Chapter 249

The martial art Butterfly Swallow Double Flying One Wing Double Kill looks pretty good, but actually its exchange price is not high. 'That's because it lacks 'intent'.' No need for Old Wang to explain; Bai Lang's martial arts wisdom is not such that he wouldn't know this. Actually this is just gathering many martial arts moves together and arranging them.

Bai Lang felt this was good; this arrangement also looks like it could be called a master, and the routines resulting from it, whether in the flow and use of Internal Force or the variation of techniques, are very smooth, with some original touches. Moreover, the manual clearly states: 'If this martial art is cultivated to success, then in the future practitioners can incorporate any new weapon techniques into it, thus allowing myriad changes while ultimately not losing my painstaking effort.'

'Looks like it's the path of the Tianshan Plucking Plum Hand or the Tianshan Six Yang Palm.' Bai Lang said. The Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist he cultivates is also somewhat crude; fortunately there is such a martial art that can let him make up for this deficiency. The subtlety of technique variation is not what Bai Lang pursues, but making up for loopholes is needed.

Bai Lang's martial arts have always been a vigorous momentum, like a ferocious tiger pouncing, so in technique it only needs to be a bit more refined. Exquisite tricks and marvelous skills also need not be specially pursued—past half of his fist, leg, and weapon techniques came from the Canon of Fists and the Black Tiger Fist, while the other half came from his own comprehension.

The compiler of this martial art is definitely also an Innate Expert, with far greater vision and intention than the Black Tiger Fist and the Canon of Fists; what Bai Lang lacks is exactly this—he is not from an aristocratic family, has not seen so many martial arts. Now the Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist can be incorporated into this martial art, so his fists and legs will probably become even more fierce and rigid.

Exactly, this martial art also follows the path of rigidity and strength, which is also one of Bai Lang's reasons for exchanging it.

Bai Lang casually broke two tree branches, trimmed them to suitable length, and then used them as double truncheons, double knives, double swords for practice. With his current martial strength, being in a superior position, to fully master this martial art would not take much time; the rest is just 'nothing else, but practice makes perfect.'

Having taken the bounty, he must act; Bai Lang looked at the paper in his hand: 'The bandits of Mount Tianzhu, plus the Da Tong River bandit stronghold, and also add a lone great thief, Du Gu Laoqi...... The first two are easy to handle—if the monk can run, the temple cannot; just go and pick them. But if this last one runs away, where would we find him?'

These three places are not in the Capital (Jingcheng); the nearest one is still a thousand li away from the Capital. Bai Lang packed up his belongings, bought a covered wagon and two old horses with silver, and leisurely headed northwest of Yan. Mount Tianzhu lies at the border between Yan and the great steppe, which can be considered a natural barrier for Yan against the northern nomadic tribes.

The north of the two great states of Yan and Zhao is the great steppe; the continuous Qilian Mountains separate the steppe from the two states. Near Yan here is a land of abundant water and grass, also a gathering place for the northern Xiongnu and Xianbei tribes to contend for hegemony; while to the west of Zhao, Qin state is just a great river and desert steppe before one's eyes, with no defensible barriers. And the tribes dwelling in this bitter cold land are also the Mongol Iron Whip tribe, which used to raid southward year after year, but since the founding of Qin they have expanded northward by thousands of li, leaving no royal court in the southern desert. The Mongol tribe was driven to the black soil north of the desert, where forest and frozen tundra stretch for tens of thousands of li.

Just this alone, Qin's reputation as the strongest among the seven states is not false.

Mount Tianzhu is a small branch of the Qilian Mountains; within Yan's Youzhou region it spreads out like tree branches, occupying a radius of over a thousand li. The Black Tiger Child River flows out from the mountains, and the prefectural capital Zhuodu lies right at the mouth where the Black Tiger Child River enters the North Sea, making it the greatest city in the north. Youzhou has five commanderies, and the Da Tong River bandits are in the northeasternmost Liaodong commandery, just across the water from the capital.

The bandits of Mount Tianzhu are not just one nest but several, though all lie within a few hundred li radius of Mount Tianzhu near the capital, often luring northern barbarians to break out from the mountains and plunder. Although the several passes of the Qilian Mountains are heavily guarded, barbarian groups of a hundred cavalry can still, under guidance, pass through the valleys to raid the south; any larger numbers would be unsustainable due to lack of supplies.

The Mount Tianzhu bandits have held the mountains for over a hundred years; for the Yan court to exterminate them is quite difficult—aside from the disadvantageous terrain, there are quite a few experts among the bandits, and even foreign experts help them; employing many experts to exterminate them is not worth it—after all these people only steal wealth, and have never led foreign peoples in large-scale southern invasions. They cannot do that, whereas the Yan Minister of Defense's office actually has some hidden agents using this channel to gather intelligence on those northern barbarians; the bandits know this as well, turning a blind eye.

Bounties against them have always existed, like paying a blood tax; each year the bandits send over a few heads and Yan lets it be—those at the top know this well, and the 'chief' handed over each year are always those eager to rise, aggressive in action, and cruel in nature.

The bounty in Bai Lang's hand is just to kill a few leaders; especially those few posted in the Youzhou prefectural city's coastal arrest documents are enough—although the long-standing bandit leaders are still listed, no one expects to catch them anymore. The Da Tong River bandit stronghold, however, is the easiest to break, because it has risen in recent years, seemingly with an Innate Expert among them, and their conduct is far more brutal than that of the long-time mountain bandits.

Basically, the river stronghold leaves no survivors when looting ships; those on board either get sliced by the blade noodles or eat wonton noodles—only a handful of strong men escape thanks to excellent water skill and a bit of luck, which is how the prefectural city and the Yan court learned the name of the Da Tong River bandit stronghold, so recently they also posted a bounty to wipe them all out.

As for the lone great thief, Bai Lang casually stuffed him at the bottom of the bundle; this person wanders the five commanderies of Youzhou with no fixed abode—we'll talk about it later. 'Men and women, old and young, none know him; they only know his name is Du Gu Laoqi, true or false hard to say......' Bai Lang leaned in the covered wagon, letting the two old horses pull the four-wheeled cart along the imperial road toward Youzhou.

The covered wagon itself can serve as a tent; its canvas is wind- and rainproof, the interior spacious enough for one to lie down, and it can carry plenty of dry rations. Bai Lang brought horse feed and his own dry rations, plus a delicate little stove; of course the few weapons bought together with the wagon were also stowed inside. He spread dry grass for the horses as a mat, lay comfortably on it, lowered half the canopy, and let the warm sunshine fall on him.

Amid the sound of hooves and the swaying, Bai Lang fell asleep happily.

'What a mess the Adventure Hall has become—who's to blame?' A voice echoed in the void, but no one answered. 'Now that bastard is up against us—who will pacify him?' The voice sounded again, still no one answered. 'Forget it, forget it!' The voice flared in anger, but then vanished without a trace.

From afar came the sound of arrogant and overbearing mad laughter......