Chapter 83: Jumped Right Up

Lian Li was stunned. What on earth?

The Beauty Ranking? How did he, a man, end up on the Beauty Ranking?

“I am a man!” Lian Li stated with an air of righteousness.

The young girl laughed happily and replied, “The Beauty Ranking doesn’t distinguish between men and women. As long as you are a beauty, you can make the list. It’s just that you are the only one who became famous and made the list by cross-dressing as a woman.”

Yun Huizhou glanced at the girl and said to Lian Li, “She’s lying to you. You hadn’t even gone to Fengyi City when the spring edition of the Beauty Ranking came out, so you definitely wouldn’t be on it. The summer edition won’t be out for another few days, so how could she possibly know? She’s just talking nonsense.”

Hearing Yun Huizhou say this, the girl became unhappy and immediately retorted, “I’m not talking nonsense! I have insider information. Anyway, just wait and see this season’s edition. If he’s not on it, come to the Martial Arts Alliance branch in Yucheng, and I’ll treat you to a meal as an apology.”

Lian Li’s heart, which had just settled down because of Yun Huizhou’s words, rose into his throat again. Just as he was about to say something, the person who had come with the girl tugged at her sleeve and pointed toward the fortress.

The urge to hurry was obvious.

The girl curled her lip and turned to fly toward the fortress. Just as her figure was about to disappear, her voice drifted back once more: “If you don’t believe me, go buy it and see for yourselves.”

The people Manager Li brought quickly cleaned up the bandit fortress. The grain inside was also transported down and distributed to the villagers in the surrounding area.

After Yun Huizhou and Lian Li found their horses, they hung the bags containing the valuables on them and followed Manager Li to the village.

The people in the nearby villages didn’t know what the Martial Arts Alliance was; they only knew that some Great Heroes had wiped out a nest of mountain bandits on Xiyang Mountain last night.

They had even brought down the grain from the fortress to distribute to them.

One by one, they stood in the clearing with grateful expressions, waiting to receive their food.

Suddenly, the woman who had kidnapped the little tyrant late at night ran out from the crowd. Under everyone’s astonished gazes, she rushed in front of Yun Huizhou and Lian Li, knelt straight down, and gave a heavy kowtow.

Yun Huizhou was fine, but Lian Li was so startled by her action that he jumped directly onto Yun Huizhou.

Yun Huizhou held Lian Li and glanced at the kneeling woman, feeling that this scene was truly somewhat unseemly.

Especially since the gazes of the people around them were not on the kneeling woman, but rather on him and Lian Li.

The young girl who had been staring at Lian Li earlier covered her mouth in surprise. She looked at Lian Li, then at Yun Huizhou, and a “I understand now” expression suddenly appeared on her face.

Lian Li didn’t notice her, but Yun Huizhou did. However, he didn’t understand why this girl would show such an expression.

What exactly did she understand? Yun Huizhou didn’t want to look into it, but he felt that today, he seemed to have lost face along with Lian Li.

Out of the principle of protecting his Junior Brother, even though he felt very embarrassed, he didn’t throw Lian Li off directly. Instead, he held Lian Li like that to steady his body.

This action of his caused the girl’s eyes to widen a bit more, carrying a hint of an indescribable smile.

After the woman kowtowed three times, she looked up to see such a scene.

Her tearful expression became visibly dazed for a moment, and her mouth hung open. She was clearly so shocked that she forgot what she wanted to say.

Yun Huizhou felt that the woman’s appearance was a bit hard to look at, and his posture with Lian Li was also very hard to look at. Thus, he spoke up: “The people from the Martial Arts Alliance have arrived, and the mountain bandits have been suppressed. We haven’t taken the previous matters to heart. If you have any further grievances, speak to the people from the Martial Arts Alliance.”

“As for the things the little tyrant’s family did, if you have witnesses and physical evidence, hand them all over to Manager Li of the Martial Arts Alliance. They will take over the subsequent matters.”

“Get up. Don’t stay kneeling.”

Hearing him say this, the woman also realized that her sudden rush to kneel and kowtow had frightened the green-clad young hero, scaring him right onto the Great Hero’s body.

She wiped her tears and rose from the ground. After gathering her emotions, she spoke: “Thank you, my two benefactors. I wonder about the thing the benefactor gave me to eat earlier…”

Hearing her mention this, Lian Li remembered that he had fed this woman a nourishing pill and lied to her, saying it was poison.

He hurriedly fumbled around in his small bag and finally pulled out a sugar pill, handing it to the woman.

The woman took it and put it in her mouth. When she tasted the sweetness, her eyes widened as she looked at Lian Li.

“Benefactor, this is…”

Lian Li said with a smile, “It’s sugar. I was lying to you before; it wasn’t poison.”

The expression on the woman’s face was uncertain as she asked in a low voice, “And… and at the Hour of the Rat at night…”

This time, it was Yun Huizhou who answered: “A unique Acupoint Tapping technique. It will resolve itself automatically in a few days.”

Yun Huizhou’s gaze toward the woman was very cold. The woman’s mind turned, and she understood why Yun Huizhou had tapped such a strange acupoint on her.

Tapping her strange itching point was considered an offset for her attempt to scheme against them.

She nodded and said, “I understand.”

At the same time, the surrounding villagers also learned who had exterminated the mountain bandits from the mouths of those who had escaped back earlier.

They all came forward to thank Lian Li and Yun Huizhou.

An old man walked out from behind the crowd. He took out a small bag and said somewhat cautiously, “Please do not look down on this, Great Heroes. This is a small token of appreciation from our villages. It is all thanks to you two for exterminating the bandits; otherwise, we wouldn’t know how much longer our villages could exist.”

Yun Huizhou set Lian Li down and took the small bag handed over by the old man. He didn’t open it to look, but instead tucked it into his robe.

Then he looked toward Manager Li and called out, “Manager Li?”

Manager Li immediately came over, supporting the old man as he said, “In the future, our Martial Arts Alliance will frequently send people here to check on the situation. Rest easy, old sir.”

…

After handing over the subsequent troublesome matters to the Martial Arts Alliance, the two of them mounted their horses and went to the nearest city, Yucheng.

The news of them exterminating a nest of mountain bandits on Xiyang Mountain had already been verified by Manager Li and sent back to the Yucheng Martial Arts Alliance.

The two arrived at the Hecheng Martial Arts Alliance branch. After collecting the bounty, they handed over the gold, silver, and jewelry brought out from the mountain fortress to the Alliance to be exchanged for silver notes, making another windfall.

After putting away the silver notes, Lian Li finally understood why Yun Huizhou never worried about money.

When out of money, just find a nest of evil mountain bandits and wipe them out.

Last year, when he went to the Martial Arts Assembly with him, their funds were so tight entirely because this guy simply didn’t care much about money; he always waited until it was almost spent before thinking about earning more.

The two rested in Yucheng for a night. Early the next morning, Lian Li climbed out of bed to knock on Yun Huizhou’s door.

Yun Huizhou wasn’t wearing an inner garment. His trousers were loosely hung at his waist, and he had casually grabbed an outer coat to drape over himself, leaving a large portion of his chest exposed.

Compared to Lian Li’s youthful physique, Yun Huizhou’s body already had the complete appearance of an adult man.

He opened the door, clearly not yet fully awake. “You’re up so early today?”