Chapter 78 Ten Si Cao
On the collapsed ruins, only the tilted and intertwined beams were left.

Under the ruins, bricks, stones and tiles were constantly arching up, as if an immortal monster was buried and was about to break out of the ground.

Chen Ji crouched down and approached with the ringing in his ears, pulling out the short knife from his sleeve. He made three bamboo firearms in total, one to throw to the Golden Pig, and the remaining two to blow up Si Cao. At this time, he had no extra firearms, so he could only kill with a knife.

The next moment, there was a loud bang and bricks and stones flew everywhere.

Amidst the rubble, Shopkeeper Yuan held on to a heavy wooden beam and managed to stand up from the ruins.

His hair was disheveled and his golden crown flew away to who knows where.

Manager Yuan's body was covered with broken iron pieces, his face was bloody and blood and dust were mixed together. He was wearing a tattered red satin robe, like a midnight evil ghost.

He raised his hand to rub his eyes. After the explosion, too much dust and gravel flew into his eyes and he couldn't open them no matter what he did.

However, at this moment, he suddenly found that his right hand seemed to be blown off and he could not lift it at all.

firearm!

This is the firearm of the Ning Dynasty!

Like Jin Zhu, Shopkeeper Yuan had seen firearms before, but neither of them had seen firearms with such great power!

Firearms were used on the battlefield during the Ning Dynasty for only a hundred years.

At the beginning, the fire gun used a thick bamboo tube as the gun body, and was loaded with gunpowder and bullet nests. The gunpowder at this time was so powerful that it could not even blow up the bamboo tube. After several consecutive firings, the bamboo tube would be discarded.

It was not until recent decades that the Ning Dynasty replaced the iron cylinder to carry more powerful gunpowder, but the gunpowder at that time was still not perfect. There was no purification process and the formula ratio was incorrect. It was only used on the front battlefield to curb the charge of the Jing Dynasty cavalry.

When Shopkeeper Yuan faced the bamboo tube, although he knew that he had no time to dodge it, he did not think that this thing could kill him. At most, it would only leave him with skin and flesh torn, but no injuries to his bones.

But the power of Chen Ji's bamboo tube gunpowder was far greater than he had imagined!

Even the house collapsed!
Shopkeeper Yuan forced himself to open his eyes. His left eye was full of blood and the eyeball was extremely red. Only his right eye could barely see.

He quickly looked around, but found no one in front of him: "The experts from the Ning Dynasty's Secret Service surrounded and killed me alone, do I still need to hide here and there?"

From beginning to end, Manager Yuan didn't even see any trace of Chen.

He was blown up by gunpowder, so he thought it was a master from the Secret Service who came with firearms, and he didn't suspect Chen Ji at all!

But no one in the yard answered him, only a short knife stabbed through the wind.

Shopkeeper Yuan leaned sideways and easily dodged the knife that was stabbing at his neck, but Chen Ji did not stop. He stabbed him three more times in the back of his heart, spleen on the lower back, and left leg before retreating.

But Chen Ji suddenly discovered that except for the one on the thigh, all the other stabs missed!
No, it didn’t miss!

But Shopkeeper Yuan had practiced Kung Fu and had skin of steel and bones, so an ordinary dagger could not pierce him. No wonder he was able to stand up after the gunpowder explosion!
But the opponent's whole body should not be tough, otherwise he would not have to dodge the knife in the neck.

At this time, Shopkeeper Yuan ignored the blood flowing from his thigh, closed one eye and turned around, staring at Chen Ji fiercely: "Why is it you? You secretly hid the firearms given by Prince Jing's Mansion and the Liu family?!"

Chen Ji did not answer, but just silently thought about how to kill the brown bear-like Manager Yuan. He had no idea what kind of official skills the other party had cultivated, and it seemed that he could never be killed.

In a flash, Shopkeeper Yuan rushed over like a chariot, and Chen Ji immediately retreated and circled in the yard.

But before Chen Ji could run two steps, he saw Manager Yuan kicking a brick and rushing towards him.

Bang!
Broken bricks brushed past Chen Ji's ears, the whistling wind blew his hair, and hit the wall not far away, shattering into pieces.

This kick was extremely terrifying. If Manager Yuan had not been blind in one eye and lost his aim, Chen Ji would have died on the spot!
Shopkeeper Yuan was furious when his strike failed, and he kicked the bricks and stones away one after another. The bricks and stones whizzed past like muskets, becoming more and more accurate and fierce!
Bang!
A piece of brick hit Chen Ji's back, and this single blow sent him tumbling out.

Chen Ji felt as if his heart and lungs were displaced by the explosion, but he did not dare to stop for a moment and stood up to continue running for his life. Before he had run a few steps, he saw Manager Yuan kicking the bricks and stones with two consecutive kicks, hitting his back and right leg one after the other.

Chen Ji fell down again, and the dagger flew five or six meters away. He tried to stand up, but he couldn't stand steadily.

Shopkeeper Yuan strode up to Chen Ji with big strides. He hung his broken right hand and stretched out his left hand to twist Chen Ji's neck.

But it was at this moment!
In silent silence, Chen Ji, who was lying on the ground, suddenly turned over and faced Manager Yuan!
Shopkeeper Yuan stared into Chen Ji's eyes and suddenly felt that there was no despair in those eyes, only calmness.

No, no!
This is not the look of a dying man!

In the blink of an eye, the sword energy that had been accumulating in Chen Ji's body for several days flowed along his meridians like a dragon and came to his fingertips!

Use the stars to nourish the sword and break everything in the world!
The incident happened suddenly, and at such a close distance, Shopkeeper Yuan had no way to avoid it.

I saw invisible sword energy shooting through the neck artery of Shopkeeper Yuan, and a stream of blood gushed out immediately!
The sword type that was once ridiculed by Old Man Yao as She Dengke's fart was nothing more than the power that Chen Ji had cultivated for an hour.

These days, Chen Ji has been learning swordsmanship from Feng Huai while maintaining his sword, patiently waiting for this invisible sword energy to become his final trump card.

Chen Ji pried open Manager Yuan's fingers with both hands, slowly pried open the fat hand, dropped it to the ground and started coughing violently.

Shopkeeper Yuan covered his neck in disbelief and stepped back step by step. Blood gushed out from between his fingers, quickly draining all his strength.

"When did you become an official? This is the way of sword cultivation. How do you know the method of sword cultivation in the Martial Temple? Did your mother teach you? But how could she master the method of sword cultivation..."

"The sword technique..."

"It turns out to be the sword technique!"

Shopkeeper Yuan fell down with a loud bang.

Chen Ji slumped on the ground. He raised his palms. Suddenly, sporadic snowflakes floated in the sky. The snowflakes fell into his palms and melted immediately.

He was a little confused for a moment. Did he finally kill Manager Yuan?
That night he first rescued the prince and Bai Li, and then dragged his wounds to assassinate Manager Yuan. It was clearly still dark, but it seemed as if he had endured a long season, from autumn to winter.

Before he could come to his senses, the sound of horse hooves could be heard on the street... The Secret Service had arrived!
Chen Ji struggled to get up and wanted to flee the scene quickly, but he fell heavily again as soon as he stood up. The last brick that Manager Yuan kicked up just now fell on his leg, breaking the wound on his leg.

At a critical moment.

There were footsteps not far away, and someone said in a serious tone: "So you are here. I have been looking for you all night!"

Chen Ji was stunned; this voice was extremely familiar.

……

……

At the end of Tongji Street, dozens of war horses were galloping towards them, and the Golden Pig was riding on the horse with a calm expression.

He was just about to lead his men to retreat in Red Lane several miles away when he heard the familiar explosion again.

Jin Zhu never imagined that this thief from Jing Dynasty who was in possession of firearms did not escape, but instead fled to other places in Luo City and committed serious crimes.

But the sound of the explosion was a little strange, as if it came from a place where merchants gathered. Jin Zhu thought for a long time but couldn't think of what the Jingchao thieves could do here. But the revenge of the explosion must be avenged.

Jin Zhu took the lead and rushed into Tongji Street. He saw the smoke and dust from afar and said, "Come here, seal off the area around Tongji Street. From tonight, only people are allowed to enter but not leave. Turn over every inch of this place and don't let even a single earthworm out!"

However, just as he finished speaking, a crow suddenly fell in the darkness.

The crow took off and landed like a gust of black wind, and people couldn't even see its specific appearance, it was so fast.

The crows did not fight with people, but just pecked at the eyes of the war horses again and again, scaring the horses so much that they flew up high and spread their hooves to try to get rid of the crows, and even threw the spies to the ground.

But then the golden pig jumped into the air from the horse's back, stepped on the saddle, and pounced on the crow in the sky.

The warhorse fell to the ground as it could not withstand the force of the recoil, and its fat figure crossed with the crow... and it didn't catch it!

Jin Zhu was immediately startled. The crow seemed to be faster than him. "What the hell is this? How can there be such a powerful crow... Officer?!"

"Use a crossbow! Shoot it down!"

The spies pulled out crossbows from their waists and shot into the night sky, but the crows made cackle sounds as they turned and moved, easily avoiding the crossbow arrows while mocking them.

Jin Zhu was sure that this must be some kind of official way, but when he recalled all the official ways he knew, he knew nothing about this kind of official way, as if the other party had never appeared in history.

how come?
The Silijian was the place in charge of the royal inner court's intelligence. Any official who appeared in the world would be recorded in the book, even folk legends would be recorded.

What kind of official connections are so hidden that there is not even a single word recorded in the archives of the Imperial Household Department?

"Abandon the horses!" The Golden Pig growled and took the lead in running wildly towards the Yuan Mansion, where smoke and dust were rising.

The crow became anxious, and it pecked at the spy with all its might. However, more and more spies came from behind, and the crossbow arrows almost formed a net in the air.

If it had fallen a little lower, it would have been pierced by several arrows!
The crows were forced to fly into the night sky.

In just over ten breaths, Golden Pig had arrived at the gate of the mansion where the explosion occurred. He leaped over the high gate and fell into the courtyard, but at this time, there was only a collapsed house and a stripped corpse left in the mansion.

When he looked up again, he didn't know where the crow had flown away.

"Chase, the murderer can't get far!"

……

……

A few hundred meters away, Chen Ji was carried on a man's shoulders, with another person following behind.

He looked at the person following him while the car was bumping, and said with difficulty: "Brother Biaozi? Didn't you leave already?"

Wu Hongbiao grinned and said, "I was originally planning to leave, but Si Cao thought you might want to do something alone, so he took me to stay. We heard the movement in Hongyi Lane earlier and sneaked over, but we didn't dare to get close. Later, you escaped from the roof, and we followed from a distance. I didn't recognize you at the time, and I thought you were some lawless lunatic."

The next moment, the driver Si Cao, who was carrying Chen Ji, said coldly, "Don't rush to chat. Be careful not to get caught up by others if your breath gets messy."

After that, he carried Chen Ji and turned left and right. It took him half an hour to finally reach a dark alley where a bullock cart was tied.

Si Cao threw Chen Ji on the cart board, and sat in the front, whipping the ox cart and driving it south.

Chen Ji sat up and asked: "Where are we going?"

The driver, Si Cao, said calmly, "Let's go south to Yangzhou to hide first, and then go north to Jing Dynasty after the Secret Service lifts the blockade. There is no place for us in Ning Dynasty anymore, so we have to go back to find your uncle."

Chen Ji was stunned. He looked back at the receding buildings and bluestone roads. Was he going to leave Ning Dynasty after all?

He whispered, "Is there no other way?"

"There is no other way. You injured Jin Zhu tonight and killed Liang and Yong. From now on, the Military Intelligence Department and the Secret Service Department will not tolerate you."

"Liang and Yong?"

"It was the shopkeeper Yuan whom you just killed." Si Caogui said coldly, "He was once your uncle's man, but he betrayed your uncle just to surrender to Lu Guanwu. A treacherous villain should be killed by everyone. Even if you don't kill him today, I will find a way to kill him before leaving."

Chen Ji leaned against the truck bed and remained silent for a long time: "Why are you so loyal to my uncle?"

Si Caogui tightened the reins in his hand: "This has nothing to do with you."

Chen Ji recalled the fight between himself and Manager Yuan and wondered, "What kind of skills did he practice? Why can't even a knife pierce his copper skin and iron bones?"

"Before he came to Ning Dynasty, he was arranged by your uncle to lurk in Kujue Temple in Shengjing City of Jing Dynasty, and practiced the Golden Bell Method. There is no shortcut to this method. One needs to ring the bell in front of the Buddha for ten years without missing a day, and the method will naturally become copper-skinned and iron-boned. However, he only rang the bell for ten years, so naturally there are still many flaws in his body. There was an old monk in Kujue Temple who rang the bell for sixty years, and his copper-skinned and iron-boned body had no flaws."

Chen Ji leaned back in the truck bed tiredly: "I've learned a lot. It turns out that ringing the bell can help me cultivate."

He recalled that the young monk beside the prince seemed to be the same, and he only needed to recite the Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva over and over again to practice.

In this case, wouldn't Buddhism and Taoism have mastered a lot of ways to practice? No wonder Buddhist Tongbao dared to rob the money houses of their business...

During the time since he came to Ning Dynasty, Chen Ji had not seen a single money shop on the street, so he thought that Fomen Tongbao was the only dominant one.

Chen Ji asked again: "How many officers do we have in the Military Intelligence Department?"

The driver was silent for a moment, as if he felt that they were friends, so he stopped hiding: "Before there were three, now there are ten, with the code names of Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui."

"what do you?"

"I am 'Gui' and Manager Yuan is 'Xin'."

The twelve zodiac signs of the Ning Dynasty correspond to the ten 'Heavenly Stems' of the Jing Dynasty.

Chen Ji asked: "Why is there no place for us in Ning Dynasty?"

Si Caogui said calmly, "Originally, everyone in the Military Intelligence Department was promoted by your uncle. Now that Lu Guanwu has been promoted to Military Strategy Officer and is in charge of all military intelligence of our Jing Dynasty, he has brought his old subordinates in, intending to slowly purge your uncle's old subordinates. The original head of the department was also an old subordinate of your uncle, but I have not been able to contact him for half a month. I am afraid he has been killed. Once the new head of the department takes office, there will definitely be another purge."

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Wait, if all of my uncle's former subordinates have been eliminated, then besides you, Manager Yuan, and Brother Biaozi, who else in the Military Intelligence Department knows about my identity as a Jing Dynasty spy?"

Si Caogui thought for a moment and replied, "The Master also knows."

Chen Ji took a deep breath and said, "But the director was also eliminated by Lu Guanwu. Does that mean that, apart from you and Brother Biaozi, no one in the Military Intelligence Department knows my identity?"

Si Caogui thought again and again: "Yes."

Chen Ji stood up and grabbed the reins in Si Caogui's hand, stopped the ox cart, and said firmly: "You guys go to Yangzhou, I will go back to Taiping Medical Clinic."

(End of this chapter)