The three distinguished sons of the Nangong Family - Nangong Le, Nangong Zhuo, and Nangong Xi - were not feeble. Although they didn’t possess the level of intelligence and skill of Nangong Zheng, they managed to track down Zhou Gu and the others after twenty days.
Just as a goose leaves a trace, people also always leave unavoidable traces behind.
Zhou Gu and the guards had long since healed from their injuries. Confronted with the falcons and assassins they had finally identified, Zhou Gu killed a falcon and once again entered into conflict with the Nangong Family.
Nangong Le was the first to arrive. Nangong Yu had died under Zhou Gu’s sword, which filled the affectionate Nangong Le with deep resentment towards Zhou Gu. He led a team, double the number of Zhou Gu’s men. He didn’t rush to attack after he found people. Instead, he sent out a signal and then made his move.
First, he planned to deplete Zhou Gu and his men, then stall for time, waiting for Nangong Zhuo, Nangong Xi to arrive. Meanwhile, he also waited for all powers of the Nangong Family given to them by Nangong Zheng to gather at this location.
Zhou Gu had been toying with them for quite a while, and the three lords wished they could skin him alive.
Zhou Gu was not in a hurry. He didn’t plan to take action personally, but shouted towards a dense forest nearby, "Ziye, are you stupid? You’ve been playing with the enemy for so long and you still haven’t taken care of them. You’re really letting me down."
Nangong Le had just drawn his sword with his men, but before he could strike, he heard Zhou Gu’s words. Following Zhou Gu’s gaze, his eyes fell on the dense forest nearby.
Sure enough, as Zhou Gu’s voice fell, Ziye came out with his men and lamented, "Young Master, we had a tough time searching for you. We couldn’t find you, so we had to try our luck following these Nangong brats."
He was full of complaints, "You threw us aside to play with them. Initially, we were losing. If it hadn’t been for Miss Seven’s people contacting us and finding us, moving with us, you probably wouldn’t see us now."
"Hmm?" Zhou Gu was happily surprised, "Su Rong’s people contacted you?"
"Yes, the one named Fang Yue." Ziye reminded him, fearing he might have forgotten, "the guy in charge at the Fengyue Building."
Zhou Gu’s face darkened, remembering that the sight of a group of men dressed in sheer, thin clothing for Su Rong’s viewing had made his blood boil. He gritted his teeth and said, "I remember him."
Ziye chuckled, "This time, he’s done us a huge favor. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had a chance to reverse the situation and find you."
Zhou Gu gave him a sidelong glance, "This is all yours."
Ziye quickly promised, drawing the sword from his waist, he said to Nangong Le, "Are you waiting for the other two dogs from the Nangong Family? Nangong Zhuo? Nangong Xi? I advise you not to waste your energy. They won’t be here any time soon."
Following Nangong Le and Zhang Yun’s close guard Lang Ying was Nangong Zhuo. Following behind Nangong Xi was Fang Yue’s son. They had already locked onto them in groups.
Nangong Le’s expression darkened. He originally wanted to calmly surround and kill, but unexpectedly, matters took a sudden turn. It turned out that there was someone who had been tailing him without his knowing. He clenched the sword in his hands and ordered those behind him, "Kill him. Don’t let Zhou Gu leave."
He also had brought quite a few men with him today.
"Heh." Zhou Gu was about to leave, hearing this he stopped. Unconvinced he asked, "Why kill me?" Then he looked at the Nanchu King, "Why not you, father-in-law?"
How would the Nanchu King know? When did the Nangong Family stop wanting to kill him? And want to kill Zhou Gu instead? He would like to know as well.
Zhou Gu stroked his chin, "Is it because I’m too famous? Did I make the Nangong Family jealous?"
The Nanchu King snorted lightly.
Nangong Le felt the current situation was not optimistic, naturally, he quit wasting words and led his men into battle.
Ziye immediately stopped him with his men.
The two sides started to fight.
Zhou Gu didn’t join the fight. He didn’t want to waste time killing Nangong Le himself. Instead, he pulled the Nanchu King onto a horse and said, "Father-in-law, let’s go. We must continue our journey."
The Nanchu King had no objections. Nangong Le had brought many men, and so had Ziye. Zhou Gu didn’t care and didn’t want to fight against them personally. Perhaps he had other plans.
He had gotten used to listening to him on this journey.
Truly, after they left a distance behind, Zhou Gu shouted towards the back, "Ziye, don’t fight a protracted battle, defeat them quickly. Within half an hour, the Nangong Family will definitely send troops to surround and kill."
The power of the Nangong Family was not based on how many dark guards they had, but on their various forces and garrison soldiers scattered among various states and counties that could be mobilized.
Ziye answered, "Master, rest assured."
Zhang Yun felt that his excitement and tension had been unnecessary. He asked Zhou Gu, "When did you get in touch with Ziye? How come I didn’t know?"
The two of them, except when they were solving their water problems, spent all their time together.
"Three days ago, there were two falcons. One of them was shot to freedom by me." Zhou Gu looked at him, "You didn’t recognize it, did you? That falcon was the one I left with Ziye. It was one of the falcons Xiaoqi gave me, not a falcon raised by the Nangong Family. That falcon came to find me." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
"If that falcon came to find you, why didn’t it land immediately? Shouldn’t it naturally land on your shoulder since it’s yours?" Zhang Yun was puzzled. Recalling the falcon from three days ago, it flew so high that he couldn’t see what it looked like. Naturally, he couldn’t tell whether it was the one Zhou Gu raised. After all, falcons all looked alike. At that time, he only thought that Zhou Gu was unable to shoot it down.
"Because I recognized it. I shot an arrow at the other falcon, which scared my falcon away," Zhou Gu said.
Zhang Yun understood. "So that’s why."
It made sense. Even if it was a falcon raised by oneself, the sight of an arrow shot towards the sky and knocking down its fellow kind, it would be no surprise if it was scared away.
"I knew then that Ziye had sent a falcon to find me. He should be able to find me soon." Zhou Gu said, "His falcon was together with the Nangong Family’s falcon. Naturally, he would be with the Nangong Family too. Nine times out of ten, I wouldn’t be wrong."
Zhang Yun nodded, "That makes sense."
Ziye couldn’t kill Nangong Le, and Nangong Le couldn’t shake off Ziye’s guards. After fighting for half an hour, Ziye waved his hand, said "retreat," and took his men away.
Nangong Le gritted his teeth, "Pursue them."
At the same time, he continued to send messages to Nangong Zhuo and Nangong Xi.
This pattern of pursuit and retreat lasted for half a month. Even after the three distinguished lords of the Nangong Family joined forces, there were still no exciting developments.
Because when Zhou Gu, Ziye, and Lang Ying first set foot in Nanchu, they had immediately engaged these three. They had been able to toy around with them, even despite the ability of these three to mobilize all of the Nangong Family’s external forces, they were still useless against Zhou Gu.
Because their forces had been activated, but Su Rong’s people had also contacted them. Fang Yue and Wanniang had brought many people from Nanchu, nearly all the martially-skilled people that Su Rong had trained since childhood, leaving only those to keep watch. They all came to Nanchu, totaling over a thousand people.
Although the power balance was not even, for a while, the three distinguished lords of the Nangong Family were helpless against Zhou Gu.
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