Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 5 Li Yuan, the Plum Blossom Thief
"Master Long, I wonder if Li Xunhuan has arrived yet?"

Long Xiaoyun shook his head: "No, he probably won't arrive until tomorrow."

"It seems that I came too early."

Lu Xiaofeng thought to himself.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty in this world is not in Yanjing in the north, but in Jinling, which is more than two thousand miles away from Baoding.
Lu Xiaofeng originally calculated that he would arrive here in four days, but because of the speed of the alien blood horse, he arrived on the third day.

In fact, Long Xiaoyun did not expect Lu Xiaofeng to come so quickly. If he was not a local tyrant, he would have received the news as soon as Lu Xiaofeng entered Baoding, and he probably would not have greeted him at the door.

At this time, Zhou Ming and four maids got out of the car. Long Xiaoyun asked, "Who is this young man..."

Lu Xiaofeng said, "This is Zhou Ming. He's just curious about the Plum Blossom Bandits and came with me."

Long Xiaoyun's eyes suddenly lit up, a burning look in his eyes: "So it's the Prime Minister... ahem, I mean... Master Zhou Ming, one of the Four Heroes of the Capital."

Zhou Ming clasped his fists and said, "Master Long, you are too polite. I don't deserve the title of the Four Heroes. I came here today because the Plum Blossom Bandit has committed many evil deeds and brought disaster to the martial arts world. I heard that the famous heroes gathered here to eliminate the Plum Blossom Bandit, so I came here to do my best to help."

Long Xiaoyun smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou is so young, yet he has the world in his heart. He is naturally worthy of the title 'hero'."

The underworld and the imperial court have always been deeply intertwined.

Except for those truly free-spirited individuals, I'm afraid no one can truly ignore the court.

What’s more, there is a man like Long Xiaoyun who is stationed in one place and develops his power and reputation.

Zhou Ming's adoptive father is not just the chief minister of the cabinet, holding great power. He also has many talented people under his command. He has suffered countless assassination attempts, some of which involved master-level killers, but he is still safe and sound.

It is said that he has powerful martial artists under his command, and there may even be grandmasters who are loyal to him.

It can be said that he was handling both the court and the underworld.

A force like Long Xiaoyun is not big. He is just a local tyrant. His martial arts are not strong. He is just a warrior at the Xiantian Gangqi realm, and he can dominate a place.

In front of Zhou Ming's adoptive father, he is nothing but an ant.

Now that he has met Zhou Ming, he naturally wants to curry favor with him.

Amidst the polite exchanges, he asked Chunhua and the others, and when he learned that they were just maids, he didn't say much.

He was secretly surprised in his heart. In his perception, these four people were extremely dangerous. He was afraid that any one of them could sweep through Xingyun Manor.

I can only sigh that he is worthy of being the adopted son of the Prime Minister, and the protection around him is indeed strong.

Then he invited everyone into the village.

When entering the door, Zhou Ming glanced left and right, and saw a pair of couplets engraved on both sides of the manor gate.

One family has seven Jinshi,

Father and son three times to visit the flower.

Yes, this so-called Xingyun Manor is actually the Li family's ancestral home "Li Garden".

Before Li Xunhuan left the Central Plains, he gave this manor as a gift, not to Long Xiaoyun, but to Lin Shiyin.

So, Long Xiaoyun is actually living in his wife's house and is a gigolo.

Li Garden is magnificent, with mansions reaching up to the clouds. Even in this cold winter, there are green trees and in the distance, plum blossoms stand proudly in the snow, and a faint fragrance wafts over.

However, it is still far inferior to the house Zhou Ming lives in the capital.

Let’s not talk about anything else. When Zhou Ming went fishing, he only caught fish from his own lake.

This alone makes him better than Li Yuan.

And compared to the past, it is much more dilapidated.

But recently, it has become lively.

After all, Li Xunhuan was a world-famous hero ten years ago. After returning from the frontier, he was successively involved in the Golden Armor and Plum Blossom Thief incidents, and now he is even a suspect of the Plum Blossom Thief.

It can really be said to be the hottest topic in the world today.

After he returned, his route was extremely clear, and it was obvious that his destination was Li Garden.

Therefore, many people from the martial arts world came directly to Li Garden to wait for Li Xunhuan's arrival.

Among them is a hero who wants to uphold justice, capture the Plum Blossom Thief and increase his reputation.

There is also a young hero who is infatuated with the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world, Lin Xian'er, so he wants to catch the Plum Blossom Bandit and marry Lin Xian'er.

There are also reporters from Jianghu Monthly and spies from Hongye Inn, who are simply here to join in the fun and take advantage of the hype.

But no matter who it is, they will naturally be polite when meeting the two of them.

Lu Xiaofeng has friends all over the world and is eager to help others. He has helped many people solve their problems and is known as a chivalrous man.

Zhou Ming had been a disciple of the Quanzhen Sect for half a year, and he had managed to build up a reputation as one of the Four Heroes of the Capital. Furthermore, his adoptive father was the Grand Tutor, the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, the Minister of Personnel, the Minister of Justice, and the Marquis of Wenxi, a powerful figure.

Who would dare to be rude when seeing this?

"My humble name is Lin Xian'er, nice to meet you two young men."

Along with the faint fragrance of plum blossoms, a beautiful figure appeared.

Her face is pure and pitiful, but there is a lingering charm in her eyes that is captivating.

She is Lin Xian'er, known as the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world.

She is beautiful, but to be honest, she is far from being the best in the martial arts world.

Not to mention the others, just the four maids around Zhou Ming are better than her.

But the four of them were just maids after all. After entering the manor, they were taciturn and always stayed behind Zhou Ming, so they were not noticed much.

On the other hand, Lin Xian'er became the focus of the crowd as soon as she appeared.

Several young people in the crowd immediately came up to her and asked about her well-being.

"I was wondering who had such a stunning appearance. It turned out to be Miss Lin, the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world."

Lu Xiaofeng smiled widely and asked curiously, "Why is Miss Lin here?"

Long Xiaoyun explained, "Miss Lin and my wife are sworn sisters and have been living in the manor for many years."

Lu Xiaofeng was surprised: "Miss Lin actually has such a fate with your wife, I didn't know it."

Long Xiaoyun said, "It was also a coincidence. Many years ago, the Madam came across Miss Lin who had accidentally fallen off a cliff. She brought her back to the manor and learned that her family was poor. Since they had a good impression of each other, she became sisters."

"Yes, sister, you are kind and beautiful. I still think that if you hadn't helped me, I don't know what would have happened to me now!"

Lin Xian'er said with a smile, her eyes turned into two crescent moons at this moment, hiding the resentment that emerged at that moment.

"Oh, clumsy!"

Zhou Ming watched from the side and couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

He naturally knew that the Plum Blossom Thief, who was notorious in the martial arts world and had committed many serious crimes, was actually the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world before him.

In other words, it was a group of people headed by her.

She is as beautiful as a fairy, but her heart is like a devil, filled with extreme desires. She wants to see countless people go crazy for her and let her control them.

But she was not good at martial arts and her family was poor, so she simply used her most powerful weapon.

Beauty, and body.

By using this powerful weapon, she did win over many people in the martial arts world.

Among them was You Longsheng, the young master of Cangjian Villa, who directly gave her the ancestral Yuchang sword.

There was also Qiu Du, a disciple of Yi Ku, who, in order to win the beauty's smile, directly gave away his master's famous weapon, the 'Green Demon Hand'.

These people were all under Lin Xian'er's control and were as obedient as a trained dog.

But she was not satisfied with this. She disguised herself as the Plum Blossom Thief and solved major cases one after another. She also spread the word that if anyone could get rid of the Plum Blossom Thief, she would marry him directly, which immediately caused an uproar in the martial arts world.

The subsequent events concerning the golden armor were also secretly influenced by her.

She did all this, not for anything else, but just to enjoy the pleasure of manipulating the affairs of the martial arts world and watching countless people fight for her.

But what she didn't expect was that a famous hero who had disappeared from the Central Plains for a long time inexplicably broke in.

That is Li Xunhuan.

In this situation, Lin Xian'er actually tried to take action herself and even used her most powerful weapon.

However, Li Xunhuan turned a blind eye to her body.

Lin Xian'er is too confident.

Just because you seduced a few little bastards, you think all men in the world are the same?
How ridiculous?

That night, she fled in panic.

But this is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that Li Xunhuan knows her true appearance!

She must destroy Li Xunhuan!
This led to the ridiculous rumor that Li Xunhuan was the Plum Blossom Thief.

"As a behind-the-scenes villain, it's foolish of you to reveal your face to someone you can't control. Otherwise, how could you have fallen into this predicament where you have to take action personally?"

(End of this chapter)