Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 198 The Li Sisters
"To destroy the Song Dynasty?"

Jiang Mingzhe wondered, thinking to himself, "Didn't Li Qiushui run off to become the Queen of Western Xia so that she would have the power to deal with Tong Lao?"

He carefully recalled the original plot. Li Qiushui and Tianshan Tonglao had been vying for the affections of their senior brother since they were young girls. Tianshan Tonglao started cultivating the Longevity Technique at the age of six and mastered it at the age of twenty-six. She could have grown up, but Li Qiushui harmed her, causing her to go into a state of demonic possession and become like a little girl.

The Heavenly Child Granny did not spare Li Qiushui either. After Li Qiushui became the imperial concubine of Western Xia, she cut two horizontal and two vertical sword wounds on her face, turning a beautiful woman into a terrifying monster.

Based on this reasoning, it seems that Tong Lao's martial arts skills were superior to Li Qiushui's. Therefore, Li Qiushui could only seek revenge when Tong Lao returned to her youth once every thirty years and lost all her power.

In the final battle in the ice cave, Tong Lao fought with her body crippled by the loss of her thumb and left leg, and even though her skills had not fully recovered, she still managed to fight Li Qiushui to a standstill, which was enough to demonstrate the difference in their abilities.

The old woman herself once said, "This wretched woman calculated the timing perfectly, knowing that once my divine skills are complete, she will be no match for me."

Besides the difference in martial arts skills, Tong Lao, as the master of Lingjiu Palace, also wielded immense power. Although all the members of the Nine Heavens and Nine Departments of Lingjiu Palace were women, their martial arts skills were extremely high. Furthermore, she controlled thirty-six caves and seventy-two islands, making her far more powerful than Shaolin or the Beggar Clan.

Li Qiushui, facing such a powerful enemy, submitted to the King of Western Xia and built the Yipintang Hall, which was only natural. How did it suddenly become a topic of the destruction of the Song Dynasty?
Seeing Jiang Mingzhe's confused expression, Murong Fu pursed his lips slightly, seemingly struggling with whether or not to continue explaining.

Jiang Mingzhe noticed his conflicted expression and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Brother, I am just a wanderer of the martial world. If this matter is far-reaching, I don't really need to know. It is enough for me to know that there is a great master behind Yipintang."

Seeing how understanding he was, Murong Fu was touched and shook his head, saying, "Brother, you are wholeheartedly planning for me. You are my Zhang Liang, Zhuge Liang, and Guan Yu. What do I need to hide from you? But I am not sure about this matter... Very well, I will just tell you what I know, and you can give me some advice."

He composed himself and said, "My mother only told me about this after my father died. My father had always suspected that the former Empress Dowager of Western Xia, now the Empress Dowager, might have been my maternal aunt!"

Jiang Mingzhe blinked in astonishment, wondering if Li Qiushui was his aunt? Could it be that this kid disguised himself as Li Yanzong and infiltrated Yipintang just to verify this matter?
He couldn't help but ask, "Perhaps, what does that mean?"

Murong Fu said, “My grandmother was the great-granddaughter of the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Southern Tang Dynasty died out, leaving only my grandmother and her sister. Above my grandmother was an aunt who studied under a peerless master and was highly skilled in martial arts. My aunt, who is the Qingluo sister you mentioned, may be my aunt’s daughter. According to my mother, my grandmother was the matchmaker when she married into the Wang family of Suzhou.”

Jiang Mingzhe asked knowingly, "So, my master is your uncle-in-law?"

Murong Fu spread his hands and sighed, "That's what I don't understand. Your master is only in his sixties, not much older than my father. How could his wife be my grandmother's sister?"

Jiang Mingzhe looked at him strangely and said, "Your great-aunt might be an old cow eating young grass, who knows?"

Murong Fu shook his head repeatedly and said, "In short, according to my mother, my grandmother married my grandfather because she knew that my Murong family had the ambition to restore the country. She was a descendant of the Li family of the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed by the Song Dynasty, and there was also the humiliation of Zhao Guangyi forcibly taking Xiao Zhouhou. My grandmother naturally could not bear to see the Song Dynasty at peace and wanted to destroy it as soon as possible. If that Western Xia princess was really my aunt, perhaps it was for this reason that she entered the Western Xia king's harem."

Jiang Mingzhe looked up and thought carefully. In the original work, Li Qiushui had a sister who never appeared and was secretly loved by Wuyazi. Could it be that this girl later married Murong Fu's grandfather?
If this is the case, in the original text, the Yellow-Eyebrowed Monk recalled that forty-five years ago he encountered a young woman with a young boy. Their conversation turned sour, and the young man nearly killed him with a single Vajra Finger strike. During their conversation, the young woman mentioned a man surnamed Murong from Suzhou. That young man was clearly Murong Bo, and the young woman was undoubtedly Murong Bo's mother, who was about thirty-six or thirty-seven years old at the time, a few years younger than Li Qiushui.

Then I recalled that in the original novel, Cui Baiquan reminisced about the past and personally witnessed Murong Bo studying the Lingbo Weibu footwork. Of course, Cui Baiquan didn't recognize this skill; Duan Yu deduced it from his words. If Murong Bo is the son of Li Qiushui's sister, then the origin of Lingbo Weibu would make sense.

However, judging from Cui Baiquan's account, Murong Bo's inheritance was incomplete, which was probably because Li Qiushui's sister did not receive the complete footwork.

As for why this younger sister didn't explain her relationship with Li Qiushui to Murong Bo, so that Murong Bo could only guess that Li Qiushui might be his aunt, and most likely related to the melodramatic love story among the top masters of the Xiaoyao Sect, that was beyond Jiang Mingzhe's comprehension.

This line of reasoning explains why Li Qiushui raised her daughter in Suzhou after her falling out with Wuyazi and leaving Wuliang Mountain—after all, Ding Chunqiu, the sycophant, was just a stepfather, and only with her own sister by her side could she be absolutely safe.

Whether Li Qiushui herself joined the Western Xia to resist the Tianshan Child Granny, to destroy the Song Dynasty, or both, Jiang Mingzhe could not determine.

After thinking for a while, he slowly nodded and said, "According to what you said, the Western Xia Empress Dowager, who is suspected to be your great-aunt, may indeed have infiltrated Jiangnan with Yipintang. Firstly, she might be there to see her daughter; secondly, she might be there to meet her young lover, who is also her master; and thirdly, she might be there to cover for Yipintang. Later, after discovering that Yipintang has suffered a crushing defeat, she might appear and sweep them away, supporting Elder Xu, that easy-to-manage good-for-nothing, as the acting leader, and inciting the heroes of the Central Plains to besiege Brother Xiao. Hehe, if this uncovers the old story of Yanmen Pass from thirty years ago, causing conflict between Song and Liao, wouldn't that be an opportunity for the Western Xia people?"

Murong Fu said excitedly, "That's right! What you've said makes perfect sense, my brother. It's probably true. Regardless of whether she's my aunt or not, as the Dowager Consort of Western Xia, causing the Song and Liao dynasties to turn against each other is beneficial to her. In this way..."

"In this way, if we go to Shaolin Temple and reveal the truth in front of all the heroes of the world, you will be a hero to both the Song and Liao dynasties. Then, if we go to Qinghai to establish a kingdom and annex Western Xia, we will have an even more legitimate reason to fight!"

Murong Fu laughed heartily upon hearing this, but couldn't resist trying to portray himself as a loyal and righteous person, so he deliberately hesitated and said, "But if that Western Xia princess is really my aunt, wouldn't it be bad to ruin her plans since we're blood relatives?"

Jiang Mingzhe said nonchalantly, "What does it matter? Let alone the fact that she may have no relation to you at all, even if she really is your aunt, her surname is Li, and yours is Murong. Are you going to abandon the greater cause for such a small relationship?"

Murong Fu, having found an excuse, was quite satisfied: "Not bad, not bad at all. I was just being overly cautious. Those who achieve great things don't concern themselves with trifles. Thank you for your guidance, my brother."

After discussing the situation, the two managed to grasp the current situation, and returned to the inn chatting and laughing, each settling down to rest.

That day, everyone got up, washed up, ate breakfast, mounted their horses and set off again. They traveled three hundred li in a single day and arrived in Bozhou to stay.

Abi led Duan Yu around the city, and soon rushed back, saying that she had found the mark left by Azhu. However, according to the mark, Azhu had not caught up with Xiao Feng and had gone to Shaolin Temple on her own.

(End of this chapter)