Chapter Seventy: The Chessboard Abandoned Son

  Her eyebrows relied on a few inches of her arms, with a satisfied expression. Like a small cat that has eaten and drunk enough to take a nap in the middle of the day.

  A warm atmosphere, like a couple who have been together for many years, enjoying a peaceful and quiet life, contented and grateful.

  The little kitten's mischievous behavior ruined the warm atmosphere.

  "That fierce-looking county magistrate"

  Xiao Fan smiled and corrected her: "That's Cao Ge, he's my friend."

  Xiao Hua Mei nodded thoughtfully and said, "There is a treacherous servant beside Big Brother Cao."

  Xiao Fan's expression changed, and he said: "That servant who fought with Master? What evil intentions does he have?" He seems to be someone sent by the King of Yan.

  Xiao Hua's eyebrows were staring at Xiao Fan, her tender little face was full of seriousness: "You have to be careful with him."

  Her very serious little face was quite cute, Xiao Fan couldn't help but laugh and nodded: "Okay, I'll be careful."

  Turning her head to look at Tai Xu, Tai Xu was drowsily humming a little tune, seemingly half asleep.

  "Master, what's going on between you and Cao Dage's house servant? Why did you start fighting as soon as you met?"

  Tai Yu opened his eyes, rolled them once and said: "Why can't we fight? It's normal for masters to cross swords when they meet."

  Xiao Fan said with a heavy heart: "You are my master! You should set a good example, otherwise I, as your disciple, will learn from you and not even recognize others before rolling up my sleeves to fight them. What kind of image is that?"

  Tai Xū angrily said: "Who says I don't recognize him? Even if that old guy turned to ashes, Master Dao can still piece together his appearance from the ashes!"

  Xiao Fan asked in surprise: "Do you know him? Who is he?"

  "He is now what kind of person I don't know, but I only know that he was a killer, famous throughout the rivers and lakes."

  Xiao Fan was shocked and exclaimed: "Assassin? Hitman?"

  Crackling and popping, dark clouds fill the sky, lightning flashes and thunder booms, those who hear it are as if their spirits are dampened, heaven and earth seem to be in a state of prolonged sorrow.

  "Hitman? Yeah, that old guy makes a living by killing people, of course he's a hitman."

  "What was his name before? Was he very famous?"

  "He has no name and no surname, but people in Jianghu all call him 'Sunset'"

  Xiao Fan suddenly became solemn and respectful.

  "Sunset Killer, what a bleak and beautiful name, with a hint of cruel and bloody poetry, it sounds heartbreaking."

  "What a cool name!" Xiao Fang's eyes lit up, and his whole body was covered in goosebumps, as if he was excited about something.

  Tai Yu glanced at him with disdain and said slowly: "Actually, he has changed his name several times in this life, and only changed to Xiyang ten years ago."

  Xiao Fan asked in confusion: "Change name? Why?"

  Cough, he debuted online when he was a 17 or 18-year-old young man, at that time his name was "Chaoyang". At the age of thirty, he had already made a big name for himself and changed his name to "Jiaoyang".

  Xiao Dan was stunned, "A beautiful name like this actually changes with age?"

  He was forty years old, and his reputation in Jianghu had already reached its peak. His skill and experience in killing people had also reached the pinnacle of his life, so he changed his name to "Lieyang". By the time he was sixty years old, his body and kung fu skills began to decline, so he changed his name again to "Xiyang".

  Xiao Fan's excited expression was instantly doused with a bucket of ice water. He immediately calmed down.

  Reality is a whoremonger, it will crudely strip off the beautiful poetic meaning, then press down and trample it to one's heart's content, making the poetic meaning turn into a pile of pale and greasy flesh, looking oily and disgusting, with no relation to beauty left.

  He raised his hand to stop him. Xiao Fan's face lit up with understanding: "Master, I get it. If he lives a few more years, he'll definitely have to change his name again. Hmm, Moonlight Killer."

  "Right!"

  Under the deep night sky, in a dense forest outside the north city of Jiangpu.

  Cao Yi's old home servant wore a night-traveling attire, with his whiskers and hair fluttering in the wind, his expression cold, hard and icy.

  Five steps away from him, a black-clad figure in night attire stood facing him, with an even chillier expression than the old family servant.

  The old servant Leng said in a cold voice, "I have already sent a secret letter to the prince. Zhu Yunfan has been traveling frequently between the capital and Jiangpu recently. He made a new friend in Jiangpu named Xiao Fan, who is also very close to Cao Yi."

  The man in black nodded and said, "Your secret letter has been received by His Highness. He wants me to ask you, how many guards usually accompany Zhu Yunfen when he frequently leaves the capital for Jiangpu?"

  The old servant thought for a moment and said: "Usually no more than twenty people, but they are all high-ranking officials in the Imperial Guard."

  "The man in black said coldly: 'Very well, Your Highness has given an order.'"

  The old servant bowed and said, "Please speak." "His Highness's order: I will give you thirty dead men from the Yan Wang Fu, led by you, to ambush and kill Zhu Yunfen at Jiang Pu."

  The old house servant hesitated, without saying a word.

  The man in black said coldly: "What questions do you have?"

  The old servant of the house did not understand and asked: "Why kill Zhu Yun's tomb?"

  "The man in black said coldly: 'Does Your Highness need to explain his actions to you?'"

  The old house was silent and unspoken.

  "The black-clad man said, 'Alright, I'll dispel your doubts. You should focus on serving the prince. Zhu Yunfen is the crown prince, the one who will inherit the throne. If he dies, all the other princes are mediocre, and the emperor can only appoint another crown prince from among his sons. Among the princes, the eldest son, Yiwen Taizi, died early, and the second son, Qin Wang, also died last March. The third son, Jin Wang, is clever and wise, but his personality is flighty and not suitable for important tasks. In that case, Prince Yan is the most suitable candidate for the crown prince position. He has fought in many battles against the remnants of the Yuan dynasty, guarded the borders for many years, and achieved great military successes, earning the emperor's favor. If Zhu Yunfen dies, who else but Prince Yan can take the throne?'"

  "Normally, Zhu Yun is often in the Eastern Palace and rarely leaves the capital. Within the capital, the guards are dense and strict, making it difficult to assassinate him. Recently, he has been approaching the riverbank, with only a dozen or so attendants by his side. It can be said that this is a heaven-sent opportunity, how could we not kill him?"

  The old servant said, "Jiangpu is now under Cao Yi's control. Everyone knows that Cao Yi was once a hundred-household leader by the prince's side. If Zhu Ji dies in Jiangpu, wouldn't people suspect the prince?" The man in black sneered, "The current emperor is naturally suspicious and distrustful. The more obvious the flaw, the less he believes it. What's more, Prince Yan is far away in Beiping, governing his fiefdom. If Zhu Yunfen dies in Jiangpu, the emperor will only think that someone intentionally used Zhu Yunfen's death to frame Prince Yan. This would be framing him, which means Prince Yan is innocent. The Art of War says 'when false, then true; when true, then false'. Prince Yan has led troops for many years, how could he not know the way of false and true?"

  The old servant's eyes flashed with a hint of unbearable color, and he stammered: "Isn't that Cao Yi..."

  The King of Yan was cleared of suspicion, but Cao Yi would inevitably be executed by the enraged Emperor. The Emperor delighted in killing and enjoyed implicating others, if Zhu Yunfen died under Cao Yi's rule, how could Cao Yi escape punishment?

  The man in black said sternly, "Those who want to achieve great things can even kill their closest relatives! Let alone a mere hundred household leaders? The world is like a chessboard, and all people are pawns in the hands of Yan Wang. Who to abandon and who to protect, Your Highness has his own judgment. When did you become so soft-hearted?

  The old servant gritted his teeth and said in a respectful tone: "I shall obey Your Excellency's orders."

  "The brave warriors of the Yan Wang Fu have been dispatched. They are now hiding in Zhenjiang Fu and will rush to Jiangpu today. You must do your best to complete this task, if Zhu Yunfen dies, the prince will surely become the crown prince, the emperor is old and frail, his death is imminent, when the prince ascends to the throne, you will be the first to receive credit."

  "Yes!"

  In recent days, Xiao Fan felt that his body had undergone some subtle changes, and these changes made him very happy.

  When he sat in meditation, he finally felt a thread of Qi flowing from his Dan Tian, the legendary Qi, a very strange feeling. When he started to circulate his internal energy, that weak thread of Qi slowly flowed through the various meridians and acupoints of his body. After one cycle, it became slightly stronger, and after another cycle, it became even stronger. The feeling was like a miserly ghost who had made a fortune from scratch, secretly accumulating money, and the more he accumulated, the happier he became.

  It's really exciting, the future great hero will emerge from nowhere, with time, Jiang Hu will stir up a bloody storm, and all the villains will retreat and surrender, who dares to laugh at Dongfang Bubai being not a man?

  It seemed as if he had an endless supply of energy, and he felt that his originally weak and frail body was becoming stronger and more powerful by the day, just like he had been injected with chicken blood and taken two Viagra pills at the same time. Every day, both Big Xiao Fan and Little Xiao Fan were full of vigor and vitality.

  The body is the capital of revolution, whether or not you can be a king or noble later on doesn't matter, having a good body is the greatest wealth.

  Xiao Fan increasingly felt that Tai Yu was somewhat unfathomable, saying he was a peerless great man, but he seemed like an old swindler who would take advantage of every opportunity to cheat and deceive, without the slightest bit of dignity of a great man. Saying he wasn't a great man, however, his internal skills did have some use, at least Xiao Fan had personally experienced the legendary internal skills.

  Too mysterious, too unpredictable. The enigmatic and cunning Taoist, swindler, strict teacher, master, and detrimental friend - his identity changed with the times, leaving Xiao Fan with mixed feelings of love and hate towards him. The intensity of his inner conflict and the complexity of his emotional entanglements were comparable to those of Qiong Yao's Emperor Qianlong and Xia Yuhe by the shores of Daming Lake.

  "Master, I've got it!" Xiao Fan exclaimed excitedly to Tai Xu.

  "Nonsense! You'd have been dead and buried long ago!"

  "No, Master, I feel the Qi..."

  Tai Yu suddenly looked puzzled and asked: "Is this for real? Or is it just my stomach growling?" "Master, you have to trust your disciple's intuition and character a little bit."

  "Tell me, what kind of breath did you feel?"

  "It's just a very weak gas, when the Qi is activated from the Dan Tian, it slowly flows into various acupoints and meridians throughout the body, after circling around, it returns to the Dan Tian."

  Tai thought for a moment, then exclaimed with a surprised look: "Not bad, not bad, it's it! No mistake!"

  Tai Xū grasped Xiao Fan's hand, his fingers resting on his wrist. After a moment, Tai Xū nodded in affirmation: "Not bad, although the internal energy is very weak, it has been cultivated after all. I should really thank Old Ji."

  "Master, my inner strength is something I've cultivated myself, what does it have to do with Heaven? If you want to thank someone, you should be thanking me..."

  Tai Xū snorted: "It took you ten days to cultivate just a tiny bit of Qi, and you still have the nerve to say that! If I had accepted you as my disciple forty years ago, either you would be dead or I would be!"

  "What does it mean?"

  "Either I'll slap you to death with one palm, or you'll infuriate me to death, there are only these two paths!"

  "Master, can you now pass on to me the Xian Yu Yi Zhi?" Xiao Fan's face was full of expectation.

  "Immortal's whim finger! If you dare to randomly take names again, I will abolish your martial arts and expel you from the sect!" Tai Xu had another urge to violently attack.

  Xiao Fan stretched out his hand and smiled: "Alright, never mind what finger it is, bring it over."

  "What's with that?"

  "Secret manual, isn't learning martial arts all about having a secret manual? Give me the secret manual,"

  "Hmph! There is no secret recipe!"

  Xiao Fan's face was full of disbelief, and he reached out to pat Tai Xu's body all over, saying: "Master, don't lie to me, I know you must have a secret recipe, where is it hidden? Hand it over!"

  Tai Yu was touched by Xiao Fan, making his whole body itchy. He jumped up and down in anger, saying: "Are you going to sell me out again? You scoundrel! No, absolutely not!"

  "Master doesn't allow keeping secrets!" I knew since my previous life that the secret manual has many varieties, there are those for men to practice, women to practice, men and women practicing together, and even those for people who are neither male nor female. Just hand me a copy casually." Ah, is there a Peony Treasure Manual? Get one for me, I'll use it as a gift for my enemies later."

  "No! Even if you kill me, Poor Dao, there won't be!"

  The following is not included in the word count: "small"

  Today two more, all heart. Remaining words

  What's up with that?

  You understand without explaining.