Chapter 143: Greenwood Bandits

Chapter 143: The Green Forest

"Swordsmanship? We have it!" Hearing this, Zhao Qin answered with absolute certainty.

"Though there are few swordsmen in the escort agency, since you, our benefactor, have asked, even if we don't have any, I'll find a way to get them for you through other channels!"

Li Huowang raised his cup and tapped it gently against the rim of the other's cup. "Then I must thank you, Escort Chief Zhao."

As the wine flowed, the atmosphere at the banquet warmed, and the men at the table toasted each other in lively succession.

In truth, Li Huowang did not care for such occasions. Seeing that the others had eaten their fill, he was just about to rise and take his leave.

Just then, he saw Gouwa approaching with a cup of hot tea, setting it down before him.

Glancing first at Zhao Qin, who was accompanying them nearby, Gouwa leaned in and whispered into Li Huowang's ear.

"Senior Brother Li, didn't Junior Sister Bai always say that we only take in money and never spend it, and that we need to find a steady source of income?"

"Mm, what about it?" Bai Lingmiao had indeed complained about this to him more than once; his ears were practically calloused from it.

Gouwa's face instantly lit up with excitement. "Look, it's as if we were sleepy and someone handed us a pillow. We could ask them to teach us how to escort goods and become escorts ourselves!"

"Since we're heading to the State of Liang anyway, we might as well take on escort jobs along the way, making money and traveling without neglecting either!"

"Besides, look at these guys treating us to such an expensive feast; they must have made a fortune from escorting. We could make that kind of money too!"

Li Huowang cast a somewhat surprised glance at Gouwa. When it came to making money, the boy's mind was remarkably sharp. And he wasn't wrong; it was exactly the sort of thing Li Huowang would do.

The money he earned from escorting could serve as travel expenses and also be sent to Abbess Jingxin.

Although the Abbess had merely mentioned the thirty thousand taels of gold in passing, she had given him such a lavish gift. To offer nothing in return would simply be unacceptable.

He did not want to owe anyone, and least of all, the only person who had ever helped him.

When Li Huowang brought this up with Zhao Qin, the man agreed without a moment's hesitation.

"Excellent! If Brother Li wants to enter the trade, I'll be your guarantor! As long as you carry my letter of guarantee, you'll be perfectly safe taking on escort contracts at any agency!"

However, after making this promise, he began to earnestly persuade him otherwise.

"But listen here, brother, escorting goods isn't as simple as it seems. The escorts in our agency have a saying: 'Three parts to keep the peace.'"

"By 'three parts to keep the peace,' we mean: a three-part smile on your face, yielding three parts of reason in all matters, and drinking three parts of wine at the table."

"Outsiders think an escort relies on martial prowess to protect the goods, but that's only a small part of the truth. The greater part relies on greasing palms up and down the ranks, which is a tremendous hassle."

His face flushed red, Zhao Qin raised his cup once more, downed the liquor, and then waved his hand grandly.

"Brother Li, if you're truly short on silver, just say the word. However much you need, I'll give it to you!"

The other man spoke with great resolve, yet Li Huowang knew better than to take it at face value.

Everything had its price. He had indeed saved the man's wife, but he hadn't completely cured her; she had merely improved.

He could ask for a sword manual and have the man smuggle it into the escort agency, but to ask the man to bankrupt himself would cross a line.

"You are too kind, Escort Chief Zhao. I still believe it is better to rely on my own efforts."

After a few polite refusals, Zhao Qin sighed. "Very well. Since Brother Li is insistent, so be it. Come to the agency tomorrow, and I will personally teach you the secret jargon."

"Secret jargon? What is that?"

"It's the underworld slang of the martial world. When you run into mountain bandits or highwaymen, you need to speak their language."

"I see." Li Huowang held his cup, a sudden thought striking him. "Then, Escort Chief Zhao, what does 'shoulder to shoulder, cast a vine' mean?"

These were the words the river bandits had used on the lake back then. Thinking back now, that must have been the secret jargon.

"'Shoulder to shoulder' means brother, and 'cast a vine' means to state your name," Zhao Qin explained.

"And what if I don't get it right?"

"If you can't even match the jargon, you're basically an outsider. Most of those flying the black flag will strike without hesitation."

"I see..." Li Huowang held his chopsticks, pondering something.

At this moment, Gouwa chimed in from the side. "Chief Escort, does it really matter if we don't know the jargon? Those petty thieves can't make much of a wave. Why not just slaughter them all?"

"Petty thieves?" Zhao Qin scoffed at Gouwa's words.

"Do you really think all the highwaymen and mountain bandits are just a random mob of villains gathered to rob people? The waters here run deep, my boy!"

This piqued Li Huowang's interest. "Escort Chief Zhao, please elaborate."

Ever since leaving the Qingfeng Temple, in these short few months, he had already encountered two groups of highwaymen.

If things went as expected, he would likely face more in the future. He needed to understand this aspect thoroughly.

An escort who had been on the road for years would undoubtedly know this inside and out.

"I admit that some roaming bandits are indeed weak, but the greenwood is not just them. Those flying the black flag come in all sizes."

"Not to mention the Big and Little Rats on Mount Dongyi, or the Overlord of the South in the Western Wasteland. Anyone who can shout out a title has real power."

"Occupying a mountain to be king isn't just empty talk. It's common for them to have thousands of brothers under their command."

Zhao Qin took a sip of wine and continued, "The key is another saying: 'raising bandits to elevate oneself.' Behind them, there might very well be official connections."

"And don't be fooled by them being bandits now. If they are ever granted amnesty, they'll turn from black to white in an instant."

"Can you untangle all these connections? If you don't match their jargon, how do you expect to run an escort? Everything requires rules, and the rules of the greenwood are rules too."

The foggy and obscure world, through Zhao Qin's explanation, revealed a corner of its truth to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang recalled the scene of the river bandits' sacrifice once more. After a moment of deliberation, he spoke again.

"Among these highwaymen, are there any masters who wield dark arts or immortal techniques?"

He was no longer afraid of ordinary bandits, but this world had never been simple.

Even a small group of river bandits in the reed marshes could use the Record of the Myriad Worlds, obtained from who knows where, to wreak havoc on the region.

Among these larger mountain bandits, there was no guarantee that even more formidable figures didn't exist.

As soon as these words left his mouth, the atmosphere at the table suddenly grew chilly.

Seeing the tense expressions of the escorts, Li Huowang already knew the answer.

After hesitating for a few breaths, Zhao Qin sighed lightly. "That is why everything must be done by the rules. No one knows who truly pulls the strings behind these mountain and river bandits."

"Although the Imperial Guard has the Celestial Monitoring Bureau, even the current Emperor can barely keep his seat on the dragon throne. How could he possibly manage all this?"

"There are some things that we mere mortals simply shouldn't meddle in."

(End of Chapter)