Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

Chapter 164 Tian Hu plots revenge, Ma Ling makes boastful promises

Zhu Wu then presented the writing implements and said, "This is the marriage certificate. The chieftain has already signed it on the guarantor's side. What are your plans, sir?"

"White Flower Snake" Yang Chun carried the wealth of Shaohua Mountain as betrothal gifts, patting the chests and laughing: "Old man, the betrothal gifts are two thousand taels of snowflake silver, rhinoceros horn, luminous pearls, plus eighteen bolts of Suzhou embroidery. This is quite a generous gift."

"No, you've even prepared the marriage certificate and betrothal gifts. Was this all premeditated?"

Looking at the marriage certificate and betrothal gifts they had brought out, Wang Yi was a little dazed. The preparations had been too quick! It was a bit hard to accept, and Wang Yi felt as if it had been premeditated.

“Brother Wang, normally we at Liangshan Marsh don’t allow the abduction of women, but since Brother Shi Jin and your daughter are in love, it doesn’t seem like they’re forcing each other. I would certainly teach him a lesson, but for their sake, let’s grant them their wish!”

Wang Yi sighed helplessly. After all, he originally went to Liangshan to seek peace in this chaotic world. If he really went to Liangshan, he and his daughter would probably have a hard time getting down the mountain.

In this way, it's likely that sooner or later his daughter will have to marry someone from Liangshan, and since his daughter is marrying a leader of Liangshan, she'll have a powerful backer.

However, Wang Yi was also a bit cunning. He thought that since the bandits on Liangshan Marsh were all well-known, even if they had a good reputation, they were still bandits. If the court wiped them out, he and his daughter would be wiped out together.

But then he reconsidered. Although Li Hanxiao and his group were being polite to him now, what if he offended them...? It would be better to agree, otherwise his life would be in danger...

Of course, Li Hanxiao and the others would not do that, but that didn't stop Wang Yi from thinking that way.

"Alas, there's nothing I can do. Since that's the case, I'll agree for now, but I can't go against etiquette. In the future, we'll still need to have a proper betrothal ceremony..."

Although he dared not say he would stop "Nine-Tattooed Dragon" Shi Jin from taking over, because he knew his words carried no weight, he could only try his best to ensure his daughter held the position of the first wife. Even if Shi Jin had other women later, at least his daughter would be the principal wife, because concubines in ancient times had absolutely no rights...

"Don't worry, don't worry, I, Li Hanxiao, will vouch for him. I guarantee that Brother Shi Jin will not dare to disobey!"

With Li Hanxiao acting as guarantor and Wang Yi signing the marriage certificate, Shi Jin and Wang Jiaozhi were considered to have successfully become a couple.

Meanwhile, Xie Zhen, the "Two-Headed Snake," and Xie Bao, the "Double-Tailed Scorpion," who were responsible for covering the rear, also sent word that they had found out that Wang Shunchen had been seriously injured by Ling Zhen's "Thunderbolt" shell and was bedridden, and needed to recuperate.

Although Prefect He of Huazhou mobilized troops to pursue them, it was merely for show; they could only travel ten li a day and could not catch up at all.

After all, Prefect He was a smart man. Wang Shunchen was a renowned old general in the Western Army. He led more than 10,000 men to attack Shaohua Mountain, but they were all beaten by bandits and he was seriously injured. Countless soldiers were killed or wounded.

As a civil official, how could his men be as capable as Wang Shunchen in combat? Rather than risking his life to send his men to their deaths, it would be better to just put on a show and preserve his strength.

This is the "way of being an official" for local officials in the Song Dynasty: to protect oneself wisely!

No, isn't this the traditional Chinese way of being an official...?

Although the government dared not pursue them any further, there were always those who dared to target Li Hanxiao and his group.

Previously, when Li Hanxiao and his group arrived, they passed through the territory of Qinyuan County of Weisheng Army, where they beat up Niu Wenzhong and the Four Mighty Generals under Tian Hu at Baodu Mountain.

However, Fang Qiong, one of the "Niwei Generals," was injured but not dead. After Li Hanxiao and his men slaughtered Baodu Mountain, he found a way to return to Tian Hu's lair and report the incident to him.

Upon hearing this, Tian Hu was furious! His own men had been beaten to such a state by just a few people; this was simply intolerable!

Therefore, he dispatched his troops to search for this group of people near Qinyuan in order to avenge himself, but Li Hanxiao and the others had already left, so they naturally found nothing.

However, he learned that Li Hanxiao and his group had killed the Third Master and caused a great disturbance in Shangdang. Only then did he realize that these people had been committing crimes all along and had made quite a stir.

Then, Tian Hu learned about the Yellow River flood in Puzhou. Someone had blown up the dike on the farmland of Yang Jian, the Grand Commandant of the current dynasty. As a result, Grand Commandant Yang searched everywhere for these people. Upon inquiring, he found out that there were more than a dozen people who did it, and they were quite strong in combat.

However, without exception, these people all had one thing in common: their leaders all seemed to use a special weapon—a three-pointed double-edged sword.

Fang Qiong had previously mentioned that the leader of the group that attacked them was also someone who wielded a three-pointed double-edged sword.

The situation was so similar that Tian Hu was certain that they were the same group of people.

Judging from their route, they seem to have passed through Hedong Road and headed towards Yongxingjun Road or Qinfeng Road.

Tian Hu immediately ordered that anyone who saw this group of people should report it immediately.

After quickly leaving Yongxingjun Road, Li Hanxiao and his group once again set foot on Hedong Road.

After they entered the territory of Hedong Road, their whereabouts were quickly discovered by Tian Hu's men, who reported it to Tian Hu. This time, Li Hanxiao returned with more than 2,000 soldiers from Shaohua Mountain, a much larger force than when they left with only a dozen or so men. This made it much more difficult for them to remain hidden.

However, Tian Hu was still quite cautious when he heard that they had returned with a team.

After all, according to intelligence, these two thousand-plus people, although they acted discreetly, were fully armed. Tian Hu felt that they were not government troops, but possibly from other mountain strongholds. Although he might not know why they were moving back and forth on Hedong Road, they were definitely not to be trifled with.

Upon hearing this, Tian Hu immediately came up with two good solutions.

The first option is to send someone to assassinate their leader, leaving them leaderless, which would allow us to encircle and annihilate their forces.

Secondly, he would provide their intelligence to the imperial court, allowing Grand Commandant Yang's men to deal with them first, and then he would reap the benefits and devour them.

In short, Tian Hu was not stupid; he was quite cunning and would never be the first to stick his neck out.

After weighing the pros and cons, Tian Hu decided to try the first method first, and if that didn't work, he would try the second method.

After all, if he were to leak the information to the imperial court, he might very well end up in trouble if he couldn't clean up his mess.

He recently hired a highly skilled fighter at great expense. Tian Hu trusted his abilities completely and even believed that this person was unlikely to make a mistake.

Because this divine being possesses "magic".

Who is this person? He is Ma Ling, one of the two powerful magicians under Tian Hu in the original novel "Water Margin"—"Divine Steed".

As for "Divine Steed" Ma Ling, in the original work, he was a mage under Tian Hu whose magic was second only to "Illusionary Demon Lord" Qiao Daoqing, and his combat power was extraordinary.

In the original story, Ma Ling went into battle wielding a halberd. When Ma Ling was in battle, an eye appeared on his forehead, nicknamed "Little Hua Guang". If the eye opened, arrows and stones could not hit him.

In addition to his defensive capabilities, this guy also possesses the Divine Speed ​​Technique, allowing him to travel a thousand miles a day. He also has the Golden Brick Technique and the Wind and Fire Wheels. If he encounters a favorable wind, he can burn down stockades. Although these items are called magical treasures, they can only be used for evil purposes. They cannot be used when encountering righteous laws. He calls himself "Sheng Huaguang" and is nicknamed "Divine Steed".

This guy's abilities are very comprehensive. He has high defense, so you can't hurt him. He can also move at high speed, so you can't hurt him either. Once he starts moving, you probably can't hit him either.

Moreover, he also possesses ranged attack capabilities. Not only can he use the Wind and Fire Wheel to set things on fire, but he also wields golden bricks as hidden weapons. His combat power is extraordinary, far surpassing the stones used by "Featherless Arrow" Zhang Qing. When he first appeared, Ma Ling's golden brick magic was formidable. He injured several generals and officers, including "Winged Tiger" Lei Heng, "White-Faced Gentleman" Zheng Tianshou, "Sick Guan Suo" Yang Xiong, "Desperate Saburo" Shi Xiu, "Faceless" Jiao Ting, "Dragon Emerging from the Forest" Zou Yuan, "Unicorn Dragon" Zou Run, "Flower-Necked Tiger" Gong Wang, "Arrow-Struck Tiger" Ding Desun, and "Stone General" Shi Yong. His combat power was simply off the charts.

In modern terms, this guy was a highly defensive mobile turret; who could possibly fight him? Nobody could beat him!

Take Dai Zong, the "Divine Traveler," for example. His Divine Travel Armor Horse could travel 800 li a day, while Ma Ling, the "Divine Steed," was even more impressive, able to travel 1,000 li a day. He was truly amazing.

Later, after being captured alive by Song Jiang and surrendering, he taught the magic of traveling a thousand miles a day to Dai Zong, known as the "Divine Traveler," who fought in the south and north and made many meritorious contributions.

Later, after defeating Wang Qing and Sun An's sudden death, "Illusionary Demon Lord" Qiao Daoqing and "Divine Steed" Ma Ling both left the Song camp and went into seclusion. They went to Master Luo to study Taoism and lived out their natural lives, but they did not attain immortality.

This "divine horseman" Ma Ling recently joined Tian Hu's group and immediately showed off his skills, wiping out a grain transport army of the imperial court and reclaiming a large amount of grain for Tian Hu.

Tian Hu had never met anyone with magic before, and when he saw that this "divine steed" Ma Ling actually had such high combat power, he treated him as an honored guest!

Therefore, Tian Hu wanted to send this "divine horse" to assassinate Li Hanxiao, so he directly summoned Ma Ling and asked him if he dared to go.

"Ma Ling, the group of people who killed many of our brothers at Baodu Mountain have returned. However, they brought more than two thousand men with them. I want you to go and kill their leader first, so that they will be leaderless. Then I will send troops to surround and wipe them out. I wonder if you can succeed?"

Upon hearing this, "Divine Steed" Ma Ling burst into laughter and said, "My lord, even if there were more than 20,000 of them, I would not be afraid of them. Rest assured, my lord, I will definitely bring back that man's head. I wonder what that man looks like?"

“Extremely imposing, his name is unknown, but the weapon he wields is a three-pointed, double-edged sword.”

Tian Hu said.

"A three-pointed, double-edged sword, alright, I've got it. I reckon even if he's Erlang Shen, he can't escape my Sheng Huaguang!"

"Divine Steed" Ma Ling is now full of confidence, but he doesn't know that the place he's going to ambush also has a descendant of the Four Celestial Masters and a genuine fourth-generation disciple of the Jade Void Palace...

Moreover, even the mighty Emperor Huaguang might not be able to defeat the True Lord Qingyuan Miaodao...

Although Xu Guanzhong doesn't seem to be showing much strength now, he is a rare figure among cultivators in the mortal realm. When he exerts his power, he is no less than Luo Zhenren, the master of Gongsun Sheng, the "Dragon Entering the Clouds".

In the original work, Luo Zhenren could summon the Yellow Turban Warriors, as could Xu Guanzhong. Moreover, he possessed the orthodox Taoist Five Thunder Techniques of the Celestial Masters, as well as the inheritance of the Jingming Sect. The Jingming Sect is the most righteous among the immortals, and its Taoist methods are not simple.

Apart from the celestial and earthly immortals in the mortal realm, Xu Guanzhong is basically a unique existence. Otherwise, the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden would not have given him the three volumes of the Heavenly Book to test Li Hanxiao.

Even Master Luo didn't receive such treatment.

As for Gongsun Sheng, nicknamed "Dragon Entering the Clouds," he hasn't even mastered the Five Thunder Heavenly Heart Orthodox Method yet, so his strength is certainly no match for Xu Guanzhong's.

As for comparing Xu Guanzhong with "Shenjuzi" Ma Ling, there is no way to compare them. "Shenjuzi" Ma Ling's magic is of illegitimate origin, while Xu Guanzhong's is a legitimate lineage. There is no comparison, and he would be defeated in one blow.

This is the power of the "orthodox tradition".

Even Huaguang the Great's strength did not surpass Erlang Shen's record. In the "Journey to the South," Huaguang the Great fought Nezha. Nezha personally led the battle, fighting Huaguang for a day with no clear victor. The next day, the two fought with magic and treasures, still evenly matched. Subsequently, Nezha's subordinates, including the Eight-Horned Monk, the Nine Heavens Eighteen-Horned Dragon, the Harmony Gods, the Thunder Demon Immortal, and the World-Swallowing Demon, all fought Huaguang, but none of them could defeat him.

From this perspective, it seems that Emperor Huaguang is much more powerful than Nezha. However, Emperor Huaguang later fought against "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" Sun Wukong, and this time he was no match for him. He could not defeat Sun Wukong. However, after mediation, the conflict between Huaguang and Sun Wukong was resolved, and the two even became sworn brothers.

Erlang Shenzhenjun and Sun Wukong were evenly matched, so when it came to his "divine steed" Ma Ling's attempt to ambush Li Hanxiao, it was truly like a lamb entering a tiger's den, with no chance of return!

Even Li Hanxiao himself has now practiced the Great Celestial Immortal Technique and has innate pure energy protecting his body. Not only can his "Divine Steed" Ma Ling's magic not harm Li Hanxiao, but he might even be directly crushed by Li Hanxiao in close combat.

There was nothing he could do; Ma Ling's skills were simply not up to par, and his opponent was just too formidable.