Yours truly, Ouyang Feng

Chapter 46: 46, Imperial Garden Treasure

Ouyang Feng, Hong Qi, and Lin Chaoying stood in the shadow of the alley, silently watching the five masked men in black walking away.

After the five figures disappeared, Hong Qi whispered:

"Could those five people be the Qinling Five Tigers?"

Lin Chaoying said: "Looking at their figures, there are exactly three men and two women. They may be the five evil thieves."

Ouyang Feng said: "Why don't we catch up with them and take a look? Anyway, we already know where the Qinling Five Tigers live. Even if we chase them in the wrong place, it won't be too late to come back and look for them later."

Hong Qi and Lin Chaoying both nodded in agreement.

The three of them immediately used their lightness skills to chase in the direction where the five masked men in black had disappeared.

Although the five people had disappeared from the sight of Ouyang Feng and the other two, they could not be silent when they were running and leaping.

Ouyang Feng and the other two focused their ears and listened carefully. They could easily catch the sound of their shoes rubbing against each other and the sound of their clothes tearing through the air when they leaped, and they easily caught up with the five people.

Although those five men were also quite skilled in martial arts, they were still far inferior to Ouyang Feng and his two companions.

In addition, the three of them all have extraordinary lightness skills. Ouyang Feng's "Thousands of Miles in an Instant" is as fast as the wind, and his "dragonfly skimming the water" technique allows him to land silently and leap like flying. Lin Chaoying's lightness skills are elegant and agile, and her speed, agility and quietness are even better than Ouyang Feng. Even Hong Qi, a big man from Shandong, can perform the "Xiao Yao You" lightness skill, which is like a fluttering butterfly. Not only is his posture graceful, but the noise he makes when flying and leaping is also minimal.

So Ouyang Feng and the other two followed the sound and chased the five masked men in black, but the five men were completely unaware of their presence.

While tracking, the three of them were talking in a voice as soft as a mosquito, which they could hear each other but the five people in front of them could never hear.

Hong Qi: "Look at where those five guys are going. They seem to be heading for the Xixia Imperial Palace?"

Lin Chaoying: "Do they want to enter the palace to steal treasures?"

Ouyang Feng: "You don't need to bring a shovel or a pickaxe to steal treasures from the palace, right?"

Hong Qi: "The Xixia Forbidden Palace is heavily guarded. Those heavily armored guards who were born in the Iron Harriers, wearing 'wart armor' and equipped with divine arm crossbows are not easy to deal with. So maybe they want to dig a tunnel to get into the palace treasury?"

The famous "Shenbi Crossbow" in the Song Dynasty army was passed down from Western Xia. It was during the Xining period of Song Shenzong that a Dangxiang man named Li Ding defected to the Song Dynasty with the Shenbi Crossbow technology.

As the origin of the Shenbi crossbow, the Western Xia army was of course equipped with a large number of Shenbi crossbows.

This crossbow can even penetrate heavy armor, so it naturally poses a considerable threat to martial arts masters.

At this time, the five masked men in black had arrived at the wall of the Royal Garden next to the Imperial Palace. They used a human ladder to climb over the more than two-meter-high wall and entered the garden.

Seeing the five masked men enter the Imperial Garden, Hong Qi and Lin Chaoying couldn't help but feel a little strange.

The royal gardens are all gardens. Although there are some pavilions and buildings, they are only used for nobles to relax when they visit the gardens and enjoy the scenery. There will be no treasures worthy of being stolen at night by martial arts masters.

"So, are those five guys flower and tree lovers? They came with pickaxes and shovels to steal the rare flowers and trees in the imperial garden?"

Hong Qi put himself in other people's shoes and began to make associations - as a food lover himself, it was definitely possible for him to sneak into the Forbidden Palace in the middle of the night and steal the delicacies from the imperial kitchen.

So it seems reasonable that a martial arts master with a fanatical love for exotic flowers and plants would run to the imperial garden in the middle of the night to steal rare flowers and trees?

Lin Chaoying smiled and said, "Your statement is too absurd..."

Ouyang Feng had some ideas about the purpose of those five people.

His primary purpose of this trip to Xingqing Prefecture was to obtain the Xiaoyao Sect martial arts that Li Qiushui left behind in Xixia.

Li Qiushui's Xiaoyao Sect martial arts seemed to be carved on the stone wall of an underground cave. The entrance to the underground cave was located at the residence of Xuzhu's wife, Princess Yinchuan.

Ouyang Feng didn't remember where Princess Yinchuan lived, so he planned to slowly explore after arriving in Xingqing Prefecture, and was prepared to spend a long time.

Now seeing the five masked men in black climbing into the Imperial Garden, he vaguely remembered some details.

Princess Yinchuan’s residence seems to be in the Imperial Garden?

So, are those five people looking for Li Qiushui's hidden cave? While thinking about it, I heard Lin Chaoying say:
"Go and see what they are up to."

At that moment, the three of them flew to the wall of the Imperial Garden, jumped onto the top of the wall, climbed into the Imperial Garden, and then caught sight of the movements of the five people and chased after them.

There were no nobles living in the Royal Garden now, so there were no guards patrolling inside. The five masked men in black swaggered straight to their destination and came to a small garden with flowers, a forest and a pond.

Then four of them took pickaxes and shovels and knocked on the ground, while another one lay on the ground with his ear to the ground and listened carefully.

Ouyang Feng and the other two hid in the shadow of a rockery and watched the five people busying themselves from afar. Hong Qi and Lin Chaoying were a little confused, but Ouyang Feng was basically certain that he had guessed correctly.

As for why they wanted to dig in this small garden, Ouyang Feng could guess some of the reasons - before coming, he had done some homework and knew that an earthquake had occurred in Xingqing Prefecture more than 40 years ago, and the aftershocks lasted for more than a month.

After the earthquake, Princess Yinchuan's residence was probably razed to the ground, and it was never rebuilt but directly converted into a garden.

Then the entrance to the secret passage that was originally located in Princess Yinchuan’s residence must have been buried underground by now.

At this time, Lin Chaoying became a little impatient and said:

"Those five people are acting strangely. Don't worry about what they are doing. Just go and capture them to confirm their identities. If they are really the Five Tigers of Qinling, kill them on the spot."

Just as he was about to go out and take action, a light shout suddenly came from the five masked men in black:
"There seems to be a hole underground here!"

But it was the man in black who was listening closely who discovered something.

Seeing this, Ouyang Feng whispered to Lin Chaoying:

"Why don't we wait a little longer? If those five guys are really the Qinling Five Tigers, they can't escape with the three of us here. Why don't we first see what they are looking for? We have already chased them all the way, so there is no need to rush."

Hong Qi began to use his imagination again:

"There is a hole underground! So are they looking for a secret passage leading to the inside of the palace? If there really is such a secret passage, it would be great news! In the future... well, if the Han Dynasty recovers its homeland and goes to war with Xixia, maybe we can send a team of experts to go straight to the Xixia Palace through the secret passage, attack its heart, and capture the thief and the king!"

Well, after Hong Qi had given Ouyang Feng a lecture, he was too embarrassed to talk about supporting the Song Dynasty anymore, and only vaguely referred to it as the "Han Dynasty".

Lin Chaoying thought about it and tried to suppress her emotion.

At this time, the four masked men in black had surrounded the man and were listening to him on the ground. They were hitting him with pickaxes and shovels. There was also a guy with particularly strong legs who stomped his feet on the ground, making a dull sound, showing that his leg strength was quite extraordinary.

Listening closely to the man for a while, he was certain:

"Yes, there is indeed a hole underground, about five or six feet below the ground."

A woman said anxiously: "What are you waiting for? Start digging!"

Several people immediately picked up pickaxes and shovels and started digging frantically.

They were all martial arts masters, and after finding the right spot, they dug very efficiently, and soon dug five or six feet into the ground and found a stone slab covered with cracks. Seeing this stone slab, the five people were overjoyed, and one of them rubbed his hands and said:
"This must be the entrance to the treasure! Hurry up and get the 'Fossil Pill' and melt this stone slab!"

At that moment, someone took out a gray-white pill the size of a longan, placed it on a stone slab, and rolled it along the crack on the stone slab for a while. When he used a pickaxe and shovel to dig, the stone slab had unexpectedly become as soft as soil.

After only a short while, the stone slab was dug open, revealing a dark hole.

Seeing this cave entrance, the five people were overjoyed, and one of them said in a trembling voice:

"We have found the treasure of the magic skill! When the magic skill is perfected, we, the Five Tigers of Qinling, will be able to dominate the world and no one will be able to defeat us!"

Hearing this person admit his identity, Lin Chaoying, who was already a little impatient, could no longer hold back and shouted:
"Look at the sword, evil thief!"

Before he finished speaking, his figure rushed out like a wisp of smoke, his long sword was unsheathed, transformed into a ray of cold moonlight, and stabbed at a masked woman with two daggers on her waist.

After Lin Chaoying had already made her move, Hong Qi also quickly jumped out, holding a bamboo stick and rushing towards a tall masked man.

Ouyang Feng, who originally wanted to wait for the five men to go down the cave to explore the way, shook his head helplessly, and quickly followed them, attacking a masked man of medium build with exceptionally broad fingers and palms.

Since there is a heroine named Lin Chaoying, then the two women among the five, Ouyang Feng and Hong Qi, will naturally be handed over to Lin.
(End of this chapter)