Chapter 671 Times have changed
The Golden Crow falls in the west and the Jade Rabbit rises in the east.

Eventually, night replaced the last ray of sunlight, and the world gradually fell into darkness.

Ding Chou, who had just been standing in the stance for less than half an hour, was now sweating all over, his whole body was trembling, and his face was tense, as if he was trying desperately not to fall.

"Xiao Dingzi, what are you doing here?"

Suddenly, Qin Wei's voice rang out from outside the courtyard gate, shocking Ding Chou, who was in danger, so much that his calves trembled, and his body instantly lost balance. He fell to the ground with a "thump" in a very embarrassing posture.

"Ouch, I fell to death!"

Ding Chou wailed as he trembled as he climbed up from the ground. At this moment, he felt that all the muscles and bones in his body were extremely sore and uncontrollable, and he couldn't help but weaken.

"Greetings, Master Qin..."

Ding Chou wanted to kowtow to Qin Wei and pay his respects. As he bent down slightly, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his lumbar spine. The pain made him gasp for air, and he hunched over and froze in place, not daring to move at all.

"Alright, alright, no need to be so polite!" Qin Wei frowned and reminded, "Be careful not to hurt your bones. You may not be able to get out of bed for ten days or half a month."

"Thank you...Master Qin."

Ding Chou took a deep breath, endured the pain in his body, slowly straightened his body, and said bitterly: "I just asked Master Liu for the training method. He said that my lower body is unstable, so he asked me to stand still. I could stand for two hours before, but today, for some reason, I couldn't even last half an hour."

"Standing requires perseverance, day after day. It is not something you can do for two or three years." Qin Wei taught him, "How many years have you not practiced standing properly? Three or four years? If you suddenly stand today, you will naturally not be able to persist."

"Ugh!"

Seeing Ding Chou's worried face, Qin Wei smiled and said, "But you don't have to be depressed. You are still young. You only need to practice for ten days or half a month, and you will naturally be able to return to your former state."

"Lord Liu said that Lord Qin had stood on this stake for thirteen years. Is this true or not?"

"It's true." Qin Wei replied nonchalantly, "It takes time for ice to freeze three feet thick, and lower body kung fu can't be trained in three to five years."

Ding Chou was full of admiration and nodded repeatedly. Then he rolled his eyes and asked curiously, "Then...how many years has Lord Liu been standing there?"

"About... fifteen or sixteen years!" Qin Wei pondered, "Back then, we all stood at dawn, but Master Liu chose to stand at night to avoid delaying his daytime practice, and he stood all night long."

"All night?" Ding Chou asked in surprise, "Master Liu doesn't sleep?"

"Of course he slept, but not in bed, but on the wooden stake." Qin Wei recalled, "In the first few years, he suffered a lot. He couldn't sleep. When he was very sleepy, he fell off the stake and often got bruised and swollen. Later, he gradually got used to it. He could fall asleep while standing on the stake, and when he woke up, his body was still motionless."

"This..." Ding Chou was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth as if he had heard something from heaven.

"I have tried to learn Lord Liu's kung fu before, but I don't have his ability and I haven't been able to learn it till now." Qin Wei laughed at himself, and then ignored Ding Chou who was stunned, and walked straight towards Liu Xunyi's room.

The room was as dark as ink. Liu Xunyi was lying on the couch with a jar of wine in his arms and legs spread out, soundly sleeping and snoring from time to time.

Qin Wei silently lit the candlestick, looked at the unkempt Liu Xunyi, couldn't help but sigh, and shook his head helplessly.

Without saying a word, he cleaned up the scattered wine jars, tables and chairs, and wet the brocade handkerchief with clean water to wipe Liu Xunyi's cheek.

"Who?"

As if awakened by the coolness on his face, Liu Xunyi sat up straight abruptly, staring blankly at Qin Wei who was smiling bitterly in silence, and did not come back to his senses for a long time.

"Brother Qin, it's you!"

After staring at each other for a while, Liu Xunyi uttered a sentence as if he suddenly realized something, and then he leaned his body lazily on the quilt.

"Stop drinking!" Qin Wei snatched the wine jar from Liu Xunyi's arms and said unhappily, "Look at the way you look now, how can you be so rude?"

"How is your injury?" Liu Xunyi did not respond to Qin Wei's question, but asked himself, "How is Brother Qiu's injury?"

"Brother Qiu is fine now, but he lost a hand, so he may have a lot of inconvenience in the future. The Marquis asked him to concentrate on training new people, and he doesn't seem to want him to show up in public anymore. As for my injury, it has almost healed." Qin Wei put the wine jar aside and picked up the wet handkerchief to wipe the stains on Liu Xunyi's face. "On the contrary, you, whose injury is the lightest, are the slowest to 'heal'."

"I'm fine." Liu Xunyi took the wet towel and rubbed it on his face a few times, gradually clearing his chaotic mind. "How is the injury of the Marquis?"

"The emperor sent the imperial physician to treat the marquis's injuries, so he has already recovered." Qin Wei couldn't help but sigh, "During the trip to Luoyang, the Tianji Pavilion suffered heavy casualties. There were hundreds of people who went, but only a few returned alive..."

Liu Xunyi silently looked at Qin Wei, who had a sad expression, with a complicated look in his eyes, and it was unknown what he was thinking.

"Brother Liu, some brothers in Tianji Pavilion may be dissatisfied with you during this period, or even complain about you. You... a great man does not bear grudges." Qin Wei changed the subject and advised, "Most of the good brothers who lived and died with them died in the Xianwang Mansion, so they are inevitably upset and uncomfortable, but they can't complain to the Marquis, so they blame you for the resentment. You..." "No need to say more, I understand." Liu Xunyi said self-deprecatingly, "In their hearts, I am no longer Lord Liu of Tianji Pavilion, but Liu Zhishan of Xianwang Mansion. Their brothers and confidants died in Xianwang Mansion, so they hate the rest of the officials, and it is also human nature to blame me for the resentment."

"Brother Liu, they are ignorant..."

"Don't worry, I won't blame them." Liu Xunyi smiled freely, as if to comfort Qin Wei, and as if to comfort herself.

"In fact, the Prime Minister and the Marquis have not had a good time in the past few months." Qin Wei said worriedly, "Our plan was to recruit Luo Tianjin and turn the Jianghu tyrants into elite soldiers of the court. As a result, the recruitment failed and Luo Tianjin turned out to be a traitor. Although we successfully eradicated Luo Tianjin after hardships, we also completely pushed the Central Plains martial arts world to the camp that was opposed to the court. In this way, the plan that the East Palace had prepared for many years was undoubtedly in vain and completely fell through. The West Palace took advantage of the situation and settled accounts with the East Palace in front of the emperor, accusing us of wasting the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the court. As a result, not only did it fail to relieve the emperor's worries, but it also increased internal troubles, making the situation in the Song Dynasty more urgent. The emperor was already dissatisfied with the East Palace, and with the West Palace's adding insult to injury, the Prime Minister was marginalized in the court, and the Marquis was ordered to stop all his duties. As for when to activate the Tianji Pavilion... we will discuss it later."

"How could this be?"

Liu Xunyi knew nothing about what was happening in the court, so when he heard Qin Wei's story, he was extremely shocked.

He thought that the success of Tianji Pavilion in suppressing the rebellion was not as great as the merit of recruiting the emperor, but it was at least a good thing. However, he did not expect that the court would not reward Tianji Pavilion, but instead banish Zhao Yuan to the cold palace and abandon him.

"Alas! Things are unpredictable." Qin Wei said bitterly, "We have paid so much, even if we have not made any contributions, we have worked hard, but the result is... Now it is 80% hopeless to expect the court to reward us. It is a blessing that the emperor does not issue an order to punish us."

"Why is the court so unfair?" Liu Xunyi was filled with disappointment, his tone was particularly sad, "Even the Jianghu forces clearly distinguish between rewards and punishments, how can the court not distinguish between merits and demerits?"

"Hush! If you discuss state affairs without permission, you may lose your head!" Qin Wei's face changed with fear, and he quickly reminded him, "Brother Liu, this is not the Xianwang Mansion, you must be careful when speaking, and you must not speak nonsense. In fact, things didn't have to get to this point, but because there have been too many troubles in Lin'an City recently, the emperor was displeased."

"you are right……"

"Qingfeng, the head of the Wudang sect, took over as the leader of the martial arts world and issued a hunting order, ordering all the martial arts sects in the Central Plains to hunt you down..." Qin Wei hesitated, "Now that they can't kill you to vent their anger, they turned their spearheads to other officials in Lin'an City and even ordinary people. Everyone is annoyed and complained to the court. The emperor is very dissatisfied with this."

"This is what I expected." Liu Xunyi murmured, "Although Luo...Tian Jin was not killed by me, he died because of me, so it is not too much for the martial arts heroes to want to kill me for revenge. The most hateful thing is that Ling Xiaoxiao, this vicious woman, actually ignored the love between husband and wife for more than 20 years and cruelly killed the master of the house."

At this point, Liu Xunyi's fists clenched and crackled. It seemed that he still couldn't get over Luo Tianjin's death.

"But you can rest assured that the court will never compromise with a group of bandits." Qin Wei knew Liu Xunyi's thoughts very well. He knew that he was still obsessed with Luo Tianjin, but he didn't say much. He comforted him, "This matter is not only about your life and death, but also about the dignity and honor of the court. After all, you are working for the court. If you are handed over, how will the court save its face? Where is the emperor's prestige? Therefore, the court will never be threatened by anyone, let alone be led by the nose by others."

"The bigger the incident gets, the more disadvantageous it will be to the court." Liu Xunyi said worriedly, "The Song Dynasty is facing internal and external troubles right now..."

"Oh, right! There is one thing you may not know." Qin Wei's mind moved, and he said hurriedly, "The Mongols have withdrawn their troops, and the Song Dynasty has no external threats for the time being."

"Withdraw?" Liu Xunyi was shocked. "Why?"

"I don't know. It seems that the Western Palace negotiated with them and the two sides stopped fighting and made peace." Qin Wei said vaguely, "It is said that the Mongols sent several envoys to show their sincerity, and they will arrive in Lin'an City soon."

"Negotiations?" Liu Xunyi looked confused. He was caught off guard by the sudden change in the situation. "West Mansion and the Mongols are negotiating?"

"That's right!" Qin Wei said, "Because of this, the status of the West Mansion in the court has risen, while the East Mansion... As one rises, the other falls. The current situation is becoming increasingly unfavorable to us. This morning, the Marquis and the Prime Minister were summoned by the Emperor and have not returned yet. I wonder what happened? I always feel uneasy."

"This……"

At this time, Liu Xunyi was in a state of confusion and had a headache. He never expected that in the few months he was in a daze, the outside world would turn upside down and have so many unexpected changes.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Suddenly, a hurried knock on the door interrupted the conversation between Liu Xunyi and Qin Wei. At the same time, their faces changed and a hint of nervousness appeared in their eyes.

"Who?"

"Master Liu, Master Qin, I am Xiao Dingzi."

"What's the matter?"

"Just now, the Marquis sent someone to tell Master Liu to go to the study to see him immediately."

Hearing this, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but frowned and asked suspiciously: "When did the Marquis come back?"

"As soon as I entered the house, someone came to tell me something," Ding Chou answered timidly, "but the messenger said...said..."

"say what?"

"They said the Marquis was in a bad mood and looked very unhappy. So they told Lord Liu to be very careful when he went to see the Marquis."

……

(End of this chapter)