Chapter Seventy-Three

  Ji Lianyan's words gave Tang Yins a sudden idea, perhaps he should also go to Laiyang and take a look at this grand gathering of wind people and wandering heroes.

  Tang Yin finally assigned five top-notch Lingwu experts to Zhang Wu. Among them, three came from the Lingwu Academy, one was from the Duwei Yingying Camp, and the other was from the Dark Arrow. These five were all exceptional Lingwu talents, not only with profound cultivation but also exquisite hand-to-hand combat skills, worthy of being called the crème de la crème among the elite.

  Zhang Dong was very satisfied with the five experts sent by Tang Yin, and he took the five people away from Yancheng to Laiyang. After Zhang Dong left, Tang Yin also prepared to leave for Laiyang. He called Qiu Zhen and Shangguan Yuange, explained his actions to them, and entrusted them with the affairs of the court.

  Qiu Zhen and Shangguan Yuanyi both expressed opposition to Tang Yin's trip. Firstly, there were too many spiritual practitioners gathering at the Youxia meeting, what if something unexpected happened? Secondly, Shao Fang would arrive in Yancheng by the end of the month, and if Tang Yin couldn't return on time, it would be very impolite.

  Tang Yin had long expected them to say this, and he had already thought of a response. He smiled and said: "On this trip, I'm just going as an onlooker, I won't interfere or reveal my identity, there's no possibility of any accidents happening. As for meeting Shao Fang, it won't be delayed either. Laiyang is not far from Yancheng, it's only a three-day horse ride away, so you two don't need to worry anymore."

  Qiu Zhen and Shangguan Yuanyi looked at each other, and the latter asked: "I wonder who the king plans to bring along on this trip?"

  "Jiang Fan and Cheng Jin, how are they?" Tang Yin asked with a smile.

  "Very good, very good!" Officer Yuanji nodded and didn't say anything more. Jiang Fan and Cheng Jin were both masters of the Dark System's Spiritual Martial Arts, with them by Tang Yin's side, Officer Yuanji could indeed feel a lot more at ease.

  After passing by Tang Yin, Qiu Zhen specially found Lei Zhen and asked him to secretly dispatch the elite of the Duwei Camp, disguised as a wandering knight, to protect Tang Yin in secret. The Duwei Camp was directly under Tang Yin's command and did not belong to Qiu Zhen's jurisdiction, but Lei Zhen thought his words made sense, so he nodded repeatedly in agreement.

  Three days later, Tang Yin changed into casual clothes and quietly left the Wang Mansion with only six people: Jiang Fan, Cheng Jin, Shangguan brothers, Ah San, and Ah Si, heading towards Laiyang.

  Lingnan County is adjacent to Yancheng, and Laiyang, although located in the west of Lingnan County, is also about 600-700 miles away from Yancheng. If you rush day and night, you can arrive in two days.

  Since it was still several days before the full moon, Tang Yin and his party were not in a hurry to rush on the road. They traveled slowly, admiring the scenery along the way. As the ruler of Fengguo, Tang Yin rarely had the opportunity to go out and have fun like this, and he took advantage of this trip to appreciate the magnificent landscape of Fengguo.

  The country of Feng has many groups of mountains and forests, rivers, and beautiful scenery. The landscape is picturesque, but what makes Tang Yin feel regretful and disappointed is that there are too many tourists along the way, and a large part of them are traveling knights whose destination is also Laiyang, just like Tang Yin's.

  Looking around at the endless crowd, Tang Yin sighed quietly and said to Jiang Fan and others beside him in a low voice: "It seems that this time, Feng Ren You Xia's gathering has caused quite a stir!"

  "Yes, Your Majesty!" Cheng Jin said: "All the Wind Human You Xia factions, regardless of size or strength, early or late establishment, basically all received invitations."

  Tang Yin smiled wryly and said, "With such a scale, I suppose Ni Feng Liu has already heard the news. I don't know if he will suddenly burst in to make trouble during the gathering." He paused for a moment, then asked the Shangguan brothers, "Has the direct army arrived at Laiyang yet?"

  After getting the warning from Ji Liyan, Tang Yin basically gave up his decision to use force to suppress the You Xia Bang, but that doesn't mean he gave up on the threat of force. If things don't go as planned, Tang Yin still wants to mobilize the army, even if not using force, surround and wait for the You Xia Bang to surrender.

  "Reporting to General... the six battalions directly under the army have arrived near Laiyang, with three battalions stationed in Suwan Town and the other three battalions stationed in Yaoju Town. These two towns are located south and north of the gathering place of the You Xia, as soon as the general gives the order, the troops from both towns will be deployed at the same time, and they can arrive within half an hour." Shangguan Yuanwu reported the information he received to Tang Yin one by one.

  "En!" Tang Yin nodded and didn't ask any more about it.

  At noon, the sun was strong and Tang Yin and others were sweating profusely. Just as Tang Yin was thinking of finding a shady place to rest, he saw a tea shed by the roadside ahead and gestured to Jiang Fan and others, urging his horse to run over.

  Tang Yin and his entourage arrived in front of the tea shed, looked inside with their heads down, and found that this small, dilapidated tea shed, which was neither a village nor a store, was now packed with people. Not only were the tables surrounded by people, but there were also people sitting on the ground between the tables. Many tourists who couldn't squeeze in sat outside, drinking tea and eating dry rations. Seeing this scene, Tang Yin didn't even dismount his horse, feeling that it would be better to continue on their journey.

  Shangguan brothers looked at each other and dismounted their horses. Yuanwu and Yuanbiao handed the reins to Ah San and Ah Si, then stepped into the teahouse.

  On ordinary days, the tea shed's business was pitifully small, with only the boss lady herself present, not even a shop assistant. Now too, it was just the boss lady who was busy, seeing the arrival of Officer Guan and his brother but having no time to greet them, constantly pouring tea, serving tea, collecting money, busily and cheerfully.

  The Shangguan brothers took a few glances at the boss lady who was pouring tea behind the counter. She looked to be in her thirties, not particularly beautiful but with a delicate complexion and a lingering charm. Shangguan Yuanwu knocked on the counter and spoke first: "Boss lady, there are seven of us, please arrange an empty table for us and brew two pots of your best tea."

  "I'm telling you, you're blind!" The boss's wife didn't even lift her head, pouring tea as she said: "Can't you see? We're fully booked now. Where would we have an empty table for you? You go find one yourself, sit wherever there's space!"

  Shangguan Yuanbiao raised an eyebrow, just about to get angry, when Shangguan Yuanwu pulled out a piece of silver from his pocket and slapped it on the counter, saying: "We only want an empty table."

  It seems like they're not here to drink tea, but rather to pick a fight. The boss's wife finally put down the water kettle and looked up at the Shangguan brothers outside the counter. When she saw the silver coins on the table, she was taken aback - their tea is sold by the copper coin, when have they ever seen silver?

  The proprietress suddenly showed her business acumen, changing her expression as quickly as turning a page. With a sweep of her hand on the counter, the silver coins were immediately rolled into her sleeve. The impatience on her face was replaced by a flattering smile. She hastily walked out from behind the counter and smiled at the Shangguan brothers, then glanced at Tang Yin and others waiting outside. "Alright, alright, isn't it just finding an empty table? I'll take care of it!" she said. As she spoke, she looked around the room, finally fixing her gaze on a group of young men in coarse clothing. She twisted her waist like a water snake and quickly walked over to them, waving her hand as if shooing away flies. "Go, go, go! Go drink outside, this table is reserved!"

  These young people were all bewildered, and the small broken tea shed still had someone booking a table? Unprecedented, unheard of. One of the pale-faced young men politely said: "Boss lady, we haven't finished our tea yet, how can you drive us out?"

  The landlady directly took out the silver coins from her sleeve and put them on the table, saying calmly: "If you can also take out so much money, then you can continue to sit here, I'll go find someone else. If you can't, get out of here immediately!"

  It's just a cup of tea, not even a good one, who would be willing to spend so much money? One of the young men slammed his hand on the table and pointed at the boss's nose, shouting: "..."

  The boss's wife didn't take his anger seriously at all, not only was she not intimidated, but instead puffed out her chest and stepped forward, asking haughtily: "How about it? Do you dare hit someone now?"

  "I..."

  Before the young man could speak again, the pale-faced youth pulled his companion and said reluctantly: "Forget it, since someone is willing to spend a lot of money drinking tea, we'll let them have our seats!" As he spoke, he quickly drained the tea from his bowl, then nodded to several companions on either side, stood up, and walked out.

  It's clear that all the young people look up to him, and although they are unhappy and resentful in their hearts, there is nothing they can do about it, so they have no choice but to follow him out. As they pass by the landlady, she reaches out to stop them and says in a bad tone: "Don't you need to pay for the tea?"

  Everyone who heard this was so angry that their faces turned green, but the pale-faced young man just smiled and said apologetically, "Sorry, it's our mistake."

  He reached into his pocket, pulled out a purse and poured it for half a day before pouring out a few copper coins. He carefully counted them and was calculating whether he had enough to pay the bill when the old lady snatched it away impatiently, looked at it with disdain and said: "Still short of two copper coins? I'm telling you, don't even think about cheating on the bill, my small shop doesn't allow any debt!"

  The pale-faced young man turned red and looked at his companions with inquiring eyes, the crowd of young people began to search their pockets for copper coins.

  Tang Yin watched from the outside, and the more he looked, the more interesting it became. Although he didn't get close, he could clearly feel that these young people were all cultivators of spiritual energy. He didn't know what their specific cultivation levels were, but through the spiritual pressure emanating from their bodies, he could sense a feeling of oppression. It seemed that their cultivation levels weren't bad at all. Yet, such a group of vigorous and spiritually powerful young men were being bullied by the boss's wife to this extent and still managed to endure it. In Tang Yin's eyes, this was truly not simple.

  Even if they are powerful spirit healers, they are also poor people with pockets cleaner than their faces.

  Several young men searched for half a day, but couldn't find a single copper plate. One of them accidentally dropped a token from his bosom while searching, and quickly picked it up and put it back in his bosom. However, the brief moment was enough for the surrounding tea guests to see the token clearly, and at the same time, a gasp of amazement spread around.