Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 88 Rescue
  Under the control of the boatman, the boat slowly left the shore.

Chen Captou said nothing, looking at the lake in the distance, searching for suspicious ships.

Jia Qiang was paying attention to the boatman, who seemed a little too calm.

A man who was recruited by the government and didn't know what was going on should not remain so calm. This was not like an ordinary boatman.

However, judging from the boatman's skin and hands, he is indeed an ordinary boatman.

Year-round exposure to the sun, wind and rain has made the boatman's skin dark, and his palms have calluses from rocking the oar.

Even so, Jia Qiang had a strong feeling that there must be something wrong with the boatman.

The boat swayed slowly away from the shore. Zhang Zhizhou on the shore looked at Chen Captou and Jia Qiang on the boat, hoping to rescue his son.

The boat rowed all the way to the center of this area, which was also the position required on the piece of paper.

"Boatman, stop here!" Chen Captou ordered in a deep voice.

"Alas!" the boatman responded, collected the oars, and lowered a small anchor.

Not long after, a painting boat approached in the distance and stopped more than thirty meters away.

A man stood on the deck of the boat and looked over, as if he was confirming something.

"Have you brought the money?" the man asked loudly.

Upon hearing this, Capt. Chen was sure that this was the water bandit who kidnapped Zhang Ximing.

"See my young master first before mentioning the money!" Chen Captou replied in a deep voice.

"Wait!" The man was not surprised at all and said calmly.

After a while, Zhang Ximing was brought out, but his head was exposed from the window of the boat, which made Jia Qiang feel uncomfortable and took action immediately.

He was also worried that if he really took action now, even if he killed the water bandits on the surface, the water bandits in the painting would directly attack Zhang Ximing.

In that case, he would not be able to explain to Zhang Zhizhou.

During this moment of confusion, Zhang Ximing was dragged in again.

Jia Qiang breathed a long sigh of relief. As long as Zhang Ximing was on the boat, he would have a chance to survive.

"Where's the money?" the man asked again.

Capt. Chen took out the box and opened it to reveal the banknotes inside.

The boatman on the side glanced at the banknotes in the box and nodded slightly to the man on the boat in the distance.

Jia Qiang turned her head and saw the boatman's actions.

The boatman also noticed Jia Qiang's gaze, but he was not afraid at all.

He grinned at Jia Qiang and fell toward the water.

It's a pity that he laughed too early. Jia Qiang was so fast that just before he was about to enter the water, a hand pinched his neck and lifted him back up.

"The boat is leaking. This boatman is with them!" Chen Captou also reacted. He found that the cabin of the boat was rapidly seeping water, and the boat was slowly tilting.

"There are more than a dozen of my brothers under the water. If you let me go, you can only drink a full belly of water, otherwise you will be dead!" The boatman was no longer afraid now and said arrogantly in Jia Qiang's hands.

"Chen Captou, take care of yourself, I'll deal with the water bandits!" Jia Qiang frowned slightly, and he confessed to Chen Captou in a deep voice.

Chen Captou was startled. Now that he was in the middle of the lake, no matter how powerful his force was, he could not compare with these people underwater.

Jia Qiang's behavior was beyond everyone's expectations. He first broke the boatman's neck, then took off the bow. With the force of his feet, the boat tilted in the water.

He relied on the force under his feet to accelerate his body from stillness.

The 61-point agility was fully deployed. He was wearing armor and stepped on the water with his left foot. A huge force of two thousand kilograms acted on his feet, and the lake below his feet exploded into a splash of water.

Taking advantage of the rebounding force of the water, his body jumped forward, and then stepped on the lake with his right foot.

With a speed of 61 meters per second and a huge force of two thousand kilograms, he can run on the water.

Although he has never tried running on water before, with his speed and strength, he can theoretically tread water even if he is wearing armor.

Just like a stone, as long as it has enough speed, it can float on the water.

It's just that he, a man wearing armor and about 1.8 meters tall, ran quickly on the water, which shocked Chen Captou and the people on the boat in the distance.

Farther away, Zhang Zhizhou was also observing the lake surface using a monocular telescope.

Even though Zhang Zhizhou was very knowledgeable, he still had his mouth wide open in disbelief.

If he hadn't known that it was Jia Qiang, he would have thought it was some immortal running on the water.

Jia Qiang had no time to pay attention to other people's attention. When he first entered the lake, he was still very nervous.

After running for a few steps, he mastered this method of walking on water.

This was beneficial to his practice of the 'Taixu Jing'. Although the improvement of the 'Taixu Jing' in terms of spirit and physique was not very obvious, this cultivation method belonging to the immortals transformed his body.

In immortal terms, his body is transforming into an immortal body.

These are not only reflected in the slow growth in physical and mental aspects, but also reflect the inhuman condition in all aspects such as coordination and reaction ability.

The painting boat is only more than thirty meters away from Jia Qiang's position, which is only more than ten steps.

The man on the boat woke up from the initial shock. Seeing Jia Qiang approaching, he grabbed a harpoon and threw it out, trying to prevent Jia Qiang from getting on the boat.

In addition, he hoped that Jia Qiang would be disturbed by the harpoon and fall into the water, so that the brothers underwater could deal with this monster.

Jia Qiang turned aside and stepped on an arc to avoid the attack of the harpoon.

He didn't dare to pause at all above the water, let alone use his own defense to receive the attack. Once his speed was affected, he might fall directly into the water.

Now he was familiar with walking on water and had the ability to launch a counterattack.

He drew the treasure bow in his hand and shot an arrow. The man on the boat deck was struck by the arrow in the head and fell down.

At this time, all the windows of the boat were opened, and there was an archer at each window. As soon as the windows were opened, these archers drew their bows and shot arrows.

Jia Qiang's speed was too fast for the archer to aim, and he kept shooting arrows while dodging.

Just as the last archer fell, he rushed through the window of the boat.

He saw Zhang Ximing, who was being held to his neck with a knife by a panicked man who was about to speak when he saw him.

But as soon as his figure flashed, one hand grabbed the man's knife-holding hand, and then the man's body took off on the spot, first hitting the roof of the cabin heavily, and then being hit on the ground.

Zhang Ximing was in a very embarrassed state at the moment, completely losing his elegance as he had been some time ago. His whole body was tied with ropes, and his mouth was sealed with a piece of rag.

Jia Qiang was about to untie Zhang Ximing when she saw Chen Captou on the boat in the distance, half of his body in the water, waving the knife randomly in his hand, and several people approaching in the water beside him.

He opened the bow again, arrows flew out one after another, and several blood flowers appeared in the water.

Jia Qiang shook his head. This kind of water fighting was not what he was good at, and he could not stay here for a long time.

That is, he can use the 'Healing Technique [Advanced]' to restore his physical strength. Otherwise, even if he can run on the water, once his physical strength weakens and he cannot maintain high speed, he will fall into the water.

He hung the bow on his body and lifted Zhang Ximing up without untying the rope on Zhang Ximing's body.

He used his feet again, and this time he took two steps, got out of the cabin, borrowed a little more strength on the deck, and rushed into the water.

Zhang Ximing, who was held in Jia Qiang's hand, although his mouth was blocked, his eyes could be seen. When he saw Jia Qiang rushing into the water, he couldn't help but close his eyes, wondering if this person was a fool. , how can you jump into the water without sitting on the boat?
  But for a while, Zhang Ximing didn't feel the coolness of entering the water. He tried to open his eyes and found that he was moving at high speed on the water.

Chen Captou was on guard carefully. His water quality was average, and with the help of the sinking boat just now, he was barely able to prevent the water ghost from getting close.

Fortunately, a few arrows from Jia Qiang helped him solve the trouble in time.

But he also saw that there were still several water ghosts in the water. Now that he had no strength under his feet, he had no ability to fight the water ghosts in the water.

He heard a series of explosions, and the sound was so familiar.

Following the voice, he saw Jia Qiang wearing armor, holding Zhang Ximing in his hand.

Just when he saw Jia Qiang, Jia Qiang came to Chen Battou's side and held Chen Battou in one hand.

Due to the addition of Chen Captou, Jia Qiang felt a little water under his feet, and he couldn't help but increase his strength.

With a "boom", water sprayed out, his feet were pulled out of the water, and his speed increased again.

Although Slender West Lake is not crowded with tourists, there are still some boats on the lake, and the movement on the shore attracts people nearby to watch.

Seeing Jia Qiang holding the two of them running on the water, some people involuntarily knelt down and murmured.

Although the others did not kneel down, most of them were so shocked that they forgot everything.

Jia Qiang came to the shore from the Slender West Lake and then slowed down.

He came to Zhang Zhizhou and placed the two people in front of Zhang Zhizhou.

Zhang Zhizhou wanted to express his gratitude, but for a moment he didn't know how to say it. The Jia Qiang in front of him was so unfamiliar that he even wanted to open his visor to confirm again whether this was Jia Qiang himself.

"What are you doing here? Go to the boat to investigate!" After a while, Zhang Zhizhou regained consciousness and shouted to the left and right in a deep voice.

He stepped forward to remove the rag from his son's mouth and began to untie the rope.

But this rope was tied by water bandits, how could it be so easy to untie.

People on boats use ropes since they were children. They pull sails, bundle up, secure ships, build nets, etc. They all deal with ropes. Unless you are in this industry, it is difficult to untie such complicated knots.

Jia Qiang stepped forward, reached out and pulled gently. Wherever her hand passed, the ropes were all broken.

Zhang Ximing's body felt light and then softened. This was because he was frightened. Even moving at high speed on the water was more frightening than being in the hands of the water bandits.

The front is understandable, but the back is something he cannot understand.

"There are no injuries on your body, right?" Zhang Zhizhou asked softly.

"No, although those people were vicious, they didn't make things difficult for me!" Zhang Ximing shook his head and replied.

Zhang Zhizhou felt relieved. He glanced at Jia Qiang beside him and felt relieved.

He was a little envious of Lin Ruhai. With such a disciple by his side, he could help solve no matter how big the trouble was.

At the same time, he had more questions about Jia Qiang's identity.

With such skills, could it be that he was just an unknown supervisor?
  He thought about the rumored imperial envoy, but he dismissed this possibility as soon as he thought about it.

He knew Jia Qiang's age. It was understandable that she was incredibly talented at the age of fourteen, but it was simply unimaginable to become an imperial envoy at the age of fourteen or to come to the chaotic place of Yangzhou Salt Affairs.

"Sir, the banknotes are all safe and sound!" Chen Captou said as he presented the box.

"Thank you for your hard work!" Zhang Zhizhou took back the box and nodded.

He only said "hard work" to Chen Captou. If it weren't for Jia Qiang's presence and Chen Captou's ability to do things, the loss of the banknote would be a minor matter, but Zhang Ximing's inability to rescue would be a big deal.

If he hadn't thought that Chen Captou would risk his life, he would have wanted to punish Chen Captou.

The soldiers boarded the painting boat on the water, and the painting boat was moved to a nearby dock. Professionals from the Yamen began to investigate.

"Ximing, let's go back home!" Seeing that everything was normal, Zhang Zhizhou patted his son's shoulder and said.

He could also tell that his son was frightened and needed a good rest when he returned, otherwise it might affect next year's provincial examination.

He glanced at Jia Qiang again, and Jia Qiang nodded to show that he understood.

On the way back, Jia Qiang always felt that this matter was not as simple as it seemed.

Kidnapping the son of the governor of Yangzhou just for some money seems weird.

After knowing this matter, the entire Yangzhou official will fully investigate, and any force involved in this matter will be in big trouble.

His speculation was not without evidence. When he was on the lake, the boatman and the people on the boat looked at him covertly many times, and the malice in their eyes was very obvious.

At that time, he thought that the other party had such emotions because he thought he was Zhang Zhizhou, but now it seems that there is another hidden reason.

In fact, his guess was correct. There was indeed someone else behind this incident, and the other party wanted the life of Lin Ruhai, his bodyguard.

In the area of ​​Yangzhou, everyone from the Jianghu to the official circles knew that Lin Ruhai had a fierce general-level archer beside him. He killed nearly 700 desperate salt dealers by himself, including the three leaders of the salt gang.

Especially the owners of private salt, the three major salt merchants, their hatred for Jia Qiang is even more overwhelming.

Even at the lowest price, that batch of private salt is worth 800,000 taels of silver. If sold as private salt, it would be worth more than one million taels of silver.

If the three companies are divided, it will also cause pain to the big salt merchants.

The most important thing is that with this powerful guard, Lin Ruhai can attack any illicit gangster at any time.

Not to mention these three, even the other big salt merchants are struggling. Private salt is the most profitable business for the big salt merchants.

It was extremely difficult to deal with a powerful archer, so he finally came up with this method.

Lure the warrior-level marksman into the water, and let the water ghost kill the warrior-level marksman.

(End of this chapter)