Do you know who my father is?

The atmosphere in the courtyard was a little peculiar.

After Ghost Hand helped Crippled Blade away to rest, he returned to the courtyard a while later, though his expression looked a little strange.

"Ghost Hand, come sit and have some tea!" Elder Ning poured Ghost Hand a cup. "Have you taken care of my file?"

"Yes, there are no problems now!" Ghost Hand said in a deep voice, draining the cup in one gulp.

Elder Ning smiled. "Good! Oh, go see where Swordsman has gotten to. Don't keep Lu Chen waiting."

Ghost Hand looked at the teacup in his hand.

Sending me away after just one sip?

He finished his second cup and left in silence.

"Did he go the wrong way? Isn't the door over here?"

Lu Chen said, pointing toward the entrance.

Elder Ning explained, "There's another door at the back. It's closer that way."

"Oh."

There's a back door too?

Another silence followed.

Lu Chen suddenly thought of something and asked, "By the way, the cultivation methods I have are all incomplete. Does our Black Kill Pavilion have any cultivation methods I can learn?"

"Cultivation methods?" Elder Ning's eyelid twitched when he heard the words "incomplete cultivation methods."

You reached the Marrow Washing Realm with incomplete cultivation methods?

"Of course we do. You can exchange Black Kill Coins for cultivation methods. After assassins complete missions, they receive a certain number of Black Kill Coins based on the difficulty."

"Oh?" Lu Chen's eyes lit up. "Can I get Black Kill Coins for this trial?"

"No. This is a trial. You haven't become an official assassin of the Black Kill Pavilion yet."

Lu Chen was a little disappointed.

"Then if I get enough Black Kill Coins, where do I go to exchange them for cultivation methods?"

He wanted to know whether the branch in Shahu County kept any cultivation methods.

"After you submit an application, a message is sent to Headquarters. Once Headquarters sends someone to verify it, the applicant only needs to go to the nearest Prefectural City branch to learn."

Lu Chen was instantly dumbfounded. Fuck.

He had never imagined that cultivation methods were taught in person. They weren't even willing to provide a physical book?

"Knock, knock-knock, knock-knock, knock-knock!"

A knock sounded at the door.

Lu Chen noticed that the rhythm was different from Crippled Blade's.

Elder Ning looked toward the door. "That should be Xiong Pi."

He stood and opened the door. Outside stood a burly man with a tiger's back and a bear's waist, broad shoulders, a wide back, and corded muscles all over.

The man wore a sleeveless vest made of animal hide, exposing the hard muscles of his chest.

"Elder Ning!"

"Mm, where's Lang Gou?" Elder Ning glanced behind Xiong Pi. No one was there.

"He went to buy wine. He heard a young man had come to the courtyard, so we can have a drink together later."

Xiong Pi's voice was deep and muffled.

"Come in. This is Lu Chen. Crippled Blade was nearly crippled by him."

Xiong Pi's eyes widened.

This kid crippled Crippled Blade?

He looked Lu Chen up and down, but he really couldn't see how the kid could be capable of that.

Lu Chen stood up and sized Xiong Pi up.

He truly lived up to the name Xiong Pi. With that build, he was hardly any different from a bear.

The muscles on his arms were thicker than Lu Chen's thighs, and his tall, imposing frame stood in the courtyard like a small mountain.

Before long, another person entered from outside.

The newcomer was tall and slender, though rather thin, with eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

He carried two jars of wine, had a Small Crossbow hanging at his waist, and wore a Bamboo Tube slung across his back with crossbow bolts inside. He looked like a hunter.

"Where did Ghost Hand go?"

Lang Gou asked.

"Good timing. Go have a look. Ghost Hand went to find Swordsman."

Elder Ning said to Lang Gou.

"All right!"

Lang Gou took the two jars of wine and headed for the back door.

Lu Chen took a careful look at the people in the courtyard.

None of them were weak.

If they all attacked me at once, could I dodge them?

Lu Chen wondered.

He had no answer.

He would only know if he tried.

Xiong Pi carried a large round table out of the house and set it down in the spacious courtyard.

Then he found several chairs.

Once he was done, a voice came from the back courtyard.

"The man is in the courtyard?"

The unfamiliar voice made Lu Chen turn to look.

The newcomer was a man who looked nothing like Li Feng. He was around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with regular features utterly unlike Li Feng's frivolous appearance.

It was Li Jun.

"Where is he?"

He glanced around the courtyard. It looked as though they were getting ready to drink?

He couldn't see anyone tied up.

"He's here." Swordsman had already learned what had happened on the way over. After speaking, he quietly blocked the way back.

Lang Gou set the wine jars on the large round table and opened one with a bang, releasing the fragrance of wine.

An intoxicated expression appeared on his face.

Li Jun seemed to sense that something was wrong. He frowned and turned to glance behind him without drawing attention to it.

Swordsman and Ghost Hand stood on either side, their faces expressionless.

His heart sank at once.

What is the Black Kill Pavilion trying to do?

"Where is he? Didn't you say you'd caught him? You're not playing me, are you? What about the Black Kill Pavilion's reputation? You took my money just to toy with me?"

His voice and expression were fierce.

Lu Chen walked up to Li Jun and stopped a few paces away. He smiled at him. "Hello, I'm Lu Chen."

"Who the fuck cares who you are..." Li Jun was extremely displeased and turned to leave. Then he suddenly realized something. He stopped and looked back at Lu Chen, his face darkening. "You're the one I'm looking for?"

"To tell the truth, I'm not the person you're really looking for!"

Lu Chen wasn't lying.

He really hadn't killed Li Feng with his own hands.

He had always been honest.

Confused, Li Jun looked at Elder Ning.

"Elder Ning, what is the meaning of this? What are you trying to do?"

He suppressed his anger and fear as he questioned Elder Ning.

The wrinkles on Elder Ning's forehead were deep enough to crush a mosquito.

"Why don't you give up on this mission, Young Master Li? We can make a different deal... Haven't you always been investigating the cause of your mother's death? I think we can still be a little confident when it comes to intelligence. Although a long time has passed, that's nothing to us!"

Elder Ning didn't want to break the Black Kill Pavilion's rules or damage its reputation either.

Li Jun was startled.

How does he know?

He had kept it hidden even from his father and had never told anyone. How did the Black Kill Pavilion know?

Can they read minds?

"Absurd! My mother died of illness. Why would your Black Kill Pavilion insult my deceased mother and use such an excuse to deceive me?"

Elder Ning shook his head. "Then let me put it another way. Your father was the one who killed your mother. Haven't you had your own suspicions? Otherwise, why would you secretly investigate your own father? Let's make a different deal. We'll kill your father, and you'll not only have your revenge but also inherit the family property. Why wouldn't you do it?"

Li Jun trembled.

He hadn't expected the Black Kill Pavilion's intelligence to be so...

"You... that's utter nonsense!" Li Jun's expression was unreadable, but he still refused to agree. "If you failed this mission, you can say so outright. There's no need to shirk responsibility in such a ridiculous way!"

"Forget it!"

Elder Ning stopped trying to persuade him.

Lu Chen touched his face. He couldn't help feeling that Li Jun seemed a little pitiful.

His father had killed his lawful wife for his mistress?

That was ruthless!

"Elder Ning, your Black Kill Pavilion puts its reputation first throughout Great Qian. Now you're going to break the rules for a mere brat still wet behind the ears?"

He turned and stared at Elder Ning.

The corner of Elder Ning's mouth curled up.

"I just told you to make a different deal, but you wouldn't agree, so there's nothing to be done! Lu Chen, what are you hesitating for? You don't think Li Ziren's son is a good man, do you?"

Li Jun's expression changed.

Lu Chen simply didn't want to act in front of these people.

It wasn't that he wanted to let Li Jun go.

He had read Li Ziren's file, which naturally also contained information on Li Jun and Li Feng.

As for this family, one could only say that birds of a feather flocked together.

Li Feng liked visiting brothels. He often fought with others over women and was quick to take his anger out on other people. He had already beaten several people to death over such things.

The original owner of this body had been one of his victims.

Li Jun was different. He liked decent women. When he found one he fancied, he would pay her husband and make the cuckold watch him at work.

If money didn't work, he resorted to force.

The people who had died at his hands numbered at least in the double digits.

His father wasn't as fond of women, but he liked land.

To buy land, he stopped at nothing. Through the Green Bamboo Gang's moneylending and gambling dens, he had already left many families broken and ruined.

One could say that the crimes of the whole family were too numerous to record on all the bamboo in the world.

Li Jun suddenly turned back to Lu Chen, his eyes vicious.

"How dare you! Do you know who my father is? You dare lay a hand on me?"