The person carrying the firewood was about thirty or so; his clothes was inexperienced coloured with a belt made from straw round his waist and straw sandals on his toes. His palms and toes had been enormous and his face appeared with out emotion. He put down the 2 a great deal of wooden and rested his carrying pole in opposition to the desk. “Errrrr”! The complete desk was pushed a number of centimeters down by the burden of the pole. Shocked, Wanyan Honglie inspected the pole intently, however there appeared nothing out of the atypical with this pole. It was black and clean throughout with a slight curve within the center and two little caps on both finish. For this pole to be that heavy, it needed to be made from iron or another form of heavy metallic. A wood ax hung from the person’s waist and there have been some noticeable dents on the blade of the ax.

The 2 of them had simply sat down when the sound of foot steps got here from the steps as two extra males got here strolling up. The lady shouted: “Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, did you two come collectively?” The primary man was large and tall, no less than 130 or 140 kilograms [around 285 to 308 lbs], he wore an apron round his waist. His physique was naturally oily and the highest of his shirt was open, revealing a few of what have to be a chest stuffed with hair. His sleeves had been all rolled up as nicely and his arms had been coated with black hair that was a number of centimeters lengthy and hanging from his waist was a foot-long knife. From his look he was a butcher. The one behind him was unusually brief with a small felt hat on his head and a small scale and bamboo basket in his palms; he seemed identical to a avenue vendor. Wanyan Honglie couldn’t assist however surprise: “These three folks clearly know martial arts, but they name these two common metropolis dwellers brothers?”

Out of the blue there got here a continuing clunking exterior on the road, like that made out of metallic hitting stone. The clunking slowly got here up the staircase, and a blind man wearing ragged clothes adopted. He seemed round forty years of age; his lips had been skinny and his cheekbones distinguished. His face seemed grey and appeared stuffed with hate and anger. The 5 folks sitting on the desk all stood up and greeted: “Huge Brother!” The lady evenly knocked on the seat of one of many chairs: “Huge Brother, you sit right here.” The blind man replied: “Alright, is Second Brother right here but?” The person that seemed like a butcher replied: “Second Brother has arrived in Jiaxing, so he must be right here any time quickly.” The lady laughed: “Converse of the satan!” The sound of somebody dragging his toes as he walked got here from the staircase.

Earlier than Wanyan Honglie figured all of it out, up the steps appeared a unclean torn fan which was flicked a few instances, and solely then did a poor, lackadaisical scholar come strolling up. The very one which he had met earlier within the inn. A thought popped in Wanyan Honglie’s thoughts: “He will need to have been the one which took my cash….” Simply as his anger was rising, the person shot a smile at him after which caught his tongue out and made a face; solely then did he flip to the others and greet them. It appeared that he was second amongst them. Wanyan Honglie speculated: “Seems to be like each considered one of them is a martial arts grasp; if I can someway take them below my wing, they might be an unlimited quantity of assist for our endeavors. As for the small matter of the poor scholar taking my cash, that would simply be forgiven. It might be greatest to see what is going on on first.” The poor and pedantic scholar downed a cup of wine, then proceeded, nonetheless shaking his head from one facet to the opposite, to loudly orate: “Dishonorable riches… let it go … The Jade Emperor [Yu Huang Da Di, the Supreme Deity of Taoism] will get mad!” As he was reciting these strains, he reached into his shirt and took out one gold or silver yuan bao after one other and neatly lined them up on the desk. In whole there have been eight of silver and two of gold.

From these yuan baos’ coloration and form, Wanyan Honglie knew that these had been his. However he didn’t get mad; quite the opposite, this piqued his curiosity much more: “Coming into my room and stealing the cash wasn’t exhausting; however he solely tapped my shoulder one time along with his fan, but he was in a position to steal all the cash that was inside my shirt with out my noticing. That magical hand talent of his is certainly one thing hardly ever seen on this world.”

From the actions of those six males and a lady, it appeared like they had been doing the inviting, and had invited two tables of males right here for a drink. As a result of the visitors hadn’t arrived but, the seven of them had been solely consuming some gentle wine and the dishes hadn’t been introduced out both. On the opposite two tables was just one pair of chopsticks every; that meant there have been solely two visitors. Wanyan Honglie mused: “These seven freaks are ready for visitors; I ponder what sort of bizarre visitors they will have?” After ready for in regards to the time it might take to boil a pot of water, a voice got here up from downstairs: “Amida Buddha!” The blind man spoke up: “The venerable monk Jiaomu [Burnt Wood] is right here!” He stood up; the opposite six freaks adopted him as all of them stood up in preparation to welcome the visitor. “Amida Buddha!” The voice stated once more as a monk that seemed each bit like a burnt piece of wooden got here strolling up the steps. This monk was about forty or so, he was sporting a yellow monk’s gown and in his hand was a bit of wooden with one finish burnt black. It is unclear what it is used for.

After the monk and the seven of them went by way of the formal greetings, the poor scholar led him to one of many empty tables and all of them sat down. The monk rose barely out of his seat in respect and stated: “When that individual got here all the best way to our gates, I knew that I used to be no match for him. Now that the Seven Heroes of the South are keen to assist, I couldn’t be anymore grateful.”

The blind man replied: “Venerable Monk Jiaomu, you do not want to be so well mannered. We seven brothers and sister have all been dependent upon the monk’s hospitality at times; now that monk Jiaomu is in bother, how may we not get entangled? Apart from, that man got here and, relying totally upon his martial arts abilities, made bother for the monk for no purpose. It’s clear that he thinks nothing of us right here within the martial world from this space. Even when the Venerable Monk didn’t ask us, we might have come had we discovered about….”

He hadn’t completed what he was going to say when the steps began groaning as in the event that they had been going to break down. It was like an enormous, heavy beast, like an elephant, or no less than an enormous water buffalo, was strolling up the steps. The proprietor of the place and the waiters had been all screaming downstairs: “Ay! You fool, you possibly can’t take that up there!” “The steps are going to break down!” “Fast, fast, cease him, get him again down right here!” However the sound of wooden bending acquired louder and louder. “Crack”! One of many wood stair treads snapped. Quickly two extra snapped as nicely.

For a second Wanyan Honglie wasn’t positive he believed what he was seeing; a Taoist priest got here strolling up the steps with an enormous copper vat in his palms. After taking one other look, he was frightened out of his wits; the Taoist priest was the ‘Changchun Zi’ [Eternal Spring] elder Qiu Chuji.

Wanyan Honglie’s mission as emissary to the Tune Imperial Courtroom was to coerce a number of the officers of the Tune court docket, in order that once they ultimately invade the south, there could be brokers lending a hand from the within. The Tune Emissary, Wang Daoqian, who accompanied him down from Yanjing (Current Day Beijing) was grasping and corrupt; he had already secretly sworn allegiance to the Jin dynasty. After they arrived at Linan, he was the one which did the legwork for Wanyan Honglie. However unexpectedly he was killed abruptly by a Taoist priest; even his head, coronary heart, and liver was gone. Shocked and in concern that somebody had discovered about his plan, Wanyan Honglie determined to guide his bodyguards and, with the perfect metropolis guards of Linan main the best way, personally chase down the murderer. After they chased him to Ox Village they caught up with Qiu Chuji. Unexpectedly, this Taoist priest was a martial arts grasp. Wanyan Honglie hadn’t even made a transfer earlier than he was pierced by way of the shoulder by an arrow that Qiu Chuji threw again. The lads that got here with him had been all killed. If Wanyan Honglie had not quietly crawled away in the course of the confusion of the battle and was then rescued and handled by Bao Xiruo, the dignified and honorable royal prince of the Jin dynasty would have died there in a farm village with out even actually understanding how he had been killed.