Zhu Tian: A journey of spiritual practice starting from Joy of Life

Chapter 227 Taking Down the Canal Gang
Meanwhile, inside the Changlin Inn, Leng Feibai's seven clones were having a tense meeting.

Although the shop's renovation was complete, the seven people did not rush to open the shop. Instead, they concealed their identities and went to various restaurants and inns in Hangzhou to inquire about prices of food and drinks to prevent pricing issues.

At this moment, the seven clones, who had just returned to the inn, were sitting together in the lobby, discussing the pricing of dishes and accommodations.

At that very moment, news of Leng Feibai entered the minds of the seven of them.

"Let's go and wipe out the Canal Gang!"

One of the clones frowned and said, "The main body really knows how to boss us around!"

"okay!"

The other clone stretched and said, "Just consider it a workout. It's just a regional gang branch, there aren't many experts. I can go by myself!"

After saying that, the clone transformed into a bird and flew out of the house, heading towards the address provided by Leng Feibai.

The other clones didn't say much and continued discussing the inn's pricing.

After midnight, all the lights in the houses had been extinguished, and the entire city of Jiaxing was shrouded in silence under the cover of night.

Apart from the night watchmen and the guards at the city gates, there was no one on the streets.

At that moment, the window of the inn where Leng Feibai was staying was suddenly propped open, and a sparrow flew out of the room and quickly flew towards a place in Jiaxing City.

Before long, the sounds of drinking and merrymaking from a riverside village outside Jiaxing City carried far and wide.

This water fortress was none other than the outpost of the Grand Canal Gang outside Jiaxing City.

These people usually appear to be fishermen and boatmen from the vicinity of Jiaxing City.

In reality, they had already controlled most of the waterborne businesses in Jiaxing City. Coupled with their involvement in opium smuggling and human trafficking, they had become a dominant force in Jiaxing City.

A moment later, Leng Feibai had already landed outside the water fortress.

Seeing the bright lights and bustling activity inside the water fortress, Leng Feibai's lips curled up slightly. Instantly, a stream of multicolored true qi condensed in his right hand and slammed it towards the gate of the water fortress.

In the blink of an eye, the gate of the water fortress was reduced to dust and scattered all over the ground by Leng Feibai's casual strike.

Hearing the commotion, the forty-odd members of the Canal Gang who were celebrating in the water village all ran out to see what was happening.

Then a white-haired boy in a white robe and blue shirt calmly walked into the water village.

"White hair!"

A steward of the water fortress looked at Leng Feibai's full head of white hair, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. He shouted sharply, "You're the white-haired brat who crippled seven of our brothers in Hangzhou!"

"Fellow members of the Canal Gang!"

Leng Feibai said with a playful expression, "I am Iron Palm Ruthless—Leng Feibai. I am here only to wipe out your clan. I ask that you all cooperate and not cause me any trouble!"

Seeing Leng Feibai's irritating expression, the members of the Cao Gang were immediately enraged.

"You ignorant brat, how dare you speak so arrogantly here!"

A figure emerged from the crowd. The man was over seven feet tall and had a burly build. He wielded a seven-foot-long golden mace, which served as a ceremonial weapon, and said arrogantly, "Today, I will take your head to avenge those seven brothers in Hangzhou!"

After saying that, the man swung his heavy hammer and charged at Leng Feibai.

"hehe"

Leng Feibai smiled calmly, and when the burly man rushed in front of him, he suddenly raised his palm.

A fierce palm strike whistled and burst forth, directly slamming into the burly man's body.

"what"

Before the scream could even be heard, the burly man was reduced to a skeleton and crashed to the ground.

The land beneath the feet of the few timid members of the canal gang also became somewhat fertile at this time.

One of the gang members seized the opportunity to shout, "This brat is tough to deal with! Everyone, let's attack together and see if he can kill us all before he runs out of internal energy!"

The members of the Canal Gang were already desperate criminals, and they were all drunk, except for a few who were terrified.

The remaining group, even seeing the strong man turn into bones, were not much frightened. They grabbed iron oars, fishing knives, and fishing rods and rushed towards Leng Feibai.

Looking at these weaklings whose strength was not even at the fifth or sixth rank, Leng Feibai's lips curled up slightly. He raised his right hand and formed a sword with his fingers. At that moment, the true qi in his body also transformed into sword qi and surrounded him.

The Way of Heaven Leads to the Return
Leng Feibai gave a light shout, and the peerless sword energy transformed into a storm that howled out. Wherever it passed, the necks of a group of Cao Gang members were severed on the spot by the sword energy, and they fell down with blood splattering everywhere.

After confirming that all life had vanished from the surrounding area, Leng Feibai breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward to a corpse.

According to Guo Fusheng's memory, this man was the leader of this branch of the Canal Gang.

After Leng Feibai extracted his memories, he finally understood what had happened.

When the leader of the Hangzhou branch of the Canal Gang realized that the seven gang leaders who had been crippled by Leng Feibai and Qin Hongmian had not returned for a long time, he sent people to search for them in Hangzhou.

After the seven people were found and revived, they immediately told Leng Feibai and Qin Hongmian about how they had been injured.

However, these seven people did not know the names of the two people, only that one was a white-haired boy and the other was a woman with a well-developed figure!

Left with no other choice, the Hangzhou branch leader had to inform everyone in the branch about the appearance of the two men and ask them to search for their whereabouts.

Just in case, the Hangzhou branch leader also sent a message by carrier pigeon to the branch leaders of Jiaxing and Suzhou, spreading rumors in the message that the two had stolen the Blood Jade Coral Tree, an important treasure from the Hangzhou branch that was used to offer tribute to the main headquarters, so that the people from the two branches would take action to hunt them down.

"I'm really curious, why would the leader of the Hangzhou branch go to such lengths for just seven small fry?"

After Leng Feibai finished speaking, he continued his inspection inside the water fortress.

For some reason, there were not only no servants or cooks in the water village, but also very few maids.

After a search, Leng Feibai found several boxes containing silver ingots in a cellar inside the water village, totaling approximately tens of thousands of taels.

At the same time, the clone sent to wipe out the Hangzhou branch of the Canal Gang also made contact with Leng Feibai.

"The entire Hangzhou branch has been wiped out!"

The clone said excitedly, "Main body, these guys are quite wealthy. They have about 30,000 taels of silver alone, and a coral tree carved from blood-red jade. It should fetch tens of thousands of taels!"

Hearing his clone's words, Leng Feibai's lips twitched involuntarily. He then instructed his clone to examine the memories on the corpse of the Hangzhou branch leader to see what those seven scoundrels were all about, that they could make a branch leader go to such lengths to torment him and Qin Hongmian.

The clone replied directly, "I've already investigated. One of those seven people is the younger brother of the leader's concubine."

After hearing this, Leng Feibai cursed inwardly a few times and turned to leave the cellar.

After confirming that no one was in the water fortress, Leng Feibai raised his hand and slammed it onto the ground. A burst of blazing red flames engulfed the entire water fortress, swallowing it all into the sea of ​​fire.

Seeing everything burned to ashes, Leng Feibai's lips curled up, and he vanished in a flash of light.

The next morning, Leng Feibai left the inn and headed to Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing. The scenery in Nanhu Lake was quite nice, but unfortunately, due to the wrong time of year, he hadn't yet visited any of the famous attractions on Nanhu Lake.

After strolling around for a while, Leng Feibai casually bought some snacks on the food street around Nanhu Lake and quietly admired the scenery of Nanhu Lake.

"Little friend, you're having a great time!"

A discordant voice rang in his ears, and Leng Feibai frowned and turned to look.

Then he saw an old man with long eyebrows wearing a gray robe, holding a string of prayer beads in his right hand and a single-edged sword at his waist, looking at him with a playful expression.

Leng Feibai frowned slightly, a sense of unease rising in his heart. He said calmly, "Old man, is there something you need?"

The old man smiled and tossed out a silver dagger from his left hand, which was hidden in his sleeve.

Leng Feibai recognized the knife; it was one of the twin knives in Qin Hongmian's hand.

"You're a member of the Grand Canal Gang!"

As Leng Feibai spoke, he took a bite of the ham-filled rice dumpling in his hand.

"I am but an unworthy elder in charge of patrolling the Canal Gang. I happened to arrive at the Jiaxing branch the day before yesterday and learned what you and Miss Qin were doing in Hangzhou."

Leng Feibai looked at the old man, a cold glint flashing in his eyes, and said in a cold voice, "You want to use Qin Hongmian to threaten me? Then you should know that I have nothing to do with her?"

"A heartless man!"

The old man in gray sneered, "Then I have no choice but to let the children around me play with her!"

After saying this, the old man in gray turned to leave.

Upon seeing this, Leng Feibai waved his left hand, and a time-space stag flew out, turning the entire area around South Lake into black and white.

"Qin Hongmian really has nothing to do with me!"

Leng Feibai bent down and picked up the dagger from the ground. He walked up to the trapped old man and said, "But what I hate most is being threatened. And apart from that old mudfish Li Yunqian, no one can threaten me!"

After saying that, Leng Feibai used his blue hand to cover the old man's head and quickly found the memory he needed.

In her memory, Qin Hongmian fought the old man for thirty rounds with two swords, but the old man broke through Qin Hongmian's swords with a single sword and captured her.

However, when the old man brought Qin Hongmian back to the Jiaxing branch, the Jiaxing Water Village branch had already been burned to the ground.

The old man was so angry he almost choked. He took Qin Hongmian to another secret stronghold of the Canal Gang in Jiaxing and imprisoned her there. He then took Qin Hongmian's knife and went out to search for Leng Feibai's whereabouts!

Leng Feibai looked at the gray-clothed old man staring intently at him, and raised his hand to press on his forehead.

The double-handed technique was activated suddenly, instantly controlling the old man's mind.

"Um"

The old man groaned, and a blue light immediately appeared in his eyes.

Leng Feibai sneered, dispelling the talisman's effect, and said calmly, "Take me to where Qin Hongmian is being held!"

The old man nodded, as if Leng Feibai's words were an imperial edict he could not disobey, and led him away from South Lake.

Half an hour later, the old man led Leng Feibai to a small house in Jiaxing.

During this time, Leng Feibai also managed to extract some information that he was curious about from the old man in gray cloth.

After the Grand Canal Gang was driven out of the Central Plains by the imperial court in conjunction with the Beggars' Gang and Shaolin, a small group of the remaining members escaped the Central Plains by boat and encountered the developing Ming Cult in the Western Regions.

Because both sides had a grudge against the Song Dynasty, the two groups, sharing the same grievances, immediately joined forces.

With the help of the Ming Cult, the Cao Gang members quickly returned to the south, helping the Ming Cult with propaganda while continuing to oppose the Song Dynasty.

"It seems we might have to face those troublemakers from the Ming Cult again in the future!"

Leng Feibai's lips twitched, and then he found the location of the Grand Canal Gang's branch in Suzhou from the old man's mind.

After all, the Suzhou branch of the Canal Gang had also received a message from the Hangzhou branch, and when he went to Suzhou, they would definitely cause trouble for him.

Inside the room, Leng Feibai, led by the gray-robed old man, found Qin Hongmian, who was trapped inside.

Qin Hongmian was bound hand and foot to a pillar inside the room. She looked haggard, with a trace of blood on the corner of her mouth, clearly indicating that she was seriously injured.

Upon seeing this, Leng Feibai turned around and delivered a heavy punch to the old man's chest.

The old man's chest caved in, and he fell down calmly.

Leng Feibai calmly withdrew his arm, his eyes utterly serene, and thought to himself, "No wonder Zhou Sheng said that using the Dual-Handed Technique to satisfy oneself is the most vicious technique in the world!"

After saying that, Leng Feibai turned to look at Qin Hongmian, who was still dumbfounded, and quickly said, "Miss Qin, are you alright? Miss Qin!"

Hearing Leng Feibai's voice, Qin Hongmian finally came to her senses, her eyes filled with grievance.

Leng Feibai quickly stepped forward and untied the ropes binding Qin Hongmian.

As soon as Qin Hongmian regained her freedom, she was extremely aggrieved and immediately hugged Leng Feibai, bursting into tears.

Seeing this, Leng Feibai took the opportunity to press Qin Hongmian's sleeping acupoint, raised his hand and drew a Five Evils Transporting Talisman, sending her to the bed in the room.

Seeing Qin Hongmian's haggard appearance, Leng Feibai used his Red Hand technique to treat her injuries.

"This has happened several times already!"

Leng Feibai rubbed his head, a hint of fatigue flashing in his eyes.

"Once we've dealt with the Suzhou branch of the Canal Gang, let's go straight to Shaolin Temple and have a fight with the Sweeper Monk."

Leng Feibai secretly planned in his heart, "After the fight, I'll kill Ding Chunqiu. Then I'll head straight to Leigu Mountain to learn the art of flower cultivation."

Having made up his mind, Leng Feibai glanced at Qin Hongmian, who was still resting, and got up to leave.

"cough cough"

Qin Hongmian coughed a few times and struggled to sit up. "Young Master Leng, what's wrong with me?"

Leng Feibai looked at Qin Hongmian, who had suddenly woken up, and said calmly, "It's alright, you just suddenly fainted. How are you? Are your injuries alright?"

Qin Hongmian shook her head, her eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you so much, young master. Counting this time, you've saved me three times now. I just don't know why those people from the Canal Gang are targeting us!"

Leng Feibai was speechless after hearing this, and said with a gloomy expression, "Don't even mention it. One of those seven thugs is the younger brother of the concubine of the leader of the Hangzhou branch of the Canal Gang. I guess that concubine whispered in the leader's ear, which is why the Canal Gang is chasing us like crazy."

Upon hearing this, Qin Hongmian's face showed a look of annoyance, and she felt even more regretful that she hadn't killed those thugs with a single blow.

(End of this chapter)