"Alright, let's set off now," Fifth Elder Brother said while pulling up the reins.
Sixth Elder Brother also got on his horse, while Mo Jiuye was responsible for guarding Mr. Si Meng in the carriage, preventing any accidents from happening.
The carriage had just started when Little White stood on top of it and let out a gurgling cry.
This was when Mo Jiuye remembered that he was so focused on interrogating Mr. Si Meng that he forgot about Little White.
He opened the carriage window to let Little White fly in.
Little White obediently stood on his shoulder and kept showing off arrogantly to Mr. Si Meng, who was like a dead dog.
As Mo Jiuye smiled, he also fed some food to it. Then, while Mr. Si Meng was unconscious, he wrote a letter saying everything was going smoothly, they had successfully captured Mr. Si Meng, and were rushing with him to the western border.
He tied the letter to Little White's leg. The letter was to He Zhiran.
After Little White was full, it flew to Xilin Village with Mo Jiuye’s letter.
The three brothers journeyed very smoothly. In order to reach the western border as soon as possible, they persisted in traveling whenever they had a bit of energy left.
At this pace, they finally arrived at the western border after eleven days.
Since it was a border city, the city gate guards would be stricter and inspect all passersby.
By now, Mr. Si Meng was so weak he was unrecognizable. If they didn’t need him alive, the brothers wouldn’t even want to feed him a bite.
But with such a battered man in the carriage, they definitely wouldn’t pass the inspection at the city gate. It might even cause them a lot of trouble.
Sixth Elder Brother worriedly asked, “Ninth younger brother, what should we do?”
Mo Jiuye looked at the commoners lining up to enter the city ahead of them.
"Let's get in line first. I'll go up front and pave the way."
Everyone knew money could push a ghost to grind. So Mo Jiuye didn’t believe those guards wouldn’t like silver.
While the carriage was queueing, Mo Jiuye quickly went to the guards and looked extremely anxious.
Seeing a man running towards them, the guards thought he wanted to force his way into the city. They immediately blocked him with their weapons.
"What are you doing? If you want to enter the city, go line up."
Mo Jiuye didn’t care about money. As long as they could enter the city smoothly, it was fine.
So as the guards questioned him, he took out a silver ingot and stuffed it into their hand.
Then he pointed to the carriage at the back of the queue and said, "My family member is critically ill. I’m rushing into the city for medical treatment. Can you make an exception?"
The moment the guard got the silver, his heart bloomed with joy.
Judging from the size of the ingot, there was at least five taels—his five months’ salary.
The guard immediately changed his attitude. It could be said he did a 180 degree turn.
"Seeking medical treatment is important. Don't delay it."
After saying that, he quickly drove away all the commoners blocking the passage, making way for the carriage.
The carriage smoothly entered the city and headed straight for the small mound Mr. Si Meng mentioned.
Although it was rarely visited by people, there was a Da Shun army camp nearby.
Surely someone in the army would recognize them. They had to be careful not to expose their identities.
Therefore, the brothers decided to find a place farther away from the military camp to climb the mountain.
Of course, someone still needed to stay behind to guard Mr. Si Meng. In case he was wrong about the location, the brothers could continue interrogating him.
Although Mo Jiuye knew some basics about Gu techniques, he didn’t understand the details very clearly. Especially puppet Gu, he had no idea how to manipulate it.
That old fox Mr. Si Meng would never tell the truth.
Logically, when Mo Jiuye and the others entered the western border, they should look for Third Older Brother and the others first to see if they had found any clues.
But considering the manipulation time of the puppet Gu queen, Mo Jiuye didn’t dare to take it lightly.
It had been half a month since they captured Mr. Si Meng and took away all his Gu worms, including extracting his life Gu.
That meant Mr. Si Meng had at least half a month without commanding the puppet Gu larva in their father and brothers. Mo Jiuye worried that without mobility for too long, they might starve to death.
So he decided not to look for Third Older Brother first. Instead, he would go to the location Mr. Si Meng mentioned to look for his father, Eldest Brother and Second Brother.
As long as they successfully found them, he could remove the puppet Gu in them using his wife's method first to save their lives. That was the most important thing.
Finally, after discussing, the brothers decided Fifth Elder Brother, who was more attentive, would stay at the foot of the mountain to guard Mr. Si Meng, while Mo Jiuye and Sixth Elder Brother would climb the sixth mound of Xiaoqiu Mountain together.
Mo Jiuye looked at the sky. It was already the afternoon hour of Shen.
Although Xiaoqiu Mountain was made up of many small mounds, to reach the sixth mound, they had to climb over the previous five.
Looking from afar, the mounds didn’t seem big. But walking on them, there was quite a distance.
Fortunately, Mo Jiuye and Sixth Elder Brother had supreme martial arts. The two brothers leapt using Qinggong and crossed the five mounds in about an hour.
As the sixth mound entered their eyes, it did feel different from the others.
There was some space between the trees on the other mounds. Looking from a distance, it didn’t block the view too much.
However, the sixth mound was very different. At first glance, the entire hilltop was covered in lush greenery. Not only were there no visible roads, even the nearby ground was covered in a thick layer of moss.
Even the birds passing by would choose to detour around it. It showed how dangerous this mound was.
Based on experience, this was the place with the most snakes, insects, rats and ants. Once people walked in, there was no telling what danger they would encounter.
Sixth Elder Brother took out a dagger and held it in his palm.
"Ninth younger brother, I'll take the lead to clear the way." He planned to hack his way through the thorns to open up a path.
Mo Jiuye knew that this was the only way in this situation.
So he also took out a dagger and held it in his palm. However, he didn’t take action immediately. Instead, he took out a package of realgar powder from his clothes and sprinkled it on himself and Sixth Elder Brother.
Only by doing this could they effectively avoid the invasion of snakes, insects and other toxins after entering the woods.
Saving their father and brothers was important, but if they couldn’t even ensure their own safety, how could they save others?
After the two brothers looked at each other firmly, they strode into the woods step by step.
The two cooperated seamlessly. One left, one right, cutting away the thorns blocking their path, while also staying vigilant at all times, noticing any snakes or insects that might appear under their feet.
Fortunately, Mo Jiuye had sprinkled realgar powder on them. Along the way, the poisonous snakes they encountered smelled it and automatically avoided them.
Because of this, the two brothers’ entry into the sixth mound went quite smoothly at first.
Even for the few poisonous snakes that weren’t afraid of the realgar smell, the two brothers killed them swiftly.
