Chapter 86: Setting Off Again
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
On the 8th of April, the silver moon hung in the sky.
The vast river was sparkling, and ferries filled with passengers sailed along the river to the west of Ze Province. The boats were full of lights, reflecting colorful reflections on the water.
On a ship, an old man in simple clothes was sitting on a pile of junk on the deck with a small drum in his hand and telling stories about Jianghu. “Ever since Fengguan City was born, all the martial artists in the world have become second-rate…”
Beside him was a chubby girl holding an erhu and matching it to the tune.
Ye Jingtang was dressed in a black robe and a bamboo hat. Like other Jianghu wanderers, he was leaning against the outside of the ship’s deckhouse and listening to the familiar stories. The bird was looking eagerly at the vendors hawking in the crowd.
“Small crispy fish from the Clear River, five copper coins each. It’s a specialty of the West Ponds. There won’t be a shop like this after this village…”
“Chirp-”
Since the beginning of the month, he had stayed in West King Town for four to five days. Basically, he had listened to music in theaters and recuperated. Nothing worth mentioning happened.
After the annual meeting of the Red Flower Pavilion ended, Third Lady set off again for the next stop on this trip, the Water Cloud Sword Pool.
Third Lady’s original plan was for her to go to the Water Cloud Sword Pool in person to celebrate the birthday and discuss the friction with the Water Cloud Sword Pool over the years.
But a sect master was still a sect master after all. If she personally went to the other party’s home to discuss matters, it would place her in an inferior position. Now that there was a young master who could support her, such a birthday celebration was naturally the most suitable for the young master to go-
For this reason, the hall masters discussed and decided that Ye Jingtang would lead the team on this trip, and the two hall masters Chen Yuanqing and Song Chi would follow.
Third Lady also followed, but she only stayed in the dark and left everything to Ye Jingtang to handle.
The ferry they took for this trip was from the Je Province Hall. It was quite large, so they didn’t need to clear it. The heroes of the Red Flower Pavilion all lived in the deckhouse, and the ferry was still carrying passengers.
There were many Jianghu people going from the south to the north on the ferry, but not all of them were martial artists. Storytelling, singing, juggling, fortune-telling, and other businesses were all considered Jianghu professions. It was quite interesting listening to these people tell stories about traveling from the south to the north.
After Ye Jingtang watched for a while, he threw a piece of silver into a basin in exchange for the chubby girl’s “Thank you, Young Master.”
He bought a bag of dried fish and went to the second floor of the deckhouse. He saw the second-in-command, Song Chi, and the third-in-command, Chen Yuanqing, dressed as ordinary merchants and playing Go in the tea hall.
Li Sanwen was standing at the side and thinking. “Leader Song, I don’t understand your moves…”
“You can’t even understand this? It’s already four in a row. Isn’t he going to lose for sure…”
“Oh, it’s Gomoku. I know it…”
Ye Jingtang found them amusing, but he didn’t disturb them. He went straight to the master room at the stern.
From the window, he could see that the spacious room was brightly lit. There was a blanket in the middle. Third Lady was wearing a light yellow casual dress and sitting on the blanket, holding the back of her head with her hands and doing sit-ups.
Xiuhe was in the ‘w-sitting’ posture, with her crotch pressing on Third Lady’s fair feet and her hands pressing on her ankles.
It was not easy to move around on a ship. Martial artists couldn’t sit still all the time. It was normal to exercise in their room.
Third Lady’s movements were very standard, and her speed of rising and falling was quite fast, but… Speaking of which, her movements were like weight-bearing sit-ups…
(O_O)!
After taking a look, Ye Jingtang felt that this wasn’t proper, so he turned his gaze to the river and didn’t even pay attention to Xiuhe’s w-sitting.
When Ye Jingtang appeared outside the window, Pei Xiangjun sensed it. She turned around and saw Ye Jingtang ‘righteously’ looking at the bird with half a small fish in its mouth. She panted for a moment and greeted, “Come in. Why are you standing outside? Phew… Is it very lively down there?”
Ye Jingtang’s original intention was to go to Third Lady’s room to sit, but he felt that it was inappropriate now. He stood by the window and looked at the river. “It’s quite lively. Third Lady, you can go down and take a walk.”
“I’m a woman. It’s easy to attract attention when I go out and show my face.” Pei Xiangjun stood up, took a handkerchief from Xiuhe’s hand, and wiped the sweat off her face.
She went over to Ye Jingtang, looked at the lights on the riverbank, and exhaled. “Is your injury better?”
“After resting for so long, I’ve long recovered.”
“That’s good. When we reach the Zhou family, if you fight, don’t take it too seriously. Jian Yuhua isn’t an ordinary person. He’s a little older than you, so it’s normal that you can’t beat him. You haven’t reached the time to exert strength yet, and you should take care of your body now…”
Ye Jingtang tilted his head and looked at Third Lady’s flushed side profile. “Third Lady, does this count as increasing the momentum of others and undermining your own prestige?”
“Umm…” Pei Xiangjun knew that Ye Jingtang had his own opinions, so she didn’t say anything else. She glanced at the river and was about to introduce Ye Jingtang to the local customs of the West Ponds when her eyes suddenly narrowed. “Hmm?”
After Pei Xiangjun examined carefully, she returned to her room and took out a copper telescope to look at the river bank.
Ye Jingtang followed the direction of the telescope and saw a small town deep in the land. Four to five kilometers away, a house seemed to be burning. The flames were very eye-catching.
Ye Jingtang originally thought that the shore caught fire, but Third Lady said softly, “Silver-Horned Horse-Face… Is the Black Office working on a case?”
Ye Jingtang was very familiar with the ‘Ox-Head and Horse-Face’ of the Six Fiends. Hearing this, he bent down and leaned close to Third Lady’s face, wanting to look through the telescope.
As a result, he accidentally rubbed Third Lady’s delicate face. After she exercised, her face was a little hot, and it felt like silky and tender tofu.
?
Pei Xiangjun shrunk her neck slightly, and her face instantly turned red. She turned to look at Ye Jingtang, her almond-shaped eyes slightly widened.
Ye Jingtang was also a little embarrassed. He quickly stood up straight. “Uh…”
Fortunately, Third Lady didn’t bother with him. She moved the telescope in front of him. “Take a look.”
Ye Jingtang bent down again. Through the telescope in Third Lady’s hand, he could see a street by the river with flames soaring into the sky. Houses collapsed from time to time, as if a raging bull was rampaging through the town.
And above the buildings, there was a figure in a long robe dragging two slender chains in his hand. His feet were flying non-stop above the town without touching the ground. He looked like… um… Spiderman?
Although he couldn’t see it clearly, he was sure that the disturbance was huge.
Ye Jingtang was so focused on observing the battle situation that he almost stuffed his eye into the telescope and didn’t even know to let the beautiful lady beside him take a look.
How could Pei Xiangjun not be curious when the Six Fiends took action to catch a bandit? Seeing Ye Jingtang occupying the telescope, she complained in her heart, her eyes full of resentment. After waiting for a moment, she could not help saying, “We can’t see anything from so far away. Why don’t we go take a look?”
“Hmm? Okay, let’s go…” Ye Jingtang didn’t mind watching the commotion. Since Third Lady had spoken, he naturally didn’t say anything. He put away the telescope and jumped onto the river.
Tread, tread, tread…
Ye Jingtang’s feet tapped on the blue waves as he flew toward the river bank.
Pei Xiangjun’s martial arts skills were extraordinary, so she naturally didn’t need Ye Jingtang to carry her. She informed Xiuhe and jumped over the railing.
The two of them rose and fell on the river like dragonflies skimming the water. When they arrived near the river bank, faint voices came from the night wind.
“Murder!”
“Yang Wanli, you won’t be able to escape today even if you have wings. Surrender and I can give you a quick death. If you resist stubbornly, I’ll make you wish you were dead!”
“Ma Laosi, don’t force me…”
Boom! Boom!
Ye Jingtang landed on the shore, lowered his body, and quickly walked toward the town. He asked softly, “Who is Yang Wanli?”
“A Jianghu person of Jiang Province who was originally the leader of a sea gang. But last year, he was blind and hijacked a ship heading to the Xiao Mountain Fortress in Jiang Province. The Xiao Mountain Fortress put a kill order on him and hunted him down. He escaped from the south’s Jianghu, and I heard that he wanted to escape to Northern Liang.”
“Yang Wanli is a pirate?”
“This pirate has a lot of lives on his hands. Otherwise, the Six Fiends wouldn’t be hunting him down.”
“Who is Ma Laosi©?”
Silver-Horned Horse-Face’ Chen Miao. And ‘Ox-Head’ Tu Jiuji is called ‘Old Ox Three’ by Jianghu people.”
Ye Jingtang nodded in understanding. He and the Third Lady silently jumped onto the low wall of the town. When he stuck his head out to take a look, his relaxed expression turned solemn.
The small town was in a mess. Red light soared into the sky, and the cries of women and children echoed everywhere…
“Dad… Waah…”
In Yellow Pine Town, two houses collapsed, and dark red blood slowly flowed into a ditch. At the end of the blood was a corpse cut in half by a saber.
A three or four-year-old girl was squatting at the corner of a house, crying her heart out as she looked at a couple on the other side of the street.
The couple’s faces were pale. The woman knelt on the ground and kowtowed while the man held a hatchet and wanted to rush over, but he was blocked by a huge creature in front of him.
Under the light of the fire, it was apparent that the huge creature was a human, but its figure completely exceeded the scope of a normal human.
The figure was more than two meters tall, his arms were larger than an ordinary person’s waist, and his waist was like a millstone. He was wearing black heavy armor and holding two short-handled bronze hammers in his hands. He was breathing like a bull as he stood on the street like a black mountain of flesh.
The chief constables of the Black Office were always a combination of one inside and one outside. This mountain of flesh was naturally Tu Jiuji, who was known in Jianghu as the Vajra Ox-Head.
Tu Jiuji’s eyes were blood red as he stared at the bandit Yang Wanli across the street.
Yang Wanli looked to be in his fifties. He was wearing an ordinary official’s robe, but it was already in tatters. The weapon in his hand had been disarmed by the Silver-Horned Horse-Face in the battle just now. He was now holding a long-handled hammer he had grabbed from a blacksmith shop.
Yang Wanli was also tall and burly, but in front of Tu Jiuji, he was like a little kid standing in front of a fat adult.
Yang Wanli could be considered a formidable character, but the Ox-Head and Horse-Face were chief constables of the Imperial Court who specialized in dealing with Grandmasters. They didn’t regard someone like Yang Wanli as a special figure at all. If they hadn’t happened to meet him by chance, they would have left such a figure to She Long and the others to deal with.
Originally, either Tu Jiuji or Chen Miao could have crushed this bandit to death. But Yang Wanli saw them first and wanted to escape before he was discovered.
On the way to escape, Yang Wanli had killed civilians wantonly to create chaos to restrict Tu Jiuji.
Tu Jiuji and Chen Miao were military officials who enjoyed a fourth-rank salary in the Imperial Court. It was impossible for them to kill indiscriminately like the people of Jianghu, and they were forced not to dare to step forward rashly.
At this moment, Yang Wanli was already in desperate straits. He was curled up in a corner, his hammer hanging above the head of the little girl beside him. He spat out blood and cursed, “I’ve already earned enough. Today, every kill I make is a gain. My life is worthless. If you have the guts, come and take it! Come on!”
Clank! Clank!
The sound of chains swaying approached from afar. First, a silver hook flew out of the night and nailed to the beam of a house on the street.
Then Chen Miao, who was as light as a leaf, landed lightly on the eaves of the house. The long sleeves of his robe were drooping, and the slender chains slowly retracted into the sleeves. He looked coldly at the street corner. “How far do you think you can run?”
Come here if you dare!”
The Ox-Head and Horse-Face appeared and maintained a safe distance. Yang Wanli’s blood-red eyes didn’t dare to move away. He slowly retreated, picked up the little girl with one hand, and moved toward the entrance of the town.
“Dad… Mom…”
“Daughter!”
Heart-wrenching cries echoed on the street.
Chen Miao’s face was as calm as water while he stood motionless.
Tu Jiuji, who had a relatively irritable personality, clenched the bronze hammers in his hands tightly, and cracking sounds came from his teeth.
When the distance between the two sides was more than 300 feet, and even a Grandmaster wouldn’t be able to cross the distance in an instant, Yang Wanli’s eyes revealed a strong desire to live. He quickened his pace and turned around to run out of the town.
But suddenly…!
Swoosh!
A saber light flashed in the night!
