Chapter Eighteen: The Mysterious Gate of the Martial World

  Xiaoyan, Song Qing's new home, living room.

  It's already the second day now. Yesterday, Song Qing and Lan Cai'er joined forces to kill all the black-clad men in the small mountain village, and then they worked together to transport the bodies into the mountains and cremate them, destroying all evidence. As for the signs of fighting at the entrance of the mountain village, the villagers naturally cleaned it up, after all, this obvious sign of fighting is likely to bring unnecessary trouble.

  Then Song Qing and Lan Caihe returned to Song Qing's new residence on the small mountain, each sitting in meditation to heal their wounds and recover their internal energy.

  "It's simple in the mountains, there's nothing to entertain you with, please have some tea." Song Qing Shu pushed the brewed clear tea to Lan Cai Er's side and made a inviting gesture.

  "The young master is being polite." Blue Adopted Daughter smiled and bowed her head slightly, taking a sip of tea.

  "I don't know how to address you yet." Lan Cai'er smiled and said, "If it weren't for your help this time, I'm afraid Cai'er would have already lost her life."

  "There, I was just defending myself." Song Qing Shu waved his hand and said indifferently, "My surname is Song, first name Qing Shu. You can call me Qing Shu, Blue Girl."

  "Even so, Qing Shu doesn't have to call me Blue Girl anymore, just call me Cai Er instead." said Lan Cai Er.

  "This..." Song Qingyu hesitated for a moment.

  "What? A Miao family girl can't enter the eyes of a Song young master?" Lan Caihe said with feigned anger.

  "There's no need for that." Song Qing Shu waved his hand repeatedly, "If so, I would be being overly cautious if I were to push three and block four."

  "Alright, let's get down to business." Blue Adopted Daughter lightly patted the table and called out.

  "By the way, Xiaohua, who was it that chased you yesterday?" Song Qingchu asked with a puzzled expression after taking a sip of clear tea.

  "Hehe." Lan Caihe let out a soft laugh, "I thought you wouldn't ask, Qing Shu."

  "Hehe, I'm curious too." Song Qing Shu said nonchalantly, "Especially the mysterious thing that the black-clothed leader displayed at the end, it's really intriguing."

  "Alright, Qing Shu will tell you anyway, so you won't suffer losses in the future." Lan Cai'er nodded.

  She put down the tea cup in her hand, paused for a moment, and looked serious, obviously thinking about how to start.

  Song Qing Shu also put down his tea cup and saw the look on Lan Cai Er's face, Song Qing Shu thought to himself that he was probably going to find out a huge secret.

  "Before saying all this, can you tell me how many major forces there are in the southern border?" Blue Adopted Daughter didn't start telling the story from the beginning, but instead asked Song Qing Shu.

  Song Qing was taken aback for a moment, then reacted and said, "This is indeed not well understood. I only know that the Dali kingdom in southern Xinjiang has been destroyed, and it's unknown whether the Duan family still exists or not."

  After finishing speaking, Song Qing Book herself also sighed, thinking of the prosperous Dali Kingdom in those years, Duan Yu in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Southern Emperor Yideng in the Southern Song Dynasty. The family's Six Veins Divine Sword, One Yang Finger shook the Jianghu, and at its peak, even Shaolin couldn't conceal its splendor. Unfortunately, now that the Dali Kingdom has been destroyed, the Tianlong Temple also perished with it.

  "Does Qing Shu also know about the Duan family of Dali?" Lan Cai'er said in surprise. "Yes, the Duan family of Dali was indeed one of the major powers in the southern border back then. However, they were just a supporting role after all."

  As for Dali Duanyan, Lan Caihe was not impressed. It seemed that he couldn't gain his approval, which made Song Qingchu very curious.

  "In the south, there are four major forces." Lan Cai'er seemed to know Song Qing's doubts. "The Dali Duan family I just mentioned is one of them, as well as the Miao family I belong to, and the black-clad people from Guangxi Shi family yesterday, and the Zhong family."

  "Duan family, Miao family, Shi family, Zhong family." Song Qing Shu nodded and asked doubtfully, "Duan family, I do know, but Miao family, Shi family, Zhong family, it seems..."

  "It seems like you've never heard of it before." Lan Cai'er said nonchalantly as she saw Song Qing's hesitant expression.

  "Hehe, maybe I'm just ignorant." Song Qing Shu smiled awkwardly.

  "Heh heh, that's not the case with Qing Shu being ignorant," Lan Cai'er disagreed, "We know that our other few families are not to be mentioned, let alone you, the entire Central Plains martial arts world can be counted on one hand."

  Lan Cai'er's words made Song Qingchu even more puzzled. Logically speaking, a force that can be mentioned in the same breath as the Dali Sect should not be unknown to everyone in the Jianghu, or at least it shouldn't be a secret. But according to Lan Cai'er's words, it seemed that almost no one in the entire Central Plains martial arts world knew about this, which made Song Qingchu feel somewhat mysterious and profound.

  Lan Caihe seemed to have not seen the doubt on Song Qingchu's face, and instead asked, "Qingchu, do you know what the two words 'jianghu' represent?"

  Although I don't know why Lan Cai'er asked this, Song Qingchu still replied, "Isn't it just the world of martial artists?"

  "Of course not." Lan Caihe said resolutely. "The Jianghu is not just the world of martial artists, it's also the world of eccentric people."

  "What's 'Qimen'?" Song Qing thought for a moment, but he had no memory of it at all.

  "You didn't know, and it's not strange." Lan Cai'er wasn't surprised that Song Qing didn't know, but if he did find out, she would be the one to be shocked. "Ordinary people basically wouldn't know of his existence."

  "Huh, no." Song Qing suddenly paused, as if thinking of something, "Since the Dali Duanshi and you are both among the four major forces at the same time, it's likely that they also know."

  "Not bad." Lan Cai'er was taken aback at first, clearly not expecting Song Qing to discover the flaw so quickly. Then she smiled and said, "The Dali Sect indeed knows of the existence of Qimen, otherwise, with the strength of the Dali Sect, they wouldn't have allowed every generation of emperors to form alliances with my Miao family through marriage."

  "Intermarry with the Miao family?" Song Qing Book was initially puzzled, but then seemed to think of something and nodded, "It seems that Duan Yu's mother, Qiu Feng, was a Miao tribeswoman back in the days of the great revival of Dali."

  "Huh, Qing Shu, I didn't expect you to have such a deep understanding of the Dali Du family, even knowing things that happened hundreds of years ago like the back of your hand." Lan Cai'er clearly hadn't expected that Song Qing Shu would know about someone as obscure as Knife White Feng, and she looked him up and down in surprise, saying "If I didn't know you were Han, I'd have thought you were from my Southern Border!"

  "Hehe, I've just heard some rumors from others," Song Qing Shu said with a smile.

  "Oh, I see." Lan Caihe suddenly enlightened, "The respected ancestor Zhang Sanfeng, Zhang Zhenren, has lived for over a hundred years and is truly a existence like Mount Tai and the North Dipper in the Jianghu. He was also from Shaolin Temple back then and knew some secrets that others didn't know, which isn't surprising."

  Song Qing saw Lan Caihe attributing everything to Zhang Sanfeng and didn't argue, only smiled indifferently.