Chapter 571: The Thief Cries Thief (Part )

When Duan Tianhong left Prince Xian's Palace, it was not too late, but the streets of Luoyang City were empty and it was difficult to find pedestrians.

Influenced by what happened last night, rumors were everywhere in Luoyang today, and the people were in danger and panic. Therefore, as soon as it got dark, every household closed their doors and windows, and no one dared to go out easily to avoid unexpected disasters.

The once bustling and bustling Luoyang Night Market is no longer visible today. On the dim streets, all the shops on both sides are closed, and the drooping signs in front of the doors are lifeless like withered flowers and willows. Everything in front of us gives people an illusion of prosperity and decline, and an extremely desolate illusion.

It turns out that the change from prosperity to poverty is not a matter of getting worse and worse overnight. On the contrary, it often takes years or even decades of hard work to go from chaos to prosperity.

On the dark street, a carriage drove slowly towards the east of the city. Duan Tianhong, who was sitting in the carriage, lifted the curtain from time to time, looked around, and sighed.

There were three people in the carriage, Duan Tianhong, the driver, and the attendant, all of whom were from Duanjiabao.

"Castle Lord, what are you doing..."

"I just feel that times have changed and things and people have changed."

"The fortress master and the mansion master Luo have been close friends for many years. Why didn't you tell the mansion master the truth just now?" The follower asked curiously, "Qin Ming threatened the lives of the 27 members of the Duan family to force the fortress master to work for the Qin family."

"Alas!" Duan Tianhong sighed, "How much do you know about the affairs of the martial arts world? Don't be fooled by Qin Ming's rough appearance, he is actually very cautious. The Duan family and the Qin family have lived in peace for many years, which shows that he is quite wary of the relationship between me and the Mongols. Now, he is risking offending the Mongols to offend me, and even threatens my wife and children. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because he was determined to get it." Duan Tianhong explained, "Qin Ku and 'Xuan Shui Xia Juan' must be very important to Qin Ming. But he overestimated my importance in Luo Tianjin's heart. He thought Luo Tianjin would be as loyal to me as he was to Pan Chuba back then, but he didn't know... Although Luo Tianjin and I are friends, we are far from being dependent on each other for life and death."

"What the castle lord means is..."

"Luo Tianjin will definitely not compromise with Qin Ming because of me." Duan Tianhong said helplessly, "In other words, the lives of 27 people in my Duan family are not important to Luo Tianjin. Therefore, if I tell him the truth, not only will it not calm the storm, but it will offend Qin Ming. If Qin Ming gets angry and does something crazy, I... will regret it."

"But Lord Luo is the leader of the martial arts world after all. If he comes forward, does Qin Ming dare not release them?"

"It's true that he is the leader of the Wulin, but do you think Qin Ming really takes him seriously?" Duan Tianhong asked, "If Qin Ming was afraid of the leader of the Wulin, why would we appear in Luoyang City?"

"What do you mean?" The attendant scratched his head in confusion, and asked, "Today in the Xianwang Mansion, Lord Luo clearly called him a brother and even prepared a sumptuous banquet to welcome him. If they were not friends, why would Lord Luo treat him so well?"

"Who says enemies can't be brothers and drink together?" Duan Tianhong shook his head. "You are still young and don't know the ways of the world. Many times, even mortal enemies will act as close as brothers. But once they attack, they will be merciless and will kill the opponent."

"Why?"

"Don't ask anymore." Duan Tianhong seemed to be in no mood to waste his breath and said impatiently, "When you experience more things in the future, you will understand what I am saying."

"This time, the castle lord helped Qin Ming get information against his conscience. If the mansion lord Luo finds out, will he be angry?"

Facing the mumbling of his followers, Duan Tianhong suddenly felt upset and depressed. His eyes became more bitter and he murmured, "I just hope that Qin Ming will not go back on his word..."

"Shut up!"

Suddenly, the driver exclaimed, tightened the reins, and the horse raised its front hooves, neighing and stopped in place, almost throwing Duan Tianhong out of the carriage without warning.

"what happened?"

"Fort... Lord... someone is blocking the road."

The driver's voice was trembling, mixed with panic and fear.

Hearing this, Duan Tianhong's eyes changed and he quickly lifted the car curtain. He saw that ten meters away, there were several wheelbarrows piled up in a haphazard manner, blocking the narrow street tightly.

Seven or eight burly men holding steel knives stood by, each of them looking ferocious and with a hideous grin on their faces.

"Who are you?" Duan Tianhong was nervous, but he still pretended to be calm on the surface. "How dare you rob people in Luoyang City? Do you know that this is the territory of the Northern Sage King?"

"Nonsense!" The leading man said disdainfully, "What about Luoyang City? What about the Northern Sage King? I am robbing the Northern Sage King's territory!"

After saying that, several big men held their swords horizontally, lined up in a row, and walked quickly towards the carriage.

"Quick, turn back!"

However, before Duan Tianhong could give the hasty order, a chaotic sound of footsteps suddenly came from behind the carriage. Then, another seven or eight men came towards the carriage with steel knives in their hands.

One in front and one behind, they formed a pincer attack on Duan Tianhong's carriage in the narrow street.

"Hurry, rush out!" The followers panicked and screamed.

At this moment, the driver, feeling the threat of death, was completely confused and whipped the horse desperately. The horse felt the pain and rushed forward roaring.

Several men coming towards the carriage were shocked and quickly dodged to the sides of the street, barely avoiding the fate of being crushed by the carriage.

Ten meters away, the horse leaped forward, trying to cross the obstacle, but the carriage was too heavy and the driver could only watch himself crash into the wheelbarrow.

"what……"

"boom!"

With a terrified scream, the carriage collided head-on with the wheelbarrow, which immediately flew into the sky and broke into pieces. The three people on the carriage were mercilessly thrown out and fell heavily to the ground.

For a moment, the three men were scattered in the streets, with broken bones and wailing, all of them were seriously injured.

A dozen men, staring at them eagerly, did not give them a chance to breathe. They quickly approached like hungry wolves pouncing on their prey, first hacking the nearest driver to death with their swords, and then ran towards the followers and Duan Tianhong with murderous intent. "Fortress Lord... hurry up..."

Enduring the pain of broken bones, the follower struggled to get up from the ground and limped towards the dozen men, opening his arms to block their way.

"puff!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the follower was stabbed in the abdomen. Instantly, blood flowed out along the sharp blade, dripping all over the ground.

Under the bright moonlight, the blood-red blade reflects a faint cold light, enchanting and evil.

Seeing this, Duan Tianhong couldn't help but feel his heart tighten. An uncontrollable fear instantly spread throughout his body, making his hands and feet numb and his whole body tremble. He rolled and crawled to the end of the street.

"Where to run?"

In a moment, more than a dozen men came up from behind. One of them swung his knife without thinking and knocked Duan Tianhong, who was running away with his head in his hands, to the ground, leaving a wound on his back about one foot long and deep enough to see the bone.

His skin and flesh were turned inside out, and blood gushed out, instantly soaking his clothes and causing his spirit to quickly weaken.

"I have no grudge against you...why are you killing me?"

Although seriously injured, Duan Tianhong still relied on his instinctive desire to survive and gritted his teeth to crawl forward.

One inch, two inches, three inches... one foot, two feet, three feet...

His ten fingers were rubbed to a bloody mess, leaving a shocking trail of blood along the way. Although he knew that he could not escape the clutches of these people, Duan Tianhong still refused to give up and moved forward inch by inch.

"Why should I kill you? Because you don't know how to live or die!" The leading man sneered, "Others are hiding at home and dare not go out, but you are so bold that you wander the streets in the middle of the night. Who else should I kill?"

A dozen men followed Duan Tianhong with great interest. They were not in a hurry to kill him. Instead, they kicked and stabbed him like a cat playing with a mouse, and mocked him to the utmost.

"You... who are you?" Duan Tianhong shook his head to prevent himself from falling into a coma, and asked weakly, "What do you want? Money? I have plenty of money, you can take as much as you want..."

"Pah!" The leading man spat out, saying disdainfully, "Who wants your filthy money?"

"Then what do you want?"

"Kill you!"

"No, no, no!" Duan Tianhong hurriedly said, "Do you know the Northern Sage King Luo Tianjin? He is the leader of the martial arts world, and I am his friend... If you let me go, I promise not to let him pursue this matter..."

"Haha...Everyone in the world is afraid of Luo Tianjin, but we are not!"

"you……"

"Brother, this guy is stalling for time on purpose. Don't waste time talking to him. Kill him with one blow!"

Hearing this, Duan Tianhong was shocked, and a sense of despair instantly rose from the bottom of his heart.

At the same time, the leading man stepped on his back, making him unable to move, and then raised the blood-stained steel knife high up, as if aiming at Duan Tianhong's neck, intending to behead him with one blow.

"Whoosh whoosh!"

At the critical moment, a light sound suddenly came from the air. In an instant, more than ten sharp arrows whizzed in like black lightning, killing most of the dozen men in the blink of an eye.

"Be careful of hidden arrows!"

The sudden sneak attack made the leading man no longer able to care about Duan Tianhong under his feet. He hurriedly raised his knife in alertness and retreated carefully to the wall.

"Brothers, catch him alive!"

With a shout, Lin Fang led dozens of Xiumen disciples out of the darkness.

"Clang clang clang!"

As soon as the two sides met, there was no nonsense and they started fighting hand to hand.

These men were far inferior to Lin Fangda's Xiumen disciples in terms of numbers, momentum, and martial arts. Therefore, in just a cup of tea, all four surviving men were captured alive by Lin Fangda.

"Lord Duan?"

Inadvertently glancing at Duan Tianhong lying on the ground, dying, Lin Fangda's expression suddenly changed. He hurried forward to investigate, and asked in surprise: "Why is it you?"

"It's a long story..." As the knife wound hurt him deeply, Duan Tianhong couldn't help but grin and speak incoherently, "Thank you for saving me..."

"Lord Duan, there's no need to be so polite. I'll take you back home first..."

"You daring bastard, release Lord Duan immediately, or I will kill you without mercy!"

Before Lin Fang's general Duan Tianhong could help him up, a loud shout suddenly came from a distance.

Immediately afterwards, Qin San led a group of Qin family disciples and rushed forward in a hurry.

……

(End of this chapter)