Chapter 80: Unexpected complications
The person who rescued Tang Afu from Su He's knife was Liu Xunyi. His sudden appearance made the already complicated situation even more confusing.

"Brother Su, I'm sorry!" Liu Xunyi bowed to Su He and said with a wry smile, "Tang Afu and I have some friendship. I really can't bear to see him die in Tianshan. I overestimated my ability. I hope Brother Su will forgive me."

"Humph!" Cao Qin snorted coldly, "No one wanted to kill him. He was the one who had evil intentions, but ended up shooting himself in the foot. According to what you said, is it possible that Tang Afu is allowed to kill people, but no one is allowed to kill him?"

Liu Xunyi looked embarrassed, and glanced at Lei Biao who died tragically beside him. He sighed silently and said bitterly: "It seems that I am still a step late."

"Since Brother Liu and Brother Tang are friends, why don't you persuade him to give up the Wind and Rain Map and leave." Su He said, "I met him by chance, and we have no grudges in the past or the present. I don't want to add to his karma of killing. As long as he is willing to leave, I swear to heaven that I will never stop him."

Liu Xunyi's face lit up, and he said gratefully: "Brother Su is so generous and righteous, I'll thank him in advance." After that, Liu Xunyi hurriedly cast an urging look at Tang Afu, but before he could persuade him, Tang Afu said indifferently: "Liu Xunyi, don't mind your own business, you should take care of yourself first!"

In response to this, a look of helplessness appeared on Su He and Liu Xunyi's faces at the same time.

Tang Afu used the kite to turn over and flew to the side nimbly. He stared at Liu Xunyi with a smile and said, "It seems that you really don't want to give up the Shocking Wind and Raining Picture. However, although you calculated that the people of Yuhu Hall would suffer heavy casualties, you didn't expect that Cao Qin would be followed by the 'Most Swift Swordsman in Mobei'. It seems that neither you nor I will get this picture easily today."

"So, you are here for the map as well?" Cao Qin picked up the black bamboo tube and shook it twice in front of Liu Xunyi, with a teasing tone in his voice.

Liu Xunyi turned a deaf ear to what Tang Afu and Cao Qin said, neither admitting nor refuting. He suddenly saw Bai Shuang standing behind Su He, surrounded by several Yuhutang disciples, and pity suddenly appeared in his eyes.

After seeing Liu Xunyi, Bai Shuang changed her previous dejection and struggled to walk towards Liu Xunyi, but was stopped by the Yuhu Hall disciples beside him. She stammered at Liu Xunyi with anxious eyes, but could not utter a single word.

Su He frowned upon seeing this, and suddenly realized, "It turns out that Miss Bai's mute point has been sealed, no wonder she has been refusing to pay attention to me."

"Brother Su is wise," Liu Xunyi said, and then his eyes turned cold, ignoring Cao Qin, and said in a deep voice, "Cao Qin, let her go!"

"I don't understand what you mean." Cao Qin was surprisingly calm, perhaps because the battle with Su He just now gave him great confidence and made him regain his courage. At this moment, not only did he not panic at all because of the sudden change in the situation, but he looked at Liu Xunyi and Tang Afu with interest, teasing them unscrupulously, and sneered, "Are you here today to save her? Or for the Jingfenghuayutu?"

“We want both people and pictures!”

Ever since the tragic deaths of Mo Cen's family of three, Liu Xunyi has always despised the man in black, so when he learned that the man in black was Cao Qin, he naturally didn't have any good feelings towards him. Therefore, his tone when talking to Cao Qin was very stiff, and even contained murderous intent.

Su He was stunned, but before he could open his mouth, Tang Afu suddenly interrupted and said, "In this case, you and I can join forces to get rid of Su He. As long as Su He dies, the Jingfenghuayu Tu will be ours. As for whether it belongs to you or me, we can discuss it slowly after we leave this place. By then, no matter who of us ends up getting the map, it will be better than getting nothing today. Liu Xunyi, what do you think?"

In response to Tang Afu's proposal, Cao Qin's face suddenly became extremely gloomy, and he said sternly: "Brother Su, don't panic. Cao will definitely fight shoulder to shoulder with you and will never let you be attacked from both sides."

Su He said nothing about Cao Qin's "righteousness", but just stared at Liu Xunyi with a serious look. His tiger eyes were as clear and deep as the bright stars. Although the meaning contained in his eyes was very complicated, there was no sign of hostility towards Liu Xunyi.

Su He is an upright man, so before Liu Xunyi personally agrees to Tang Afu's proposal, he will never judge a gentleman by his own mean standards.

Under everyone's tense gaze, Liu Xunyi smiled bitterly and shook his head, then slowly uttered two words: "No!"

"Why? Don't you want to get the picture of the wind and rain?" There was a very rare look of doubt in Tang Afu's eyes.

"I want to." Liu Xunyi said frankly, "But I absolutely cannot become an enemy of Brother Su, because he saved my life."

"This..." Liu Xunyi's words made Tang Afu speechless. He was in a dilemma for a moment and didn't know what to do.

Seeing this, Cao Qin suddenly laughed out loud and said sarcastically, "I thought you two could share the same hatred and fight together, but I didn't expect you to turn against each other. You want to take the Jingfenghuayutu from me just by relying on your momentary courage. It is simply the biggest absurdity in the world."

After that, a ferocious look flashed across Cao Qin's face, and he shouted at Liu Xunyi, "You can't get the Jingfenghuayutu, and you can't take the person away. Get out of here if you know what's good for you, otherwise this day next year will be your death anniversary! As for Tang Afu..." Cao Qin turned his eyes and sneered, "You killed Lei Biao, and I should make you pay with blood, but for Brother Su's sake, I can let you go, but only today, so you'd better run as far as you can, because tomorrow morning I will issue a hunting order to make you nowhere to hide!"

"Do you think I will leave easily just because of your few words?" Liu Xunyi said sarcastically without fear, "I don't know whether you can protect her or not, but you have to let her go today, whether you want to or not!" After that, Liu Xunyi quickly turned around and bowed to Su He, and said seriously, "Brother Su, now you should know who is real between me and Cao Qin. If it was really Bai Shuang who came to pay her respects to the Lord of Yulong Palace, why would Cao Qin seal her acupuncture points? It's obvious that he has something to hide and is worried that the Jade Tiger Hall's abduction of women will be exposed."

Su He's face changed, and he glared at Cao Qin and asked, "Master Cao, is this true?"

"Of course not. This matter... Let me tell you in detail about this matter later." Cao Qin had experienced Su He's stubbornness and knew that this person was a stubborn person who would only side with the right side and not with his relatives. If he were to lose face now, he would not be able to get away today.

Now Cao Qin could only try to evade and delay time. As long as he could delay until the masters of Yulong Palace came to help, even if Su He turned his spearhead against him, Cao Qin would not be afraid at all.

"Cao Qin, let him go!" Liu Xunyi pointed his sword directly at Cao Qin, whose face was as gloomy as water, and his words were so firm that there was no room for hesitation. "You want your man, and I want my map." Tang Afu walked to Liu Xunyi's side, swung out his ruthless sword, and pointed the sword directly at Cao Qin, saying lightly, "Cao Qin, hand over the Jingfenghuayu map."

Cao Qin was extremely anxious, secretly cursing the Jade Dragon Palace's reinforcements for coming too slowly, but the situation before him made it difficult for him to continue to shirk responsibility, so he could only turn his pleading eyes to Su He and begged, "Brother Su, please stop Tang Afu for me, I will take care of Liu Xunyi myself..."

"bass!"

Before Cao Qin finished speaking, there was a sudden noise behind Su He. Chagan, Bater and Zhuoya suddenly drew their swords and knocked down a group of Yuhutang disciples who were caught off guard in a flash, and rescued Bai Shuang before Cao Qin could react.

"What are you doing..." Seeing this, Cao Qin was horrified. He pointed at Su He repeatedly with his hands, with indescribable surprise and anger between his eyebrows.

Su He was just as surprised as Cao Qin. He was also surprised by the sudden action of Chagan and the other two. Su He looked at them in astonishment and exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

"Hey, Brother Su, we had discussed this matter a long time ago, but we knew you were too straightforward, so we kept it a secret and didn't dare to tell you." Bater explained with a playful smile, "We will explain it to you after we go back. Now it's important to do business."

"What's the important matter?" Su He asked in surprise and anger.

Chagan stepped forward with a knife in hand, first sized Tang Afu up and down, then said to Liu Xunyi in a hoarse voice: "The person you want is in our hands now. I can return her to you, but you have to promise to take Tang Afu away, and the two of you can no longer covet the Jingfenghuayutu. How do you think?"

"What do you mean by this?" Liu Xunyi asked in confusion, "A threat? Or a negotiation? Besides, I am me and he is him, so how can I decide whether Tang Afu stays or goes? If I can't take Tang Afu away, what can you do?"

"Then this woman must die!" Bater said jokingly, "You have to think it over carefully. Isn't it a pity for such a beautiful girl to die like this? You..."

"It's just nonsense!"

Before Bater could finish his words, Su He suddenly appeared in front of Bater and Zhuo Ya. Before they could fight back, Su He raised his hand and slapped Bater hard on the face, causing him to spin around twice, dizzy, with stars in his eyes, and fall to the ground with a thump. Zhuo Ya was knocked back several steps by the powerful internal force that suddenly emanated from Su He. She was so frightened that her face turned pale and she dared not to do anything rash again.

In the blink of an eye, Su He rescued Bai Shuang from Bater and Zhuo Ya, and untied her acupoints.

"Su He, don't be so presumptuous!" Chagan hurriedly stopped him, "We are doing this to complete the important task assigned by the ridge master."

"But the Lord of the Ridge will never tolerate you taking a weak woman as a hostage?" Su He scolded. After that, he pushed Bai Shuang towards Liu Xunyi with his palm and said righteously, "No matter how big the grudge is, it has nothing to do with this girl. Brother Liu, just take your sister away. If anyone dares to stop you, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Su He's last sentence was obviously meant for Chagan and Cao Qin to hear. His tone was firm and domineering.

"Forget it!" Chagan knew Su He's character very well, so he stopped arguing with him and turned to Cao Qin and said, "Master Cao, please hand over the Jingfenghuayu Tu. You should be aware of the current situation. You can't protect this picture by yourself. Why don't you give it to us for temporary safekeeping?"

"What exactly do you want to do?" Cao Qin looked at Chagan in surprise and asked suspiciously, "Aren't you here on behalf of Chifengling to celebrate the Palace Master's birthday? Why did you suddenly change sides?" Su He was also puzzled by Cao Qin's doubts, but he was from Chifengling after all. Although he did not agree with the actions of Chagan and the other two, he did not deliberately sabotage them.

"No!" Chagan laughed, "We are not defecting, we just want to keep this painting of Wind and Rain for Master Cao temporarily. But Master Cao can rest assured that we will eventually present this painting to the Master of Jade Dragon Palace, and it will never fall into the hands of outsiders."

"That you……"

"But we have come all the way here, we can't go back empty-handed." Chagan said, "As the saying goes, one doesn't visit a temple without a reason. Chifengling and your Tianshan Yulong Palace have always kept to themselves for many years. Now that we have come suddenly, we must have something to discuss. But the Suwen Yulong Palace Master is not an easy person to approach. If we go empty-handed, I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince him to discuss important matters with us. So we have to resort to this last resort. Temporarily keep this priceless treasure map for you. When the important matter is completed, we will definitely present this map to you in good condition."

Until this moment, Cao Qin finally figured out the intentions of Chagan and his men. They wanted to use the Jingfenghuayutu to threaten the Jade Dragon Palace Master to agree to some of their requests. At this point, Cao Qin could guess without thinking that what Chifengling asked for was definitely not a happy event for Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace, otherwise why would Chagan resort to such despicable means?

Thinking of this, Cao Qin couldn't help but feel a little scared. If he introduced Su He and the others to the Jade Dragon Palace Master without thinking, and they made some outrageous and harsh demands, there was no guarantee that the Jade Dragon Palace Master would not vent his anger on Cao Qin, the lobbyist.

Facing Su He who seemed to be thinking about something, Zhuo Ya hurriedly explained: "Brother Su, we didn't mean to deceive you, we just wanted to have an extra guarantee. In fact, Brother Su knows very well that it is impossible to convince the Jade Dragon Palace Master to agree to our request with just a three-inch persuasion. This is not Mobei. Does Brother Su still want to use the method he used against the Twenty-Four Cities and the Hu Ma Gang to conquer the Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace? Not to mention how dangerous it is, I am afraid that several of us will die in vain in the Tianshan Cold Ridge and will not be able to complete the task assigned by the Ridge Master. Cao Qin attaches so much importance to the Jingfenghuayutu, I think this map must be very important to the Jade Dragon Palace Master. As long as we have this map in hand, we will naturally have more confidence."

Seeing Su He's embarrassment and Zhuo Ya's confident words, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but frown and asked subconsciously: "Brother Su, I wonder what the purpose of your trip is..."

"I don't need to hide it now." Su He smiled bitterly, "To be honest, we are here to persuade the Jade Dragon Palace Master to follow the example of the Twenty-Four Cities of Mobei and the Huma Gang in the past and lead his disciples... to serve the Mongolian Khan..."

……

(End of this chapter)