Chapter Thirty Sequel

  He bent down and stretched out his hand to press several key points on Mei Chao Feng's body, so that she wouldn't suddenly recover her strength and counterattack. Because he knew that Mei Chao Feng's horizontal training was extremely formidable, ordinary sealing of the acupoints would be useless against her, so Ling Mu Yun specially used the Nine Yin Manual's technique to infuse his internal energy into his fingers as he sealed the points, making sure to truly seal off Mei Chao Feng's meridians before feeling at ease.

  The cave was sealed, and Mei Chaojun still thought that Ling Muyun wanted to torture her before killing her. She gritted her teeth and said: "You little thief, go ahead and use whatever tricks you have! Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you off!"

  "Ah?" Ling Mu Yun was momentarily stunned, and then anger rose from his heart. He pointed at Mei Chao Feng's nose and scolded: "Are you crazy? Did I rape you or cripple you? You still won't let me go even in death! Let me tell you, you'd better be clear-headed, or else don't blame me for really killing you!"

  "What? You won't kill me?" Mei Chao Feng couldn't help but cry out.

  "When did I say I wanted to kill you? You and I have no grudges, why would I want to kill you? Is killing people fun?"

  Ling Yun hummed and bent down to start searching Mei Chao Feng's body, looking for the second volume of the Nine Yin Manual. He soon found it in her bosom.

  "Give it back to me quickly, or I'll kill you!" Mei Chao Feng's eyes widened in rage as he saw the piece of human skin with the Nine Yin Manual recorded on it being taken away by Ling Mu Yun. He let out a sharp, ear-piercing cry like a mad tiger.

  "You'd better calm down for a while." Ling Mu Yun stretched out his hand and pressed Mei Chao Feng's mute acupoint, instantly stopping her shrill cry as if someone had pinched her neck.

  Ling Muyun knocked on his ear: "The world is quiet now." Then he lowered his head to look at the human skin Nine Yin True Classic in his hand.

  With his superhuman memory, Ling Mu Yun had already memorized the entire Nine Yin Manual in less than a minute. After confirming that there were no mistakes, he put the human skin back into Mei Chao Feng's bosom. Looking at Mei Chao Feng's astonished face, Ling Mu Yun smiled and said: "You see, I'm not here to steal your Nine Yin Manual, but rather to make a mutually beneficial deal with you. But since you're so agitated, you didn't even let me finish speaking before attacking me, so I had no choice but to use force to subdue you first."

  "Hmm, I'm a man of my word. When I make a deal, it's a deal. Although you didn't cooperate this time, I still got what I wanted. If I were to leave now, I'd feel like I've taken advantage of a disabled and weak girl. So here's the deal, I have some inner strength incantations from the Nine Yin Manual, upper volume. You can memorize them carefully and practice afterwards, then you won't need to use those evil methods that harm others to cultivate your skills. Maybe this way, you'll reduce your karma and accumulate some good deeds for yourself."

  Ling Yun then selected a portion of the Easy Bone Art's internal energy method related to claw power and palm strength from the Easy Bone Art, and slowly recited it to Mei Chao Feng. Although this part of the incantation was only over a hundred words, less than one-tenth of the entire Easy Bone Art, it had great benefits for Mei Chao Feng, who had never understood the Nine Yin True Classics' internal energy method and could only practice with evil methods. As long as she could focus on practicing, not only would the hidden illnesses left behind by her evil method practice slowly disappear, but her martial arts skills would also rise to another level.

  Mei Chao Feng has been practicing the Nine Yin Manual for many years, and her understanding of it is naturally extremely deep. After listening to Ling Mu Yun's oral instructions, which are consistent with the martial arts in the lower volume, she knew that it was indeed an internal cultivation method from the upper volume, although incomplete, but enough to make up for her lack of martial skills. At the same time as she silently memorized it, she couldn't help but feel a strong sense of gratitude towards Ling Mu Yun, after all, not everyone can repay kindness with virtue like this.

  After passing on the inner strength mantra, Ling Yun stretched out his hand and opened up the acupoints sealed on Mei Chao Feng's body. Although even if he didn't unseal Mei Chao Feng's acupoints, after a long time Mei Chao Feng would also be able to break free himself, but since there were wolves roaming around this grassland, if he just left Mei Chao Feng like that without caring, perhaps Mei Chao Feng would become the wolves' food, wouldn't that be a waste of his efforts?

  "Sir, please leave your name so that Mei Chao Feng can repay the great kindness in the future." As soon as the acupoints were released, Mei Chao Feng ignored the numbness caused by the prolonged closure of the acupoints and struggled to get up, kneeling down and asking Ling Mu Yun.

  "Never mind, I've said it before, this is just a transaction, nothing to do with gratitude or not. However, there's something I need to clarify, my relationship with Guo Jing, the disciple of the Jiangnan Six Freaks, is quite deep. So if you're looking for revenge against the Jiangnan Six Freaks, I won't be able to sit back and do nothing, I might have to lend a hand. You'll find it hard to leave then. So I advise you to just go back where you came from." After saying that, he didn't care about Mei Chaofeng's reaction and directly used his lightness skill to float away.

  Mei Chao Feng knelt on the ground, unable to speak for a moment. Her mind was filled with turbulent thoughts that were hard to unravel. After a long while, she let out a helpless sigh and stood up, following the path back to her camp. Just as Ling Mu Yun had said, with him around, even if she went to find the Jiangnan Six Freaks to seek revenge, she wouldn't be able to gain any advantage, and might even lose her life. So, she could only temporarily suppress the hatred in her heart and wait for another day.

  ……

  Ling Yun and Mei Chao Feng parted ways, heading towards the Khitan tribe. Since they didn't need to chase after anyone, their return journey was much slower than when they came. By the time they arrived at the Khitan tribe, it was already late afternoon on the second day. As soon as Ling Yun entered the tribe, he discovered a chaotic and busy scene, with signs of troops gathering. He grabbed a herdsman and asked him what was happening, only to find out that Temujin had gone to the Wang Khan's tribe to discuss the marriage between his daughter Huazheng and Sangkun's son Doushi. Meanwhile, Guo Jing returned to report an emergency, but didn't wait for Mei Chao Feng and instead rode off on a small red horse to chase after Temujin's group with Ma Yu and the Six Freaks of Jiangnan. The Six Freaks were worried about their disciple and followed suit, while Tolui and others knew that if Temujin fell into a trap, fewer people would be able to rescue him, so they gathered troops and prepared to lead a large army to rescue him.

  Linghu Chong, who was familiar with the plot, knew that Guo Jing was not in any real danger this time. Instead, he would first capture Duan Yanqing and then fight against the Four Ghosts of the Yellow River, showing off his skills in front of the two armies and earning Temujin's admiration. Therefore, Linghu Chong did not rush to the scene but returned to Guo Jing's home, a Mongolian yurt, to rest and comfort Guo Jing's anxious mother, Li Ping.

  It turned out that Temujin's guess was correct, and by the next afternoon, he had returned to the camp with Guo Jing and others who had gone to rescue him, leading thousands of soldiers and horses, escorting the captured Dushi back to the camp. Seeing the Khan escape safely, his own family members and friends who had gone with him also returned safely, and the people of the Khitan tribe were overjoyed. Temujin also ordered a reward for the soldiers at the right time, and the whole tribe slaughtered cattle and sheep, celebrating with great fanfare.

  Ling Yunyun inquired and found out that this time, things were indeed similar to the original plot. When Guo Jing caught up with Temujin's group, they had already entered the trap set by Wanyan Honglie, Sangkun, and Jamukha, surrounded by the three men's mobilized army. Fortunately, Guo Jing unexpectedly broke through the enemy lines alone, capturing Sangkun's son Dushi, and took him to Temujin's camp as a hostage. With this person as leverage, they were able to delay for over a day, holding on until Tolui and others led the reinforcements to arrive and relieve them of danger.

  The only difference is that during this time, the four ghosts of the Yellow River received a commission from Wanyan Honglie to rush into Temujin's camp and try to capture Temujin. Guo Jing still went forward to block them as in the original history, but after being deliberately trained by Ling Zhen, Guo Jing's martial arts were much stronger than in the original history, and he defeated the four ghosts of the Yellow River alone, not waiting for the arrival of the Six Freaks of Jiangnan. He single-handedly defeated the four ghosts of the Yellow River again, showing off his prowess in front of both armies, and thus gained Temujin's favor.

  At night, Temujin held a grand feast to reward the three armies, but had Dushi, who was captured, seated in the first place and entertained him warmly. He pretended to be injured and confused Dushi, and promised that he would still marry his daughter Hua to Dushi, showing extreme cowardice. The generals were very dissatisfied with this, and during the banquet, a thousand soldiers stood up in anger, advocating for killing Dushi, and was severely punished by Temujin in front of Dushi, receiving dozens of military sticks before being imprisoned.

  On the second day, Temujin prepared two carts of gold and sable fur, over a thousand fat sheep, and hundreds of fine horses as gifts. He also dispatched dozens of soldiers to escort Dushi back, and sent an eloquent envoy to apologize sincerely to Wang Khan and Jamukha. When seeing them off, he pretended to be heavily injured and unable to ride a horse, yet insisted on sending them off personally, which made his generals feel indignant and perplexed. Guo Jing was very puzzled, because he had been by Temujin's side since the ambush and had not seen him get hurt at all - where did this serious injury come from?

  Only Ling Mu Yun knew that this was actually Temujin's strategy, which was to confuse Wang Han and Jamukha, lower their guard, and then take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Everything Temujin had done before was just an act.

  It is also a fact that Temujin's tactics proved to be effective, and in the original history, Wang Han, Sangkun, and Jamukha were indeed deceived into thinking that Temujin was really injured and feared them, lowering their guard. As a result, they were defeated by Temujin's surprise attack, and their tribes were absorbed by Temujin. Except for Wan Yan Honglie, who escaped back to Zhongdu, the remaining three, Wang Han, Sangkun, and Jamukha, all became fugitives and were eventually killed. Meanwhile, Temujin unified Mongolia through this victory, becoming the Khan of the steppes and the Genghis Khan of all Mongols.