ragginovel Chapter 665 "Hero Saves the Beauty"
Chapter 665 "Hero Saves the Beauty"
Chapter 665 "Hero Saves the Beauty"
Ma Zhao's starting point and destination were exactly the opposite of Yun Shili's. Yun Shili was heading east from Yunyang Prefecture towards Yangzhou, while Ma Zhao had just left Yangzhou and wanted to go to Yunyang in the west.
Now, Ma Zhao had gone to stay at a brothel in Yangzhou around the time of the Lunar New Year. Although the brothel he chose wasn't particularly high-end, he had spent most of his savings in the two months he stayed there. So, seeing that the weather was getting warmer and hearing that something had happened in Wudang, he decided to go there to take a look.
According to Ma Zhao's experience, in places where a major event in the martial arts world has just occurred, it is easy to get "clean-up" jobs that local sects are reluctant to do but that someone has to do. And that's exactly what "martial arts mercenaries" like him do.
So, three days ago, on that morning, he made a special trip to a well-known restaurant in Yangzhou and ate a very filling brunch, before heading out of the city.
Even a seasoned veteran like him, who had been traveling the world for years, knew that the meal before a long journey had to be eaten until you were completely stuffed. Because in those days, once you left town and went out into the wilderness, anything could happen. Perhaps that extra bite you ate now could make you survive an extra day if an accident occurred.
As it turned out, his experience was indeed very useful, because he encountered a rainstorm after traveling for only half a day after leaving the city.
This official road in Daming is not an asphalt road, and there are no streetlights along the way, so the road became muddy and slippery in no time after the rain started, and the sky had darkened to the point where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Ma Zhao, who had been riding a horse when he left the city, now had to dismount and lead the horse, and he desperately needed to find a place to take shelter from the rain.
And so, as he walked, he left the official road and soon found a "mountain hat" where the wind blew east and there was no rain, and the wind blew west and there was a shower, and he hid there for the night.
It's only because he's a martial artist that he's physically strong. If it were an ordinary person, wearing wet clothes all night would probably cause them to develop a fever the next day, and it would be questionable whether they could even get up again.
The rain stopped early the next morning, but the sky was still overcast.
Ma Zhao walked out of Shanmao'er and scanned the unfamiliar mountain forest in front of him. As expected, he could not find the way back to the official road. Of course, this was not his fault. When he came last night, it was pitch black all around, and the footprints on the road had long been washed away by the rain.
In this situation, it would be unwise to force a search for the way back; it would likely be a waste of effort and damage morale. A seasoned veteran like Ma Zhao would not make such a mistake. His choice was... to light the fire now that the rain had stopped.
The smoke might attract other pedestrians, giving him hope of confirming his current location through them. Even if it doesn't attract people, attracting some small animals would be good too, allowing him to kill and cook them on the spot.
Unfortunately, by the time the sun was high in the sky and the clothes that Ma Zhao had taken off were almost completely dry, nothing had arrived.
Ma Zhao could only reluctantly nibble on a few mouthfuls of dry rations, put on his clothes, lead his horse, and set off again.
Although he got lost in the mountains and forests, he could still tell which way to go, so he continued westward.
They traveled for another two days and one night.
By yesterday evening, the horse came to a rather strange mountain road, a road that was "walkable on foot, but increasingly difficult to travel by horse."
Therefore, after pushing for a while, the horse that the oarsman rode gradually lost control, and no matter how hard he pulled, dragged, whipped, or beat it, the horse refused to go any further.
Just as Ma Zhao was considering whether to convert it into reserve food on the spot, he suddenly heard a woman's exclamation.
Upon hearing this, Ma Zhao immediately became alert.
He thought to himself: This is a desolate mountain wilderness, and it's getting dark. This noise... could it be a ghost?
In his moment of tension and distraction, he loosened his grip on the reins, and his horse seized the opportunity to break free and run away.
When Ma Zhao came to his senses, he immediately chased after the horse. After all, most of his luggage was still on the horse's back. He could accept that the horse had run away, but if his luggage was also lost, it would be questionable whether he could survive and leave the mountains with only the few mouthfuls of dry food he carried with him.
But what Ma Zhao didn't expect was that after he chased after it for only a few steps, the horse seemed to have run into the fade-out special effects often used in old movies from the 1980s—it swayed behind the tree a few times and then disappeared.
Ma Zhao was still wondering if he was seeing things when several more screams of pain suddenly rang out in the distance. These screams and the woman's exclamation from before seemed to come from the same place.
After hesitating for a moment, Ma Zhao finally decided to go and take a look.
When he went there, he was still trying to convince himself: There aren't that many ghosts and monsters in this world. I think it's probably just some evil person committing a crime. Anyway, I've lost my horse and my luggage. It's better to meet someone than not at all... I'll go and check things out first, and then see what happens.
Ladies and gentlemen, just from this inner monologue, you should all be able to see that if there really were evil people committing crimes, Ma Zhao might not have gone there to help them.
What does it mean to act according to circumstances?
Acting according to circumstances means: if the success rate of chivalry is high, then I will act chivalrously and try to maximize the reward; if I cannot act chivalrously, then I will hide in the shadows and watch from the sidelines until they are done, and then I will go over to see if there is anything else I can take advantage of; and if I not only cannot act chivalrously, but am also threatened, or if I am forced to rely on the help of villains to survive, then I can compromise appropriately.
Don't think that Ma Zhao is opportunistic; in fact, his moral standards are the majority in the martial arts world.
However, when the calculations he made in his mind were heard by some respectable people, they would be expressed in more palatable terms such as "Then we can't refuse you," "Let's not make unnecessary sacrifices, let's wait and see," and "Since things have come to this, we can only take this expedient measure."
Ma Zhao undoubtedly often said these nice words, but in essence, it was still about the debt he had in his heart.
"Help! Help!"
The horseman followed the sound at a short trot, and soon heard another woman calling for help from ahead.
This time the sound was very close, so close that Ma Zhao could roughly determine the other party's location, so his movements slowed down.
Instead of heading straight for the source of the sound, he cautiously lowered his footsteps, took a slight detour, and came to the back of a rock before peering out in the direction from which the cries for help were coming.
At that moment, by the light of the rising moon, Ma Zhao saw: not far in front of him, in an open space, there were scattered luggage and goods, and among those boxes were several corpses that still looked fresh, as well as... two living people.
One of them was the woman who was calling for help; even from a distance in the dim light, one could tell that she was a young lady of good age, dressed elegantly.
The other person was a man dressed as a servant, carrying a sharp blade, and covered in blood.