Chapter 56: The Furious Golden-Haired Lion King

While Zhang Jie was thinking, Zhang Wuji, who had been resting in the cabin, also came onto the deck.

Compared to Zhang Jie, whose body was still like that of an animal despite his Nine Yang Great Completion and Northern Darkness shielding,

Zhang Wuji, whose Nine Yang Divine Art was not yet fully perfected, was clearly exhausted from the long journey by ship and cart.

Yet, at this moment, Zhang Wuji’s face bore unmistakable excitement:

“Senior brother, in a few more hours, I’ll see my adoptive father!”

To him, his adoptive father Xie Xun was the only person who had watched him grow up.

“Younger brother, calm down.”

Zhang Jie gently soothed the agitated Zhang Wuji.

But Zhang Wuji was like an excited monkey,

unable to suppress his inner fervor, nearly jumping up and down.

Zhang Jie could only leave him be and continued gazing at Ice Fire Island.

Two hours later, the sun had dipped westward,

and under the boat captain’s guidance, the vessel found a shallow shore suitable for landing.

“Young master, shall we clear a path for you?”

The boat captain asked Zhang Jie.

Although the contract had not stipulated landing on the island,

knowing Zhang Jie was extraordinary, the captain still offered, hoping to leave a good impression.

“No need.”

Zhang Jie shook his head slightly.

Unlike him and Zhang Wuji, who had internal energy shielding their bodies,

the boat captain and his crew were ordinary men who had never trained in martial arts.

This desolate Ice Fire Island teemed with venomous snakes, insects, and ferocious beasts,

sending them ahead to clear a path would be tantamount to using their lives to pave the way.

Zhang Jie was not so callous as to treat human lives so lightly.

“Wait here for us. Here’s the remaining deposit.”

As he instructed the boat captain, Zhang Jie pulled a gold ingot from his sleeve and handed it to him.

As agreed, the boat fare was paid in three installments: a deposit before departure,

another upon arrival, and the final—and largest—payment upon return.

“Yes!”

The boat captain gladly accepted the gold.

The other crew members, seeing the gold in the captain’s hand, stared with gleaming eyes.

What had driven them to risk their lives on this treacherous sea, where storms struck without warning?

Wasn’t it for the gleaming silver!

On this voyage, as the owner, the captain would take the lion’s share,

but each crewman still stood to earn dozens of taels.

In the Yuan Empire, a wealthy farmer owning a dozen or so mu of land,

free from paying rent to landlords, earned no more than twenty to thirty taels a year.

Though this voyage was farther than any they’d undertaken before, and the latter half of the route was uncharted,

as long as there was money, even the Dragon King’s underwater palace was worth braving!

Zhang Jie paid no mind to the crew’s excitement.

The saying “great rewards breed brave men” held true here.

“Younger brother, let’s go.”

Zhang Jie called to Zhang Wuji, who had calmed somewhat.

“Yes, senior brother.”

Zhang Wuji’s eyes still betrayed uncontainable excitement.

The two of them activated Wudang’s Cloud-Scaling Technique, lightening their steps and accelerating, vanishing into the forest in an instant.

“These two are truly not ordinary!”

Seeing their inhuman speed, the boat captain felt a pang of relief.

He was glad he hadn’t been swayed by a trusted subordinate’s suggestion to ambush Zhang Jie and Zhang Wuji

while they were alone and outnumbered by the crew.

Had they dared to attack, they wouldn’t have needed Zhang Jie to act—

even the gentle young Wuji could have slaughtered every man aboard.

Zhang Jie was aware of the mutinous intentions of a few of the captain’s men.

With his Nine Yang Great Completion and Northern Darkness energy, nothing on the ship escaped his perception.

Since the boat captain hadn’t let greed cloud his judgment, Zhang Jie chose not to expose them.

On this vast ocean, every sailor who dared to set sail was a man willing to die.

The line between pirate and merchant was never fixed;

a powerful merchant vessel often preyed on weaker ones.

Even the navies of the Yuan, Korea, and Japan frequently engaged in such risk-free plunder.

Big fish ate small fish, small fish ate shrimp—this was the living food chain among merchants and warships.

Of course, Zhang Jie hadn’t done nothing.

On the day of the fiercest storm, a small incident occurred aboard:

One of the captain’s trusted men slipped overboard and drowned, with no hope of rescue…

“Senior brother, we’re here!”

After over two hours of travel, guided by Zhang Wuji,

the two arrived before a cave clearly inhabited by someone.

“Blind eyes must be a terrible burden.”

Zhang Jie surveyed the patch of uneven, overgrown grass before the cave, thinking to himself.

Clearly, even with internal energy, the Golden-Haired Lion King’s quality of life remained low.

But fortunately, he had internal energy—if he were an ordinary man,

he would surely have perished long ago on this desolate Ice Fire Island.

Not everyone could survive like Robinson Crusoe.

And even Crusoe had firearms and gunpowder to protect him.

“Adoptive father! Adoptive father!”

While Zhang Jie was lost in thought, Zhang Wuji, unable to contain his emotions any longer, sprinted into the cave.

Zhang Jie followed slowly behind him into the cave.

The cave was neither large nor small—roughly thirty to forty square meters,

filled with pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, radiating a strong sense of daily life.

Yet all these utensils were made of clay and wood,

clearly indicating the blind Golden-Haired Lion King could not fire ceramics.

“Senior brother, my adoptive father isn’t here!”

Zhang Wuji, having searched the entire cave without finding the Golden-Haired Lion King, cried anxiously.

“Younger brother, calm down.”

Zhang Jie soothed Zhang Wuji.

He walked to the hearth, touched the ash with his fingers, and found it still warm—

it had been used that morning, so the Golden-Haired Lion King was clearly still alive.

Zhang Wuji imitated Zhang Jie, dipping his finger into the ash and feeling its residual warmth, then sighed in relief.

“Senior brother, where do you think my adoptive father has gone?”

Still flustered, Zhang Wuji instinctively asked Zhang Jie, whom he trusted deeply.

“Hmm… the Lion King probably went hunting.”

Zhang Jie paused, then offered a plausible guess.

A man blind in both eyes could not farm,

so to survive for so many years on Ice Fire Island, he must have relied on hunting.

Worried they might miss him, Zhang Jie and Zhang Wuji decided to wait inside the cave.

“Who dares invade my Golden-Haired Lion King’s home?”

About half an hour later, a roar like a lion’s echoed in Zhang Jie’s ears.

Zhang Jie looked closely: a tall, burly man with golden hair cascading over his shoulders,

his eyes entirely white and vacant, was cautiously entering.

“You’re Xu Jinjiang, the master who uses the whip to supplement the whip?”

It’s you, Master Xu Jinjiang, famed for supplementing the whip with the whip?

No, it’s the Golden-Haired Lion King, Xie Xun!

Recognizing the distinctive golden hair, Zhang Jie immediately identified the newcomer.

In the Golden-Haired Lion King’s hand was a sword about three feet long, its blade black and gleaming,

engraved with the inscription “Dragon-Slaying Blade” and winding, sinuous dragon patterns,

its hilt made of an alloy with gold as its base, inlaid with jade beads.

This sword was naturally the very object of Zhang Jie’s quest—the famed Dragon-Slaying Blade.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. This Dragon-Slaying Blade isn’t like the one from some “Hello, I’m Zha Zha Hui, if you’re a brother, come and kill me” game,

In the game “I’m Zha Zha Hui, if you’re my brother, come chop me,”

where everything was done as flamboyantly and extravagantly as possible,

the Dragon-Slaying Blade, so eager to be carved with a dragon that it might as well have one etched right onto the blade.

Zhang Jie finally let out the breath he’d been holding.

That kind of Dragon-Slaying Blade was far too flamboyant—completely out of tune with his low-key nature.

“Father, it’s Wuji! I’ve finally found you again, Father!”

At the sight of Xie Xun, Zhang Wuji’s long-suppressed emotions erupted like a volcano—he rushed toward the Golden-Haired Lion King.

“Wuji, my child? You’re my Wuji?”

Hearing Zhang Wuji’s voice, the Golden-Haired Lion King forgot all caution.

Zhang Wuji had been raised under his eyes; he had long regarded Zhang Wuji as his own son.

Zhang Wuji’s voice had been etched into his soul.

Even after all these years apart, he recognized him instantly.

The Golden-Haired Lion King set down the Dragon-Slaying Blade and lunged toward Zhang Wuji.

“Father!”

“Wuji, my child!”

The old man and the boy poured out their long-held longing.

“Father!”

Zhang Wuji clung tightly to the Golden-Haired Lion King.

“Wuji, my child!”

The Golden-Haired Lion King gently stroked Zhang Wuji’s face with his hands.

In this moment of deep father-son affection, Zhang Jie did not intrude—he stood quietly to one side.

“Wuji, how are your uncle and aunt?”

As his excitement subsided slightly, the Golden-Haired Lion King asked urgently.

“Father, Mother and Father are gone.”

At the mention of Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, Zhang Wuji burst into tears.

“Impossible, impossible! My younger brother was only in his forties,

and your aunt was barely in her thirties—how could they be dead?”

The Golden-Haired Lion King could hardly believe it.

Ordinary people might die in their thirties or forties,

but those who had cultivated martial arts often lived into their sixties or seventies without issue.

There was even an old Daoist on Mount Wudang who had lived to a hundred and still brimmed with vitality!

Even if one might suffer from an incurable internal injury,

how could it be a coincidence that both Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu contracted fatal illnesses at once?

“Who killed them?”

The Golden-Haired Lion King roared in fury.

Since Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu could not have died of old age, the answer was simple:

People die only when they are killed!

“It was the Six Major Sects—they…”

Through tears, Zhang Wuji recounted how, during Zhang Sanfeng’s hundredth birthday,

the Shaolin, Emei, Kongtong, and Beggar’s Sect had all descended upon Mount Wudang to demand answers.

They forced Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu to reveal the whereabouts of the Golden-Haired Lion King Xie Xun and the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

He told Xie Xun how Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu, bound by deep affection and loyalty, had chosen suicide rather than betray Xie Xun’s secret.

“Ahh! Ahh!

Emei, Shaolin—I, Xie Xun, swear eternal enmity with you!”

Upon hearing the truth, Xie Xun’s rage exploded—he unleashed his vast internal energy,

his golden hair whipping wildly like a lion in furious wrath!