Chapter 187: Fate

A clear copper whistle sound like a swallow's cry echoed over the rooftops and flew into a narrow, dark alleyway.

Inside the alley, trouble-solving guards wearing bamboo hats looked up at the night sky. After hearing the clear copper whistle, they also took out their own copper whistles and blew them.

The sounds of copper whistles rolled outwards like ripples, and the trouble-solving guards gathered towards the inner prison like bees returning to their hive.

Looking down from the sky, the heavy snow was like a chessboard, the alleys were like squares, and the densely packed trouble-solving guards were like chess pieces. Someone had set up this chess game, inviting a gentleman to enter the jar.

Before the trouble-solving guards arrived, Liang Gou'er crouched on the roof ridge and whispered to Chen Xian, "Quickly, leave! The trouble-solving guards will be here immediately. This is a trap!"

In front of the inner prison door, Chen Xian didn't answer.

He looked at the dark, hollow stone steps of the inner prison. A chilling wind rushed out from inside. The prison guards had already retreated into the darkness of the inner prison, and the wall lamps carved with Eight Trigrams formations had also gone out at some point.

Chen Xian was confused.

Why were the inner prison guards carrying hand crossbows with them? They had never worn them before.

Why was one prison guard so alert? Was this the only elite among the prison guards, or had he encountered him by chance?

Heavy snow fell on Chen Xian's head, shoulders, and heart. He felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart, spreading throughout his body like a current of ice.

He finally knew where this feeling of powerlessness during this period came from. It was because everything, absolutely everything, had been carefully designed by someone. Except for the Liu family, King Jing, and the Luo Tian Sect, he was also one of the pieces being calculated!

Who was calculating him? Why were they calculating him? Should he save the people or leave? This was a fatal problem.

While he was thinking, the sound of cart wheels pressing over the stone road came from afar. Chen Xian turned his head to look and suddenly saw Zhang Zhuo under the escort of Luo City government soldiers, a messy line of grain carts passing through, blocking the nearby area completely. The arrow was on the string, and it had to be fired!

Chen Xian turned back and looked at Liang Gou'er on the roof. "Gou'er, Big Brother, I lied to you. I also don't know if the letter you are holding can actually be seen by Jiang Liu Xian. All of you leave. You can still leave in time now. The Secret Spy Department will not know that you were involved in this matter."

Liang Gou'er said angrily, "If you go in now, you will definitely die!"

Chen Xian entered the inner prison without looking back. "It doesn't matter, there's nothing good to expect anyway."

After saying that, he walked down the stone steps step by step, rushing towards the depths of the inner prison.

Yu Deng Ke hesitated for a few breaths, then jumped down from the roof and ran into the inner prison with Chen Xian. In the heavy snow, only Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao were left on the roof.

Liang Gou'er lay on the roof with a complex expression. He saw the figures of the trouble-solving guards attacking from afar. He turned his body, intending to leave. "Mao'er, let's go. Don't get involved in this mess!"

However, before he had completely turned over, he was already firmly pulled by Liang Mao's arm. "Brother, the young master and the county lord are both good people. We cannot leave."

Liang Gou'er struggled impatiently to free himself from Liang Mao's hand, but he couldn't break free at all. His sleeve was almost torn off.

He said helplessly, "What do they being good people have to do with us? Haven't we helped many people in the past? Haven't many people repaid kindness? When our family had an accident, they came to step on us while we were down. They are all ungrateful dogs!"

"When we were young, we saved Li Xuan. At that time, Li Xuan was chased and killed by enemies, leaving him half-dead. It was our dad who drew his knife and saved him. But what was the result? That poisonous prime minister created some kind of martial alliance to recruit martial artists from around the world, gave them official positions, and issued rations. Li Xuan was afraid that his father would contend with him for the martial alliance leader position, so he sneak attacked our dad after drinking!"

Liang Gou'er stared angrily at his younger brother. "Our dad saved Zhou You and his son in the past. The father and son were in desperate straits and almost starved to death on the streets. What was the result? After our dad was injured by Li Xuan and became a dart-walker, outsiders didn't know about his injury. It was Zhou You and his son who saw wealth and leaked this matter to the bandits in Taihang Mountain, costing our dad his life! These past few years, I have killed Li Xuan and Zhou You and his son, carrying a body full of blood debts. If I get injured or die, and the enemy comes, how will you survive?"

Liang Mao remained silent.

Liang Gou'er looked at his younger brother, his eyes filled with anger. "Are you leaving or not? If you're not leaving, I am!"

Liang Mao slowly loosened his hand and said seriously, "Brother, their ingratitude is their fault, not that what we did was wrong. Brother, what is our Liang family motto?"

Liang Gou'er said one word: "Mao'er, Jianghu is no longer the same Jianghu as before." Liang Mao stood up from the roof ridge and looked down at his brother, saying seriously,

"Jianghu people do Jianghu deeds. Their words must be believed, their actions must be decisive, promises made must be sincere, not valuing their own bodies, rather dying for justice, not stealing a fortunate life, viewing death as returning! The young master and the county lord treat us sincerely. If we leave this time, what difference will there be between us and those villains?"

Liang Mao continued, "Brother, do you remember the eight words our dad said to you before he died?"

Liang Gou'er murmured, "One defeat of the body, a thousand matters shattered." Liang Mao lowered his eyes. "You haven't done it."

As the words fell, a trouble-solving guard with his hand on his waist knife came to the inner prison door. Just as he was about to rush in, Liang Mao stepped on the roof ridge, leaped, and pounced behind the trouble-solving guard.

The trouble-solving guard felt a dark shadow pressing down from behind. Subconsciously, he turned his body and drew his knife, but the knife was only halfway drawn before he was grabbed and lifted by Liang Mao.

"Go!"

Liang Mao exerted force and threw the trouble-solving guard several zhang away.

He saw the trouble-solving guard fall on the snow, bounce up heavily again and fall down, sliding two or three zhang before finally stopping. His bamboo hat also flew off somewhere.

The trouble-solving guard struggled to get up from the snow, shaking his head. He looked at the distance between himself and Liang Mao in disbelief. He had actually been thrown so far!

He turned his face to the side and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. He reached out his hand to his collar and slowly untied his clothes, throwing them to the snow. This exposed the black flying fish suit inside, with a red embroidered python extending from his shoulder to his chest.

"Kill!" The trouble-solving guard drew his waist knife and stepped forward through the snow, brave and fearless of death.

As he charged back, five or six more trouble-solving guards arrived. The trouble-solving guards took off their clothes and charged at Liang Mao with their drawn knives.

When they entered within ten steps of Liang Mao, the trouble-solving guards took off their bamboo hats and flung them at Liang Mao like hidden weapons.

The bamboo hats broke open layers of snow curtain and flew spinning towards him.

Liang Mao tried his best to dodge, but was still cut by two bamboo hats on his arms and legs. The brims of the trouble-solving guards' bamboo hats concealed knife blades. Where they cut, a line of blood appeared.

The trouble-solving guards surrounded Liang Mao.

Liang Mao fought without any technique, only using wide, open horizontal swings. He repeatedly deflected the trouble-solving guards' knife bodies and grabbed and threw his opponents, but he did not use lethal force.

He was heard murmuring, "Jianghu people do Jianghu deeds..."

Liang Gou'er understood his younger brother the best. He was so soft-hearted that he would cry for half the night if a chick died in their childhood home. When their Liang family father wanted to kill a cow, that silly younger brother would hug the cow's neck and say that if he wanted to kill the cow, he should kill him first.

This kind of fool wasted his innate divine power. Even if he had a mastery of knife techniques that reached the sky, he would not kill people.

Liang Gou'er was annoyed. He turned his body and lay down on the roof, closing his eyes. Yet, Liang Mao's voice echoed in his ears, "Rather die for justice, not steal a fortunate life..."

The trouble-solving guards around Liang Mao grew more numerous. Liang Gou'er, who was lying on the roof, stood up.

"Stop reciting, stop reciting!" He stood quietly on the roof ridge, looking down at his younger brother not far away, and finally sighed. "You're so kind-hearted and soft-handed. If I die, how will you survive?"

As a trouble-solving guard swung his knife to chop at Liang Mao from behind, Liang Gou'er flicked the jaw of his knife with his thumb.

A sound pierced the sky, a pure, clear drawing sound, as if it was the sound of the original, primal martial way during the creation of heaven and earth!

Liang Gou'er still stood on the roof ridge. A clear, bright knife light horizontally spanned heaven and earth, crossing several wen, and divided the trouble-solving guard who was sneak attacking Liang Mao into two. The stone road under the accumulated snow was also chopped into a palm-deep crack.

Overbearing! Unmatched!

A trouble-solving guard exclaimed, "Liang family knife technique!"

The Liang family knife technique had no moves. They just cultivated their knife intent to the extreme. In a breath, their killing intent was pure, with no need for petty skills!

Liang Mao turned his head and gave Liang Gou'er an honest smile. "Brother, thank you." Liang Gou'er said unkindly, "Shut up!"

He lightly jumped down from the roof and stood in front of Liang Mao.

The next moment, Liang Gou'er looked up at the trouble-solving guards who were surrounding them, a dense crowd of them.

He said to Liang Mao without looking back, "Silly Mao'er, our Liang family has never had anyone who could cross that threshold of the divine way. Father always said that this matter must fall on you. I hope Father wasn't wrong. Today, let me show you what the true Liang family knife technique is. Learning it is life, not learning it is also life."

He saw Liang Gou'er facing over a hundred trouble-solving guards, standing tall and raising his head. He took a deep breath, and the wind and snow were sucked into his mouth, like a whale swallowing heaven and earth.

Draw the knife!

Instantly, the knife light illuminated the night, and the snow waterfall reversed!

On the inner prison stone steps, Chen Xian quickly walked down.

Crossbow arrows shot out from the darkness. Chen Xian tilted his head slightly to avoid them. His right hand arrived later but grasped the fletching of a crossbow arrow beside his ear.

He saw him throw it back into the darkness, and not far away, there was a muffled groan, followed immediately by someone quickly running away.

Chen Xian covered his face with the gray cloth again, ran down the stone steps, and stepped into the inner prison tunnel. More than ten prison guards came to fight, but Chen Xian's steps did not stop. He charged towards the prison guards.

In the prison rooms on both sides, the prisoners from King Jing's mansion and the Liu family were still held. They clung to the iron bars and shouted, "Save us, save us!"

Chen Xian engaged in a close-quarters fight with the prison guards in the narrow tunnel. Instantly, he seized knives, swung knives, completing it in one breath!

A prison guard exclaimed, "That's not right, not acquired, it's innate!" Chen Xian's face was as calm as water. He held his knife and pressed forward step by step.

Amidst the sounds of fighting in the tunnel, Yu Deng Ke ran to the prison room where Chun Hua was located and hugged her through the iron bars. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I've come to save you."

Chun Hua suppressed her crying with an addicted mouth. "Fool, why are you here? Aren't you afraid of dying?! There are so many of them, hurry up and leave!"

Yu Deng Ke quickly comforted her. "It doesn't matter. Even if we die, we'll die together. You wait a moment, I'll go help."

As the words fell, he turned his head to look at the tunnel and found that more than ten prison guards were already lying on the ground. He didn't need to help at all.

Chen Xian was covered in blood and panting. He tore a string of keys from a prison guard's waist, found the key for "Jia Character Seven," took it off, and then threw the remaining keys to Yu Deng Ke. "Open the door and save Chun Hua."

Yu Deng Ke took the keys, fumbling with his hands and feet to insert the key into the lock, while watching Chen Xian run towards the depths.

Chen Xian ran very fast, and the room for "Jia Character Seven" got closer and closer.

As he quickly approached, he wiped the bloodstains on his face. He looked down again to confirm that the wounds on his body were not visible before he felt relieved.

But when Chen Xian came to the door of the "Jia Character Seven" prison room, he suddenly stopped.

Chen Xian stood in front of the prison room door, as if he had just experienced another explosion. His ears were buzzing with a loud noise.

In this prison room, there was only the young master, no Bai Li.

He looked at the young master who was grasping the iron bars, his mouth opening and closing, but he could no longer hear what the other party was saying. He felt like he was drowning in water, a sticky, thick black lake water tightly wrapping around him, not knowing where he was flowing.

Chen Xian came back to his senses and asked angrily, "Where is the county lord?"

The young master came to the door and said, "Bai Long took her away alone today, I don't know where he took her!"

"Why did he take the county lord away alone?" "I don't know!"

Chen Xian's heart suddenly surged with a sense of absurdity.

It was as if fate had a self-correcting ability. No matter how much effort he put in, there would always be a problem in one ring, letting fate return to its original track.

No, this was not fate.

Bai Long had no reason to take Bai Li away alone, unless someone knew he wanted to rob the prison early on, unless...

Chen Xian suddenly turned his head to look at the darkness at the end of the tunnel. It was as if a sinister and poisonous chess player was sitting there, silently mocking him.

But, since the other party knew he wanted to rob the prison, why did they still leave the young master behind?

Chen Xian turned around and walked forward with large strides. He came to the door of the "Jia Character One" prison room and saw King Jing sitting withered in the inner room.

In just two short days, the other party seemed to have lived a lifetime in this inner prison. The other party didn't die because they wanted to wait for someone.

King Jing heard footsteps and looked up at Chen Xian in front of the door. "You still came." Chen Xian said bluntly, "King, you clearly know that Emperor Ning arranged Companion Feng Da by your side to calculate you. You are fundamentally not someone who can be captured with tied hands, yet you didn't leave yourself any fallback options."

King Jing remained silent.

Chen Xian continued, "I was just thinking before, King, what you are doing is either waiting for your last fallback option, or... you want to calculate some more people. I thought for a long time and still couldn't understand who you exactly wanted to calculate, until I discovered that my master knew I was an outsider, until Bai Long took the county lord away alone."

Chen Xian stood in front of the prison room door and suddenly asked, "King, the person you finally want to calculate, is actually me, right? That's why you only said sorry to me."

Chen Xian looked at King Jing's eyes. "King, you have seen Li Qing, right? It was you and my master, and Li Qing, working together to smuggle me down from the forty-nine layers of heaven, so you only found me to play chess the first time after returning to Luo City, wanting to see what kind of person I was."

King Jing still remained silent.

Chen Xian grasped the iron bars and asked in a condensed voice, "But why did you sacrifice the county lord? What did she do wrong? Just because she wasn't your birth daughter, so you hate her? What exactly do you all want to do?"

Upon seeing him for a long time, he slowly said, "Chen Xian, during the years of conflict between the Jing and Ning dynasties, there were too many things I wanted to do, but I had no time. I didn't have time to completely eliminate the Ning dynasty's problems, nor did I have time to mobilize troops to unify the mountains and rivers. At twenty-one years old, I was a young general with grand ambitions. At forty-five years old, I am just a sick, blind prisoner under the steps. Friendship and ideals can no longer give me strength. But Chen Xian, some matters are still not finished, someone must go and do them... Only when I die, when King Jing's mansion is destroyed, when enough people die, can the Jing dynasty believe me."

Not only was Chen Xian's doubt not thoroughly resolved, he had more doubts. What did the Jing dynasty believe, what did King Jing want to do.

That's not right, King Jing didn't tell the truth, King Jing's words still hid secrets!

At this time, Yu Deng Ke led Chun Hua by the hand and quickly ran over. "Quickly, leave, there's no time, if we don't leave now, we really won't be able to leave!"

Yu Deng Ke dragged Chen Xian towards the outside. Chen Xian roared angrily, "What exactly do you all want to do?!" King Jing sighed in the prison room. "Chen Xian, this world shouldn't have immortals, nor should it have forty-nine layers of heaven... I'm sorry."

Chen Xian still wanted to rush up and ask his doubts, but he found that a fierce surge of ice flow rolled out of the "Jia Character One" prison room. Compared to Consort Jing, Consort Yun, compared to any previous ice flow, it was more terrible and huge than the ice flow of the entire inner prison!

It made people suffocate!

The real power prince of the Ning dynasty left.

The other party no longer gave him the opportunity to ask his doubts. A generation of vassal kings willingly died in this dark prison room.

Chen Xian even thought for a moment, why did King Jing hold on until now? It was to leave the ice flow to him!

He didn't have time to think more. He took out the key and opened the prison room, pulled up the young master, and ran outside.

The young master shouted, "Chen Xian, save my dad, he's still inside!"

Chen Xian didn't answer. He just pulled the young master and ran forward, through the long, dim tunnel, breaking through the cage.

When they reached the ground, Yu Deng Ke was startled.

He saw hundreds of trouble-solving guards lying dead on the snow. The red blood emitted hot gas in the winter night, melting the snow one by one.

On the snow, Liang Mao supported Liang Gou'er. His left hand held his knife, standing tall and upright.

It was just that there was a bloodstain on Liang Gou'er's back, slanting from his shoulder to his lower back. His right arm was empty. Empty.

Yu Deng Ke hesitated and said, "Gou'er, Big Brother, you..."

Liang Gou'er smiled. "Damn it, there were quite a few hidden officials among the trouble-solving guards. I overturned the boat in the ditch. My governor pulse is broken, I can't use a knife anymore. But that's also good. This knife technique has harmed the Liang family for more than ten generations. If it's gone, it's gone."

Chen Xian looked away. "Thank you, Gou'er, Big Brother."

Liang Gou'er said unkindly, "Less of this hypocritical pretense. I don't like dealing with people like you who are unscrupulous. We'll forget each other and never see each other again in Jianghu."

Chen Xian didn't explain anything. He took out a white porcelain bottle from his bosom and threw it to Liang Mao. "Medicine from Huangshan Dao Court."

Liang Gou'er said seriously, "You owe my two brothers a life after this. If one day Liang Mao has difficulty, no matter where you are, no matter whether it's going up a mountain of knives or down a sea of fire, you must repay this life."

Chen Xian said seriously, "Okay."

At this time, the sound of horse hooves galloping came from afar.

Chen Xian looked at the crowd. "Yu Deng Ke, you will take the lead and act according to the plan with the young master. Someone will send you out of Luo City."

Yu Deng Ke turned his head in surprise. "Where are you going? Aren't you going to the Jing dynasty with us? If you leave, you will die."

Chen Xian took a deep breath. "I cannot leave. I still have things to do."

Yu Deng Ke was about to say something, but saw Chen Xian retreat backward, step by step, into the black night. "Someone told me that a person who can't give up anything can't change anything. I know what I'm doing, and I know I can do it. We don't know when we'll see each other again after this separation, or perhaps we'll never see each other again. If you all drink wine together when you arrive in the Jing dynasty, drink a mouthful for me. Take care."

After saying that, Chen Xian turned around and ran wildly.

(There's still an update coming)