Chapter 078 – Rain stops to collect Spring and Autumn

The second string of the zither was broken by a finger, the taut strings jumped up, sliding a tiny blood groove in her white palm, dripping onto the burnt-tailed ancient zither, as the blood droplets fell, the sudden stop of the rain also crashed down.

Xu Fengnian, who was only ten steps away from her, stretched out his arm, and the trembling spring thunder that was inserted into the wall was about to come out of its sheath. Only an inch after the Spring Thunder was unsheathed, Xu Fengyen lost his ability to pull the short sword, instead, the blind zither master’s middle finger was slightly curved, and the Spring Thunder bounced back to its sheath, completely penetrating into the wall. Sea of qi exploded Xu Fengyen’s entire body shrouded in scarlet mist, after landing, stuffed that two chan golden elixir gifted by the Dragon Tree Monk into his mouth, toed his toes, staggered forward, both sleeves waved, nine flying swords surged out in unison, the female zither master coldly grunted, her left hand thumb and index finger hooked onto one of the strings, lifted upwards, each of the nine flying swords was instantly twisted by ten or so entwined and twisted by a dozen of silver filaments, electrified and snorting. Her right hand perversely picked out with her left hand fingering, Xu Fengyen’s abdomen seemed to be struck by a heavy object, like a stump hitting a door, the whole body flew backward and fell on the green stone board.

Just in the nick of time, a black-clothed man like the night foraging civet cat over the wall and down, hand-carrying a simple knife, in the blink of an eye came to Xu Fengyen’s body, to the head is a knife swiftly chopped down.

This knife chop is chopped down, very soft, of course not able to cut down Xu Fengyen’s head, because Xu Fengyen hands on the ground, the body bends, stick to the cold stone plate spinning out of a big circle, the sleeve originally dealt with the finger Xuanqin master of the gold wisps shot out, by the eye socket pierced through the skull, out of the assassin did not have a lot of time on the spot dead.

Killing and being killed is never more than a snap of the fingers.

Xu Fengyen’s body had not yet landed on the ground, the wall of the alley cracked open, the second burly man in black was even more trouble-free, directly breaking through the wall and rushing out, chopping his waist with an axe!

Xu Fengyen need not touch the ground, the body to the side of the rotation, that a board axe doled out, after falling into the air, cracked a block of lapis lazuli, Xu Fengyen stood up, shoulder leaning towards the black-clothed assassin, sticky more than hit, just do not want to let this brawn amazingly strong man back to store up strength, Xu Fengyen then extend a palm, stick in the assassin’s solar plexus, the small staggered step alternately stepping forward, the process of taking the opportunity to quickly build up a chaotic surge of rhubarb! Ting, a gas launched, he and the assassin’s momentum of this and that, a hand on the strong man holding the axe pushed to the wall, the head smashed into the mud wall, blowing out a big pit, Xu Fengyen will not give him room to fight back, left hand a fist inch power just to bombard the assassin’s waist, the right hand to hold down the head, in the wall, a row, hard to wipe out the shocking puddle of blood, let go of his hand, after the assassin’s entire face blood and flesh oozing into the yellow mud, has been a dead man. After releasing his hand, the assassin’s entire face was bloody and oozing into the yellow mud, already a dead man.

Xu Fengnian killed two people in a row, but six or seven breaths of light.

This time is the real exhaustion, blind female zither player fingers hooked a string, and then break a string, Xu Fengyen will die.

Her finger belly touched the strings, her expression changed slightly, changed the broken strings for picking the strings, the burnt-tailed zither left her knees and flew backwards.

Bang.

The zither cracked in the air.

Xu Fengnian sighed, holding the wall, some regret, such a good opportunity will not come again.

Before the rain.

At that time Xu Fengyen got up and left the fortune teller stall under the old willow tree, saw a 15 or 16 year old robust teenager stopping in the center of the street, ragged clothes, holding a broken porcelain bowl, like a rogue beggar who had made up his mind to pester for coins, the teenager grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and softly said two words in Beilang dialect, “Hundred and sixty, wu. ”

Xu Fengyen continued to walk forward. The teenager followed backwards, playful in the eyes of the onlookers, eyes unusually clear, said softly, “My master is the eleventh of the twelve earthly branches, has been responsible for secretly monitoring the Su Zhao Qi trio, I’m an orphan born and bred here, was accepted by my master as a pupil when I was a child, three years ago, my master died of old age, I went to Beiliang according to my master’s last wish, I intended to inherit the mantle to do this eleventh, but the great general didn’t promise, but instead let me do the e in the ten heavenly stems, some time ago I got a message from another earthly branch dead man, saying that His Highness the son of the world might be coming, so he let me keep an eye out for more.”

Xu Fengyen made a gesture to pull out a piece of broken silver, there was no rush to throw it into the bowl, outsiders appeared to be some scattered copper coins, there was some heartache for the silver.

The teenager quickly said, “There are two sets of killers coming to the city, one set of three people, their hands are not very good, the other one is a female devil who carries a qin, called Xue Songguan, fifth in the top ten devils of the Northern Mang, the top of the list of killers, it’s very tricky, the youngest one, I’m good at the six-stone bow, it can injure a vajra body within 300 paces, but with this kind of power, I can only shoot one arrow a day. Your Highness, should I kill her or hide from her? I’ll listen to you.”

Xu Fengnian threw the broken silver into the bowl and said without hesitation, “Kill.”

The teenager pretended to see the money and smiled brightly as he asked, “But Your Highness, she is a Finger Xuan expert, it’s not good to kill her.”

Xu Fengyen walked and talked, a look of impatience to catch flies, his tone was flat, “I’ll attract her attention, no surprise, a set of three will take advantage of my fight with Xue Songguan to fall into the well, if I can’t kill her, I will surely save my strength to kill them as well, when that time comes, you will just shoot an arrow from 300 paces away.”

The scruffy teenager didn’t have a proper heave and laugh, “Your Highness, do you need to bet so much? If you’re going to die, I’m going to be unable to live as well.”

Xu Fengnian smiled and said, “You can’t always think of gambling with a small amount, such a stingy gambler will lose nine times out of ten.”

The teenager’s eyes lit up, seeming to agree with this viewpoint very much.

Xu Fengyen laughed, with the eccentric and erratic nature of the playboy in general, reached out and kicked away the teenager, from the bowl to retrieve the grains of broken silver.

The dumbfounded dead boy looked at this dashing back, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and spat out two words, “Stingy!”

At this time in the rain.

Without the banana leaf style guqin the woman’s delicate body flopped forward a slight amplitude to stop shaking, the blind zither master spat out a mouthful of blood, reached out and pulled out a basalt arrow from the back, the sharp arrow just pierced into the back an inch, and did not seriously injure the lungs and internal organs.

A lance came out from inside the wall and stabbed at Xu Fenian, but the result was somehow thrown by the demoness and shot through the assassin’s head with an iron arrow. Xu Fengyen easily dodged the tip of the spear and curiously looked at this Finger Xuan Zither Master who first killed and then saved people, then waved his hand.

The archery boy drew his bow and shot from 300 paces away to conceal his tracks, since he was exposed, he leapt nimbly like a leopard on the roof top, drew closer to 100 paces, drew his bow like a full moon, and aimed at the female demon.

There is the master signaled, the young man is not in a hurry to shoot arrows, in addition, one arrow is not successful, the second arrow can cause fatal injuries to the qin master is still a matter of opinion. In addition to the hand in the strings of iron arrows, carrying the arrow bag only one left.

She stood up and slowly said: ”Xu Fengnian, or rather His Highness the Prince of Northern Liang? When I was in Longwai Prefecture, first someone bought you dead with five hundred pounds of gold, and then someone bought you alive with six hundred pounds of gold.”

Xu Feng Nian nodded, “My whereabouts on this trip the entire Beilang knows the route of only eight or nine people, many people can be excluded from suspicion, now it seems that either Chu Lushan or Ye Xizhen is going to buy my life, five hundred pounds of gold, Lushu Qiu’er surely has it, while Ye Xizhen may not. But things are unpredictable, God knows how the truth is. As for buy my life, must be my master Li Yishan. Why did you collect the second amount of gold and still want to kill me?”

She rightfully said, “There is always a first come first served, I said to myself, as long as the three strings are broken and you are still alive, I will no longer kill you.”

Without the need for Xu Fengyen to make a move, the teenager decisively shot an arrow that broke one of the five strings lying quietly on the green stone slab.

Xue Songguan, who could do both as a devil and an assassin, asked, “I’ve already stopped killing you, do you want to kill me?”

Xu Fengnian, whose face twisted as a chi flipped over and almost died of pain, said, “I’ll kill if you don’t fight back!”

The corner of her mouth symbolically tugged, probably considered a laugh.

Xu Fengnian sat on his knees, finally taking the time to spare to absorb the essence of that Two Zen Golden Dan.

Junior E jumped all the way along the roof wall to Xu Fenian’s side, cautiously looking at the female demon who had her ancient zither destroyed.

Instead, she just carefully picked up the fragments of the ancient zither and the strings, carefully held them in her arms, and then sat on the stone steps in a daze.

The heavy rain gradually stopped.

Old Master Zhao Dingxiu walked out of the courtyard gate accompanied by the blacksmith, who went to collect the corpse, and the old master looked at the qin master who got up to gather his obeisance and salute, and then looked at the young man who had entered into meditation at the foot of the wall, as well as the young man with the bow, and sighed, “I have heard everything you have said. The visitor is a guest, all of you come in.”

The blind zither player walked into the small courtyard first, not forgetting to pick up the small umbrella that stood diagonally at the threshold.

After an incense stick, Xu Fengyen stood up, went to the wall and drew out the Spring Thunder, then walked into the courtyard with Junior E.

This room, apart from Su Crisp who was lying unconscious in a chair, there was also His Highness the Prince of Northern Liang, the dead soldier E, Zhao Dingxiu, the old man left behind in Western Shu, plus a female devil Xue Songguan, it was really a ridiculous mess.

The old man glanced at Xu Fengyen, “Every family has its own difficult scriptures, I didn’t expect that the Beiliang with 300,000 iron riders who were all determined back then to be in such a mess.”

Xu Fengnian took off his outer shirt and laughed, “A little wealth is peace, talking about a little wealth, the family is big, especially after it has completely settled down, the Zhao family’s son of heaven failed to do anything about Beiliang, and Beimang is almost clueless about the 300,000 iron riders, there will always be all sorts of in-fighting between the big guys who have nothing else to do.”

The old man sneered, “His Highness the son of the world is so broad-minded.”

Xu Fengyen sat on the threshold and leaned against the door shaft of the room, “In order to deliver a message to you guys, I almost left my life here, this is the hospitality of the Western Shu Remnant?”

The former Spring and Autumn Honored Scholar said coldly, “Don’t forget that Xishu was trampled by your Northern Liang Army.”

Xu Fengnian waved his hand and said, “There was no Northern Liang Army to destroy Xishu, there was also Southern Liang and Western Liang to do this kind of thing that will go down in history, but Southern Liang and Western Liang or whatever won’t spare you Crown Prince of Xishu. It hurts to drill my heart to say a single word right now, so don’t sell out, okay?”

The old man narrowed his eyes, “Do you believe I’ll have someone chop off your head with a sword?”

Xu Fenian pointed at the blind zither master, and the woman with her back to him said with her heart in her mouth, “Xue Songguan has already received 600 pounds of gold, and if Sword Master Qi wants to kill him, I’ll step in to stop him.”

Xu Fengnian smiled and said, “Old Maester Zhao, how is it?”

The old man snorted coldly.

Xu Fengyen said, “The Xishu restoration is not in the old Xishu, eight hundred miles further south and down, there are the eighteen tribes of Nanzhao, you guys go and unify before you talk about restoration, Northern Liang has hidden pawns over there that can be offered to you to make use of.”

The old man’s eyes flinched.

Xu Fengyen opened the door and said, “There is no such thing as taking benefits for nothing under the sky, I’ll take a deposit first. I heard that the surname Qi has been secretly casting swords for the past twenty years, no matter if the sword is cast or not, even if there is only a sword embryo, you have to give it to me.”

The old man was furious and cursed, “Get lost!”

Xu Fengyen said with a blank stare, “Zhao Dingxiu, don’t be a goody-goody, not to mention a sword, I guess if you have a granddaughter and hear that there is hope for the restoration of the country, you will still give it to me with both hands?”

The old man was so angry that his lips were blue, thanks to him not practicing martial arts, otherwise in all likelihood, he would have picked up his weapon and would have fought with this little bastard.

Returning to the yard, the blacksmith calmly said, “That handle Chunqiu, you take it.”

Xu Fenian froze for a moment.

The blacksmith looked at Xu Fenian, the sun came out of the west and laughed cheerfully, “A battle in the alley, full of tendons. I’ve been listening to your words, not saying more than ten words when fighting with people, I know you are a sharp person, I like it, like the master back then, our Xishushu Sword Emperor, kill people, kill people, croak a hammer. I think this hilt of spring and autumn in your hands will not be dishonored to go.”

After saying this sentence, the blacksmith is even more crisp, a foot in the courtyard, a sword box broken up.

Before the box, it is already the sword qi rushing bucket cattle!