Chapter 824 Find a new way
"Exactly!"

Facing Ding Ao's cautious probing, Song Yu calmly said, "It was later confirmed that all the Liu Xunyi found through the portraits were fake. What's more interesting is that the Xianwang Mansion has been crowded with people these days. Almost every day, three or four 'Liu Xunyi' are kidnapped and sent to the door. Ling Xiaoxiao is overwhelmed and dizzy, and the Xianwang Mansion is in a state of panic."

"This……"

Song Yu's explanation was as if Dong Xiao'er and Leng Yiyi were reading a foreign language. They stared blankly at Song Yu who was talking eloquently and Ding Ao who was in a serious mood, and were so surprised that they could not speak for a long time.

"Overnight, Liu Xunyi's figure appeared everywhere in the Central Plains martial arts world, leaving all the heroes who were ready to fight dumbfounded. They were led around by the nose all day long, but in the end, they got nothing." Song Yu continued, "Right now, many people have been exhausted and discouraged."

"Ha ha……"

Suddenly, Jin Fuyu burst into laughter and exclaimed without turning his head, "It seems that Liu Xunyi not only has many enemies, but also many friends. He used the trick of mixing fake things with real things to perfection and easily broke through Qingfeng's net. Wonderful! It's really wonderful!"

"Master, you've hit the nail on the head." Song Yu nodded repeatedly. "Now, the various groups of people chasing Liu Xunyi are in chaos. Qingfeng has not come up with a plan to deal with them. I'm sure he's also in a panic and has no plan at all."

"Qingfeng is Qingfeng after all. Although he took Luo Tianjin's position, he doesn't have Luo Tianjin's ability." Jin Fuyu pretended to be regretful and said, "If he can't even deal with such a trivial trick, how can he take charge of the Central Plains martial arts world in the future? Why don't you... tell me, how should we deal with this matter?"

"Start with those who pretend to be Liu Xunyi and find out their backgrounds one by one." Leng Yiyi pondered, "Follow the clues and find out the mastermind behind the scenes..."

"No need to check. Those people's backgrounds are definitely cleaner than anyone else in the martial arts world." Jin Fuyu interrupted, "If they can come up with a clever scheme to pass off fakes as real, how could they not think of these?"

"Master, you are wise!" Song Yu said admiringly, "Those people came from all over the world, most of them were idle street people. They took people's money and went all the way to Lin'an under the banner of 'Liu Xunyi'. As for the mastermind behind the scenes... they knew nothing. Tracing back to the source, they could only find a man named 'Zhang San' and a man named 'Li Si'. They spent a lot of money to find these people, and then let the people they found continue to find people. Therefore, most of the people they caught were found by their friends and had no idea what happened. As for Zhang San and Li Si... they had already evaporated without a trace."

"This..." Leng Yiyi was speechless after being poured a basin of cold water by Song Yu.

Jin Fuyu was not in a hurry to express his opinion. Instead, he patiently persuaded with great interest: "Was this farce Liu Xunyi's idea? Or was it someone else's idea? Just now Ding Ao meant that it was someone else. Tell me your reasons."

"It's very simple. Liu Xunyi is now a rat crossing the street, and everyone wants to kill him. He is even more alone in the martial arts world, with no power at all. With his current strength, it is impossible for him to plan and carry out such a big show that deceives the world. Therefore, he must have someone supporting him behind the scenes."

"That's right!" Song Yu continued, unwilling to be outdone. "The people who support Liu Xunyi not only have a close relationship with him, but are also wealthy and powerful. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to create such a chaotic situation as 'suddenly, like a spring breeze, thousands of pear trees bloom'."

Dong Xiao'er hesitated and said, "Could it be...Longxiang Mountain?"

"The possibility is very small!" Ding Ao shook his head slowly. "Longxiang Mountain is far away in Yunnan. It is almost impossible to cooperate with Liu Xunyi, who is thousands of miles away, in just a dozen days."

"But Li Haitang is with Liu Xunyi..."

"You overestimate Li Haitang's ability." Song Yu smiled and explained patiently, "Looking at the entire martial arts world, there are not many people who can accomplish this. They must be at least local overlords. If Yun Zhuiyue takes action personally, it may be possible. But with Li Haitang alone... it is absolutely impossible."

"This……"

"Is it possible that the court is secretly helping?" Leng Yiyi pondered, "Liu Xunyi is an official appointed by the court after all. The Song court cannot ignore his life or death."

"This method of passing off the fake as the real is a typical underworld act. If the imperial court helps..."

"Impossible!" Ding Ao rejected it flatly. "If the imperial court was the instigator, it would not have been done so cleanly."

"Why?"

"If the imperial court had such courage and means, how could the Song Dynasty be so weak today? How could it be suppressed by the Mongols and shrink into a corner, not even daring to raise its head?" Ding Ao sneered, "Given the imperial court's corrupt habit of internal strife, they would never sincerely help Liu Xunyi. Because if someone helps, there must be someone to sabotage. If so, Liu Xunyi's whereabouts would have been exposed long ago, how could he have kept it secret until today?"

"What a great saying, 'When someone helps, there must be someone to sabotage'." Jin Fuyu said with a smile, "Ding Ao has a keen eye and sees through things. He knows the habits of those good-for-nothings in the court very well."

"Thank you, Master!" Faced with Jin Fu Yu's praise, Ding Ao was humbled and quickly stood up to express his gratitude.

"The answer is actually very simple." Jin Fuyu suddenly turned around, looking at Song Yu and the other three with a pair of eyes that flickered, and smiled meaningfully, "The one who helps Liu Xunyi must meet three conditions. The first is a friendship that doesn't care about life and death, the second is the power to dominate a region, and the third is... a territory that is within easy reach. In the entire martial arts world, there are not many people who can meet all three conditions at the same time."

"The head of the Qin family, Qin Ku!" Ding Ao said directly what he was thinking, "He has a deep friendship with Liu Xunyi, and he is also the head of the Qin family. He is also entrenched in the Hexi area, which is the only way for Liu Xunyi to go south. Only he can hide Liu Xunyi without anyone noticing."

"I agree!" Song Yu responded, "Using rumors to confuse people is exactly Qin Ku's usual tactic."

"That makes sense!" Dong Xiao'er nodded thoughtfully, "Thinking in this way, it's not difficult to guess the mastermind behind the scenes..."

"It's certainly not difficult to make wild guesses, but it's hard to find solid evidence." Jin Fuyu reminded, "Do you think Qingfeng has no doubts about Qin Ku? Of course he doubts, and the first person he suspected was Qin Ku. The problem is that there is no evidence, even if he is the leader of the martial arts world, he can't make false statements."

"Then go find evidence..."

"Find evidence?" Jin Fuyu frowned, seeming to be quite disappointed with Leng Yiyi's suggestion. "Regardless of whether Qin Ku will leave any evidence, even if there is evidence, who knows when you will find it? By then, Qin Ku might have died. What's the use of the evidence you worked so hard to find?" "This..."

"No matter what, we must not confuse our goals." Jin Fuyu looked at the mountains and rivers and smiled mysteriously, "Our goal is Liu Xunyi, not Qin Ku. We must not lose sight of the main goal and waste our energy on Qin Ku."

"Master, what you said... I cannot agree with you." Ding Ao gritted his teeth and started to argue, "If Qin Ku and Liu Xunyi were in collusion, then he must know the real whereabouts of Liu Xunyi."

"Well said!" Jin Fuyu smiled instead of getting angry, and even cast a gratified look at Ding Ao, "I want to ask you, there are so many heroes in the world, why can't anyone find the whereabouts of Liu Xunyi, only Qin Ku can do it?"

"This……"

"No one is guilty of speaking. Just say whatever you think."

Encouraged by Jin Fuyu, Song Yu replied hesitantly: "Of course Qin Ku can find Liu Xunyi, because he is Liu Xunyi's friend..."

"That's right!" Jin Fuyu said, "Why did Liu Xunyi's enemies search for him for many days without success, but his friends were able to find him easily?"

"This……"

Jin Fu Yu's aggressive questioning made Song Yu and the other three gradually fall into confusion. For a moment, they were so upset that they were speechless.

"Some people search for something but never find it, while others get it without any effort." A sly look flashed in Jin Fuyu's eyes, and he patiently pointed out, "Is there a good plan to kill Liu Xunyi hidden in it?"

"hiss!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Song Yu and the other three's faces changed immediately. Their bound thoughts seemed to break free in an instant, and one bold idea after another involuntarily flooded into their minds.

"What the owner of the dock means is..." After pondering for a long time, Song Yu's eyes lit up and suddenly realized, "The best strategy to hunt down Liu Xunyi is not to wait for the rabbit like Qingfeng did, but to lure the snake out of its hole?"

"Lure the snake out of its hole?" Dong Xiao'er was stunned. "Liu Xunyi is cunning by nature. How could he be lured out by us..."

"We are all Liu Xunyi's enemies, so of course we can't lure him out." Song Yu explained, "But if he is his friend, it will be effortless to find him."

Leng Yiyi asked, not quite understanding, "Then...how do you find it?"

"It doesn't matter how you look for him. What matters is that someone can find him." Ding Aowan and Song Yu figured out the key point at once, and at the same time, they looked at Jin Fuyu with more respect. "It's like fishing. If a person doesn't know how to fish but wants to eat fish, what should he do? The best way is not to wait for the fish to jump onto the shore, but to find an osprey and let it go to the river to catch fish for you. As for how the osprey catches the fish, it doesn't matter at all."

"As expected, you understood it immediately." Jin Fuyu was very satisfied with Song Yu and Ding Ao's understanding. "In the current situation, Liu Xunyi is like a cunning fish, and the Jianghu heroes are like people who want to eat fish but don't know how to fish. They all used the wrong methods, and as a result, not only did they fail to catch the fish, but they were fooled by the fish. Now that you have discovered the skill of 'fishing', the next step is to find an obedient osprey."

"Osprey..." Dong Xiao'er suddenly realized, "The owner of the dock means to find a friend that Liu Xunyi trusts and ask him to lure the snake out of its hole for us."

"Not bad!"

"Is this... possible?" Leng Yiyi hesitated. "Anyone who can be trusted by Liu Xunyi must also trust Liu Xunyi. Just like Qin Ku, his friendship with Liu Xunyi is as solid as a rock. How could he listen to us obediently?"

"There are only two ways to make a person obey, either by coercion or by bribery. Right now, Liu Xunyi is at the critical moment of life and death. A friend who can make him trust him will definitely not be afraid of coercion. As for bribery..."

At this point, Song Yu and Jin Fuyu looked at each other, and a hint of intriguing strangeness emerged between their brows at the same time, so they smiled confidently and said: "I know someone who is not only Liu Xunyi's friend, but also can be lured by us and be obedient."

"Since you have a plan, I'll leave it to you."

"As ordered!"

Song Yu gladly accepted the order and wanted to turn around and leave, but was hurriedly stopped by Leng Yiyi.

"What on earth are you and the owner talking about? Who is Osprey?"

Faced with the nervous and expectant eyes of Leng Yiyi, Dong Xiaoer, and Ding Ao, Song Yu couldn't help but look hesitant. He turned his inquiring gaze to Jin Fu Yu, and when he saw him nod slightly, his expression relaxed and he smiled slyly.

"The 'Osprey' I'm looking for is... the ruthless swordsman, Tang Afu!"

……

(End of this chapter)