Chapter 70: Chapter Sixty-Nine: Wuxing Mountain

Zhao Duyan was not seeing Li You for the first time; he also knew Li You had killed Peng Yun and the other two in one breath. Although many people, including Wu Zhuge, praised his martial prowess, he had always disagreed, because Li You always gave him the image of a bookish man with a silver tongue.

But tonight Li You was different. Even though Li You was gentle and amiable, when Zhao Duyan walked in, an indescribable palpitation made him dare not look into Li You's eyes. He mumbled a response, feeling as if a devil were following him step by step behind his back. In his panic, he suddenly thought of what the storyteller Mr. had said in "The Legend of the Jianghu Heroes": "Hong Taiwei released the evil stars from the Demon-Sealing Hall..."

"The Chong King Li Zicheng, the Western King Zhang Xianzhong, Cao Cao Luo Rucui... will there also be a 'Killer Scum Scholar' Li You?"

On the way, the Thin Monkey always felt someone staring at him. Turning back, he was shocked to discover four women in the group, and he knew all of them. They were originally the cooks from Beizhai who had been used, mostly by Wu Zhuge and his personal guards. The Thin Monkey had never abused these unfortunate people himself.

Wuxing Mountain was not far from Longmen Zhai via the small path; going northeast diagonally for about twenty li would reach it. However, the terrain in this area was rugged and undulating, and with years of drought, weeds were quite scarce. After walking another ten-plus li, they reached a shady slope where the vegetation finally became dense.

Sparse raindrops suddenly fell from the sky, a few of them, and then stopped.

After finishing this stretch of the main road, they saw a range of rolling mountains in the distance. These mountains were similar to those at Longmen Zhai, not particularly steep, lying at the border between Leigong Mountain and Peng Mountain.

Li You had been carefully observing the terrain when Zhou Yin suddenly shouted from behind: "Silence! Someone!"

Everyone's hearts skipped a beat. They quickly stopped walking. Xiang, Dang, and others were so frightened they stood motionless, as if cast by a body-freezing spell, their faces pale as death.

Li Xiujuan and Hong Da'e remained calm, as if nothing in this world could stir their emotions anymore.

Gao Conglong and others then showed the quality of border soldiers. Unlike Xiang Hu and others who stood still, the moment they heard the sound, he bent his body and crawled down like a lizard. This made it convenient both to dodge arrows and to exert force to escape or counterattack.

Zhou Yin crouched and darted behind a mountain rock. Identifying the position by sound, he quickly drew his bow and nocked an arrow...

Li You pressed his body close to the rock wall. He felt the commotion behind was indeed very loud, even with faint, heavy breathing sounds. However, this sound made Li You feel somewhat familiar...

"Cheng cheng..."

The sound of drawing bows continued to ring out. Suddenly, Li You shouted urgently: "Stop! It's Li Zhi..."

Li You quickly leaped out. Sure enough, he saw two little brats, each carrying a Xuanhua axe on their shoulder, striding boldly along the path.

"Nima de..."

Li You exploded on the spot, grabbing the scabbard and charging down like a fierce tiger descending a mountain.

The two little brats were stunned. Li Zhi, with a trembling voice, said: "Mr., spare me under your blade! Save me to use these strong shoulders to chop off enemy generals' heads... And my Iron Sand Palm can poke one dead with a single strike... Ahhh... Ai ai ai... Don't, don't, don't..."

Yu Zhengchun, seeing Li You swinging the scabbard like he was slaughtering a pig, mustered the courage to say: "Little General Wang Erxiao... he... he was only ten when delivering the chicken feather letter... Huo Qubing was sealed at Langjuxu at seventeen... I, Yu Zhengchun... Ouch... Mr., go easy... Ouch ouch..."

After Li You finished beating both of them, he still had to take along these two bruised and swollen pups. As soon as they came up, Wu Dading and others saw they were still carrying the short-handled Xuanhua axes, which had been cast when building the house.

Gao Conglong's mouth twisted into a grin as he teased: "Swinging such a big thing once, you probably won't have the strength to swing it a second time... You two little brats, don't you want your eight-and-a-half jin anymore!"

"Where is there eight-and-a-half jin? At most three-and-a-half jin!" Wu Dading laughed and scolded without a care.

Everyone covered their mouths and laughed.

This false alarm actually lifted the tense atmosphere among the group. At least Dang Suozhi and Xiang Qiang and others looked much better in color.

Li You, Wu Dading, and others handed the cloth-wrapped bundles and water skins made from bladders to Yu Zhengchun and the others. The axes were naturally snatched away by Zhou Yin and Gao Conglong with glee!

Then they walked for about half a stick of incense time. By then, dawn was breaking. Zhao Duyan flatly refused to go further. Pointing his finger at a hillside to the northeast, he said: "From there... go up the left fork. This mountain isn't high; it used to be a lime kiln up there. The path is wide. They should be inside there."

As Zhao D spoke, he felt as if someone on the mountain was aiming an arrow at him. Instinctively, he ducked behind a large persimmon tree.

"We are still somewhat familiar with this area. When Gao Conghu and I first came here that winter, we stayed up on this mountain for a few days... This mountain sticks out like a big pig's snout. On the north side, there is a small path that only allows one horse to pass, and one side is a cliff with many rolling stones. Gao Conghu and I walked it once; if rolling stones fell, there would be no place to hide! There are also many lime caves up on this mountain that can hold quite a few people!!"

Gao Conglong spoke while roughly drawing the terrain.

However, the moonlight was not bright enough, and Li You could not see clearly. After thinking for a moment, Li You said he felt they should still creep up to take a look first. If the targets were truly tough, it would be better to run; there was no need to gamble so much.

"Let's go to that fork first. There are a few big elm trees there. Let's hide there and discuss!"

Seeing Li You silent and pondering, Gao Conglong felt the group was too jittery. If they lost heart, what was the point of fighting? He suggested they discuss it only after reaching the foot of the mountain, at least making a stand with no retreat.

"Good! Split into two teams and creep forward. Seal the blades in their scabbards; those with bows carry them high on their backs, double-inserted. Don't make sparks!"

Li You gave his instructions. Gao Conglong led one team first. Li You and Gao Conghu, who knew the terrain well, stayed at the rear. After walking for a while, Li You turned back and found Zhao Duyan still huddled behind the persimmon tree. Li You looked back at him, and Zhao Duyan, with a bitter face, followed all the way up.

At the fork in the road at the foot of the mountain, there was indeed a cluster of elm trees. On the main road ahead, they found rows of footprints and cart ruts leading up the mountain, along with many cow and mule hoof prints.

These ruts did not look like those of a single cart. Li You judged that several people must have been pushing several two-wheeled human-pulled carts up the mountain from here.

This mountain had been abandoned long ago; the lime kiln had been closed due to unrest in the early Chongzhen reign. So many cart ruts, plus cow, mule, and horse hoof prints, running into this desolate mountain, and the number of people appeared truly large!

Zhao Duyan spoke up: "I won't go any further... These are border soldiers! I heard their patrol name is something like Night Scout. They have eyes like night hawks; their reconnaissance can reach over ten li away... We might have been discovered already... Anyway, I'm not going. If you want to die, don't drag me along!"

"Coward!" Li You cursed inwardly at this morale-sapping remark. Seeing that dawn was already breaking, he anxiously said: "Continue up."