so far.”
Tang Xiu and Shao Mingzhen silently nodded and thought that the possibility was indeed very big. After all, there were a lot of things in the world that could not be exposed to the outside. Telling them about the existence of these gold mines to them—strangers was not easy for Jie Walie as one of the owners.
“Jie Walie, if you could heed to my advice, you may do any business and earn money, but it will be better to kill less, else you will have too much death qi around you, with which bad karma and many illnesses will follow. In the case bad luck were to emerge, there would also come some bloody retributions as well,” said Tang Xiu slowly after pondering for a moment.
Jie Walie was taken aback and immediately squinted his eyes to observe Tang Xiu’s face with scrutiny. After a long while, only then did he slowly reply, “There’s a Feng Shui master in the mainland who told me the same thing. Don’t tell me young brother Tang Xiu is also good at it?”
“I just know a bit,” replied Tang Xiu with a casual tone.
Jie Walie suddenly pointed to Mo Awu, who was driving, and said, “This brother is not some ordinary layman either, right? I can feel a threatening atmosphere from him.”
Mo Awu turned his head, smiled with his white teeth and said, “You have good eyes, indeed. The number of people I’ve killed exceeds three figures.”
Hiss… Jie Walie gasped for cold air, and the dread in his eyes turned a lot more intense.
Tang Xiu knitted his brows and shouted in a deep voice, “Awu, shut up!”
Mo Awu’s neck shrunk and dared not to say anything more.
Turning to look at Jie Walie again, Tang Xiu said, “Don’t listen to him. He likes to brag. In fact, don’t look at his stocky and sturdy figure, he doesn’t even dare to kill a chicken.”
Jie Walie was not a fool, how could he not tell that Tang Xiu was trying to conceal it from his expression? Though he was curious about the identity of Tang Xiu and the rest, he did not intend to inquire more. His former platoon leader was his savior who once saved his life, and the camaraderie between them was very deep, so he put down his own business at hand and personally came to fetch Tang Xiu and them.
At Longquan Bay.
The name was very beautiful, but the place was fraught with dangers. There were many lakes here, and also many swamps. If a non-native person from another region who did not know the Longquan Bay area were to rashly wander around the place to enjoy the beautiful scenery, they may meet their demise here.
Therefore, even though tourism had been developed in Kanas, this place was still undeveloped and only a few people would come here.
Longquan Village.
There were only a handful of hamlets around the Longquan Bay, and the number of inhabitants in this village was less than 100 households, where Miao Wentang’s secretary and his two bodyguards were guarding him.
At 12:30 in the middle of the night, five SUVs arrived at Longquan Village and stopped outside the stockaded village. Just as Tang Xiu’s men got off the car, one of Miao Wentang’s bodyguards came out from the dark and hidden bushes.
“Mr. Shao.”
That bodyguard knew Shao Mingzhen and immediately greeted him.
Shao Mingzhen nodded at him and asked, “Where is Miao Wentang?”
The bodyguard glanced at Tang Xiu and the rest before pointing to the stockaded village and saying, “We have arranged for Boss to stay here, I’ll lead you to him.”
A few minutes later, the group entered the stockaded village and came to the courtyard of the farmhouse where Miao Wentang was staying. As Shao Mingzhen strode into the front gate in a hurry, Tang Xiu stopped his pace, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handing one cigarette to Jie Walie.
As an astute person, Jie Walie understood Tang Xiu’s attitude and immediately said, “I will not follow you inside, Mr. Tang. Just call me if you have something you need my help with.”
“Thank you for escorting us here, Jie Walie. The matter my friend has encountered here is very troublesome and may implicate you if you are to stay here. I know that you have a very good relationship with Uncle Yuan, but we will take care of these matters ourselves. If it’s possible, I have to trouble you to leave four cars behind to us, too.”
After thinking for a moment, Jie Walie nodded and said, “Alright. Then we’ll go back first.”
As Jie Walie left with his two men, Tang Xiu quickly went inside. When he saw Miao Wentang lying in the bed, looking pale and his lips turned purple, he immediately reached out to grab his wrist.
“He’s poisoned… a very terrifying poison.”
After the examination, Tang Xiu found that Miao Wentang was not only poisoned but also got bruises, scars, some places wounded by a sword, and there were also some more that seemed to be scratched by a beast’s claws.
Immediately, Tang Xiu took out the silver needle box and applied acupuncture treatment on him. At the same time, he injected his Primal Chaos Force to help him force out the poison. The poison was unfortunately too potent, so it took Tang Xiu a few hours before less than a half of the poison was discharged out of his body.
Cough cough…
Miao Wentang, who was previously unconscious, finally sobered up and coughed up blood. His eyes slowly opened and then become more focused. He struggled to sit after his vision fell on Shao Mingzhen and Tang Xiu, but the pain brought by his wounds and the weakness of his body didn’t let him do so.
Tang Xiu held him down and said, “Brother Miao, your injury is very serious, and the poison in your body is very damaging to your internal organs. Fortunately, your cultivation is quite deep so the poison is suppressed for the time being. But I’m afraid you won’t be able to hold on for too long if you don’t get a timely treatment.”
“Yeah, Brother Tang has just helped you force out the poison, but it was still only a small amount of it. The rest will need to rely on yourself,” echoed Shao Mingzhen hurriedly.
"Thank you, Brothers." Miao Wentang squeezed out a smile, yet it looked very ugly. His lips wriggled and his voice was very small.
“Don’t look at us like we are some kind of strangers and just tell us.” Tang Xiu shook his head. “Brother Miao, what exactly happened to you? Who injured you in this town and caused you to be in such a state?”
There was a tinge of fear inside Miao Wentang’s eyes as he replied with a bitter expression, “It’s the Western Nefarious Sangha and his Bloodthirsty Chiropterans. You must be very careful, Western Nefarious Sangha has a dreadful sorcery, and those two Bloodthirsty Chiropterans he raised are extremely difficult to deal with. Also… be careful of that Golden Armored Zombie.”
Tang Xiu and Shao Mingzhen exchanged bewildered looks. They did not know what monster Miao Wentang was talking about.
“I don’t know much about them either, actually. I really got schemed this time. I brought a group of my men to come over and thought that I could make a big deal, and ended up encountering this Western Nefarious Sangha and Golden Armored Zombie. This Western Nefarious Sangha is the name that that bald monk calls himself, and that Golden Armored Zombie is like an ancient corpse possessing sentience, like a zombie.” Miao Wentang, who was now more relaxed, explained while using his True Essence to suppress the poison in his body.
“Who has schemed against you and exactly what was the business deal?” Asked Tang Xiu.
“It was Grandma Shipo of the Miao tribe. She told me that there was a Night Orchid and an Aerolite Essence here. She told me that as long as I brought my Sky Sandstone then I could trade with the other party with these two things I need.”
Tang Xiu’s expression changed and said in a deep tone, “I warned you that you must not disclose anything about the Sky Sandstone, didn’t I?”
“I made a pendant made of this Sky Sandstone, which Grandma Shipo of the Miao tribe took notice of,” said Miao Wentang with an astringent expression. “In fact, what she was talking about was exactly this pendant.”
“People who can recognize the Sky Sandstone are never ordinary,” said Tang Xiu seriously. “Once they have identified it, they will surely try to rob it with any means necessary. Brother Miao, you were too careless.”
“It’s too late for me to regret it now, isn’t it?” Said Miao Wentang. “Everyone I brought with me were killed, and the Sky Sandstone pendant was also robbed, while I myself am…”
Sigh… Tang Xiu sighed and said with an easy expression, “Brother Miao, what’s important for you now is to heal yourself and discharge the poison. I will help you with that, and when your injury is healed, we’ll go to confront this Western Nefarious Sangha together.”