Chapter 187: Fate

The clear copper whistle sounded like a flock of swallows in the rain, its sound passing over the rooftops and flying into the dark, narrow alleys.

Inside the alleys, the Trouble Dispelling Guards wearing bamboo hats simultaneously lifted their heads to look at the night sky. Upon hearing the clear copper whistle, they also took out their own copper whistles from their chests and blew them.

Whistle after whistle rippled outwards into the distance. The Trouble Dispelling Guards swarmed back towards the inner prison like bees returning to their hive.

Looking down from the sky, the heavy snow was like a chessboard, the alleys like the squares, and the dense Trouble Dispelling Guards like chess pieces. Someone had set up this game of chess and invited the gentlemen into the urn.

Before the Trouble Dispelling Guards arrived, Liang Gou’er crouched on the roof ridge and whispered to Chen Ji, “Hurry and go! The Trouble Dispelling Guards are about to arrive. This is a trap!”

In front of the inner prison door, Chen Ji did not reply.

He looked at the dark, gaping stone stairs 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 Bagua diagrams had also been extinguished at some unknown point.

Chen Ji was suspicious.

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

Why was a single prison guard so alert? Among the prison guards, was only this one an elite, and he happened to encounter him himself?

The heavy snow fell on Chen Ji’s head, shoulders, and into his heart. He only felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart, spreading throughout his body like a flow of ice.

He finally knew where this feeling of powerlessness had come from during this period. It was only because everything had been carefully designed by someone. Besides the Liu family, the Prince of Jing, and the Luo Tian Sect, he was also a calculated part of the chain!

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

As he pondered, the sound of cartwheels pressing over the stone road came from a distance. Chen Ji turned his head to look and suddenly saw Zhang Zhuo’s grain transport team escorted by soldiers from the Luoyang government. They were lined up in a chaotic long dragon, passing through and blocking the vicinity completely. The arrow was on the string and had to be shot!

Chen Ji turned back and looked at Liang Gou’er on the roof. “Gou’er Big Brother, I lied to you. I don’t even know if the letter you are holding can reach Jiang Liuxian. You should all leave. You can still leave now. The Secret Plot Department won’t know you participated in this matter.”

Liang Gou’er said angrily, “You will definitely die if you go in now!”

Chen Ji entered the inner prison without looking back. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, there’s nothing good to expect.”

After speaking, he walked down the stone stairs step by step and rushed towards the depths of the inner prison.

Yu Dengke hesitated for several breaths, jumped down from the roof, and followed Chen Ji into the inner prison. In the heavy snow, only Liang Gou’er and Liang Mao’er were left on the roof.

Liang Gou’er lay on the rooftop with a complex expression. He saw the figures of the Trouble Dispelling Guards attacking from a distance and turned to leave, “Mao’er, let’s go. Don’t get involved in this mess!”

However, before he could completely turn over, he was grabbed tightly by Liang Mao’er’s arm. “Brother, the world child and the county lord are both good people. We can’t leave.”

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

He said helplessly, “What does their being good people have to do with us? Haven’t we helped few people that year? Haven’t there been few people who repaid kindness with enmity? When our family had trouble, they came to kick 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 by enemy families and only had half a life left. It was our dad who drew his knife and saved him. But what was the result? That poisonous prime minister formed some martial alliance to recruit and pacify the world’s martial artists, giving official positions and issuing rations. Li Xuan was afraid that our father would compete with him for the alliance leader position, so he sneak-attacked our dad after drinking wine!”

Liang Gou’er angrily stared at his younger brother. “Our dad saved Zhou You and his son that year. The father and son were homeless and almost starved to death on the streets. But what was the result? After our dad was injured by Li Xuan and went on an escort mission, outsiders didn’t know about his injury. It was Zhou You and his son who saw the opportunity and leaked this matter to the Taihang Mountain bandits, harming our dad’s life! These 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 enemy families come looking, how will you live?”

Liang Mao’er remained silent.

Liang Gou’er looked at his younger brother, their angry eyes locked. “Are you leaving or not? If not, I’m leaving!”

Liang Mao’er slowly loosened his hand and said seriously, “Brother, their forgetting kindness and enmity is their fault, not that what we did was wrong. Brother, what is our Liang family motto?”

Liang Gou’er was stunned. “Mao’er, Jianghu is no longer the Jianghu it used to be…” Liang Mao’er stood up from the roof ridge, looked down at his brother, and said seriously,

“People of Jianghu do things of Jianghu. Their words must be believed, their actions must be fruitful, what is promised must be sincere, do not cherish your body, rather die for righteousness, do not steal a lucky life, view death as returning home! The world child and the county lord are sincere to us. If we leave this time, what difference would there be from those villains?”

Liang Mao’er continued, “Brother, do you remember the eight characters our dad told you before he died?”

Liang Gou’er murmured, “One defeat in establishing oneself, all matters crumble like tiles.” Liang Mao’er lowered his eyes. “You haven’t done it.”

As his words fell, a Trouble Dispelling Guard came to the inner prison door with his hand on his waist knife. Just as he was about to rush in, Liang Mao’er stepped on the roof ridge, leaped up vertically, and pounced behind the Trouble Dispelling Guard.

The Trouble Dispelling Guard felt a dark shadow pressing from behind and subconsciously turned to draw his knife. But the knife was only halfway out when the entire person was grabbed and lifted by Liang Mao’er.

“Go!”

Liang Mao’er exerted force and threw him several Zhang away.

The Trouble Dispelling Guard fell onto the snow, bounced up heavily, fell down again, and slid two or three zhang before finally stopping. His bamboo hat on his head was also thrown to some unknown place.

The Trouble Dispelling Guard struggled to his feet from the snow and shook his head. He looked at the distance between himself and Liang Mao’er in disbelief. He had actually been thrown so far!

He turned his head, spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, and reached up to his collar to slowly untie his clothes and throw them onto the snow, exposing the red embroidered python extending from his shoulder to his chest on the black flying fish suit inside.

“Kill!” The Trouble Dispelling Guard drew his waist knife and came forward on the snow, brave and fearless of death.

As he charged back, five or six more Trouble Dispelling Guards rushed over. The Trouble Dispelling Guards took off their clothes and drew their knives to charge and kill towards Liang Mao’er.

When they entered within ten steps of Liang Mao’er, the Trouble Dispelling Guards all took off their bamboo hats and flung them at Liang Mao’er like hidden weapons.

The bamboo hats broke through the layers of snow curtains and flew spinning.

Liang Mao’er tried his best to dodge, but was still cut by two bamboo hats on his arm and leg. The brim of the Trouble Dispelling Guards’ bamboo hats had blades hidden inside. Where they cut, there was a bloodstain.

The Trouble Dispelling Guards surrounded Liang Mao’er.

Liang Mao’er fought desperately and without method, only using wide, open, forceful horizontal slashes. He repeatedly parried the Trouble Dispelling Guards’ knife blades and grabbed and threw his opponents, but he still couldn’t bring himself to kill.

He could still be heard chanting, “People of Jianghu do things of Jianghu…”

Liang Gou’er understood his younger brother the most. He was soft-hearted enough to cry for half the night when a chick died at home in childhood. When their father wanted to kill a cow, that silly younger brother would hug the cow’s neck and say, “If you want to kill the cow, kill me first.”

This kind of fool, with a body of innate divine power, even if he had a body of heaven-piercing knife skills, would never kill people.

Liang Gou’er was annoyed. He turned and lay down on the roof, closing his eyes. Yet, Liang Mao’er’s voice still lingered in his ears: “Rather die for righteousness, do not steal a lucky life…”

The Trouble Dispelling Guards surrounding Liang Mao’er became more and more numerous. Liang Gou’er, who was lying on the roof, stood up.

“Stop chanting, stop chanting!” He quietly stood on the roof ridge, looked down at his younger brother not far away, and finally sighed, “So kind-hearted and soft-handed. If I were to die, how would you live?”

As a Trouble Dispelling Guard swung his knife to chop at Liang Mao’er from behind, Liang Gou’er flicked the knife guard with his thumb.

A piercing sound that pierced the sky, the purest sound of a sword being drawn, as if it were the original martial sound of the creation of heaven and earth!

Liang Gou’er still stood on the roof ridge. A clear and bright knife light horizontally crossed heaven and earth, spanning several Wen of distance, splitting the Trouble Dispelling Guard who had sneak-attacked Liang Mao’er into two. The stone road beneath the accumulated snow was also cleaved with a palm-deep crack.

Overbearing! Unmatched!

A Trouble Dispelling Guard exclaimed, “Liang family knife skill!”

The Liang family knife skill had no moves or techniques. They just cultivated knife intent to the extreme. In a breath, the killing intent was pure, no small skills were needed!

Liang Mao’er turned his head and smiled honestly at Liang Gou’er. “Brother, thank you.” Liang Gou’er said with ill temper, “Shut up!”

He lightly leaped down from the roof and stood in front of Liang Mao’er.

The next moment, Liang Gou’er raised his head and looked at the dense Trouble Dispelling Guards who had just surrounded and killed them.

He said to Liang Mao’er without looking back, “Silly Mao’er, no one in our Liang family has ever been able to cross that threshold of the divine path. Father always said this matter must fall on your body. I hope father wasn’t wrong. Today, let you see what true Liang family knife skill is. Learning it is life, not learning it is also life.”

He only saw Liang Gou’er facing the hundreds of Trouble Dispelling Guards above, standing tall and looking up. He took a deep breath, and the wind and snow were rolled into his mouth, like a whale swallowing heaven and earth.

Draw the knife!

In an instant, the knife light illuminated the night, and the snow waterfall rolled back!

On the stone stairs of the inner prison, Chen Ji walked down quickly.

Crossbow bolts shot from the darkness. Chen Ji slightly tilted his head to avoid them, his right hand reaching out first and grasping the arrow feather of a crossbow bolt near his ear.

He threw it backhand into the darkness, and a muffled groan came from not far away, followed by someone quickly running away.

Chen Ji covered his face with the gray cloth again, ran down the stone stairs, and stepped into the inner prison tunnel. More than ten prison guards fought and killed their way over. However, Chen Ji did not stop his steps and rushed towards the prison guards.

In the prison rooms on both sides, prisoners from the Prince of Jing’s residence and the Liu family were still detained. They clawed at the edge of the iron bars and shouted, “Save us, save us!”

Chen Ji engaged in a quick battle with the prison guards in the narrow tunnel. In an instant, seizing the knife, swinging the knife, completed in one breath!

A prison guard exclaimed, “Not acquired, it’s innate!” Chen Ji’s face was ashen. He held his knife and forced his way forward step by step.

In the sounds of fighting in the tunnel, Yu Dengke ran to Chunhua’s prison room and hugged her through the iron bars. “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I’ve come to save you.”

Chunhua suppressed her cries with her mouth. “Silly man, why are you here? Aren’t you afraid of death?! There are so many of them, hurry and go!”

Yu Dengke hurried to comfort her. “It’s alright. Even if we die, we must die together. Wait a moment first, I’ll go help.”

As his 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, not needing his help at all.

Chen Ji, covered in blood, was panting. He pulled a string of keys from a prison guard’s waist, found the key for room number Jia seven and picked it off, then threw the remaining keys to Yu Dengke. “Open the door and save Chunhua.”

Yu Dengke received the keys and fumbled with them, inserting them into the lock hole while watching Chen Ji run towards the depths.

Chen Ji ran very fast, and room number Jia seven became closer and closer.

As he ran to the door, he wiped the bloodstains from his face. He lowered his head again and looked to make sure he couldn’t see the wounds on his body before feeling relieved.

But when Chen Ji came to the door of prison room number Jia seven, he suddenly stopped.

Chen Ji 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 world child, no Bai Li.

He looked at the world child grabbing the iron bars, his mouth opening and closing, but he couldn’t hear what the other party was saying. He felt like he had drowned in water, a sticky, thick black lake water tightly wrapping around him, not knowing where it was flowing.

Chen Ji came back to his senses and asked angrily, “Where is the county lord?”

The world child came to the door and said, “Today, the White Dragon took her away alone. I don’t know where he took her!”

“Why did he take the county lord away alone?” “I don’t know!”

A sudden sense of absurdity rose in Chen Ji’s heart.

It was as if fate had a self-correcting ability. No matter how much effort he made, there would always be a problem in one link, bringing fate back to its original track.

No, this was not fate.

The White Dragon had no reason to take Bai Li away alone, unless someone knew beforehand that he wanted to break into the prison, unless…

Chen Ji suddenly turned his head to look at the darkness at the end of the tunnel. A sinister and vicious chess player seemed to be sitting there, silently mocking him.

But if the other party knew he wanted to break into the prison, why would they leave the world child?

Chen Ji turned around and walked forward with big strides. He came to the door of prison room number Jia one and saw the Prince of Jing sitting withered in the inner room.

In just two days, the other party seemed to have lived a lifetime in this inner prison. The other party didn’t die, only because the other party was waiting for someone.

The Prince of Jing heard footsteps and raised his head to look at Chen Ji at the door. “You still came.”

Chen Ji said directly, “Your Highness, you clearly knew that Emperor Ning arranged Companion Feng by your side to calculate you. You are fundamentally not someone who would just be captured with your hands tied, yet you didn’t leave any trump card for yourself.”

The Prince of Jing did not speak.

Chen Ji continued, “Before, I was thinking, Your Highness, in doing so, you were either waiting for your last trump card, or… you wanted to calculate some people again. I thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out who you wanted to calculate, until I discovered that my master knew I was an outer village guest, until the White Dragon took the county lord away alone.”

Chen Ji stood in front of the prison room door and suddenly asked, “Your Highness, the person you ultimately wanted to calculate was me, wasn’t it? That’s why you said sorry to me.”

Chen Ji looked into the Prince of Jing’s eyes. “Your Highness, you have seen Li Qing, right? It was you, my master, and Li Qing working together to smuggle me down from the forty-nine levels of heaven. That’s why you came to find me to play chess the first time you returned to Luoyang, wanting to see what kind of person I am.”

The Prince of Jing still did not speak.

Chen Ji grabbed the iron bars and asked in a condensed voice, “But why did you want to sacrifice the county lord? What did she do wrong? Just because she is not your biological daughter, so you hate her? What exactly do you all want to do?”

After looking at him quietly for a long time, he slowly said, “Chen Ji, there were too many things I wanted to do during the strife between the Jing and Ning dynasties, but I had no time. I couldn’t clear the Ning dynasty’s ailments, nor could I equip soldiers and horses to unify the mountains and rivers. At the age of twenty-one, I was a determined young general. At forty-five, I was just a prisoner with a terminal illness. Friendship and ideals could no longer give me strength. But Chen Ji, some things have not been finished and must be done by someone… Only if I die, and enough people from the Prince of Jing’s residence die, can the Jing dynasty believe me.”

Chen Ji’s doubts were not only not completely resolved, but he had more doubts. What did the Jing dynasty believe? What did the Prince of Jing want to do?

No, the Prince of Jing wasn’t telling the truth. There were still secrets hidden in the Prince of Jing’s words!

At this moment, Yu Dengke came running quickly, holding Chunhua’s hand. “Hurry and go! We don’t have time. If we don’t leave now, we really won’t be able to!”

Yu Dengke pulled Chen Ji to walk outside. Chen Ji roared angrily, “What exactly do you all want to do?!” The Prince of Jing sighed in the prison room, “Chen Ji, this world shouldn’t have immortals, nor should it have forty-nine levels of heaven… Sorry.”

Chen Ji still wanted to rush up and ask his doubts again, but he found that a fierce surge of ice flowed out of prison room number Jia one. It was more terrifying and huge than the ice flow from Concubine Jing, Concubine Yun, or any other time before, even more so than the entire inner prison’s ice flow!

It was suffocating!

The real power prince of the Ning dynasty, left.

The other party did not give him another chance to ask his doubts. A generation of vassal kings willingly died in this dark prison room.

For a moment, Chen Ji even thought, why did the Prince of Jing hold on until now? He just wanted to leave the ice flow to him!

Without time to think further, he took out the key, opened the prison room, pulled up the world child, and ran outside.

The world child shouted, “Chen Ji, save my dad! He’s still inside!”

Chen Ji didn’t answer. He just pulled the world child and ran forward, passing through the long, dark tunnel and breaking through the cage.

When they reached the ground, Yu Dengke was startled.

Hundreds of corpses of Trouble Dispelling Guards lay on the snow. Their red blood emitted hot air in the winter night, melting the snow one by one.

On the snow, Liang Mao’er supported Liang Gou’er, who stood with his left hand hanging down, holding a knife. He stood tall and straight. However, a bloodstain ran diagonally across Liang Gou’er’s back from his shoulder to his lower back, and his right arm… was empty.

Yu Dengke hesitated and said, “Gou’er Big Brother, you…”

Liang Gou’er smiled. “Damn it, there were quite a few officials hidden among the Trouble Dispelling Guards. I capsized in the ditch. My main pulse is broken, so I can’t use a knife anymore. But it’s just right. This body of knife skill has harmed the Liang family for more than a dozen generations. It’s fine to not have it.”

Chen Ji averted his eyes. “Thank you, Gou’er Big Brother.”

Liang Gou’er said with ill temper, “Stop with the fake understanding. I don’t like dealing with people like you who don’t choose their means. After this, let’s forget each other in Jianghu and never meet again.”

Chen Ji didn’t explain anything. He took out a white porcelain bottle from his chest and threw it to Liang Mao’er. “Medicine from the Huangshan Dao Court.”

Liang Gou’er said seriously, “After this, you owe my two brothers a life. If one day Liang Mao’er is in trouble, no matter where you are, no matter if it’s climbing a mountain of knives or plunging into a sea of fire, you must repay this life.”

Chen Ji said seriously, “Okay.”

At this moment, the sound of horse hooves galloping came from a distance.

Chen Ji looked at the crowd. “Yu Dengke, next you will take the world child and act according to the plan. Someone will send you out of Luoyang.”

Yu Dengke turned his head in surprise. “Where are you going? Aren’t you coming with us to the Jing dynasty? If you leave, you will die.”

Chen Ji took a deep breath. “I can’t leave. I still have things I want to do.”

Yu Dengke was about to say something, but he saw Chen Ji retreat backwards, step by step, into the dark night. “Someone once told me that a person who cannot abandon anything cannot change anything. I know what I am doing, and I know I can succeed. This time we part, I don’t know when we can see each other again, or perhaps we will never see each other again. When you arrive at the Jing dynasty, if you all drink wine together, drink a mouthful for me. Take care.”

After speaking, Chen Ji turned around and ran away.

(There are still updates)