Xuanxia

Chapter 71 Small Village

In the early morning, the villagers of Sanshui Village got up early and carried their sickles to work in the fields.

But today was a little different. When they passed by the village chief's house, they saw two young men and women they had never seen before.

The girl looked pretty and cute, but she was waving a long sword in her hand and practicing awkwardly, causing gusts of wind to blow.

The man stood aside, giving instructions from time to time.

"You took a wrong step."

Fu Qingzhou corrected him, "For this step, you have to take a big step, with your feet firmly planted before twisting your waist and turning your body. The power should be generated from the ground, and then go from your waist to your shoulders. Only in this way can you use the power to pass the sword. Otherwise, you won't be able to pass the sword, or the sword power will be insufficient, which will reveal a flaw."

Tang Jiao's face turned slightly red, and she wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead: "Okay, I'll try again."

The sword in her hand was the one that the village chief's son brought back overnight.

The bows and iron swords that Fu Qingzhou wanted were not high-end items that needed to be customized, and the blacksmith shop had them in stock. Therefore, the village chief's son rushed back and forth overnight and brought back the weapons in the early morning.

Now that I have the sword, I naturally have to teach Tang Jiao.

The fact that Hua Wuying was able to teach this set of Liufeng swordsmanship to Fu Qingzhou, whom he had only met once, shows that it is not a secret that is not to be passed on, so there should be no problem in teaching it to Tang Jiao.

But she was far from having the talent, nor did she have the ability to learn after just watching it once, so she needed to put in some effort.

This set of swordsmanship is very suitable for her. It uses defense as offense and her body movements are agile. Now Fu Qingzhou does not need her to be able to kill many enemies, but at least she must be able to protect herself.

The reason why he asked Tang Jiao to learn sword and go with him to eliminate the bandits was very simple.

After leaving Bailu Mountain, Fu Qingzhou realized how big the world was and how many powerful people there were in it.

After spending this period of time together, he has gradually come to regard Tang Jiao as his own younger sister. If he wants to live freely and comfortably in this world, he must at least have the ability to protect himself.

The fact that she was able to travel all the way from the capital to the Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain without any incident was entirely due to her extremely high luck... but one cannot rely on luck to survive.

She has to become stronger.

Fortunately, although Tang Jiao learns slowly, she is not completely without foundation.

As she said, she was at least the daughter of an official in Beijing in her early years. In Dayanli, where martial arts were prevalent, there was no rich young man who did not learn a few moves, so she also practiced martial arts and learned swordsmanship.

As the sun rose higher, Tang Jiao's swordsmanship gradually became more sophisticated. Although it was still very immature, she was already getting some skills.

"Okay, take a break, have lunch and then we'll set off."

Fu Qingzhou said as he flipped through the herbs in a bamboo basket.

Since he had to go out and kill bandits for the villagers, he naturally didn't need to do things like picking poisonous herbs and poisons himself.

The villagers here are more familiar with the surrounding mountains and forests. Taking advantage of the morning time, he had asked the village chief to find someone to pick some common poisonous weeds.

It is certainly not easy to make the kind of poison that he used to poison the charlatan in such a short time, but it is very simple to make some poisons that can cause paralysis or nausea.

Lunch was still eaten at the village chief's house. At the same time, a pot of poisonous herb water was boiling in the village chief's house. All the newly purchased arrows were placed in the pot and cooked together.

“It’s hard to tell where the cottage is.”

During lunch, the village chief's son said seriously, "But I know that place. I'll take you there."

The location of the mountain stronghold is about ten miles away from Sanshui Village by mountain road. It is neither close nor far, but the mountain road is really difficult to walk on. There are even many traps on the road. It was only thanks to Fu Qingzhou's experienced observation and sharp eyesight that they were able to avoid them.

However, these traps were not set by hunters to catch wild animals. Each of them was designed to kill people. It was obvious that they were set by bandits.

This also means...the copycat is getting closer.

After walking for about half an hour and bypassing more than a dozen traps, a line of smoke rising faintly appeared among the woods.

Fu Qingzhou smiled when he saw it: "It seems that the bandits have a late lunch time." Tang Jiao held a long sword in her hand, and also had a bit of the flavor of a heroic female warrior. She nodded to the son of the village chief and said: "Brother, we don't need you to lead the way, you can go back."

"Young men, do you need my help?" The village chief's son scratched his head and said, "I am also very strong!"

Fu Qingzhou smiled and said, "How about this, my little sister and I still need to explore a bit before we go to the village, you take this opportunity to rush back to the village, call all the strong men in the village, bring hoes and sickles, and guard the bottom of the mountain road."

"If there are any bandits that we don't have time to kill and accidentally let escape, you will be responsible for dealing with them."

The village chief's son was excited when he heard it: "Okay! No problem!"

After saying that, he didn't want to stay and ran down the mountain.

Fu Qingzhou raised his chin towards Tang Jiao: "Come on, I will teach you how to explore the periphery."

Tang Jiao was still a little nervous, but nodded firmly.

In fact, this kind of investigation is not that difficult.

For this kind of small-scale mountain stronghold, the traps they set up in the outer circle are basically all the means of defense, and their purpose is to defend against ordinary constables and soldiers who have no martial arts skills and only have some hand and foot skills.

When a real hero comes, they can’t defend themselves.

The bet is that the emperor is far away and no one can control you.

The two men found a nearby hill with higher terrain and crawled towards the direction of the smoke.

The village is surrounded by an impenetrable wall, the base of which is made of huge stones, decorated with palm trees and reeds, and the top of the wall is dotted with green grass.

Inside the mountain stronghold, the bandits were cooking in the shade. About thirty bandits were sitting around in a disorderly manner. The tables, chairs and benches were all crooked and uneven, and firewood and wine jars were piled in the corner.

"It's exactly what the village chief's son said."

Fu Qingzhou smiled and asked Tang Jiao, "What do you think?"

"Ideas?" Tang Jiao was a little confused: "What ideas do you have?"

Fu Qingzhou guided: "For example, how should the two of us attack this mountain stronghold, how to kill the enemy most efficiently, etc."

Tang Jiao pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Hmm...fire attack?"

Fu Qingzhou smiled and said, "A fire attack is indeed fierce, but the fire does not distinguish between friend and foe. How can we go in and kill the enemy? If there is a secret passage leading to another place in this mountain stronghold, and they escape along the secret passage when the fire starts, how can we find them?"

Tang Jiao blushed: "Brother, don't ask me, I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid, you just don't have experience in this area."

Fu Qingzhou said seriously: "If you really want to help me, you can't rely on me for everything. You have to have your own considerations. Today is a good opportunity. You need to learn more and see more."

Tang Jiao's expression became serious: "Okay."

"Well, look..."

Fu Qingzhou pointed and said, "There is a small watchtower at the entrance of their village. The terrain is not low. Anyone who approaches the village will be discovered immediately, and may even be shot by arrows. This is why we need to crawl at this time."

"We don't have powerful Qinggong skills, and we can't kill people instantly. If we knock down the bandits on the watchtower first, the bandits in the village will definitely find out immediately. At this time, there may be two possibilities..."

"First, they decided that you and I were masters that we couldn't handle, so they ran away immediately. Second, they thought they could kill you and me, so they rushed over in droves..."

"You can't just 'make a grand entrance with a loud shout' like in storytelling. Either they'll know how powerful you are and run away, or they'll chop you into a pulp with dozens of knives."

"The best way is to capture the leader first. Find the easiest way to approach the leader and capture him, then..."

He lowered his voice and analyzed every word. Tang Jiao lay beside him and listened carefully, her expression gradually calming down.

(End of this chapter)