"What does this mission mean?"
In a corner of the hall, the woman from the three-person team asked in a low voice.
"Whether you can pass the Human Gate depends only on whether you can complete the main mission. But if more than just our three can complete it, then it comes down to who performs better on the secondary missions."
Behind her, a sturdy man surveyed the surroundings and explained.
"Young lady doesn't need to worry. It's just delivering a message, how difficult could it be?"
Another person agreed.
The sturdy man frowned slightly: "Don't underestimate the enemy. Demons have robust physical qualities; at lower ranks, they're unrivaled at the same level."
"It's just the Human Gate, what's there to fear?" The man sneered.
The woman also arrogantly said: "The family spent so much money on martial arts training for you and passed down martial techniques. If you can't even pass this simplest Human Gate, you'll suffer when we get back!"
The burly man remained silent.
"And just look at them..." the red-clothed woman leading them scanned the room and smirked disdainfully: "Do any of them look like formidable warriors? There's even a cripple in a wheelchair!
She had seen her family's military officer aunt.
Over 1.8 meters tall, with a robust build and extraordinary martial presence. When practicing in the family training ground, she could even kill a ninth-rank warrior with a single punch!
That was the strongest warrior she knew.
So when she assessed the strength of warriors, she inevitably compared others to her aunt first.
Look at these people—a masked person in black, a barely-weaned kid, a cold-faced girl, and even someone in a wheelchair who seemed to be there as a joke...
With this appearance, how could there possibly be any formidable figures?
At most, they were about her level.
It was with this backing that she spoke so aggressively, offending people without care.
"Take the letter, and let's go."
The red-clothed girl withdrew her gaze disdainfully, slightly raising her head, and snorted:
"Let's finish quickly. Daddy is waiting for me outside!"
○
"They're so annoying."
In the hall, Jiang He watched the three leave and said earnestly to Mu Qinglan.
"They have reasons to be arrogant, but they can only be arrogant here." Mu Qinglan shook her head.
"I can beat her up."
Jiang He said quietly, her expression very sincere.
"No need to go that far," Mu Qinglan couldn't help but laugh, "The less trouble, the better. Strangers' opinions won't affect our test. Once the Human Gate is over, they'll naturally know what we're made of."
She spoke skillfully, not saying "I" or "you," but consistently using "we," subtly drawing closer the relationship between them.
Jiang He blinked in confusion, her golden eyes staring at her for a while.
Suddenly realizing:
"So that's why you stopped me from getting up earlier?"
"Beating her up won't help us pass the test, and we might even be stopped by the city lord. We're 'colleagues' now, and internal fighting is absolutely not allowed at this critical moment."
Mu Qinglan explained, her eyes slightly lowering to look at her legs, and she smiled somewhat forcedly.
"As for me? I'm used to such words."
"..."
Jiang He's eyes widened slightly, her small mouth opened a bit, as if wanting to offer some comfort but not knowing how to express it.
After much thought, she could only bend down and hug her.
Trying to make her feel her goodwill.
Mu Qinglan indeed felt Jiang He's goodwill, even though her story about being looked down upon was something she had made up on the spot.
Joking aside, now that the two didn't know each other and couldn't verify anything, couldn't she just make up whatever she wanted?
That's what bad women do.
Full of lies.
But to be fair, with such a common enemy, and knowing about Mu Qinglan's psychological trauma, the relationship between the two had indeed become closer.
It truly felt somewhat like friendship.
'I should thank her!' Mu Qinglan thought indifferently.
'If I encounter her alone later, I'll give those three a quick end! Tsk, I'm too kind.'
On the other side, Bai Yuyu also stood up.
She didn't feel much about the three's mockery.
Because she had seen such things many times.
Several times when she went out to arrest criminals, those guys mocked her for being short, laughing and asking if the Six Bureaus was full of little kids like her? Telling the barely-weaned little one to quickly run home and nurse?
Then she would break the legs of those who mocked her.
But now it was the Human Gate test, and she didn't have any ideas of creating extra trouble.
At most, she cast a couple more glances at Mu Qinglan.
'In a wheelchair?'
The little girl instinctively felt that the white-haired girl with the shallow smile wasn't as simple as she appeared on the surface. She even felt a dangerous sensation of being stared at by a poisonous snake when the girl looked at her.
But when she scrutinized more carefully, that feeling disappeared.
Probably just an illusion...
Bai Yuyu thought.
'Even in the Six Bureaus of Heyang, no ninth-rank warrior could last ten moves against me. It's even less likely for outsiders to have such talents.'
'Forget it. Let me first get a weapon, then complete the mission as quickly as possible.'
○
In less than a minute, all the people in the hall had left.
Only the two of them remained.
Mu Qinglan knew that in reality, no message had ever made it out from here. She understood that this mission wasn't so simple, so she wasn't in a hurry to leave.
Jiang He was simply waiting for her newly made friend.
"They've all left. Jiang Jiang, let's share our professions first and discuss how to cooperate," Mu Qinglan said.
Jiang He looked up at her: "Magician."
"Oh? Me too! What spells has Jiang Jiang learned? I'll go first. I've learned those 'Light Wisp' spells."
Hearing this, Jiang He blinked, her beautiful eyes seemingly confused.
After a long while, she carefully said:
"I only learned water magic."
Water magic? Mu Qinglan's eyes flickered slightly. Was she unwilling to tell the truth? But that made sense; who would honestly disclose their cultivation abilities to a stranger they had just met?
She dared to speak because it was inconsequential.
"Water magic? I heard it's very difficult to learn." Mu Qinglan's expression showed some distress: "I tried many times but couldn't learn it, so I had to learn something else in the end. I guess only geniuses like the National Teacher can easily learn these things. By the way, does Jiang Jiang know the National Teacher?"
"Yes."
Jiang He nodded.
'So the range narrows again.' Mu Qinglan pondered silently.
Then she said:
"Let's talk while we walk. Since we magicians don't need weapons, let's first find a carriage in the city, and then leave the city together. There's no need to rush. The city is definitely safe.
If demons want to block messages from getting out, they must be guarding the main roads outside the city. Looking at it this way, the pursuers are likely targeting only those leaving the city. So why don't we move slower? This way, we can let those three people scout the way for us."
Jiang He listened in a daze, thinking it made a lot of sense, feeling that she had made a smart friend who was very reliable.
The two continued chatting bit by bit, circling around the common topic of the National Teacher.
When they went to the stable to buy a carriage, they saw those three people again, who still glanced at them disdainfully before passing by.
But this time Jiang He ignored them.
She just clenched her palm a bit tighter.
By the time the two were ready to leave the city, it was dusk.
Because of today's trouble, no civilian in Dingwu City dared to leave the city. Only a few soldiers occasionally rode out with letters requesting aid, but as of now, none had managed to get the message out.
After all, it hadn't even been a day yet.
Along the official road, every few hundred meters lay a corpse.
Occasionally, there would be several corpses gathered together.
The sound of hooves clip-clopped along.
Mu Qinglan's eyes swept past the window. Though she didn't say anything, her expression became increasingly grave, and her gaze increasingly dangerous.
Until at a certain moment, the carriage suddenly stopped.
Mu Qinglan looked questioningly at Jiang He, who was sitting in front. However, she merely raised her hand and pointed to the roadside.
Following the direction of her finger.
Dusk had settled, the sun had completely set, leaving only a bit of the afterglow of sunset lingering in a lantern that stood conspicuously not far away.
The light was dim, making it impossible to see clearly the person holding the lantern. Only the clothes could be roughly made out.
White as snow, holding a short spear.
Mu Qinglan immediately understood.
It was that little girl who had remained silent from beginning to end, only widening her eyes to look around.