The merchant ship docked steadily at the ferry, without any movement for a long time.
While the three of them were wondering, a group of people came from the street in the distance, escorting more than ten loads of goods, large and small, until they stopped at the ferry.
When the three of them saw this, they immediately cheered up and stared at the movement on the ferry.
At this time, a man slowly walked out of the merchant ship, got off the ship and met the people escorting the goods. During the process, he opened the box and took a look, then nodded. However, they were far away and Li Chouxin and others could not clearly see what was in the box, but they could clearly see the person leading the escort of the goods. This person was Lu Zhe, the housekeeper of the governor Hu Jin's family.
After the three people saw clearly that it was Lu Zhe, they concluded that what they were escorting should be the truth of the matter, and they couldn't hide their joy.
"Look, on the first and fifteenth day of every month, Hu Jin's housekeeper will transport a batch of goods here. It is unshakable, but sometimes it will be escorted by Yan Zefa. Hu Jin rarely shows up, and only occasionally meets with Yan Zefa. We stopped at the crossing on the pretext of checking the city defense, and thought that the contents of this box might be the key to opening up the situation." Xu Sanqiu introduced to Lodav next to him in a low voice.
Lodav looked at the scene on the ferry and nodded, "It's really strange. How can the dignified governor conduct transactions with the merchant ship Yueyue? There must be something fishy in it."
While the three of them were still discussing, the person escorting the goods had moved more than ten boxes onto the merchant ship. Then the man who came out from the merchant ship took out a notebook from his arms and made some circles in the notebook under Lu Zhe's gaze. Zhe took the book and checked it, nodded with satisfaction, and then led the people to quickly leave the ferry.
Li Chouxin said at this time: "It seems that the book in the man's arms should be the proof of their transactions. We have to find a way to get it."
Luo Dafu and Xu Sanqiu nodded to Li Chouxin in agreement.
After Lu Zhe and others left, there was no sign of the merchant ship weighing anchor. Presumably it was already dark and they had to dock here for one night before leaving. This gave the three of them the opportunity to board the ship for inspection.
The three Lodavs waited for a long time, and after seeing that all the lights on the ship went out, they planned to set off to check.
"Brother Xu, you stay here and observe the changes around you. Brother Chouxin and I will go to investigate. If anything happens, you can whistle in time and we can escape later." Luo Dafu said to Xu Sanqiu.
After making arrangements, Luo Dafu and Li Chouxin took out black scarves from their arms, covered their faces, and cautiously approached the merchant ship.
Xu Sanqiu watched Luo Dafu and Li Chouxin get on the boat, and he began to feel nervous. After all, he didn't know how many people were on the boat. Only one person appeared from the beginning to the end, so he was inevitably worried.
It was dark and quiet all around. Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu got on the boat and approached the cabin. The two people who were already very careful should have no problem, but they never expected that they would be discovered just as they approached the cabin. All the lights were lit up, illuminating the entire ferry.
In an instant, all the people on the ship gathered on the deck, surrounded the ship, and two people slowly walked out of the cabin. The leader was the man who had just come out to trade, and there was another person behind him. He seemed to be breathing calmly and walking. Light, with half of the mask hanging on his face, he looks very mysterious.
"Where did this little thief come from? He dared to have an idea of our Taihe merchant ship. He doesn't take me very seriously." The leader said as he walked out, with an arrogant look on his face. appearance.
Xu Sanqiu looked at the scene on the boat, feeling anxious but helpless.
Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu slowly retreated to the deck. There was no way to retreat, so Li Chouxin said: "Boss Quan, if I said that we two brothers got lost because of the darkness of the night and accidentally boarded the ship, would you believe it? ?”
But the man ignored his words and said, "You little thief, do you think I, Quan Sheng, am a three-year-old child? I don't want to ask Quan, the Taihe, what kind of losses have he suffered after traveling on this river for many years?" I have never been involved in any kind of thieves, but they all have one fate, I throw them all into the river and feed them to the fishes."
However, Lodav said calmly: "It seems that Boss Quan was able to discover the two of us because of the person behind him, right?"
Quansheng turned around and took a look and said: "Yes, who doesn't know that we have such a master on board the Taihe? Since you are all here, I won't hide it from you, so that you can understand it later." . This person is Mr. Ba Qing, the famous "rock cracker" in the world. Under his rock crackers, many famous green forest heroes will eventually die, not to mention you two flies. To tell you the truth, there is only one for you two. Mr. Ba already knew it as soon as he stepped on board.”
Li Chouxin had never heard of such a master in the world, but Luo Dafu continued: "It turns out he is a famous rock splitter. No wonder he has such ability. Mr. Keba has not disappeared for many years, how could he appear here again?" body?"
The man behind Quansheng stepped forward and said: "I didn't expect that after so many years, someone would still know my name, but I will never let you leave today. Back then, I was being chased and my life was hanging by a thread. , was rescued by Mr. Quan, and has stayed on the Taihe since then, and is quite comfortable. That’s all, it’s useless to talk more. Let’s take action, so that you can be reincarnated as soon as possible.” After Ba Qing finished speaking, his hands turned red. , and bursts of flame began to appear as if it were on fire.
Seeing this, Luo Dafu did not dare to be careless. He blocked Li Chouxin behind him and stepped forward to deal with it.
Ba Qing struck out with his palm, and a huge fire handprint flew towards Lodav. The handprint was so powerful that it really had the power to break mountains and crack rocks. Lodav also struck out with a palm, and the palm mark struck like a cloud entwining it. After passing by, the two palm prints collided together, and the ship suddenly shook and made a huge explosion sound.
After the explosion, Ba Qing saw that Luo Dafu and Li Chou were safe and sound, so he charged up another palm and flew forward to fight in close combat. Luo Dafu did not hesitate and took it hard with his palm. The ship shook more violently than before, and the two faced each other. The powerful power generated by the palm spread from the hull of the ship into the water, and the calm water surface instantly exploded with splashes of water, which was higher than the hull of the ship.
After the two of them exchanged palms, they both took a few steps back, but there was still no difference. Li Chou saw Luo Dafu's palm trembling behind his back and his palm was red. He felt that the situation was not good, so he flew up in the air and struck the guard behind him with a flat and diagonal strike. The force of the palm struck down like a sword, and the ship Everyone on top of them was knocked into the water. Li Chouxin quickly pulled Luo Dafu and jumped to the ground, hoping to avoid the sharp attack temporarily.
However, when the two of them retreated to the ground, Na Ba Qing had already fallen in front of them, blocking their way.
Li Chou realized that he couldn't escape, so he said to Luo Dafu, "Brother, please rest aside for the time being. I'll come and meet the Rock Splitter for a while."
After saying that, he blocked Luo Dafu behind him and stamped one foot hard. A bamboo stick rose up in response. Li Chouxin took the bamboo stick and floated it in the air. He used the sword again, but he didn't have the three-foot-three sword in his hand. , the power exerted by the bamboo stick weakened a lot, and a dazzling sword intent was swung down, but the pressure was still strong. Ba Qing hurriedly hit the rock-cracking hand, but the hand seal was shattered without support for a moment under the powerful sword intent, and passed through The sword intention of the hand seal continued to come towards Ba Qing. Ba Qing directly used his palms to catch it. This time, he caught it, but the powerful sword intention caused Ba Qing's rock-breaking hand to bite back. In an instant, Ba Qing's sleeves were completely covered. Burnt to pieces, his arms were red, and the red flame was about to spread to his neck. Ba Qing immediately sat down to block it.
When Quansheng on the boat saw this scene, he was shocked and felt vaguely uneasy. However, Li Chouxin did not continue to take action, but pulled Luo Dafu and left quickly in the direction of Xu Sanqiu.
Seeing that the two were about to escape, Quansheng immediately ordered his men to chase them.
As soon as he met Xu Sanqiu, Luo Dafu spat out a mouthful of blood. It seemed that he had suffered internal injuries from fighting Ba Qing just now. Xu Sanqiu hurriedly took out a pill from his body and asked Luo Dafu to take it. The two of them did not dare to be careless and quickly helped Luo Dafu back to escape.
Ba Qing finished adjusting his breath and was about to catch up, but was stopped by Quansheng.
"Mr. Ba, may you know the other party's identity through the previous fight?" Quansheng asked suddenly.
Ba Qing shook his head: "Although the person who made the first move has some skills, he hasn't mastered it yet, but judging from his skill, it's ordinary and I can't tell where it came from; and the second person who made the move is even more unbelievable. I have been in the world for decades, but I have never seen such a strong and powerful swordsmanship, but judging from his appearance, he must have just practiced it, otherwise I would never have survived the sword attack just now."
Quansheng was surprised when he heard this, "When did such a person appear in Eling City? It seems that we need to be more cautious in future transactions. Mr. Ba, since he was injured just now, I will leave the matter of chasing the person to my subordinates." Well, Sir, you’d better go back to the ship to recuperate, and then you’ll have to rely on Sir.”
After speaking, Quansheng looked at the direction in which Li Chouxin and others were escaping, and remained silent for a long time. Ba Qing also turned around and returned to the cabin to adjust.
Unexpectedly, Quansheng's subordinates were also all practitioners, and they were chasing after the three of them, making it difficult to get rid of them for a while. However, the three of them all knew that they must not go towards the second and second floors or Sanmiao Hall at this time, so they discussed the direction of Zhang Mansion while running.
When they arrived near the Zhang Mansion, Xu Sanqiu suddenly said: "Brother Luo and Brother Chouxin, we can't go any further. If a fight breaks out later and attracts the attention of the Zhang Mansion, our identities will most likely be discovered. I think we are here." Let’s deal with the people who are chasing us now.”
Hearing this, Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu looked at Xu Sanqiu in surprise. Li Chouxin took the lead and said, "Brother Luo is already injured at this time, and I don't have a long sword in hand. I'm afraid it will take a lot of effort to deal with them."
But Xu Sanqiu said calmly: "Since you two took action just now, it is now your turn to deal with these little minions."
As soon as these words came out, Lodav, who claimed to be a good friend, couldn't help but be a little surprised and said: "Brother Xu, why haven't I heard that you can do martial arts in the past?"
Xu Sanqiu said: "If I had only relied on this meager talent to make a living in Eling in the past eight years, I would have died countless times. I have not been idle in the past eight years. An encounter on the second or second floor... I learned some rudimentary kung fu from an unknown person in the world, let’s talk about that later, but now we have to deal with these chasing people as soon as possible.”
After the three people discussed, the pursuers had already surrounded them. Xu Sanqiu signaled the two of them to step back, and he stepped forward. The two of them felt sweaty in their hearts when they looked at the frail Xu Sanqiu.
Li Chouxin supported Luo Dafu and looked at Xu Sanqiu in front of him. He couldn't figure out how this weak older scholar could defeat the enemy.
However, Lodav said: "Since Brother Xu said this, I think he is fully confident. After all, he is not the kind of person who blindly takes risks."
Sure enough, when the pursuers saw Xu Sanqiu standing in front of him, they all laughed at him.
"Why, do you, a skinny cripple like you, want to stop me from waiting?"
"Hahaha, are you here to humiliate yourself?"
"Brothers, don't talk nonsense. It's not too late to deal with him and then those two people. Let's just treat this person as a warm-up!"
"...."
There were endless words of ridicule to Xu Sanqiu, but Xu Sanqiu seemed not to hear them. He was calm and calm, bowing his head and not moving.
Suddenly, a person shouted: "Stop talking nonsense, brothers, come together, capture the three of them as soon as possible and return to report, so as not to cause trouble."
Suddenly, a group of people armed with swords rushed forward.
At this time, Xu Sanqiu opened his hands and crossed them in a circle in front of him. Then he suddenly lifted up his long clothes and waved the skirts of his clothes towards the incoming enemy. In an instant, thousands of needles rained down on the group of people. It flew over, and before the visitors could react, they were pierced by those tiny needles. The dense flying needles made their death not too painful, but they gave them endless fear when the needles flew in front of them.
When Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu saw Xu Sanqiu's performance, they were both shocked. They didn't expect that a restaurant literati like Wen Zouzou would actually have such a unique skill with embroidery needles. It was really difficult to detect.
After finishing the killing, Xu Sanqiu returned to the two of them and said, "How was it? You two, did you not disappoint?"
Upon hearing this, Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu gave Xu Sanqiu a thumbs up.
"Now that the trouble that followed has been dealt with, what should we do next?" Xu Sanqiu asked seriously.
Li Chouxin looked at the corpses lying on the ground, pondered for a moment and replied: "That's good. Since this place is within the scope of Zhang's Mansion, I think Zhang's Mansion will be the first object of suspicion, which will affect our next steps." Acting instead bought time. The top priority now is to help Brother Luo heal his injuries as soon as possible. However, we can't go to the second and second floors for the time being. I think so. Brother Xu will rush back to the second and second floors as soon as possible. I will take Brother Luo to Sanmiao Hall to heal his injuries. , there are a lot of medicinal materials there, and it’s a lot more convenient.”
Luo Dafu and Xu Sanqiu thought for a moment and agreed to Li Chouxin's suggestion, so the three of them split up and rushed to the second and second floors and Sanmiao Hall respectively.
When Quansheng saw that the more than ten people he sent out had not returned, he sent a few more people to search separately, and it didn't take long for the news to be sent back.
"Mr. Quan, the more than ten people sent out to hunt were all killed near Zhang Mansion. They were all killed by flying needles. Their bodies were covered with dense needle holes, and none of them survived." After the visitor reported the news, Quan Sheng He got so angry that he kicked over the table in front of him.
"I didn't expect that I, Quansheng, would suffer such a big loss in Eling City. Since it is near the Zhang Mansion, could it be related to the Zhang Mansion? It seems that this matter needs to be considered in the long term. It is definitely not a wise move to offend the Zhang Mansion rashly. "Quansheng said to himself.
"Come here, tell me to go down and lift the anchor immediately to avoid any trouble." Quan Sheng ordered angrily.
After a while, the Taihe sailed away from the Eling River ferry.
Li Chouxin also returned to Sanmiao Hall with the injured Luo Dafu. Although it was late at night, Li Chouxin had not returned, and the two sisters of the Ling family had not rested either. They had been waiting for Li Chouxin to return.
Seeing Li Chouxin returning home with the injured man, the two of them were startled. Ziwei hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Brother Chouxin, what happened? Who is this young master?"
Li Chouxin looked at the worried sisters Ziwei and Zhu Wei and said, "Don't worry. After going to the banquet tonight, I got to know General Luo, and then we went to investigate the ferry together, but General Luo was injured on the way. , but the troubles on the road have been solved, so don’t worry.”
But Zhu Wei, who usually looked away, pulled Li Chouxin aside and said, "Brother Chouxin, is this General Luo reliable?"
Li Chouxin patted Zhu Wei's head, turned around and said, "Don't worry, you two girls. This General Luo is named Luo Dafu. He is the guard of Xifeng Pass and the commander of Qingche. He came to Eling this time for Investigate the matter between Hu Jin and Yan Zefa, they are one of our own."
After listening to Li Chouxin's introduction, the two sisters felt relieved, so they stepped forward to meet Luo Dafu.
Li Chouxin said: "Now that we all know each other, the most important thing now is to heal brother Luo. I also asked Miss Ziwei to help boil the medicine according to the prescription, and Miss Zhuwei went to clean up a guest room and come out." After that, he wrote down a message. The prescription was handed over to Ziwei, who also went to clean up the room.
After a while, Zhu Wei came to tell her that the room had been tidied up. So she and Li Chouxin walked to the room with Luo Dafu.
At this time, Ling Shantu heard the noise and walked out of the room. Seeing that the person coming was Luo Dafu, he hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "General Luo, why are you here? Did something happen at the border?"
When Luo Dafu saw Lingshan Road, he said: "Ling Changshi, everything is fine at the border. Luo came to Eling this time to investigate the illegal activities of Hu Jin and Yan Zefa. This matter has been reported to the superiors of the Ming Dynasty. However, in order not to alert others, no official document has been issued yet. I think the Ling family must have been persecuted by Hu Jin and others to act this way. This cancer must be removed."
When Li Chouxin saw Ling Shantu and wanted to say more, he interrupted: "Uncle Ling, General Luo is injured now. We can talk about it later after I heal General Luo's injury."
At this time Ziwei also came over with the medicine, walked into the room with Li Chouxin and Luo Dafu, put down the medicine and came out.
"Father, Brother Chouxin said that General Luo needs to be healed now. Please go and rest first and discuss it tomorrow." After Ziwei and Lingshantu who were standing outside the door explained the situation, the two sisters and Lingshantu went their separate ways. Went back to the room.
In the room, Li Chouxin first asked Luo Dafu to drink the concoction, and then the two of them sat cross-legged. Li Chouxin began to exercise to heal Luo Dafu's injuries.
Almost half an hour later, Luo Dafu's internal injuries were basically unharmed, but Li Chouxin still told him: "Brother Luo, although his internal injuries are all clear now, it's best not to use his internal strength for the next three days."
After Li Chouxin arranged for Luo Dafu to sleep, he slowly walked out of the room and returned to his own house.
Li Chou thought to himself that he was fighting against the rock-splitting hand Ba Qing tonight, and his sword was actually blocked. It seems that he has to continue to practice the art of attracting the heart, master the control of objects as soon as possible, and master Feiliu Three Thousand Feet, otherwise he will encounter him in the future. It will not be so easy to deal with more powerful opponents.
So he took out the Heart-Inducing Technique and continued to practice. After practicing before, it was much easier to practice now. It didn't take long for him to feel that the power and intention to control external objects were much more majestic, but Li Chouxin was not in a hurry. Instead of experimenting, he continued to practice with concentration, hoping to completely master the second level of the Heart-Inducing Technique tonight.
This practice lasted all night.
