Chapter 9 Rebirth Variables

  As soon as he saw Tang Song being stabbed in front of him, with his life hanging in the balance, Bai Ma's heart was filled with both anxiety and anger. Like a wild beast that had gone mad, he charged towards the two assassins in an instant and engaged them in combat. Bai Ma's fists and feet were extremely skilled, and the dagger in his hand danced like a butterfly among flowers, launching a fierce attack on the weak points of his opponents. Although the two men were not ordinary people, at this moment they could only focus on defending themselves and were completely suppressed by Bai Ma. However, since they had the advantage of numbers, Bai Ma was unable to gain the upper hand despite his overwhelming momentum.

  Li Daimu watched as the two sides clashed, and in his anxiety, he even forgot to call out to the many attendants behind him for help. Suddenly, he saw Tang Song lying on the ground with blood flowing nonstop, and with a loud cry, he rushed to his side to check his breath. Seeing that Tang Song was breathing rapidly and his heartbeat was unstable, Li Daimu finally remembered that there was also a doctor in the entourage, and he hastily shouted towards the back: "What are you still dawdling for? Where's Dr. Feng? Quickly find Old Feng for me!" As soon as he finished shouting, he saw a dry and thin old man squeeze out of the crowd, exclaiming: "Li Daimu, I'm here! Ah, Tang Daimu, what happened to you?"

  At a glance, Tang Song had almost become a bloody man. Mr. Feng didn't bother with idle talk and hurriedly took out his medical kit to bandage Tang Song up.

  Baima exchanged dozens of rounds with the couple, but still couldn't take them down, and his heart grew impatient. His moves became even more fierce. The old couple, on the other hand, were overjoyed, thinking that Baima's mind was already in disarray, and although his moves seemed ferocious, they were actually a last resort. Sure enough, after a few more rounds, the old man deliberately revealed an opening and was stabbed by Baima in his left hand. However, he took advantage of the momentum to kick Baima in the chest. Baima let out a muffled groan and flew back several steps.

  The old man saw his plan succeed, and with a sly smile he looked at the White Horse: "White Headed Leader, the Master sent you to kill this Cao family's people, but instead you helped him deal with us. Don't you fear the Master will punish you?"

  A white horse had a trace of fresh blood at the corner of its mouth, and it touched its chest, saying: "Less nonsense, I don't recall that there are you two in my sect. Who exactly are you?"

  An old woman beside her sighed and said, "Bai Touling, we mourn the death of Er Lao differently from you. Although we have always been mixed in the border town, we are also people under the jurisdiction of the sect leader. You have never put us outsiders in your eyes, even if you have seen each other, you may not remember."

  "Cry, you two old men!" White Horse was taken aback for a moment, then furiously said: "Is the Master senile? He actually lets you, these infamous and declining households, do things for the Bai Long Jiao? Where does the Master place us four great leaders?"

  The old woman chuckled and said, "White Head Leader, you've misunderstood the Master. We didn't come here on the Master's orders, but based on our own intelligence. After you lost contact, the Master sent Gold Fox Leader instead. However, both I and Old Man thought that such a great merit would be a pity to miss, so we took the initiative and seized this opportunity before Gold Head Leader could. Who would have thought that White Head Leader would actually help them? Have you become his woman?"

  "Let your dog fart!" The white horse suddenly rose, with a dagger pointing directly at the old woman. The old woman hastily dodged to the side, and the old man didn't dare to be arrogant either, joining the fight in no time. Both sides fell into another intense battle. Seeing that the white horse had been enraged, the old man thought of using his old trick again, turning around to expose his back to the white horse. But when he turned around, he was shocked to hear a miserable cry, and saw the white horse's eyes were bloodshot, one hand holding a bloody dagger, the other hand grasping the old woman's hair. The old woman had her throat slit open by the white horse, with visible blood vessels, struggling weaker and weaker.

  "Old woman!" The old man rushed forward, taking a single leap to the front of the white horse. With a swift swing of his sword, he rescued the old woman, only to find that she had already stopped breathing, her face distorted from suffocation. The old man was filled with true anger and was about to engage in a fierce battle with the white horse when he felt a sharp pain on his back. Before he could understand what happened, he fell backwards, landing dead beside the old woman.

  Sheathing his dagger, the white horse let out a long sigh, and ignoring the chill on the ground, he knelt down to sit on the withered grass. He was lost in thought for half a moment before looking up at Li Dàmù and asking: "How's Táng Liàng doing? Is he dead?"

  Having witnessed the White Horse's tactics, Li Daming no longer dared to underestimate this beautiful woman who had been traveling with him. His face twitching, he said: "Tang Guan Shi has already been helped into the carriage to rest, and Doctor Feng has treated him. The sword didn't hit any vital spots, so his life is temporarily saved..."

  The white horse stood up from the ground with no expression, patted the grass roots on its body, and walked towards the carriage in a light tone: "Let's continue on our journey. I've got a slight injury on my chest, help me find some external wound medicine."

  With orders given, Li Dabao didn't dare slack off and hastily agreed before going to prepare.

  Tang Song woke up with a blurry vision in front of him, only feeling that his body was tightly wrapped and every movement caused unbearable pain.

  "If you don't want your intestines to spill out, I advise you not to move around anymore."

  It was the voice of White Horse. Tang Song stopped moving, recalling his encounter with the assassins and asked: "Was it you who saved me? Did you take care of those two assassins?"

  The outline of the white horse's body can be seen vaguely, and it seems that she is pulling something. When I heard my own question, I said emotionlessly: "Originally, I was evenly matched with them, but they were self-righteous and countered my flying knife, which was coated with a deadly poison that would rot even bones in one day."

  Tang Song was a bit unaccustomed to this tight feeling, he touched his head and felt that his head was wrapped in bandages, so he curiously asked: "Huh? Didn't I get hurt in the abdomen? Why is my head also tied up? Oh no, didn't those two old killers ruin my looks?"

  The white horse beside him finished collecting things and heard Tang Song's words. He snorted and tore off the bandage with one hand.

  "Ouch, ouch! Be gentle! Be gentle!" Tang Song winced in pain, looking at the bandage that still had a few of his eyelashes stuck to it. He touched his face again and found it was fine, but he immediately became dissatisfied: "My face is perfectly fine, how did you manage to get it all wrapped up? This doctor is really incompetent!"

  "It was I who bound you." The white horse said, sitting aside: "I applied medicine in the carriage, fearing that if you suddenly woke up and saw it, I would have to dig out your eyes again, so I helped you bind them with good intentions."

  Tang Song's face twitched with muscle spasms, and upon seeing the white horse, he indeed saw a thin bandage wrapped around its chest. He thought of everything that had happened because of his own carelessness and couldn't help but regretfully say: "A woman's breasts are her capital for winning over men. I've caused the young lady to have scars on her chest, a crime punishable by death."

  A shrill cry came from the carriage, and Li Daimu, riding on horseback, couldn't help but turn his head to take a look. He thought to himself: Judging from this cry, Tang Guanshi should be fine, but I don't know why he's shouting loudly after just waking up. Could it be that his wound has come loose?

  A white horse with a murderous aura pressed against Tang Song's stomach, causing him to sweat profusely. He slowly said: "Don't take me for an ordinary woman, before being a woman, I am the fourth leader of the White Dragon Sect. Dare to speak nonsense again, and I'll send you to the Western Heaven."

  As soon as she thought that Tang Song was also concerned about her and spoke nonsense, the white horse's anger dissipated, and he said softly: "I just got kicked in the chest by someone, and then applied a bruise-healing herbal medicine, so there won't be any scars."

  "It was already very flat, and with a kick, it's probably even flatter." Tang Song muttered quietly.

  Another mournful cry came from the carriage, Li Dabai rode on horseback and looked back, shaking his head: Tang Guanshi was really too pampered, just suffered some injuries and didn't stop wailing loudly, truly delicate and precious.

  Several days later, the convoy left Ba Prefecture and entered Ping Prefecture. It was easy to attract criticism and cause trouble by having such a large group of people and horses entering the city in a big way. After discussing with Tang Song, Li Daming decided to send a team to enter the city to buy food supplies, and the rest of the people would set up camp 15 miles outside Ping Prefecture. In these few days, many people in the convoy fell ill, and even White Horse looked thinner. Speaking of White Horse, Tang Song felt a knot in his heart. He really couldn't see through this woman. She killed people like flies, and in her eyes, human life was worthless, just like animal life. However, she often showed a little girl's attitude in front of him, and it seemed that she didn't have a strong desire to kill. In recent days, although she didn't say anything, her actions had been observed by Tang Song. When Tang Song was unable to move, she took care of him in the carriage with great care, looking like a well-behaved girl. Tang Song tried to tease her with words, but she removed his arm and didn't put it back on until evening. After the convoy stopped, Tang Song carefully said to her: "White Maiden, you have also suffered a lot following me these days. Why don't you go into the city with everyone else to buy some things that suit your taste and enjoy yourself?"

  The white horse said disdainfully, "You were originally a good-for-nothing, and now you've become a cripple. I'm afraid that if I leave and come back, you'll have become a corpse. Think about when I was chasing a master in Qingzhou, circling with him for seven days and nights in the wilderness, drinking from mountain streams, eating raw meat and wild mushrooms - this little bit of hardship is nothing!"

  Alright, alright, you're impressive. Tang Song closed his eyes and rested on his own.

  Bingzhou City, a rare peaceful place under the jurisdiction of the Great Song Dynasty. Perhaps in later generations, few people will remember the name Bingzhou, but it was from this land that the Jin merchants went to the Yangtze River and the south, and from this land, the famous Pingyao Ancient City was born. These are all afterwords, nowadays Bingzhou is still a piece of land waiting to be developed, it does not have a king occupying it like Xia Zhou, nor is it a commercial center like Jingzhao Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture, but instead has continuous banditry and occasional invasions by the Liao army.

  The people who went to buy things won't be back for a while, so Tang Song, having taken his afternoon nap and with nothing else to do, walked around the convoy. This was the first time he had seriously gone to take a look at these people who had been through thick and thin with him. These people were all loyal servants of the Cao family, they didn't know the reason behind it all, but just because of one word from Old Master Cao, they left their wives and children behind and followed Tang Song on this journey. As New Year's was approaching, who wouldn't want to be at home serving their elders and gathering with their families? Tang Song quietly returned to the carriage, saw that White Horse was already asleep on the seat, so he didn't wake her up either, and stared out absent-mindedly.

  "Tang brothers, the people who went into the city have returned." Just as Tang Song was lost in thought, Li Da Mu lifted the curtain of the carriage and said to Tang Song with a serious expression. Tang Song saw his expression and knew that something had happened. He walked out of the carriage door and saw a 13 or 14-year-old boy with dark skin standing in front of the carriage, trembling with fear. Tang Song recognized him as Zhang Gouwa, who was also one of the dozen or so people who went into the city. Tang Song looked around and saw that there was only one person, so he asked: "Gouwa, why have you come back alone? Where are the others?"

  With a thud, Zhang Gouwa knelt down on the ground and said with tears streaming down his face: "Tang Guan Shi, brothers, they were all detained by the Tong Pan of Bianzhou!"