The Messenger

He carried a simple bundle on his back. In the continuous drizzle, bathed in a few rays of morning light piercing through the dark clouds, he stepped into Xiushui Village.

The youth walked swiftly along the muddy road. His shoes were splattered with mud, and the dirty water had soaked right through to his toes.

But he did not care at all. Full of energy, he entered Xiushui Village, picked a house at random near the village entrance, knocked on the door, and asked:

"Is anyone there? I'd like to ask for directions—"

A loud, somewhat sharp and clear voice pierced the misty gray morning.

The family whose door was knocked on didn't expect a visitor so early. After a good while, the courtyard door was opened from the inside. Seeing the youth, the woman who opened the door asked in confusion:

"Who are you looking for?"

The youth immediately flashed a harmless, wide smile and said to the woman, who was half-hiding behind the door:

"Hello, Auntie! I wanted to ask you, where does Uncle Lin Dayou live?"

"Oh, you're looking for Dayou." Seeing that the person standing outside was just a skinny youth of about ten years old, the woman grew a bit bolder. She leaned out past the door, pointed to the right of her house, and said:

"It's the third house down that way."

The youth looked in the direction she pointed, immediately narrowed his eyes with a smile, cupped his hands in a salute to the woman, and said:

"Thank you, Auntie!"

Then, hoisting the bundle on his back, he walked toward the Lin family home.

Arriving at the Lin house, he knocked again:

"Is anyone home? Excuse me, is this Uncle Dayou's house?"

At this time, Lin Xiao and Lin Yun were splitting the last steamed bun on the dining table.

Suddenly hearing a knock on the door, with the bun still in his mouth, Lin Xiao scurried over to open it.

Seeing the completely unfamiliar person dressed as a boy standing outside, Lin Xiao was a little confused:

"Are you looking for my dad?"

Seeing him, the youth stopped asking about Lin Dayou. His eyes lit up as he said:

"Are you our Sect Master?! I'm here to deliver a letter for Boss Qin!"

Lin Xiao: ...

"Boss Qin?" Lin Xiao was a bit incredulous. Could it be Jianghe?

Looking at the person in front of him, he turned and stepped aside to clear the doorway:

"Come inside first..."

He had noticed the auntie from three doors down poking her head out to snoop on them.

The youth immediately ran into the Lin family courtyard.

"Mhm! Yes! I am Boss Qin's capable subordinate! But he said that if I really want to become a disciple, I have to come over and let you take a look first! It just so happens he had things to send back, so he had me bring them along."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao looked at this... girl, who wasn't even as tall as he was, and reached out his hand:

"Oh, thanks. What did he send?"

Completely unaware that her proud disguise had already been seen through, the girl happily took off the bundle from her shoulder, pulled out a small storage bag from inside, and handed it to Lin Xiao.

"This is it! Inside is the silver and account book Boss Qin gave you, along with a letter!"

As she spoke, she suddenly remembered she hadn't introduced herself yet, so she continued:

"Oh right, Sect Master Lin! My name is Gu Yuxiao. What do you think of me? Can I join your sect? Please say yes! I really want to take Boss Qin as my master!"

Lin Xiao didn't expect Qin Jianghe to entrust even a storage bag and money to this girl. He must have thought she was extremely reliable.

Thinking about how he had previously told him that if he met someone decent, he could just accept them as a disciple directly, yet he still insisted on having a girl travel all this way just for him to confirm...

Hearing the commotion, Lin Dayou and Lin Yun also walked out of the main room. Seeing it was a young lad introduced by Qin Jianghe, they didn't interrupt their conversation, just greeted them and left the house.

Lin Xiao first invited the girl to sit down and poured her a bowl of water. Then he sat aside and took out the letter addressed to him from the storage bag Jianghe had sent back.

He read through the letter quickly and carefully, finally understanding why Jianghe had suddenly sent things back.

He opened the storage bag and sure enough, there were thirty taels of silver inside.

In the letter, Qin Jianghe first stated that he had been doing very well recently and told Lin Xiao not to worry. Then he mentioned that he had been running business between the neighboring county town and the prefectural capital and had made some money. Two days ago, he suddenly heard about an upcoming conscription for corvee labor. Worried that his brothers wouldn't have enough money on hand, he hurriedly took out the majority of his profits and found someone trustworthy to send it back.

He himself couldn't return because his business there was just starting up and he couldn't get away.

He had to admit, the speed of getting news in the county town was much faster.

This girl delivering the letter had no cultivation base at all. Coming from the neighboring county to Xiushui Village would take at least three or four days.

This meant that Jianghe had known the news at least seven or eight days ago.

Sure enough, information in the village was too closed off. In the future, when the sect grew larger, he would probably have to consider the issue of information acquisition channels.

Thinking of this, Lin Xiao suddenly felt that after two or three months, he was starting to look quite like a Sect Master.

Now, whatever he saw, he would connect it to the future development of the sect.

He carefully folded the letter, took out all the items from the storage bag to empty it, and then thought for a moment. He took out a blank talisman from his private treasury, closed his eyes, inputted some content into it, and placed it inside the storage bag.

This talisman was one of the basic talismans he had created recently while studying talisman making. It was a Voice Recording Talisman. Its effect was similar to a voice recorder, but it could store voice transmissions from the mind.

Then he handed the storage bag back to Gu Yuxiao.

"Take this storage bag back to Jianghe. As for you..."

Gu Yuxiao took the storage bag. Hearing him mention her, she suddenly became very nervous, sitting up perfectly straight and looking at him with great expectation.

Lin Xiao smiled at her warmly and politely, saying:

"Miss Gu, when you go back, tell Jianghe that if he has his eye on someone, he doesn't need me to see them first. He can decide for himself. It's just that maybe in the future, our sect might have a disciple screening process. As for the specific rules, I'll tell him personally once everything is formally set up."

Receiving his affirmative answer, Gu Yuxiao was extremely excited. She jumped high into the air on the spot, then stuffed the storage bag back into her small bundle, gave Lin Xiao a deep bow, and said loudly:

"Thank you, Sect Master Lin! I'll go back and report right now!"

Saying that, without waiting for Lin Xiao to ask her to stay, rest, or have a meal, she scurried out of the Lin house and soon ran out of Xiushui Village.

It wasn't until she had excitedly run two miles out of the village that she suddenly reacted and froze in place.

Just now, Sect Master Lin seemed to have called her 'Miss Gu'?

To think that her incredibly proud disguise had been seen through, and by a boy younger than herself at that.

Truly worthy of being Boss Qin's Sect Master...