The autumn wind is bleak and the waves are surging.

On Liugong Island, there is a storm.

These three days passed in a blink of an eye.

On the day of the Seven Heroes, just arrived at noon, and the heroes from all over the world had already boarded the boats provided by the Cao Gang to the island one after another.

In theory, the Weihaiwei area, including Liugong Island, is a key coastal defense area of ​​the imperial court. It has garrisons guarded and managed all year round, so no one is allowed to ferry at will. However, today... they still opened the door.

Why?

It was naturally because the local snake of the Cao Gang was "defeated".

Dengzhou Prefecture is the base camp of the Cao Gang. They have a relationship with the local government and garrison... How can they have a bad relationship?

In short, today, the coastal areas near Liugong Island were occupied by the Cao Gang people, and all those who went to the island had to take the boat they provided without exception.

If you want to get a boat by yourself and get a detour from another place, you have to think about it. The garrisons on the island are not blind. They are veterans who have been dealing with Japanese pirates all year round. You can see it several kilometers on the sea in broad daylight. Of course... If you can jump out of a boat a few kilometers away and dive all the way to the island, you will be considered cruel.

"The leader of the Qingzhou Salt Gang Cao arrived-"

At noon, the sun was in the sky, and a sudden shout from the coast attracted many people's attention.

There is no doubt that the Salt Gang among these four and three gangs is still very famous.

Everyone knows that among the "Six Heroes", among the comprehensive strength, the Cao Gang must be the strongest, but if we only talk about the ability to "make money", the Salt Gang must earn a lot.

Cao Fengchao, the leader of the Salt Gang, is fifty-three years old. He has a silly smile like a Buddha, and has a fat face. He is also big and round in his waist. He looks kind and kind, and he is polite to anyone.

On weekdays, the leader of the Cao Gang is good at speaking, good at being a human being, and has a good mind, especially at mathematics... that is, to settle accounts; according to the current saying, he can take care of all the money, coordination, public relations, HR... and the final decision work. He can be said to be a natural businessman.

But at the same time, he is not just a "businessman".

Back then, the former leader of the Salt Gang had three sons: the eldest was very skilled in martial arts, brave and generous, and had the most similar personality to his father; although the second brother was weaker in martial arts than the eldest brother, he was very scheming and was also good at flattering his father; only his third brother, Cao Fengchao, had a humble personality and was even a little weak, was addicted to studying and learning all day long, and did not like martial arts practice, and he was not liked by his father at all. In addition, he was still a illegitimate child, so he was not favored by his father. His two brothers did not take him seriously, and no one thought of coming to "unify" him.

As a result, after a few years, the old gang leader died of illness and passed the throne to the second brother. The eldest brother must have been dissatisfied, so the two brothers had a "trial battle" within the salt gang. In the end, the eldest brother was about to lose, and was anxious. He gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and died with his second brother.

You said this is a big revenge against your brothers at least?

But this is true for many families in this world. Some parents and children are enemies until death, some brothers have been enemies since they are sensible, and some relatives make you wish you were taken wrong in the hospital.

Anyway... those two guys will die, and the gang must not be unowned for a day. At this time, many "old ministers" around the former gang leader and those "meritorious people" jumped out one by one.

Who wouldn't be jealous of the Salt Gang? That year, Cao Fengchao was only in his early twenties. He looked like a fat man who could bully anyone. Everyone felt that he could snatch the position of leader from him.

Therefore, Cao Fengchao had just succeeded to the throne, and those old guys came out to stumble on him everywhere. No matter what he proposed, he said that this was not good, that was not good...

They originally planned to make trouble for a while, the affairs of the gang would be in chaos. Then they would use this as a reason to gather together to accuse Cao Fengchao of being incompetent and not worthy of inheriting the position of gang leader, and should "select another wise man."

How could they have thought that the little fat man felt like a mirror in his heart, and he knew exactly what they were trying to do, and at the critical moment, he was also cruel and ruthless...

Cao Fengchao's appearance that seemed harmless made the old guys completely unaware of him, which led to Cao Fengchao's spending only one night to let the "old ministers" retire early.

Let’s not talk about the details. I have watched the part before the end of "The Godfather", and it almost means that.

After that, Cao Fengchao firmly took up the position of leader of the Salt Gang, and it has been more than thirty years since then.

The Salt Gang under his leadership is more and more like a pure commercial group than a "jianghu gang", and is quite similar to the "high-speed rail gang".

Although Cao Fengchao's father had a good relationship with the court back then, he was actually regarded as a "reckless man who could be used". However, Cao Fengchao was different. After years of hard work, his relationship with certain forces in the court is no longer just "good".

The methods used by this fat man are not very complicated... In these years, he "created people" whenever he had time. Before he was forty, he had no choice but to die. He had thirteen children with ten wives and concubines, and nine of them married officials in the court or the sons of officials.

Then do you think his business will be difficult?

So, what are the disputes in the world, what are the leaders of the fourth sect and the third gang? Cao Fengchao really doesn't care. He just comes to make soy sauce every time.

The other leaders of the Four Sects and Three Gangs also understood that Cao Laosan was not in the world, so he wanted to do some business and earn his money; he would let the Salt Gang continue to stay among the "Seven Heroes", mainly because this was the alliance his father led the gang to join during his lifetime. There was no special situation and he didn't need to withdraw specifically. Anyway, he wouldn't fight with others, and no one would take the initiative to challenge the Salt Gang.

"Haha... the little brother of the Cao Gang, you are polite." Cao Fengchao smiled and was polite even when facing an ordinary Cao Gang disciple who was leading people on the shore to board a ship.

"Gangmaster Cao is polite, villain is frightened." The disciple who was in charge of receiving the people was also very good at speaking. He quickly bowed and responded, "Gangmaster Di has already held a banquet on the island. If you have the help of the heroes of Cao Gangmaster Cao and all the salt gangs, they will move their steps and board the island. There will be a dedicated person to greet him. Please..."

"Okay, hehe..." After hearing this, Cao Fengchao waved his hand, and then walked to the dock with a smile on his face.

Their salt gang members came so they had to take larger boats. The big boat was too close to the dock and would have to be stranded, so they had to follow the dock to a deeper place before boarding.

In the water money place next to it, there are also some gangs who wade through the water and take a boat to land on the island. Those are basically small sects and scattered soldiers.

So can anyone who comes to the island if he is a man from the world?

Obviously not.

Look, one of them was stopped here.

"Hey! Why are you blocking me?" The person who spoke was a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old.

This person has a face with a character named Zhang Shen, with inverted triangle eyes, and two wide eyebrows hanging from willow leaves. The eyebrows are thick in the middle, light in the wings, short nose, thick lips, and a little rabbit teeth.

Look at his appearance, it is not very outstanding. Looking at his clothes and dress, it is even more ugly: he is wearing coarse clothes and shoes, with many patches on it, and the bun on his head is not straightened, and a broken sword is tied to his waist, just looking at the scabbard, you can tell that it is very worn out.

Just this person, if he simply untied his hair, threw his sword and changed it to a stick, and said that he was from the Beggars' Sect, others might believe it.

"Boy... I want to ask you..." A minion of the Cao Gang who was in charge of guarding the shore looked at him squintly, "Who are you? Do you know where this ship goes?"

"Hey! Didn't I tell you just now? My name is Linghu Xiang, I'm going to see the Seven Heroes Club." Linghu Xiang replied.

"I asked you because I had never heard of you at all, who are you?" The Cao Gang minion continued, "You just don't have a nickname or something. At least I'll tell you which school it is from?"

"I..." Linghu Xiang looked embarrassed now, and he hesitated, "...I have no door or sect."

"Ha!" The minion laughed, but he had not said too badly yet. "Sorry, our Seven Heroes Club has rules. We will not accept this person who is without a sect and nameless."

"Hey? Didn't you Cao Gang claim that all the martial arts heroes in the world can come to witness?" Linghu Xiang said dissatisfied.

"Hmph...boy, you really can stick gild on your face. I'm polite to you, you're so arrogant, right?" The minion was undoubtedly annoyed, "Are you an unknown person considered one of the heroes in the world? Anyone who comes to you, holding a broken sword in his hand, can you say that you are a hero? Also, you can't report your own sect and no one has heard of your name. Who knows if you are a detailed work sent by an evil outsider? If you really get on the island, who will be responsible for something?"

Although his words were a bit snobbish at the beginning, they also had some reason in the second half. Linghu Xiang was indeed not easy to refute, and he was speechless for a moment.

"Why are you still standing? Get up and don't block the people behind you!" The Cao Gang minion became more impatient when he saw Linghu Xiang not talking and didn't move. He followed the situation and pushed him, "It's really... the poor boy from where did he come from? He just wanted to go to the island, and he treated our Qixiong as a... It's embarrassing."

He pushed the other person away, spitting there, cursing.

But in less than two seconds, facing the other heroes of the martial arts world who came, he immediately changed into a smile and treated him kindly.

Linghu Xiang was humiliated by this minion, but he was unable to do anything. He stood there silently and was stunned for a while, but he could only turn his head back.

Unexpectedly, when he turned around, he almost collided with someone.

The man stood behind him at some point and stood very close. Linghu Xiang had something to do in his mind, so he didn't notice it.

"Hey! Look a little bit! What are you doing when standing behind me?" Linghu Xiang felt a little angry at this time, and he spoke very quickly.

Lin Yuancheng was very quiet, as quiet as water, looking quietly at the broken sword on Linghu Xiang’s waist: “Good sword.”

When Linghu Xiang heard this, his eyes widened: "Who are you scolding? Are you looking for trouble?"

"I'm talking about the sword on your waist." Lin Yuancheng replied without any haste.

As the saying goes, a slap cannot be slapped. Linghu Xiang saw that the other party was so calm and seemed to have misunderstood, so he calmed down: "Oh? Can you tell that my sword is good?"

"Although your sword is broken and old, it is actually not bad in terms of materials or sword-killing master's skills; now it is so broken, just because it has been sun and rain in the hands of the swordsman, and has been tempered by thousands of tempers... The terrifying horses are destroyed and work hard, how can the terrifying horns not be damaged or old? In my opinion, as long as your sword is found to be repaired and tempered, the dead trees will be in spring, and it will be even better than the beginning." Lin Yuancheng looked at the sword, which was similar to the old man criticizing women. The latter did not need a woman to strip naked to know a lot of information, and Lin Yuancheng did not need a sword to be sheathed to know this.

"Really, fake? Brother, aren't you fooling me?" Linghu Xiang was actually a little uncertain, because he picked up this sword with the sword guide. It was already very broken when he picked it up. After practicing for years, he still couldn't see how good this sword was before it was useless.

"But... even if you repair the sword body, you still can't deserve the 'qi' on this sword. I think this is the weapon your master passed on to you?" Lin Yuancheng said, looking up at Linghu Xiang, "Well... With your current cultivation level, if you want this sword to show its sharpness, you may have to practice for a few more years."

"Hey! Who are you?" Linghu Xiang didn't like to hear these words anymore. Although he could vaguely feel that this was the truth, these words were said from a person of the same age in a "learning" and "instructions" tone... If you don't like it, this young man is all arrogant, "I deserve to agree to my sword?"

"Ha..." Lin Yuancheng laughed when he was so angry, "Yes, I seem to be meddling in other people's business. Sorry, I borrowed it."

After saying that, he bypassed Linghu Xiang and walked forward.

In fact, Lin Yuancheng will come like this because he has something to worry about now.

A few days ago, wasn’t the sword that had accompanied Lin Yuancheng for many years cut off by Katsuhira Terashima? Although it was not a treasure weapon, it was a good sword, and he had been using it since he was a child. After the sword was broken, he had not found a handy weapon yet, so he could only go to the blacksmith shop to buy a sword and use it first.

So today, when Lin Yuancheng saw Linghu Xiang's sword, he saw the extraordinary aura of his former master wrapped around the sword, and he became a little confused. He couldn't help but walk behind him and said a few more words.

"Hey, wait." Linghu Xiang suddenly remembered something, turned around and chased after him.

"Is there anything else?" Lin Yuancheng thought the other party wanted to argue with him, but unexpectedly...

"Why... brother, you are also going to participate in this Seven Heroes Club?" Linghu Xiang squeezed out a smile and asked in a subtle tone.

Lin Yuancheng was not deaf, and he actually heard the conversation between Linghu Xiang and the Cao Gang minion just now, so he immediately reacted: "Do you want me to take you to the island?"

"I wonder if brothers can do it?" Linghu Xiang bowed his fists and bowed.

"No." Lin Yuancheng refused quickly, "I came with my fellow disciples, but I just walked a little slower." He paused and raised his hand to the front, "Look, the big ship in the distance is the boat that my sect is on. They are still waiting for me now..." He looked at Linghu Xiang again, "If you want to follow me on the boat, I must get my master's consent, and he will never agree, so..."

"Uh..." Linghu Xiang looked disappointed, "Then... I won't force myself to do anything, I won't bother you anymore, please."

He is also a reasoned person, or he has to be more shameful and not be irrefutable.

Lin Yuancheng had a good impression of Linghu Xiang, because they were both similar in age and were also swordsmen. Lin Yuancheng might not be very accurate in his view, but when he saw Linghu Xiang's sword, the calluses on Linghu Xiang's hands and the sword energy on his body, he knew that this was also a person who was sincere to the sword, so he developed a sense of help.

Just as he was hesitating whether to go to the master to try his luck, suddenly, two figures came into his sight.

At this moment, Lin Yuancheng smiled slightly and immediately called Linghu Xiang: "My friend, please stay."

"Hmm? Is there anything else?" Linghu Xiang turned around and asked.

"Although I can't help you, I have two friends, and I think they can definitely find a way to take you to the island." Lin Yuancheng said.
To be continued...