Chapter 7: The White Dragon Cult

  Tang Song was seized from behind, and for a moment he was so frightened that his soul left him. He hastily begged for mercy: "Good fellow, spare my life! Take all the money on me, just don't harm my life!"

  "Who would have thought that the assassin behind him let out a cold laugh and said: 'You are Cao Bin's trusted aide, yet you're so afraid of death. Don't worry, as long as you tell me what I want to know, I'll let you go. Tell me, why did you sneak into the palace at night?'"

  It's a woman, she came to the Cao family on purpose! Tang Song was furious in his heart. What the Cao family feared most was not the trouble from the official family, but those who fell into the well and threw stones at them. This woman must have been sent by someone to hinder the Cao family's plan. Tang Song also stopped struggling and said in a gloomy tone: "If I say that I entered the palace as a eunuch and was driven out, would you believe me?"

  Feeling a chill in his crotch, Tang Song didn't dare say another word. The female assassin slowly moved the dagger downwards and said calmly: "If you want to be a eunuch, I can fulfill your wish right now."

  "I entered the palace in order to protect the Cao family's integrity." Tang Song said in a low voice.

  "Tell me your plan."

  "We will shift the blame onto others and let Cao Bin take the fall."

  A cold hum, the female assassin lightly slashed Tang Song's neck with a dagger, and instantly a thread of fresh blood flowed out from the wound.

  "If you tell one more lie, I'll first cut off your eyes, ears, mouth and nose, then chop off your hands and feet. If that's still not enough, I'll sprinkle salt on your wounds and throw you into a vat of boiling chili water to slowly wait for death."

  "No, no, no, I'm going to die!" Tang Song's eyes welled up with tears, and the female assassin chuckled and said: "I've never seen a man as cowardly as you before. Alright, tell me your plan, and I'll let you go right away."

  "Alright, alright." Tang Song gritted his teeth and said, "We'll unite with Xia State, make a big deal, and use the promise of the Li family of Xia State as an exchange. Let the officials be forced by their interests to spare the Cao family."

  "What promise?"

  "The military supplies are continuous, Xia Zhou does not rebel."

  The female assassin withdrew the dagger from Tang Song's neck, and he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. He glanced at the woman with the corner of his eye. Her slender figure was wrapped in a tight night-traveling outfit, her face covered with a mask, revealing only a pair of enigmatic eyes. Tang Song asked gruffly, "I've told you everything I know, can I go now?"

  As soon as I get rid of this guy, I'll go find Zhao Zongyue. You definitely won't make it through the night. Tang Song thought to himself with hatred.

  "Goodness gracious, look at the way you're staring at me, as if you can't wait to devour me. I'm going to let you go, but how can I be at ease?" The female assassin slowly pulled out a pill and tossed it in front of Tang Song, "Eat it."

  "You promised to let me go!" Tang Song glared at her.

  "I take it back, how about that." The female assassin looked at him with disdain.

  "You!"

  "Eat that hellish pill or I'll chop you into pieces and feed them to dogs."

  Tang Song gazed at the female demon head in front of him with a mixture of sadness and anger, just as he was about to make a desperate move. But unexpectedly, the female demon head pulled out a dagger and shouted loudly: "Who goes there!"

  "Heh heh, I'm just passing by, little girl. If you want to fight, don't mind me, I'll just step aside."

  A familiar voice, Tang Song was stunned after listening, and shouted: "Xue Li Weng! Save me, I am Tang Liang!"

  "Ah, it's you again." The man emerged from the darkness with a leap, and indeed it was that scoundrel Snow Flea, only this time he was wearing clean clothes which made him look more presentable than before.

  Xue Li Chong gazed gloomily at Tang Da Guan Shi, who was crouching on the ground, then looked at the black-clothed woman emitting a dangerous aura. He rolled his eyes and said: "You've gotten yourself into trouble, do you want to drag me down with you? Female chivalrous hero, I only have a nodding acquaintance with this person. If you want to kill him, Xue Li Chong won't stop you. Just go ahead."

  What a world! The sorrow of Tang and Song dynasties comes from within. I watched with eager eyes as Snowy Worm made a polite gesture to that female assassin.

  The female assassin let out a cold hum, pointing her dagger at Tang Song. Suddenly, she grunted and the dagger slipped from her hand, squatting down to clutch her wrist while glaring furiously at Xueri Chong: "You used hidden weapons? You're from Du Long Island?"

  "What a poisonous island." Xueri proudly waved the small stone in his hand. "This trick of one stone and two birds is my own creation. Little girl, this Tang fellow has done me a favor, I advise you to let him go, otherwise my next move will be to hit your little butt."

  "Be careful!" Tang Song saw the female assassin suddenly jump up and leap towards Xueri Chong, and hastily shouted out, but unfortunately it was a step too late. Xueri Chong didn't expect that after being hit by her own stone, she could still jump up, and in her haste, she stretched out her hand to block, but was kicked in the chest and fell to the ground.

  The female assassin coldly smiled as she looked at Snowfly, saying: "Originally I didn't plan on letting you go, but seeing that your lightness skill is not below mine, this was why I pretended to be hit by you. What a pity, if you weren't his accomplice, I would have liked to recommend you to join my White Dragon Sect."

  "Kowtowing to the dragon!" Xueri Zhuo scolded Tang Song loudly, "You good-for-nothing, how dare you offend the authorities again? You've dragged your Snow Grandfather down with you to die together!"

  Tang Song mysteriously replied: "Do you know about the White Dragon Sect? She is an official's person?"

  "Down with Long, down with Long! Others may not know, but I do. The Down with Long Society is actually an assassination organization set up by that old Zhao Guangyi himself!"

  "You know a lot indeed." The female assassin smiled and said "Then you can all accompany each other on the road to the Yellow Springs."

  But in the next second, before she could even react to what was happening, everything went black and she lost consciousness.

  Tang Song let out a sigh of relief, looking at the female assassin falling to the ground. He quickly got up and walked over, bending down to take a look, saying with a tone of celebration: "Fortunately, fortunately, it seems she won't be waking up anytime soon." Xue Li Chong also slowly got up, staring wide-eyed at Tang Song and asking: "What method did you use? How did you knock her out?"

  Tang Song's face turned red, and he said embarrassedly, "I saw you hit her with a stone, suddenly inspired, so I also followed suit and took advantage of her being fierce to strike the back of her head."

  "What? Are you a master of hidden weapons? What kind of hidden weapon did you use to hit her?"

  "Uh, I don't actually use hidden weapons, it's just that I learned some brick-throwing and stone-skipping tricks before. There aren't any weapons around me either, so in the heat of the moment, I took off my waist pouch and used the silver coins to hit her."

  "What?" Xueri Chong stared with wide eyes, disbelieving "You said she was knocked unconscious by you using money."

  "However..."

  Xue Ri Chong fell silent for a moment, then looked down and picked up the money bag on the ground, saying: "I've at least helped you attract her attention, so consider this silver as your reward to me. I'm planning to go to Fu Zhou, let's part ways here, we won't meet again in this life."

  "Stop, don't go!" Tang Song hastily grabbed him and pointed to the person on the ground, saying "Help me tie her up and put her in my horse carriage, otherwise when she wakes up, she'll still want to kill me."

  His teeth ached with anger, this Tang fellow really knew how to order people around. He cursed and scolded: "I'll help you one last time, don't bother me again."

  Tang Song and Xue Li Chong carefully tied the female assassin with hemp rope, three circles to the left and three circles to the right, and threw her into the carriage. Before Tang Song could bid farewell, Xue Li Chong had already disappeared in a few big strides. Tang Song took a deep breath, looking at the still unconscious female assassin, curiously pulled off her face mask, and couldn't help but be shocked: "It's actually her!"

  The sky brightened, and Tang Song drove the horse carriage out of the city towards Caojiazhuang. Now he was extremely nervous, he had carefully confirmed that the female assassin was indeed the white surname gentleman he saw at Taiping Inn yesterday, only to find out she was a woman. Tang Song sighed, believing that if the organization called Bailong Jiao could send one assassin, they could send another, and now he was walking on thin ice.

  "Hmm." Tang Song heard some movement inside the carriage and knew that the person had woken up, so he said: "You're awake. In another hour we'll arrive at Caojiazhuang, and then it's up to Master to decide what to do with you."

  The car suddenly fell silent for half a moment, then the woman said in a low voice: "You don't have to think about getting any useful information from me. And once I escape, I will definitely kill your whole family."

  Tang Song sneered and said: "I'm the only one in my family, if you want to kill me, come on, if you really have skills, then untie yourself from the rope."

  "Bastard, if Madam didn't underestimate you, she wouldn't have let you succeed."

  "Scold if you want, scold if you want, don't get angry with yourself. Sigh... I ask you, what's your name, where are you from?"

  "Are you interrogating me? I won't say anything."

  "Please." Tang Song said helplessly, "In case the old master wants to kill you, I can at least bring your body back to your family."

  There was another moment of silence in the car, and Tang Song tentatively called out, "Hey, are you listening to me?"

  "No family, no one will come to collect my body." The woman lowered her voice "My name is White Horse."

  "Bai Ma." Tang Song murmured, "Good name. To be honest, I didn't want you to die. In your era... no, I mean among women of your time, most only know how to serve men. A female knight like you who has skills, I must say I admire."

  The white horse snorted and said, "You don't have to try to get close to me, I've seen all these tricks before."

  Tang Song lost interest and didn't say another word, silently urging on the horse carriage.

  Finally returned to the Cao Mansion, without waiting for Li Dabai to report, Tang Song ordered several guards in the mansion to take care of the white horse and rushed straight into Cao Lao's room. Cao An and the two madams were all present at this moment, seeing Tang Song coming in, Cao An hastily asked: "How was it, Yuanming, have you seen the Zhongshu Envoy?"

  Tang Song glanced at the two ladies and Cao An said, "Don't worry, there's no outsider here, just say it."

  "Sir, there's been a change in circumstances."

  Tang Song then told Old Man Cao and the two madams everything that Cao Bin had entrusted to him, as well as the matter of the Bai Long Jiao assassin. The three of them all wore worried expressions, and finally, Cao An said to Tang Song: "In that case, we'll have to trouble you to make a trip to Xia Zhou again. I'll immediately get everything ready, unite with the various branches of the Cao family, and mobilize all the power at our disposal to carry out the plan. You should go rest for a bit first; tonight you'll set off for Xia Zhou. Hmm, also, would you trouble yourself to bring in that female assassin we captured? I want to get some more information from her."

  "Yes." Tang Song quietly retreated and went out, found the five-flower-bound White Horse, brought her into the house, and then went to the backyard where the maids lived to look for Mu Er. As a result, left and right waited, but did not see Mu Er appear. Finally, when Tang Song's eyes were about to split, he saw Mu Er and a woman walking side by side with laughter. But when Tang Song clearly saw the face of the woman next to Mu Er, he couldn't help but widen his eyes - that woman was not the female assassin White Horse, who else could it be?