Volume 1 Chapter 26: The Clouds of Worldly Desire
Having said that, it was dangerous after all for only twenty people to rush into a formation of several hundred people. Lin Jianlan stared closely without blinking, and cold sweat broke out in his palms. After about an incense stick of time, he saw that many soldiers in the formation had been injured and fallen to the ground. Everyone was timid and busy dodging, while some were already screaming and running away, and they stepped on the fallen people and immediately caused bursts of screams.
Behind the formation of officers and soldiers, there was a man who looked like a general. He rode a horse and walked backwards while shouting loudly, "Retreat! Retreat quickly!" He turned back and said, "Master Yun, these gang of bandits are very powerful. It's better for you to handle the affairs of the martial arts world! This general will retreat first!" After that, he hurriedly urged his horse to gallop away. When the officers and soldiers saw that their leading general had retreated, they were immediately defeated and chased after the general in a miserable state.
This general-looking man was a distant relative of Empress Wu. When one man succeeded, his family members also rose to prominence. He also got the rank of General of the Central Army. He wanted to make some military achievements this time. After sweeping three branch halls, he was very proud of himself. In addition, he relied on the fact that the emperor was his relative. He did not take Yun Mengzhen, who was rumored to be Empress Wu's male favorite, seriously. He did not expect to hit a snag at the main hall. This man was timid and cherished his life. Seeing the bravery of these men, he was so scared that his legs were shaking. He thought why he should die here, so he led the officers and soldiers away.
Yun Mengzhen cursed in his heart: "What kind of General of the Household? So useless, he can do nothing but spend his days drinking and partying. It's a pity that the emperor didn't listen to me and insisted on having these burdens follow him. If it were up to me, he would just select more capable generals from the Imperial Guards, why would it come to this!" Thinking of this, his handsome face turned blue with anger, but he didn't expect Lin Longqing's elusive cloth belt to come in an instant. He just avoided it, but it cut his face. Yun Mengzhen hurriedly touched it with his hand and felt that the wound was not very deep. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the cloth belt carefully, not daring to be impatient anymore.
The men saw the government troops fleeing and did not chase them. The leader saw that there were still fifty or sixty dead and wounded on the ground, and burst into laughter and said, "What a bunch of useless wimps! Brothers, kill the rest!" The soldiers who were not dead yet saw the men approaching step by step with steel knives in their hands, like ferocious monsters. They were frightened out of their wits, but they had no power to fight back or escape. They just closed their eyes tightly and waited for the knife. Then they heard a young man shouting, "Don't kill them! You can't kill them!"
The man was surprised when he heard the shouting, then waved his hand, and his men put away their knives and stood aside. Then they saw a boy of twelve or thirteen years old running out of the main hall. The man asked curiously, "Who are you?"
Lin Jianlan pointed at Lin Longqing and said, "He is my adoptive father." He was busy putting out fires everywhere in the yard, and was sweating from the smoke and fire. His face was suddenly black and white, but he said solemnly, "You can't kill him, you can't kill him!"
The man didn't seem to care about Lin Jianlan's identity, nor did he address him respectfully as "young master" like ordinary people. He just smiled and pointed at the soldiers and said majestically: "They swept through the three branches of our Kuangyi Gang. Except for the whereabouts of the leaders of the Bianzhou Hall and Yongzhou Hall, all the brothers of the three branches were killed by them. They deserve to die a thousand times or ten thousand times!"
Lin Jianlan was puzzled: "Why did this uncle say that three branches were destroyed? Brother Yue only mentioned the two near Dongdu." He shook his head and said: "Seeing you rush in just now, everyone was scared and had no intention of fighting. It can be seen that they don't want to fight. It is wrong to deal with our Kuangyi Gang, but they are also under the instructions of the higher-ups and have no choice but to listen."
The man grinned and said, "Then kill them first, and then kill the people who ordered them!" The officers and soldiers were grateful when they saw that the strange young man was speaking for them, but they became afraid when they heard what the man said.
Lin Jianlan said with a sad face: "I originally wanted to kill them to avenge the uncles from the branches of the Kuang Yi Gang. It's not impossible to get some temporary satisfaction, but this time they only came with a few hundred people. Next time they may be thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of troops. By then, can the Kuang Yi Gang kill them all? I'm afraid that by then, not only the Kuang Yi Gang, but also the entire martial arts world will be in a catastrophe." As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a voice of "Good, good" not far away. A group of people walked in slowly, led by an old monk with two long-lived eyebrows drooping down, kind eyes, and slightly narrowed eyes. The people behind him seemed to be some martial artists, all with murderous looks on their faces, and walked quickly. One of them was very strange, wearing a bamboo hat and a black veil covering his face. After seeing the battle in the forest, he said in a deep voice: "Fortunately, it's not too late."
The old monk walked straight up to Lin Jianlan and said, "It's rare for a young man like you to have such a kind heart, but even if you don't kill them , the Kuangyi Gang is now in conflict with the imperial court. How can you guarantee that the imperial court won't send troops to attack in the future?"
Lin Jianlan was not in a hurry to answer, but asked: "Grandpa, are you and them here to help?" The old monk smiled and shook his head and said: "They are here to help, I am here to see if I can smooth things over."
Lin Jianlan rolled his eyes, and was delighted. He bowed to the old monk and said, "I dare not say that the court will not send a large army in the future, but with you here, half of the matter is done. If Kuang Yi helps heal these injured soldiers, sends them back, and promises them generous gifts, you can talk to the higher-ups and ask them to stop making trouble with us Jianghu people, right?"
The old monk stroked Lin Jianlan's head and said, "Young man, how do you know that I know 'her' and asked me to talk to 'her'?" Lin Jianlan said, "The Kuangyi Gang is already the largest gang in the martial arts world. The one who came to help must be a very famous sect in the martial arts world. Now it is obvious that this is a matter between the court and the Kuangyi Gang, but you dare to say 'smooth things over'. Who else in the world has such courage except the Shaolin Temple, which has always been favored by the emperor?"
The old monk was the abbot of Shaolin Temple, Tan Zong. He laughed loudly and said, "Good, good, not bad, not bad!" After laughing, he said in a serious tone, "The emperor is stubborn and competitive. She suffered a setback this time. Even if I come forward to plead with her, I am afraid it will only delay her for a while. When she remembers it in the future, she will definitely send twice as many people to avenge today's shame. The Kuangyi Gang must make plans early, either to show goodwill to the court, or to avoid being too popular. Young man, do you understand?"
Lin Jianlan's expression also became serious when he heard this. He frowned and said, "Thank you, Grandpa. We have no choice but to do this for now. We will try to delay it for a while. As the role model of the outlaws, the Kuang Yi Gang is unlikely to show goodwill to the court. Alas, as for what to do, it is not up to me to decide. Uncle Qing and Aunt have the final say."
These martial artists who came from thousands of miles away to rescue him obviously respected the Shaolin abbot very much. Seeing that he was still chatting with Lin Jianlan, no one dared to step forward to fight with the people from the Yukou Division. Moreover, each sect inevitably had other intentions in mind. Seeing that the Kuangyi Gang was not at a disadvantage, they watched the battle wholeheartedly and secretly tried to figure out the martial arts of the Kuangyi Gang and the Yukou Division. Du Shangqing, the head of the Qingcheng Sect, glanced at Cao Shupeng, the head of the Yujian Sect next to him, and thought: "This is the Jade Thirteen Swords, right? It is indeed fierce and fierce. The Yujian Sect is just a second-rate sect in the martial arts world. They also rushed here this time. Although they are related to the Kuangyi Gang by marriage, I don't know what they are up to."
Cao Shupeng thought to himself, "In order to avenge my third brother, my third sister-in-law finally mastered the Jade Thirteen Swords, but I don't know why Lin Longqing is here to fight together with us?" There was also a dirty old man who looked very ragged. He was the leader of the Beggar Gang, Nian Yongshou. He was also muttering in his heart, "The Kuangyi Gang changed drastically a few years ago. I didn't expect Lin Longqing to be here to rescue him today. The situation is really puzzling." The man in black sighed, "Qin Tianxiong's moves are powerful and vigorous, Zhang Hufa is calm and ruthless, and the others are also fighting one against several. There are indeed many hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the Kuangyi Gang, and there are many outstanding people."
When Tanzong heard the young man mention "Uncle Qing" and "Aunt", he was quite puzzled. He wondered who this young man was from and why he was so smart. At this juncture, he had no time to ask. He saw that Yun Mengzhen seemed not to have seen the reinforcements from Kuang Yi Gang. There was a trace of blood on his face, and he was still fighting with Lin Longqing. With his whisk outside, his body had revealed many flaws. Lin Longqing had already noticed that there were many old acquaintances among the reinforcements, so he felt more at ease. His moves became more steady and sophisticated, sometimes like a leisurely stroll in the garden, sometimes like a whirlwind, moving around Yun Mengzhen, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The belt was sometimes bent and sometimes straight, and he frequently attacked the vital points on Yun Mengzhen's inner ring, but he could no longer tell whether it was a sword technique or a whip technique, and it was unpredictable.
Yunmeng Zhen only felt as if there were countless small snakes attacking him all over his body, and he didn't know which one was real. He just danced a whisk around himself, and Lin Longqing had circled behind him. With the help of his internal force, the cloth belt in his hand stretched and brushed towards the alveoli of Yunmeng Zhen's legs. Yunmeng Zhen suddenly felt his legs numb, and he immediately stood unsteadily and supported himself with his hands. Lin Longqing was not in a hurry to kill him. He thought it would be better to capture him and hand him over to the Kuang Yi Gang. He flashed to Yunmeng Zhen's side and pointed two fingers down. Seeing this, Tanzong thought to himself: "This Yunmeng Zhen looks generous, but in fact he is the most vindictive. If he is beaten by Lin Longqing today and loses face, he will definitely say more words of killing in front of the emperor in the future."
While he was thinking, Yun Mengzhen took advantage of Lin Longqing's approach and swung his whisk. Lin Longqing hurriedly dodged, but a puff of smoke came straight at his face. Tan Zong said "not good" in his heart and ran over. He waved his sleeves and brushed away the puff of smoke. The two of them felt a gentle influx of internal energy. When they looked closely, they found that it was a gray cloth sleeve. It was Tan Zong who used his internal energy to separate the two of them. He said, "Amitabha, wait a minute, listen to what I have to say."
Abbot Tanzong was a person Lin Longqing had known and respected since he was a child. Since he was a teenager, he had always followed his father's orders and prepared generous gifts to visit the Shaolin Temple and Shushan every year to pay homage to the elders of the two sects. Tanzong had given him a lot of guidance on martial arts, so Lin Longqing immediately retracted his attack, but his body was shaking. It turned out that although he dodged, he had already inhaled several breaths of the smoke. He quickly pressed several acupoints and sat cross-legged, but his face was still blue.
Seeing this, Lin Jianlan rushed over and shouted, "Uncle Qing!" Lin Longqing frowned and closed his eyes without saying a word, but Tan Zong brushed him away and said, "Don't get close, he's poisoned!" Yun Mengzhen had already been surrounded by masters from various sects who came to help, but he looked smug and laughed, "He can't survive!"
At this moment, the other members of the Yukou Division and the Kuangyi Gang had already stopped their attacks. They were watching Yun Mengzhen being surrounded by the rescuers, and at the same time, they were looking at the poisoned Lin Longqing with an anxious look on their faces. Lin Hongfeng could no longer bear it, and rushed to Yun Mengzhen, pointed his long sword at him and said, "Quickly take out the antidote!"
Yun Mengzhen gently pressed the wound on his face, took out a small pill from his bosom, and said with a sinister smile: "The name of the smoke is Qihua Jinlan Miasma, and the antidote is just this one pill, and it is in my hand now. If you dare to do it, I will crush this pill and throw it into the dust, and you will never be able to save him again!"
Everyone turned to look at Lin Longqing and saw that Doctor Cheng had already been checking on him, but he shook his head.
Tanzong still had a kind face. He had only met Yun Mengzhen a few times at the emperor's place, but he knew Yun Mengzhen's background and preferences very well. He knew that although he used to be a person who cultivated the truth and cultivated his nature, he was very greedy for fame and wealth in the world. So he said slowly: "Master Yun, I don't want to hurt anyone. I just came here to mediate between the two of you. If you can stop the fighting, wouldn't it be good?"
Yun Mengzhen knew that the old monk held a special position in front of the emperor, so he forced a smile and said, "The Kuangyi Gang is very powerful, and the emperor has been planning to eliminate them for a long time. Old abbot, wouldn't it be better for you to meditate and study the scriptures in your Shaolin Temple and pray for the emperor? Why are you getting involved in this mess?"
Tan Zong closed his eyes and said, "I will go and talk to the Saint. It won't hinder Master Yun from making great achievements. Besides, if I don't give Boss Lin the antidote today, you and the people from the Yukou Division will probably not be able to walk out of here alive. I have a little mercy in my heart, but it's for your own good." After a pause, he continued, "If you don't have a life, how can you enjoy this prosperous world?"
After hearing this, Lin Jianlan thought to himself, "This old abbot is a monk. I never expected him to say this. But it hit the nail on the head for Taoist Master Yun. It's obvious from his expression that he is very moved."
Tan Zong saw that Yun Mengzhen and the others' expressions had eased a little, and he knew that he had impressed them, so he said, "Master Yun, don't worry and go back. I will prove today's events to the emperor. Master Yun has been fighting against powerful enemies and rescued several captured officers and soldiers from the Kuangyi Gang. The emperor will not only not blame you, but will reward you." He turned back to Lin Hongfeng and said, "Miss Lin, can you give me a favor and let me be your guarantor? Master Yun hands over the antidote, and you let them go?"
Qin Tianxiong said angrily: "Then the lives of so many brothers from our two branches were lost in vain?" Lin Hongfeng's face turned pale, and he bit his lips tightly. After thinking for a long time, he said: "Brothers, let's exchange the antidote today and save his life. Lin Hongfeng will definitely make them pay double for the revenge of the brothers in the future!"
