The sky over the rivers and lakes is very clear

Chapter 170

The boy had just touched the hem of his clothes when suddenly his fingers grasped at empty air, his strength went astray, he lost his balance, and with a "plop," he fell headfirst into the water.

The lotus pond had not been cleaned for many years. Although the water was not deep, the silt at the bottom was very thick. The boy was upside down and stuck in the silt. He couldn't get out for a while and kicked his legs wildly in the air.

Desperate to save its master, the spotted pig jumped into the pond with a "plop," its long snout thrashing about, splashing water everywhere. After a while, the boy emerged, half-dead, sitting in the water, gasping for breath. Water plants clung to his head, and his face was covered in mud; he looked extremely disheveled.

The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Part One: The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Chapter Four (5)

Feng Xuese smiled slightly, and without making a move, he slid off the lush water plants. Before the pond water rippled, he was already standing on the land by the pond.

Although it was already March, the pond water was still quite cold. The boy, having failed in his attempt to steal a chicken, sat in the pond shivering from the cold, glaring angrily. However, the old man with the sword was watching him intently from the side, so he dared not retaliate. He could only swallow his anger and slowly get up, dragging the spotted pig across the pond through the mud.

A man and a pig stood on the bank, shaking their fur vigorously, splashing mud and water everywhere.

Feng Xuese kept her distance, coldly watching them fuss for a while, before finally saying, "Take twenty steps to the left!"

A night breeze blew, and the mischievous boy couldn't help but sneeze twice.

He is very clever and adaptable, always able to "bend and stretch". To put it bluntly, he is quite "shameless". When he encounters the weak, he acts like a grandfather, but when he encounters a powerful person he can't afford to offend, he doesn't care about playing the grandson - after all, grandfathers were once grandsons, and he will never suffer a loss.

He cursed Feng Xuese a thousand times, ten thousand times in his heart, but his legs still obediently took a step to the left as instructed.

Twenty paces to the left lay a mutilated corpse, mostly intact. Though its plump face was stained with blood, its eyes were wide open and its lips were turned up in a grin, as if in a smile. Its right arm and half of its right side were missing, and the remaining half had its internal organs hanging outside its body. The distinctive stench of blood from the internal organs was enough to make anyone who smelled it want to vomit.

The boy suddenly rushed forward several steps, knelt on one knee, and vomited violently with his head down.

Do you know him?

The boy said in a trembling voice, "No...no...it's too familiar..."

“He is my friend,” Feng Xuese said calmly.

The boy looked at him, puzzled.

"He was murdered, and I will avenge him!" A murderous intent flashed in Maple Snow's eyes.

"oh!"

"so--"

The boy eagerly said, "So, I'll definitely tell you everything I know! Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. You're a great hero, of course you wouldn't make things difficult for an unlucky kid like me, right?"

Feng Xuese smiled faintly: "That depends on how much truth you tell!"

"I swear, every word is true!" the young man immediately raised his hand to swear, speaking in a refined manner, "This is the great hero Rong Lin!"

Feng Xuese frowned slightly, resisting the urge to correct him that the word was actually "容禀" (róng bǐng).

"Tonight, Hua Hua and I were resting peacefully in that dilapidated tower when two fat...fat old men suddenly arrived, one of whom is your friend. As soon as these two fat old men sat down, those two headless corpses hanging in the tree over there—" He pointed to the two blue-robed boys hanging in the tree, "their heads were still there, so they brought over two very large baskets, full of delicious food, including braised pork hock from Old Ma's family, vegetarian chicken from Baiyun Temple, roasted lamb leg from Ruyi Zhai, pine branch yellow rabbit, honey-glazed crispy fish from Meirenfang..." His memory was exceptionally good; he recited the names of the food in perfect order.

Maple-colored eyebrows furrowed: "Get to the point!"

"Yes, yes! Then I'll just focus on the important points." The boy was very cooperative.

"These two fat lads were eating and drinking heartily, bragging that they were the number one people in Qingyang City, even more powerful than the emperor. Suddenly, the fat man in the gray shirt rushed out the door, and the fat man in the blue shirt, for some unknown reason, smashed open the wooden window with his palm and squeezed out. But somehow, a large axe suddenly appeared outside the window, and he almost ran into it. To avoid the axe, he jumped to the side, but without seeing clearly, his head hit a large hammer. With a 'crack,' his head shattered, and then the axe sliced open his stomach. As for the fat man in the gray shirt—oh, I mean, my friend—I didn't see what happened."

Feng Xuese waited a moment, then asked, "Is that all?"

"That's all, that's all I saw." The boy was quite quick-witted. "Oh, and this fire, it has nothing to do with me! It was... it was that fat man in the blue robe who, when he went out the window, picked up some firewood, which ignited the straw, and that's how the fire started. Actually, I even tried to put out the fire, but it was too big, and I almost burned to death. I barely managed to escape through a tunnel. Before anything even happened, I was unlucky enough to run into you!"

The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Part One: The Sky Over the Martial World is Clear - Chapter Four (6)

Feng Xuese gave him a cold look.

"No, no, no, I mean... meeting you, sir, is my greatest honor. I've never met a real hero in my life, and today I'm lucky to have caught one! Truly, heroes have emerged from among the young since ancient times. Just by looking at your aura, you are more than ten thousand times stronger than a small-time hoodlum like me! Without even saying a word, just looking at your white clothes, seven of my eight extraordinary meridians are opened, and six of my seven orifices are opened. You are truly a man of great talent, vast knowledge, both literary and martial, and far-sighted..."

The boy was glib and flattering, using several idioms in a row without making a single mistake.

Feng Xuese felt a wave of nausea and couldn't stand it any longer. She said coldly, "Shut up!"

"Yes!" the boy replied respectfully. "I'll go to the Guanyin Temple in Qingyang City in a little while and raise money to erect a longevity tablet for you. We'll burn incense morning and evening and make offerings every day, it's a must!"

Feng Xuese glanced at him with annoyance.

The boy finally wisely shut his mouth: "...Okay, I won't say anything more."

Feng Xuese thought to herself: Those men in black have mysterious origins and are likely involved in a major upheaval in the martial arts world. This matter is of great importance. This rogue is impetuous and boastful, and much of what he says is untrue. I must interrogate him thoroughly; I'm not afraid he won't tell the truth...

Seeing that he had been staring at Zhang Buchi's corpse for a long time without saying a word, the young man felt uneasy, fearing that the man would take his anger out on him and cut off his own head to be buried with the fat man. He immediately forced a smile and said insincerely, "It's a pity that my skills are really not good enough. Otherwise, even if I risked my old life, I would have rushed up and fought those assassins to the death! At most, they would have chopped off my head with one stroke, and I would be a hero again in twenty years!"

Just as he was desperately trying to pat himself on the back, Feng Xuese gave him a cold, sidelong glance, and he immediately shut his mouth in annoyance, thinking to himself: This old man with the sword is not easy to deal with. My head is always hanging in the balance. I'd better think about escaping as soon as possible.

Just as he was racking his brains for ideas, he suddenly heard rustling footsteps in the bushes around him. He was startled, and then saw more than a dozen burly men in black appear at the other end of the path.

He was terrified of the dark, and with a "whoosh," he darted into the bushes, rolled a few times, and hid behind a rock. Before he could even settle down, the spotted pig also crawled over.

Feng Xuese ignored him, but seeing the insignia of Jietianshui Island on the newcomers' clothes, she made two hand gestures at them.

The burly men in black suddenly stopped and bowed to him in unison.

The boy huddled in the grass, watching from afar as the burly men in black began their search. He saw them carry away two obese corpses, their faces contorted with grief and indignation, covering them with tarpaulins. He saw them carefully untie the bodies of the two boys in blue robes tied to the tree. He saw them kick aside several more corpses in black. He saw them, wearing gloves, cautiously remove the body lying across a branch, and then burn the tree down…

He didn't know where these people came from, but his instincts told him that they were people he couldn't afford to offend. So, while the old man with the sword was too busy to deal with this, he should stay as far away from them as possible.

He reached out and hugged the spotted pig, then slowly crawled away through the grass, backing up little by little until he had crawled forty or fifty feet. When he felt that those people could no longer see him, he immediately stood up and ran away as fast as he could.

In the darkness, unable to discern directions, he ran frantically for over ten miles. If he had run empty-handed, it wouldn't have been so bad, but he had to carry that pig. That spotted pig weighed at least a hundred pounds, and even with his youth and strength, he couldn't bear it. Finally, unable to hold on any longer, he saw a grove of trees by the roadside, rushed in, tossed the pig into the grass, and then crawled into a dense clump of grass, lying on the ground, panting heavily.

The spotted pig wiggled its rear end and nudged him forcefully.