The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 20: Final Affairs and Last Wishes

The slums in the west of Gushan County seemed like a lifetime ago when Wu Chengyu returned here again. The fierce fight that day and the stinking smell of blood scared away several other real beggars like Mo Laodao and Wu Chengyu. However, there were more rats in the slums than before.

Wu Chengyu pointed to the yard where the two bodies were hidden and asked Lu Youjiao to take people to move the bodies out.

He brought Hong Qigong and A Ku back to the abandoned house that originally belonged to them. He didn't want A Ku to come and add to their sadness, but A Ku stayed with him.

By the way, Ah Ku was indeed not afraid of corpses, and he had followed Taoist Mo to strip clothes off corpses many times.

However, when Hong Qigong helped move Mo Laodao's body out of the water tank, A Ku finally cried.

A Ku cried, but Wu Chengyu was very relieved, as if a difficult obstacle in his heart had been completely resolved.

Ah Ku has always faced all the sufferings in the world with a smile, as if as long as he can still smile, everything will pass.

Some of these smiles were sincere, like when Ah Ku saw Mo Laodao and Wu Chengyu; some were to comfort others. When Wu Chengyu just woke up and couldn't move, these smiles were the light in his eyes; some were to hide the fear in his heart. I think when he was captured by the bad guy, Ah Ku also tried to please him with a smile.

In any case, it was a relief for Wu Chengyu that Ah Ku could cry. In the nightmare the night before, no matter what kind of torture Ah Ku suffered in the dream, she never forgot to smile at Wu Chengyu. This smile was too terrible for Wu Chengyu. It represented a kind of despair and coldness that penetrated deep into his bones.

When Ah Ku finally finished crying, she found a piece of cloth from the abandoned house, ran to the well in the next yard to fetch water, knelt on the ground to help Mo Laodao tidy up his remains, carefully wiped the blood off Mo Laodao's body, and muttered something. Wu Chengyu could hear what she was saying, but didn't want to listen.

Hong Qigong sat aside, feeling guilty as he watched Ah Ku. He raised the big red gourd and drank the wine sip by sip.

Wu Chengyu didn't care that Hong Qigong was standing next to him. He moved the water tank, picked up a wooden board and started digging the soil. Sure enough, he dug out a wooden box one foot underground.

There was a rolled-up sheepskin in the wooden box. Wu Chengyu took a casual look at it and found that it was indeed a map. However, he had no intention of studying the treasure map now. It was just a few scriptures of the Quanxing Taoist sect. If there were really treasures, Mo Laodao would have sold them for food long ago. This guy was not pedantic at all.

There was also a letter in the box. When the letter was unfolded, Wu Chengyu raised his eyebrows. The handwriting was unexpectedly neat and beautiful, which was completely inconsistent with the sloppy and wretched image of Old Man Mo.

The letter was not written to Wu Chengyu. When Mo Laodao wrote the letter, he had not met Wu Chengyu yet.

The recipient of the letter was Aku, or someone who could take care of Aku after Mo Laodao's death. The whole letter was filled with instructions for Aku, and there was worry and a little expectation for Aku between the lines. It seemed that he knew that he would not live long.

He also talked about his identity as the successor of Quanxing, and asked whoever got the map to inherit the Quanxing Taoist tradition. He did not dare to expect it to be carried forward, but at least it would be enough to pass it on. Therefore, he chose words carefully, with a little bit of pleading. When talking about his own Taoist tradition, there was a little bit of pride, but more of resentment.

This is another person who felt dissatisfied after his death. He had been displaced and cautious throughout his life, and only dared to secretly complain about the unfairness of the world.

If Wu Chengyu doesn't want to inherit the Quanxing Taoist tradition, he might as well become the leader of the Beggars' Sect. At most, he will be spat on on the day he becomes the leader, which is better than being suppressed by Confucianists and Taoists.

However, he will take good care of A Ku and keep all the books of Quan Xing safe, so that he can be considered to be doing his duty to Master Mo.

Wu Chengyu carefully put the letter away, leaving it for Ah Ku to remember by. She would teach her to read in the future, and let her understand for herself how much Mo Laodao felt reluctant to let her go.

"Old Mo, this is all I can do. If you are dissatisfied in your netherworld, come and argue with me on the day I die."

Wu Chengyu muttered to himself, then opened the map and looked at it for a few seconds. Most people would be confused when looking at a map, let alone an ancient map that didn't even have longitude and latitude lines.

The map was full of twists and turns, which made him dizzy. He simply walked up to Hong Qigong and handed him the map.

"The treasure map left by Taoist Mo is said to be rich enough to rival a country. Can you help me find where it is?"

He said it lightly, anyone could tell it was a joke, but Hong Qigong took it without a care. He was the biggest beggar leader in the world, and he knew what beggars were like and where they could hide treasures. In fact, facing Hong Qigong, with no one else around except Ah Ku, Wu Chengyu always maintained her trust in Hong Qigong's character. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't be so defenseless.

Hong Qigong stared at the map for a while, gestured on the map a few times with his hands, and nodded.

"It should be Jade Emperor Mountain in Hangzhou. It's very famous. I've been to Hangzhou many times, so I really wouldn't recognize it otherwise. Look, on one side is West Lake, and on the other is Qiantang River. This location should be Fuxing Temple."

Wu Chengyu was dumbfounded. He felt like his IQ was crushed by the natives. The places that Hong Qigong pointed at were all messy lines in his eyes. He couldn't see anything.

However, after knowing the specific location, Wu Chengyu felt relieved. It was in the Jiangnan area. He would definitely find an opportunity to go there in the future to fulfill Mo Laodao's last wish.

After A Ku helped Taoist Mo to tidy up his remains, the beggars over there also came over and helped carry Taoist Mo's body away.

Wu Chengyu discussed with A Ku whether to find a cemetery here for a grand funeral, or to cremate the body first and take the ashes to Gusu for burial. A Ku didn't want to be separated from Mo Laodao, so he chose cremation. In that case, let Mo Laodao go to Gusu as well. At least it is a place of good feng shui and a blessed place on earth.

When the people from the charity cemetery helped with the cremation and A Ku stood by in mourning clothes, Wu Chengyu's father began to feel lonely.

In other words, the bamboo slip that had been hidden in Wu Chengyu's consciousness and had been pretending to be deaf and dumb and keeping aloof suddenly reacted. It began to vibrate inexplicably. When Wu Chengyu discovered the abnormality, the rolled-up bamboo slip silently unfolded.

Wu Chengyu subconsciously looked at the bamboo slips. It turned out that the dozens of half-finished poems had finally disappeared. Only one poem was left on the bamboo slips, a complete poem.

'Ten years of sharpening a sword, yet the frosty blade has never been tested.

Today I will show you, who has any grievances?

The following line reads: "The injustice in my heart turns into a three-foot-long sword, and I can slash away all the injustice in the world with my sword."

Then, there was nothing below.

Wu Chengyu was guarding A Ku and pretending to be calm, while he clenched his fists and cursed in his heart. Originally, the letter was full of words, but now it had shrunk by more than half.

There is also this poem "Shu Jian" by the Tang Dynasty poet Jia Dao, which has been used in many martial arts novels. Do I still need you to teach me?

Is this shabby scroll's basic purpose just to summarize my previous actions? Is it your turn? What use are you, anyway?
Perhaps because Wu Chengyu's curses became more and more harsh, many more words appeared below these lines of poetry.

Wu Chengyu finally perked up this time. To him, as long as it wasn't poetry, it was better than anything else.

Bupleurum, Trichosanthes root, Chinese angelica, safflower, pangolin, peach kernel, raw rehmannia, Chuanxiong, red peony root, Panax notoginseng, Millettia reticulata, Salvia miltiorrhiza...

It contains seventy or eighty different kinds of medicinal materials, and also specifies in detail the proportion of each medicinal material, the main ingredients, the auxiliary ingredients, and the preparation methods.

The last line of the bamboo slips reads the name of this medicinal material: Black Jade Paste.

Today is the fifth working day, and the results will definitely be out. I guess it will be difficult to sign the contract for the first time, after all, there is too little data. Editors usually don’t read the content carefully, but only look at the data. My data is just a glance away.

My current number of investors and daily readers accounts for about half of the number of collections. If it was this ratio for the previous book, I would die of laughter. Unfortunately, the basic data is too low, with only 42 collections. Basically, not many people can see it. There is still one signing opportunity before 10 words. I hope the data will be up by then.

Anyway, thank you all for your support.

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(End of this chapter)