Chapter 186 Uninvited Guest

"Why can't I find it no matter how hard I try? Where did Old Man Pan hide it?"

In the room filled with billowing smoke and surging heat waves, a masked man in black was half-kneeling beside the bed, rummaging through Pan Chuba's luggage and bags, as if he was searching for something in a hurry.

"Thief, look at the knife!"

Suddenly, Xu Heng emerged from the sea of ​​fire. He had a gloomy face and fierce eyes. When he saw the man in black, he didn't hesitate at all. He swung his knife and chopped directly for the man's head.

"call!"

The blade flashed down, as fast as the wind. But the man in black seemed to have a pair of eyes on his back. When the blade was about to hit him, he suddenly jumped to the right. At the same time, the man in black drew his sword out of its sheath, and before he could stop, he had already backhandedly swung the sword and attacked Xu Heng in the face.

Xu Heng was shocked and hurriedly swung his sword to block. There was a series of "clang clang shua shua" sounds as dense as heavy rain. The black-clothed man's sword was as fast as lightning and as heavy as Mount Tai. His attack was swift and fierce. After just a dozen rounds, Xu Heng was defeated.

Xu Heng's moves, under the aggressive pressure of the man in black, could not help but become chaotic and messy. What's worse, in just three or five rounds, Xu Heng was in danger several times.

Xu Heng became more and more frightened as he fought, but the man in black was calm and composed, attacking quickly and steadily, with treacherous and varied moves. After a set of attacks, Xu Heng was forced into a state of panic. On the other hand, the man in black was calm and composed, like a cat playing with a mouse, with a bit of playfulness in mind.

The difference in martial arts between the two was immediately apparent.

"Brother Xu, we are here!"

Tang Cong called out and rushed into the battle first, followed by Liao Chuan and Liao Hai. In an instant, the three of them joined forces with Xu Heng and fought with the men in black in the blazing sea of ​​fire.

Although he was alone against four, the man in black was still methodical and organized. Sometimes he attacked from the left and right, sometimes he blocked from above and dodged from below. Under the siege of Xu Heng and the other four, he was able to dodge and move with ease.

The man in black, relying on a long sword, fought with Xu Heng and his four companions for fifty rounds. Not only was he not at a disadvantage, but he was even slightly better than them.

"I don't have time to play with you today. See you another day!"

With a teasing sound, the man in black turned his blade and instantly swept out a strong and domineering energy, which shocked Xu Heng and his four companions back. Taking this opportunity, the man in black flashed and entered the sea of ​​fire, disappearing in Pan Chuba's room in the blink of an eye.

"Don't run, you thief!"

Xu Heng shouted loudly and chased after them first. Tang Cong, Liao Chuan, and Liao Hai were also full of murderous intent and were also relentless.

At this moment, on the north side of the backyard of Guanyin Temple, three or four rooms were all on fire. The sea of ​​fire was vast, the heat wave was sweeping, and the thick smoke was billowing, covering the sky and the moon. This sudden fire made half of the night sky over Shaoshi Mountain red.

Wu Chan, with a worried look on his face, helped Pan Yun, He Hu and others to pour water to put out the fire. But it was just a drop in the bucket, and facing the increasingly fierce fire, they could only sigh in despair.

"Master Wuchan, stop that man!"

Suddenly, Xu Heng's voice came from the sea of ​​fire. Before Wu Chan could respond, a man in black came out of the thick smoke with a long knife in hand. Due to his fierceness, Pan Yun and He Hu subconsciously retreated to Pan Chuba, Pan Yuyin and Pan Feng, and carefully protected them, but did not take the initiative to attack the man in black.

Seeing this, the man in black did not stop and rushed towards another room on the east side.

Wu Chan's expression straightened up, and he flashed in front of the man in black, stopping him before he could. He asked in confusion, "Who are you? Did you set the fire?"

"Little monk, stop blocking the road!"

The man in black muttered impatiently, and then swung his knife straight at Wuchan's crown. Wuchan, however, remained calm in the face of danger, and at the moment when the blade fell, his body flashed. In an instant, the sharp long knife clung to his monk's robe, whistling down like a gust of wind.

The man in black never expected that the unremarkable little monk in front of him could dodge his attack. He was stunned for a moment, then he formed a palm with his left hand and quickly slapped Wuchan's temple.

Wu Chan muttered "Amitabha" silently, then turned his palm over and faced the palm attack from the man in black.

"Oh!"

With a dull sound, the two palms collided, and the two powerful forces confronted each other head-on, neither giving way to the other.

Wuchan moved slightly, but the man in black was knocked back half a meter by Wuchan's palm, and his feet left a mark on the ground.

"hiss!"

The man in black took a deep breath and said bitterly to himself, "It seems that the rumors in the martial arts world are not all false. There are indeed many hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the Shaolin Temple. Even a little monk fetching water is so powerful. I admire you! I admire you!" After saying that, the man in black suddenly straightened his body and bowed to Wuchan in a very sincere manner.

Seeing this, Wu Chan was stunned, and quickly withdrew his attack. At the same time, he put his hands together, bowed politely to the man in black, and said, "Thank you for your praise..."

But what Wuchan never expected was that at the moment he bowed to return the greeting, the "serious" man in black suddenly turned around and ran away.

"This trick works? It seems that the rumors are true. Although there are many masters in Shaolin Temple, most of them are dumbfounded by the beating of wooden fish and will be fooled if you trick them. Haha..."

Accompanied by a burst of playful laughter, the man in black turned around and fled, but unfortunately ran into Xu Heng and his four companions who had just escaped from the sea of ​​fire.

When the "enemies" met, their eyes were full of jealousy. Without further ado, the two sides engaged in close combat. After a dazzling exchange of blows, the man in black suddenly broke through the encirclement and plunged back into the sea of ​​fire.

When Xu Heng and his companions were about to chase after him, tongues of flame several feet high suddenly gushed out, forcing them to stop outside the heat wave.

"Is anyone injured?" In a flash, Liu Xunyi suddenly flipped down from mid-air, swung his sword quickly, and several sword energies instantly turned into crescent-shaped gusts of wind, quickly extinguishing the fire that was about to spread to the front yard.

"Master!"

Seeing Liu Xunyi, Xu Heng and the others all looked delighted. Liao Chuan pointed to the direction where the man in black fled and said urgently: "The arsonist just fled to the back mountain..."

"You don't have to chase me anymore!" Liu Xunyi tapped the ground with his toes, and flew in the direction Liao Chuan pointed. At the same time, he hurriedly said, "Leave that man to me! You put out the fire quickly, and don't let it spread to the forest!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Xunyi had disappeared in the fire.

Behind the Guanyin Temple is a vast and dense forest. This is the southwest valley of Shaoshi Mountain. The mountains stretch for hundreds of miles. If a person enters it, it is like a needle falling into the sea or a grain of sand entering the desert.

The man in black took advantage of the night to escape into the dense forest, claiming to be a tiger returning to the mountains and a dragon returning to the sea. Unfortunately, although his wishful thinking was good, he underestimated Liu Xunyi's ability. When it comes to "tracking and finding shadows", even if ten men in black are tied together, they can't beat one Liu Xunyi. After all, he had studied all kinds of strange skills in the Tianji Pavilion for more than ten years, and the most useful skill among them was to track and kill.

In the dark and dense forest, the man in black was in front and Liu Xunyi was behind. They chased him for more than thirty miles.

When they chased to an open space in the forest, Liu Xunyi suddenly accelerated, his figure immediately soared into the sky, tapped his feet several times between the trees, and instantly jumped over the head of the man in black. While rolling over and falling, the sword in his hand stabbed at the man in black mercilessly.

The man in black was annoyed and frightened, and hurriedly drew his sword to block. The weapons clashed, and the two men were fighting in the forest in an instant.

Liu Xunyi's martial arts skills were far inferior to those of Xu Heng, so the man in black could not easily force him back, let alone escape. Seeing that he had no hope of escaping, the man in black could only bite the bullet and fight Liu Xunyi. The two fought back and forth with swords, and both offense and defense were evenly matched. In a short period of time, it was difficult to determine the winner, and neither could do anything to the other.

Liu Xunyi became more and more confused as the fight went on. He suddenly found that this man's posture and moves were quite familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere.

"No fighting! No fighting!"

After about fifty rounds, the man in black suddenly raised his sword. Without waiting for Liu Xunyi to chase him with his sword, he suddenly waved his hand at Liu Xunyi and complained in dissatisfaction: "I can't shake him off, and I can't beat him. If we keep fighting, I'll suffer a great loss!"

Hearing this, Liu Xunyi could not help but feel stunned, and said suspiciously: "This voice... why does it sound familiar..." Suddenly, Liu Xunyi's mind flashed, and he exclaimed: "That's right! Your voice? Your figure? And your long sword... You are Qin Ku!"

As soon as Liu Xunyi finished speaking, the man in black had already ripped off the black scarf in front of him, revealing a fat and bloated face with an embarrassed look on his face.

This person is Qin Ku.

"Is it really you?" Liu Xunyi exclaimed in disbelief, "How could you..." At this point, Liu Xunyi turned to look at the Guanyin Temple in the distance where the fire was still burning, and said in surprise, "Did you really set the fire?"

"Yes." Qin Ku said with a look of annoyance, "I wanted to steal something during the chaos, but I didn't find anything. First I was besieged by your people, then I met a little monk who was hiding his true strength and got hit by a palm for nothing. Now I'm being chased by you for dozens of miles. It's really unfair!"

Liu Xunyi looked at Qin Ku who was complaining and was suddenly speechless. It was obviously him who burned down Guanyin Temple first, but now he said he was wronged? Liu Xunyi thought of Qin Ku's help at Tianlong Inn last night, so he didn't want to make things difficult for him. He asked suspiciously, "Brother Qin set fire late at night, what exactly did he want to steal?"

Qin Ku looked at Liu Xunyi with complicated eyes, frowning slightly, as if he was hesitating whether to tell him the truth. After a moment, Qin Ku sighed and confessed: "I want to find the 'Xuan Shui Xia Juan' collected by the Pan family."

"Xuan Shui Volume 2?" Liu Xunyi was confused and puzzled. "How do you know that 'Xuan Shui Volume 2' is in the Pan family?"

"Not only do I know it's in the Pan family, but I also know that you came to Shaolin Temple this time to help the Pan family keep the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2'." Qin Ku said nonchalantly, "Tomorrow is the ten-year war agreed upon by the Pan and Qin families, so old Pan will definitely bring the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2' with him..."

"So you set the fire at night, hoping to steal the secret book in the chaos?" Liu Xunyi continued.

"It's not stealing! It's borrowing!" Qin Ku defended.

"What's the difference?" Liu Xunyi said with a wry smile, "To be honest, the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2' has been handed over to the Shaolin abbot for temporary safekeeping and is now stored in the Shaolin Sutra Library..."

"I……"

“Don’t be impatient!” Before Qin Ku could interrupt, Liu Xunyi suddenly waved his hand and said, “If you want to steal books from the Sutra Library, I advise you to give up the idea as soon as possible. The Sutra Library is not Guanyin Temple. You can get away with breaking into Guanyin Temple at night, but if you break into the Shaolin Sutra Library without permission, you will definitely die!”

Hearing this, Qin Ku was like a deflated ball, becoming listless and muttering, "How could I not know this truth? But if I don't steal it today, I'm afraid I will never have the chance to get the 'Xuan Shui Xia Juan' in this life..."

"Why do you have to do this?" Liu Xunyi knew that Qin Ku was not evil by nature, so he kindly reminded him, "Brother Qin, even if you get the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2', you can't practice the peerless swordsmanship. Since you know the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2', you should also know that it is only half of the 'Gui Hai Swordsmanship'. If you haven't practiced the Qin family's 'Chi Huo Volume 1', and you rashly practice the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2', no matter how high your martial arts skills are, you will eventually not be able to escape the bad luck of the imbalance of yin and yang. By then, although your swordsmanship will be improved, your life span will be limited. Brother Qin, there are thousands of swordsmanship in the world, why do you have to stick to the 'Xuan Shui Volume 2'? It's not worth it to lose your life for half a secret book!"

Qin Ku listened to Liu Xunyi's kind words of comfort silently, and a meaningful look flashed across his eyes. He suddenly cupped his hands and said, "You can tell me this secret, which shows that you are not a bad person."

"You saved my life, how can I let you go astray?" Liu Xunyi waved his hand and said, "You should have heard that the descendants of the Hexi Qin family...most of them do not live beyond the age of sixty."

"But...how do you know that I haven't practiced 'Red Fire Volume Up'?" Qin Ku suddenly asked back with a smile before Liu Xunyi finished speaking.

Liu Xunyi was stunned, and subconsciously replied: "Of course you haven't practiced it, because 'Red Fire Volume' is the secret of the Hexi Qin family. Brother Qin, how could you..." At this point, a very bold idea suddenly flashed through Liu Xunyi's mind. He stared at Qin Ku with horror on his face, and muttered hesitantly, "Hexi Qin family... Qin Ku... Qin family, Qin Ku... You all have the surname Qin, could it be that you..."

Before Liu Xunyi could express his bold speculation, he saw Qin Ku, with a silly smile on his face, nodding at him seriously.

"Yes, I am from the Hexi Qin family."

……

(End of this chapter)