Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 197 A lot of doubts
Upon hearing this, Kumārajīva smiled bitterly and said, "Oh dear, if I had known this earlier, why would I have spared that hunchback An? Now that I have broken his dantian and sea of ​​qi, and broken one of his legs and one of his arms, he is now a cripple."

Lu Hai quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright. That hunchback is cruel by nature and has never gotten along well with the four of us. It's good that he's crippled."

At this moment, Jiang Mingzhe smiled and said, "Now that we've all become family, I have something to ask Brother Lü—Xiao Feng went to Shaolin with the intention of finding out the truth about his background. Who exactly is stirring up trouble everywhere, saying that he's going to seek revenge?"

Lu Hai said, "This is a long story. Three days ago, Chief Situ received a hero's invitation, saying that the former chief of the Beggars' Clan had his Khitan identity exposed and had betrayed the Beggars' Clan, intending to seek revenge at Shaolin. It also said that he might have Khitan forces supporting him on his journey, and invited our clan to Shaolin to participate in the Heroes' Gathering, firstly to stop this man's evil deeds, secondly to resist the Khitan forces, and thirdly to take the opportunity to select a peerless hero to become the chief of the Beggars' Clan..."

"The Beggars' Clan's reputation has been severely damaged by this incident. Since our clan is vying for the title of the number one clan in the world, we have invited the Five Hegemons of Jinling to help us and are preparing to go to Shaolin."

"We heard the news the day before yesterday that Xiao Feng might cross the river from Runzhou, so we rushed there, but we were too late and only captured this Young Master Duan. Yesterday, another letter arrived, saying that the Murong family was involved in this matter and had successively defeated Pumen Temple, Maoshan Shuangxiu and others. So the leader decided to set up an ambush to intercept you and capture you before going to Shaolin."

He recounted what he knew, and concluded by saying, "The people who delivered the message the day before yesterday and yesterday were all Jianghu people who had always been on good terms with our gang. They were not famous and were not considered high-ranking figures. However, the one who first issued the invitation to heroes was no ordinary person. He was none other than Chief Xu, the current acting leader of the Beggars' Gang."

"Chief Xu? Elder Xu?"

Jiang Mingzhe's expression changed, and he pressed, "This isn't right. My third brother and I were both present at the Beggars' Sect's Xingzilin gathering. Before Brother Xiao left, he appointed Elder Lü Zhang, the Transmission Elder, as the temporary leader of the sect. How did it become Elder Xu?"

He frowned and said, "Brother Xiao is a descendant of the Khitan people, as evidenced by the will of the former Beggar Clan leader, Wang, and the testimonies of two martial arts seniors, Zhao Qiansun and Monk Zhiguang. This matter is most likely true. However, Elder Xu was quite self-serving in this incident and acted erratically. I exposed him on the spot, which greatly diminished his prestige. Even without Elder Lü, there is still Elder Bai and the four Nine-Bag Masters. It's not his place to make decisions..."

He muttered to himself, his face growing increasingly suspicious: "No, no, the situation must have changed drastically after we left that day. Who caused this change? Yipintang? But when we left, Yipintang had already suffered a crushing defeat. Could there be some other expert who hasn't shown up yet?"

He pondered deeply, vaguely recalling the original story where Yipintang initially won but then lost, and was captured by the beggars. However, after Xiao Feng, Duan Yu, and the others left, another unexpected event occurred. Duan Yanqing arrived and single-handedly swept through the scene, rescuing all the captured Yipintang masters.

However, in this life, three of the Four Evils died early, and Duan Yanqing was seriously injured and left. Logically, he should not have joined the First-Class Hall as in the original story.

At that time, in order to save Azi, Jiang Mingzhe exposed the identity of Crown Prince Yanqing, framed the source of the information as Murong Fu, and said that Murong Fu wanted to restore the country and planned to use Duan Yanqing's identity.

He had thought that after Duan Yanqing escaped, he would try to find Murong Fu and use him for his own purposes. However, after spending time with Murong Fu these past few days and subtly inquiring about the situation, he had come to realize that Duan Yanqing had not come at all.

However, Duan Yanqing was seriously injured that day and might be hiding somewhere to recuperate, so Jiang Mingzhe didn't take it to heart. But now, upon hearing of the changes in the Beggars' Sect, he couldn't help but think of this person again after thinking it over.

But upon closer examination, Duan Yanqing already had no legs. During the battle at Wanjie Valley, he had a lot of internal energy absorbed and also lost an arm. Even if he recovered from his injuries, his combat strength would be greatly reduced compared to the original story. So how could he suppress the Beggar Clan?
Unable to resist asking, "Brother Murong, your family is well-versed in the secrets of the martial world. Do you know of any other formidable masters within the First-Class Hall of Xixia?"

Upon hearing this, Murong Fu's expression shifted between light and dark. After a long pause, he finally said, "There are indeed a few formidable ones, such as the Nine-Winged Daoist and others. If we're talking about extraordinary individuals... it seems, it seems, that's not the case."

He spoke hesitantly, and Jiang Mingzhe frowned slightly, but did not ask further. He said with a sigh, "Alright, since the Beggars' Sect has invited heroes to deal with Brother Xiao, we certainly won't refuse. There's no need to speculate on any doubts. Once we get to Shaolin Temple, everything will become clear! Brother Murong, Grand Preceptor, it's inconvenient for us to stay any longer. Please ask Chief Lü to escort us across the river!"

Upon hearing that he was addressed as the gang leader, Lü Hai was secretly delighted and quickly said, "Very well, I will arrange boats and horses to take you across the river first. After cleaning up the mess, I will go to Shaolin Temple to meet you all." After saying that, he sent Lü He and Lü Hu to gather the scattered gang members and arrange boats and horses.

At this moment, Duan Yu and Zhong Ling helped Abi, whose face was flushed, out. When Murong Fu asked, he learned that Abi had just been injured, so he prepared to ask the Qinglong Gang to send her back to Yanziwu. Abi was unwilling no matter what. Murong Fu was about to get angry, but Jiang Mingzhe chimed in from the side, and in the end he still agreed to take her on the way.

As dawn broke, a large ship belonging to the Green Dragon Gang, carrying Jiang Mingzhe and his group along with their prepared horses, crossed the great river.

After crossing the river, they arrived at Huainan East Road. Jiang Mingzhe and the others went ashore, each riding a fast horse, bypassing Yangzhou and heading north. By the time they reached Sizhou, it was already evening, and they found an inn to rest.

After finishing his meal, Jiang Mingzhe returned to his room, washed his face, hands and feet, and was about to go to sleep when he suddenly heard a knock on the door. Thinking it was Zhong Ling, he opened the door with a smile, only to see Murong Fu standing on the veranda with a worried expression.

Jiang Mingzhe said, "Brother Murong, why aren't you asleep? Come, let's talk inside."

Murong Fu pulled him along, saying, "Let's not go inside, brother. Let's go for a walk outside."

Seeing that he clearly had something to say, Jiang Mingzhe nodded, closed the door and came out. He followed him out of the inn and walked all the way to the edge of Hongze Lake. Seeing the vast expanse of water and sky and that there was no one around, Murong Fu stopped.

Jiang Mingzhe said solemnly, "Brother, you must have something important to tell me about bringing me to this quiet place."

Murong Fu nodded, pondered for a moment, and slowly said, "Brother, you asked me today if there were any experts in Yipin Hall. There were too many people around, so I didn't say much. Now I want to tell you about this in detail. As for the other people in Yipin Hall, they are nothing special. But the person who founded this hall is an earth-shattering expert!"

Jiang Mingzhe asked in surprise, "Earth-shattering? How high is that?"

Murong Fu said, "Our generation, whether it's you, me, or Xiao Feng, is probably far inferior to this person. Not to mention us, even the outstanding figures of the previous generation, such as your master Ding Chunqiu or Kumārajīva, were mostly no match for her!"

Li Qiushui!
Jiang Mingzhe immediately thought of this person and frowned, saying, "If he is an expert of this level, it wouldn't be difficult to turn the situation in Xingzi Forest that day around. But why would this person support Elder Xu and target Brother Xiao, causing all these troubles?"

Murong Fu remained silent for a moment, then lowered his head and said, "My Murong family's wish is to restore our kingdom, while that expert's ambition is to destroy the Song Dynasty!"

Jiang Mingzhe laughed and said, "It's quite normal for the experts from Western Xia to be determined to destroy the Song Dynasty."

Murong Fu slowly shook his head: "No, to be precise, this person went to Western Xia in order to destroy the Song Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)