Chapter 27: Fate

  The singing and dancing on the ancient tower reached its peak, and everyone felt satisfied. The song "Qing Yu An" made Cai Feng sing several times. Jin Wancheng apologized and was about to leave, he had already passed the age when he needed to rely on drinking to build relationships with others.

  Wang Xuezheng had been drunk for a long time, and when Cai Feng sang "Qing Yu An" once, he would drink several cups of wine. If you count the most proud person at the banquet, it's him. At this time, Governor Pan was about to send someone to send him back to his mansion, Jin Wancheng said: "The old man is just on the way, let me send Wang Daren back!"

  Jin Wancheng personally supported Wang Xuezheng, and as they went downstairs, eight people followed from upstairs, all of whom were his family's bodyguards. Before he even reached the bottom of the stairs, a carriage was already waiting at the door, ready to go. A young man came over and asked, "Father, how is Cai Feng?"

  Jin Wancheng glared fiercely at the young man, who smiled and didn't take it seriously. Jin Wancheng was also helpless with this lazy and arrogant young son, and simply said: "Get in the car." Now that the child had grown up, it wasn't good to embarrass him in front of others; he would have to wait until they got in the car to scold him further.

  The young man made a strange face and helped Wang Xuezheng down, sending him to the car. The three of them got in the car, and all eight guards followed on horseback, with two leading the way in front, two bringing up the rear, and four knights surrounding the carriage. Each person's horse was spirited, and their demeanor was extraordinary.

  The carriage didn't look luxurious at first glance, but if you knew what to look for, you'd see that the seats were upholstered in the finest white ermine fur, with not a single strand of mixed color. The unusual fragrance inside came from agarwood from Vietnam, which was even rarer than regular agarwood. Even the small lamp was fueled by deep-sea whale oil, burning brightly without smoke or flame.

  The horse-drawn carriage moved slowly through the crowd, sometimes moving and sometimes stopping. Even when it stopped, the coachman and riders showed no impatience, nor did they shout or yell; they simply waited quietly. When passersby saw this demeanor, who wasn't quick to give way?

  The cold spring outside the carriage was still fierce, but inside it was like early summer. Jin Wancheng scolded his son and sweated on his forehead. He said: "Next time, let Old Liu reduce this wall fire a bit smaller, we will send Master Wang back to the mansion first." There was no charcoal fire in the carriage, all the heating objects were in the interlayer of the carriage wall, until the hot summer, they were replaced with ice, like modern air conditioning, only this air conditioner is probably not used by many people.

  "Knock, knock, knock." At this time, a knocking sound came from the car window. The window opened and a knight leaned over to say: "Master Jin, something's not right. It seems like we're being followed." From afar, there were always a few familiar people lurking around.

  "Don't stop, keep going, and send someone back to Dinggu Tower to ask for reinforcements." Jin Wancheng ordered calmly. He didn't doubt the judgment of his subordinates at all. When it came to danger, the intuition born from these life-and-death battles was more powerful than his own judgment. Even if they were wrong, it's better to be safe than sorry, and being cautious never hurt anyone.

  Hangzhou Lantern Festival, the county lieutenant personally led two thousand soldiers and horses to patrol on the city wall, and there were countless catchers in the city. Gather some people at will, forming a human wall and sea of people. No matter how good your martial arts are, you can't move this horse cart at all.

  A long arrow pierced the air with a "whoosh" sound, but it was not shot at the knight who had gone to seek reinforcements, but rather at his horse. The arrow penetrated the brain of the horse, which did not even have time to let out a mournful cry before falling to the ground like a wooden puppet whose strings had been cut. The knight fell off the horse and rolled over the empty space where an arrow was still quivering.

  Someone loudly jeered: "White Feathered Arrow, from now on you should change your name to White Hairy Arrow!" A masked big monk wielding an iron rod, laughed loudly and jumped down from a nearby wine tavern, landing right on top of the horse carriage. With one swing of his iron rod, he smashed the brains out of the fine horses pulling the carriage, and two long arrows flew in again, instantly killing the horses pulling the carriage stone dead.

  Suddenly, the people on the road shouted and scattered, but there were a few people who rushed towards the horse carriage against the crowd, colluding with the monk inside. At this moment, there was a fierce monk disrupting the formation inside, while outside, there were bandits launching a strong attack, and archers shooting cold arrows. The strong attacked the weak, and those with malicious intentions targeted the innocent. Even if Jin Wancheng's guards were all top-notch experts, how could they resist?

  Moreover, there was one person who had not made a move from start to finish, and now shouted loudly: "Mr. Jin, listen to me, hand over the brocade box if you want to keep your life."

  Xu Xian and the other two people passed through another nine-bend Yellow River lantern array, guessed a few lantern riddles, and walked past a fortune-telling stall. The fortune teller called out: "Three gentlemen, come and have your fortunes told."

  Yu Xuanji was about to turn away when Xu Xian rushed up to him, "Old master, take a look at my fortune!" Yu Xuanji couldn't help but give him a white eye, I can't even calculate your fate, how could this fortune teller possibly figure it out? Meanwhile, Zhu'er took the opportunity to run over and look at the big stone on the other side of the street.

  The fortune teller was shocked and lost his composure as soon as he saw Xu Xian: "Young man, your appearance is too strange, I dare not make a prediction! Leave quickly, leave quickly!"

  Yu Xuanji was taken aback, could it be that this was still a folk oddity, and yet he had seen through it. But he didn't know that the vendor selling rice cakes next to him muttered: You've said those words at least a hundred times tonight.

  As expected, Xu Xian smiled and said: "What's so unbearable about it? You tell me, if you're right, I'll reward you with wealth."

  The fortune teller hesitated, "Calculating your fate will reveal heavenly secrets and shorten your lifespan." Yu Xuanji only then realized he was a street performer selling his skills. Fate is just fate, who can distinguish whose? He pulled Xu Xian away, saying "Don't calculate, it's not allowed."

  The fortune teller suddenly became angry: "I haven't even finished calculating, how do you know it's not accurate? You have to give me a clear explanation, otherwise you can't leave." It's like saying the cook's dish is bad or the doctor's medical skills are poor, both of which are taboo. Even if he wasn't angry in his heart, he had to pretend to be angry and couldn't show weakness.

  Yu Xuanji snapped her fingers and calculated, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. "You'll have a bloody disaster tonight, better hurry up and avoid it!" She frowned because the divination was very messy, glancing at Xu Xian beside her, he seemed like a variable in a math problem, making it difficult to calculate the result, and prone to errors.

  The fortune teller immediately jumped out from behind the table to argue with Yu Xuanji. At this time, a commotion broke out in the crowd, and a black horse galloped over, charging straight at the small fortune-telling stall. In the face of death, Xu Xian could only instinctively pull Yu Xuanji into his arms. The horse brushed past Xu Xian's body and galloped away, smashing the fortune-telling stall to pieces. It eventually fell to the ground not far away, unable to get up again.

  Yu Xuanji's face turned red in Xu Xian's arms, struggling gently, and whispered "Hey, let go!". Her face was as red as the clouds, but she was wearing a mask, so no one saw it.

  Xu Xian hastily let her go, and Zhu'er ran over from across the street "Master, Master Uncle, are you both alright?!"

  Yu Xuanji was speechless for a moment, but Xu Xian furrowed his brow and said, "That horse is injured." Indeed, there were bloodstains on the road, and the fortune teller's body also had horse blood on it. The horse had just brushed past him as it ran by, and if he was still sitting behind the table like before, he would probably be dead with his internal organs shattered.

  At this moment, he finally came to his senses, turned over and knelt on the ground, rushing to Yu Xuanji and said: "Master is above, please accept my disciple's one bow. I have been fascinated with Tianji Shu since childhood, but I have never had a real person to teach me. Today, seeing Master, I realized that it was not the right time before."

  Rumors spread that something had happened at the Dinggu Tower. The dead horse was already surrounded by a crowd of people pointing and discussing. Xu Xian squeezed over to take a look, and saw a terrifying wound on the horse's body. The knight who had been riding the horse had been shot with an arrow, and upon seeing Xu Xian, his dull eyes lit up slightly: "Xu, Master Xu, there are bandits, hand them over to Lord Jin." As he spoke, he pulled out a brocade box from his chest. It was exactly the same box that Xu Xian had seen at the banquet, worth 3 million taels of silver. This knight seemed familiar to Xu Xian, and appeared to be one of Jin Wancheng's bodyguards.

  Xu Xian took the brocade box and opened it, and indeed saw six black diamonds quietly lying there, shining with dazzling light in the lamp fire. Looking again, the knight had already stopped breathing. He had used his body to lure the enemy without regard for danger, and when he was about to die, he did not forget his master. Perhaps it was just because of his master's words when he left: "Don't fight to the death, I won't blame you."

  Several figures sprinted along the eaves, swift as swallows, and were about to arrive. Xu Xian gripped the Five Thunder Charms in his arms, his eyes becoming dull, without any intention of escaping, but instead wanting to kill all the incoming people.

  Someone beside him pulled his arm and said, "Let's go, don't kill people randomly." This pull seemed to have pulled Xu Xian away from that special state. Xu Xian turned back to see it was Yu Xuanji, then glanced at the corpse on the ground, sighed, and followed Yu Xuanji into a small alley beside them. The bamboo shoots had already blended into the crowd with Yu Xuanji's signal.

  Chu Jianxiong saw the scholar hiding in the alley and frowned, saying: "Pursue."

  ;