嫩草影院地址一二三

Chapter 472: 472. Mo Yan kidnapped her

At the break of dawn, Old Mu’s group had already left Xingluo Island far behind, and was on their way back to Jiaye City.

Feng Ming had slept a lot while he was locked in the dungeon, so he didn’t feel sleepy at night. He volunteered to help steer the boat and stayed awake all night.

When Old Mu woke up, he wanted to switch places with Feng Ming to let him rest, but Feng Ming insisted that he wasn’t tired. He looked somewhat ashamed and said, “My master sent me back to Xingluo Island, but not only did I fail to accomplish anything, I also caused trouble for all of you.”

Old Mu stood up and looked towards the direction of Xingluo Island. As far as he could see, the seas were vast, and there were no islands or land within sight.

“Don’t say that,” Old Mu turned his head and sighed, “At least your actions have let us know Sheng Yue’s attitude. Maybe it seems like you returned empty-handed this time, but who knows about the future? Don’t think too much about it.”

Feng Ming nodded, “Thank you for consoling me, senior.”

Cheng Yun was sitting cross-legged on the boat, pretending to take a nap. At this moment, he opened his eyes and looked towards the fishbelly-white glow appearing in the east where the sky met the sea. “Amitabha, I hope everything is well at home.”

On the other side, Gu Ling and Qiao Jing had no idea about Old Mu’s group’s encounter. They had set off yesterday afternoon and were on their way to the designated meeting place, which they would reach before the sun rose.

Gu Ling and Qiao Jing were still on the same boat. Qiao Jing had disguised himself as Gu Ling, and Gu Ling had disguised himself as Qiao Jing. Their clothes were also switched, so when they stood together, there were no flaws in their appearances.

For this trip, they had a total of ten boats and a thousand soldiers, most of whom were archers from the army.

The sea breeze was crisp in the early morning, and Qiao Jing stood at the bow of the boat, looking eastwards. “If we can kill Mo Yan today, we can all go home. I am getting married to Min Rou this year. What gift will you give us?”

“What’s the meaning of asking for a gift?” Gu Ling asked back.

Qiao Jing snorted, “If I don’t ask, will you take the initiative to give one?”

“Is it that important for me to give or not give?” Gu Ling asked back again.

Qiao Jing’s lips curved slightly, “It’s important. You’ve said it yourself that your luck is good. Share some of your good luck with me.”

“Wait and see,” Gu Ling said indifferently.

The morning glow had reddened half of the sky, and the sun was about to rise. They had arrived at the agreed-upon location.

Qiao Jing ordered all the boats to stop moving forward and rest.

“What if Mo Yan doesn’t come today?” Qiao Jing asked.

Gu Ling, of course, had considered this possibility. “Then we’ll just go back.”

“I still hope he comes. Let’s settle this matter once and for all today.” Now that Qiao Jing had someone on his mind, he couldn’t wait to grow wings and fly back to the capital city.

When the sun came up, Gu Ling and Qiao Jing had already eaten a simple breakfast, and the small boats sent out to scout had not returned yet.

Qiao Jing asked Gu Ling if he wanted to go to another boat, but Gu Ling shook his head and said it was not necessary yet.

“My grandfather and the others should be almost at Xingluo Island. I wonder how things are on their end.” Qiao Jing was worried about Old Mu and the others’ mission.

Gu Ling shook his head, “If Sheng Yue is on the island, they probably won’t be able to blow up the forbidden area.”

Qiao Jing frowned, “Do you think so highly of Sheng Yue? If that’s the case, why did you let my grandfather and the others risk going to Xingluo Island?”

Gu Ling’s expression remained calm, “Whether Mo Yan comes today, and whether Sheng Yue is on the island or not, are all just guesses. They’re possible, but not certain. It’s worth a try. Even if Sheng Yue is there and they can’t succeed, they won’t be in mortal danger, and we can at least see Sheng Yue’s attitude.”

After hearing Gu Ling’s words, Qiao Jing felt that the possibility of Qiao Cong and the others failing was quite high. However, as they said from the beginning, as long as the people were safe, they could find a solution to the other problems later.

Gu Ling went back to the cabin to rest and told the others to call him if there was any news.

By the time the scouts came back, it was already approaching noon.

During this time, Gu Ling had taken a nap and woke up to hear Qiao Jing saying that a scout had discovered the ship from Xingluo Island. There was only one ship, and they had not greeted them. They saw it from a distance and turned back, unsure if Mo Yan was on board.

“The ship has the flag of Xingluo Island.” Qiao Jing said. Xingluo Island had a totem designed by Mo Yan, with a red background and a black six-pointed star pattern. Min Rou and Sheng Yue had mentioned this, and the scout saw a large flag flying on the ship with this pattern.

Those without a flag might not necessarily be from Xingluo Island, but those who come openly displaying it must be from the island.

Qiao Jing asked Gu Ling again, seeing that he still had no intention of keeping his distance from him, and ordered the ten ships to line up in a fan-shaped formation on the sea. When Xingluo Island’s ship approached, it would be easy to form an encirclement.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, a black spot appeared in the field of vision, then slowly enlarged. Gu Ling saw the flag of Xingluo Island flying high on the ship.

“I think Mo Yan has come. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent a small time underling to invite you to Xingluo Island, which he knows is impossible.” Qiao Jing said to Gu Ling.

Gu Ling shook his head slightly and did not speak.

Soon, the ship from Xingluo Island approached. Gu Ling still did not hide on another ship but stood beside Qiao Jing, watching the approaching ship with cold eyes.

When there were about fifty meters left, the ship from Xingluo Island stopped. An old man in white clothes appeared on the bow of the ship, accompanied by a group of people. The figure and appearance of the man matched the description of Mo Yan given by Min Rou and Sheng Yue.

At this moment, Qiao Jing, who was pretending to be Gu Ling, didn’t ask for Gu Ling’s opinion and directly ordered, “Fire the arrows!”

The next moment, a piece of oilcloth on the ship was lifted, revealing the cannon designed by Lao Mu underneath, pointed at the bow of the ship from Xingluo Island.

Meanwhile, the other nine ships had already surrounded the ship from Xingluo Island from a distance, with archers on standby. They began indiscriminate attacks on the ship.

“Gu Ling!” Mo Yan, who was in the middle of the boat, was protected by people shielding him from arrows coming from all directions. The cannon fired at the ship, but the explosives were shot down into the sea midway.

Qiao Jing snorted coldly, “State your name!”

“I came here today to negotiate at the request of my granddaughter! What are you doing? Where is Su Liang?” Mo Yan shouted loudly.

Qiao Jing glanced at Gu Ling and saw that his face was expressionless. “Continue, fire attack.”

Qiao Jing felt that something was not quite right, but he had no time to think about it at the moment. At his command, the catapults on each ship began to launch explosives at the ship from Xingluo Island, while arrows ignited with fire were also shot towards the ship.

This was a one-sided attack, as the ship from Xingluo Island had no means of retaliating.

Soon, the first explosion occurred on the ship, and it quickly caught fire. People who had already left the bow of the ship began to jump into the water.

Qiao Jing’s expression became serious, and he couldn’t see where Mo Yan was. “Could it be that he pretends to be weak until he gets underwater, swims to our ship, and then…” touches this ship, and collects it?

Gu Ling nodded, “It’s possible.” As he spoke, he raised his bow and arrow. With narrowed eyes, he aimed at one of the people jumping from the ship into the sea and shot him through the heart.

It was not clear how many people were on the ship from Xingluo Island, but even if they jumped into the sea, they had no way out. As soon as they surfaced, they were immediately attacked by dense arrows.

The battle ended quickly. The sea was left with only a burning wreckage of the ship, and more than a dozen floating corpses. Even the flag of Xingluo Island had been reduced to ashes in the fire.

Qiao Jing still didn’t dare to take any risks, feeling that Mo Yan couldn’t have died so easily. He was just about to persuade Gu Ling to go to another ship, just in case, when he suddenly saw a corpse drifting towards their ship. It turned out to be Mo Yan, who had been surrounded by people on the opposite bow just a short time ago!

“Is he really dead? Or is he just pretending? Hurry up and shoot a few more arrows!” Qiao Jing urged Gu Jing.

Gu Ling shook his head, “There’s no need to waste arrows.” He had killed Mo Yan with an arrow through the heart – he could not be alive. The arrow was still in his body, floating on the surface of the sea like a long spear.

Qiao Jing ordered the body to be salvaged.

Soon, the number of people was confirmed. There were thirteen, all middle-aged or older, with half of them being elderly. There were no young people.

Mo Yan’s body was salvaged onto the ship where Qiao Jing and Gu Ling were, and it was confirmed that he was dead.

Qiao Jing bent down to examine the body, surprised to exclaim, “The face is real! It’s not a disguise!” He had thought that the Mo Yan who came today might be a fake, which was why the situation had turned out this way, and Gu Ling had guessed it earlier.

“A real face does not mean the person is real.” Gu Ling’s expression was calm.

Qiao Jing lifted Mo Yan’s right hand, on which was a ruby ring, “Is this the item?”

Gu Ling shook her head, “Fake.”

Qiao Jing still took off the ring, looked it over carefully, and didn’t find anything special. He handed it to Gu Ling, “What if this is Mo Yan? He really came to talk peace with you, but he didn’t expect you to be so cruel.”

Gu Ling looked at the ruby ring in her hand, her expression indifferent, “If Mo Yan is so careless, he would have been dead long ago and wouldn’t have lived until now.”

“Did you expect that the real Mo Yan would not show up today?” Qiao Jing frowned.

Gu Ling shook her head, “There’s a possibility, but not necessarily. Let’s go back.”

Qiao Jing ordered to return. After a while, he looked back at the ship that had been burned to almost nothing, and couldn’t help feeling frustrated, “If I had known this, I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to come here. Do you think Mo Yan is still on the island?”

Gu Ling shook her head, “I can’t predict the future, but Mo Yan is likely to have gone to the capital city.”

Qiao Jing’s face changed, “There’s danger at home! Let’s hurry back!”

As Gu Ling said, he was not sure whether Sheng Yue would be guarding the forbidden area on Xingluo Island or not; there was only a possibility. Likewise, he didn’t know whether Mo Yan would come today or not, so there was only a possibility that he wouldn’t. They made arrangements, but the enemy would not act entirely according to their plans, which was foreseeable, but how the enemy would act was unknowable.

Exactly because he guessed that Mo Yan’s magic treasure might be able to capture living people, Gu Ling decided to come to the appointment today, because Mo Yan might appear.

But the fact proved that Mo Yan was really cautious in order to survive until now. In other words, he was afraid of dying; otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited so long not daring to walk the road he once walked. Going back in time was his ultimate wish, but being alive was more important.

“If that person was Mo Yan’s substitute, why should he bother? If he simply didn’t send anyone today, wouldn’t it be more convenient?” Qiao Jing puzzled.

“In case I was as naive as you and really thought he was dead, his purpose of arranging a substitute would have been achieved,” Gu Ling’s expression was indifferent, “Moreover, the people who came today, apart from his substitute, should also be those disloyal people he has long wanted to eliminate.”

“Could it be…” Qiao Jing lowered his voice, “Mo Yan knew early on that you weren’t the transmigrator, but Su Liang was?”

Gu Ling shook her head, “Not necessarily, but if he guessed it, it would be normal.” Sheng Yue could guess it, it would be normal for Mo Yan as the transmigrator to discover that Su Liang should be the transmigrator. Not discovering would be his mistake. Mistakes are good for Gu Ling and Su Liang, but they can’t rely on them.

“Then what’s next? Would it be that when you return to the capital city, Su Liang has already fallen into Mo Yan’s hands? In that case, he can control Su Liang, and we can’t save him; wouldn’t he be able to do whatever he wants?” Qiao Jing felt the situation was bad.

“Go back, get ready, and take over Xingluo Island,” Gu Ling said.

“But you said that if Sheng Yue’s on top of it…” Qiao Jing sighed, “My grandfather and the others can’t deal with Sheng Yue. If you go personally, it would be different. If Mo Yan really went to the capital city to catch Su Liang, it’s probably too late for you to rush back now.”

Capital City.

In the blink of an eye, it was the first day of March. Su Liang wrote “meeting at sea” on the calendar, but was also very doubtful whether Mo Yan would really go.

The weather was good today, Min Rou and Weng Ran had arranged to go boating on the lake with Nangong Qian. Min Rou came early to the Su Mansion, and when she saw Weng Ran, Yan Shiba was also there. She had been impersonating Su Liang for most of the past month, everyone in the mansion knew this, but Min Rou was not aware of it and did not recognize her, she laughed and asked Yan Shiba, “The weather is so nice, let’s all go boating on the lake together with Nuannuan.”

Yan Shiba’s imitation of Su Liang’s smile had become indistinguishable from the real one. He shook his head at the question, “I really want to go out for a stroll, but I’ll leave Gu Xiaonuan at home, she is troublesome.”

Weng Ran tried to hold back her laughter, and Nangong Qian was covering her mouth and smiling too.

Min Rou was puzzled, “What are you laughing at?”

Weng Ran and Nangong Qian looked at each other, shook their heads and said, “Nothing, let’s go.” They were planning to see when Min Rou would find out Yan Shiba’s loophole.

The four young ladies left Su Mansion together, riding horses towards Jingyue Lake. Passing by the capital city’s main street, they became a beautiful scene, attracting the attention of many people.

At this time, the door of Su Mansion was tightly closed, Su Liang was teaching two young disciples how to make medicine in Yuanming Pavilion, while Cen Man walked along the lake with Gu Xiaonuan in her arms.

“Master’s wife, today is the day master and the big villain meet, right?” Ji Xiaoshu asked Su Liang.

Su Liang nodded, “Yes.”

“I hope Master is successful in killing that villain.” Zhengzheng’s young face looked serious.

Su Liang smiled, “That would be best.”

“When Master comes back, let’s go to the north together! Didn’t Master’s wife say she would take us to her hometown?” Ji Xiaoshu excitedly proposed.

Su Liang nodded slightly, “Alright, I’ll take you all.” Recently, she had received another letter from Su Family Village. Bai Xiaohu and Zhuzi, the two brothers, were now studying well and their letters were becoming more eloquent.

Yan Shiba and Min Rou, along with their group of four, played on a boat at Jingyue Lake for half a day. Approaching noon, they went ashore and headed to the Wan Family Restaurant for lunch.

Min Rou had never realized that the “Su Liang” beside her was actually Yan Shiba in disguise, because Yan Shiba was earnest about this matter and had overcome the small flaws that had appeared before with the help of reminders from the people around her. Especially Zhengzheng and Ji Xiaoshu, who had given Yan Shiba a lot of “guidance” on this matter.

However, Yan Shiba had yet to succeed in deceiving Gu Xiaonuan every day, trying to get her to call out for her mother, and she still hadn’t succeeded once.

Yesterday, Ji Xiaoshu bluntly pointed out why it couldn’t succeed: Gu Xiaonuan was clever, and she knew that her mother wouldn’t force her to call her mommy. Yan Shiba could only say, “Nuannuan is too smart, but I won’t give up!”

After having lunch at the restaurant, Yan Shiba followed Su Liang’s habit and packed some dishes that the children liked. When it was time to leave, they were ready to take them home.

The four of them rode on their horses, with Yan Shiba and Min Rou in the front, and Nangong Qian and Weng Ran in the back. Since Yan Shiba was present, Cen Man didn’t specifically come out to protect Nangong Qian. Today was a girls’ gathering.

Weng Ran and Nangong Qian stealthily made a bet. Weng Ran thought Min Rou would recognize Yan Shiba before they got home, but Nangong Qian thought otherwise. So the two of them were observing Min Rou and Yan Shiba in secret, which was rather interesting.

As they were walking, someone suddenly shouted not far ahead, “My child! My child has been kidnapped!”

Yan Shiba’s eyes slightly narrowed and saw a black shadow darting into an alley.

Min Rou rode her horse over without hesitation. Yan Shiba leaped into the air and moved even faster, overtaking Min Rou in the blink of an eye and entering the alley first. Before entering, she didn’t look back but made a stopping gesture to Weng Ran and Nangong Qian.

Nangong Qian frowned, “Sister Yan’s martial arts are very high, she shouldn’t be in any trouble, right?”

However, Weng Ran understood the meaning of Yan Shiba’s gesture and sighed, “She should… be in trouble.”

When Min Rou arrived at the alley, she saw a masked man in black throwing away the kidnapped child and clashing with Yan Shiba!

Just as Min Rou was about to dismount and help, she saw a shocking scene: Yan Shiba, who had just drawn her sword, disappeared in front of her!

“Su Liang!” Min Rou cried out in shock and looked into a pair of unfamiliar yet familiar old eyes. She widened her eyes and said, “Mo…”

The masked man in black looked deeply at Min Rou and then soared into the air, disappearing from her sight after a few leaps.

When Min Rou rushed into the alley, all that was left was her and the frightened, shivering child.

As Min Rou, pale-faced, carried the child out and handed it to the panicked woman, Weng Ran dismounted and supported her.

“Su Liang… Su Liang was captured by Mo… Mo Yan! It must be Mo Yan! I recognize him!” Min Rou suddenly grabbed Weng Ran’s arm. “He actually… that thing can actually take people away…” She didn’t know how to describe it.

But Weng Ran knew what was going on. Because Su Liang was so busy, the person Yan Shiba was closest to in Su Mansion was actually Weng Ran. She had told Weng Ran long ago why she wanted to impersonate Su Liang and what she might encounter.

Therefore, when she heard today that a child had been kidnapped in broad daylight, Yan Shiba knew that it was very likely Mo Yan had come, and she wouldn’t hide from it. Because when Gu Ling went to Jiaye City to confess her secret to Old Mu and the others, Su Liang had also told some people in her family that she was a Transmigrator and that Mo Yan had a portable space.

Yan Shiba knew that if Mo Yan really came, with his powerful magic treasure hidden in the dark, no one could stop him from capturing people, and what he would definitely capture was Su Liang. If he broke into Su Mansion, the consequences would be disastrous, and the children might be captured as well.

So, as long as she could deceive Mo Yan and let him take a fake Su Liang away, it would be like guarding their home in the capital city.

To achieve this, Yan Shiba was extremely serious, very dedicated, with the sole purpose of deceiving Mo Yan. She wanted to be the perfect Su Liang substitute, and she had to be captured to be safe. Because at present, they had no good way to defeat Mo Yan, they could only avoid becoming too passive. She made it. The gesture she gave Weng Ran meant that she wasn’t nervous at the time, meaning “not to worry, don’t care about her.”

Last night, Yan Shiba went to sleep with Weng Ran and said before going to bed that she owed Su Liang a lot. Although she was determined to be a good person, her life now was peaceful, but to be honest, it lacked excitement for her; she was born restless. From the day Yan Shiba started impersonating Su Liang, she had told Weng Ran more than once that she was looking forward to Mo Yan, the old bastard, coming to capture Su Liang and taking her away; it would be so exciting. She would wait for Su Liang to save her again.

Fortunately, today Min Rou didn’t discover Yan Shiba’s impersonation, and she was someone Mo Yan knew and was familiar with. Her performance at the critical moment made Yan Shiba’s substitution plan even more successful.

“Let’s go home first and talk about it.” Weng Ran looked at the empty alley and patted Min Rou’s shoulder.