Starting from Tianlong, Wudu Tianxia

Sikong Xuan was captured on the fifth day.

As the morning sun shines down, the misty haze paints the green forests along the mountain ridges, and the occasional chirping of birds echoes from the bamboo groves along the riverbank.

"Giddy up!"

A carriage and more than twenty riders emerged from the Qiongzhou Gate and headed north at a leisurely pace.

Their main purpose for this trip was to enter Song territory, then travel through Jiezhou back to Lingjiu Palace.

The main reason for not traveling directly from Dali is that the Tibetan Plateau has a long valley, and the Song Dynasty had complete land and water routes.

In comparison, although the return journey from Song territory was a roundabout one, it was actually shorter.

Sikong Xuan seemed to have resigned himself to his fate, riding his horse with his head down and following in the middle.

Sangtugong stood guard on one side, his short, stout body wrapped in a gray robe, glancing occasionally at the young man riding a horse ahead.

Grandma Yu sat in the car with the two girls, Fu Minyi and Chang Ying, with the iron rod placed on her cross-legged seat. A glimpse of her body flashed through the gap in the window.

Gao Yuan rode his big yellow horse alongside Granny Yu's carriage. As if noticing Granny Yu's gaze, the boy smiled in response.

After traveling for two hours, all that could be seen were rolling hills, the mountains covered in lush greenery, with Baihe Mountain stretching out before us.

At the end of the day, they passed a small bend in the river and stopped to rest.

The green-clad girl leading the way, Qin Ziqing, gently handed Gao Yuan a water pouch: "Young Master Gao, the journey is still long, please have some water to quench your thirst first."

The girl spoke gently, her eyes filled with friendliness.

Gao Yuan accepted the gift with a smile, and then heard Granny Yu say from inside the car, "Minyi, share some of the dry rations with Chief Gao as well."

"Okay, mother-in-law."

The little girl, Chang Ying, pouted and hugged the sword wrapped in oilcloth as she got off the carriage with Fu Minyi.

At this moment, Sang Tu was about to approach when another girl frowned and waved him away.

"Master Sang, if you feel you have nothing to do, then take your men and go to Jianzhou immediately to send a message to the Qingyang Gang to cooperate with the Juntian Department in capturing Xuanhuangzi."

"When you see the sisters of the Juntian tribe, tell them that the matter of the Shennong gang has been resolved, and that Grandma is going straight back to Lingjiu Palace without waiting for them."

Her tone was full of impatience, and Sang Tugong hurriedly responded, but he didn't dare to meet her gaze and could only grit his teeth inwardly.

He secretly thought that most of the women in Lingjiu Palace were either abandoned by men after being seduced, or had their families destroyed by their enemies. Under the influence of Tong Lao's eccentric temperament, they always regarded men as poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts.

They treated the boy with great respect, not only providing him with good food and drink but also speaking to him gently, as if he were not a prisoner at all.

Damn it, pretty boy, what's so great about being good-looking!

"Chief Gao, Granny Yu requests your presence." A woman from Lingjiu Palace came forward to deliver the message. Gao Yuan saw Granny Yu looking at him and stepped forward.

"I heard you say a few days ago that you have long admired your great name and are sincerely impressed."

"Yesterday evening, I received a message from a disciple of Zhu Tianbu in Qiongzhou, saying that Chief Gao had left the words 'Sweep away the Lingjiu, welcome and slay Penglai' in Tianyi. I wonder if he intended to shift the blame eastward?"

Seeing the displeasure on Granny Yu's face, Gao Yuan knew she was not easily fooled, so he said:

"Grandma, I am a disciple of the chess master, Mr. Fan. Although Mr. Fan has been expelled from the school of Mr. Congbian, he still has some connection with you."

Grandma Yu's old eyes fixed on Gao Yuan's face: "What do you mean by that?"

Gao Yuan smiled and followed Granny Yu's steps to the front of the carriage. The other Lingjiu Palace girls did not accompany him.

"Master Fan's grandmaster and the Venerable One are from the same lineage. I am new to the martial world and have been humiliated. In my indignation, I wrote these words, naturally intending to seek refuge with the Venerable One. I beg the Venerable One to uphold justice for me. How can this be considered shifting the blame?"

His words were not a lie, but he omitted the matter of the jade pendant.

Granny Yu was the oldest in Lingjiu Palace and had served Tonglao the longest. Although she did not know the secret between the Venerable One and Wuyazi, she had heard the Venerable One mention the name of the Congbian Old Man, and she believed it more now.

After understanding the boy's intentions, Grandma Yu finally smiled a little.

Calming herself down, she couldn't help but ask out of curiosity:

What happened to Chang Ying?

Thinking of Chang Ying, a little girl, she doesn't seem like a seven or eight-year-old child at all.

She possesses both a lively spirit and a precocious intelligence unlike that of a child. None of the girls I have encountered before have shown this kind of intelligence. The Lord will surely be pleased to see her.

Gao Yuan paused for a moment, then recounted in detail how he encountered the little girl in Jingzhao Prefecture.

After she finished speaking, an expression of appreciation appeared in Grandma Yu's eyes.

Minyi and Changying were both young girls, and if there were any lies, she couldn't possibly not see them. Their eyes were filled with admiration for the boy.

Even though she was usually composed, she couldn't help but secretly praise the young hero.

In such a world, women's lives are as worthless as grass. Lingjiu Palace is mostly filled with unfortunate women taken in by the Child Granny, and there are countless girls who were abandoned by their parents when they were young. Have you ever seen anyone willing to give up their life for a woman?

At that moment, all her doubts about the boy vanished.

He even had the thought that, given the boy's martial arts skills and benevolent heart, even if he were punished upon returning to the palace, he would ask the Lord to show mercy and not to cast a talisman on the boy like pigs and dogs such as Sangtugong.

With this thought in mind, she subtly revealed some of the Venerable One's temperament and disposition to the young man in her words, naturally not wanting him to offend the Venerable One unintentionally.

Gao Yuan smiled knowing that Grandma Yu meant well.

The two chatted for a while longer, and the young man answered fluently, which made Grandma Yu's smile grow wider.

But when he glanced up, he noticed that although the woman under his command was resting, she kept stealing glances at the young man, which made him feel conflicted again.

The women had already learned of his chivalrous deeds from Fu Minyi, and he was also a handsome young man with superb martial arts skills.

Thinking of this, Grandma Yu couldn't help but sigh softly.

On the other side, Sikong Xuan dismounted and stood there with his head down, not daring to go forward.

But then Chang Ying turned to him and handed him a water pouch and half a wheat cake: "Chief Sikong, my elder brother asked me to bring these to you. Have some too."

Sikong Xuan was both amused and exasperated. He looked at Sangtugong, who was being bossed around, and then at Gao Yuan, who was speaking calmly to the Holy Envoy of Lingjiu Palace. His Adam's apple bobbed, but he ultimately said nothing and just took small bites of the wheat cake.

Gao Yuan saw all of this but said nothing.

Sikong Xuan treated him fairly well in Kainan, taking care of him as much as he could. As for his resentment towards him, it can only be said that everyone had different goals, and there's nothing more to explain.

At 3:45 PM, the group left Baihe Mountain to continue their journey.

"Big brother, I want to ride a horse with you."

Chang Ying tugged at Gao Yuan's sleeve and pointed to the big yellow horse on one side, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Gao Yuan assumed the little girl must be bored sitting in the carriage for two hours, so he nodded in agreement.

When Chang Ying saw that he agreed, her face suddenly lit up with a smile, like a soldier who had won a battle. When no one was paying attention, she glanced at Fu Minyi's face.

Her bright, small eyes curved like jade, and her gaze held a hint of pride and smugness.

Ever since leaving Kainan Prefecture with Granny Yu and the others, Fu Minyi has been just like her, always doting on her elder brother and calling him "good elder brother" all the time.

Hmph, I'm the older brother and younger sister, okay!

When Fu Minyi caught a glimpse of Chang Ying's smug look, her cheeks puffed up instantly, as if she had a sour plum that she hadn't chewed properly. It wasn't until her mother-in-law coughed lightly that she snapped back to reality, turned around, lifted the carriage curtain, and sat back down.

The group traveled non-stop from Qiongzhou and arrived in Hanzhou in just three days.

This place is about four hundred li away from Jiezhou.

We rested for one night in Hanju and continued our journey early the next morning.

As dusk approached, the outlines of the mountains and forests were blurred by the misty fog. This place was still some distance from the next prefecture.

The women of Lingjiu Palace wanted to find a village to rest in, so they urged their horses to hurry on.

Passing a fork in the road, under an old camphor tree, stood a blue donkey with a smooth mane.

A person was sitting on the back of a donkey, probably in his twilight years, and looked quite destitute.

He wore a long blue robe, was not very tall, had a slightly hunched back, and his face was sallow as if he had been ill for a long time, with little color in his lips.

He gripped the donkey's rope with one hand, while the other held half a scroll of a book turned upside down.

The view is excellent from a high vantage point, allowing you to gaze into the distance.

Judging from the text, it appears to be a somewhat yellowed copy of the I Ching.

It seems he's an old man who practices divination...

......