The Legend of the Condor Heroes: Starting from the Bodyguard

Chapter 215 The White Lotus in Troubled Times, The Conflict Between Two Religions

"bang"

Cheng Hu slammed heavily to the ground, rolled several times along the bluestone pavement, and then leaped up. Zhou Yan's figure suddenly enlarged, and he punched Cheng Hu in the abdomen.

Cheng Hu felt that his "Iron Shirt" physique, cultivated through practice, was like a piece of white porcelain bursting open under Zhou Yan's punches. His meridians and blood vessels turned into spider web-like cracks, his internal organs shifted, and his body was in turmoil.

"Ugh!" He spat out a mouthful of blood, his body curled up and he fell to the ground. Zhou Yan grabbed him like a dead dog, pressed his pressure points, and looked toward the council hall.

The narrow sword in Liu Qingzhou's hand emitted a white light, and with a slight spin, it parried several slashes from a leader's longsword. Then, the longsword unleashed a rain of swords that enveloped the opponent.

The leader screamed and fell to the ground, having been stabbed countless times, his body covered in blood.

A hysterical scream rang out at that moment, and the golden hook on the fishing rod of the old fisherman pierced the back of a leader. The burly man was suddenly thrown up from the ground like a fish, flung against the wall, and crashed to the ground without moving.

In just over ten breaths, only one leader remained in the council chamber.

The man yelled like a dog that had lost its home, but he had only run a few feet away when a fishhook came flying through the air and snagged the back of his neck, causing the fishing rod in the old fisherman's hand to tremble.

With a "crack," the man's head tilted to the side in a bizarre arc, and he collapsed to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably.

"Walk"

Zhou Yan, carrying Cheng Hu, darted out of the window, his gray figure disappearing into the white snow as if crashing through a hole.

Three figures moved swiftly and quickly, leaving the council hall. Once they reached the woods beside the arrow tower, the sound of shrill, urgent gongs and drums rang out from the water fortress, and torchlight spread along the footprints in the snow.

Zhou Yan ignored them and went into the woods to meet up with Liang Xiaowu and the Indian monk. The group then descended the cliff using ropes, boarded a small boat, and left.

With five more people on board, the boat was a bit crowded and moved much slower, but in this snowy night, it was impossible for the people of the water village to find a small boat on the vast Poyang Lake.

Zhou Yan, Liu Qingzhou, and the Fisherman of Misty Waves entered the cabin. He released Cheng Hu's pressure points and asked, "Who is your leader?"

Before Cheng Hu could speak, the old fisherman said coldly, "Think it over before you speak, or I'll pierce your cervical vertebrae with my fishhook and make sure you can never lift your head again."

The contrast between Zhou Yan striking pressure points with his sword and the old fisherman piercing a person's body with a fishhook and tossing them around like a fish made Cheng Hu even more apprehensive. He also knew that falling into the hands of Zhou Yan and his group meant becoming "the fish on the chopping block."

Cheng Hu's eyes were filled with resentment as he glanced at the Fisherman of the Misty Waves and said, "The leader is Yu Huacheng."

It was still a name that Zhou Yan was unfamiliar with.

"Where's Zhang Sanqiang?" he asked.

Cheng Hu was taken aback, then realized what he meant and asked, "You know Zhang Sanqiang?"

Zhou Yan sensed a misunderstanding and changed the subject, asking, "Which group are you from?"

Cheng Hu proudly declared: "The Poyang Lake branch of the Holy Sect."

"Tell me in detail."

"White Lotus Holy Sect, Poyang Lake Branch."

The White Lotus Sect? Zhou Yan was astonished. The demonic sect he had guessed, and the ones Liu Qingzhou and others had mentioned, was actually the White Lotus Sect? He carefully considered the matter. Judging from the tone Cheng Hu used to address Zhang Sanqiang, it seemed that the White Lotus Sect and the Ming Cult had some connection. Otherwise, the other party wouldn't have asked him if he knew Zhang Sanqiang.

Liu Qingzhou and Yanbo Diaosou were clearly quite surprised. They knew about the Demonic Sect, but this was the first time they had heard of the White Lotus Sect.

Zhou Yan asked, "Tell me about the White Lotus Sect."

Cheng Hu hesitated for a moment, and then the old fisherman in the misty waves had a fishhook in his hand. He hurriedly said...

After nearly a meal, Zhou Yan finally understood the whole story.

Like Manichaeism (Mingjiao), the White Lotus Sect was a clandestine folk religion with close ties to Manichaeism. It evolved from a mixture of various religions, including Manichaeism, Maitreyaism, Taoism, and Buddhism. In the early years of the Shaoxing era, it was formally founded by Mao Ziyuan, a monk with the Dharma name Cizhao from Yanchan Temple in Suzhou, who absorbed the doctrines and rituals of Manichaeism.

Zhou Yan sighed upon hearing this, realizing that the White Lotus Sect and the Ming Cult had such an inextricable connection.

“Tell me about Yu Huacheng,” Zhou Yan asked.

Cheng Hu was unaware that Zhou Yan and his group had come for the sake of the Indian monk. He made some judgments, and since Zhou Yan addressed the Ming Cult leader as Zhang Sanqiang, he was clearly not a major enemy. Therefore, he had fewer reservations and said, "The son of the former leader of the Ming Cult."

"Who was the former leader of the Demonic Sect?" Liu Qingzhou asked.

"Master Yu Wupo".

Zhou Yan suddenly realized.

In the world of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber," Budai, one of the Five Wanderers of the Ming Cult, once said, "During the Jianyan era, Wang Zongshi, the leader of the Ming Cult, started an uprising in Xinzhou; during the Shaoxing era, Yu Wupo, the leader of the Ming Cult, started an uprising in Quzhou; and during the Shaoding era of Emperor Lizong, Zhang Sanqiang, the leader of the Ming Cult, started an uprising in Jiangxi and Guangdong."

Yu Huacheng was the son of Yu Wupo. When the monk Cizhao Maozi founded the White Lotus Sect, he absorbed a lot of Mingjiao doctrines and had close contact with Yu Wupo, who was a contemporary of him.

Yu Wupo's uprising failed, Zhang Sanqiang became the next leader of the Ming Cult, and Yu Huacheng became the leader of the White Lotus Cult.

Cheng Hu referred to the leader of the Ming Cult as Zhang Sanqiang. The two cults had a history, but the White Lotus Cult was expanding its influence in Jiangxi, and Cheng Hu showed no respect for Zhang Sanqiang, indicating that there was a conflict between the two cults.

Thinking this through, Zhou Yan asked again, "Does the White Lotus Sect and the Beggars' Sect have a conflict?"

"The Beggars' Sect and the Ming Cult are also involved." Cheng Hu didn't hesitate to drag the Ming Cult into it.

"Why?" This time, the question came from the old fisherman who had settled in Dongting Lake. He knew that the Beggars' Sect was holding a meeting in Yuezhou. Because the Beggars' Sect had a great deal of power in Yuezhou, he asked the question.

"Two tigers cannot share one mountain," Cheng Hu replied directly.

The old fisherman, disbelieving, raised his hook to pierce the man's neck. "I am merely a hall master; how could I know of important matters within the sect?" Cheng Hu shouted.

"Who gave you the orders to act?"

"The White Lotus Messenger".

"What's your name?" Zhou Yan pressed.

"How would I know? They are all addressed as envoys with respect."

"Is there any animosity between the White Lotus Sect and the Ming Cult?"

"Yes."

"To be specific."

"I don't know, we were just following orders."

Zhou Yan had no more questions to ask. He pointed his finger like a sword and struck the "Shanzhong" acupoint on the other man's chest, killing him instantly. The information he received from Cheng Hu left him deeply moved. He had never imagined that the White Lotus Sect and the Ming Cult had such a complex relationship of grudges and affections.

Logically speaking, Yu Huacheng should have succeeded Zhang Sanqiang as the leader of the Ming Cult, but Zhang Sanqiang is currently in charge of the cult. As expected, there is a considerable conflict between Yu Huacheng and Zhang Sanqiang, and there may even be a struggle for the leadership.

The light boat moved along the lake shore, and the old fisherman in the misty waves waved his fishing rod, throwing Cheng Hu's body onto the shore.

An Indian monk clasped his hands together and chanted incantations to pray for the deceased's soul.

The old fisherman returned to the cabin, and Liu Qingzhou said, "If you can catch a golden baby in this kind of windy and snowy weather, you'll be quite skilled."

"We'll see," the old fisherman grinned.

Zhou Yan left the cabin and went to the Indian monk's place. He told the old fisherman about how the monk had helped him find the golden baby, and the monk expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

He planned to rest for two days at the inn, wait for the snow to stop, and then follow the old fisherman on the misty waves to search for the golden doll. He told Zhang Wangyue that he had resigned and that there was no rush. Liang Xiaowu and the others could go back to Zhongdu first.

As the light boat glided through the wind and snow and approached the river mouth, Zhou Yan, who was in the cabin, suddenly heard the boatman at the bow shout, "There are people in the water!"

Zhou Yan, Liu Qingzhou, and Yanbo Diaosou jumped out of the cabin and followed the direction pointed by the boatman. They saw a person lying face up on the riverbank not far away, his body rising and falling with the tide, his life hanging in the balance.

Before he could speak, the Indian monk hurriedly said, "Amitabha, quickly row over and take a look."

Liang Xiaowu took a long bamboo pole and used it to propel the boat.

As the distance closed, a woman dressed in Mongolian attire came into view.

"How strange, how come she's a Mongolian woman?"

Zhou Yan leaped into the air, his body gliding more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) before landing on the riverbank.

The woman had a spirited look in her eyes, but she was unconscious.

Is this Hua Zheng?

Zhou Yan wasn't entirely sure. He had seen Hua Zheng from afar when the Mongol army attacked Zhongdu, but he didn't know her specific appearance.

The clues, like hidden threads, are laid out across a thousand miles. Guo Jing once said he was summoned by the Han Dynasty to return to the desert. He guessed that the Mongols were going to join forces with the Lin'an court to attack the Jin Dynasty. If his guess was correct, and considering the timing, it was about the time when the Mongol envoys were heading south. Combining this with some clues from Hua Zheng's search for Guo Jing in the Legend of the Condor Heroes, which also led him to Jiangnan, he made his judgment naturally.

Zhou Yan bent down to check the other person's breathing. The breath was weak, but there was still a glimmer of hope. Without hesitation, he picked the other person up and carried him onto the light boat. He said to the Indian monk, "Master, please save him."

The Indian monk took his pulse, his expression quite solemn, and said, "Please move outside."

Zhou Yan, Liu Qingzhou, and the Fisherman of the Misty Waves nodded and left the cabin. Zhou Yan said to the two men, "This woman looks quite like a close relative of one of my friends. I wonder why she's by the river. I'll go ashore and take a look."

Liu Qingzhou and Yanbo Diaosou spoke in unison: "Together."

Zhou Yan knew that without his mediation, the two would engage in a war of words, so he smiled and said, "Alright!"

After instructing Liang Xiaowu and other eminent monks to provide treatment, he led his men directly to the inn to wait. The three of them then jumped onto the ground and searched along the shore.

Half an hour later, the three returned to the inn without success.

Liang Xiaowu, who was waiting in the lobby, stepped forward and said, "The young lady is still unconscious. The high monk said that she has been in the water for too long and her body has caught a chill, so she will not wake up for a while. I asked the shopkeeper's wife to change the young lady's clothes."

"Well done, I'll go take a look."

……

The lamp in the guest room flickered like a firefly, and Hua Zheng's face was as white as paper. Her breathing was irregular, indicating that she was still not out of danger.

An Indian monk once saw Zhou Yan use his internal energy to help Duan Huai'an, the owner of Fu'an, to relax his muscles and improve blood circulation in the Western Regions. He said, "The head镖师 (bodyguard/escort) might as well use his internal energy to nourish his internal organs, which may help him wake up in a faster time."

"Okay, let me try."

He helped Hua Zheng up, placed his right hand on the "Tian Tu" acupoint on her back, and used the Quanzhen internal martial arts technique to extract the warm and pure energy emanating from the Jade Guanyin and transmit it into Hua Zheng's body.

Although Hua Zheng was unconscious, her condition was much better than Huang Rong's when she was seriously injured. Moreover, the Jade Guanyin's energy was mild and gentle, which not only soothed the muscles and tendons and nourished the internal organs, but also had the effect of dispelling cold from the body.

About an incense stick's time later, Hua Zheng trembled, coughed violently several times, and suddenly called out, "Guo Jing!"

(End of this chapter)