Chapter 8: The Maiden Bi Huang

  Su Feng and Liang Ze were about the same age, one was a young master with an extraordinary sword technique, while the other was a teenage thief who had never failed in his heists. When they met, they both felt as if they had found a long-lost friend. They followed the example of the ancients, burning the midnight oil and talking through the night, only finally falling asleep just before dawn.

  It was already the second day when the two of them woke up. The sun was high in the sky, and it was no longer early. The heavy rain from last night had stopped at some point. As they walked to the pavilion with the wind, they saw a vast expanse of clear blue sky stretching out before them, with excellent weather. It didn't look like there had been a fierce storm the previous night at all; only the short bamboos by the side of the road still had some remaining water droplets on them.

  "Feng brother, I don't know what you plan to do next?" Before he knew it, Liang Zei had already arrived beside Su Feng and was also admiring the scenery.

  "I'm going to make a trip to Pangu Mountain to pay respects to my parents. Then I'll head north all the way to the territory of Mount Tai." Xiangfeng didn't hide anything, and these weren't secrets anyway, so he said it all without reserve.

  "Right, the Liu family has been in Yangzhou for many years and their foundation is extremely deep. It's not easy to steal the list of core disciples. Why don't you wait until you're older? " Su Feng paused and advised, he got along well with Liang Tou'er, although he knew that Liang wouldn't give up on this plan because of his advice. But he still couldn't bear to see Liang Tou'er take such a great risk.

  For Su Feng's advice, Liang Ze only smiled and said that the task assigned by his master must be completed. Moreover, since he had already come here, how could there be any reason to retreat? However, he also understood that Su Feng was worried about him.

  Let's not mention this for now. Changing the subject, he said: "What a coincidence! I'm also going to Shandong Province soon. Why don't we travel together? Looking at your inexperienced appearance, it's likely to be difficult for you to get to Shandong alone. Since we both have our own things to do today, why not split up during the day and meet back here tonight? What do you think?"

  Suī fēng xīn li yī zhàn, yǐn yuè jué dé yǒu xiē bù tuǒ, kě shì yòu shuō bù chū lái yuányīn. Kàn Liáng tōu ér xīn xīn kuǎi kuǎi de mú yàng, bù sì zuò jiǎ. Suī fēng suī rán xīn shēng yí zhào, zuì zhōng hái shì méi yǒu jù jué. Kàn kàn wài miàn, bǎi niǎo zhēng míng, huā kāi yàn yàn, jǐng xiàng huān yú ér jí fù shēng jī, hǎo xìng méi yǒu wéi jī. "Nán dào shì guà xiàng chū le cuò wù? bìng méi yǒu wú wàng zhī zāi?" Suī fēng nán yǐ lǐ jiě, àn zì qí guài.

  Liáng Tuōér didn't notice the expression on the wind, so he didn't think it was strange. He gently patted him and said: "So, let's part ways like this, don't forget to come back tonight... I might be a bit late..." The front of Liáng Tuōér's words were very ordinary, but the last sentence suddenly dragged on halfway through, as if it had broken through space and reached the front.

  As the wind turned his head, Liang Stealer had already disappeared without a trace. And the wind didn't even notice a single thread of it. "This lightness... must be the ultimate skill." Liang Stealer seemed to have wind under his feet, completely unaware of what method he used to quickly traverse the distance. He jumped up as if his feet were not subject to gravity, and in mid-air, he could turn freely. His footsteps were mysterious, making it difficult to grasp the subtlety.

  "I don't know who his master is, but this strange and mysterious footwork, why haven't I heard of it before?" Following the wind, he felt even more puzzled, that master was probably a legendary figure in Jianghu, absolutely not an ordinary person. He also remembered Liang Stealing Son's shocked expression when he unintentionally released sword energy, and vaguely felt that Chang Ming's sword technique was not simple at all, fearing it really had the power to seize the fate of heaven and earth.

  "I currently have no inner strength, if it weren't for the sword technique being extraordinary, I would have no defense at all. It's good to travel with him too, hopefully we can find Elder Hua soon." Xun Feng sighed quietly, looked at the mountain road of Luoyun Mountain, identified the direction of Pangu Mountain, and headed down the mountain.

  All the way, he was thinking about the sword energy he had just released. He thought for a long time, but still couldn't get a definite answer. At that moment, his heart tightened, and all the vital energy in his body converged, and the sword energy seemed to have been summoned, suddenly bursting out. "Could it be those spiritual energies that were scattered inside my body?" He thought of the spiritual energies that had dispersed inside his body when he was practicing swordplay, and wondered if they had gathered together to form the sword energy?

  He also broke a few branches to replace the pure sword and tried the sword energy, but there was no reaction. The sword is spiritual, but the sword energy is the internal breath condensing and releasing through the sword body, and it has nothing to do with the sword itself. However, although he did not try out the origin of the sword energy, he also had a few times when the sword energy was about to be emitted, but in the end, it still dissipated into nothingness.

  "There should be a corresponding technique to control the inner breath and sword energy. Unfortunately, I don't know where it is now, if I can gather them all, even if I couldn't learn the Reversal of Heaven's Technique, it would be fine." Finally, he helplessly came to this conclusion.

  Luoyun Mountain and Pangu Mountain are not far apart, with lush trees along the way, only a few official roads passing through. It's rare to have a few households, Yangzhou has spring breeze for ten miles, but it's far away from the hustle and bustle of smoke and dust, and the countryside is still sparse. Most farmers live in villages gathered together, forming a market town, some are quite large in scale. However, most market towns are relatively far apart, and along the way, only a few scattered ones can be seen.

  Sui Feng was too young and his body was weak, so it took him two hours to arrive at the foot of Pangu Mountain. He thought that once he arrived at the foot of the mountain, he would be able to find his parents' graves quickly, but things didn't turn out that way.

  Changming only said that at the foot of Pangu Mountain, there is a secret path leading to it. But when he arrived, he realized that although Pangu Mountain is not particularly high, it still has several hundred zhang. Unlike many famous mountains that are steep and towering, Pangu Mountain is covered in dense forests all over. The foot of the mountain is almost completely covered by wild grass as tall as a person, so even if there was a secluded path, let alone an official road, it's not certain that one could find it. Changming himself probably hadn't been here before, otherwise he wouldn't have spoken so vaguely.

  "What's good about this?" Faced with such a situation, Jian Feng was simply at his wit's end.

  He looked up at the sky, it's already late now, about an hour later it will be dark. The sun has set westward, but with the wind, even the direction is unknown. If he hesitates like this, it will be difficult to return to Luoyun Mountain tonight.

  "Never mind, I'll take a look around first. If I still can't find it, I'll go back and ask Brother Liang for help." he muttered to himself.

  After finishing, Suifeng determined a direction and walked straight away. The entire Pangu Mountain occupies an extremely vast area, it's absolutely impossible to search the whole place in such a short amount of time. Suifeng could only try his luck, walking as much as he could.

  Like this, Su Feng searched in the wilderness for another half an hour, but the small path mentioned by Chang Ming was still nowhere to be found. "Where is it after all?" Su Feng wiped the sweat from his head, feeling a bit helpless, his legs were sore to the extreme, and every step he took was very painful. "I'll just go back." Su Feng muttered to himself.

  Just a few steps away, he suddenly stopped. On the other side of the grass, there seemed to be someone's voice. "Huh, how can there still be people in this wilderness? Even woodcutters have left early." Su Feng thought for a moment, feeling very curious, and wanted to go take a look, but then thought that Chang Ming had long warned him that curiosity kills the cat. When one is not strong enough, it's best to avoid being too curious, lest they discover secrets they shouldn't know.

  Thinking of this, Sui Feng suddenly wanted to leave. "Don't come over! Is there no king's law in broad daylight?" A sudden loud voice, much louder than the previous conversation, was clearly heard by Sui Feng. The voice sounded like a girl of similar age to him, and it seemed somewhat panicked and anxious.

  As the wind thought of it very naturally, it was a girl who encountered an evil man who wanted to take advantage of her. "What to do? Should I intervene in this matter?" The wind was very entangled in his heart, on the one hand, he deeply knew that he had just entered the world and didn't know anything, and could be said to have no combat power at all. But if he were to watch a girl being harmed right before his eyes, he couldn't bear it.

  "Let's go take a look at the situation first. If it's not favorable, even if I go up, it'll be sending myself to death, and you can't blame me for not rescuing him." Following the wind finally compromised with his curiosity and kindness, deciding to sneak a peek at the situation.

  Carefully parting the wild grass, I moved forward step by step. After walking about a few steps, roughly one zhang's distance, suddenly there was a bright light in front of me. The clump of grass had reached its end, and before me lay an empty space. In the center of this empty space stood a bluestone tombstone, beside which were four people. There was a slender young girl wearing a pale green dress, her body turned sideways so that I couldn't see her face clearly. Her back figure was extremely elegant and moving, with a strand of hair by her ear, gentle and moving.

  In front of the girl were three men in black, their faces twisted with malice, clearly not good people. The girl was extremely frightened and kept backing away until she had nowhere to retreat and leaned against a tombstone. "Don't come any closer, I'm not the person you're looking for." A streak of sunset appeared on the horizon, and nightfall was imminent. The girl was already in a state of panic, unsure what to do next, her voice filled with pleading and weakness.

  She faced a man with a pointed mouth and a sly smile, who took another step forward. He sneered: "Miss Zhao, you can't deceive me, do you think that by changing your name to Bihe we wouldn't be able to find you? This is not someone else's fault, but rather because your father was so blind as to offend the Prime Minister. This is an order from the Prime Minister himself, and it took three of us to deal with you, aren't you satisfied? Zhao Fengzhang's eyesight isn't great, but his daughter is a beauty, it's a pity to kill her like this. We've been searching for you for three months, we should get some benefits out of it, right?" After finishing speaking, he leered again, his eyes full of lust.

  It turned out that the girl's father had offended Li Linfu, and everyone knew that although Li Linfu was a prime minister, he was a treacherous and cruel man. Unexpectedly, Li Linfu was so ruthless that he would kill someone just because of a single mistake, not even sparing the family's daughter. "Li Linfu actually sent three people to kill one woman, I'm afraid these three men are not skilled in martial arts either." Su Feng said quietly.

  "What... what do you want to do?" The girl known as Bi Han's body was already completely leaning against the tombstone, her legs trembling and unable to stand steadily.

  "Haha, what's up. You're so beautiful, we've been searching for you with great difficulty, of course, we have to be happy and laugh." The other two men approached with a lustful smile on their faces.

  "Don't come any closer! Otherwise, I'll die right here." At some point, Bi Huan had a dagger in her hand, pressed against her own neck. She had originally used the dagger for self-defense, but now facing three men, she knew there was no hope of escape, and it was unlikely anyone would come to rescue her in this desolate wilderness. Rather than being humiliated, it was better to end things herself.

  "Ah, this little girl is quite fierce. Haha." The pointed-mouthed man seemed to have expected it and didn't care at all. He took a big step forward. "Ah! Don't come any closer!" Bi Han hadn't expected it at all, wanting to commit suicide but couldn't bring herself to do it. But the pointed-mouthed man was only one step away from her, almost within arm's reach.

  Taking advantage of Bi Han's panic, the sharp-mouthed man calmly took another step forward and stretched out his hand knife to slash at Bi Han's neck. A shrill cry was heard, and Bi Han had already fallen to the ground.

  "Heh heh, this desolate place is perfect for our little affair." The sharp-nosed man leaned down and reached out to grope at Bi Han's chest.

  "Halt!" A loud shout cut through the air, and he could no longer stand idly by. With a burst of energy, he leapt out from his position. A clear, ringing sword hum filled the air as Jianjun Sword flashed out of its scabbard.

  Originally, the distance from the tombstone was one zhang away, and with another child's strength, it was absolutely impossible to jump that far. But for some reason, he only felt that the situation was urgent and didn't think about so many things, unknowingly triggering the sword technique, and suddenly jumped out. The long sword slashed down, swinging a golden thread towards the pointed-mouthed man.

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