Chapter 217: I Heard You Are Getting Married
“Neigh!”
The “Night-Shining Jade Lion” neighed, and Zhou Botong’s voice rang out.
“Young Guo, where are you?”
“It’s Senior Zhou.” Guo Jing quickly got up and pushed open the inn’s window. “Senior, I’m here.”
“Ha, why aren’t you coming down, boy? Tell me about Qiu Chuji and Ma Yu.”
Zhou Yan got up and walked over, standing beside Guo Jing. Zhou Botong immediately said, “Boy, your horse is excellent, traveling a thousand li in the day and eight hundred at night. When I want to ride a horse for fun, I’ll borrow it from you again.”
“Alright.” Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.
“Young Guo, come down.”
Guo Jing was about to invite Zhou Botong upstairs to talk when Zhou Yan suddenly said, “Senior Zhou is straightforward and unconventional. Since you have something to ask, Brother Guo, why don’t you come down?”
Zhu Cong said, “Go, Jing’er.”
“Alright then.” Guo Jing nodded, leaped out of the window, and as soon as he landed, the Old Urchin darted towards the inn where he was staying. Guo Jing exerted himself to chase.
The gap in their cultivation was too vast, and the Old Urchin’s speed was so great that in the eyes of Zhu Cong, Han Xiaoying, and the others, it was as if they saw a gray line extending from the inn towards the Poyang Lake wharf. This gray trajectory was initially dense, then gradually faded, and in just over ten breaths, it completely merged into the snowy mist, leaving only a rolling white vortex behind.
Guo Jing chased with all his might, but the distance between them grew wider. The Old Urchin’s voice came, “Young Guo, your lightness skill is truly poor.”
Zhou Yan’s gaze returned, and he smiled slightly, turning to say, “Esteemed Heroes, it is getting late, I shall take my leave.”
While toasting and drinking in the inn, Zhou Yan spoke with reservation, not fully revealing some of the thoughts he had pondered for a long time regarding Guo Jing’s current predicament.
Ganoderma is rare and extraordinary, like uncarved jade of fine quality. Guo Jing was such a person, his time had not yet come.
The Six Freaks of Jiangnan were present when Zhou Yan was escorting goods on Poyang Lake. After he bid farewell, it was not appropriate for them to detain him further.
“Benefactor, safe travels.”
“Esteemed Heroes, please stay.”
Zhou Yan’s figure gracefully leaped out of the guest room and landed on his horse. The “Night-Shining Jade Lion” neighed, spread its four hooves, and disappeared into the wind and snow.
The sound of horse hooves gradually faded in Ke Zhen’e’s ears. He said, “Second Brother, if the Khan joins forces with the Lin’an Court to destroy the Jin Dynasty, and as Benefactor said, Guo Jing leads troops southward, what should we do?”
Zhu Cong looked at the single rider gradually blurring in the wind and snow and said, “The ways of the world are unpredictable, and worrying too much is useless. All we can do is teach Guo Jing well. Since Benefactor has said this, perhaps he already has something in mind.”
“Indeed!” Ke Zhen’e nodded. “We’ll take it as it comes.”
…
“The Head Escort is back.”
Zhou Yan dismounted and walked over. Liang Xiaowu, who was drinking tea in the hall, quickly came to greet him and said, “Hero Liu and the others are still talking with the High Monk.”
“Mm.”
Zhou Yan sat down. A runner poured him tea. He took a sip and said, “Rest here for two days. When the wind and snow subside, you all head north back to Zhongdu. I will take the High Monk to find the Golden Doll.”
“We will follow the Head Escort’s arrangements.”
“Good.”
After finishing his tea, Zhou Yan went upstairs and chatted with Liu Qingzhou, Yanbo Diaosou, and the High Monk from India, asking where he could find the Golden Doll.
The snowflakes grew denser, gradually turning into goose feathers, pouring down from the overcast night sky.
“Escort Liang, looking at this weather, the heavy snow will not stop anytime soon,” a runner in the hall said, looking at the scene outside.
“We still have to rest for two days before setting off.”
“Why don’t you speak to the Head Escort? We will follow the Head Escort,” one of the runners said.
Liang Xiaowu put down his teacup and smiled, saying, “How I wish I could, but the Head Escort is resolute. You all know this.”
“That’s true,” the runner who spoke said. “The Boss is safe now, and the escort bureau might open a branch office. The Head Escort will surely be in charge of the branch office, and Escort Liang will definitely follow the Head Escort. Don’t forget me when you prosper.”
“That’s something we can ask the Head Escort about. There won’t be a problem.”
The runner was overjoyed. Just as he was about to express his thanks, he suddenly heard angry voices from outside the inn. “Damn it, we were about to achieve great success, but that old scoundrel ruined our plans.”
Liang Xiaowu found the voice somewhat familiar. In the wind and snow, several people walked in. The person at the front had three huge flesh tumors on his head.
“It’s the Three-Headed Flood Dragon.” Liang Xiaowu and several runners had passed through Jingzhou Escort and recognized Hou Tonghai. They quickly lowered their heads to drink tea and listened intently.
“Shopkeeper, prepare three superior rooms.” Hou Tonghai said as he entered the hall.
The shopkeeper, with sharp eyes, saw that Hou Tonghai and the others were either strangely shaped or exuded a menacing aura. He quickly stepped forward to apologize, saying, “Gentlemen, I am truly sorry. With distinguished guests like yourselves, we would normally be honored, but it’s snowing today, and all the rooms are full.”
“You run an inn but don’t have rooms? Damn it, I’ll smash your birdcage of a shop.” The Three-Headed Flood Dragon glared, rolling up his sleeves as if to attack.
“Enough,” Sha Tongtian reprimanded.
Hou Tonghai’s face turned red. Just as he was about to retort, Hall Master Dai of the Iron Palm Sect said, “Lord Hou, don’t cause trouble, lest you attract that old bastard here.”
Hou Tonghai thought of Zhou Botong’s ghostly skills he had seen underwater and immediately lost his temper. Without a word, he walked out.
“Gentlemen, please take care,” the shopkeeper said, breaking out in a cold sweat, and cautiously saw them out of the hall.
Liang Xiaowu quickly went upstairs. He reached Zhou Yan and the others’ guest room and heard voices inside. He pushed the door open and entered.
“Head Escort, just now in the hall, I saw the Yellow River Gang’s Three-Headed Flood Dragon and about five or six others come to seek lodging. The inn was full, so they went elsewhere. Some black-clothed big men mentioned an old man and advised Hou Tonghai not to cause trouble.”
Guo Jing and the others were ambushed; was it Sha Tongtian, Hou Tonghai, and their men who committed the crime? Zhou Yan’s thought flashed, and he said to Liu Qingzhou, Yanbo Diaosou, and the High Monk from India, “Please wait a moment, sirs, I will go and come back.”
“Together?” Liu Qingzhou said.
Huang Yaoshi had once obstructed Zhou Yan from killing Hou Tonghai, so he would not take his life. He said, “I’m just going to gather information.”
“Very well, we’ll wait for Brother Zhou.”
“Go and return quickly.” Zhou Yan smiled, stood up, pushed open the window, and leaped onto the roof. In the distance, Hou Tonghai and the others were walking through the snowy street and finally entered an inn.
His figure flickered, crossing a street more than twenty feet wide. His body solidified on the rooftop opposite, as if he had teleported. He was using the Western Venom Ouyang Feng’s peerless skill, “Instant Thousand Li.”
Swift as lightning, silent as a cat.
Zhou Yan landed on the roof of the inn where Sha Tongtian and the others had entered. He held his breath and concentrated his senses. Suddenly, he hooked his feet on the eaves in a “pearls scattering in reverse” posture. As his gaze fell, through the slightly open window, he saw three men sitting around a table. The two on the sides were the Three-Headed Flood Dragon Hou Tonghai and the Ghost Gate Dragon King Sha Tongtian. The man in the center was tall and burly, with a square and imposing face.
A shop assistant brought wine and a brazier with lit charcoal to the guest room.
The strong liquor dispelled the cold. Hou Tonghai wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and grumbled, “If Senior Ouyang could have come to Poyang Lake, wouldn’t those Mongolian scoundrels have been easily captured?”
Sha Tongtian glared. “Say less.”
“Originally, we had to go to the Valley of Unfeeling.”
Sha Tongtian quickly said, “My junior brother is not good with words. Hall Master Dai, please forgive him. If that old man hadn’t shown up, how could this mission have gone wrong?”
“Indeed. Man proposes, heaven disposes,” Hall Master Dai sighed. “We failed at the last step. We originally planned to capture the Mongolian Imperial Envoy and present him to the Valley of Unfeeling as a wedding gift for the Gang Leader, but such a mishap occurred.”
Hou Tonghai was anxious and cried out, “Hall Master Dai, what is it? Why are you hiding it from me? Do you look down on me?”
Sha Tongtian said, “It’s because you speak without thinking. But it’s fine to tell you now. It’s about the Iron Palm Sect’s Gang Leader Qiu’s sister marrying into the Valley of Unfeeling. Senior Ouyang, the Crown Prince, and others are all going to congratulate them.”
Hou Tonghai was displeased. “It’s just a marriage, is it more important than capturing the Mongolian Imperial Envoy?”
“Scram.”
Hou Tonghai shrank his head and drank his wine in silence.
On the inn’s overhanging eaves, Zhou Yan suddenly straightened his waist and bent his abdomen, landing on the roof ridge. He thought to himself that Qiu Qianchi was finally going to marry Gongsun Zhi.
In the past, when Zhou Yan and Huang Rong infiltrated Iron Palm Peak, they happened to encounter Yang Kang visiting. Qiu Qianren told Yang Kang that after Qiu Qianchi’s marriage, he would come out of seclusion and go to Kaifeng Prefecture. Zhou and Huang had not heard this news, but now they learned of it from Sha Tongtian and Hall Master Dai.
Zhou Yan felt a vague sense of unease.
Qiu Qianren and Yang Kang’s party would travel through the Xiangyang suburbs to the Snake Valley. He wondered if they would disturb the Great Eagle. Suddenly, he thought of Ouyang Feng’s skill in catching and controlling snakes on Zhongnan Mountain.
If Ouyang Feng discovered the Snake Valley and used thousands of Pusi Snakes, wouldn’t he be invincible?
