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

Chapter 551 Yang Tiexin and Mu Nianci

A-Ku and Guo Jing were eating meat, while Wu Chengyu was slowly enduring the stinging pain of his pores being altered. Just then, Wu Chengyu suddenly laughed, and a father and daughter suddenly appeared in the open space not far from the restaurant.

The open space was deserted just moments before, but soon a brocade banner was planted at the back of the open space. It was white with red flowers and embroidered with the four golden characters "Martial Arts Contest for Marriage". To the left of the banner, an iron spear was stuck in the ground, and to the right, two short iron halberds were stuck in the ground.

An old man and a young girl came to the center of the open space. They looked like father and daughter. The old man picked up a gong and struck it three times. Soon, a group of idlers gathered around.

The man banging the gong was thick-waisted and broad-shouldered, quite burly, but his back was slightly hunched, his temples were gray, his face was full of wrinkles, and he looked very distressed. He was wearing a coarse cotton-padded jacket and trousers with patches on them.

He stepped forward, bowed deeply to the crowd, and said loudly, "My name is Mu Yi, and I am from Shandong. I am passing through your esteemed place not for fame or profit, but because my daughter has reached marriageable age and is not yet betrothed."

She had made a wish that her husband would not be rich or powerful, but only a hero with superb martial arts skills. Therefore, she boldly held a martial arts contest to find a husband.

I will betroth my daughter to any man under the age of thirty who is unmarried and can withstand a single punch or kick from her.

My daughter and I have traveled from south to north, traversing seven roads, but all the renowned heroes have already married, and few young heroes are willing to deign to consider our fates; thus, we have remained unmarried.

He paused for a moment, then clasped his hands in a fist and said, “Zhongdu is a place where hidden talents abound, and there must be many masters and heroes. My actions were absurd, so please forgive me.”

As for the girl next to him, she was dressed more elegantly than her father. She was about seventeen or eighteen years old, graceful and poised. Although her face showed signs of weariness, she had bright eyes, white teeth, and a beautiful appearance.

The banner fluttered in the north wind, casting intermittent light and shadow on the girl's face, yet she remained expressionless, neither sad nor happy, but her eyes revealed a strong will and a touch of stubbornness.

Upon seeing the two, Wu Chengyu surprisingly showed a slight smile amidst the throbbing of needles.

Yang Tiexin and Mu Nianci, I've been looking for you for so long! I've finally met two characters who have significant roles in the original novel, but I haven't seen them since I transmigrated.

In the vast sea of ​​people, especially in ancient times, without the ability to see the future, finding a specific person accurately was a matter of luck.

After Wu Chengyu brought Li Ping and Guo Jing back to Jiangnan, he told Li Ping that Yang Tiexin should not be dead, but just wandering the world, but he never explained how he knew this.

Although Li Ping was skeptical and didn't know how to ask further, she still asked Wu Chengyu to help her find Yang Tiexin's whereabouts.

Wu Chengyu then had A Ku do the work, using the Beggars' Sect's extensive network of informants to find a father and daughter, and have them travel the world under the guise of a martial arts contest to find a husband.

But this time, luck was not on their side, and Wu Chengyu could not describe Yang Tiexin's current appearance. After several years, they had gained nothing.

Looking at Mu Nianci now, she's just come of age. It's possible that this martial arts contest for marriage only started recently, and no one knew what the father and daughter were doing before.

In short, the plan to find the two of them through the Beggars' Sect failed. The only thing that is somewhat accurate is that Yang Tiexin and Mu Nianci will eventually appear in this place.

After Wu Chengyu finished his trip to Peach Blossom Island, he calculated the approximate date and realized that it should be around the time in the original story when Guo Jing left the Mongolian grasslands with the Seven Heroes of Jiangnan. Only at this time would Yang Tiexin and the other person appear here.

If they had missed their chance, and without Guo Jing's intervention, Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo might have ended up in Yang Kang's hands and met a tragic end. It must be said that Yang Tiexin and Bao Xiruo's suicide is a major unsettling event in the original novel.

The original plot has been largely ruined by Wu Chengyu, and only this event still has the possibility of happening. Therefore, Wu Chengyu, along with Guo Jing and A Kuma, rushed to Zhongdu without stopping and have been waiting in this restaurant for the past few days.

As the saying goes, perseverance pays off, and Yang Tiexin and Mu Nianci finally appeared.

Yang Tiexin looked like an old man weathered by many years of hardship. He was only in his forties, but he looked like he was in his fifties. As a descendant of the Yang family generals, he had used a spear all his life, and his back had inevitably become bent.

Mu Nianci's appearance is completely different from that of Yang Panpan, who played her in the 83 version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Her face is not as big, but she has some of the charm of the later Jiang Qinqin.

This woman's fate was also quite bumpy, and she was the birth mother of Yang Guo, the Condor Hero (this is the conventional setting, not Qin Nanqin; even the author doesn't know where this woman came from). However, Yang Guo probably won't have a chance to appear in this life.

Without Yang Guo, wouldn't that be considered a source of resentment created by Wu Chengyu? This is a difficult question to answer definitively.

"Jing'er, come here." Wu Chengyu beckoned to Guo Jing, who immediately put down the cleaver in his hand and walked to Wu Chengyu's side.

A-Ku, curious, joined in, chewing on a leg of lamb.

Wu Chengyu pointed to the two people in the field: "This old man is your uncle Yang Tiexin. He promised your mother that he would find him, and he has finally fulfilled his mission."

"See those two short halberds made of fine iron over there? These were your father Guo Xiaotian's personal weapons, and today they can finally be returned to their rightful owner."

Guo Jing's expression immediately froze, and it took him a few breaths to come back to his senses. He first looked at Yang Tiexin. His mother, Li Ping, had once described him as a tall man with fair skin and a somewhat delicate appearance.

But the old man in front of me was nothing like the one my mother had described. His face was so wrinkled it could trap mosquitoes, and while calling him old and decrepit was an exaggeration, he was definitely over fifty.

On a snowy night, the Guo and Yang families were suddenly struck by disaster, their homes destroyed. Guo Xiaotian, the father, fought desperately to hold them off, while his uncle led his mother and aunt to escape.

My mother only remembers that my uncle was shot in the back and rode away on horseback. My mother and aunt were captured by Duan Tiande. Then my aunt was taken away, and my mother was kept by Duan Tiande as a talisman. From then on, the Guo and Yang families could never meet again.

If it weren't for his master suddenly speaking, everyone would have thought that his uncle had been dead for many years, and no one expected that his master would suddenly bring him to Zhongdu one day, saying that he was looking for his uncle.

Guo Jing really didn't know how to understand his master's abilities. It seemed that his master always knew things without any cause or effect, and never explained the source of his information.

However, there was one thing he was very clear about: his master would occasionally play pranks on him and make him look foolish, but he would never deceive him. If he said this was Yang Tiexin, then the person in front of him must be his uncle.

His gaze then turned to the two short iron halberds. His uncle had taken these halberds with him when he broke through the encirclement. They were also family heirlooms of the Guo family, and it was said that they were made by remelting the long halberd of Guo Sheng, the Liangshan hero Sai Rengui.

Li Ping's vocabulary is hardly enough to vividly describe a person's appearance, let alone after more than a decade of changes. But this pair of short halberds is deeply ingrained in Li Ping's soul. She has drawn them more than once, meticulously depicting every detail of the halberds.

Upon seeing the short halberd, Guo Jing was certain that it was the weapon left behind by his father, exactly as his mother had depicted it.

Although he knew asking would be pointless, Guo Jing couldn't help but ask, "Master, how did you know that Uncle wasn't dead, and how did you know he would come to Zhongdu?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, A-Ku replied, "Don't ask anymore. Your master is always so mysterious, always knowing things that have nothing to do with anything. I'm sure he's never even met your uncle, but he just knows. Like that time recently, when there wasn't enough military funds, he suddenly sent the Beiwei Army to Jingzhou, using the pretext of government funds to build Tianning Temple, to temporarily relocate the monks from the temple. Then he surrounded Tianning Temple, and before long, he made up a treasure of Emperor Yuan of the Southern Liang Dynasty."

That Buddha statue, which was over three zhang tall, was made entirely of gold inside the clay sculpture, and its belly was filled with countless gold and silver treasures.

Your master even knew that these treasures were coated with deadly poison, so he used quicklime and other substances to soak them in the solution beforehand to neutralize the poison.

When the Beiwei Army brings this treasure back to Suzhou, our Suzhou militia and righteous army will have more than enough to cover their military expenses for the next ten years.

It should be noted that the combined forces of the two sides numbered 150,000, all of them elite troops. The cost of ten years' worth of military expenses for 150,000 troops could be settled in one day.

Upon hearing this, your master's wife immediately rushed back to Suzhou from the Jin Kingdom to treat your master to a good meal.

But what about your master? It seems he's never been to Jingzhou in his entire life. Tianning Temple has been around for nearly eight hundred years, from the time of Emperor Yuan of the Southern Liang Dynasty to now. Even the monks there don't know that the Buddha statue is a treasure, yet your master does.

I asked him countless times afterward, but he wouldn't tell me. He even told me to guess, but I couldn't be bothered to guess. Anyway, your master's charades are more impressive than his martial arts skills.

Wu Chengyu smiled slightly. Just as Aku said, he had indeed never been to Jingzhou, but at that time the rebel army was really short of funds. It cost money to support the army, and the cost of food, weapons, and horses was astronomical every day.

Previously, Wu Chengyu had used the money from wiping out gangs near Hangzhou and the years of embezzlement by officials near Suzhou to support his army. However, as his and Hong Niangzi's troops grew larger and larger, and were all trained to be elite soldiers, this amount of money was no longer enough to cover their expenses.

Later, they acquired the Ming Cult's century-long accumulation, which gave them a much-needed respite. However, the cost of rebuilding the Ming Cult's base and constructing homes for the families of the rebels was nearly exhausted, and it was uncertain how long the remaining funds would last.

At this point, besides begging from corrupt officials, they could only resort to the idea of ​​finding a so-called treasure.

The world of Jin Yong's martial arts novels is consistent, with many of his dozen or so novels featuring treasures.

The treasures of the rebel king in Changbai Mountain in The Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain, the Qing Dynasty treasures in The Deer and the Cauldron, and the treasures of the rebel king in The Sword Stained with Royal Blood—any one of them could be used to support an army. However, these all appeared in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, several hundred years later.

The only possibility is that the treasure of Tianning Temple in the novel *A Deadly Secret* exists. Tianning Temple was first built during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Although it is uncertain whether the treasure existed before the Southern Song Dynasty, there is at least hope. At worst, it would just be a wasted trip.

The original text describes Tianning Temple in Jiangling, which is the later Jingzhou. Everyone in the area knows Tianning Temple. You don't need a map to find the treasure; just look for the largest Buddha statue in Tianning Temple.

The only thing to be careful about is that the treasure is poisonous, but as long as you prepare in advance, it is quite easy to remove the poison from the gold and stone.

Wu Chengyu then sent Song Mu with two hundred Beiwei soldiers to Jingzhou. Song Mu was steady and had excellent command skills, so he didn't need to worry about such trivial matters.

The outcome was naturally a happy one. Although it was unknown when the treasure appeared, it was already in the Southern Song Dynasty. Song Mu did some diversionary stunts and quickly found the treasure, removed the poison, and then transported it back to Dongshan Island in Taihu Lake after a long journey.

As it turned out, the rebel army would be able to eat their fill for the next ten years.

The golden Buddha statue, standing three zhang tall and weighing several thousand jin, was worth millions of taels of silver based on the Southern Song Dynasty's conversion of one jin to sixteen liang.

There are also Buddha statues with hidden golden pillars, golden unicorns, and a large number of jewels inside their bellies. The total value is even more frightening, more than ten times that of the gold Buddha statues.

From then on, the rebel army and the militia no longer suffered from a shortage of military pay, and Hong Niangzi's burden was reduced by at least half. Even the potential of the rebel army was greatly enhanced.

So, just as A-Ku said, the overjoyed Hong Niangzi did indeed reward Wu Chengyu handsomely. Wu Chengyu said it was a dowry for Hong Niangzi, and what woman could bear such a dowry?

However, from then on, Wu Chengyu's mysterious and unpredictable nature became deeply ingrained in everyone's mind. He didn't know how to explain it, so he could only grit his teeth and bear it.

Wu Chengyu could not answer Aku's question at this moment, so he could only change the subject: "Jing'er, do you know what great things we will do in the future? Your little red horse is exceptionally fine and will be used to fight on the battlefield. Why not use your father's iron halberds? That would be worthy of your ancestors' reputation."

Guo Jing clasped his hands and bowed deeply to Wu Chengyu: "Master's great kindness is beyond words. I will definitely wield this iron halberd to drive out the Tartars and restore our Han dynasty's land."

"I believe you, but let's see how it goes first. That girl is your uncle's adopted daughter. She's quite pretty, and her open martial arts contest to find a husband will surely attract some suitors. She'll need your protection. It seems the show has already begun."

After Yang Tiexin gave his instructions, he waited for a while. He heard some thugs in the crowd making sarcastic remarks and commenting on the girl, but no one dared to make a move. Just as they were about to leave, two people suddenly stepped forward.

One was an obese old man with a mostly white beard, at least in his fifties; the other was a bald monk. After the two left the stage, the surrounding idlers laughed and stirred up trouble.

Blinded by lust, the two men actually started fighting. The monk was using Shaolin Arhat Fist, and with Wu Chengyu's discerning eye, he immediately knew that he had received the true teachings, and that it was not something that had been passed down outside but was not practiced correctly. It seemed that he was another Shaolin monk who did not abide by the rules.

The other is the Five Elements Fist, which is the most widely circulated martial arts style. This old man has mastered it to a high degree, and his punches and kicks are powerful and forceful. Despite his age, his moves are fierce. However, the Five Elements Fist is inferior to the Yan Qing Fist in many ways.

In other words, the two who ended up fighting fiercely and without holding back were both low-level players.

As the two men fought with real passion, they actually drew their weapons. Just when it seemed that blood was about to splatter everywhere, Yang Tiexin suddenly lunged forward, kicking the monk's dagger out of his hand. He then grabbed the iron whip in the fat man's hand, pulling and snatching it away. The fat man couldn't hold on and had to let go.

Yang Tiexin slammed the iron whip to the ground. The monk and the fat man exchanged a glance, dared not say a word, picked up their weapons, and disappeared into the crowd.

The three spectators, Wu Chengyu and his companions, were getting a little bored. Usually, those who could fight them were at least top-tier, so seeing such low-level guys was really an eyesore.

A-Ku clicked his tongue and said, "Your uncle clearly practices external martial arts, which is not very profound, but his timing is just right and he can control his movements freely. It seems that he has worked hard over the years. However, he does not know internal energy, and his external skills have not produced any internal strength. At most, he can be considered third-rate."

Guo Jing said, "Master, now that we have found my uncle, please allow me to go and recognize him. There are many people and many troubles here, so it would be better to avoid them."

Wu Chengyu's eyes suddenly narrowed, and his lips curled into a smirk: "No rush, the main character has already arrived."

Suddenly, the crowds surrounding the matchmaking venue stirred. A group of people squeezed in from outside, accompanied by the sound of bells. Dozens of strong servants escorted a young master on horseback.

A handsome young man dressed in a magnificent brocade robe dismounted from his horse, gave a wicked smile at the four words "Martial Arts Contest for Marriage" on the robe, and then turned to look at Mu Nianci, sizing her up from head to toe.

Guo Jing, who was watching from the window, suddenly exclaimed, "It's him!"

(End of this chapter)