If I add money to become a layman, I can cultivate immortality

Chapter 64: Empress, you don’t want to either... [5000-word chapter]

Almost at the same time, Ding Xiu swept the sword with its sheath towards his opponent's waist.

Unexpectedly, the opponent reacted very quickly. He stabbed the air with his sword and immediately withdrew his attack. The sword swung and blocked Ding Xiu's blow.

Next, the two quickly exchanged a few moves, and there was a feeling that they were matched against each other.

Both sides are very fast, often changing their moves in mid-movement, hoping to catch their opponent off guard.

The old man in green shirt watched coldly for a while, then suddenly strode towards Queen Zhang who was sitting on the ground.

"Old man, don't come over!"

Jin'er was so anxious that she couldn't care less about her fear. She raised her hand and pulled out the hairpin from her hair, clasping her hands and glaring at the other person, as if you dare to come over and I'll fight with all my strength.

Empress Zhang glanced at Jin'er with a pleased expression. She finally didn't hurt this girl in vain. Only at the critical moment of life and death could a person's loyalty be tested.

"clang!"

At this moment, a crisp metallic chime sounded in the field, followed by another dull sound.

The old man in green shirt turned his head and saw that it was his disciple who was kicked away by Ding Xiu.

"Haha..." The old man in green shirt smiled sarcastically at Ding Xiu: "Are you finally willing to show your true abilities?"

Ding Xiu did not try his best before, because he knew that the old man in green shirt was the real enemy.

Therefore, he has been wary of the other party.

Ding Xiu raised the tip of the knife and pointed it at the old man in green shirt, and said coldly: "Old guy, now it's your turn!"

"Boy, you are so crazy! I originally admired you, but unfortunately... you are so ignorant!"

At this point, the old man in green clothes suddenly swayed and faintly dragged out an afterimage as if teleporting, and appeared in front of Ding Xiu in the blink of an eye.

"boom!"

This time, Ding Xiu didn't have time to defend himself, and just instinctively blocked it with his sword.

The weapon the old man used was very strange, and the top looked like a tiger claw.

The whole body was dark and it was unknown what material it was made of. It collided with Ding Xiu's blade and made a dull metallic sound.

"call!"

Unexpectedly, the green-shirted old man's weapon could actually be retracted. After being blocked by Ding Xiu's knife, the tiger claw in front suddenly extended, causing a burst of burning pain on Ding Xiu's shoulder.

Ding Xiu's blade sank and struck the opponent's lower body with a "swish" sound.

However, the old man was extremely fast, dodging to the side like the wind, and then attacked from behind.

This is the strongest opponent Ding Xiu has encountered since traveling through time.

In previous fights, he always overpowered his opponents, even when facing a group of Jurchen cavalry.

Unexpectedly, this time, his opponent actually hurt his shoulder with one move.

Ding Xiu blocked the opponent's attack with a backhand knife, and at the same time took two steps back and glanced at the old man in green shirt.

"Haha, how does it feel?" The old man in green shirt smiled proudly: "I gave you a chance, but unfortunately... now it's useless even if you kneel on the ground and kowtow to me."

"call……"

Ding Xiu let out a long breath.

Then he smiled jokingly and slowly raised the knife: "Old guy, you are too happy too early. You can try it with my knife."

"Okay! Today I will let you die convinced..."

Before the last word "submit" was uttered, there was a faint buzzing in his ears.

This is the knife in Ding Xiu's hand.

The blade trembled slightly, seeming to resonate with the surrounding airflow.

The old man in green shirt finally looked surprised: Could this be the legendary...

At this time, Ding Xiu also moved.

His movements didn't seem to be fast, and even Queen Zhang could clearly see the trajectory of his sword.

But the magic is that in the blink of an eye, he took a few steps, and in an instant he was in front of his opponent. The shadow of the knife poured down like a waterfall, but it was as silent as the moonlight, moistening things silently.

This knife instantly shattered the pride of the old man in green shirt, and he subconsciously wanted to hide.

However, he didn't know how to avoid it. This knife seemed to have blocked all his ways.

Thoughts were only in the flash of lightning. After all, the old man in green shirt hurriedly waved his tiger claws to resist with all his strength, trying to resolve this attack.

"boom!"

There was a dull sound in the field, like the sound of a palm hitting the water.

The tiger claw in the green-shirted old man's hand sank, and then his body staggered back, with traces of blood dripping from his mouth.

"Master..."

"do not come!"

The old man in green clothes raised his hand and shouted, but he used the opportunity to quickly wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

But the hand holding the tiger's paw was shaking uncontrollably. The tiger's mouth was cracked, and blood dripped down the tiger's paw to the ground.

"Evened out!"

Ding Xiu subconsciously glanced at his injured shoulder and smiled at the old man in blue.

"You...actually realized the intention of the sword?"

The old man in green shirt couldn't believe it and asked in a trembling voice.

Ding Xiu replied with two words: "Guess!"

The blue-clothed old man: "..."

In fact, Ding Xiu himself didn't know whether he had realized the meaning of the sword or not. After all, it was a mysterious and mysterious realm.

For example, Xiao Li's flying knives and Lu Xiaofeng's clever fingering are both a mysterious realm that can be understood but cannot be expressed in words.

Ding Xiu's sword technique was also learned by himself. It is already in a completely different realm from the Qi family sword passed down by Ding Baiying. One pursues form, but Ding Xiu now pursues intention.

"General be careful!"

Suddenly, Queen Zhang shouted loudly.

It turned out that the old guy's disciple actually took advantage of Ding Xiu's distraction and raised his hand to launch a sneak attack with an arrow in his sleeve.

Ding Xiu was as fast as the wind, tilting his body slightly to one side, but without losing his momentum, he rushed in front of the masked man like lightning...

"stop!"

It seemed that the old man in blue was very concerned about his disciple. His eyes widened with anxiety, his voice changed into a different tone, and he hurriedly rushed forward to try to stop him.

Unfortunately, it was still a step too late.

A blood line appeared on the masked man's neck, and he fell to the ground before he even had time to scream.

One knife, seal the throat!
"I will definitely kill you and reduce you to ashes!"

When the old man in green shirt saw his disciple being killed, his eyes turned blood red and he looked like he was going crazy.

When his opponent was in a frantic state, Ding Xiu should have stayed away from him temporarily. After all, people can burst out with amazing potential when they are angry.

But when it comes to potential...who is afraid of whom?

Empress Zhang and Jin'er were dazzled by the next scene. They could see figures shaking constantly, and the sound of weapons clashing could be heard from time to time, but they couldn't see the battle situation at all.

But it didn't last long, probably only twenty or thirty breaths, and the two finally stopped.

"General!"

Queen Zhang couldn't help but exclaimed when she saw a wisp of blood slowly flowing down Ding Xiu's blade.

After all, she knew very well that her fate was tightly tied to Ding Xiu at this moment. Once something happened to Ding Xiu, she would not be able to escape.

In fact, she had already secretly held a golden hairpin in her hand.

If the worst happens, she will not hesitate to use the golden hairpin to end her life.

She would rather die than let the other party's conspiracy succeed.

"Don't worry, your Majesty, Wei Chen is fine."

Ding Xiu smiled at Queen Zhang.

In fact, it cannot be said that there is nothing wrong with him. The old man in blue shirt is indeed too powerful. If it were Ding Xiu in the past, he might not be his opponent.

This battle left Ding Xiu injured on his shoulders and abdomen, but they were all superficial injuries and nothing serious.

The old man in green shirt looked at Ding Xiu with a pale face and murmured: "I didn't expect... poof..."

As soon as he said three words, he spat out a large mouthful of blood, shook his body a few times, and then fell to the ground silently.

The blood quickly stained the clothes and flowed around.

Ding Xiu quickly sheathed the knife, walked quickly to Queen Zhang and said once again that she was offended, and then picked her up.

"Miss Jin'er, don't stand still. Someone must have heard the sound and chased you. We must leave immediately."

Jin'er came back to her senses and responded quickly.

Queen Zhang looked at Ding Xiu with complicated eyes, and a blush slowly appeared on her face.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for seven or eight killers from Qingyi Tower to catch up.

"No, the leader..."

"How is it possible? How could the leader..."

In their eyes, the leader was like a god, but he was actually killed?
"Chase! They must not have gone far!"...

Outside a small hidden cave, Jin'er hid in the grass and watched the surroundings vigilantly.

In the cave, there was a faint sound of conversation.

"Empress, you don't want to either..."

"Well, it hurts a bit."

"So it is even more important to activate blood circulation and remove blood clots in time, otherwise it will be difficult to walk."

"Okay, I'll bother you General."

"Mother, are you feeling better now?"

"Better……"

"My dear, just hold on a little longer and you'll be fine soon..."

Fortunately, Jin'er knew that Ding Xiu was healing the empress, otherwise she would have rushed in long ago.

In the cave, Queen Zhang was sitting on the ground, leaning against the cave wall.There is a crack about a foot wide on the roof of the cave, and the moonlight shines through, reflecting one of her crystal white feet.

However, the ankle was slightly swollen and bruised.

Ding Xiu sat cross-legged, his left hand gently holding Queen Zhang's foot and turning it back and forth, while his right hand repeatedly kneaded and rubbed the instep and ankle to help dissolve blood and blood stasis.

If it were any other man, Empress Zhang would never agree.

After all, a woman's feet are a very private place, how can they be easily touched by a man?Not to mention the status of Queen Zhang.

If it were a strange man, this would be equivalent to insulting her innocence.

It's just that Ding Xiu is a royal guard, which can also be said to be the royal personal bodyguard. In addition, Ding Xiu risked his life to protect her.

Facing a powerful enemy, he remained calm.

Faced with the temptation of the high-ranking official and generous salary promised by the other party, he was not tempted at all.

With all this going on, how could Queen Zhang not be moved?Not grateful?

Seeing Ding Xiu's focused look, Queen Zhang couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth in her heart.

Suddenly he frowned again: "General, your wound seems to be bleeding? Do you have any gold wound medicine on you?"

Ding Xiu smiled: "It's okay, Madam, it's just a minor injury..."

But Empress Zhang shook her head: "No, stop quickly and deal with your wounds first... Jin'er!"

"Miss!"

Jin'er ran in in response.

"Hurry up and apply medicine for the general and bandage the wound."

"Yes, madam!"

Jin'er responded, and then carefully applied the gold wound medicine on Ding Xiu. She couldn't find the bandaging cloth, so she used her own ropa instead.

After bandaging, I went outside the cave and continued to observe the surrounding situation in case anyone secretly found this place.

In the cave, Ding Xiu sat down cross-legged again, gently held up Queen Zhang's sprained right foot, turned it back and forth, and asked, "My Lady, does it still hurt?"

"A little bit, but much better than before."

"Well, it's mainly due to a sprained tendon, so there's some bruises. Wait for Weichen to knead it for a while to activate the blood circulation and remove the bruises, and you should be able to walk tomorrow morning."

"General Lao is here."

"The humble minister was terrified and failed to protect the empress."

"The general has done a great job. After returning to the palace, I will definitely ask for credit for the general in front of the emperor..."

After almost a stick of incense, Ding Xiu finally helped Queen Zhang to stand up.

"Mom, how do you feel now?"

Empress Zhang tried to take two steps, and she couldn't help but look pleasantly surprised: "It's great, it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Well, that's good. Since the empress is fine, Weichen will go outside..."

Before he finished speaking, suddenly, two trumpet arrows were raised in succession in the direction of the imperial mausoleum.

Ding Xiu hurriedly went out to take a look, and couldn't help but look surprised: "Great, empress, the enemy has withdrawn. Wei Chen immediately fired an arrow and notified his men to come over and respond."

Soon after, another trumpet arrow was launched into the sky.

Of course, Ding Xiu did not send the trumpet arrows in the cave, but left a distance and sent the trumpet arrows by a forest on the other side.

In this way, even if a killer who slipped through the trap came after him, he would probably go into the woods to search.

I'm afraid that before the search reaches the cave, a large number of Jin Yiwei have already rushed over.

Fortunately, nothing happened again. Mr. Sun and his subordinates followed the arrow's position and rushed over as quickly as possible.

Ding Xiu saw the figure from a distance and shouted first, then asked Jin'er to help Queen Zhang and walked towards the woods together.

As soon as they saw Mr. Qianhu and that the empress was safe and sound, Mr. Sun and others were naturally very excited.

However, he still had a look of sincerity and fear on his face as he stepped forward to plead guilty: "I hope your Majesty will punish you for not protecting me well!"

Empress Zhang raised her hand slightly and said: "Everyone, get up. I can't blame you for not protecting me well this time. You did a good job."

"Thank you, empress, for your kindness!"

Ding Xiu stepped forward and asked, "Mr. Sun Qi, what are the casualties?"

Mr. Sun Qi sighed, cupped his hands and said, "I'd like to report to you, Lord Qianhu, that I haven't bothered to count them carefully due to my humble position, but... a rough estimate is that we have lost at least twenty or thirty brothers."

Upon hearing this, Ding Xiu couldn't help but have a look of murder in his eyes, and said coldly: "Qingyi Tower, you will definitely repay this debt ten times or a hundred times!"

At this time, Jin'er couldn't help but say: "General, didn't they say they wanted to join the Jurchens before?"

"Yes, yes, you reminded me... Mr. Sun Qi, immediately send a horse back to Beijing to report this matter to the Governor. We must not let the people from Qingyi Tower get out!"

"Yes!"

After returning to the palace, Ding Xiu personally took the inventory and found that there were indeed heavy casualties.

Among them, 24 people were martyred, 15 were seriously injured, and more than [-] were slightly injured. They brought a hundred men with them on this trip, and the casualty rate accounted for [-]% of the total.

However, Qingyi Tower was not much better, with nearly thirty corpses left behind.

Originally, a few people were caught alive, but in the end, each of them bit out the poison hidden in their mouths and died.

It's no wonder that Qingyi Tower has always been very mysterious. Few people know the internal situation of its organization. It is simply like cultivating dead soldiers.

The situation over at Hong Lin is slightly better.

After all, the purpose of Qingyi Tower going there was to create a disturbance in order to drag down the Jinyi guards there.

Their real target is Queen Zhang. After all, they want to join Hou Jin. How can they be reused without a generous gift?

In the end, the bamboo basket failed, which not only exposed the truth, but also lost a lot of people.

After receiving the news, Shen Lian immediately ordered spies from all over the country to closely monitor the movements of Qingyi Tower, and at the same time deployed additional manpower to respond in the direction of the imperial mausoleum.

Emperor Chongzhen was even more furious and ordered to block all passes and important passes, vowing to kill all the people in Qingyi Tower within the Ming Dynasty and never allow them to leave the border and seek refuge with the Jurchens.

Two days later.

Queen Zhang and her party finally returned to the capital safely.

The next morning, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Ding Xiu alone.

"My dear, I heard the emperor's sister-in-law and Jin'er talk about their experience in the palace. My dear... you have made great contributions to our Ming Dynasty..."

In this situation, we cannot take credit and be arrogant. Ding Xiu said with a humble face: "The humble minister was frightened, and the emperor entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, but the humble minister did not protect him well, which frightened the empress Yi'an, so I asked the emperor to punish me."

Emperor Chongzhen smiled: "My dear, there is no need to be humble. I am very pleased that you risked your life to protect Queen Yi'an and escorted her back to the palace safely.

It stands to reason that Aiqing's contribution is enough to be promoted, but..."

Having said this, Emperor Chongzhen paused and then said: "This matter is related to the majesty of the royal family and should not be publicized to the outside world. I hope your beloved can understand my painstaking efforts."

Although Qingyi Tower failed to abduct Empress Zhang as they wished, some rumors would inevitably arise after word spread, and Emperor Chongzhen naturally did not want to publicize this matter.

"Wei Chen understands... In fact, the emperor will not hold Wei Chen accountable. Wei Chen is already grateful, how dare he take credit?"

"I love you, merit is merit, I will keep it in my heart, and when I have the opportunity, I will definitely promote you."

Next, Ding Xiu and Pei Lun, two members of the Jinyi Qianhu family, personally led the team and launched separate operations to clear the Qingyi Building.

These guys were also very smart and escaped in several groups.

Some tried to sneak to Mobei and then detour to Liaodong via Mobei.

Some fled to the southeast and Jiangnan areas, hoping to escape from the Ming Dynasty by sea.

Some also lurk secretly in an attempt to make a comeback.

But this time the imperial court made great efforts, not only dispatching a large number of spies, but also bribed some Jianghu forces to help hunt down the remnants of Qingyi Tower.

The suppression operation lasted for half a year, destroying its lair and more than a dozen secret strongholds, and almost all the hundreds of absconding gangsters were wiped out.

Even if there was a lucky escape, it would be nothing, and the arrogant Tsing Yi Tower finally disappeared.

During this period, Ding Baiying and a group of men quietly transported the money hidden in the capital to a small courtyard in the suburbs of Beijing in batches.

This small courtyard was a secret stronghold that Wei Zhongxian had told him about, and it was said that some money was hidden in it.

After searching carefully several times, I found a lot of gold, silver, jewelry, antique calligraphy and paintings, roughly estimated to be equivalent to at least three to four hundred thousand taels of silver.

This is another unexpected gain.

(End of this chapter)