Martial Arts Crossover: It All Started with Hijacking Li Canghai

It was already quite cold late at night, but Baoding city was still bustling with people and filled with shouts, much more lively than the towns I had passed through a couple of days ago.

Qin Han reined in his horse and slowed down, taking in the surrounding scenery. Lan Jian, on the other hand, curiously looked around, wondering what to do if the food that person was selling looked delicious...

"Let's go, let's find a place to stay first." Qin Han saw how hungry Lan Jian looked and didn't realize that this girl was such a foodie.

"Okay!" Lan Jian nodded vigorously. He had been traveling all day, and when he heard that he could stay, he knew that it was time to eat.

The two rode their horses slowly along the main road and soon came across a rather grand-looking restaurant with three characters written on the upper floor.

Songhelou!

"Songhelou?" That's quite a famous name. I remember it should be in Wuxi, right?

Could this be an ancient chain store, like that Yue Lai Inn?

He dismounted and tossed the reins to the waiter who came to greet him. Lan Jian, being sensible, stepped forward and gave him a small ingot of silver.

The waiter, with his sharp eyes, noticed that this young lady was so beautiful and generous, and this gentleman was clearly a wealthy and influential customer. He fawned, "Thank you for your generosity, young lady! Please come inside, gentlemen! I'll feed your horses the finest fodder right away!"

Lan Jian blushed upon hearing the words "little wife," and secretly glanced at Qin Han. Finding that her master had not offered any explanation, her girlish heart pounded wildly.

Qin Han led Lan Jian into the lobby of the restaurant.

It was lunchtime, and the lobby was full of diners, making the first floor quite noisy.

After looking around, they went up to the second floor. The environment there was relatively quiet, and the two found an empty table by the window to sit down.

"Waiter, bring me two catties of cooked beef, a roast chicken, a few of your specialty dishes, and a pot of good wine," Qin Han ordered the waiter who came upon hearing his voice.

"Alright, sir! Please wait a moment!"

After the waiter left, Qin Han looked at Lan Jian, who was somewhat quiet across from him, and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Why is the young mistress being so well-behaved today?"

Lan Jian blushed and said shyly, "This servant...this servant is not a young mistress..."

"That's not necessarily true." Qin Han said with a hint of amusement. He had noticed along the way that this girl was very curious, but sometimes she would be too embarrassed to say anything because of something he said.

"Ah...I..." Lan Jian stammered, his face turning red, when he heard his master teasing him again.

Before she could finish speaking, Qin Han heard some news that interested him coming from downstairs.

"Have you heard? Things seem to be getting a bit unsettled in the Northern Beggars' Sect lately."

At a table in the corner downstairs, a man with a large knife at his waist was gnawing on a braised pig's trotter and talking to his companion at the same table, without deliberately lowering his voice.

"Oh? What's wrong with things?" His companion, clearly intrigued, poured himself a drink and asked curiously.

"Hey, you didn't know that?" The man with the knife slung over his shoulder said smugly, "Hehe, you all know Qiao Feng, the leader of the Northern Beggars' Clan, right? Just recently, at the Beggars' Clan meeting in Xingzilin, this Qiao Feng's true identity was revealed. It turns out Qiao Feng is actually a Khitan!"

Qin Han's hearing was incredibly sharp, and he naturally heard every single word of the conversation.

"What?! Khitans?!"

His companions and the other diners who overheard this were all shocked. The companion who had questioned him earlier looked at the big man suspiciously and said, "How is this possible? Chief Qiao is a chivalrous and righteous man who has always led the disciples of the Northern Beggars to resist the invasion of the Liao and Jin dogs."

Over the years, on the Song-Liao border, Chief Qiao has killed at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, Liao dogs. How could he possibly be a Khitan from Liao? This must be some kind of rumor!

This companion's reaction represented the sentiments of most people present. Qiao Feng had an extremely high reputation in the martial arts world, and his image as a chivalrous hero was deeply ingrained in people's hearts.

Few people would believe that he was a Khitan.

"Hey, don't think I'm lying to you. This news came from within the Beggars' Sect. It's said that the Beggars' Sect itself has split into two factions. One faction wants to cripple Qiao Feng, while the other doesn't want to expel him because of his identity." The man with the knife shook his head and took a big gulp of wine.

He clicked his tongue and sighed, "Alas, what a pity. Qiao Feng was a great hero, how could he have ended up as a Khitan traitor!"

The man with the sword spoke with great regret, as if all of Qiao Feng's past deeds would be erased if he were identified as a Khitan.

He went from being a revered hero to a scoundrel whom everyone wanted to kill.

Qin Han listened to these discussions from the second floor, picked up his wine glass and took a sip, not at all surprised.

He stayed at the Lingjiu Palace in Tianshan for a month. The outside world didn't revolve around him, and some of the events that were supposed to happen continued to unfold according to their own trajectory.

He was pondering the general direction of the events.

Suddenly, the conversation at another table caught Qin Han's attention again.

At another table downstairs sat several martial arts practitioners carrying swords and knives, but judging from their uniform attire, they seemed to be the kind of bodyguards who traveled all over the country.

"It's been quite a lively time lately. Qiao Feng has become a Khitan. But have you heard? Murong Fu, who is just as famous as Qiao Feng, has also gotten into big trouble!" A leading bodyguard and swordsman said with a chuckle to the people around him.

"Murong Fu? What happened to him? Did something happen to him too?" The man at the next table couldn't help but ask. He had just heard about Qiao Feng from the North. Could it be that Murong Fu from the South had also become a Khitan?

"It's more than just an accident! Someone has dug up Murong Fu's background!" The swordsman drank a bowl of wine and slammed the bowl down on the table!

He sneered twice, "You probably don't know, but that Nan Murong is not a Han Chinese. He is a descendant of the Xianbei Murong clan from hundreds of years ago! His previous act of being a nobleman and ordering his subordinates to distribute porridge everywhere to gain fame was all for the purpose of reviving the long-extinct Great Yan Kingdom!"

Recently, Murong Fu has been relying on his Gusu family's "using their own methods against them" technique to challenge masters from various schools, ensuring that his opponents die each time from his signature move!

"What? Murong Fu is a descendant of the Xianbei? And he's thinking of reviving the Great Yan Dynasty from hundreds of years ago?" Even his companions who were escorting the goods with him were a little stunned, as they had never heard the head镖师 (escort leader) mention this before.

But soon, some of them revealed a disdainful expression, "Hmph! The Great Yan Kingdom has been gone for hundreds of years, and Murong Fu still thinks about restoring it? What wishful thinking!"

This news was even more explosive than the fact that Qiao Feng was a Khitan, and it immediately attracted the attention of people at the surrounding tables.

As more and more people listened, the leading bodyguard became smug, clearly pleased with his good connections.

Then, he dropped an even more shocking bombshell: "You probably don't know this yet, but just a few days ago, a highly respected master of the Xuan generation from Shaolin Temple was found dead in the suburbs!"

The method of murder was precisely the Murong family's "an eye for an eye" tactic! It's said that the master himself shattered Murong Fu's skull with his signature "Prajna Palm" technique! Now, Abbot Xuanci of Shaolin is furious and has dispatched men throughout the martial world to search for Murong Fu, determined to capture him and bring him back to Shaolin to be judged in front of all the heroes of the land!

"hiss--"

There were gasps of shock in the lobby.

Shaolin Temple is the pinnacle of the martial arts world. Has Murong Fu lost his mind?