Four porters spoke loudly and rudely, the people in the compartment could not help but be restrained, a young man rushed out from inside and shouted at the four porters.

  Facing the young mans rebuke, the four men sat there and sneered: "Where did you come from, you bastard? Were sitting here drinking and chatting, what business is it of yours?"

  "Rebellious subjects!" The young man was so angry that he spat up blood. "You need to know the severity of the law. Those who spread rumors, deceive the people, and slander government officials will be punished. Within a thousand miles, Magistrate Liang is in charge here. You will soon learn that its hard to buy medicine for regret."

  Lin Xuans eyebrows furrowed slightly as he thought that this young man shouldnt be the target of these four people. Just then, he saw Liang Zuoren and a middle-aged scholar walking out together, with the three guards from earlier standing behind them, their faces still filled with anger; beside the middle-aged scholar stood a short, youthful boy. Lin Xuan saw that the boy had a rosy complexion and lips, and his eyes were exceptionally beautiful, and he thought to himself: Could it be a girl?

  The short young man was also annoyed by the nonsense of those four porters, and rushed forward to help the young man. However, at this moment, the four porters suddenly stood up, and the young man was knocked into by one of the porters, letting out a soft cry as his slender body flew towards Lins side.

  The young man couldnt stop his feet, and his face crashed into the wall; Lin Xie just managed to stretch out a hand to pull him back. Lin Xies footwork was unstable, and he almost fell over with the young man, but he quickly realized that he had grabbed a soft and fluffy lump of flesh in his hand. He hastily moved his hand to support the young mans arm, letting him stand up straight. It wasnt until then that he discovered this young man was actually a girl dressed as a boy - no wonder she looked so pretty. The girls chest hurt where Lin Xie had grabbed her, but she couldnt blame him for using such force; after all, he had been trying to save her in his haste. Moreover, her heart was more embarrassed than pained, and she knew that he had acted with good intentions. Her face flushed red as she stood there, her heart racing like a deers, unsure of what to do.

  Others only saw Lin Xie timely supporting the young man to avoid hitting the wall, but didnt see his hand inadvertently grasping the others chest. The middle-aged scholar, youth and three guards were all frightened, their faces pale with cold sweat. Those four porters, still not satisfied, cursed loudly: "Can Prefect Liang still speak to common people? Today were leaving, what are you going to do, you turtle egg?" They went to grab the carrying pole leaning against the wall and leave.

  The young man saw his sister almost get hurt, a surge of evil fire rushed up, stretched out his hand and grabbed the porters collar, punched him in the face, but missed and only heard a "whoosh" sound, tearing the porters collar. The porter turned around, slightly squatting with his arms open, embracing the young man: "Damn your mother, tore my clothes, pay me for the silver..." It was a standard grappling move that wrapped the young man around the waist, sank down and bumped into the young mans chest, pushing him out 4-5 meters away to sit on the brick ground. The porter didnt give up, jumped over and chased after the young man to hit him, shouting in his mouth: "Damn your mother, I still want to wear this clothes for New Years!" Three bodyguards saw their master being beaten, rushed over to rescue him, and the scene suddenly became chaotic.

  The other three porters only delayed for a moment, then turned around and rushed to the corner of the wall, wanting to grab their carrying poles that were leaning against this side.

  Three porters rushed over, wanting to grab the carrying pole. Lin Xie shielded the boyish girl behind him and kicked one of the porters in the side of the knee without hesitation. Lin Xies move was unexpected, and the man had no time to dodge. The kick landed on his knee, producing a cracking sound, likely breaking a bone. The porter let out a pained cry, clutching his knee as he fell to the ground, wailing in agony.

  Lin tied one, Zhou Pu moved even faster, crossing over to pick up the four carrying poles leaning against the wall and embracing them in his arms. Zhou Pu had long suspected that these four people would hide their weapons in the carrying poles - he hadnt done this a few times when he was a bandit, they couldnt carry their weapons with them so they could bluff their way through checkpoints or bring them into the city - Zhou Pu wouldnt let the four assassins get their hands on their weapons.

  Zhao Hu was afraid that Lin Xie would suffer a loss, so he went to help him. Lin Xie had already drawn his knife and had Zhou Pu by his side, so he wasnt afraid of these several bare-handed assassins. The assassin who had been kicked in the side of the knee by Lin Xie hobbled up on one foot and wanted to pounce at him again. Lin Xie swung his knife straight down, forcing him back, and shouted loudly at Zhao Hu: "Zhao Hu, you go with Chen Enze to block the door, dont let the assassins escape!" Zhao Hu bent down and picked up a wooden bench, using it as cover as he rushed towards the door. Chen Enze grabbed a package from the table and followed Zhao Hu as they ran towards the doorway, taking out a waist knife from the package and handing it to Zhao Hu, who took it and guarded the side of the door.

  A single cry of "assassin" finally woke up the three guards of the middle-aged scholar, who had just pinned down the porter who was chasing the young man. They immediately drew their knives and held them to the mans neck, pulling him back as they retreated. The young man escaped into the compartment first, and the three guards shouted for Liang Zuo-ren and the middle-aged scholar to retreat into the compartment as well. The middle-aged guard walked towards Lin Xie with swift steps, but he didnt intend to help Lin Xie deal with the assassin. Instead, he grabbed the arm of the boyish-looking girl and dragged her away without a word, sending her into the compartment.

  Three guards stood outside the compartment door, pinning down the captured porter and not letting him move. They wouldnt listen to Lins one-sided argument, nor could they determine that these four unarmed porters were assassins. Moreover, besides them, only Lin and Zhao Hu had weapons in the house. These four porters were suspicious and seemed to be causing trouble, but didnt Lin and his men seem suspicious as well? At this time, Zhao Hu also timely blocked the entrance of the store with Chen Enze, making it difficult for the three guards to distinguish between friend and foe.

  The teahouse still had seven or eight customers, who initially thought someone was causing trouble and stood aside to watch. When they saw someone pull out a knife, they were shocked and retreated in fear of being implicated. The front door was blocked by Chen Hu with his knife, and these customers all rushed into the kitchen to hide, vacating the entire hall.

  Lin Xie held the dagger in his hand, and the three assassins did not dare to come near him. The four bamboo poles with hidden weapons were all trampled under Zhou Pus feet, and Zhou Pu was empty-handed again. They naturally all rushed towards Zhou Pu. Lin Xie couldnt let Zhou Pu show off too much, so he took out his dagger and stabbed it forward to help Zhou Pu get out of the way. No matter how good ones fists and feet were, they were afraid of being cut by a knife. The three assassins were furious, but Lin Xie held the dagger in both hands, and although the straight knifes waist knife made the stabbing motion look a bit awkward, the action was clean and efficient, without any hesitation. In just three or five knives, he forced the three assassins to retreat. The assassin who had kicked his left foot earlier was slower to dodge and couldnt avoid the blade, and was stabbed in the shoulder.

  "What kind of swordsmanship is this?" Zhou Pu asked in a low voice, he didnt put the three stabbing hands of Kongshou in his eyes at all, and only felt that Lin Xies stabbing motion was strange but effective.

  "Wild slash flow..." Lin Xie said, he couldnt explain to Zhou Pu that this was a gun stabbing knife technique from later generations, so he deliberately used his waist knife to slash and stab, just wanting to make those three guards think he was an amateur with knives.

  Although they didnt take these three unarmed assassins seriously, they couldnt show too much fire and forced the three assassins to retreat. Lin Xie didnt press on either, seeing that the three guards were still standing at the door of the compartment and not coming to help, he scolded: "Youre blind! If it werent for our help, your master would have been chopped into seventeen or eighteen pieces and fed to the dogs! Youre just sitting there watching!"

  Zhou Pu exerted force under his feet, and the bamboo flat shoulder pole cracked open. It was unknown how these four people had hidden it, but inside the cracked bamboo flat shoulder pole, a thick-backed straight-edged knife with a cold light was revealed. Zhou Pu kicked one of the straight-edged knives towards the door: "Take a good look at this! What is this?"

  At this time, the three guards standing at the door of the package room believed that the four porters were assassins and thought back to being frightened. The middle-aged guard arched his toes and kicked the assassins forehead with a loud kick, and the assassin hummed and was kicked unconscious. The middle-aged guard let two green-clad guards come forward to help, still guarding the door to prevent accidents.

  Although the assassins footwork looked good, with a knife in hand it was a world of difference. The three assassins resisted for a moment before each of them took several knives to the body, and after the gate was blocked and escape was hopeless, they surrendered.

  The county government is very close to the tea hotel, and the news of the fight has been quickly passed on to the county government. County Wei knew that County Liang was hosting a banquet for his friends here, and as soon as the fight stopped, he rushed over with more than ten knife-wielding guards, sweating profusely. Upon arrival, they realized it was an assassination plot, and they bound the four assassins with shackles and handcuffs. Its unclear if there are any other assassins hiding among the guests or how many accomplices they have in the city. County Wei sent someone to inform the city gate guards to strictly inspect everyone entering and leaving the city. He led a team of knife-wielding guards to surround the room where Liang Zuo and the middle-aged scholar were, protecting them tightly, and also ordered others to drive out all the other guests from the tea hotel.

  They put away their knives before the county magistrate arrived with his men, and the three guards didnt mention their earlier assistance to the magistrate. Lin Xie saw that the assassin had been captured, while Liang Zuoren and the middle-aged scholar were still hiding in the private room, too afraid to come out. Thinking that standing there waiting for Liang Zuoren to come out would make him seem like he was seeking credit, and considering that they had exchanged some unpleasant words earlier, Lin Xie felt a bit awkward about meeting again, and also feared being questioned by Liang Zuoren and revealing his weaknesses. So he told the magistrate that he had something to attend to and needed to return to Upper Lin Ferry, and left the teahouse with Zhao Hu and Zhou Pu, thinking to himself: Even if they didnt meet today, Liang Zuoren and the middle-aged scholar would still be too ashamed to forget the favor of being saved by them.

  Those three guards didnt make a sound either, after all, they had conflicts before and were scolded by Lin Xuan and others as "watchdogs" and "dog eyes", and when they saw Lin Xuan leave, they didnt even try to stop them or say thank you.

  Liang Zuo Ren, a scholar, had never seen such a dangerous scene before. He peeked outside and saw blood flowing like rivers, two of his souls were scared away. Hearing the county magistrate and the knife-wielding guards shouting in the next room, he feared there might still be assassins hiding among the guests who hadnt been discovered yet. He grabbed hold of the middle-aged scholar who wanted to go out and take a look: "Wu Chen brother, the assassins havent all been caught, its not safe for you to take risks. If anything happens to you in Shi Liang County, I wont be able to explain myself..." Then he called the county magistrate in to ask about the situation: "The assassins plan was very secretive, there are probably still accomplices hiding in the city. Have the four city gates been sealed off and strictly searched? Also, have the suspects been strictly interrogated to reveal their accomplices?" After a round of questioning and explanation, he finally remembered Lin Xian and asked the county magistrate: "Where is Lin Ju Ren and his entourage? Please ask them to come in quickly."