Zhang Village outskirts, midnight of this day, You Hongzhuo brought down his long saber.

The light of the torches fell to the ground, blood spurting in the darkness. The third of the six chivalrous warriors was slightly stunned, his hand holding the torch already severed and falling to the ground.

Darkness loomed like a man-eating beast, enveloping all. Then, a miserable scream tore through the night sky.

The fourth turned back and swung the nine-section whip in his hand. The third staggered, his unsevered left hand drawing his saber to strike back. You Hongzhuo advanced directly, using his swift and powerful long saber to smash away the opponent's weapon.

The sound of clanging weapons rang out in the night, followed by flying blood blossoms. You Hongzhuo, having honed his skills in the battles of Jin, had a crude but fierce swordsmanship. With two or three strikes, he smashed back the opponent's attacks, broke through their defenses, and then slashed the fourth's arm and thigh. The third, with his severed hand, turned to flee, but You Hongzhuo struck him in the back, and he tumbled in the wasteland behind the village.

The fourth was intimidated by the bloody aura, and his nine-section whip fell to the ground. After taking two blows, he collapsed to the ground, crawling backward in a pathetic manner. Before he could utter a word of begging for mercy, You Hongzhuo pointed his saber at him. The third, with his severed hand, was still shouting on the ground. The villagers had already been awakened by the commotion.

You Hongzhuo looked back at the small hill not far away. In the woods there, four people were heading to another place, but they were probably alarmed by now. Should he turn back and chase them, or let them go?

As he hesitated, a shout rang out from the hill. It was the second of the six, shouting, "The mark is tough!" It seemed that they had also encountered an enemy.

You Hongzhuo felt a chill in his heart. Aside from himself, the only ones who would attack these people were the Black Flag Army. He had been following the six all the way here and had not noticed anything unusual. If the Black Flag Army had already targeted this place, then his own position...

In a flash, there was a bang from the woods on the hill, and sparks flew in the night. It was a blunderbuss used by the Chinese army. He sheathed his saber and was about to leave. As he turned, he saw a figure walking out of the darkness from his side rear. He had only noticed the opponent's presence when they were extremely close.

The Jianghu of Jin lacked warmth. There were many situations where people would talk with fists before taking a position. You Hongzhuo, having trained for several years in such an environment, felt his hair stand on end the moment he noticed the figure's appearance. He concealed his long saber and lunged forward.

His movement was explosively powerful, and the long saber was hidden at his side, a blind spot in the opponent's vision. When he was close, he drew his saber like thunder, a night combat killing move that had been refined through countless battles. But the moment the saber light flew out silently, he noticed that the person walking silently out of the darkness was a woman in a gray dress who was neither masked nor wearing night clothes.

He did not retract his saber, because the thought did not even have time to register.

The woman held a long sword in her left hand, and her right hand reached out. The distance between the two seemed to disappear by half a zhang out of thin air. She had already grabbed You Hongzhuo's shoulder and neck, who was as swift as lightning. Then, he felt a dizzying sensation. He slashed in the air, his figure flying through the darkness. He landed and rolled twice, stopping only when he leaned against the wall of the house that the two "chivalrous warriors" had wanted to burn down.

The dead tree that he had slashed in the air was now slowly falling. You Hongzhuo leaned against the wall, looking at the woman in the gray dress opposite him, the shock in his heart beyond words.

When he was in Jin, he had also sparred with the highly skilled "Dragon King." Back in Ze Province, the Dragon King, who had just disbanded the Red Peak, had fought Lin Zongwu, the recognized "Number One Under Heaven," and lost by a narrow margin of one move. But later, the Dragon King submitted to the Female Chancellor, and his state of mind had improved. His martial arts must have also improved. You Hongzhuo, as a leader among the younger generation, was given the opportunity to compete with him as a form of cultivation, and he truly experienced how vast the gap was between him and a grandmaster.

On the other hand, in the middle of the Jin War, he was fortunate enough to witness Lin Zongshi's attack after being seriously injured.

But neither the Dragon King nor Lin Zongshi had ever made him feel so powerless as he had felt just now.

Which member of the Chinese army is this?

At the same moment that You Hongzhuo was knocked flying, the four people who had tried to escape on the hill had already fallen in pools of blood. The moment the screams rang out from the village below the hill, two figures launched a surprise attack on them.

The sixth was knocked to the ground by a series of heavy punches from one figure. Then, someone walked straight over and warned them to quickly abandon their weapons and surrender. The second exchanged a few blows with the person who knocked down the sixth, shouting loudly that the mark was tough. The person warning them to abandon their weapons raised a short gun and shot the eldest, who was shouting, "You guys go first," and he fell into a pool of blood.

The fifth, who was disguised as a scholar, went to rescue his second brother. A heavy fist wind slammed into his abdomen, knocking him staggering backward. Amidst the churning of his internal organs, he finally managed to see the figure wielding the fist, who was the dark-skinned, sturdy, and fertile-looking village woman he had met during the day when he was politely asking for directions.

"Lake Prefecture Persimmon?"

In the night wind, he heard the woman chuckle softly, followed by a whistling kick that broke the shinbone of the "Second Brother," whose punches and kicks were the most agile, in the midst of deflecting moves. Then, she walked towards him.

When she was close, she punched him in the face.

"In the afternoon, they reminded me that someone with decent martial arts had come, but they didn't know if they were friend or foe, so they came over to take a look."

The voice rang out, and the woman in the gray dress walked towards him, with no hostility in her eyes.

"If you can stop them from setting fires, then you are not an enemy. Zhang Village welcomes you. May I ask where you are from, and what is your name?"

The woman's words were gentle, with an approachability that You Hongzhuo had never seen among the grandmasters he knew. In the night sky, there were whistling arrows and fireworks rising, and it was unknown where the enemy had struck again. But it was clear that the Chinese army here had already made preparations.

The night was still long. With the occurrence of the first major disturbance, several groups of green forest people subsequently launched their own actions. The news of the chaos of this night spread to Chengdu the next morning and, to some extent, encouraged the Confucian scholars and heroes of the green forest in Chengdu.

Few people knew the truth here. People only knew that in Zhang Village, groups of "righteous people" were rushing to take action.

July 20th, Chengdu.

"The night before yesterday, more than two hundred righteous people launched an attack on Zhang Village!"

"Someone almost killed Ning Yi's wife, Su Tan'er!"

"Lu Dingming of Lake Prefecture drank blood wine and disregarded life and death to go there!"

"Magnificent, magnificent!"

"The momentum must have been even greater last night, and maybe they have already succeeded!"

"It's just that there is no definite news yet!"

In the bright sunshine of the day, countless words were already flowing in private.

It was also a lazy day with the autumn wind blowing. Two days had passed since his meeting with Yang Tiehuai. Guan Shanhai stayed in his residence, not going out, writing calming words with a beauty adding fragrance to the ink, while receiving all kinds of messy news from his trusted subordinates.

Among these messages, only a small portion were war reports from Zhang Village. Because it was a place that had not been managed before, it was difficult to find out the detailed situation of the Zhang Village Rebellion. The Chinese army did have its own actions, but the details of the actions were extremely obscure, and outsiders had no way of knowing whether Ning Yi's family had been injured, whether his children had been kidnapped, or whether the Chinese army had been massively diverted.

The difficulty of such information was not in the lack of information, but in the excess of rumors. So many people in the city, so many scholars, one or two holed up in the inn, and a casual message would pass through three mouths and no longer resemble the original. For someone like Guan Shanhai who wanted to get things done with information, it was really difficult to grasp a clear thread.

Although he loved beauty and fame, Guan Shanhai was still able to know the priorities and would not act rashly as a fool. However, in such a chaotic situation, he could only wait quietly. He knew that things would happen, something would always happen. This matter might be a mess, but it might determine the fate of the world in the future. If it was the latter, he certainly hoped that he could seize it.

Of course, there were many people in the city similar to Guan Shanhai. Lang Guoxing told Huang Nanzhong about the matter, and Huang Nanzhong notified dozens of his family members to make as much preparation as possible. An assassin named Chen Wei had been quietly observing near Yingbin Road for several days and occasionally saw signs of Ning Yi's carriage. Wang Xiangfo strolled around the city, feeling the gentle breeze and experiencing the relaxed but tense feeling of blood vibrating with the pulse.

Lu Xiaolun, who had been beaten by Wang Xiangfo, told his father everything. Lu Liutong had also felt the impending storm in the recent gatherings. Occasionally, he would reveal some information to others.

"This time, the real experts who entered the city are not in a hurry to get on that stage. Sooner or later, a major event will happen in the city. You young people should not join in if you haven't thought it through. Some of the experts I have seen in the past are probably going to die this time!"

Lu Liutong's words revealed the foresight of a senior expert. The martial artists who participated in the green forest gatherings could immediately hear the unusual meaning in them, and it was confirmed by the other atmospheres they had recently felt, only to feel that they had seen the outline of a giant beast hidden behind the prosperity. Some boldly asked Lu Liutong which experts there were. Lu Liutong would casually explain one or two, and sometimes he would talk about the demeanor of Lin Zongwu, the leader of the Ming Cult.

"Lin Zongwu has a deep hatred with the Southwest, but I don't know if he has come to Chengdu this time. You don't have to guess blindly."

As soon as he said this, even more people guessed, and even the news that the entire top experts of the Great Ming Cult were lurking in Chengdu had spread secretly, vividly. Yang Tiehuai and others searched privately for a long time, and finally felt that it should be a rumor released by the Chinese army to create a smokescreen.

The day of the 20th passed peacefully. Perhaps feeling the impending storm, the chivalrous warriors who went to the stage to compete had recently fought somewhat restrainedly. There were no casualties in the last few matches in the afternoon, and Ning Ji got off work on time, happy and cheerful.

As night fell, Ning Ji, who had eaten dinner, had already come to Lao Xiao Jian Gou's courtyard and climbed onto the roof to cool off. He had conducted some self-reflection on his habit of peeping everywhere by relying on his martial arts during this period. When he returned to Zhang Village to study in September, he could no longer do this.

At the same time, Ning Yi was discussing the subsequent reform matters with Chen Fan in the courtyard by the Mohe Pond. Because they were two big men, they would occasionally talk about gossip about the enemy, make some obscene movements that did not conform to their status, and reveal knowing smiles.

At the first quarter of Xu time (around 8:15 PM), an explosion rang out in the city.

Ning Ji stood up on the roof, looking into the distance.

Ning Yi and Chen Fan also stood by the lake for a moment, even taking out binoculars to look, and then Ning Yi waved his hand, "Go to the tower! The tower is higher."

Whistling arrows and fireworks rushed into the night sky. This was the Chinese army's warning message and direction guidance in the city.

At the same time, countless people were staring at this night sky. Guan Shanhai pushed away the naked woman beside him, rushed out of the courtyard, and even moved a ladder to get on the wall. Huang Nanzhong rushed into the courtyard, and many family members were making preparations. From countless perspectives, some were looking at each other, some were waiting, and some were hearing such and such rumors: "It's going to be a big mess."

"A hero bombed Ning Yi to death!"

"Are we going to attack? Are we going to attack?"

Wang Xiangfo sat cross-legged, calming his mind. After a while, he walked onto the street.

In the courtyard where Lu Liutong and others lived, the old man had jumped up from his seat with the sound of the cannon, "Xiaolun! Xiaolun!"

"Senior Brother went out for a stroll to digest food," a disciple replied.

"Find him back! You go find him back! Today, the courtyard gate is sealed. Without my permission, no one is allowed to go out again!"

The night was becoming mellow, and it seemed about to boil.

South of the city, Huo Liangbao of the Mighty Escort Agency and a group of brothers, who had come from other places on a镖, quickly gathered in the courtyard. There were already fireworks and signal arrows flying in the outer city, and Chinese troops must have gone to fight with the righteous people there. This night would be very long. Because there was no prior consultation, many people would wait quietly. They would have to wait until the situation in the city was a mess before they could find an opportunity to successfully assassinate that devil.

"Someone has to do something first!"

They prepared their weapons, put on soft armor, lined up slightly, and hugged each other heavily.

"For this world!"

"Let's go!"

Huo Liangbao turned around and pushed open the door. He rushed out the door.

A group of brothers followed suit, and then they were blocked at the door.

Huo Liangbao, who was the first to go out, rushed two steps and stood on the stone steps outside the door. On the road two zhang away from him, ten Chinese soldiers were lined up in a row.

A Chinese soldier of medium stature had already walked over, holding a stack of paper in his hand, looking at the direction of the fireworks and signal arrows in the city. He seemed not to see that Huo Liangbao and a group of people behind him were carrying knives and guns, and walked straight to the front of the other side.

"There are bandits causing trouble in the city. This area is temporarily under martial law. Can you all stay at home for a while tonight? Visiting relatives and friends can be done tomorrow. This is an order issued by the patrol office, stamped with a seal. If there are any losses, you can go to appeal tomorrow. Here, you can take it."

He handed a stamped paper to Huo Liangbao. Huo Liangbao was carrying a long red spear on his back, a broadsword on his waist, and a row of red-tasseled flying knives were vaguely visible in his open clothes. He stood there, reaching out somewhat mechanically to take the paper.

A group of people were blocked at the back of the door, all people who had licked blood from the knife's edge. Some wiped their noses and mouths, some grinded their teeth, and then looked at each other.

The Chinese army officer just looked at all of them calmly, and the ten soldiers on the street also watched this side quietly. Huo Liangbao raised his left hand with the paper blankly, signaling his brothers in the back not to act rashly. The officer nodded, "It's dangerous outside, go back."

Whistling arrows flew, and fireworks rose again.

Xu Yuanzong, who had made a plan, pushed open the door. Because of the need for concealment, the courtyard where he and a group of brothers lived was relatively remote. At this time, he walked out of the door. On the road not far away, someone had already come over.

The leader was a tall warrior carrying two swords on his back. Just as Xu Yuanzong was slightly stunned, the other party had directly opened his mouth.

"Wang Dai, a platoon leader of the Chinese army, dares to ask Grandmaster Xu to dispel his thoughts and stop here. I will definitely feel your kindness today and visit your door to thank you! Please stop, Grandmaster Xu!"

Wang Dai... Xu Yuanzong's face turned red. Of course he had heard this name. This was the heroic figure who had single-handedly killed the Jin general Ba Lisu at Jianmen Pass a few months ago. In comparison, his name as a martial arts grandmaster seemed like child's play. After entering the city, he had worked hard to hide, but he had never thought that his whereabouts had already been exposed.

He listened carefully to the noise coming from other parts of the city, and waved his hand, "The Chinese army is indeed powerful to be able to find me. But I can stop, will the other heroes in Chengdu be willing to stop? If I stop, how can I live up to their fight?"

Xu Yuanzong's words were impassioned and resounding.

The people on the street were startled by the sudden chaos, and then began to disperse in different directions as the Chinese army on the street began to beat gongs. Lu Xiaolun walked along the way home for a while, and seeing the fire rising in the distance, he felt a faint excitement surging in his heart. He knew that the Chinese army's problem had finally appeared.

He was skilled in martial arts and quick on his feet. Thinking about where to go to see the excitement while walking through the streets and alleys, he suddenly stopped on a street with few pedestrians.

He saw a seemingly casual figure coming from the other side of the road. The man was tall and had a messy head of hair that was as dangerous as a lion. It was the martial arts grandmaster who had come to test his martial arts that day, and later his father deduced that he was here to find trouble with the Chinese army.

In such a chaotic situation, he really came out.

Lu Xiaolun's first thought was to know the other party's name. However, at this moment, the grandmaster's heart must be full of killing intent. If he rashly went up to talk to him and let the other party misunderstand something, he would inevitably be killed on the spot.

Thinking of this, he slowly moved to the side of the road, facing the wall next to the road, trying to turn around and leave without attracting the other party's attention.

At this moment, a voice rang out beside him.

"Um, that someone, that someone..." A sturdy man stood up from the wood next to Lu Xiaolun. This strong man was originally sitting there eating skewers. At this time, the crowd dispersed, and he ate the tofu on the skewers in two or three bites, threw away the bamboo skewers, "Um, that someone..."

This man's voice was so loud that it would inevitably attract the attention of other people on the street, so he next to him would inevitably be discovered by the martial arts grandmaster. Lu Xiaolun was facing the wall, his heart tightening. He turned his head and looked, only to see that the messy-haired grandmaster on the other side of the street had indeed looked over.

"Um, Wang Xiangfo!"

The strong man beside him called out the name, and the messy-haired grandmaster's eyes revealed an interesting expression, and he turned his head to look around.

"Niu Chengshu of the Chinese army is ordered to arrest you today!"

Lu Xiaolun was standing facing the wall.

At this moment, his clothes were soaked with sweat. He had already understood that the martial arts grandmaster's name was Wang Xiangfo, and the strong man beside him was the person who was going to fight him.

At the end of the street, Wang Xiangfo opened his hands and showed a smile on his face.

The strong man named Niu Chengshu clenched his fist on his palm and took a step forward. Lu Xiaolun heard him mutter, "Resisting arrest."

The two figures exerted their strength at the same time. Lu Xiaolun stood by the wall and turned his head to look, only to see them colliding together in the middle of the street with a bang!