Chapter 273: The Tavern Murder Case
Chapter 273: The Tavern Murder Case (I)
About thirteen or fourteen miles out of the city from the West Gate of Fuzhou Prefecture, there is a Lengcui Mountain that stretches for a hundred miles.
The mountains are of unique shape, the forests are dense and the caves are deep, and poisonous insects and ferocious beasts often appear. Although it is quite close to the city, except for the local hunters who carry steel forks and drug crossbows, on ordinary days, woodcutters dare not enter the forest to chop wood, and scholars dare not enter the mountains to sell their works.
On this day, the spring sun was high in the sky, but the leaves were still wet from last night's sudden rain.
On the side of the stone peak, in the shade, there is a century-old pine tree, like a canopy spread out, with slender, green pine needles rustling in the wind. From time to time, residual rain drops from the tips and lands on the hat of the man in the black robe.
"Tick-tick, it seems like every moment."
Zhang Yu sat under the pine tree and looked at the long sword on his knees.
This sword has no name, no origin, and no experience.
The only mark was obtained from Luo Renjie, a disciple of Qingcheng Sect, at Wuliting outside Jiangzhou City.
"I'll just call you 'Wuliting'!"
Zhang Yu put his hand on the hilt of the sword, feeling the chill in the sheath. After gathering his internal strength and striking the sword over a hundred times, cracks appeared on the blade, just like the veins in the human body. When he drew the sword, it would shatter into pieces.
In this state, the sword is ready.
When encountering an enemy, the sword is unsheathed, man and sword combine, and they deliver the strongest blow it can.
Zhang Yu stood up and picked up the unfinished sword. It felt a little heavy in his hand, about three times heavier than before. The whole iron sword weighed nearly thirty pounds, which was considered very heavy among ordinary swords except for giant swords with special shapes.
"The sword has been repaired, and I need to find something to test it with."
There are many ancient trees and huge rocks in the mountains. It would be inferior to test the sword with dead objects.
"YoYo!"
Two elks stood on the cliff, sticking out their flexible tongues and chewing the most tender young buds and leaves of spring.
The stag lowered its head to look at the two-legged hairless ape passing by below the cliff, its big eyes blinking. Perhaps because it rarely saw foreign enemies, or perhaps because of its unique location, it did not show much vigilance.
The art of Tibetan swordsmanship emphasizes intention over moves; when actually using it against an enemy, all that is required is to draw the sword.
The first time you draw your sword, it becomes even more important.
Even if it is extremely ferocious, it can have some murderous intent towards creatures like wood, stone, and herbivorous animals. If it does not have enough murderous intent, it will be very difficult to fill up a lake with flood water, but only a trickle will come out.
"It is no fun to kill a vegetarian beast."
Zhang Yu shook his head gently, and continued walking southward for about four or five miles along the mountain road, holding the Zhaoye Jade Lion. The terrain ahead gradually flattened out, and there was a dense forest with two wild lychee trees growing on the outer edge. Bunches of red and green lychees hung heavily on the ground.
Zhang Yu stopped walking, his eyes instantly became sharp, staring straight ahead, thinking to himself: "Wuli Pavilion, Wuli Stop, is this God's will?"
In the dense forest ahead, a tall cloud birch shook violently, as if hit by a giant beast. Dozens of slightly yellowed leaves fell down "swish", as if a group of tits were frightened and left the tree collectively.
The forest became quiet again, with only slight gasps being heard.
"Hoohoo!"
If you don't listen carefully, you won't notice it at all.
"There's something big!"
In the Ming Dynasty's Fuzhou Prefecture, he would not be surprised even if lions, tigers or elephants appeared in the mountains and forests.
Zhang Yu took a half step forward with his right foot, his body stretched like a bow, his left hand tightly grasped the scabbard, and the five fingers of his right hand, like claws, tightly locked the hilt, and began to infuse true energy into the scabbard.
"Chi~"
The Jade Lion of Zhaoye snorted loudly, stood where it was, raised its neck, stared at the dense forest with its eyes, and was obviously very nervous.
"What a clever beast!"
In the dense forest, the heavy breathing sounds decreased and almost disappeared, but Zhang Yu's senses were very sharp, so he naturally knew that the beast did not leave, but was just lying in wait, and would sneak out and attack him when he let his guard down.
"The sword is in its sheath, and must be drawn."
Zhang Yu kept drawing his sword with both hands and moved closer to the dense forest.
Through the various trees, shrubs and vines, he could feel that he was only seven or eight steps away from the beast lurking in the woods. Through the gaps between the branches and leaves, he could faintly see the black leather ball, its hair like pine needles, trembling slightly.
"Ow!"
A long and terrifying roar shook the mountains and forests.
At the same time, Zhang Yu tightly grasped the hilt of the sword, and the Qi in the sheath was already infused to the extreme.
There were continuous roars of beasts in the forest. The black shadow seemed to sense the deadly danger and moved rapidly. Several large trees shook violently. It did not turn around to escape, but... rushed towards Zhang Yu who was standing outside the forest.
The embarrassing thing was that the blade was still hidden in the sheath, stuck like glue, and difficult to pull out for the time being.
"boom!"
A lychee tree, as thick as a bowl, was broken in half, and green and red lychees flew all over the sky.
"Ow~"
The black shadow rushed out of the forest, landing on all fours, with a bloody wind following it.
"Good guy!"
Zhang Yu looked at it carefully, and was overjoyed, with murderous intent suddenly forming in his heart.
The beast was over ten feet long and weighed about five or six hundred kilograms. Its fur was covered in black gold, its fangs were as white as a foot long, it had a round head and face, red eyes, and a bloody mouth. It was actually an old bear from the deep mountains and forests, and it probably came here for the lychees.
It has lived for many years and dominated the beasts in the mountains, so naturally it has developed some intelligence.
From the hairless ape in front of it, it felt an aura stronger than that of the tigers and leopards in the mountains.
At this moment, it just wanted to knock the other party to the ground, bite off its throat, and tear it into several pieces.
The veins on Zhang Yu's arms were bulging, and they were wriggling on his body like earthworms.
The 'Wuliting' sword was slowly pulled out, broken into pieces, and then turned into powder, but the invisible sword energy became more and more powerful.
"Broken waterfall!"
An extremely powerful sword energy, shaped like a half moon, slashed forward diagonally.
"Puff~"
Blood rained down from the sky.
The black bear's body from right shoulder to left waist was completely cut off by the sword energy.
"roar~"
The left front leg with the bear head continued to rush forward three or four steps until it fell at Zhang Yu's feet. After a while, the color in the bear's eyes gradually dissipated, leaving only gray and dead silence.
"Bang bang bang~"
The sword energy did not stop and continued to slash backwards. Five or six large trees were cut off and slowly fell backwards, stirring up a cloud of dust in the forest.
"call!"
Zhang Yu exhaled and looked at his palm, which was already bleeding from the sword energy.
"This sword still has some flaws, but it also has the power of a full-strength attack from a master of the acquired perfection realm."
Zhaoye Jade Lion sniffed the air a few times, walked slowly to the bear carcass, and found a fist-sized emerald green bear gallbladder among the spleen, heart and lungs on the ground.
Before Zhang Yu could stop it, it swallowed it whole. Then it turned around and looked at him with two innocent big eyes, as if asking, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"Alas! What a waste of natural resources."
Zhang Yu sighed. This beast, I don’t know where he learned this from, but he is getting more and more stupid.
The old bear in the mountains is full of treasures. This bear skin alone can be sold for at least a hundred taels of silver.
Zhang Yu didn't want any trouble, so he only cut off two bear paws and didn't want anything else.
After the people left, the forest became quiet.
Just a moment later, a falcon spread its wings and circled in the air, emitting a long cry.
Then, there was a noise of people shouting and horses neighing.
A group of people, with hawks and dogs, rushed towards this side following the trail.
"Young Master, go slower. Be careful not to hurt the horse's hooves..."
"Hurry up and follow the falcon. There must be a big beast ahead!"
(End of this chapter)