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

Chapter 500 Be honest with each other
If you want to take something, you must first give something.

Wu Chengyu did not answer Pang Kun's question. Instead, he turned around and placed the stone box in front of Pang Kun, taking out the stack of blueprints and letters inside the box.

Pang Kun did not immediately examine the blueprints. Instead, he slowly stroked the stone box. What Wu Chengyu saw as a cold, square, and undecorated stone box was a priceless treasure in Pang Kun's eyes.

He carefully stroked the natural patterns on the stone box with his hand, then gently ran his fingertips along each edge, speaking in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Sixty miles west of Bright Summit, there is a mountain peak. The mountain is not high, but the summit is covered with snow all year round. It is even colder and has thicker snow than the mountains further northwest."

Out of curiosity, I, Hou Tuqi, went to the summit to investigate. I was surprised to find that the summit was full of strange stones, some of which were jade-like. The stones were not fine-grained but had a cold, yin-like quality. Even if these stones were moved away from the summit and left for a long time, their temperature would not change at all.

Our ancestors called this stone "Cold Jade," and that mountain peak is Cold Jade Peak.

Cold jade is several times harder than ordinary stone, difficult to damage with axes and chisels, and extremely difficult to change shape. Only the secret techniques passed down in my Thick Earth Banner can be used to mine and process it. A lot of it was used when Bright Peak was built.

After that, Hou Tuqi suffered a great calamity and I didn't pay much attention to Hanyu Peak. Many years later, when I was only a teenager, I overheard my elders talking about this place. Out of curiosity, I went up the mountain with a few of my peers.

Unexpectedly, this Cold Jade Peak was even colder than it had been decades ago. Strong men who practiced martial arts, even with fur coats and strong liquor, would freeze to death within half an hour of reaching the summit.

Left with no other choice, we simply picked up a few small stones to take back as souvenirs. Surprisingly, the temperature of those small stones rose after we left Hanyu Peak. Although they were still icy cold, they were about the same as what our predecessors remembered, and far from being too cold for us to get close to.

The elders of the clan deduced that something strange must have happened on Cold Jade Peak, which was causing it to get colder and colder, and they warned us not to go up the mountain unless absolutely necessary.

As I grew older, that Frost Jade Peak grew even colder, and gradually no one mentioned it anymore. There were no more stone tools made of Frost Jade in the Thick Earth Banner.

This stone box is clearly made by my predecessor Hou Tuqi. It must have taken a long time to mine such a large piece of jade from the mountain. Although it is just a stone box, the body of the box is hollowed out from a single piece of cold jade, which is by no means an easy task.

And this box lid, which was originally so tightly fitted to the box that it could isolate it from the outside air, could only be opened using my special technique.

"What a pity, you actually managed to cut it open with something extremely sharp; it will never be able to be sewn back together perfectly again."

After listening, Wu Chengyu seemed to have a flash of inspiration, but he couldn't grasp it, so he simply stopped thinking about it. Pang Kun, on the other hand, was implying that he was blaming himself for ruining the perfection of the stone box. Wu Chengyu didn't care. He thought to himself, "Now you want to blame me? I'll make you cry later."

He handed the letter to Pang Kun, who took it and read it briefly. Just as Wu Chengyu had predicted, Pang Kun's eyes reddened and tears welled up in his eyes, ready to fall at any moment.

This put Wu Chengyu at ease. After all, a century had passed, and who knew how much of the hatred these direct descendants of Houtu Banner still held onto? If Pang Kun remained unmoved, then Wu Chengyu would be more worried.

Pang Kun read the letter several times, and tears finally welled up in his eyes. Afraid that his tears would drip onto the letter, he quickly and carefully put it away. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally spoke again.

"Thank you, Your Excellency. This letter is extremely important to my Hou Tu Banner, no, to my Hou Tu Camp, and even more so to me, Pang."

The person who wrote the letter was not only the former commander of my Hou Tu Camp, but also my great-grandfather.

Now that you have read the letter, you should know the origin of my Five Elements Camp and how it became the Five Elements Flag of the Ming Cult.

At that time, the Ming Cult was very powerful, and the few remaining members of my Five Elements Camp had no choice but to join the Ming Cult in order to preserve their own lineage. The Ming Cult members only valued the skills of my Five Elements Camp.

However, they value martial arts more, so for many years they have allowed us to pass on our own skills and techniques, without forcibly taking them away. It seems they only see us as tools that can be used at any time.

My Five Elements Camp has survived to this day thanks to this skill. Most of the current Five Elements Banner members are outsiders, and the descendants of the Five Elements Camp only account for 30%, but the core skills have always been in our hands.

I remember my grandfather once said that after the failure of Fang La's uprising, the next leader of the Ming Cult led us to Bright Peak to build the main altar. At that time, my great-grandfather was given a secret mission. My great-grandfather knew from the moment he accepted the mission that his life was not long.

Sure enough, after the Ming Cult headquarters was built, my great-grandfather and many craftsmen died one after another from various illnesses. They were called illnesses, but anyone with a brain knows what they were.

To protect his descendants, my great-grandfather didn't even know what he was doing. After my great-grandfather and his comrades passed away, the Ming Cult gradually spread the word that there was a secret passage, a forbidden area of ​​the Ming Cult, which only the leader of the cult could enter. We knew at the time that the person who built this secret passage could only be my great-grandfather and his comrades.

I thought I had to keep this to myself, but unexpectedly, my great-grandfather had a backup plan and left behind this secret passage map.

The letter mentioned the drawings, and Pang Kun knew what the stack of parchment was without even looking at it. He didn't unfold it immediately, but instead asked Wu Chengyu.

"May I ask you, sir, where did you get this stone box from?"

Wu Chengyu immediately took out the sheepskin map he had obtained from Pu Zhishen, pointed to the few small characters on the edge, and recounted how he had coerced Pu Zhishen into giving him the map, deciphering the small characters, and then finding the stone box.

Pang Kun suddenly realized: "So our ancestors left clues, but we all overlooked them. In the end, they fell into the hands of that old bastard Pu Zhishen. Fortunately, you got this blueprint from him. You are so meticulous that you can even see such small characters. If you hadn't reminded me, I would have thought these small characters were just mold spots. Even now, I can't tell what these characters are."

It's a pity that we've known the phrase "smoke coming from seven orifices" since childhood, but we treated it as a joke from our ancestors. Who would have thought that these four words were actually a profound secret left by our forefathers?

At this point, Pang Kun stood up, clasped his hands in a fist and bowed deeply to Wu Chengyu: "Thank you for helping my Hou Tu Camp find the relics of our ancestors."

Then he asked again in a serious tone, "May I ask who you are? The son of the Fox King certainly doesn't have such ability. If he obtained this item, he would surely report his success to Yang Xu immediately, and would never come to me."

Your Excellency's visit to Bright Peak must have a purpose, or perhaps you want us to do something?

What Wu Chengyu needs to do now is to be honest, not to make demands, but to let the Hou Tu Banner or the Wu Xing Banner see his sincerity, until they eventually follow Wu Chengyu unconsciously.

"Actually, we met at Phoenix Mountain, but there were too many of you then, so I didn't notice you, but you definitely saw me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Chengyu's face suddenly changed, and he reverted to his original appearance.

Pang Kun was stunned. That day at Phoenix Mountain, Wu Chengyu did not attract much attention at first. People's names and shadows were all focused on Hong Qigong. But in the end, it was the final battle between Wu Chengyu and Fang Yu. He couldn't help but remember Wu Chengyu.

As a top-notch master, Fang Yu ruled the Ming Cult for decades, suppressing the Five Elements Flag and preventing them from rebelling. In the hearts of the Five Elements Flag, Fang Yu was a true demon, and they had no courage to confront him.

On that day, Fang Yu fought Wu Chengyu and ultimately died at Wu Chengyu's hands, which caused an immeasurable shock to Pang Kun and other descendants of the Five Elements Camp present.

Sometimes when they recall it, it feels like a dream. It's hard to accept how the invincible Fang Yu could have died at the hands of a boy who looked to be just over twenty.

But Pang Kun never dreamed that the boy who killed Fang Yu would change his face and suddenly appear in front of him.

His thoughts were extremely complicated. On the one hand, he was relieved. This young man was definitely a mortal enemy of the Ming Cult. Now he also knew that the Five Elements Camp had a grudge against the Ming Cult. The enemy of my enemy can naturally be my friend.

On the other hand, when Wu Chengyu took out the ancestral relics, Pang Kun was secretly determined that if this person harbored ill intentions and used them to blackmail the Hou Tu Camp, he would definitely gather the strength of the Hou Tu Camp to put the other party to death.

But now that he discovered it was Wu Chengyu, he immediately stopped thinking about it. He was confident he could capture and kill Zhou Dao, a second-rate fighter, but what could the top experts who could kill Fang Yu do, even if all the descendants of the Five Elements Camp came out?

Meanwhile, sweat began to bead on Pang Kun's forehead. If someone who knew their secret and whom they were powerless against really harbored ill intentions towards the Five Elements Camp, how would they cope?

Seeing Pang Kun's expression, Wu Chengyu guessed what he was worried about and immediately expressed his opinion.

"Brother Pang, rest assured. I have a grudge against the Ming Cult. Now that I know about the hatred between the Five Elements Camp and the Ming Cult, we are naturally not enemies. I will not do anything to your Five Elements Camp. Please sit down. Now that I have given you these things today, I can be frank with you."

Pang Kun was a resolute man after all. He quickly composed himself, sat down next to Wu Chengyu, and stared intently.

“Brother Pang, we share a common goal. Your ancestors wanted you to destroy the Ming Cult one day and avenge the Five Elements Camp. I can help you with that.”

"This matter is of utmost importance. I know that your martial arts are superb, and even Fang Yu is no match for you. However, the Ming Cult cannot be destroyed simply by having superior martial arts skills."

The Ming Cult has nearly ten thousand disciples near Bright Peak. Excluding my Five Elements Camp descendants, who number about two thousand, there are still over seven thousand. Even if you kill all the high-ranking members of the Ming Cult, the Ming Cult will still exist.

"What if I had a way to make them kill each other, and then launch a surprise attack with an elite army?"

"What kind of army do you have? Even if they are Song soldiers, they would have to cross into Western Xia territory to get here."

“That is my problem. All I know is that the Ming Cult is at its weakest point in hundreds of years. If you don’t rebel now, you will never have another chance.”

"Then what do we need to do?"

"First, you Five Elements Camp only need to know about this. When the time comes, I will need your help from within and without. Don't worry, I will never force you. When that time comes, even if I don't contact you, you will not be able to resist."

Secondly, since I'm going to cause some trouble for the Ming Cult, I'll be secretly leaving Houtu Banner, but the people on Bright Peak can't know. I need you to provide cover for me within Houtu Banner."

"That's all?"

"I've said it before, I won't force you. You'll take action when the time is right. Providing cover shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"

　Chapter 1 is here; Chapter 2 shouldn't be as late as yesterday.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)