Chapter 55: Means

  At this time, the five boatmen had already arrived at the shore and were all calling out for business. Qing Xia led the horse alone onto the small boat, bid farewell to Zhong Bo and others, and rowed towards the opposite bank. Zhong Bo and others had many people and horses, and the remaining four boats needed to make two round trips to ferry them all over.

  The small boat sailed extremely fast, and in a short while it had already reached the middle of the big river. Turning back to look, I saw that the curtains of the horse carriage were finally opened, and the person inside was wearing a pale blue long gown, standing on the riverbank at sunset, looking like someone who had walked out of a painting.

  At this moment, a thread of vigilance suddenly rose from the bottom of her heart. Qing Xia turned her head around and saw that in a dense reed and water grass thicket, more than ten small boats were rapidly rowing towards the opposite bank, their movements stealthy yet exuding a thick and chilly murderous aura.

  Zhang Bo and others had a lot of luggage, and after moving for half a day, they still hadn't boarded the ship. By this time, the sky was already somewhat dark, and the distance was far, those small boats were hidden in the reeds, and from the side, they slowly made their way to the opposite shore, indeed not easy to detect.

  If they wait until Zhong Bo and his party reach the center of the river, the other side will suddenly launch a surprise attack. No matter how strong their guards are, they will suffer greatly.

  Qing Xia's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, her cold eyes fixed on the small boats in the water, their drafts clearly visible. She knew that each boat was carrying at least fifty or sixty people. She couldn't help but suspect the identities of Zhong Bo and his companions; if they were in cahoots with the horse thieves from last night, then Zhong Bo's adversaries would be far from ordinary.

  The helmsman also noticed those few suspicious small boats, and was so frightened that his hands were slightly trembling, and he said in a shaking voice: "It's all over, we've encountered pirates, we've encountered pirates."

  Qing Xia didn't know if they were real Water Bandits or not, but he knew that if he let them run amok, no one on the other shore would be able to escape. He quickly took out a rope and hook from his horse's saddle bag, removed his outer cloak, and said to the boatman: "Boatman, there are bandits coming, I'll go and fend them off. You take the boat and wait for me at the opposite bank. Whatever you do, don't panic, or else I won't be able to save you either."

  That boatman seemed to be frightened out of his wits and hastily nodded, without thinking at all about how he was going to resist her alone.

  Qing Xia carried a rope and walked to the edge of the boat, then slipped silently into the water with a splash. Although this place was located in the south, the river water at this time of year was still icy cold, and as soon as she entered the water, Qing Xia shivered. Goosebumps broke out all over her body, her teeth chattered, and her face turned pale blue. She held her breath, stroking the water with all her might, swimming hard towards the direction of those small boats.

  Several dark hulls gradually appeared in front of them, Qing Xia held a dagger in his mouth, tied the hook and rope tightly together, then carefully leaned over and stabbed the dagger into the hull.

  The boat was almost ashore, and after waiting for a long time, the handsome young man who had previously dived into the water did not reappear. The boatman's face turned pale, and he wanted to escape quickly.

  Just then, with a splash, Qing Xia suddenly poked her head out of the water, dripping from head to toe, and shouted: "Shore! Quick shore!"

  The boatman was overjoyed and hastily docked the boat. Qing Xia quickly pulled out a handful of copper coins and handed them to the boatman, saying in a low voice: "Hurry up! Hurry up! Don't get into trouble here!"

  As he spoke, he threw the cloak over his shoulder, turned over and climbed onto the horse's back, carrying his own small package, suddenly raised his whip and shouted "Drive!" The horse then galloped rapidly in the direction of the north.

  The old man's eyes widened in shock as he saw Qing Xia holding a large bundle of ropes, one end of which was in her hand and the other end had entered the water. As the horse galloped, it was suddenly pulled taut. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and the small boat hidden among the reeds capsized, and with a few rumbles, it sank into the river. Over a hundred strong men jumped out of the boat and swam vigorously towards the shore.

  Originally, Qing Xia's method was very clever. He only cut a small hole in the shipboard, and even if it leaked temporarily, no one would notice. Then he hooked the lock on top and tied it to the rope. When the horse ran, the rope tightened, and with a burst of force from the hook, the small hole became a big hole, and a large piece of the shipboard fell off. More than ten ships capsized at once, and even if someone wanted to rescue them, they couldn't be found.

  The ferryman saw the group of people swimming towards him with all their might, and was so frightened that he didn't even think about rescuing them. He quickly jumped onto a small boat and rowed downstream with the wind.

  Looking back at the distant riverbank, Zhong Bo and others still did not know what had happened on this side, and things were not yet fully moved.

  Qing Xia stopped after running for about two hours, the night wind was very cold, she was drenched from head to toe, her face was pale. She found a place sheltered from the wind and stopped, Qing Xia quickly gathered firewood and started a fire, took out things that were already prepared, set up a simple small tent, took off her wet clothes, wrapped herself in a cloak, and began to dry her clothes by the fire.

  The warmth of the fire on his face, a day's fatigue came over him, just had a bit of drowsiness, a low voice suddenly followed the wind and slowly passed by: "Mr. Yan, not a sound, did Lord Feng and Lord Li both miss?"

  Qing Xia heard this and suddenly stiffened all over, secretly thinking "it can't be, I'm actually so unlucky?"

  Had to quickly put on the half-wet clothes again, stomped out the fire, and carefully made way towards the source of the sound.

  This was a small mound, Qing Xia lightly climbed up, only to see two people standing at the other end of the mound. One person wore black short clothes and looked very lean. The other person wore a light yellow scholar's robe, in his early twenties, looking extremely young, with a few hints of elegance on his face. The two stood on top of the mound, less than a hundred paces away from where he had just been standing. Fortunately, tonight's wind was extremely strong, and they were standing upwind, otherwise they would have discovered his tracks long ago, just by the smoke from the fire.

  "It shouldn't be, each of their teams has nearly three hundred people. Even if they were defeated, there should have been a few who escaped to report back. How could there not be any news at all?" Mr. Yan's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and under the moonlight, his Confucian robes fluttered in the wind, his black hair flying high in the long wind, with an air of carefree abandon.

  "Don't underestimate the eighteen iron guards, even if they have an advantage in numbers, it's still not a sure win, let alone with that person still around, I'm afraid..."

  "It's impossible, the eighteen iron guards have already been deified in the army, and human power is sometimes exhausted. How can they be the enemy of a hundred people? As for that person, with a sick body, it's not enough to be feared. Something we don't know must have happened." Mr. Yan said thoughtfully.

  Of course, their misfortune was running into me.

  Qing Xia snorted coldly in her heart, that what's-his-name Feng Da Ren, if he was lucky, might still be circling around the swamp. As for Li Da Ren, he wasn't so lucky, falling into the water from the middle of the river, even if he had a life to swim to shore, would have been frozen half to death. They didn't have horses, their clothes were soaked, and they couldn't reveal their identities without completing their mission, could only find a place to start a fire, how could they outrun their own four horse legs? This might all fall into the hands of Zhong Bo and his men.

  "In that case, you and I will split up. You go back to the north to report to our lord and ask for further instructions, while I'll go ahead and see what's really going on. Let's meet again at Kurayamagari in three days."

  "Alright, Mr. Yan, be careful."

  The two of them discussed the route for a while and then went their separate ways.

  Qing Xia bit her lip and returned to her horse's side, mounted it, and followed the black-clad man.

  "What a man!" In less than half a cup of tea's time, the person in front suddenly turned his head back, and an arrow shot out fiercely.

  "Ah!" Qing Xia cried out in alarm, instantly falling off the horse. The horse let out a long whinny and ran several steps before returning to circle around Qing Xia, whinnying anxiously.

  The man in black saw that the newcomer was slender and frail, let out a miserable cry and fell off his horse, motionless. He quickly dismounted and cautiously approached him.

  The arrow shot deep into Qing Xia's abdomen, her face pale, lying motionless on the ground like a dead person. The man in black furrowed his brow and observed for a moment before slowly crouching down, reaching out to grasp Qing Xia's chin, as if wanting to turn her face over.

  In the blink of an eye, Qing Xia, who was originally lying on the ground weakly, suddenly sprang up, and the cold blade was swiftly placed on the man's neck. In an instant, the situation turned around, and with a fierce knee strike to the man's abdomen, he coldly shouted: "You dare to casually lay hands on others, don't you know that this is very impolite behavior?"

  That man was shocked, staring blankly at Qing Xia pulling out a hard package from her chubby belly, with half of his own arrow stuck on it.

  "When you're out, your wealth can't be exposed, don't you understand?" The big bundle of silver was given to her by Zhong Bo before. Qing Xia had been carrying it with her all along, and just now when she saw the arrow shooting over, she pretended not to dodge, confusing the opponent, and then easily captured this troublesome man."

  "Who are you?"

  That man let out a cold snort and said in a deep voice: "Despicable, cunning, and shameless."

  "Hmph!" Qing Xia coldly snorted: "Did you greet me before shooting an arrow at me? If I weren't a bit smarter than you, I would have died under your arrow by now. How dare you say that about others?"

  "Hmph!" The man snorted in discontent, saying nothing further.

  "I knew you wouldn't say anything either." Qing Xia said with a smile, one hand holding the dagger against the male lead's neck, and the other quickly tying up the man's hands. Her knotting technique was extremely skilled, and in the blink of an eye, she had already tied him up tightly. The man struggled twice, but found that the knots were getting tighter and tighter, and his face turned red with rage.

  Qing Xia didn't even look back at him, flipped over and jumped onto the horse's back, grabbed his reins, cracked the whip, and took off running across the vast wilderness.

  The man was dragged behind, fortunately the wilderness was all withered grass and no stones, otherwise just dragging like this would have cost him half his life.

  Back to the previous slope, Qing Xia had used all her strength to tie the man to a withered branch of a withered tree, stuffed his mouth and covered him with some straw, standing below almost couldn't see him, then smiled and said: "You just honestly stay here."

  After all this, Qing Xia only felt exhausted to death, and the clothes on her body were almost dry. She lit a fire under that man's body and slept soundly.