Chapter 66 – Who Can Kill Van Tisch?
After the idyllic wind and snow.
The aroma of tea in the room still lingered, drifting in the quiet space. After a long time, Haitang said softly, “Apprentice knows.”
Without looking at her face, Bitter Lotus smiled and said, “Wasn’t Fan Xian’s letter looking for you to ask for the Heart Technique of the Heavenly Dao? Give it to him.”
Give it to him? Two very clean words, but startled Haitang raised her head in dismay, not knowing whether her teacher was joking or suffering from insanity – the supreme heart method of the Heavenly Dao? That was an untold secret, could it be given to a powerful minister of the Southern Dynasty so easily?
Bitter Lotus smiled and said, ”This is something his mother gave me, and it’s only right that I give it back to him …… What’s more, for my Daqi, the stronger Fan Xian is, the more of a headache the royal family of the Southern Dynasty will have. Not only can I fulfill my master’s wish, but I can also benefit my country, so why not do the best of both worlds?”
Haitang slightly opened her lips, unable to speak for a long time, she knew what her teacher’s real intention was, and a chill arose in her heart.
This teacher and disciple duo had only guessed Fan Xian’s relationship with the Ye family, but did not know Fan Xian’s other identity, so they unilaterally assumed that Fan Xian, after his identity was revealed, could only be a fierce tiger within the country of Qing. The Ye family had turned into clouds in a flash back then, and the Qing royal family always bore the greatest responsibility, and in the eyes of the Northern Qi people, the stronger the tiger Fan Xian was, the more troublesome Qing would be, and of course, the safer their own kingdom would be.
“Teacher, what if Fan Xian can’t hold his own this time?”
All of the Ye Family’s properties had been appropriated by the Qing Imperial Family, so it was logical that once the news of Fan Xian being a descendant of the Ye Family got out, the Qing Imperial Family would surely snipe him in the shortest amount of time possible.
However, Bitter Lotus shook his head and sighed quietly, ”Those princes who subverted the Ye family seem to have died cleanly in the bloody night of Kyoto more than ten years ago, and my master really can’t guess yet what things will develop into later. Ye family, in the end there are no enemies still lurking in the south of the palace? Perhaps that blind man, is also trying to borrow this matter to force those people to show themselves.”
As the Beiqi State Master, of course, Bitter Lotus’ primary consideration was the interests of Beiqi, the kingdom of that mother and son in the palace, and as for what kind of predicament Fan Xian would face, it wasn’t in his consideration. The old man smiled and said, “Even if Fan Xian is unable to meet the impending onslaught, with the blind man standing firmly behind him, even if he fails and wants to die, it won’t be an easy task.”
It was just a bit too risky to use the Heart Method of the Heavenly Dao to exchange for such a powerful enemy, not to mention that the words the teacher had said stated a horrifying thing – the Heart Method of the Heavenly Dao was actually given to the teacher by Fan Xian’s mother!
“What kind of person is Miss Ye …… really?” Haitang was shocked.
Bitter Lotus frowned slightly, meditating for a long time before saying softly, “At the very beginning, I thought that she was a little fairy who didn’t touch the red dust. But then I realized that it wasn’t so ……”
“A Heavenly Chakra person?”
“Not a Heavenly Vein person.” Bitter Lotus continued with a smile, “Miss Ye is a magical woman who far exceeds ordinary geniuses by far too much.”
After a long time, Haitang respectfully sent State Teacher Bitter Lotus out of the room. Looking at her teacher’s bare feet stepping in the snow, the girl’s family softly said, “Teacher, Lord Sean?”
In the midst of the snow, Bitter Lotus’s figure slightly paused, and after a moment softly said, “He is in one place with the Zhuang family. It’s not bad for these two brothers to be strangers in life and walk together after death.”
Haitang bowed her head to breathlessly hide her surprise, until today, she did not know about this matter.
“This is the matter of the older generation, you young people have your own world. The heart law should be …… personally handed over to Fan Xian.” After saying these words, Bitter Lotus took a step and disappeared into the wind and snow, his hat flipped over, covering the old and smooth head.
In the Cangshan Mountain Pass in Qing Guo, a blanket of snow with mist steaming up, dozens of beautiful danding cranes were dancing with their wings propped up, just a few meters from the ground and then drifted down again, fearful and timid, tentatively stretching out their long feet, stepping on the hot springs surrounded by cedars underneath the mist.
The temperature of the water in the hot springs was appropriate, slightly hot. Fan Xian closed his eyes and soaked his naked body in the hot spring, his neck tilted back, resting on the hard, wet black stone next to the spring. Most of his body was submerged in the water, and his exposed skin was tinted with a slight reddish color, and his arms, which weren’t thick, but felt very powerful, were spread out on the stone.
Two thin fingers, resting steadily between his right wrist, Fei Jie closed his eyes, his eyebrows twitching, his dazzling hair smoothed out like never before because it was drenched in spring water.
After being called back to the capital, Fei Jie realized that Fan Xian had led his family into Cangshan Mountain for the winter, so he rushed over. The master and disciple duo were soaking in the hot springs surrounded by snowy pines today, and this kind of enjoyment was really somewhat luxurious.
“Your figure is quite good.” Fei Jie slowly opened his eyes and withdrew the hand that was checking his pulse, the ominous brown color in his eyes getting deeper and deeper, “You can’t really see it when you’re wearing clothes on weekdays.”
Fan Xian also opened his eyes and said with a smile, “The brothers and sisters of the three divisions have long praised my figure.” He paused and then asked, “Teacher, is there any method?”
Fei Jie removed the white towel from the back of his neck, and after wetting it in the hot spring water, he vigorously wiped the already somewhat loose skin of his face, and did not speak for a long time.
Fan Xian sighed, looking at his teacher’s appearance, he knew that he didn’t have anything too good to do about the big explosion of true qi in his body disappearing again.
“The medicine I left for you, you refused to take it.” Fei Suo sighed worriedly, “Why try to be strong? If you eat it, at best, you’ll suffer a major loss of true qi, or at least you won’t explode.”
Fan Xian shook his head, “What’s the difference between a great loss of true qi, and no true qi at all, for me?”
“The difference is tremendous, at least you still have the power to defend yourself.”
Fan Xian smiled, that clear face full of confidence, “There are many more ways to save my life, I still have a lot of …… You also know that since I was a child, I have never been a barbarian who relied on martial arts to fight the world. In the past, with my own small means, I could fight with Haitang, nowadays, although my true qi is completely dispersed, but I don’t think that if I bump into anything, I will only have my hands tied and wait for death.”
Fei Jie stared at his eyes for half a day before sighing, “What a little monster. For martial artists, the importance of true qi is self-evident, even if you have tiger guards guarding you and six places watching, you still always have to show a few moments of sentimentality and disappointment.”
“Those are superfluous emotions.” Fan Xian’s mind floated back to Uncle Wuzhu’s teachings when he was young, and said quietly, “If the cure is not possible, then I have to accept this reality, and longing and sighing won’t help much to change the situation.”
Fan Xian in the Cangshan Hot Spring was not aware that in the far north, the pair of profound masters and disciples had already childishly identified themselves and wanted to take advantage of the revelation of this identity to stir up the court of Qing and push him to the opposite side of the royal family of Qing.
Regardless of whether or not Haitang would delay the occurrence of this matter, just that the two countries were far away from each other, and even if the rumors flew even faster, at least for the time being there was no possibility for them to reach the territory of the Qing Kingdom, so the life of the descendant of the Ye Family, for the Fan Xian, who had no knowledge of it, wasn’t the biggest danger, the biggest headache, for him at this time. He was only bent on restoring the true qi in his body and healing the meridian pipe walls that were riddled with holes nowadays.
“Nourish first.” Fei Jie said after pondering for a long time, “I will prescribe a method, you take the medicine according to the prescription, in addition those medicines that I left for you when I was a child, you should not throw them away. They are still useful.”
Fan Xian was slightly surprised, thinking that his true qi had already dispersed, so what was the point of taking that power-dispersing medicine? In fact, Fei Jie didn’t know what else it could be used for, but he just mentioned it in passing, not realizing that a long time later, it would really let Fan Xian use it.
“After staying in Cangshan for half a month, I don’t know how things are going in Kyoto.” Fan Xian gently patted the slightly hot water of the hot springs and said with a smile, “You’ve come from Kyoto, so tell the student about it.”
Fei Jie scolded, “You receive at least a dozen letters of intelligence every day, and you still come to ask me, an old man?”
Fan Xian hemmed and hawed.
Fei jie coldly said, “You excuse to recuperate your injuries to hide in the Cangshan Mountain, the courtyard but the Cui family under the hand of the …… Kyoto has already made a fuss, the north side of the raw arrested hundreds of people, swallowed millions of taels of silver goods, you give the Cui family to set up the crime is also real, look at the appearance of the hall of a large family to be from this You’re also really black.”
Fan Xian smiled and explained, “It’s all about the needs of the court.”
The Supervisory Yuan’s declaration of war against the Xinyang side came unusually violently and suddenly, and was extremely ruthless, the hidden spies all over the world had already pinched the Cui family’s smuggling lines to the north to death, and with Yan Bingyun as the leader of the four blatant strikes, they didn’t even give the Xinyang side any time to react, and had already taken control of the majority of the people’s goods and silver money.
After all, Fan Xian was seriously injured, Kyoto people know that he is in the Cangshan Mountain to recuperate, who knew that the sick Tiji, will be so sudden and ruthless to start. This plan from the summer has been planning to now, got his majesty’s acquiescence, before quietly began, to have the intention to count without intention, Xinyang side even if in the counties road again strength, still ate a great a loss.
The most crucial thing was that for his own mind, Fan Xian had been hiding it deeply enough, and Eldest Princess Li Yunrui had obviously underestimated this son-in-law of hers.
“This time, you have truly offended the Eldest Princess.” Fei Jie shook his head and sighed, “The Cui family is one of the Elder Princess’s hands, you chopped this hand off of her, aren’t you afraid of her ……”
The words were not finished, but Fan Xian understood his teacher’s meaning, and after thinking about it he said softly, “Initially, I had my worries, but then after fighting with His Second Highness, I suddenly realized that there didn’t seem to be anything I needed to worry about. With His Majesty’s secret nod, and the huge strength of the Supervisory Court …… who else in this world can fight me?”
Fei Jie knew that Fan Xian was not a complacent mediocrity, so he quietly listened to what his student had to say next.
“The resources I hold in my hands are too powerful.” Fan Xian sighed, “Whether it’s the imperial princes or the ministers in the court, they are no longer my rivals. Lord Dean once instructed me to set my sights higher, and I realize now that this not only represents where the future is headed, but also for me to cultivate this confidence …… and even pride in being a Supervisory Academy Tisan.”
“Nowadays, inside the court, there are very few people …… who can still stand up to me.” Fan Xian expressionlessly self-analyzed, “The imperial court, in the final analysis, is a violent institution, apart from the military, there is no Yamen that can be compared to the Supervisory Yuan, and His Majesty has always had an extremely firm grip on the military, and this time, driving the Ye family out of Kyoto was a clear signal. Although the Eldest Princess has her own forces in the military, it’s just that His Majesty transferred Yan Xiaoyi out of Kyoto as early as the beginning of spring, so what can the Xinyang side take against me?”
From Tanyu to Kyoto, but two years, in response to the changes of the times, under the efforts of Chen Pingping and Fan Jian ……, his mother’s comrades in arms back then, and with the tacit approval of the Emperor of the Qing State, that young, beautiful male son, in a very short period of time, had power that the world could not even begin to imagine. This kind of power was not even felt too truly by himself, until after he easily knocked off the Second Highness in Kyoto, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have underestimated himself too much in the past.
As long as the emperor’s holy favor does not fade away for a day, as long as that old woman in the palace still thinks that the young man is, after all, a royal bloodline, as long as Chen Pingping remains as she is today, staying in Chen Garden to retire and throwing all the power of the Supervisory Yuan to him to play with …… Fan Xian, he will be firmly standing on the court of the Qing State, and will not need to worry about any problems.
Fei Jie suddenly said, “Yan Xiaoyi is in the north, did he not make a move this time?”
“The North Conquest Battalion is far beyond Cangzhou, and there are countless tough generals in the battalion, and 100,000 strong soldiers ……” Fan Xian scoffed, “but it is simply not able to react. However, the Cui family several big old men should have fled to the camp, Cangzhou that line, four did not manage to completely strangle.”
Fei Jie looked at him and suddenly smiled, “Not bad, really not bad.”
Fan Xian was finally modest: “I’m just a person who makes up his mind, and it’s all thanks to Yan Bingyun that I was able to do it so beautifully.”
Fei Jie laughed, “But in half a year, you were able to pull Ruo Hai’s precious son into your camp and have him exhaust himself planning for you, you …… are really good.”
Fan Xian was silent, suddenly thought of that Miss Shen, at this time should be in the Cangshan Mountain Villa to play mahjong with Wan’er and the girls, and thought to himself that when the Cui family’s affairs are over, should not we invite Mr. Xiaoyan to come into the mountains to spend the winter as well? Thinking of the manor that was half a mountain away from the hot springs, his mood suddenly improved and he pleaded with Fei Jie, “Teacher, please consider what you said yesterday.”
Fei Jie frowned, coughed twice, and said, “A girl like a flower, you let her follow me to learn medicine …… will not be a little too pitiful? Even if I promise you, Lord Shangshu will not allow it.”
“I’ll speak at father’s place.” Fan Xian pleaded, “My sister really likes medicine, so teacher, please take the trouble.”
Fei Jie scolded, “My name is Fei Jie, not Fei Xin.”
Fan Xian cracked a smile, knowing that if his teacher lost his temper, it was a yes.
After a long time, Fei Jie’s brows suddenly flashed with a hint of sadness as he said, “But have you thought about it, the dean and I are both getting older, and there will always be a day when we go.”
Fan Xian was silent, and after a few moments suddenly said, “I think the dean should have told you about my guess about my birth.”
Fei Jian nodded expressionlessly, “At least so far, His Majesty …… has treated you well enough.”
Fan Xian did not deny this, for an illegitimate son, the emperor was able to “generously” hand over both the Supervisory Academy and the inner treasury to him, this kind of power that even imperial sons would find difficult to possess, in the minds of ordinary people, it was enough to make up for the so-called name problem.
But the problem is, Fan Xian is not a person of this world, what he asked for, in fact, a little simpler, to see the problem, will also be a little simpler – these two huge institutions, this is my mother’s, but not your royal family of the Qing Dynasty, you give me is the right thing, you do not give me, that’s you are shameless.
Fei jie is not clear about his naked thoughts, sighed and said: “when in tanyu state, you said you want to be a doctor or chef, in fact, I’m very happy, but there is also some small disappointment, young lady back then, the family business, always need to be you to inherit is. It’s just that now that I see that you’re about to inherit everything from her, I’m a bit vaguely afraid, I don’t know if you’ll regret it in the future.”
Fan Xian understood that his teacher was worried about what would happen if one day, the emperor suddenly felt that he was too strong and posed a threat to the future Crown Prince. He smiled and comforted Fei Jie, “Don’t worry about it, at least for a few years, I think His Majesty will trust my loyalty.”
He touched the scar on his chest, which was still a bit itchy, and today, after being soaked in the hot spring, it looked more and more red and a bit hideous.
“Don’t forget that she is the Empress Dowager’s most beloved daughter.” Fei Jie warned, “And she’s a madman. Not your match on a frontal battlefield, there will be some crazy tactics, just like on the streets of Oxnard in years past.”
Fan Xian suddenly fell silent, and said after a long time, “There’s Wan’er in the Buyeon, so she naturally won’t make a move. As for inside Kyoto …… even if she wants to go crazy, she has to be afraid of His Majesty. If she really wants to take out this breath, the best opportunity is nothing more than to take advantage of the fact that I am injured and not under the eyes of His Majesty in Kyoto to kill me.”
Fei Jie sighed, “It’s good that you understand this.”
Fan Xian smiled, “The me of today is not that easy to kill.”
The snort was like a schoolboy taking a knife and finely cutting open a letter of rice paper.
Cangshan hot springs behind a mile, pine forest in the white crystal snow, suddenly floated through a red liquid, fell on the ground quickly dyed open dip down, the color and then difficult to erase.
An assassin covered his throat, ho ho sound, fell dead on the snow, let out a muffled sound.
The sword hand of the Sixth Office of the Supervisory Yuan slowly retrieved the cold sword from behind the tree, saluted Gao Da who was about ten feet away, and disappeared into the snow again.
“Seventh.” Gao Da sank a face, still carrying that long sword behind him, and said to his subordinate, “Stay and carry it to the back of the mountain to burn it.”
“Yes.”
Gao Da was silent. In these recent days, the number of assassins who sneak into Cangshan with the intention of assassinating Fan Tiji is increasing, and he also knows where these assassins come from, the Xinyang side is really a bit crazy, and after the destruction of the Cui family, he chose the most direct means of retaliation …… It s just a pity that the other side obviously underestimated the defense force around Fan Tiji.
The seven tiger guards were the personal bodyguards that His Majesty had dispatched to Fan Xian.
But in the midst of this small war of assassination and counter-sniping, the truly terrifying ones were still those swordsmen from the six divisions of the Supervisory Yuan. These swordsmen, whose profession was assassination, were the official assassins of Qing, and now in the snowy mountains, against the assassins sent by the Xinyang side, they were naturally incomparably skillful in killing and preventing, but in three days’ time, they had already killed seven assassins, while they themselves were unharmed.
Gouda looked at the smear of blood red on the white snow and sighed. He is the emperor in the palace close guard, but until today only know, their own these tiger guards used to kill the enemy front intercept, that is extremely strong, but if it comes to the assassination and protection, than those in the Supervisory Yuan six, or to be a little worse.
He as a tiger guard leader, of course, clear, these six offices of the sword hand if the front and their own fight, no one is their own enemy, but the problem is that the assassin …… will never be frontal fight.
Gouda thought silently, if it was that head assassin of the Sixth Branch who came to assassinate himself, he should not have a single possibility of surviving.
After Fan Xian had been injured, the level of defense around him had been raised by several levels, especially after Chen Pingping had become furious once, the Sixth Office of the Supervisory Academy had finally reacted in shame, directly placing twelve swordsmen around Fan Xian’s body – this kind of specification, which used to be only the level of his majesty’s trips, was commonly used by his majesty as a tiger guard in the After that, in the entire world, only Chen Yuan would be so tightly guarded.
After Fan Xian knew about this matter, he did not make any instructions, but only instructed the people in the Qinian group to withdraw half of them, and one of them was not allowed to go into the mountains with himself, leaving only Deng Ziyue and Su Wenmao to specialize in liaison duties. For Chen Pingping’s “anger”, he is as a joke in the watch – you old cripple shouting people stabbed me, and then come to scold your subordinates did not protect themselves, really shameless extreme.
While Gao Da was secretly marveling at the strength of the Supervisory Court, there were others who thought similarly to him, the leader of the assassins sent by the Xinyang side to Cangshan Mountain was currently wearing a white coat, hidden in the snow, carefully watching all the sights of the mountain.
He was a dead soldier of the Xinyang side, and had long ago handed over a life to Her Highness the Princess, but he couldn’t help but feel a bit chilled as he watched the scene from earlier. It had been three whole days, not to mention assassinating Fan Xian, the Xinyang assassins were actually unable to even see Fan Xian’s face! The successive silent deaths of his own subordinates had caused this assassin leader to feel the urge to temporarily retreat for the first time.
Even with His Majesty’s Tiger Guards defending Fan Xian, he was confident enough to try, and the Xinyang side guessed that Fan Xian had been injured in some strange way, and probably wouldn’t recover for a while.
But the problem was that the Inspectorate, the Six Divisions, the official assassins, were so powerful that they seemed to instinctively be able to smell every hint of something strange in the snowy mountains, and were able to locate all the lurking elements of danger. With such a group of people protecting Fan Xian, that was unless the Xinyang side transferred an army to the mountain to kill him!
The assassin leader frowned and decided to slide down the trunk of the tree and return to Xinyang to report the details of this failure. He was quite confident in his martial arts skills, and as long as he made detailed arrangements against the six divisions of the Supervisory Academy, he would definitely be able to kill Fan Xian himself next time.
His body moved slightly, and a grain of snow drilled into his neck, slightly cool, then extremely cold.
A black brazier, through the thick snow, accurately pierced into his neck.