Chapter 766: Constraints from All Sides
June 1st, noon.

A galloping horse was galloping through the streets and alleys of Jiangling Prefecture, shuttling through the bustling streets without slowing down, attracting complaints and scolding from passers-by.

After an incense stick of time, the fast horse stopped outside the Zhongtian Inn in the east of the city.

"Sir, would you like to have a quick meal or..."

"Go away!"

A sturdy young man dismounted from his horse, thrust the whip into the hands of the waiter who came out of the door, and strode quickly to the second floor of the inn.

Looking at the "weir man" who didn't even turn his head, and then at the whip in his hand which was still warm, the waiter was confused and couldn't come to his senses for a long time.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The man hurriedly ran up to the second floor, then suddenly slowed down, straightened his dusty clothes, and then gently knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A female voice came from the room.

"Disciple Shen Wu!"

"Come in and talk." This time, the voice in the room was replaced by a gentle and elegant man.

"Yes."

Shen Wu agreed and carefully pushed the door open halfway. He entered and quickly closed the door.

"Greetings to the owner of the dock!"

As soon as he entered the room, Shen Wu quickly knelt on the ground and bowed to Jin Fu Yu, the only person sitting in the room.

"How's the news going?" Song Yu on the side could not hide his anxiety in his eyes.

"Is the rumor true?" Leng Yiyi, who was worried, was also impatient.

"Reporting to the master, the rumors are true." Shen Wu took out a letter from his arms and presented it to Jin Fuyu respectfully. "Lu Tingxiang failed to capture Liu Xunyi in the Weizhou Inn, and has now led his men back to Jiangnan. Ding Qinghong also failed to get rid of Zhao Xin, and he has entered the Jingbei camp with the wedding procession. This is a secret letter sent by Ding Ao. He and Dong Xiaoer followed the master's arrangement and said goodbye to Lu Tingxiang and rushed back to Jingjiang Prefecture directly."

"Ugh!"

Hearing Shen Wu's answer, Song Yu couldn't help but let out a sigh full of disappointment.

"Lu Tingxiang is arrogant and self-proclaimed to be resourceful, but in fact he is just a facade and a wretch inside." Leng Yiyi said in a deep voice, "If we had known this, we should not have joined forces with him. As for Ding Qinghong, he is a mediocre person who is more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything."

"They didn't expect Su He to ask for help from Jingbei Camp in advance." Jin Fuyu calmly read the secret letter and said lightly, "Lu Tingxiang only knew that Hexi was the Qin family's territory, but ignored another force that was even more powerful than the Qin family, the Mongols! Jingbei Camp has 50,000 soldiers stationed there all year round. They are not just for show, but an elite army that can fight anytime. Weizhou is less than a day's journey away from Jingbei Camp, and something unexpected happened... It's not worth us making a fuss."

"So..." Song Yu asked in surprise, "The owner of the dock had already predicted that Lu Tingxiang would fail at the last moment?"

"When I knew they had chosen the Weizhou Inn as their target, I had a bad feeling," Jin Fuyu said nonchalantly. "I wasn't sad for Lu Tingxiang's failure, but I felt sorry for Ding Qinghong's missed opportunity. Little did I know that the chaos at the Weizhou Inn that night was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With Ding Qinghong's martial arts, it would not be difficult to get rid of Zhao Xin in the chaos. It's a pity...it would be extremely difficult to find an opportunity to assassinate Zhao Xin in the future. It seems...God is helping Meng Song instead of me, Zhao Xin should not die."

"Master, I think Ding Qinghong is to blame for this matter." Song Yu said in a deep voice, "Zhao Xin is powerless. If Ding Qinghong attacks her at all costs, even if Su He and Wu Chan protect her, Zhao Xin will not be able to escape death. The reason why Ding Qinghong is reluctant to take action is that he is afraid of death. He is worried that he will not be able to escape after killing Zhao Xin..."

"It's human nature." Jin Fuyu waved his hand to interrupt Song Yu's complaint. "He and I have only known each other for a short time, and he has never taken any advantage from us. How could he be willing to risk his life for me?"

"This shows that this person is not capable of handling important tasks." Leng Yiyi said indignantly.

"Forget it!" Jin Fu Yu shook his head slowly and indifferently, "Things have come to this point, there is no point in complaining. Although Ding Qinghong is selfish by nature, he is after all someone close to the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, and he is still of great use to us. Therefore, words that may easily cause discord are not allowed to be mentioned again in the future." Jin Fu Yu's attitude was very gentle, but his tone was quite firm. His aura of majesty without even being angry made the unwilling Song Yu and Leng Yiyi shut up.

"I just hate that Lu Tingxiang was not thoughtful enough and acted carelessly." Song Yu assessed the situation and hurriedly changed the subject. "He embarrassed himself at the Weizhou Inn, and now he ran back to Jiangnan without saying a word, without any explanation or apology to us. What does he mean?"

"Lu Tingxiang, as a 'foreign monk', dared to play tricks on the heroes of the world. He used the 'Three Heroes of the Qin Family' to trick everyone to Xijing Prefecture, but he secretly ran to the Weizhou Inn to make a scene, and broke up with Qin Ku in public. He offended so many people at the same time. Do you think there is still a place for him in Hexi? If he doesn't leave now, it will be too late to leave." Jin Fuyu explained, "It's Qin Ku, who really impressed me with his trick of 'cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron'. He deceived all kinds of people and He put all the blame on Lu Tingxiang and the "Three Heroes of the Qin Family", and portrayed himself as a righteous man who "had no way to control his subordinates" and "made up for the loss". That night, he went to the Weizhou Inn to save Liu Xunyi, but when he turned around, he found out that he was ordered by Wudang to capture Liu Xunyi, and openly announced that he and Wudang's eldest disciple Zheng Songren had secretly joined forces. Lu Tingxiang wanted to take advantage of the situation to put the Qin family in an irretrievable situation, but he was unexpectedly attacked by Qin Ku first and bit back. Interesting! Really interesting!"

"In Hexi, Lu Tingxiang is weak and alone, so it is not easy for him to expose Qin Ku's 'crimes'. On the other hand, Qin Ku used the power of the Qin family to spread rumors quickly, and it was easy for him to blatantly call a deer a horse." Song Yu sighed again and again, "Qin Ku seems to be unruly and shady, but in fact he is wise and foolish, especially when he does not follow the rules, which often makes people hard to guard against. We must not underestimate him."

"Qin Ku is indeed cunning, but it is difficult to convince the public with just his one-sided words." Leng Yiyi hesitated, "What confuses me most is... Qin Ku is clearly making up stories, but why hasn't the Wudang Sect come out to refute the rumors? Could it be... Zheng Songren is really colluding with Qin Ku in secret?"

As soon as these words came out, Jin Fuyu's eyes suddenly flashed with a gleam of approval, and he nodded and said, "This is the most interesting and intriguing part of the whole thing. Yiyi, I'm glad that you can see the clues. That's right! Without the Wudang Sect's 'tacit consent', how could Qin Ku escape so easily?"

"But..." Leng Yiyi was tangled, "Qingfeng was obviously very dissatisfied with Qin Ku's repeated contempt, so why is he doing this now..."

"It's a different time now." Song Yu pondered, "Qingfeng and Qin Ku do have some estrangement, but compared to his position as the leader of the alliance... what does it matter if he tolerates an arrogant and willful Qin Ku?"

"What do you mean?" Leng Yiyi thought for a moment and asked tentatively, "You mean... Qingfeng helped Qin Ku hide the truth for some other purpose?"

"As I expected, Qingfeng changed his attitude towards Qin Ku temporarily."

"Temporarily?" Leng Yiyi became more and more confused, "Why?"

"Because we joined forces with Lu Tingxiang, Qingfeng smelled a hint of danger." Jin Fuyu said faintly, "He guessed that my generous help to Lu Tingxiang was probably to shake his position as the leader of the alliance and eventually replace him. Therefore, he changed his mind and repaid Qin Ku with kindness, trying to win over Qin Ku to suppress Lu Tingxiang, who had accumulated a lot of strength, so as to contain my comeback."

"So that's it!" Leng Yiyi suddenly realized, "No wonder Wudang remained silent about Qin Ku's nonsense. It turns out that it was to suppress the owner and Lu Tingxiang."

"That's right." Song Yu said angrily, "As the saying goes, 'When the city gate is on fire, the fish in the pond will suffer.' Now, Lu Tingxiang has been ostracized by Qin Ku and Wudang, especially since his plan of 'luring the tiger away from the mountain' was made public by Qin Ku, we can't escape the fate of being criticized."

"Even though everyone has their own abilities to kill Liu Xunyi, they are still unwilling to be fooled." Jin Fuyu said helplessly, "As for whether Qin Ku rushed to Weizhou Inn overnight to 'catch someone' or 'save someone', without any evidence, who can tell clearly? That's why I said 'God helps Meng and Song but not me'. Whether it's Zhao Xin, Liu Xunyi or Qin Ku, they are not destined to die. In Weizhou Inn, Lu Tingxiang is determined to get Liu Xunyi, his life is hanging by a thread, Qin Ku is in a dilemma, and Zhao Xin is doomed... It was originally a dead chess game, but it was revived by a sudden appearance of Long Yu."

Having said this, Jin Fu Yu couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. It seemed like a joke, but in fact it contained endless regret and unwillingness.

"Master, then we..."

"Now, Liu Xunyi and his men have entered the heartland of the Mongols. The further north they go, the slimmer the chances of assassinating Liu Xunyi and Zhao Xin. One wrong move, and the whole game is lost. Lu Tingxiang's unhappy return to the south indicates that this matter has failed." Jin Fuyu said calmly, "Right now, we and the Jiangnan Lu Mansion have undoubtedly been pushed to the forefront by Qingfeng and Qin Ku. Every move we make is watched closely by countless eyes. The more we talk, the more mistakes we make. Instead of being unable to defend ourselves, it is better to temporarily avoid the limelight. People forget things, and I believe this storm will soon die down. Now even Lu Tingxiang knows that he should not rush into things, so how can we be so foolish as to rush into a flame? Forget it! Let's pack up our things and rush back to Jinjianwu overnight to discuss this matter in the long run."

"As ordered!"

Leng Yiyi and Shen Wu left the guest room one after another, leaving only the worried Song Yu and the calm Jin Fu Yu.

"Master, are we really going to let Zhao Xin go?" Song Yu couldn't hold back his inner struggles and whispered, "What about Liu Xunyi..."

"Ding Qinghong is hesitant and we can't do anything about it." Jin Fuyu said calmly, "As for Liu Xunyi, he is just sending the bride off, he is not going to stay forever, why are you so anxious?"

Hearing this, Song Yu's eyes lit up and he said in surprise, "Master, do you mean... to wait for Liu Xunyi to come back before dealing with him?" At this point, he suddenly had an idea and the joy on his face dimmed. He said nervously, "Master, may I ask, should we continue to help Lu Tingxiang in the future? Or..."

Jin Fuyu's expression froze for a moment, and he stared at Song Yu with deep eyes. A mysterious smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he said meaningfully, "I can step on the same stone twice, but I won't be tripped by it twice."

……

(End of this chapter)