Chapter Twenty-Five: Fleeing into the Mountains

  Xiao Ziyang ran wildly for a moment and arrived at the outskirts of the county town.

  At this time the city gate was closed, he didn't mind, ran around the city for a while, came to a secluded place, where the city wall had been neglected for years, and there were many gaps between the bricks, he climbed up.

  A cold wind howled on the city wall, and the soldiers on duty were all hiding from the wind in the tower. Xiao Ziyang crouched down, crossed over the top of the wall, and climbed down.

  He entered the city and walked through the streets, before long, he arrived at the east of the city.

  Lei Kung-tau and his family had just finished dinner and were about to rest when they suddenly heard a knock at the door. Lei Kung-tau felt slightly surprised, as it was already approaching midnight - who could be visiting at this hour?

  Lei Keng Hu opened the door and took a look, but it was his adopted son who came to visit. He saw Xiao Zi Yang's face slightly panicked and asked, "Zi Yang, what happened?"

  Xiao Ziyang said: "Uncle, let's go inside and talk!"

  Lei Ke Hu let Xiao Zi Yang enter the courtyard, closed and locked the big gate, and the two came to the living room.

  "What's going on with Zi Yang?"

  "Uncle, I just returned home for a moment. Originally, I planned to go to my parents' graves tomorrow to burn some paper money, but unexpectedly, I was ambushed at home!"

  "What! Zi Yang, are you okay?!"

  "It's nothing, that person's martial arts skills are not weak, but they're not a match for me, I heavily injured them... Master, do you know what I discovered on that person?"

  "What did you find?"

  "First-class seventh-rank imperial guard waist plate!"

  "What...!" Lei Genghu heard this and suddenly stood up.

  At this time, the door curtain was lifted and a woman walked in. The woman was about thirty years old, with a beautiful face and a plump figure.

  She was indeed Mrs. Lei Kenghu, Xiao Ziyang hastily stood up and saluted: "Nice to meet you, Mother."

  "Madam Lei gazed at Xiao Ziyang, her eyes filled with severity. 'Since you've already discovered that your enemy is someone from the government, why didn't you just leave and flee far away? Why come to my house instead? Are you not satisfied with implicating us yet?'"

  Lei Keng Hu shouted: "Xiao He!......"

  Xiao Ziyang hastily spoke up, "Mother, I've come for three reasons: first, to bid farewell to the two elders; second, I'm afraid that rival of mine might not be able to find me and cause trouble for the two elders; third, I have some things to hand over to Father."

  After finishing speaking, Xiao Ziyang took out a small cloth package from his bosom. He opened the package and inside were several sheets of paper and a small cloth bag.

  Xiao Ziyang picked up the few pages of paper and said to Lei Genghu: "Father, this time I was chasing that man-eating evil spirit in Taifu Mountain, although it was reckless, but the gain was quite rich. I followed the trail left by the pink skull when it fled, all the way to Qinglong Village. At that time, the village was full of skulls, like a ghostly lair. When I searched the village, I actually found hundreds of purple gold coins and these few pages of paper under the bed of the drought dragon king."

  Xiao Ziyang unfolded the papers, two of which were blank route guides with no dates. The other two were filled with names of medicines.

  Xiao Ziyang was practicing the "Purple Jade Smoke" when he discovered that the medicinal recipe used to assist in the practice had a remarkable effect on some of the internal injuries he had sustained from practicing external martial arts. He copied down the recipe, intending to give it to his adoptive father.

  At this time, he took out the prescription in the name of Qinglong Village Master Han Kui.

  He handed the prescription and the map to Lei Kenghu, saying: "These two maps are probably the back roads prepared by Han Kui for himself. These two prescriptions, I once took them to Fuiruidang, asked the doctor to take a look, they are good prescriptions for treating the hidden injuries left over from practicing external family kung fu."

  After finishing speaking, Xiao Ziyang opened the small cloth bag again, and suddenly revealed dozens of golden coins with purple light shining through them, which were exquisitely cast as Purple Gold Coins.

  Upon seeing these purple gold coins, Mrs. Lei's face, which had been as cold as frost, suddenly lost its stern expression, and her eyes lit up.

  Lei Gong Hu frowned and said: "You gave these things to us, what about yourself?"

  Xiao Ziyang said, "I found three route guides at the Dry Dragon King's place. I kept one for myself, and there were 100 Purple Gold Tokens, I also kept half of them. As for this prescription, I naturally made a copy."

  "Foster father, foster mother, Ziyang is taking his leave now. Please take care of yourselves, elderly ones. Don't be reluctant to part with the family business. With these 50,000 taels of silver, no matter where you go, you won't have to worry about a lifetime of food and clothing."

  After finishing speaking, Xiao Ziyang turned around and walked out of the hall. Lei Genghu opened his mouth to shout, but was pulled back by Mrs. Lei. After a slight hesitation, Xiao Ziyang had already jumped over the wall and left.

  Lei Ke Hu and his family packed up their belongings overnight, and the next morning they left Dangyang under the pretext of visiting relatives.

  Everyone knows that Lei Kenghu has a wide range of connections, and the bandits in Taifu Mountain generally give him some face, but no one knows that Lei Dabiao and Taifu Mountain's green forest leader Ben Lei Shou and Lei Zhengming are sworn brothers.

  Lei Ke Hu and his family of three disappeared quietly into the Taifu Mountains under the arrangement of Feima Inn's shopkeeper, without drawing anyone's attention.

  Xiao Ziyang naturally knew the relationship between his adoptive father and Jinzhai master, he knew that his adoptive father would definitely go to the southern mountain to join Lei Zhengming. So he chose to escape northward.

  Xiao Ziyang traveled north overnight and bought two fast horses at a market town the next morning.

  He did not hide or conceal his actions all the way. If Wu Tianyou was threatened by him, making Zhao Zhi Bai think he had already died, that would be best. If Wu Tianyou was not threatened, then when Zhao Zhi Bai investigated, he also hoped to attract more of their attention, so as to avoid his adoptive father's family suffering an unjust disaster.

  Xiao Ziyang traveled north for seven days, finally entering Lushan County. Lushan County is the northernmost county in Shanwei Prefecture and also the poorest place in Shanwei Prefecture. The terrain in the county is uneven, with vast lands and sparse population, often with no households in sight for tens of miles, extremely desolate.

  Xiao Ziyang walked all the way, very calm, it seems that Wu Tianyou was really obedient.

  He spent a day in the county town of Lushan, selling two horses that had lost their value at a low price, buying a hunting bow, several quivers of arrows, a hunting spear, a curved knife, a hanging pot, several animal hides, and more than thirty kinds of medicinal materials needed to practice "Zi Yu Sheng Yan".

  The next day, he carried a large backpack and followed several mountain hunters into the mountains.

  Xiao Ziyang followed a few hunters, spent several days in the mountains getting familiar with the terrain and finding an excuse, bid farewell to the hunters, alone by himself, heading deep into the mountains.

  He walked towards the north, deep into Mount Taifu for five whole days, hundreds of miles into the mountains.

  Tai Fu Mountain is high and densely forested, with a very complex terrain. In such a vast mountain range, finding one person is like looking for a needle in the ocean. Even if 100,000 troops were to march in, it would be of no use.

  Feeling that he had already gone deep enough, and fearing that he would get lost if he continued on, Xiao Ziyang stopped in his tracks and began to search for a place to settle down nearby.

  Not long after, he discovered a very deep cave on the halfway up a mountain of stone.

  Actually, to be precise, this is not a cave, but rather a crack in the rock mountain that extends from the middle of the mountain all the way to the top.

  Xiao Ziyang entered the cave and found it very clean, feeling relieved.