Chapter 1: The Entanglement of Fate and Enmity, Haicheng's Solitude
Robbers who intercept and rob travelers on the road are commonly known as "eating old horizontal" in the Jianghu world, which can be divided into two types. One type only robs money, rarely hurts or kills people, and will not rob women. When encountering poor, weak, and difficult situations, they will not rob, this is called a fair thief. The other type is just the opposite, often hurting people's lives, and likes to rob women, known as flower thieves by the Jianghu people, which is the most despicable!
The bus was blocked by a large tree lying across the middle of the road. Two young men sat at the base of the tree, carrying axes on their shoulders. The passengers were forced to get off the bus. A girl with a calm demeanor, who seemed to be skilled in martial arts, quietly followed the crowd without showing any signs of panic or fear. Li Huqiu suddenly became curious about this girl who remained calm and composed in the face of the robbery, and he quietly followed the crowd as they got off the bus.
The woman got off with a middle-aged man and came to Li Huqiu's side as if unintentionally, without any tension on her face.
The bandit chief finally got off the bus, loudly shouting at the crowd to stand still, and then ordered his men to start rummaging through the passengers' belongings. The woman saw this scene and couldn't help but frown, just thinking of moving, but was pulled back by a middle-aged man beside her. Li Huqiu saw that these two didn't move and thought to himself, "Am I overreacting? If it's Lei Zi, with such skills, there's no reason to sit idly by." At this time, one of the robbers who was rummaging through the luggage found a purse belonging to a woman in her thirties. The woman suddenly grabbed tightly onto her purse and burst into tears: "This is the money my husband earned with his life in the city, please don't take my money!"
The hooligans who were robbing the woman not only didn't stop, but instead became more excited and raised their legs to kick her. The middle-aged man finally let go of the girl's hand, just as she was about to stand up straight, Li Huqiu took a swift step forward and kicked the man to the ground with one foot.
The bald-headed man saw this situation and didn't say a word, holding the sharp dagger and approaching. The dagger in his hand flashed with cold light, shining on Li Huqiu's back, just one slash. Li Huqiu suddenly turned around, dodged the dagger, raised his hand and slapped the bald-headed man with a loud slap. With a "slap" sound, he was knocked to the ground, and then Li Huqiu walked over, one foot stepping on the dagger in his hand, the other foot heavily kicking him in the groin. Just right, he kicked him next to the bandit who had been knocked down by the overturned package.
Six robbers shouted: "We've met a good kiln, let's get rich, brothers side by side!"
A short-haired girl saw four people, two axes and two knives surrounding Li Huqiu, and couldn't help but feel anxious. She felt that as a police officer, she couldn't just stand by and watch the villain bully others. Just as she was about to step forward, she was pulled back again by the middle-aged man. The girl said in an unhappy tone: "Dad, what are you doing?" The middle-aged man whispered: "This kid is harmless."
A middle-aged man with sharp eyes, four robbers who didn't know martial arts, although they had a moment of bravery, but in the end couldn't compare to a young thief king with exceptional martial arts skills. With just a few words, Li Huqiu's gestures and movements sent the four robbers tumbling to the ground.
The bald-headed man shouted: "The mountain doesn't move, the water does!" Li Huqiu squatted in front of him and smiled: "People don't have to be relatives to be kind!" The bald-headed man said: "Please ask, brother, which way did you get rich?" Li Huqiu's smile suddenly disappeared from his face, his icy eyes stared at him, and he said: "You're quite familiar with the Jianghu slang, but you've thrown away the Jianghu people's code of conduct. You're just a lousy thief, how dare you ask about my business?"
He looked at him with a frightened expression, his trembling voice said: "I'm not worthy of asking, I won't ask anymore. Good fellow, you are a big shot in the underworld, we are just a few small potatoes. If there's any offense today, please be magnanimous and let it go. We'll give you all the money from this deal, is that okay?"
Li Huqiu laughed and said, "The more thieves eat, the fatter they get, haha, your design is pretty good, huh? Alright, you can get up now." Lai Dian Tou stood up, and Li Huqiu continued, "These people don't have much value, in my opinion, only those two have goods on them. You few grab their stuff, and I'll let you off."
Li Huqiu burst out laughing and took off in a sprint, shouting as he ran: "Duanmu Uncle, these few thieves are the infamous Flower Bandits! If you're busy chasing me, then you'll have to let these murderers and robbers get away. It's up to you, farewell!"
Just now, when the middle-aged man stopped the girl from coming up to help Li Huqiu, Li Huqiu had already guessed that this middle-aged man was Duanmu Ye. The reason for making such a judgment is based on several points: Firstly, the girl's extraordinary skills are suspicious; secondly, after getting off the car, the two of them did not worry about the hijackers, but instead gathered around Li Huqiu; Li Huqiu observed with his peripheral vision and noticed that the girl had wanted to take revenge, but was stopped by the middle-aged man, indicating that the middle-aged man's skills were at least above the girl's.
Middle-aged man, profound in Kung Fu, staring at himself intently, with a fair and clean complexion typical of southerners. Putting several clues together, Li Huqiu made an educated guess that the middle-aged man was Duanmu Ye. In fact, he wasn't very confident in his guess, it was mostly a shot in the dark. Unexpectedly, he hit the mark, the middle-aged man was indeed Duanmu Ye, and had already set his sights on Li Huqiu in Ha City.
The girl beside Duanmu Ye was his daughter, Duanmu Jing. He brought her along to work on the case for two reasons: first, to train his newly graduated daughter from police school; second, to add an extra layer of disguise, as ordinary thieves would never suspect that Duanmu Ye would bring a girl with him when executing a task. Even after following Li Huqiu for two days, they still hadn't discovered him committing a crime. Although Duanmu Ye had received orders from his superiors to arrest Li Huqiu as soon as he was found, the Duanmu family had always had their own way of doing things when it came to solving cases. If there wasn't solid evidence, he would never easily make a move to catch someone. Li Huqiu bought a ticket to Xing'an League, and Duanmu Ye also bought a ticket for that bus through the station police station, with the goal of keeping an eye on Li Huqiu and seeing if he could resist the urge to commit a crime on the public bus.
This group of thieves disrupted Tanmu Ye's plan and allowed Li Huqiu to see through him. Now, without discovering any criminal behavior, Li Huqiu is escaping, but there are a group of extremely evil criminals waiting to be caught. What will Tanmu Ye choose? He didn't disappoint Li Huqiu, and with a burst of energy in his legs, he lightly stepped forward, and with a few swift movements, he knocked the six thugs who were pouncing on him to the ground. His hands showed no mercy, and the six thugs all had their joints dislocated. The time it took was just enough for Li Huqiu to run less than 500 meters away. Tanmu Ye looked at the small black dot quickly rising and falling in the distance, laughed, and instructed his daughter to watch these thugs closely. He shook his body, crouched down, and used his family's secret technique "Land Running Character Skill" to chase after him.
Li Huqiu was secretly pleased, and with a burst of speed, he sprinted forward. His leg strength, built up from years of long-distance running with heavy loads since childhood, combined with the lightness skill he had learned from practicing Bagua Palm, allowed him to run at an astonishing speed. The surrounding area was all barren wilderness, and this place was not far from where Li Huqiu grew up. He ran in the direction of the big mountain, his eyes fixed on it. In half an hour, he had already covered more than 20 miles. The big mountain was now in sight, and Li Huqiu thought to himself that the possibility of being caught was extremely low. Therefore, he slowed down his pace.
Suddenly, a hurried footsteps came from behind, Li Huqiu turned his head to see that Duanmu Ye had caught up. Li Huqiu was shocked and immediately ran away. He wasn't afraid of Duanmu Ye, but his flying knife hadn't been trained to the point where he could control it freely. After being advised by Gu Kaize, he was brewing the idea of quitting the Jianghu. The policeman behind him had an extraordinary origin, if he turned around and threw a flying knife to knock him down, not to mention whether he could knock him down or not, just having such an action would completely extinguish Li Huqiu's thoughts. So now he could only escape, running far, far away, making it impossible for Duanmu Ye to catch up.
Li Huqiu exerted himself and ran wildly, covering more than 20 miles in one breath. He had already reached the foot of a large mountain, and the footsteps behind him could no longer be heard. Li Huqiu estimated that Du Mu Ye was older, and although his kung fu was high, his physical strength was limited, and he wouldn't be able to catch up for a while. Li Huqiu slowed down and climbed up the mountain, finding a clean spot to sit down and rest. After this wild run, his blood circulation increased, and his body temperature rose sharply. White steam was rising from Li Huqiu's head, looking like a scene from a movie where someone is using internal energy to heal their wounds.
After a short rest, Li Huqiu figured out the direction and knew that after crossing the big mountain, he would soon arrive at his original residence in the small mountain village. He lifted his spirits and started climbing the mountain. Duan Mu Ye did not catch up with him, and Li Huqiu estimated that he might not have had enough energy to chase him here, so he walked at a moderate pace. As he walked, he thought back to his past days of begging for food in the village. He vaguely remembered that at that time, he lived in Grandpa Gao's house, and although the old couple was struggling to make ends meet, they still spared good things for Li Huqiu. Having grown up eating leftover rice from many households, Li Huqiu still remembered when people in the village mentioned his father, they would fall silent and have an unpleasant expression. Even Grandpa Gao told Li Huqiu: "He's a heartless man who ruined your mother's life."
Climbing to the top of the mountain, Li Huqiu was still lost in thought when a voice suddenly sounded in his ear: "You little guy just came up? I've been waiting for you for a while." Li Huqiu looked around and saw that it was Duanmu Ye standing with his back against a big tree at the top of the mountain, his face slightly pale.
