Chapter 71

The stream gurgled, flowing from the river ditch into the bamboo trough, and after three or five miles of twists and turns, it arrived at the magnificent Prince's Mansion, becoming the most brilliant scenery at the "winding stream and floating wine cups" banquet.

There were scholars applying powder and rouge, their clothes fluttering as they walked, with excellent style. There were also talented women holding silk fans half-covering their faces, smiling beautifully.

When the banquet began, the literati and scholars sat by the stream, and the trays holding the wine cups floated on the water, drifting along the way.

When the wine cup stopped, the person closest to it had to compose a poem or play a tune on the zither. If they could compose a poem or show off a talent, they could push the tray and let the wine cup continue to drift. If they couldn't, they had to drink the wine in the cup in one gulp.

This is the "floating wine cups" banquet.

Xu Qing wandered along the pavilions and corridors, and just the outer perimeter of the banquet took him half a cup of tea time.

He had thought that Heir Zhu's family was wealthy, but he didn't expect it to be so luxurious.

You must know that his Golden House, that miniature box-garden, only had four entrances and four exits.

It can only be said that poverty limited his imagination.

Besides the dazzling garden scenery, Xu Qing liked watching the Prince's Mansion maids, who were wearing pleated skirts and pink jackets, taking small steps and busy everywhere, the most.

It must be said that the quality of the maids in the Changting Prince's Mansion is high. Not only are they fair-skinned and slim-waisted, but their faces are also delicate. They look well-proportioned, and because the Prince's Mansion is strictly disciplined, even in terms of talent, they are no worse than the top courtesans of Changdeng Street.

Xu Qing was puzzled. With so many beautiful young girls in the little fatty's family, why did he still have to go to the flower building to seek pleasure?

Is it that rabbits don't eat the grass by their own burrows, or is this the pattern of sons of wealth and status that he, a poor fellow, doesn't understand?

Xu Qing looked at the flowers while riding a horse, sometimes thinking this one was beautiful, sometimes thinking that one was beautiful.

Along the way, he also met a beautiful maid with a tight face, a cold expression, and a brisk walk, like a strict female instructor.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but Xu Qing always felt that this maid was more mature than the ones he had met before, probably at least twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

The maid-dressed woman glanced at Xu Qing, who had never seen the world, snorted coldly, and walked away quickly with the tray.

In place, only a burst of fragrant wind swirled.

Not long after the woman left, a scholar brushed past her. After they passed each other, the scholar couldn't help but pause and turn his head to look at the woman's back.

Wait! This scholar?

Xu Qing thought he looked familiar at first glance, and at the second glance, wasn't this grandson Protector Bai Luo of the Heavenly Heart Sect?

Don't think that just because he applied a thick layer of powder, I wouldn't recognize him!

Watching Bai Luo leave, Xu Qing didn't say a word and turned around to make a righteous report.

Outside the banquet, the night guards were patrolling when they were suddenly hit on the head by a hard object. The guard's cry of pain while holding his head immediately attracted other colleagues nearby to inquire.

The guard with a small bump on his head picked up the "murder weapon" and cursed: "I don't know who is so wicked, throwing a paper-wrapped stone at my forehead."

The guard commander frowned upon hearing this, took the "murder weapon," and unfolded the wrinkled white paper wrapped around the stone. After seeing the content on it, his face instantly turned cold and hard.

"There are Heavenly Heart Sect rebels mixed into the venue. You all quickly pass this drawing around, and you must notify all places to arrest the rebels!"

The content on the white paper was none other than the portrait of Bai Luo sketched by Xu Qing using his painting skills, and below it, he wrote in a few simple words the information about the other party coming to attend the meeting.

Undercurrents were surging in the Prince's Mansion, and those hidden expert guards were all looking like hawks and falcons, checking for suspicious people in the venue.

Xu Qing, who was not involved, reunited with the Wu brothers. At this time, the two were sitting at the banquet, talking happily.

"Brother Xu came just in time. The next round of floating cups is about to begin. This time, the Prince himself is throwing the cup. Let's see who is lucky enough to win this prize."

Xu Qing responded casually, and then he saw a middle-aged man with a majestic body and a square face in a pavilion in the distance, smiling as he filled the wine cup in his hand, placed it on a wooden tray, and threw it into the stream, letting it drift with the waves.

Beside the Changting Prince, Crown Prince Zhao You looked at the wine cup drifting with the waves and said meaningfully: "Speaking of which, my nephew and my uncle are no different from this wine cup. Once thrown into the turbulent flow of the world, there is no possibility of turning back."

Zhu Cheng smiled slightly and did not respond directly. Instead, he looked at the melons, fruits, and delicacies on the table and said: "This official remembers that Your Highness used to like eating preserved fruits and honeyed preserves the most, but perhaps you don't like them anymore."

The Crown Prince was stunned for a moment, shook his head, and laughed: "I am old, and my teeth are not as good as before. Even if there is the best sweet food, I have no blessing to enjoy it."

Zhu Huaian, who was forced to work and serve the distinguished guests, scratched his head in confusion. He didn't understand what kind of verbal sparring the two were doing.

Just a moment ago, he saw the Crown Prince eating nuts on the table, but now the other party said he had bad teeth and couldn't chew soft preserved fruits.

He's really lying with his eyes open!

The longer Zhu Huaian stayed, the more boring he felt. Right now, he would rather go find the Wu brothers and the others to play; those two are much more interesting than the Crown Prince.

While the few were talking, a guard came to report from outside the pavilion.

It was said that Miss Han Meng of the Shu Huang Pavilion had found a famous craftsman to repair the Mingtiao zither and had specifically come here to play a tune for the Crown Prince.

Outside the pavilion, the wine cup that the Changting Prince had personally thrown into the stream was drifting with the waves, and before long, it arrived in front of Xu Qing and the three.

Wu Zhiyuan had always regarded the Changting Prince as a role model. Now that he saw the wine cup personally filled by the Prince about to arrive in front of him, his whole body tensed up.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

"Alas, what a pity."

Guests with the same goal couldn't help but shout out. Some who were unrestrained even used their sleeves to fan the wind, trying to make the wine cup stay in front of them.

Xu Qing saw Wu Zhiyuan's expectant and nervous appearance and laughed to himself.

When the tray holding the wine cup arrived in front, his hand hidden in his sleeve moved slightly, and a subtle fluctuation, like a breeze, intercepted the drifting wine cup in front of the Wu brothers.

Wu Zhiyuan's handsome face instantly flushed red, and he felt his blood boiling.

"Ha, I've passed!"

He stood up abruptly, and then couldn't wait to bend down, carefully holding the wine cup with both hands. The joy in his heart was even stronger than when he passed the prefecture exam as the top of the list.

Surrounding scholars and literati who were jealous laughed and scolded: "We have always heard that the Wu top scholar has outstanding poetic talent. Since that is the case, why doesn't the great scholar Wu compose a poem on the spot, but instead picks up the wine cup and does what only those without ink in their chests would do?"

Wu Zhiyuan turned a deaf ear, instead happily and joyfully saying: "I see you are jealous of others having it and laugh at others for not having it. Today, I will just act like a brute and drink this cup!"

After saying that, he drank the fine wine in the cup in front of everyone.

Once this move was made, it immediately attracted another round of verbal criticism.

The wine was at its peak, and the banquet was half over.

Thick smoke suddenly rose from deep within the Changting Prince's Mansion. The guests at the banquet were agitated. The Changting Prince immediately comforted everyone and ordered people to quickly investigate the situation and quell the fire.

At the same time, Miss Han Meng led a personal maid and came to the pavilion.

The maid was tall and held the newly repaired Mingtiao zither in her arms.

At this time, Xu Qing was chatting with Zhu Huaian, who had found an excuse to sneak out, but he didn't see the group outside the pavilion.

Otherwise, he would definitely have recognized that the tall maid was the cold beauty he saw before meeting Bai Luo.

Let's say at the place where the Prince's Mansion caught fire, dozens of Prince's Mansion experts who had experienced battle were besieging three arsonists.

Heavenly Heart Sect Protector Bai Luo had a cold face. Before coming here, he had anticipated that the Prince's Mansion guards would be strict, but he still underestimated the strength of the guards here.

The experts before him were all the foundation accumulated by that different-surname Prince through years of fighting.

It seems that only by dying today can he move the Maitreya Buddha and make him descend with great magic power to grant him corpse-dissection and ascension to immortality!

"We are the incarnations of Maitreya, sent by the Heavenly God. How can you Great Yong running dogs kill me!" A fellow cultist roared, and then was shot into a hedgehog by a divine archer in the distance.

Bai Luo pinched the sword formula and stepped on the Ming King Seal. Facing the siege of dozens of Tongmai-realm mansion soldiers, he grinned, and the next moment he planned to "sacrifice his life for righteousness."

It was also at this time that the doors and windows of the houses in the distance suddenly shattered, and a high-level expert in a black robe took action, eliminating all the divine archers hidden in the dark.

The leader of the Prince's Mansion personal guards realized something was wrong. When he turned his head, the guards and personal soldiers beside him had already been killed by the ghostly black-robed man.

He stared fixedly at the unidentified assassin before him, his voice hoarse: "External release of Gang Qi, are you a Ninggang martial artist?"

The black-robed man remained silent, his palm moved slightly, and the standard long sword on the ground not far away flew into his hand involuntarily.

"You are not a Ninggang martial artist, you are a Martial Arts Grandmaster!"

The personal guard leader's pupils dilated. He reached out to touch the flying whistle in his arms used for early warning, but it was still a step too late.

The black-robed assassin turned his wrist, and the next moment the personal guard leader was beheaded.

And the cicada-shaped flying whistle that had already pulled the rope ring and was about to fly into the night sky was also pinched by the black-robed man with his fingers. Then he twisted it slightly, and the iron cicada in his hand turned into fine iron filings and became useless.

Bai Luo looked at the mysterious person before him. Although he had the joy of surviving a disaster, he was more wary.

A Martial Arts Grandmaster, looking at the entire Jianghu, how many people are there?

For a person like this, I'm afraid only their Sect Leader is qualified to be mentioned in the same breath.

"Junior Bai Luo, thank you, Senior, for saving me."

At this time, Bai Luo didn't dare to speak randomly, let alone say more, and could only bow to thank him.

"You have some wild spirit. It's one thing to assassinate the Crown Prince elsewhere, but you actually dare to take action at the Changting Prince's Mansion."

The black-robed man deliberately lowered his voice and said: "Fortunately, I was passing by, otherwise you would have had no chance of success!"

Bai Luo heard the subtext in the other party's words and couldn't help but show joy, humbly asking for advice: "Please, Senior, give me some guidance."

"The Crown Prince has Ninggang martial artists guarding him, and the Changting Prince himself is also a Martial Arts Grandmaster. If you want to assassinate the Crown Prince, you must lure the tiger away from the mountain."

Bai Luo frowned: "How to lure the tiger away from the mountain?"

"The Changting Prince has only one son. As long as the tiger cub is harmed, are you afraid he won't be willing to leave the Crown Prince?"

After the black-robed assassin with deep martial arts cultivation said this, he flashed and disappeared into the night.

Outside the banquet, Zhu Huaian drunkenly held Wu Wencai's hand and said: "It's getting late. You guys stay at my house today. When it's quiet tomorrow, I'll take you around properly..."

Behind the two, Xu Qing had a dark face, holding the unconscious Wu Zhiyuan in a princess carry.

As for why he didn't carry him on his back, it was because most drunk people are unreasonable. If you don't put them in a position where you can see them, you never know when they might vomit all over you.

When they arrived at the corridor where guests rested, Xu Qing settled Wu Zhiyuan down, and then heard the sound of weapons clashing and chaotic shouting outside the room.

He frowned, walked out of the room quickly, and saw a good-sized human head rolling to his feet.

He recognized this person. Two days ago, when Zhu Huaian forcibly occupied a seat in the teahouse and made the tea guests dissatisfied, it was this big man over nine feet tall who came forward to protect his master.

Xu Qing's eyes twitched, and he looked in the direction of the sound.

At this time, the drunken Zhu Huaian was still dazed in place. When he realized what was happening, only one of his three guards remained.

Looking at the middle of the courtyard, Bai Luo, dressed as a scholar, had already pierced the chest of the last guard with his sword.

He shook the sword body lightly, and the blood stained on the sword groove dripped to the ground. In the corridor courtyard, a rich smell of blood permeated everywhere.

Xu Qing stood at the door. In the courtyard was the Heavenly Heart Sect demon holding a sword and wanting to kill, and at the door of the next room was the Heir who had just sent Wu Wencai to his room to rest.

Xu Qing didn't think much, took out three strength pills, swallowed them whole, shook his hands, and the diamond finger tiger in his sleeve fell into his palm.

Bai Luo looked at the fair-faced young man who was blocking the Heir's path with his sleeves hanging down, and grinned.

A weak scholar also wants to block his path?

His figure flashed, and the next moment he appeared in front of Xu Qing.

Like a ghost.

The other party's speed was astonishingly fast. Xu Qing didn't see Bai Luo's sword move clearly, and a numb and icy feeling came from his heart.

"Hmm?" Bai Luo, whose sword tip pierced the scholar's chest, looked surprised. At that moment, he felt like he had stabbed into iron and stone, and even at the moment of piercing, a bright spark splashed out.

It was during this moment of distraction that Xu Qing suddenly raised his sleeves and stretched out a pair of hands with finger tigers like steel pliers.

He reached out and held the long sword that had entered his flesh by three points tightly, bared his teeth at Bai Luo, and showed a sinister smile.

"It's my turn!"

Xu Qing clamped the long sword with one hand and grabbed the other party's sword-holding arm with the other.

Bai Luo's hair stood on end. He hurriedly freed his right hand, gathered a green Gang Qi, and slammed it onto Xu Qing's forehead.

At the same time, in a mansion near the Linhe Water Gate Bridge.

The Yin locust tree, which had just sprouted and was working hard to absorb the Yin Qi of the moon, suddenly had its crown burst, and countless bark and wood chips mixed with emerald green buds splashed everywhere.

At the Changting Prince's Mansion, Xu Qing's head was eroded by Gang Qi, but he acted like nothing had happened. Instead, Bai Luo had one eye blinded by the puppet that suddenly appeared behind Xu Qing.

Bai Luo groaned. Before he could react, he saw the young man before him turn sideways, revealing a long-haired monster face born on the back of his head.

At this time, Xu Qing controlled Bai Luo with both hands. Besides the puppet, his only remaining killing move was the "Two-Faced Three-Knives" technique.

In the courtyard filled with the smell of blood, cold light suddenly appeared.

The "Two-Faced Three-Knives" technique contains the method of hiding a knife, which can kill invisibly.

Xu Qing had always hidden a knife behind him.

And today, this knife was stained with blood for the second time.

(End of chapter)