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

Chapter 241 Great Ci’en Temple
However, even knowing it's unsafe, I still have to come. There are some things I have to judge for myself before deciding on my next course of action.

Moreover, Wu Chengyu does need intelligence, and regardless of whether the intelligence is true or false, it means he can make contact with the people he wants to kill.

When he attempted to assassinate Shi Miyuan, he went to Hangzhou alone, only to find that he didn't even know what Shi Miyuan looked like, let alone where he was hiding.

At that time, there was no intelligence network to use, so Wu Chengyu had to search around on his own, going through countless twists and turns, before finally finding Shi Miyuan, the real target.

Anyway, the worst-case scenario is what it is now. Whether Liu Laoman has been bribed or coerced, the next step will inevitably be to set a trap for Wu Chengyu. But what Wu Chengyu is afraid of is not the ambush, but the inability to find the person who set the trap.

As he was thinking this, Liu Laoman saw that Qiu Chuji did not answer, and assumed that something had happened to him. His eyes immediately reddened, and his voice trembled slightly.

"But if anything happens to Master Qiu, it's all my fault. I never imagined it was a trap."

At this moment, his words and emotions revealed a hint of guilt and shame, but shame was the dominant factor.

Wu Chengyu seemed to have just come to his senses and replied casually, "Master Qiu is fine. His injuries are a bit serious, and he will need to recuperate for at least a year or two, but his life is not in danger."

"That's good, that's good. I shouldn't have told Master Qiu where those Golden Dogs were. Who knew that even though the sect leader had given the order, Master Qiu still went to kill the Golden Dogs. I never expected that the Golden Dogs would have laid an ambush. I heard that Master Qiu was seriously injured at the time."

I've been waiting for news from Chongyang Palace these past two days. If anything truly happens to Daoist Qiu, even a hundred deaths wouldn't atone for my sins."

Upon hearing Wu Chengyu's answer, Liu Laoman seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, feeling less guilty. Wu Chengyu believed this emotion was genuine, indicating that even though Liu Laoman had betrayed Qiu Chuji, he still didn't want Qiu Chuji to die.

Therefore, the reason why Liu Laoman betrayed the Quanzhen Sect is quite intriguing.

Wu Chengyu casually offered a word of comfort: "This matter has nothing to do with you; it's just Qiu Chuji's personality."

When Liu Laoman heard Wu Chengyu's answer, he was somewhat surprised and looked up to examine Wu Chengyu more closely.

According to Liu Laoman's thinking, the person who came to find him at this time must be a disciple of the Quanzhen Sect, but how could a disciple of the Quanzhen Sect dare to call Qiu Chuji by his given name?

"May I ask who you are, guest? I have been to Chongyang Palace several times in the past, but I have never seen or heard of anyone like you in the Quanzhen Sect."

Qiu Chuji had just had an accident, so the Quanzhen disciples sent out now, even if they weren't the Seven Masters of Quanzhen, should at least be core disciples of Chongyang Palace. Liu Laoman then realized that he had never seen a Quanzhen disciple who looked so dejected, and immediately became suspicious.

“I am not a disciple of Quanzhen, but I am a friend of Qiu Chuji. This jade pendant was personally given to me by Headmaster Ma Yu. You don’t need to ask any more questions. Headmaster Ma Yu said that seeing the token is like seeing the person. You don’t need to doubt me.”

"Seeing the token is like seeing the person, that's certainly true. May I ask what you need from me now that you've come all this way?"

"I need the current location of those Jin spies, how many there are, and it would be even better if I knew how many of them are experts."

"After the Golden Dogs ambushed Master Qiu that day, they immediately moved to another location. However, I, Liu Laoman, have lived in Chang'an for decades, and no matter what happens, they can't hide it from me. Now those Golden Dogs are hiding in the Great Ci'en Temple. I went to the Great Ci'en Temple to burn incense and saw that they forcibly requisitioned several meditation rooms in the Great Ci'en Temple."

There weren't many people, only about thirty. As for the few experts, I had fought in battles when I was young and received some martial arts skills from Master Chongyang, but I had neglected them for many years and couldn't tell which ones were experts.

However, among these people were several monks from the west, who looked fierce and menacing; in my opinion, they were definitely experts.

Like the later Mongol Yuan dynasty, the Jin dynasty favored employing Tantric monks. Qiu Chuji also mentioned that among the masters he fought, there were two Tantric lamas whose martial arts were not weak. One of them held his own against him and was skilled in wielding a powerful and heavy vajra.

The target was so obvious that even if Liu Laoman didn't say anything, Wu Chengyu would have found out from Qiu Chuji.

However, whether they were experts or not was indeed difficult for Liu Laoman to discern. Wu Chengyu was just asking out of curiosity, but knowing their location meant that regardless of whether it was a trap or not, there must be someone there. Today's goal was achieved; otherwise, finding someone in the vast city of Chang'an would have been far too difficult.

But these people were hiding in the Great Ci'en Temple, and the oil shop was right next to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The two places were too close and the target was too obvious, as if they were afraid that Wu Chengyu would not be able to find them.

These people seemed rather reckless, clearly unafraid of retaliation from the Quanzhen Sect, and were even waiting for the Quanzhen Sect to arrive.

Is the Jin court preparing to take action against the Quanzhen Sect? No, according to Ma Yu, the reason why the Quanzhen Sect maintained a superficial peace with the Jin Dynasty was that some people in the Jin upper class believed in Taoism, especially Emperor Shizong of Jin, who believed in Taoism, and gave the Quanzhen Sect a lot of courtesy in the past.

Therefore, as long as the Quanzhen Sect does not openly rebel, or there is solid evidence, the Jin Dynasty will not do anything to the Quanzhen Sect openly.
The struggle between the two sides has always been kept in private, with each side mostly on guard and rarely engaging in direct conflict.

It wasn't until Wu Chengyu's actions that the Jin Kingdom took notice of the deadly power of martial arts masters, leading to the incident of sending people into the Quanzhen Sect to steal martial arts techniques. Therefore, Qiu Chuji in the original novel never encountered this life-or-death crisis; everything was ultimately caused by Wu Chengyu.

However, these Jin spies had already gained an advantage, and they couldn't completely break off relations. They should have stopped while they were ahead, but now they were still keeping the oil shop open, waiting for the Quanzhen Sect to come to their door. This was not a simple matter; they must have something to rely on.

Wu Chengyu couldn't understand it for a moment, and felt very conflicted. All of this could only mean that the Jin spies had something to do, or that someone or something had influenced their attitude towards the Quanzhen Sect.

But none of that matters. Wu Chengyu just needs to find someone to kill them. Why bother with all that trouble?

Thinking of this, Wu Chengyu immediately got up to leave, but was stopped by Liu Laoman.

"Is there anything else you need, sir? I have some connections in Chang'an. Do you need any weapons? Or can I arrange accommodation for you? I'll send someone to investigate the situation at the Great Ci'en Temple again before we discuss this further."

Wu Chengyu sneered, "You don't even know what I'm going to do, so why are you planning this out?"

"No need, leave the rest to me. The shopkeeper can continue to wait for customers here."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Chengyu left immediately, ignoring Liu Laoman's attempts to stop him, and left the oil shop in a few quick steps.

(End of this chapter)