Lanke Chess Edge-Chapter 347: Her Spirit Is Still Chivalrous

Desheng Prefecture had always been one of the top-ranked prefectures in Ji Province, and it had always had a consistent and excellent urban development.
In addition to its thriving economic and social conditions, Desheng Prefecture was also a force to be reckoned with in the martial arts world, and had long enjoyed a good reputation in the martial arts world. Its reputation there even surpassed its official ranking in Ji Province.
This was largely due to the presence of Luoxia Villa outside the capital city of Desheng Prefecture. Luoxia Villa was renowned in the martial arts world. The Luo family of Desheng Prefecture had gradually become a well-known name throughout the entire martial arts community of Dazhen.
As the saying went, “the poor study literature, the rich study martial arts.” The new blood of Luoxia Villa needed a large amount of medicinal herbs and various tonics to learn and practice martial arts, which couldn’t be guaranteed without sufficient financial resources.
Thanks to their cooperation with the wealthy and powerful Wei family, the Luo family had been thriving economically in recent years, without hindering their status in the martial arts world.
Luoxia Villa also owned properties in some of the largest streets of Desheng Prefecture’s capital.
The warm spring months, the third and fourth lunar months when flowers were in full bloom, also marked the season when merchants from all walks of life, who had been sedentary for a long time during the winter, began to grow active again.
On this day, the streets of Desheng Prefecture were exceptionally lively. The good weather coupled with the arrival of several well-known merchant caravans drew many people from the city out to the market.
Newly arrived rouge and face powders, various silk fabrics from Wan Province, medicinal herbs from Jin Province, and even furs collected from surrounding counties and towns…
All sorts of novel and interesting goods were readily available and are displayed in the most prominent positions in the shops and stalls along the street.
Today, with the sun shining brightly and the city bustling with activity, some people from Luoxia Villa couldn’t resist coming to stroll around the city. Among those fans of these kinds of markets was Luo Ningshuang, who was now nearly forty years old.
As she was geographically the closest of the Nine Young Warriors from back then, Lu Shan Jun naturally sought out Luo Ningshuang first.
A carriage slowly drove into Desheng Prefecture. Two children, one on each side of the curtain, occupied the window and looked curiously at the lively scene outside.
“Mom, mom, that person over there is still wearing such a thick animal hide. Is he particularly afraid of the cold?”
“Mom, look over there! There’s a bald guy over there…”
“Mother, over here, too! There’s a guy over there stabbing himself in the neck with a spear. He’s amazing! The spear’s neck is bent but he’s still fine. He must be a very skilled martial artist!”
“Ah, if only my brother could come along too…”
One of the children suddenly said with little disappointment.
Luo Ningshuang, who was also inside the carriage, smiled and offered an explanation.
“A few days ago, your elder brother was reprimanded by your uncle for his inadequate martial arts skills and was punished by being forbidden from leaving Luoxia Mountain for a month. However, we can bring some good food back for him.”
“Yes!”
“That’s right, I’m going to bring my older brother a roast chicken, hahaha…”
Luo Ningshuang smiled and shook her head, gently stroking her slightly swollen belly. She had been pregnant twice over the years. Her eldest son was already old enough to learn martial arts, while her twins were only seven years old and playing together in the carriage. However, she still really wanted a daughter.
“Whoa…”
As the coachman tightened the reins, the carriage slowed down and soon stopped in front of a large shop.
“Miss, we’ve arrived!”
“Alright, you two, stop fooling around. We’re getting off.”
“Oh~!”
“Let’s get off, let’s get off! Let’s ask Dad for pocket money to buy candied hawthorns!”
The two children got off the carriage laughing and joking, while the coachman waited patiently to the side until he saw Luo Ningshuang come out. Then reached out to help her off the carriage.
Although she was nearly forty years old, Luo Ningshuang had a solid foundation in martial arts and took good care of herself, so she still had fair skin and a charming appearance.
The shop was a large general store that sold everything from oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, rice, to cooking utensils. It was also owned by Luoxia Villa and was managed by Luo Ningshuang’s husband, who married into the family.
“Wife, what brings you here? You should stay home and rest during your pregnancy!”
A handsome man with a long beard emerged quickly from inside, accompanied by two shop assistants. Judging from his gait, he was clearly a trained martial artist.
“Dad!”
“Husband.”
The two children spoke almost simultaneously with their mother, which made the man smile. Although he had married into the family, he was quite content at Luoxia Villa. With a beautiful wife and children and a comfortable life, he had nothing more to ask for.
Luo Ningshuang clasped her husband’s hands, about to speak, when she suddenly had a strange feeling and turned to look inside the shop.
Inside, a few people were buying rice, a woman selecting bamboo baskets, and a gentleman in a blue robe and white hairpin was looking at some of the sweet pastries. The strange feeling disappeared.
“Wife, what are you looking at?”
Luo Ningshuang shook her head, thinking that she might have just imagined it.
“It’s nothing. I heard the city is lively today, and we want to go out for a stroll. Are you free?”
The man frowned as he looked around the store, then finally shook his head.
“No, the Wei family’s large merchant caravan will be returning soon, and I have some important goods that I need to oversee personally. How about this, I’ll send someone with you, and also order a sedan chair.”
Luo Ningshuang wasn’t about to be excessive; she refused the sedan chair, saying that she would just go with the children.
Once outside the shop, the two children became even more active, and the two servants following them struggled to keep an eye on them. Luo Ningshuang looked around, glancing at the cosmetics and silk fabrics, but ignored the weapons when passing by the blacksmith shop.
Lu Shan Jun followed her at a distance for a long time, squinting as he looked at the voluptuous and charming woman in front of him.
‘She’s settled into a life of being a good wife and mother, but she once aspired to be a chivalrous heroine—heh, in a way, that’s a breach of her vow, isn’t it?’
Lu Shan Jun smiled. At most, this thought was but a self-deprecating jest; he wasn’t so heartless as to harbor dissatisfaction with a woman’s choice to get married and have children.
However, the promise made back then was of great significance to Lu Shan Jun, and he would not leave so easily. He moved closer to Luo Ningshuang, concealing his monstrous aura, and circulated his spiritual energy in his eyes.
In a daze, it seemed as if a pair of long, narrow, and piercing eyes were scanning Luo Ningshuang.
Aside from her fiery temper and the energy of her unborn child, there was no malevolent aura, but a necessary test was still necessary. Lu Shan Jun didn’t want to let the first person he sought out go so easily.
With this thought in mind, Lu Shan Jun scanned his surroundings and quickly spotted his target. A small distance away was an ordinary-looking man who, whenever he passed by a mark he fancied, would steal a money pouch or something else of value from them.
Moreover, this man was clearly skilled in martial arts; after succeeding once, he could easily and naturally dodge several other people in just a few steps.
‘Haha, I choose you!’
1
Lu Shan Jun smiled and turned to walk in that man’s direction. Because of his exquisite clothes, the outstanding white hairpin on his head, and his light and unsteady gait, the man immediately spotted him.
The man noticed Lu Shan Jun, a refined gentleman in a blue robe, in the crowd. A smile played on his lips, thinking him easy prey. He quickly approached.
Seemingly passing by casually, he took advantage of the moment, one hand swiftly reaching for what looked like a brocade pouch at Lu Shan Jun’s waist.
The moment his hand touched it, the bag vanished into smoke. Stunned, the man looked up to meet a pair of narrow, amber eyes.
“Thump…”
His heart skipped a beat, and he felt dizzy for a moment, then regained his senses in the next instant, while Lu Shan Jun had already passed by.
The man shook his head, unable to recall what had just happened.
He continued walking briskly forward, when suddenly, as if possessed, he rushed straight towards an old man with a sallow complexion, snatched a money pouch from his arms, and walked on. Many people around him witnessed this scene.
The old man was stunned for a moment, then realized that he had been robbed in the street, and immediately rushed up to grab the man.
“You! You robbed me! Give it back to me! Give it back to me! This is my son’s life-saving money, give it back to me!”
“What? When did I rob you?”
The man shook his head and angrily pushed the old man away.
The latter was pushed and crashed into a nearby stall, letting out a cry of “Ouch!” Several people gathered around, whispering and pointing at the man.
“It was him! I saw it too!”
“Yes, he clearly stole it.”
“ to the authorities! to the authorities! We can’t let this man get away!”
Desheng Prefecture was relatively well-governed, and the people were not indifferent. Some people helped the old man up, while others spontaneously tried to surround the thief.
‘Oh no, what stupid thing did I just do? I need to get out of here!’
“Get out of my way! Anyone who gets in my way will be punched to death!”
The man brandished his fist and slapped the man in front of him away. The man was knocked back several paces and fell to the ground, coughing repeatedly.
“This guy knows martial arts!”
“Everyone be careful!”
“Where are the officers? Where are they?”
“He hit someone, and he’s trying to escape!”
A little further away, Luo Ningshuang also saw this scene. She clenched her hands tightly, but hesitated to act, touching her stomach.
“Alas… We are just ordinary people. It seems that the old man’s hard-earned money has been stolen and is nowhere to be found. This man knows martial arts, so it will be difficult to catch him after he escapes. It’s a pity that those chivalrous heroes only exist in legends, there are none here to help us now!”
A voice sighed nearby.
“Mom…”
The boy looked at Luo Ningshuang and called out weakly. Luo Ningshuang looked at her two children and then off in the distance. She narrowed her eyes and gave instructions to the two ordinary servants.
“Keep an eye on them!”
With that, she took a single step with the Falling Petal Step technique, dodged the surrounding pedestrians, and leapt into the crowd, grabbing the shoulder of the man who was about to escape.
“Stop!”
“You’re courting death!”
The man thought that this was just some meddlesome busybody and turned around to deliver a vicious elbow strike, but Luo Ningshuang blocked the blow and punched the man in the back.
“Bang…”
Now in pain, the man realized that the newcomer knew martial arts. Although he saw that she was a woman, he dared not hold back and launched a fierce attack on Luo Ningshuang.
“Crack!”
“Crack!”
“Bang!”
“Crack!”
“Boom!”…
A stall collapsed, a wooden stool was kicked to pieces, and onlookers scattered in a panic.
“Ouch!”
“Get out of the way…”
“Watch out! Watch out!”
…
The two fought with extremely fast movements. To the average person, it was just a rapid exchange of hands and feet. After several exchanges, in their anxiety, they became increasingly forceful in their attacks, shifting their bodies and leaping about.
However, Luo Ningshuang was still superior in terms of her skill foundation. Although her martial arts skills had declined significantly, she still managed to trip her opponent after more than thirty moves and delivered a chop to the neck.
“Cough, cough cough… cough cough…”
The man fell to the ground, clutching his neck and coughing, clearly in great discomfort.
“Make way, make way! Where’s the thief? Where’s the thief?”
Patrolling officers arrived, pushed through the crowd, and, with directions from others, placed a knife against the neck of the man on the ground.
“Great!”
“We’ve caught the thief!”
“Great! Quick, tie this guy up!”
“Hey, where did that female warrior go?”
“Yeah, she was just here a moment ago, and then she disappeared…”
At this moment, Luo Ningshuang, with a cold face and slightly out of breath, left the crowd. Only when she reached a secluded spot outside did she clutch her stomach, her face covered in cold sweat.
The Luo family members who squeezed through the crowd and witnessed this scene were startled and quickly came over to help her up.
“Miss! Miss, are you alright?”
“Mom!”
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“Miss, let’s go back quickly!”
Luo Ningshuang calmed her breathing and waved her hand.
“No, we can’t make a big scene. Let’s find a place to sit down!”
“There’s a teahouse over there, Miss, please let me help you over to sit down.”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
The group walked slowly ahead, carefully supporting Luo Ningshuang, who seemed exhausted after only a short while, as they led her to a nearby teahouse.
Lu Shan Jun glanced at the crowd still surrounding them and continued to slowly follow Luo Ningshuang and her group.
In the teahouse, the storyteller had just finished telling a story. He took a sip of tea, and went to the outhouse at the back.
At that moment, Ji Yuan, who had already returned to Dazhen, stood in the alleyway behind the teahouse and reached out to stop the storyteller, who was returning from the outhouse.
“Um, may I ask who you are?”
Seeing the refined man in a white robe blocking his way, the storyteller asked in confusion.
Ji Yuan bowed respectfully and asked with a smile.
“Sir, do you know the story of the nine young heroes who went to Ning’an County to kill a tiger about twenty years ago?”
“Oh, you mean The Nine Warriors Who Slayed the Tiger? That was twenty years ago? Of course I know that story.”
“That’s perfect! I’d like to ask you to tell this story in a moment. Please accept this!”
As he spoke, Ji Yuan took out two five-wen coins from his sleeve and handed them to the storyteller, who accepted them with a smile.
“Of course, of course!”
In any case, since he had finished telling the previous story, it was now time for him to tell a new one. If someone requested something specifically, it was always good to earn more money and do them a favor. However, when he looked up, the white-robed gentleman who had given him the money was gone.
T/n: Pikachu!