Chapter Thirteen: Philion

  After shouting, she waved a bundle of paper in her hand and shouted: "So many silver tickets!"

  The three of us sat on the bed and counted them up. Wow, there were quite a few, a full eight million four hundred thousand taels.

  "Hubby, you've brought back the whole bank!"

  I couldn't be happy, the country is short of money for military equipment, but he's getting fatter and oilier by the day. Isn't he just a eunuch? Isn't he just a small man who has fooled Empress Dowager Cixi with his tongue? Can this corrupt government resist foreign enemies? The Manchu dynasty will not perish, China cannot become strong! But how to take this step, it's really too difficult for me!

  After breaking through the bottleneck, we started practicing again. The surging true energy in the three of us was like the turbulent Qiantang River tide, rushing and rolling, constantly expanding our meridians.

  With a foundation in qigong, we took a short nap and then began learning the Xuan Yuan sword technique from the secret manual.

  Yan'er had a foundation, she understood it at a glance, and taught us while leading the way. In less than two hours, we were able to basically master the sword route.

  People are weird, everything is just right when it's addictive. The three of us weren't tired at all, so we took out our swords and started fighting. At first, it was me and Fei against Yan, but then Yan said something annoying, and she and Fei teamed up against me. This battle was intense, from midnight to dawn, the three of us still felt like it wasn't enough, so we trampled through the snow and came to a small garden to fight again. The two female generals were not as strong as me, but their attacking methods were clever and cunning, making me busy defending myself. I couldn't gain an advantage over them, but my sword moves were fierce and ruthless, so they didn't dare to attack me recklessly. After hundreds of rounds, we still hadn't determined a winner.

  Suddenly a round of applause erupted around us, we quickly put away our swords and saw that Sheng Bao and ten other warriors were standing beside us applauding.

  I looked down and remembered that the ground was covered with snow just now, but now there is not even a single snowflake: Ah, I got too into it, how could I not even notice when someone came to help sweep the snow? I hurriedly said, "Too into it, didn't even know you were sweeping the snow, if some bad people came, wouldn't we be in big trouble?"

  Sheng Bao's eyes widened, and after a long while, he said: "Master Wan is really good at telling jokes! We just heard the sound of killing in the courtyard and came over to see what was happening. We saw a big snowball rolling around, and after a long time, the snow suddenly flew away. Only then did we see a sword shadow spinning and leaping about. It wasn't until later that we saw it was Master Wan and the two masters practicing their swords. This time we've opened our eyes and finally understand what swordsmanship is!"

  I was shocked when I heard that, can our novice swordsmanship be called swordsmanship? It seems that the Xuan Yuan Sword is really amazing, we should learn it well!

  A few people chatted about swordsmanship for a while, then went to practice martial arts. Just as we were about to enter the house, Xiaofuzi came running over with great excitement: "Master Wan, something big has happened! A great hero has appeared in Kyoto, called Eagle King, who rescued the second daughter of the Chang family and even raided the Li family, killing six of their top experts. If Li Lianying hadn't been summoned by the old lady to be lectured, she would have lost her life too! Now the Shuntian government is searching everywhere for the killer!"

  I exclaimed in surprise: "It's so severe? We must also strengthen our prevention!"

  Xiao Fu said: "I think it's not necessary, he's rushing to that scoundrel, we don't harm people, can they find us? Just now the old lady has already passed on the message, asking to strengthen vigilance, they are afraid of them, we don't need to be afraid, those people in the rivers and lakes also distinguish who is good and who is bad!"

  Ate some food and went to Empress Dowager Cixi's place to pay respects.

  Cixi's face changed color as she said: "It must be the remnants of the bandits causing trouble!"

  I shook my head and looked at Li Lianying, who was pale in the face, saying: "Li General Manager, I heard that your people tied up the concubine prepared for me, are you also thinking of tying me up?"

  Li Lianying hastily knelt on the ground and said: "I would rather die than dare! This is purely a frame-up by the bandits, yesterday the old lady scolded me for the trouble I caused until late at night, I didn't know what happened in the house, I only found out when I returned home in the middle of the night that someone was dead and things were missing!"

  I said faintly: "It's better if there isn't, but rumors are scary, and outside they're all saying that you've been carrying my people around on your back. This probably won't be an empty rumor, right? I'm putting the words out today, I may be weak, but after all, I am a man, and I definitely won't be unable to protect even the person I love! Whoever dares to move against my people, I'll dare to destroy their entire clan! Just wait and see!"

  Cixi smiled: "Imperial son, don't scare him anymore. I had him come over last night and scolded him a bit. These little brats, if you don't beat them every three days, they'll be flying high, and Imperial Mother is still relying on him to massage her legs!"

  Returning to the palace, Yan'er, Fei'er and Long'an were discussing buying a house. Seeing me return, Long'an knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, everything is ready on that side, please go take a look!"

  My interest was piqued, and I followed Long An out of the imperial palace through the Houzaimen Gate with ten warriors, Yan Er and Fei Er. We took a horse-drawn carriage to a forest near the Great Bell Temple.

  This is a large poplar forest, and now although the trees are bare without leaves, the houses inside can't be seen clearly. The carriage ran for a while before seeing a deep courtyard with high walls made of green bricks on the outside, but no houses could be seen inside, only the exposed eaves.

  The horse carriage stopped in front of a small gatehouse at the entrance of the large courtyard, where two military men with waist knives blocked the way. Seeing Long An get off the carriage, they saluted and said: "The troops are currently training, does the general have any instructions?"

  Long An said: "Let a few drivers rest here for a while, give them some good tea, and heat up the stove!"

  After finishing speaking, we got off the car and walked along the snow-covered bluestone path towards the depths of the forest.

  After passing through a forest, the front suddenly opened up, and I saw those three hundred strong men engaging in Mongolian-style wrestling one by one.

  I watched for a while and suddenly became very interested. I turned back to Fei'er and said, "Officer Huang, how about finding a few people to practice with?"

  Fei'er smiled and said, "The emperor has given an order, how dare Huang Fei disobey?" After finishing speaking, she pulled up the hem of her long gown and tucked it into her waistband. With a big stride, she came to the center of the arena, clasped her fists together and said, "General Long, I'm about to make a fool of myself, would you please arrange for ten people to come down first?"

  Long An was startled and looked at me, I didn't dare to express my opinion. I smiled and said: "You can choose ten people, don't worry about offending Captain Huang, just take good care of your soldiers!"

  I fear they can't let go, so I say: "Our Chinese nation is now facing internal and external troubles at the same time, the situation is grim! Now it has reached the most critical moment, if we don't work hard to govern, we will become slaves of foreigners! This time, I want to train an iron army that can't be defeated, dragged down, smashed, or defeated, drive out all those foreign devils, and make them spit out everything they've swallowed! Can you be the material, can you bear the burden of the rise and fall of the country? I have to take a look! Today you compare with Huang's instructor, if three hundred people can't beat Huang's instructor, I'll have to consider re-selecting people!"

  My words made everyone's face turn serious, and Long An selected ten sturdy men from the crowd and instructed them for a long time before leading them away. As I looked at these ten people with their temples bulging, I knew they were all skilled martial artists, and now I'm getting a bit worried about my little wife, after all, she's pregnant, if something goes wrong, I'll be crying and won't even know where to find the temple door!

  Fei'er still smiled and said: "You asked for it! Let's begin!"

  Ten people immediately moved stealthily, treading snow without a trace, and surrounded Fei'er, I knew they were looking for an opportunity to fight.

  One circle, two circles, three circles... Ten people turned for half a day and still didn't make a move. Their footsteps quickened, the snow on the ground flew up, I let out a breath, these ten people have already started to get anxious, they're definitely going to lose!

  Long An also saw the situation on the field early, and his face began to sweat under the cold northwest wind. He looked at me nervously, I smiled and said: "Don't be afraid, it won't hurt anyone, just a few points!"

  The footsteps of ten people flew up, like a rapidly rotating wheel surrounding Faye as the axle spinning!

  Fiona stood still with a smile on her face, holding onto the frame.

  The swallow flew up to me and whispered, "This little wife of yours is quite mischievous, isn't she? She's clearly going to win, yet she's still smiling. Isn't that enough to drive someone crazy?"

  "She's mentally crushing her opponents, they're losing in spirit!"

  Suddenly, ten men let out a loud whoop and pounced on Fei Er together. However, they ended up empty-handed as Fei Er dodged with a swift turn, sending herself flying into the air. Her slender legs kicked out at an angle, her fists swinging horizontally in a wide arc. In just one circle, she was the only one left standing in the arena, while the ten men lay sprawled outside the ring, completely bewildered as to how they had ended up there.

  Fei'er was still smiling and standing there, beckoning with her hand to Long'an: "Ten more!"

  Long An hastily chose another ten and lectured on the machine's advantages for half a day.

  These ten people changed their tactics and came up swinging fists at Phil's upper three roads. However, they were faster than those ten who lost.

  Still the same old tricks, I realized that Long An wanted to lose ten games and keep one game, relying on a war of attrition to exhaust Fei Er.

  If Fei hadn't practiced the Triple Repair Technique, I would have really worried about her endurance. Now I'm laughing at Long An, he made a judgment without knowing the enemy's situation, and the result will definitely be a more miserable loss!

  As expected, Fei'er became more courageous in battle and with just a short period of time, she had already trained all 300 people.

  Fei'er was still breathing heavily, her face unchanged, but she continued to smile sweetly at Long An and the ten guards.

  Long An knew that Fei'er was challenging him. He looked at me and I smiled: "Since we're here, let's try it out together! He also wants to test your skills to develop a teaching outline!"

  The ten warriors had been eager for a long time. Seeing that I had spoken, they immediately gathered together with Long An to discuss for half a day before walking down the field together.

  Ten people surrounded Fei as soon as they went on stage, twenty-two iron fists flew and swept, changing angles in all directions, rushing towards Fei like wind and rain.

  Fei'er no longer fixed, her feet slid and walked, at that time although the snow was full of ground, but not a single snowflake was brought up, floating as if stepping on waves. A pair of pink fists flashed in and out from the shadows of eleven people's fists, each move extremely fierce and ruthless. The eleven people encountered danger one after another, their hands couldn't fully utilize their moves, many subtle and mysterious changes couldn't be displayed, making them awkward and precarious. However, the eleven people's hearts were exceptionally united, when one person encountered danger, several others rushed up, Fei'er could only turn around to defend herself, causing her to not be able to succeed for a while.

  Eleven people under Fifi's exquisite moves, advancing and retreating, flashing and dodging like a group of shadows, snowballs flying and spinning, really beautiful.

  In the blink of an eye, both sides had exchanged hundreds of moves. Although the eleven people were well-coordinated, they couldn't match Fei Er's profound and boundless internal energy. After several hundred moves, each of them felt exhausted, their breathing uneven, and their hand movements slowed down considerably. Suddenly, Fei Er let out a long whistle, and the situation on the field changed immediately.