Chapter 137: The Played-With Yamen Officers

According to research from Elixir Cauldron Peak, a long-term diet of meat buns would cause nutritional imbalance and stunted physical development, so to improve the diet of the yamen runners, the benevolent Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou decided to take action.

In the morning, the industrious Master Lu and Master Meng decided to pack up and carry away all the meat buns, forcing them to eat a vegetarian diet for balanced nutrition, while urging the runners to exercise more, run frequently, and stretch their muscles and bones.

The runners cheerfully accepted the advice of the two experts, expressing that they would follow the experts' footsteps closely to catch up with them soon and thank them in person.

The two experts were by no means men of mere empty talk; to prove the feasibility of their health theory, they took to the field to run in person.

Deeply moved, the runners also began to run for exercise, and this run lasted the entire morning.

Feeling that the experts' advice was utterly correct, the runners promoted the reputation of the two experts free of charge, and before long, the shouts of the runners could be heard across the entire town.

"Freeze, if you two have the guts!"

"You two bastards, I swear I won't beat you to death!"

"Why did you take the meat buns if you aren't going to eat them!"

The runners were flying into a rage, relentlessly pursuing Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.

Not daring to let the runners catch them, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou took to their heels, leaving the runners behind to eat their dust.

While running, Lu Yang said, "The rules indeed didn't lie to us; look how dangerous these yamen runners are, chasing us so closely when we haven't even done anything, we absolutely cannot let them catch us."

Meng Jingzhou deeply agreed: "Exactly, thank goodness both of us are in the Foundation Establishment Stage, if it were anyone else, they would have been caught long ago."

The runners even tried to detour and block the two, but the pair had already familiarized themselves with the map of the town, making it completely impossible to corner them.

The two led the runners in a chase from the morning until nightfall, and toward the end, the runners were clearly running out of steam, every single one of them panting heavily, their footsteps unsteady.

By the hour of Hai, the two carried the meat buns back to the inn, while the runners glared at them viciously, returning to the government office in bitter disappointment.

According to the Yamen Runner Rules of Plain Clothes Town, they had to stay inside the government office between the hours of Hai and Chen.

The two felt a bit of regret, for they had made many preparations in the inn; if only the runners could enter the inn, it would surely have given them a surprise.

What a pity.

At the hour of Si on the fifth day, the originally lazy runners arrived at the eatery right on time.

In the past, they would arrive fifteen minutes late, waiting for more people to gather here before suddenly appearing to terrify the townsfolk, and when luck was on their side, they might even snap a few necks.

This time, in order to get a bite of the meat buns, they changed this habit.

Having run for a whole day yesterday without eating a single meat bun, they were already starving, so they rushed over first to gorge themselves before those two wicked schemers could meddle with the food.

Halfway through their meal, they saw Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou strolling casually out of the inn.

"You still dare to show your faces in front of us!" The runners grew furious upon remembering yesterday's events, determined to capture these two no matter what!

Lu Yang spoke unhurriedly, "I advise you not to chase me, otherwise something terrible will happen."

"Who are you trying to scare!" The leader of the runners obviously did not believe Lu Yang's words, considering it mere bluster.

There were only twenty-one rules in Plain Clothes Town, and the situation Lu Yang spoke of could not possibly happen.

"Go!"

Seeing that they refused to listen to the warning, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou sighed, turned around, and ran.

Not long after the runners began to chase, someone clutched his stomach and rolled on the ground, sweat breaking out on his forehead from the agony: "My lower abdomen hurts so much!"

As if triggering a chain reaction, one person after another clutched their stomachs and cried out in pain, and even the leader of the runners could not bear it, curling up on the ground to reduce the pain, unable to even stand.

"The meat buns are poisoned..." The leader of the runners stared dead at Lu Yang, certain that they had administered the poison.

Lu Yang walked over at a leisurely pace: "I told you long ago not to chase us, but you wouldn't listen, now look at your rotten luck."

"Where did you get the poison!" The leader of the runners could not understand it, as the apothecary owner could not possibly have concocted poison for Lu Yang, so where did Lu Yang get it?

Lu Yang squatted down, patted the leader's head, and said amiably, "Remember, no strenuous exercise right after a meal, otherwise it is easy to get appendicitis."

"Read more books, don't think everything is poison, we are from an orthodox, righteous sect, how could we use poison?"

As the Daoist Sect, one of the five great immortal sects, they always acted uprightly and justly, never stooping to unrefined acts like poisoning.

At least, no living enemy had ever encountered a situation where the Daoist Sect used poison.

The runners suffered from excruciating abdominal pain, rolling all over the ground, while those who were still fine stood there fearing Lu Yang, not daring to act, and just like that, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou vanished openly before the eyes of the runners.

What the two failed to notice were the looks from the townsfolk of Plain Clothes Town by the roadside, their eyes filled with terror.

"Thank goodness these two are following the ordinary rules, if they were to put on black clothes and become yamen runners, would we even have a chance to survive?"

"Who says otherwise, they even claim to be from a righteous sect, but I think they might well be undercover agents from some demonic cult infiltrating the righteous path!"

The townsfolk of Plain Clothes Town rejoiced that Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were on their side, otherwise they feared they would not survive past three days.

At the hour of Si on the sixth day, the runners had grown smarter, taking the meat buns first without eating them, and blocking the entrance of the inn.

Having anticipated this, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou escaped by leaping out of the second-floor window.

"Chase them, don't let them get away!" Two days of resentment had accumulated to a terrifying degree, and as the runners recalled yesterday's painful experience, they wished they could tear them to pieces.

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou ran with increasing proficiency, and what the runners failed to notice was that as they chased, they ran right into the territory of the private school.

The schoolmaster gnashed his teeth upon seeing Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, calling out the people who were studying inside the school.

The students studying inside could no longer be called human; they were covered in black fur with elongated snouts, and some severe cases were crawling directly on the ground, only a step away from becoming black dogs.

"Catch them!" The schoolmaster ordered.

The runners grew furious upon seeing this scene, daring to compete with them for targets!

The schoolmaster still wanted to lock eyes with Lu Yang, but Lu Yang was well-prepared, pulling out a bronze mirror to shield his face.

"Take a good look at your own hideous reflection instead!"

In the bronze mirror, the schoolmaster saw his own skinless face and blood-red eyes, letting out a pitiful wail as his body underwent changes, rushing back into the academy to sew his mouth shut.

Losing the schoolmaster's command, the black dog-men fought hand-to-hand with the runners according to the previous order.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou dragged out a runner, attempting to strip off his clothes, only to find that no matter what they did, the clothes could not be removed.

They could only settle for the next best thing, searching the runner's body to retrieve the Yamen Runner Rules of Plain Clothes Town.

Just like the waiter, to prevent themselves from forgetting the rules, the runners would carry the rules on their persons at all times.

Having obtained what they wanted, the two made their escape.

As for the runners, the two chose to respect their wishes; if they wanted to fight, then let them fight.