Chapter 126: Li Xiong

Li Xiong was a name that suited him well – he was like a little bear. He had been in prison for half a month, sitting cross-legged each day with his face towards the bars, eagerly awaiting Lei Jingzhe's arrival to release him. The prison guards, seeing how young he was, often played with him. Despite his formidable appearance, he didn't get angry when teased; however, his appetite was astonishing, capable of consuming three people's worth of food in one meal.

The prison guard unlocked the door for Li Xiong. Shackled, he asked anxiously, "Has my older brother come to fetch me?"

Slapping Li Xiong on the back, the guard didn't respond. Qiao Tianya had arranged a carriage to pick him up, and the guard, fearing trouble during the journey, deliberately re-attached the leg irons to Li Xiong. Unaccustomed to the jolts of the carriage, Li Xiong felt dizzy and nauseous. Upon reaching their destination, he stubbornly refused to step into the mansion upon seeing its grand entrance.

"I'm not going in," Li Xiong stood firm like a stake, unyielding to any attempts to push him. "This courtyard is too vast; my brother won't be able to find me once I'm inside."

The air was sweltering, causing sweat to pour down their faces. The prison guard, wary of offending someone, paced anxiously, trying to coax Li Xiong. "Just go in first, we'll come back to get you."

Li Xiong sensed the guard's shifty eyes, likening him to a sly weasel, and thus stubbornly shook his head. No amount of persuasion could budge him. The guard, desperate, decided to force the issue, pushing several others to crowd behind Li Xiong, attempting to propel him forward.

With his heels scraping against the ground, Li Xiong, exasperated by the pressure, roared, "I'm not going in! Not going in!"

The men behind him stumbled backward from the force of his outburst. Seeing Li Xiong struggling against his shackles, the guard panicked and shouted, "Hold him down, don't let him cause a scene!"

Spotting their advance, Li Xiong instinctively assumed a horse stance, his body as solid as a mountain, his dark face contorted with anger. Despite the guards' combined effort, Li Xiong remained immovable, threatening to waste precious time at the entrance.

Ji Gang had just returned from a stroll outside, accompanied by Fei Sheng. From a distance, he saw people gathered at the entrance, with a carriage obstructing the way. With his hands behind his back, he was about to inquire when he witnessed several jailors being effortlessly flipped over by Li Xiong.

"Such immense strength!" Fei Sheng exclaimed, observing Ji Gang's reaction.

As a practitioner of the Ji family's boxing style, Ji Gang placed great value on physical strength. His eyes lit up as he asked, "Where did this young lad come from?"

Fei Sheng promptly stepped forward. Without asking, he could already guess the jailors' identity based on their attire. He first held the embroidered spring knife at his waist, then released it, lifting the iron chain on the ground with his foot. "Make way, grandpa will handle him!"

* * *

Shen Zechuan had been waiting inside for Kong Ling and the others. Hearing commotion in the courtyard, he lifted the bamboo curtain and was startled to see Ji Gang entering first. "Master, what's going on?" he asked.

Ji Gang passed his birdcage to Qiao Tianya, asking him to hang it in the corridor. Bending down, he scooped water from a copper basin to wash his hands. "I found a lad before entering. Take a look, is he the person you're looking for?"

As he spoke, Fei Sheng dragged in a sturdy young man, pulling the chains as if taming an ox. The lad was still in a rebellious mood, attempting to pull Fei Sheng towards himself. Despite being a high-ranking officer of the Imperial Guard, Fei Sheng's clothes were soaked with sweat after the brief struggle.

"Ahh," Ding Tao poked his head out from the room, shouting, "It's him! Li Xiong!"

Shen Zechuan asked, "What's happening?"

Fei Sheng attempted to respond, but the iron chain suddenly snapped taut, flinging him backward. He was then swiftly dragged along.

Li Xiong strained against the iron chains, managing to wrench out cracks in the wooden stocks. He dragged Fei Sheng about the courtyard, Fei's back scraping against the flower beds as mud splattered up his neck. Determined to put up some resistance, Fei realized he was utterly unable to steady himself.

In the blink of an eye, as Qiao Tianya was about to make a move, Ji Gang blocked his path with an outstretched arm, sternly calling out, "Taozi!"

Ding Tao acknowledged the call and swiftly slipped the small notebook into his chest. He nimbly leaped over the railing of the corridor. As Fei Sheng was still being dragged along, Ding Tao ran a few steps before realizing he couldn't stop the man. He promptly stepped on the iron chain and called out, "Li Xiong—"

Little did he expect to slip, his leg sinking into the chain's path. With a pull on the iron chain, Ding Tao was flung backward, landing on his back. Quick-witted, he used his arms to protect his head, his elbows cushioning his cheeks. He crashed onto the soft earth with a thud, rolling a few times. The flower stems pierced his outer arms, but were blocked by the newly bound dog-skin arm guards.

Fei Sheng hooked his foot around a rock edge, feeling the iron chain wrapped around his arm digging painfully into his flesh. He gritted his teeth, rolled over, and almost crouched diagonally as he pulled backward, veins bulging on his forehead. He couldn't help cursing, "What immense strength!"

Ding Tao executed a quick somersault, running a few steps before suddenly leaping up and landing on Li Xiong's back by kicking the railing. He grabbed the back of Li Xiong's collar with one hand and clamped his legs around Li Xiong's neck. Raising his fist, he didn't strike but shouted instead, "Let go!"

Li Xiong felt a sudden weight on his shoulders as Ding Tao's force threw him off balance. Squatting slightly to regain stability, he promptly released the iron chain and reached behind him, attempting to pull Ding Tao down. Midway through his reach, his hand was trapped by the shackles again, causing him to grow furious. Swinging half his body, he tried to shake Ding Tao off. Like a monkey, Ding Tao didn't slide, but the notebook in his chest fell out.

Ding Tao was the best at light-footwork, not taught by outsiders but by his father. Their family served as guards near the northern borders, always carrying small notebooks to record every detail. This notebook was more precious than their lives; to prevent it from falling into battlefields, Ding Tao's father honed exceptional skills in evasive movements, though tragically, he ultimately died chasing after the notebook, his throat sliced open.

Seeing the notebook slip, Ding Tao panicked and stretched out his arm to grab it, only to be caught by Li Xiong. Seizing Ding Tao's arm, Li Xiong lifted him like a fish scooped from a stream, flipping him over his shoulder and onto the ground.

With a resounding thud, Ding Tao landed on his back, gasping in pain. Swiftly, he clamped his legs around the notebook. Li Xiong had already grabbed Ding Tao's collar, hoisting him off the ground once more. Ignoring the blows, Ding Tao used his leg strength to catch the notebook first, only to be slammed back down onto the floor.

This time, Ding Tao couldn't hold back and coughed, feeling bile rise in his throat. He wrapped his legs around Li Xiong's shoulder and arm, leveraging his body to flip Li Xiong over. The shackles on Li Xiong's wrists broke, and as he struggled to his feet, his eyes widened, fists raised, charging straight at Ding Tao's face. Suddenly, his entire arm felt heavy, as if it had collided with a steel plate; his immense strength was completely stifled.

Ji Gang grasped Li Xiong's fist and barked, "Step back!"

Li Xiong resisted, but his limbs seemed to have a will of their own. He stumbled backward, unable to maintain his balance, and sat down hard on the ground.

Ji Gang brushed off the dirt from Ding Tao's back and said, "I've told you before, cunning tricks won't work forever! You should have delivered a 'Red Rushing Bull' move the moment he approached. Why did you hesitate?"

Ding Tao pouted, wiping the sweat from his face. "He ate my candy yesterday, and we were like brothers!"

Qiao Tianya folded his arms, leaning against a pillar as he whistled at Fei Sheng. "Old Fei, you're losing your touch."

Fei Sheng, undeterred by the dirt on his coat, laughed and cursed. "Try it, coward! This kid has incredible strength."

Shen Zechuan was slightly astonished. The strongest person he had ever met was Xiao Chiye, who could effortlessly draw the heavy hundred-jin Warchief Bow with his bare arms and lift him onto a horse or into a river with a single hand. But even at Li Xiong's age, Xiao Chiye hadn't been this terrifying.

"Which of your parents hails from the Border Sands?" Ji Gang pulled Ding Tao behind him and stepped forward to inquire of Li Xiong.

Li Xiong's buttocks throbbed with pain from the fall, though the shackles had been removed, his ankles still bound by iron cuffs. He had entered this place most unwillingly to begin with, and now Fei Sheng's words had only fueled his ire. Having just been driven back by Ji Gang, he watched as Ding Tao retreated beneath the eaves, surrounded by a throng of consolers. With a pout, he threw his head back and burst into loud sobs, kicking his legs and protesting, "How dare you bully me like this!"

Shen Zechuan lowered his sleeves and said to Ji Gang, "He's still just a child."

Gazing at Li Xiong's shoulders, Ji Gang commented, "Just now, I saw him fighting without any apparent strategy, relying solely on his brute strength... It's somewhat reminiscent of wrestling. Youngster, be honest with me, does one of your parents hail from the Border Sands?"

Li Xiong paid no heed to Ji Gang, his ears deafened by his own sorrowful weeping. He had grown up under Lei Jingzhe's wing, and now without him, he felt like an abandoned radish sprout on a bustling street, utterly lost and without support.

Shen Zechuan's head throbbed from the weeping, his sleepless night leaving him weary even after standing for a while. He instructed Ding Tao, "Give him some more of your sweets."

Ding Tao felt even more wronged. He fumbled slowly in his sleeve, eventually pulling out a piece of oil paper. He said, "...It's melted."

Qiao Tianya plucked a fallen flower from the ground, clenched it between his teeth, and laughed at Li Xiong as he vaulted over the railing. Squatting down before him, he waved his hand and said, "Brother will remove your shackles and have someone bring you food. Do you prefer rice or noodles?"

Li Xiong let out a belch, his nose glistening with mucus as he sniffled and declared, "I eat meat."

* * *

The bamboo screen is half-lowered, granting the room a refreshing coolness.

Alone, Li Xiong sat cross-legged before a small table, eagerly grasping pieces of meat and indulging in a hearty feast. Ding Tao stealthily counted the plates, feeling as if he might burst from counting alone.

"His mother was most likely a woman abducted by the Bashan cavalry. The area along the Tea Stone River was chaotic back then, and such incidents occurred frequently. The military garrison of Duanzhou didn't bother to pursue them across the border," Ji Gang said, half-turned towards Li Xiong, studying him intently. "But with such robust physique, his father must have been an extraordinary man too. It's puzzling how he ended up in the hands of bandits."

"If there truly is a connection to the Border Sands lineage, it wouldn't be strange for them to be abandoned." Shen Zechuan recalled Li Xiong's strength from earlier and said, "The Qidu case files record the names of those abducted from the borders each year. Duanzhou has the highest number. If any of the abducted women were pregnant, the Border Sands tribe wouldn't keep them and would send them back to the Teshi River's banks. However, their original families wouldn't accept them either."

Having just changed into a clean robe, Fei Sheng noticed Qiao Tianya's silence and said, "If he happened to fall into the hands of bandits, that would be one thing. But I'm afraid they might have specifically kept him captive."

"That cannot be," Ji Gang gently shakes his head, "you have not seen the people of Biansha; they, like us, do not all possess such robust physiques. Consider the Li Bei Iron Cavalry: besides requiring proof of citizenship for enlistment, they also demand a certain physique. Yet even then, not all resemble the formidable strength of the King of Li Bei. I surmise that this young man's father is no ordinary person; with such strength alone, he could secure a rank or position within the Biansha cavalry. However, among the Biansha commanders I am familiar with, those in close proximity to Zhongbo, there is none who matches this description."

"Squire," Qiao Tianya sipped his cooling broth, "you've had your fill of meat. It's time to give me an answer."

Li Xiong's mouth was still full of food, leaving him unable to speak. He glanced around at everyone with his eyes, finally landing on Shen Zechuan, and mumbled something indistinctly.

Ding Tao leaned halfway down, listening attentively for a moment before turning to Shen Zechuan and saying, "Milord, he inquires why you wear earrings... If Milord wishes to wear them, then so be it. Why ask such a thing... Oh, you've seen similar ones before... Not the same? Then are they or aren't they... Mmm... Milord's jade beads aren't something you could buy... You've seen them before?"

Li Xiong swallowed the meat, too engrossed to wipe his mouth as he looked at Shen Zechuan and said, "I've seen you before, at the 'Gedale' by Tea Stone River!"