Chapter 199: Long Er

The yamen runners, along with three death-row prisoners whose acupoints had been sealed, followed Duan Fengyun to the front of the Longmen Mountain Mountain Gate.

Duan Fengyun instructed the Mountain Gate disciples.

"Take these three people to the Back Mountain and wait for me.

Do not touch the shackles on their hands and feet; wait for me to arrive before handling them."

"Yes, Sect Leader!"

The four Mountain Gate disciples pushed the prisoner cart, slowly moving toward the Back Mountain.

"Gentlemen, you have worked hard on this journey.

This is a small token of my appreciation; you must accept it.

Just consider it money to buy yourselves some wine."

Duan Fengyun took out an ingot of silver and handed it to the yamen runners; as for how they would split it, Duan Fengyun did not concern himself.

Upon hearing Duan Fengyun's words, the four yamen runners knew they could not refuse, so they spoke in thanks:

"Many thanks, Your Highness. If you have any orders in the future, please do not hesitate to speak."

The four yamen runners took Duan Fengyun's reward money and left, skipping along happily.

Duan Fengyun did not go to the Back Mountain; after inquiring and learning that the exhausted Long Er was sleeping in his room, he slowly walked to Long Er's room.

Pushing the door open slowly, Duan Fengyun looked at the soundly sleeping Long Er and smiled.

"Little guy, you really are carefree.

Having just experienced such a thing, you are actually still able to sleep so relaxed."

Duan Fengyun did not disturb Long Er's sleep, but instead sat silently to the side, watching Long Er.

After an hour had passed, Long Er, who was about to turn over, felt someone pressing down on his quilt; sensitive by nature, he sat straight up and looked ahead, full of aggression.

He glanced at Duan Fengyun, then patted his own chest and said:

"You scared me to death; I thought someone had snuck into my room to harm me.

It turns out it's you, Dad!

Dad, why are you here? Aren't you out taking care of business?"

He had originally thought this incident had not caused Long Er any psychological trauma, but he had not expected it to have caused damage to Long Er's heart after all.

Duan Fengyun gently stroked Long Er's head and said:

"Dad has finished his business, so I came to see you, didn't I?

Long Er, after this incident, do you still want to walk the jianghu and wield your sword across the world?"

Long Er replied firmly:

"Dad, I will not give up on wielding my sword across the world.

I want to strive to become stronger; in the future, in the jianghu, I don't want others to say I am Duan Fengyun's son.

I want others to say you are Long Er's dad."

"Hahahaha.

That's the spirit; then Dad will wait and see.

Long Er, come with Dad; Dad has a gift for you!"

Duan Fengyun stood up from the bed, and after letting Long Er put on his clothes, he brought Long Er to the Back Mountain.

It was already late, and howls were constantly echoing from the Back Mountain.

Duan Fengyun brought Long Er to the Back Mountain, and at this time, the four Mountain Gate disciples had already lit torches and were sitting by the prisoner cart, guarding the three death-row prisoners.

Without Duan Fengyun's order, it was absolutely impossible for them to leave, so they had been sitting there the whole time waiting for Duan Fengyun.

After their acupoints were unsealed, the three death-row prisoners began chatting with the four Mountain Gate disciples.

Upon learning that this was Longmen, and that the young man they had seen in the prison cell earlier was none other than the master of Longmen, Duan Fengyun, the three death-row prisoners felt as desperate as if it were the end of the world.

These three death-row prisoners had once been members of the World Association; back when Duan Fengyun disbanded the Wushen Jue Palace, these three, having no ties or burdens, had turned to banditry, burning, killing, and looting everywhere.

Not long ago, upon learning that Duan Fengyun was going to establish Longmen, they had come to seek refuge.

But who would have known that their acts of burning, killing, and looting would be exposed? Because Duan Fengyun had said that Longmen did not want such sinful people, they were not permitted to join Longmen.

After failing to join Longmen, the three death-row prisoners went to the market to drink away their sorrows.

During this time, a family at a nearby table began chatting about their son being accepted as a disciple by Longmen.

The alcohol combined with their rage led the three death-row prisoners to follow this family to their residence.

Having trailed them there, they had originally only intended to teach this family a lesson.

As it turned out, the family's youngest son—the one who had been accepted as a disciple by Longmen—did not see the situation clearly and provoked them, saying:

"You three just wait; in two days, after I enter Longmen, I will definitely have my Sect Leader tear you into ten thousand pieces."

The three, who had not originally wanted to kill anyone, heard this and realized the severity of the situation; what if this person mobilized Longmen to hunt the three of them down?

Without hesitation, the three wiped out the entire family; no one escaped their butcher knives.

It really is true that birds of a feather flock together.

The three never expected that after coming full circle, they would end up back at Longmen.

The three looked at Duan Fengyun and said:

"Sect Leader Duan, we never expected to meet again under such circumstances."

Duan Fengyun asked in confusion:

"You recognize me?"

The oldest of the three laughed loudly:

"Sect Leader Duan, you truly are a noble person with a short memory."

"Back then, we also grew up together in the World Association."

After hearing this, Duan Fengyun carefully observed the three of them, but there had been hundreds and thousands of disciples in the World Association back then; how could he possibly recognize them all?

Moreover, these three people had committed many evil deeds, so even if they were once fellow World Association disciples who grew up together, Duan Fengyun would not let them go.

Duan Fengyun called Long Er to one side and said:

"Long Er, this time when you were fighting with the Dongying people, did you discover two problems of yours?

Actually, with your skills, logically speaking, they should not have been your opponents, but why were you captured by them?

Have you reflected on this problem afterward?"

Long Er fell into deep thought; from the moment he was captured, he had been thinking about why he was captured when his skills were much better than this group of people.

The opponent having more people was certainly one aspect, but this was not the decisive issue.

In the end, Long Er was still too young and had not thought of the answer to the problem.

Seeing that Long Er did not make a sound, Duan Fengyun knew that Long Er had not yet thought of the answer.

So he spoke up:

"Regarding this matter, I have summarized two problems for you:

First, your combat experience is insufficient; you have never had actual combat experience, so you have no concept of the changes in moves between life and death.

Second, you have never seen blood! You have never killed anyone, so your strikes are not decisive at all; your moves only look fierce and vicious, but they are not killing techniques.

If you want to go further in the Jianghu, besides constantly improving your own strength, you must also constantly polish your inner self and make your heart strong enough.

You should still remember me telling you about the time when your Uncle Feng and the others were forced by Xiongba to kill people back then.

Indeed, for us at that time, killing was such a cruel thing, but if we did not kill the enemy, the enemy would truly strike and kill us.

When one is in the Jianghu, everything is beyond one's control."

After hearing Duan Fengyun's account, Long Er looked at the three death row prisoners behind him, then asked chokingly:

"Dad, do you mean for me to kill those three people!"

Duan Fengyun nodded and said:

"That's right, those three people are three heinous death row prisoners I specifically went to the county office to find for you.

My requirement for you is to let you use every possible means to kill them.

Their skills are not as good as yours; if you make up your mind, killing them will be easy.

There is one thing I must tell you in advance: in a moment, I will tell them that as long as they can kill you, I will let them go and let them fly far away.

Regarding your fight, I will not intervene.

If you are killed by them, I will go find Senior Xu Fu to save you, but I will take back your martial arts and from then on make you like Uncle Lang, a Mortal.

Think about it first; if you have decided in a moment, then come and tell me."

After speaking, Duan Fengyun turned around and walked straight toward the prison cart, while Long Er stood rooted to the spot, lost in endless contemplation.

Duan Fengyun walked to the front of the prison cart and looked at the three death row prisoners, saying:

"Apologies, there were too many World Association disciples in the past, and I truly cannot remember.

But I remember that when I served as the World Association leader, I once said that it was not allowed to lay hands on the common people.

You violated this rule, so don't blame me for being impolite.

But today I will give you a chance; that little fellow is my godson, and as long as you can defeat him, I will let you fly far away.

This is your only chance; I hope you will seize it well."

What Duan Fengyun ultimately said to the three death row prisoners was just that they had to defeat Long Er; saying things like killing Long Er was just to scare Long Er.

He would not dare to take Long Er's life as a gamble; who knew if Xu Fu, who had already exposed his identity, would intervene to save Long Er again.

If by any chance Xu Fu came and was unable to save the situation, then Duan Fengyun would die of grief.

The elder among the three death row prisoners smiled and said:

"Leader Duan, we violated your rules back then, and we indeed deserve to be punished.

But what you said about defeating that little brat should be a tactic often used by the old leader Xiongba in the past, right?

You just want to use the three of us as a whetstone for that little brat to let him see blood.

I didn't guess wrong, did I, Leader Duan?"

Duan Fengyun smiled and said:

"You are right; I indeed want to use the three of you as a whetstone for my godson.

But there is one thing I did not lie to you about.

As long as you can defeat him, I will let you go and let you fly far away.

And I will not intervene in your fight, so you can rest assured.

You have been World Association disciples for so many years; you should know my, Duan Fengyun's, character."

"Good, then we will believe your words, Leader Duan.

It is just that blades have no eyes; please let the young master be careful."

The death row prisoner said.

"I know, you may strike as you please."

Duan Fengyun replied.

After communicating with the three death row prisoners, Duan Fengyun turned his head to look at Long Er.

"Long Er, have you decided yet?

I will count to three; you tell me your answer, otherwise I will take it that you have chosen the latter.

One, two, three!

Long Er, tell me, what is your answer!"

Duan Fengyun had a serious expression on his face, without a hint of a smile.

And the three death-row prisoners saw in Duan Fengyun the shadow of the incomparably domineering aura that Xiongba once possessed.

Long Er still did not make a sound; he merely drew the twin swords at his waist, combined them into the Liangji Sword, and slowly walked toward Duan Fengyun.

Duan Fengyun knew this was the answer Long Er was giving him.

He nodded in satisfaction; this was the first step Long Er had bravely taken, and it was also his first step toward truly becoming a powerhouse.

Duan Fengyun channeled Qi into his right hand and with a single palm strike, blasted the prisoner transport cart holding the three death-row inmates into pieces.

Immediately following this, he unleashed six strikes of Duanmai Sword Qi, shattering all the shackles and chains that bound the three men.

"I have already granted the three of you freedom; I hope you can rely on your own abilities to fly far away.

Someone, give them weapons."

The mountain-guarding disciples standing to the side threw their respective weapons in front of the three men.

The three men picked up their weapons and said:

"We thank Sect Leader Duan for this opportunity you have given us.

Later, blades have no eyes; if we happen to injure the Young Master, we hope Sect Leader Duan will be magnanimous.

If our strength is insufficient and we are defeated by the Young Master, we will also be convinced of our loss.

It is time, and it is fate; we grew up in the World Association, and dying on the former site of the World Association is also our destiny."

The three men held their weapons and came before Long Er, saying:

"Young Master, blades have no eyes; we are also doing this to survive, so we apologize."

Long Er did not answer, his right hand gripping the Liangji Sword tightly.

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