Chapter 457: Blocked on the Road
The road to Mount Huashan is steep and dangerous.

Wu Shuang came alone after leaving the top of Mount Huashan. He was still leisurely and relaxed when he went down the mountain, but as time passed, when he reached the mountainside, his steps became unsteady and his breathing became more and more rapid.

"Brother Wu, you should take good care of your internal injuries, not overexert yourself, and definitely not walk fast on the mountain trails."

Suddenly, a clear voice came from the forest. Then, the birds in the forest scattered and flew away. A figure leaped into the air, flipped several times in the air, and landed steadily on the mountain road, just blocking Wu Shuang's way.

The person who came was Liu Xunyi, who was ordered to keep Wu Shuang.

"It's you?"

Wu Shuang originally wanted to draw his sword to be on guard, but when he saw Liu Xunyi's face clearly, the caution lingering between his brows instantly disappeared.

"Brother Wu, you..."

Before he could finish his words, Liu Xunyi suddenly discovered that Wu Shuang was sweating profusely, his face was pale, and his legs were trembling slightly.

Liu Xunyi hurried forward to hold up the staggering Wu Shuang and asked anxiously, "Where are you hurt?"

Wu Shuang shook his head weakly, slowly pushed Liu Xunyi away, and said self-deprecatingly: "The injury is not serious, but... I am a little exhausted."

"Since your internal energy is exhausted, why do you have to force yourself down the mountain?" Liu Xunyi looked down at the narrow and deep mountain path and reminded, "The Huashan Road is dangerous. In your current confused state, you will fall off the cliff and die sooner or later."

"Why are you here?" Wu Shuang leaned against the mountain wall, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and asked breathlessly, "Could it be that Luo Tianjin can't afford to lose, so he sent you to settle the score with me?"

Liu Xunyi joked, "Given your current state, it would be easy to kill you. If I really wanted to settle accounts with you, I could have just pushed you from behind and let you fall off the cliff, leaving no evidence."

Wu Shuang smiled and said, "Since you are not going to kill me, why are you stopping me?"

"King Beixian sent me to take you back to heal your wounds." Liu Xunyi said, "It won't be too late to leave after you recover."

"If I go back with you, I'm afraid I won't be able to escape." Wu Shuang didn't buy Liu Xunyi's tricks at all, and asked, "I lost three masters in the Xianwang Mansion. Isn't Luo Tianjin angry?"

"How can I not be angry?" Liu Xunyi said bluntly, "But I am more respectful than angry. You know, in the fight just now, you caused Second Master Xie to break four fingers."

"If he hadn't used too much force, how could his finger be broken?" Wu Shuang curled his lips and said, "It's not my fault. It's his own fault for wanting to show off."

"Brother Wu, you don't know that it was actually the Palace Master who ordered Second Master Xie to defeat you." Liu Xunyi said with a wry smile, "Right now, there are more than just the Jinjianwu family who want to go against the Xianwang Palace. Therefore, the Palace Master must conserve his strength, otherwise the next two rounds will become increasingly difficult. Moreover, if Second Master Xie doesn't try his best, I'm afraid that he will not only lose four fingers, but also his life."

"Anyway, I have learned from Xie Xuan's Dharma Finger, it is indeed powerful." Having said this, Wu Shuang pointed at his scimitar, and ten shocking dents on the blade were clearly visible. "You know that my scimitar is made of Wushan cold iron, which is extremely hard. It can cut iron like mud, and it can break gold and jade without causing any damage to it. But I didn't expect that Xie Xuan's fingers would poke ten dents on it today."

"Luckily it was the knife that stabbed me. If it had been you, the consequences would have been disastrous."

"Although it was stabbed on the knife, Xie Xuan's terrifying finger force penetrated the knife and hit me."

After saying that, Wu Shuang endured the pain and struggled to tear open his collar, only to see four purple-black bruises on his strong chest. Under the bruises, the faint depressions looked like broken bones and rotten flesh, which made people's throats tighten and daunted.

"This……"

Liu Xunyi was horrified and asked in astonishment, "Is this what you mean by 'no serious injury'?"

"Just now I used my true Qi to protect my internal organs, so I only hurt my skin, flesh, tendons and bones." Wu Shuang smiled indifferently, "The four finger marks on my chest are the four fingers that Xie Xuan broke when he used too much force. It is said that the older you are in the martial arts world, the less courageous you are, but he would rather break a finger than seriously injure me, without hesitation, and he was ruthless, but there was no sign of cowardice. Haha..."

"Who are you?"

Liu Xunyi looked at Wu Shuang who was chatting and laughing, and couldn't suppress his curiosity, and asked: "Before we went up the mountain, you revealed the news of the hidden weapons in Huashan Town to us. After we went up the mountain, you suddenly appeared to compete for the leader of the martial arts world. I think you are not stupid, but very smart. How could you not know that you have no hope of winning the championship in front of so many martial arts heroes?"

"Isn't it worthy of your admiration for doing something knowing it's impossible?" Wu Shuang raised his eyebrows, with a playful look on his face. He supported himself on the mountain wall with his hands, forced himself to straighten his body, and said, "As for who I am? Yun Zhuiyue has already explained it clearly just now, don't you understand? As far as I know, you, Liu Xunyi, are also on the Dragon Elephant List. So... you and I have quite a connection."

"You are the top of the Dragon Elephant Ranking, how dare I try to marry you?" Liu Xunyi stared straight into Wu Shuang's eyes and asked with a hint of meaning, "You should understand what I mean. What I want to know... is far more than what Yun Zhuiyue explained."

As if sensing Liu Xunyi's toughness, Wu Shuang, who was about to continue on his way, could not help but sigh, and then leaned against the mountain wall again, saying lazily: "It seems that I cannot satisfy your curiosity today, so you are not going to let me go?"

"Brother Wu, don't worry. I will only invite you back to the Villa and will never take advantage of you."

"Forget it! Forget it!" Wu Shuang waved his hands and said, "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you tell us about the hidden weapons in Huashan Town?" Liu Xunyi hesitated, "Or, are those weapons in Huashan Town related to you?"

"It's nothing." Wu Shuang shook his head and said, "I just hope you can be prepared early, so as not to be killed by surprise."

"Who?" Liu Xunyi's pupils shrank, and he asked hurriedly, "I hope Brother Wu will tell me frankly." "Tartar!" Wu Shuang teased, "Don't tell me that you still haven't guessed the owner of those weapons?"

Hearing this, Liu Xunyi was horrified and said hesitantly, "You mean... the Mongols have set up an ambush on Mount Hua?"

"Why else would I be in such a hurry to get down the mountain?" Wu Shuang advised with a pure, kind and innocent look on his face, "Huashan is about to become a living hell. By then, there will be corpses everywhere and rivers of blood. It will be too late to run away. I advise you to run away quickly too! Otherwise, you will lose your life."

"what?"

Liu Xunyi was confused and could not sort out the clues for a while. But his intuition told him that what Wu Shuang said was true and Huashan would soon face a bloody disaster.

He tried his best to calm down and repeatedly asked, "How do you know this? How can you be sure that the Mongols set an ambush?"

"This..." Wu Shuang was stunned. His bright and lively eyes blinked a few times under Liu Xunyi's suspicious gaze. Then he licked his lips with his tongue, hesitated for a while, and then slowly uttered two words: "Guess!"

"Guessed?" Liu Xunyi was stunned and looked embarrassed.

"No?" Wu Shuang pretended to be confused, "What rules in the martial arts world stipulate that you can't make random guesses?"

"This……"

Wu Shuang seemed to have no interest in explaining, and said impatiently: "I have said what I need to say, believe it or not, can I leave now?"

"Wait!" Liu Xunyi stretched out his hand to stop her, "What is your relationship with Yun Zhuiyue?"

"No relatives, no friends, no money."

"But just now I saw you two acting so intimately, it seemed like you were very familiar with each other..."

"You and I have only met a few times, but we are still talking and laughing? We are asking and answering questions?" Wu Shuang interrupted, "I was born this way. I get to know people as soon as I meet them. Is that okay?"

"Then you and the four senior monks from the Shaolin Scripture Library..."

"is also like this."

"Impossible!" Liu Xunyi argued, "Abbot Xuanming said that you and them are close friends regardless of age. I have heard that the four monks have lived in Shaolin for a long time and have been in seclusion for many years. If you have no relatives or friends with them, how can you be close friends regardless of age?"

As soon as these words came out, a hint of thought flashed across Wu Shuang's playful face, as if something Liu Xunyi said had touched him, causing him to become a little wary in a trance.

However, the change in Wu Shuang's expression was so fleeting that Liu Xunyi didn't have the time or opportunity to notice it.

"I'm telling you, you can't tell anyone else." Wu Shuang pretended to be mysterious and lowered his voice so low that Liu Xunyi had to lean forward to barely hear his answer.

"Appreciate further details."

"Actually..." Wu's eyes darted around, and after making sure that there was no one around, he leaned close to Liu Xunyi's ear and said seriously, "Actually, I'm the illegitimate son of Abbot Xuanming, so I'm good friends with the four monks."

"puff!"

Wu Shuang's words almost caused Liu Xunyi to choke to death on his own saliva.

Liu Xunyi said angrily: "Abbot Xuanming is old enough to be your grandfather, how can you talk nonsense?"

"Oh! I remembered it wrong." Wu Shuang pretended to be enlightened and quickly changed his words, "In fact, my father is the illegitimate son of Abbot Xuanming."

Looking at Wu Shuang, who was obviously very weak but still making jokes and talking in a slick manner, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but feel helpless and sighed, "I wanted to be honest with you, but you kept teasing me. Forget it! Since you have no intention of telling me, I have no choice but to follow your orders."

As if he had sensed Liu Xunyi's intention, Wu Shuang hurriedly waved his hand to stop him, and threatened: "If my internal energy had not been exhausted, why would I waste my breath with you? If you dare to block my way, after I recover my vitality, I will make you regret it, you..."

Before Wu Shuang could finish his words, he suddenly felt a pain in his neck, and at the same time, his vision went dark and he fainted instantly.

"Brother Wu, I'm sorry! If I let you go, not only would I be disobeying the orders of the Palace Master, but I would also be sending you to your death. The way down the mountain is extremely dangerous. You have internal injuries, and you have wasted your energy with me. Now you are drowsy and exhausted both physically and mentally. If you go down the mountain alone, you will most likely fall off the cliff. It's better for you to come back with me. We can discuss everything after you recover from your injuries."

With a palm strike, Wu Shuang was knocked unconscious. Liu Xunyi carried him on his shoulders and flew up and down the mountain like a fox. In a blink of an eye, he disappeared into the lush forest.

……

(End of this chapter)