"Waaah..."
After his sword was knocked away by his junior uncle Xiao Ning, Zhang Cuishan, a grown man, squatted on the ground and started sobbing.
On one side is his third senior brother, who is like a teacher and a father to him, and on the other side is his wife, with whom he has a deep and loving relationship. Originally, returning to the Central Plains to visit his master should have been a happy occasion, but unexpectedly, the old grudges between his wife and his third senior brother resurfaced.
Zhang Cuishan didn't know what to do. He was torn between his own flesh and blood and couldn't bear to part with either of them. So he decided to end his own life.
Hearing him cry out in anguish was truly heartbreaking, and Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, and the other four couldn't help but have their eyes redden, feeling the pain as if it were their own.
Xiao Ning sneered, "Zhang Cuishan, you're a coward!"
At this moment, Zhang Sanfeng also arrived and angrily rebuked him, "Cuishan, what are you doing? You're always trying to kill yourself. Where is your sense of responsibility? Will your death solve the problem? How foolish!"
Zhang Cuishan raised his head, his eyes red as he looked at Zhang Sanfeng, and kowtowed, saying, "Master, I have made a grave mistake that cannot be undone. I only ask one thing of you."
Zhang Sanfeng suppressed his displeasure and replied, "What is it? Tell me, and I will never refuse."
Zhang Cuishan kowtowed three more times and said, "Thank you, Master! I have a beloved son who has unfortunately fallen into the hands of villains. I only hope that you will save him from their clutches and raise him to adulthood."
Xiao Ning, standing to the side, said coldly, "The Yuan court has gone too far; I will not let them get away with this!"
"..." Completely bewildered ×9
Zhang Sanfeng and his disciples, along with Yin Susu and the other three, were all baffled by Xiao Ning's words, not understanding what he meant!
Zhang Sanfeng patted Zhang Cuishan on the shoulder, rousing him. He took two steps forward, stood before Xiao Ning, stroked his beard, and asked softly, "What do you mean by that, fellow Daoist? Could it be that your father and mother were murdered by the Mongols back then?"
Xiao Ning turned around and looked around. He saw that Zhang Sanfeng and the Seven Heroes of Wudang were all looking at him intently, waiting for his answer.
He sighed and said in a low voice, "Brother Dao, fellow disciples, I know the whole story, including who the mastermind is!"
"What?" ×9
Everyone gasped in unison, their faces filled with disbelief.
"Fellow Daoist, you mustn't be trying to deceive this old Daoist!" Zhang Sanfeng directly questioned.
If Xiao Ning's martial arts skills were divinely bestowed, Zhang Sanfeng could barely accept it, since people in ancient times believed in such supernatural things.
Now he claims to know the whole story, but Zhang Sanfeng doesn't believe him.
Xiao Ning has a clean background; he is an orphan from a village at the foot of the mountain who grew up on Wudang Mountain. How old was he when Yu Daiyan was crippled?
He's just a greenhorn, what could he possibly know?
Therefore, in Zhang Sanfeng's view, Xiao Ning might just be trying to change the subject and comfort him, the old Taoist.
Faced with the questioning looks from everyone, Xiao Ning remained calm and replied, "Let me tell you the whole story from the beginning, and then you'll know whether I'm lying to you or not!"
Seeing his calm demeanor, Zhang Sanfeng felt slightly relieved and nodded, saying, "Please speak, fellow Daoist. I am all ears!"
"Dragon-Slaying Saber, click to receive... Wait, wrong channel, let's try again!" Something strange and inexplicable has happened!
"The supreme martial arts weapon, the Dragon-Slaying Saber, commands the world, none dare disobey; without the Heaven-Reliant Sword, who can contend with it?" You must have all heard of this twenty-four-character saying, right?
After everyone was seated, Xiao Ning calmly asked, "Do you all know the secret behind this rumor?"
"Fellow Daoist, stop keeping us in suspense and tell us quickly!" Zhang Sanfeng rolled his eyes at him and urged.
"More than a decade ago, a rumor circulated in the martial arts world that whoever could possess both the Dragon-Slaying Saber and the Heaven-Reliant Sword would learn the great secret hidden within them. This caused heroes of the martial arts world to chase after them and fight fiercely, resulting in rivers of blood and heavy casualties!"
Xiao Ning slowly said, "And the mastermind behind spreading this rumor is the Ruyang Prince's Mansion of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty!"
“What… the Prince of Ruyang’s Mansion?” Zhang Sanfeng muttered to himself.
As for Song Yuanqiao and the others, they were completely dumbfounded.
"That's right! It's the Prince of Ruyang's residence!"
Xiao Ning nodded and said, "Back then, when the city of Xiangyang fell, the famous heroes Guo Jing and Huang Rong, in order to prevent their skills from being lost, melted down the Xuan Tie Heavy Sword of the Condor Hero Yang Guo and reforged it into a sword and a saber. They put the peerless martial arts skills 'Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms' and 'Nine Yin Manual' into the Heaven Sword, and they put Marshal Yue's supreme military treatise 'The Legacy of Yue Fei' into the Dragon Saber."
"The great hero Guo and his wife left the Dragon-Slaying Saber to their son Guo Polu and the Heaven-Reliant Sword to their daughter Guo Xiang. They also left a last wish: if there is hope of overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty, they should chop the saber and sword together, retrieve the military books and secret manuals, drive out the Tartars, restore the land of China, and return our rivers and mountains!"
"Therefore, we have the Dragon-Slaying Saber, the words to command the world, Marshal Yue's military treatise, and the last wishes of Hero Guo. Naturally, we can wave our hands and command the heroes to resist the tyrannical Yuan and restore our land!"
"Unfortunately, something went wrong. The Mongols found out about it and got their hands on the Dragon-Slaying Saber."
Xiao Ning paused for a moment, then said:
"At the end of the Song Dynasty, the Mongol Khan Möngke was killed by Yang Guo, the Condor Hero, with a stone outside Xiangyang City. Since then, the Mongols have always hated Han Chinese martial artists to the bone and wished they could slaughter all the martial arts practitioners."
"The Prince of Ruyang in this generation is named Chahantemur. After receiving the decree from the Yuan Emperor, he adopted the wicked plan of one of his Han Chinese retainers. He deliberately took out the Dragon-Slaying Saber and spread a twenty-four-character rumor, inciting the warriors of the Central Plains to kill each other, so that he could reap the benefits!"
"This Han Chinese retainer, known in the martial arts world as the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand, is named Cheng Kun, and is also the master of Xie Xun, the Golden-Haired Lion King!"
Xiao Ning calmly recounted the secrets of the martial world; the entire Zhenwu Hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, with only his voice echoing.
"Cheng Kun is a man of deep cunning. When he was young, his childhood sweetheart was stolen away by Yang Dingtian, the leader of the Ming Cult at the time, and he hated the Ming Cult ever since."
"Later, Yang Dingtian neglected his wife due to religious affairs and other reasons, which gave Cheng Kun the opportunity to have an affair with Madam Yang. Madam Yang also told Cheng Kun the secret of the underground passage of the Ming Cult headquarters."
"Once, when Yang Dingtian was practicing the Ming Cult's supreme martial art, the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, he accidentally discovered that Cheng Kun and Madam Yang were having an affair. Enraged, he went into a qi deviation and died. Madam Yang committed suicide to uphold justice, which made Cheng Kun extremely grief-stricken and vowed to destroy the Ming Cult for the rest of his life."
"After that, Cheng Kun colluded with the Prince of Ruyang's mansion, not only wiping out Xie Xun's entire family, but also stirring up conflicts between the righteous and evil factions in the martial arts world, causing the Han people of the Central Plains to fall into internal strife and be unable to take care of themselves, so that the Mongol Yuan court could rest easy."
"This man should be killed!"
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