Xuanxia

Chapter 296 Jinse Town

Jiangnan, night.

In the small room of the inn, Hua Wuying sat alone by the window, looking at the letter in his hand by the candlelight, with a smile on his face.

Although he had temporarily left the Wulin Alliance, he had always been paying attention to the events of the Hidden Dragon Hundred Heroes Meeting. The Hundred Heroes had been decided two days ago, so his fellow junior brothers and sisters could not wait to write a letter and send a pigeon to convey the message.

Over the past few days, he and Hua Xiaolan traveled day and night, and finally arrived at the Jiangnan town - Jinse Town tonight.

This place is adjacent to Mirror Lake and is not far from their destination, Lingjing Gate.

"As expected, Brother Fu shined at the meeting."

Hua Wuying looked at the letter and chuckled, "Brother Wu has finally arrived in Luoyi. With his abilities, it's no surprise that he'll be named one of the Hundred Heroes."

"Tomorrow is the second round of competition. I wonder..."

He saw many familiar names in the letter, and his smile became even more gratifying.

But at this moment, a heavy and shrill cough suddenly came from next door.

That's Hua Xiaolan.

She had a bad cough and was very weak.

Hua Wuying sighed softly and put away the letter.

After eating and traveling together for these three days, he finally realized how serious Hua Xiaolan's illness was.

After casting the life-changing spell that year, Hua Xiaolan often fell into a coma without any warning. Even Elder Yu of Wan Du Shan could not figure out what illness she had… The only explanation was that her life span was greatly shortened and her internal organs were overwhelmed and often went on strike.

As for the skin bleeding disease, it was also a sequela of the life-changing curse. It seemed that God did not want her to live the rest of her life happily, and forced her to suffer from extreme blood deficiency and bleed day and night. If it were not for the support of the elixir in the mountains, she would have died of excessive blood loss long ago.

But she was not willing to wait for death like this, and she continued to practice... She even subdued the most poisonous creature in the Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain and used the power of the poison to forcibly break through the spiritual realm.

Hua Wuying also asked her why she worked so hard instead of focusing on recuperating, but Hua Xiaolan refused to answer.

"Well, since she is so tired, let me take care of finding the boatman."

He thought about it, stood up alone, and pushed the door open.

Although Jinse Town is right next to Jinghu Lake, it is not easy to get to the Black Mountain Islands where Lingjing Gate is located.

As soon as they arrived at Jinse Town today, the two of them inquired and learned that the people in the town would never go near the Black Mountain Islands - the area is full of reefs and the water is fast-flowing. Unless one is very familiar with the waterways, no one would dare to even get close.

It is for this reason that Lingjingmen becomes extremely mysterious.

Over the years, there have been very few people capable of entering this sect, and even fewer people within the sect have ever set foot in the martial arts world. How could it not be mysterious?
But why is such a sect known to the world?
The reason is simple... it's because the strongest man in the world today, the sword master Ning Baimei, once went to Lingjingmen to ask for advice many years ago.

No one knew what Ning Baimei exchanged for, but since then, many of the magical spells of the Lingjing Sect have become part of the collection of the Zhangjian Academy.

“What a headache…”

Hua Wuying said helplessly, "Junior Sister Hua wants to take the foundation of our sect. How can I persuade her? How can Lingjing Sect agree to this?"

As he spoke, he walked down the creaking old wooden stairs and arrived at the lobby of the inn.

Jinse Town is not big, and the inn is also a restaurant. Moreover, this small inn is already the largest restaurant in the town.

At this time, the few small tables in the lobby were already full. At a glance, the drinkers were all the fishermen, blacksmiths, carpenters in the town... After a busy day, they finally had a moment of rest and drank some wine with peanuts here. This was also one of the few cheap entertainments they had.

The inn in the small town was naturally not very hygienic. The spicy smell of the cheap alcohol mixed with the smell of sweat made people's eyes sore. Countless mosquitoes and flies were flying around the tables, but the drinkers didn't care. They just reached into the wine bowl with their sweaty hands that had just scratched the soles of their feet, grabbed the peanuts, and threw them into their mouths casually.

Hua Wuying's eyes lit up slightly.

If you want to ask about the boatman, these people are undoubtedly the best choice.

So he smiled slightly, slowly came to the counter, took out a silver ingot, gently placed it on the table, and said to the sleepy waiter: "Waiter, all the wine tonight will be charged to me."

Although he is not the young leader of the Wulin Alliance for the time being, he has plenty of money!

He didn't say this loudly, but the people who were laughing loudly suddenly stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. The waiter also woke up in shock: "Sir, are you serious?!"

"Absolutely no lies."

Hua Wuying smiled and pushed the silver ingot forward again.

But surprisingly, the waiter confiscated it and instead turned his attention to the men drinking in the hall.

"Brother, have you ever heard a saying?"

Soon, a sturdy man at a wine table said with a smile: "If someone is being nice to you for no reason, he is either a traitor or a thief."

This was a clear sarcasm, but Hua Wuying was not annoyed. He just turned around, smiled, and bowed to them, saying: "Brothers, I am not a bad person, I just want to ask for a favor."

On the other side, a man who looked like a butcher was throwing peanuts into his mouth and mumbling, "What's going on?"

"I would like to ask you where I can find a boatman?"

Hua Wuying said softly: "My friend and I are planning to go to the depths of Mirror Lake to take a look."

"Tsk, boating and sightseeing?" A young man who looked like a boatman said with a click of the tongue, "Why don't you just ask? Why spend so much money? If you have the money, why don't you just give it to me? I'm just a boatman, I'll take you there. Why do you have to treat them to drinks? There's so much money to burn."

There was a burst of laughter in the lobby.

These people's vigilance towards Hua Wuying was also reduced by half. They turned around and started drinking again. The waiter also narrowed his eyes and smiled, and reached out for the silver ingot.

But then, they heard Hua Wuying speak.

"My friend and I don't want to go boating and enjoy the scenery."

He said slowly: "We are going to the Black Mountain Islands."

In an instant, the lobby fell silent again.

The wine bowl was suspended in the air, and the hand holding the peanuts did not move. Even the waiter, whose fingers had already touched the silver ingot, withdrew his hand again.

After a long silence, the young boatman who had just spoken sneered and said, "Black Mountain Islands... do you want to go there to die?"

Hua Wuying's expression remained unchanged as he said softly, "I know very well that the waterways of the Black Mountain Islands are intricate and complex, and only experienced boatmen can navigate them. I have prepared some wine and would like to invite you to drink with me. I sincerely hope that you can show me the way and find such a boatman. If there are brothers who are willing to guide me, I will give them other generous gifts."

"A generous gift?"

The young boatman snorted and slammed his wine bowl on the table: "Even if you have 100,000 or 1 million taels, you can't buy your life!"

Hua Wuying frowned slightly.

At this time, the waiter behind the counter kindly advised: "Sir, forget it, that place... only people come in, no one leaves. Back then, Brother Yuan's father..."

“Who told you to say that!” The young boatman shouted angrily, interrupting the waiter’s words, and said angrily: “Anyway, we are not going to the Black Mountain Islands!”

After saying that, he angrily threw down the wine bowl, walked away from the table and was about to leave.

Although the waiter was scolded, he was not afraid or angry. He smiled bitterly and lowered his voice, saying to Hua Wuying: "This little brother Yuan, his father is also a boatman. He always wanted to go to the Black Mountain Islands to take a look. He was also the person who could travel the farthest in the town back then."

"But a few years ago, I still couldn't get out of it..."

"In the past few years, whenever Brother Yuan had time, he would search along the waterway his father had taken, thinking that he would find the body even if he died... But even though he can now go further, he still can't find any trace of his father."

Hua Wuying suddenly realized.

No wonder the young boatman was so furious, it turned out he had hit a sore spot.

He felt guilty and quickly said to the young boatman from behind: "This...Brother Yuan! I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

Halfway through his words, the young boatman who had just walked out the door suddenly stopped.

The next moment, he suddenly half-knelt on the ground, his face as pale as paper. In the astonished eyes of everyone, he held onto a small tree outside the door, covered his stomach and vomited violently!

(End of this chapter)