Chapter 251: Borrowing a Knife to Kill

'Specifically robbing the Eight Great Sects?'

Hearing Xu Wen's words, Li Rui raised an eyebrow.

When he was young, he had followed the Zhu family's merchant caravans many times.

Everyone says merchant caravans fear robbers, but in fact, robbers fear merchant caravans just as much.

Do you think merchant caravans are all merchants with no power to truss a chicken?

No.

Almost all merchant caravans hire martial arts masters at high prices to guard them.

Unless the realm difference is too great, if they really want to fight, life and death are unknown; no one's life is picked up for free, robbers want money, not to fight for their lives every day.

Generally speaking.

Merchant caravans will give some peace silver, just to be harmonious and make money; mountain bandits are also happy to make money without doing anything, and some righteous ones will even escort them for a distance.

Picking the hard persimmon?

This kind of mountain bandit doesn't look like they are doing it for money.

Xu Wen lowered his voice: "Brother Li, just investigate this matter slowly; I heard that this time the Changkong Association's cargo had private goods of other elders, and that person has some background, but he doesn't get along with Sun Zhanglao's temper, and Sun Zhanglao is also hindered by the power, so he came to Lord Yan."

Li Rui's mouth revealed a smile:

"Lord Xu, thank you for the guidance."

He had already heard that something was wrong just now.

When did the Eight Great Sects in the city become so obedient?

Their own caravan was robbed, and instead of taking people to chop the mountain bandits directly, the first thing they thought of was reporting the case.

It really is a strange thing.

Now that Xu Wen said this, he understood.

It's not to say that Yan Zhongxing and Sun Zhanglao of the Changkong Association are the ones who can become the main official of the Trade Department and the person in charge of the Changkong Association in Qinghe.

The highlight is that those who should do things officially do them officially.

Yan Zhongxing looks vigorous and resolute, but in fact, it's all just acting.

There are many people in the market, and naturally, there are people from the Changkong Association.

This scene will definitely reach the ears of that elder with a big backer, and then the matter can be handled if it can be handled, and if it can't, it's just doing their best.

It's just a performance.

Xu Wen then chatted with Li Rui for a long time.

Seeing that Li Rui really didn't take it to heart, he left satisfied.

Soon.

Li Rui was the only one left in the room, his body just in the shadows.

"Coincidence?"

"Not coming out?"

County government inner courtyard.

Zhuang Renhe narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Yes, we deliberately exposed our tracks, but that Li Rui just wouldn't take the bait, only sending a few people to investigate; to avoid alerting the enemy, we haven't moved against the Anning Guard people yet."

A capable man said.

He was Zhuang Renhe's confidant and also the leader of the horse thieves outside the city.

"Okay, I know."

"Then make a bigger commotion; I don't believe he won't leave the city."

A flash of cold light passed through Zhuang Renhe's eyes.

"Yes."

The capable man shouted and then turned and left.

Only Zhuang Renhe was left in the room, his face changing uncertainly.

"Could it be that he has noticed something?"

"Impossible."

"Unless he is an immortal, he can't predict good and bad luck; it should be that he is lazy and doesn't want to do things."

"But whether to leave the city or not is not up to you!"

Zhuang Renhe's nose twitched slightly, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.

To obtain the Immortal Qi, he must first capture Li Rui alive; as long as he can capture Li Rui, he has no less than thirty ways to make Li Rui open his mouth.

Li Rui is a Trade Captain of the Anning Guard; taking action in the city would definitely arouse suspicion from others.

But outside the city, especially on the official road, it's different.

It's called dying in the line of duty.

A Trade Captain, in order to protect trade between the two countries, died in an ambush by Wu Kingdom experts.

This sounds very reasonable, right?

When the time comes, with no corpse left, Zhuang Renhe can even go to pay respects at Li Rui's cenotaph, and can even help him ask for a loyalty and bravery memorial archway.

It's just a pity that I heard Li Rui has no children; otherwise, it could benefit future generations for a hundred years.

Thinking this way, it's simply a good deed.

When the time comes, Zhuang Renhe can also earn a merit from the imperial court because of this.

Killing two birds with one stone.

Zhuang Renhe felt a little excited at the thought of what he was about to get...

"Immortal Qi..."

"Master, Elder Shi of the Divine Weapon Villa requests an audience."

"Not seeing him."

"Master, Lord Yan of the Trade Department is here."

"I'm practicing martial arts and have Qi deviation, so don't see him."

"Master..."

Wang Zhao didn't know how many waves of people had come to find Li Rui; the threshold of the Li residence in the Anning Guard was almost trampled by those people, and the scene was even livelier than New Year's greetings.

He reported names that were already big forces.

Not counting those small sects.

"Master, General Cao wants to see you."

Li Rui pondered: "Please invite General Cao in."

Not long after.

Wang Zhao led Cao Wei into the room.

Cao Wei stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Li Rui, who was lying on the bed with a pale face, with a half-smile.

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"It really is Qi deviation; Lord Li's martial arts practice is really at the right time."

These past few days.

The people looking for Li Rui had already found him here; pacifying mountain bandits and protecting the safety of the trade route was the duty of the Captain's Mansion, and as the main official of the Anning Guard, he naturally had to come and ask.

Li Rui wanted to get up tremblingly.

But he was powerless.

"Little Zhao, help me up."

Wang Zhao was about to step forward to help, but was interrupted by Cao Wei: "Lord Li has Qi deviation, so let's skip the etiquette."

Cao Wei's mouth lifted:

"Lord Li, I originally wanted to discuss the mountain bandits outside the city with you."

There were too many people coming to the door, and even Yan Zhongxing of the Trade Department came to ask personally, so he naturally had to give an explanation.

Li Rui coughed twice:

"Lord Cao, rest assured, the subordinate has already contacted Lord Dao of the Wu Kingdom; those mountain bandits are fleeing from the Wu Kingdom, and Lord Dao will handle it on our behalf."

Hearing Li Rui's words.

Cao Wei's expression eased slightly.

Faking illness wouldn't work here.

Not to mention Li Rui was Jiang Linxian's person, even Feng Yu and Guan Xinrong wouldn't work.

The Anning Guard was not those weak civil officials.

Where was there any saying that you could not do things because you were sick? The Anning Guard was an army, and the place where they were was the battlefield.

On the battlefield, let alone being sick, even if your leg was broken, you would still have to go up.

"Since Lord Li already has a countermeasure, that's fine."

Cao Wei nodded in satisfaction.

He didn't deliberately make things difficult for Li Rui because they belonged to different factions.

Whether Li Rui's Qi deviation was a coincidence or intentional didn't matter.

The key was that if he completely let go and didn't care, who would manage it? Did he, the Assistant General, have to manage it personally?

Li Rui didn't take action himself, but through connections, he let the stronger Dao Mo take action; regardless of whether the matter could be done, at least he had done it.

Whether it could be done was a matter of ability.

But if he hadn't thought of a countermeasure at all, that was a matter of attitude.

Attitude is very important.

Although Cao Wei was the main official, he couldn't do everything himself and needed his subordinates to work hard.

"Alright, then I won't disturb Lord Li's continued rest."

Li Rui smiled: "Little Zhao, send General Cao off for me." "Yes."

A moment later.

Wang Zhao returned.

He blinked, and although he wasn't good at reading expressions, he could clearly feel that when General Cao came, he was aggressive, as if he were coming to question him, but when he left, his mood was obviously much better.

"Master, was General Cao trying to find trouble for Master just now?"

Wang Zhao asked the doubt in his heart.

"More than just trouble."

Li Rui chuckled: "He was coming to punish me."

"Punish!"

Wang Zhao was shocked; he didn't expect that Li Rui and Cao Wei were superficially gentle just now, but secretly so dangerous.

Reading the original text!

"Alright, Little Zhao, if anyone else comes later, don't see them either."

"Yes, Master."

After giving instructions.

Li Rui closed his eyes and lay back on the bed.

The sound of the door closing creaked in his ears.

The room soon returned to its previous silence.

Faking illness might be very useful for ordinary soldiers, as long as the small flag above doesn't take it seriously, it can be considered fooled.

But at the level of a military officer, the situation is different.

As long as you're not dead, you'll still be dragged up.

If you are discovered faking illness, you will be punished by military law, and it will never be as easy as with civil officials.

So Li Rui's Qi deviation was real.

When he was suppressing the blade evil, he actually deliberately left a trace, originally thinking that it could be used for faking illness in the future, but he didn't expect to use it so soon.

Otherwise, Cao Wei wouldn't have been so easy to send away today.

Besides that, he had to give Cao Wei a step, or an excuse.

After all, Cao Wei also needed to give others an explanation.

If any of these things were done one step less, Cao Wei would definitely have dragged him off the sickbed today.

In a void.

A group of blood-red smoke was particularly eye-catching.

"So who exactly is it?"

The reason Li Rui would rather have Qi deviation than leave the city was, of course, because of the warning from his Wisdom Eye.

And connecting it with the various things that had happened recently.

He could almost be sure that someone was deliberately luring him out of the city.

The only question was, who was that person?

The enemy situation was unclear; acting rashly at this time was stupid, and what Li Rui had to do was wait.

Wait for the enemy to show their feet.

The more the enemy wanted him to do something, the less he would do it.

Since they wanted him to leave the city, he simply wouldn't even leave the Anning Guard.

Just wait it out.

Anyway, Li Rui didn't have any necessity to go out now.

Thinking.

Unknowingly.

He fell into a deep sleep, and when he opened his eyes again, he had already entered the dreamland Cloud Terrace.

The Immortal Blade had already appeared in his hand.

Li Rui found that practicing with the Immortal Blade seemed to make it easier to clarify his thoughts, so he habitually used the Immortal Blade.

"Dual-form fusion, seamless offense and defense..."

He pondered.

Possessing dual forms was a huge advantage; the Dragon Form was for offense, and the Immortal Form was for defense. Before, he practiced them separately, but now that he had leisure, Li Rui thought about blending the dual forms into his moves, so he could have more chances of winning when fighting others.

Body follows the blade.

Every slash Li Rui made was very slow.

Or rather, very careful, for fear of even a tiny deviation.

It looked like an old man practicing in the morning, without the slightest killing power.

This process lasted for a full two hours.

The speed of Li Rui's blade falling increased slowly at a rate almost invisible to the naked eye, until two hours later, when the speed was about the same as an ordinary martial artist.

As the number of blade swings became faster and faster.

The Immortal Blade gradually turned into a phantom, like a ball of raging fire enveloping his whole body, and one could faintly see a fire dragon dancing!

Gradually.

Li Rui's blade technique became more and more chaotic, as if he had gone mad.

He gradually gave up defense.

The blade body was like a large hammer, smashing blow by blow toward the void in front of him; every time the blade fell, the terrace would tremble.

If Elder Tiekuang were present, he would be able to see it at a glance.

Li Rui was clearly evolving his own Hammer Qi Method.

Indeed.

He wanted to integrate the mysteries of the Hammer Qi Method into his blade technique.

With the Immortal Form on his body, Li Rui's defense far exceeded that of ordinary martial artists; this was a huge advantage that must be carried forward.

The slowness at the beginning.

Was to build momentum.

By using the blade intent changed by the Hammer Qi Method to lead the opponent, and then when the blade intent accumulated to a certain degree, it was like a mountain flood releasing, giving up defense, and destroying the enemy.

When the enemy discovered there was a problem.

It was already too late.

Li Rui's advantage of high comprehension was reflected.

Other martial artists could only rigidly practice the moves learned from the manual, but he could flexibly create the most suitable martial arts according to his own advantages and combined with what he had learned.

In this way.

When fighting martial artists of the same realm, he could occupy the first opportunity.

Killing people is just accumulating advantages bit by bit.

Li Rui didn't like to take action.

But if he really had to take action, he must ensure that the person who died wasn't himself.

Otherwise, if his life was gone, what was there to talk about longevity?

In a flash, half a month passed.

Night, blacksmith shop.

"Old man Tie, you hold the blade to sleep every day, don't you feel it's uncomfortable?"

Liu Tiezhu glanced at Elder Tiekuang.

Ever since the Immortal Blade was born, Elder Tiekuang had been inseparable from the blade at all times, watching it even more closely than his own wife.

Elder Tiekuang rolled his eyes:

"You don't understand a fart; this is called nurturing."

Liu Tiezhu didn't quite believe the old man Tie's words; in his view as a countryman, wasn't it just that he was old and married a young wife, so he couldn't bear to part with her?

Nurturing a hammer.

Several times he wanted to touch the Immortal Blade, but was scolded by the old man Tie.

It turned out the Immortal Blade was born, but he, the contributor, couldn't touch it.

It was truly infuriating.

"By the way, old man Tie, what do you plan to name this blade?"

Ever since he called him old man Tie last time, he found this address even more smooth, so he continued to call him that, and Elder Tiekuang didn't mean to tell him to change it.

"Naming..."

Elder Tiekuang was in a dilemma for the first time.

He was an expert at blacksmithing and hitting people, but he suffered because he didn't have much ink in his stomach; if the name wasn't domineering enough, wouldn't it lose face for the Immortal Blade? So he never had the idea of naming it.

Just when the two were sitting on the stone steps of the blacksmith shop chatting.

A person wearing a black robe walked over.

Liu Tiezhu was alert: "Who is it?!"

Just as he was preparing to stand up and confront him, the black-robed person took off his cloak, revealing his true face.

When he saw who it was, Liu Tiezhu was a bit surprised.

"Master?"

Li Rui didn't look at Liu Tiezhu, but looked at Elder Tiekuang solemnly.

"Senior, I want to borrow the blade."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 252 =====