Martial Arts Crossover: It All Started with Hijacking Li Canghai

People came and went at the dock.

There were porters carrying bags of salt, vendors pushing wheelbarrows, boatmen squatting on the ground eating noodles, and a few officials in uniforms leaning lazily against a pillar, chatting idly.

Everything is normal.

Qin Han did not stop and turned into an alley.

Dong Tianbao and Zhang Junbao followed behind, exchanging a glance but asking nothing.

The alley was narrow, and the walls on both sides were mottled and peeling, with dark green moss growing at the base, some of which had grown to waist height.

Qin Han did not walk fast, and at each intersection, his gaze would linger for a moment in a certain direction.

The crooked locust tree on the street corner is still there, but it's a bit thicker than I remember, and there are several marks on the trunk from being hacked or chopped. I don't know who did it.

There used to be an old man selling sugar paintings at the entrance of the alley, pushing a dilapidated wooden cart with creaking wheels.

Now that spot has been taken by a woman selling steamed buns, who is fanning the stove with a palm-leaf fan.

Walk a few more steps forward, and there's a low wall on your right.

Behind the low wall is a jujube tree.

He recognized the jujube tree.

When I was a kid, I climbed over this wall to steal someone's dates, and a young widow chased me for three blocks...

It seems no one is home right now, and the jujube tree is old, with crooked branches and sparse leaves.

Qin Han slowed his pace slightly, but continued forward.

The alley narrowed as you walked, and the houses on both sides became increasingly old.

Some of the door panels have been repainted, while others still look the same as they did more than a decade ago.

The cured meat and salted fish hanging under the eaves swayed gently in the wind, and oil dripped down the hemp rope.

The air smelled of soy sauce, the aroma of charcoal, and a unique, indescribable scent that belonged only to this alley.

Qin Han recognized this flavor.

He had thought of this taste in unexpected moments, whether in the Shu King's Palace thousands of miles away, above the sea of ​​clouds on Mount Emei, or amidst the ice and snow of the Tianshan Mountains.

It's not some expensive spice.

It was just the smell of old wood, damp mud walls, and a smoky stove all mixed together.

But it was this taste that made him feel more at ease than anything else.

The alley ahead has come to an end.

A fence came into view.

The fence was old, with several bamboo strips broken and haphazardly tied together with hemp rope.

Behind the fence is a small courtyard.

There is an old osmanthus tree in the yard. When I was a child, Wei Xiaobao and I loved to smell the fragrance of the osmanthus under the tree. There is a low stool under the tree, and the legs of the stool have been worn smooth and shiny.

The gate to the courtyard was ajar.

Qin Han stood at the end of the alley, looking at the door.

He didn't move.

Many images flashed through my mind: when I was a kid, I would practice boxing haphazardly in the yard, but it was all for nothing...

My mother was sitting under the osmanthus tree mending clothes.

As evening fell, smoke drifted from the kitchen, and his mother called him home for dinner.

Later, they invented soap, and then the government officials came...

If it weren't for good luck, I probably would have died.

Qin Han knew back then that without strength and power, whatever he did would only benefit others.

"Big brother."

Zhang Junbao's voice suddenly came from beside him, very soft and low.

Qin Han came to his senses.

Zhang Junbao's face was expressionless, but his gaze was no longer on Qin Han, but on the rooftops on both sides of the alley.

"Behind the roof ridge of that house on the east side."

Zhang Junbao's lips barely moved. "Someone took a breath just now, and their internal energy became unstable. Although they suppressed it quickly, it was disrupted for a moment."

Qin Han's expression changed.

All that tender feeling of being close to home, all that surging, hazy memory, was instantly put away and locked away in some unseen corner.

The Grandmaster's perception had already spread out.

Within a radius of fifty feet, he captured every breath, every heartbeat, and every trace of presence that shouldn't have been in this dilapidated alley.

Two people are behind the roof ridge on the east side.

His breathing was deep and even, indicating considerable internal strength; he was at least a second-rate expert.

However, their rapid heartbeat indicates that they are nervous.

The tension indicates they weren't just passing by.

Is it a stakeout?!

Keep watch in this alley!

Qin Han remained silent, but gave Dong Tianbao a look.

Dong Tianbao saw it.

The man who had been invigorated by the return to solid ground suddenly changed his demeanor after seeing Qin Han's signal.

The smile on his face disappeared.

The carefree smile at the corner of his mouth was smoothed out.

He didn't speak, didn't draw his sword, and didn't even change his pace.

However, when I walked past Qin Han, the path I was on skewed a few inches.

Just a few inches is enough.

At the next intersection, the figure turned left and disappeared into the shadows of a corner.

No sound.

He even used his true energy to neutralize the sound of his feet hitting the ground.

Zhang Junbao also moved at the same time.

He took two steps forward and followed Qin Han at a leisurely pace, switching the bamboo hat in his left hand and letting his right hand hang down naturally.

It looked like just a scholar taking a leisurely stroll.

However, his position blocked the escape route on the other side of the alley.

Two people, one on the left and one on the right, one in the light and one in the dark, locked up all the entrances and exits of the alley.

They worked together without exchanging a single word or a single unnecessary glance.

The atmosphere in the alley suddenly froze.

Qin Han stood still.

The tenderness on her face, the shyness of returning home, and the warmth in her eyes when she saw the old osmanthus tree, all vanished in that instant.

Instead, there was a chill that sent shivers down one's spine.

This was what he feared most when he returned to Yangzhou.

My mother is still here.

An old woman, powerless and helpless, lived alone in this dilapidated alley, with no means of protecting herself.

With Qin Han's rise to power in the past two years, it would be easy for anyone with a keen eye to find Yangzhou.

He offended quite a few people, including the Southern Song court and powerful families, as well as Du Fuwei and the Dugu family before, and now the Qing court.

Not to mention those in the martial arts world who are jealous of his power; the easiest way for any party to control him is to target his mother.

Sure enough, someone has their eye on this place.

Qin Han's breathing remained unchanged, his heartbeat did not accelerate, and his face showed no emotion whatsoever.

But both Dong Tianbao and Zhang Junbao sensed it.

The aura emanating from my elder brother has changed.

It's a kind of calm that comes from having already prepared to kill everyone involved.

Over time...

In just a dozen or so breaths.

A few muffled groans came from the shadows at the alley entrance.

Then came the sound of bones dislocating, and Dong Tianbao reappeared, carrying three people in his hands.

They threw them on the ground like three dead chickens.