The unreliable Zhufu Yan

"Young Master Zhang, wait for me!"

"A few soldiers are chasing me. Go and distract them. I'll give you this horse in a couple of days!"

"I'll go right away!"

The best way to shut up Zhufu Yan was to give away money, and Zhang Xuezhou found that this method always worked.

As long as there are benefits involved, the other party is quite reliable in handling matters.

Having worked together once before, Zhang Xuezhou knew Zhufu Yan too well; if this guy could do it, the other party would definitely do it too.

The other party seemed somewhat like a cultivator from the Yin-Yang School, lacking any legal or ethical guidelines in his behavior, and basically acting on impulse.

It was clearly no problem for Zhufu Yan to deal with a few soldiers from Fuping County.

Zhang Xuezhou saw that Zhufu Yan was closely following behind, glanced in the direction and then threw the groundhog tied to his waist.

Several cries of pain rang out, and soldiers chasing behind them fell off their horses one after another.

"Young Master Zhang, the matter is settled!"

Zhufu Yan shouted loudly, and then sprinted after the man.

I'll give you this horse in a couple of days!

Zhang Xuezhou called out from afar.

"Then I have a horse!" Zhufu Yan Fu shouted. "No one's chasing me now, wait for me!"

"No way, someone's still pursuing me!"

Zhang Xuezhou urged his mount to gallop, and in his vague senses, he felt that Ning Zhang Xuezhou seemed to be getting closer and closer to him.

This forced him to run a certain distance, even beyond the Northern Border.

Dong Zhongshu had to follow the route planned by the court. As a member of the Northern Border, Ning Cheng was not Cheng Bushi and others, and did not have the ability to break the rules.

Once he escapes the Northern Border, it means that Ning Cheng and the others are bound by territorial conflicts and will most likely have to return.

With his mount combining Demon Power to fly, Zhang Xuezhou was fairly confident in breaking out of the Northern Border.

Whenever his Demon Power is restored, he will abandon his horse and leap into the air to travel in a straight line, using the fastest and most direct method to escape the Northern Border border.

Zhang Xuezhou kept calculating the location and the corresponding distance.

"I didn't see anyone chasing you," the Zhufu Yan shouted.

"Someone has placed a Technique Method mark on me; they'll use that to track me down!"

"Who did this? Kill him!"

The method mentioned by Zhufu Yan was simple and crude.

Once the caster dies, the Technique Method's mark naturally disappears.

But this is far more risky than trying to escape.

If Zhang Xuezhou could defeat his opponent, he wouldn't need to flee.

"That man is wearing a scholar's hat and a long blue robe. He'll definitely be chasing me along this route. If you can smash a bunch of rats in his hair, I'll give you a string of cash!"

"A single string of cash? I've got your money covered!"

In the short time they met again, Zhufu Yan's head began to throb with excitement.

In a short period of time, he acquired a mount and a string of cash.

If you were to ask why Zhufu Yan believed in such things, it would simply be because Zhufu Yan's simple belief was that the rich wouldn't cheat the poor, and Zhang Xuezhou had never lied to anyone when he was with him before, and many of the things he had said in advance had come true.

Besides, it's not a big deal to smash someone's floor with rats.

Zhufu Yan had a history of using stones to shoot birds; even if he were caught, he wouldn't necessarily be sentenced to death.

Having eagerly agreed to the task, Zhufu Yan did not chase after Zhang Xuezhou any further, but instead lay down behind a boulder and waited patiently.

He didn't wait too long; after about fifteen minutes, Zhufu Yan saw several military horses galloping towards him from afar.

His eyes weren't on the two generals wearing large crowns in front of him, but rather on the middle-aged man in a scholar's hat at the very back.

"The scholar's hat and the long blue robe—that's it!"

With the money in sight, Zhufu Yan instinctively tightened his grip on the gopher at his waist.

Once the warhorses had charged past, he was flung away like a groundhog.

"Oh!"

As he expected, a cry of pain rang out, and the target struck was thrown off his horse.

"Whoa!"

The sound of horses being reined in repeatedly rang out, forcing the generals ahead to halt their pursuit.

"Ning Lushi, what's wrong?"

"That damn gopher, I don't know where it came from, popped into my head and it's making it buzz!"

"You got hit by a groundhog?"

Where are the groundhogs?

"Why are you looking for that thing? Do you want to kill it for revenge?!"

"First, stop the bleeding for Secretary Ning!"

"Fortunately, General Lang knows healing arts!"

"Don't rush to chase that kid, you won't lose him!"

"The governor said that kid isn't very strong, and he was worried we'd chase him to death!"

"Why does he write insults all day long when he has nothing better to do?"

"I reckon he's Confucian School. Those Confucian School scholars love to talk big, so it's not surprising they'd do something so despicable!"

The pursuers dismounted, and their conversation was not flustered, but rather remarkably composed.

Once the bleeding of the dazed Ning Cheng was stopped, everyone took their own actions.

"He's about twenty li away from us now. There aren't many people on that road; we can find him by following the hoofprints!"

Zhufu Yan was quite powerful; his gopher attack left Ning Cheng with a bloody head. Although the blood had stopped flowing from Ning Cheng's head, he was still feeling dizzy and had no choice but to entrust the direction of their pursuit.

Some people stayed behind to look after Ningcheng, while two other riders rode off in the indicated direction.

Zhufu Yan lay behind the boulder, concealing his presence, like a cold stone.

Whether Zhang Xuezhou was satisfied or not, he had finished his work.

Now he just waited to collect his payment.

Once these people have gone a little further away, Zhufu Yan will go to Zhang Xuezhou to demand the money back.

Thinking about how his life had changed in such a short time, Zhufu Yan felt a sense of satisfaction.

He lay on the ground, his eyes half-closed, until the sound of coughing alerted Zhufu Yan Fuyan.

"Was that the gopher you just threw?"

On the boulder, Ning Cheng coughed several times, then held the stiff, blood-stained ground squirrel in his hand.

He looked at Zhufu Yan lay motionless beneath the boulder.

If it weren't for his expertise in tracking techniques, Zhufu Yan's lifeless, corpse-like state would have almost fooled them.

"You dare to play dead in front of us? Take this sword from me, Lu!"

The wind and waves whipped up snowflakes, and a heavy chill swept over him. Zhufu Yan quickly opened his eyes.

He braced himself, and slid more than a meter away.

The heavy sword crashed to the ground, shattering rocks that flew out. Zhufu Yan felt a sharp pain, and a thick, bloody aura instantly filled his eyes.

"You scoundrel! You seem to have some skill. I'll have to put in a little more effort!"

The general surnamed Lu shouted, and a faint red light suddenly appeared on his heavy sword, which he wielded with wide, sweeping strokes.

The military commander's most skillful move, the sweeping sword, descended, slashing at Zhufu Yan in the waist.

"Too slow!"

Zhufu Yan spoke in a low voice, and the Double Swallow Sword, which was tied to his calf, was revealed.

He tapped the blade of the heavy sword with his short sword, and the Lu-surname general wielding the heavy sword struggled to control it, almost dropping it from his hand.

"Hey!"

With a loud shout, the general surnamed Lu dropped his heavy sword. As he kicked the snow with his left leg, his right hand released the heavy sword and seized it like a tiger's claw.

"Be glad you're wearing that official's coattails, otherwise I would have killed you long ago!"

Zhufu Yan's double-edged sword pierced through the wind and snow, stirring up waves of red smoke.

As the general surnamed Lu groaned in pain, he had already leaped more than ten meters away.

But the satisfaction and pride on Zhufu Yan's face had not yet been revealed; his feet seemed to be rooted to the spot, and he could not pull them out no matter what he did.

Looking down, Zhufu Yan was also horrified.

The muddy ground beneath his feet miraculously turned into stone the instant he stepped on it, firmly fixing his feet to the stone.

"Tch, you greenhorn, don't you know that it was Registrar Ning who truly made the move!"

The military officer surnamed Lu cursed, and Ning Cheng gritted his teeth in protest.

"I hate it most when someone hits me on the head, especially with a groundhog. It not only hurts, but it also makes me lose face!"

When the general surnamed Lu slapped him, Zhufu Yan didn't dare to block it.

His legs were entangled in the Technique Method and he could hardly move. If he tried to block any more, he would probably be struck by a heavy sword instead of being slapped in the face.

"Damn it, if I could reach the Divine Ability Realm, or even just the Integration Realm, I..."

A burning sensation spread across his face, and the world filled with white snow made Zhufu Yan feel somewhat disoriented.

He muttered to himself for a moment, then pondered how he could escape.

"Gentlemen, please spare my life! It was that Zhang guy who ordered me to throw gophers at a man in a blue robe. I did as he said!"

He quickly distanced himself from the situation.

Anyway, he got the job done, he smashed the moles as they were supposed to, and he even knocked someone off their horse. Regardless of the final outcome, Zhang Xuezhou should pay the reward.

"Gentlemen, I know something important. If you just ignore me, I'll..."

As for what he might have accidentally revealed, or what methods he might have used to escape, Zhufu Yan felt that was another matter entirely.