Taking Stock of the Spoils

Following the information kindly provided by the Black Kill Pavilion, Lu Chen arrived at Li Ziren's study.

Based on Lu Chen's many years of reading novels, places like this usually hid some good stuff.

He opened the door and slipped inside.

The gentleman on the wall glanced left and right. Seeing no one, he followed him in.

"Could there be money hidden here too?"

he asked in a low voice.

"Money isn't important. It's the other things that matter!"

As Lu Chen spoke, his hands never stopped moving. By the faint light from outside, he rummaged through the desk, looking every bit like a burglar breaking into a house.

The gentleman on the wall was the apprentice his burglar master had brought along.

The two of them ransacked the study together.

The gentleman on the wall occasionally opened books and letters as well, and the expression behind his mask was not a pleasant one.

"Damn it!"

Looking at a letter, he couldn't help slamming his hand hard on the desk.

Lu Chen jumped in fright. "Are you fucking crazy? Keep it down!"

he whispered.

The gentleman on the wall took several deep breaths and put the letters away.

Lu Chen, meanwhile, smiled as he picked up a book that looked as though it had been read many times.

Not bad, not bad. He had actually found a cultivation method here!

It wasn't the Li Household's hereditary Formation-Breaking Spearmanship, but another one.

"Vajra Body"!

It could be cultivated up to the Organ Tempering Realm.

It was a dedicated body-tempering method that could greatly improve one's defenses if cultivated well.

Good stuff. It's mine!

He tucked the cultivation method into his robes and searched some more, but his earlier good luck had run out.

Apart from that cultivation method, he found nothing else.

I'm satisfied. Cultivation methods are incredibly hard to come by, and now I even have one that can make up for my weakness. I really hit the jackpot!

He looked at the gentleman on the wall, who was still frantically searching for books, letters, and the like. He read as he searched, flipping through them quickly. The light was so poor that his eyes were almost pressed against the pages.

Putting that together with the man's earlier behavior, Lu Chen had a few guesses about his identity.

"Are you done yet? Shall we go?"

Lu Chen asked quietly.

Before the gentleman on the wall could answer, they seemed to hear some movement outside.

Both stopped at once and cocked their ears to listen.

Lu Chen looked out the window and could just make out some light appearing in the pitch-black sky in the distance.

He knew the device he had set up had taken effect.

"Time to go. Things are in an uproar outside. Let's not get caught!"

"All right!"

The two quietly shut the door, went to the perimeter wall, and leaped onto it to look at the road outside.

Lu Chen beckoned to the man below. "Nobody there!"

With that, he jumped down and ran along the shadows beside the wall.

He could already hear distant cries of "Fire!" and "Quick, put it out!"

The gentleman on the wall followed beside him, a strange look flashing briefly through his eyes.

"Why did you go after Li Ziren? I had a reason to kill him. What was yours?"

he suddenly asked.

Lu Chen was astonished. "How many families has he ruined, how many people has he killed? Do I need a reason to kill him? Of course it's because I have a grudge against him!"

"Is that so?"

"Isn't it? Aren't you the same? If you don't have a grudge against him, why did you want to kill him? Just because you think you're a good person who can't stand to see suffering in the world?"

Lu Chen curled his lip.

With your strength, killing Li Ziren would have been more than easy enough. If you really had a grudge, it wouldn't have started just today, so why wait until now to kill him?

Just because he killed a few children?

Then what about all the families he ruined before? Even more people died then, so why didn't you think of killing him?

Did you only gain your strength today?

He had more or less guessed who this man was.

The man had paused when Hu Bufan was mentioned earlier, so he must have some connection to Hu Bufan.

On top of that, he was also at the Marrow Washing Realm.

As far as Lu Chen knew, there were only a few Marrow Cleansing cultivators in all of Shahu County.

Plus Elder Ning and Crippled Blade, whom he had only learned about today.

That made four Marrow Washing Realm cultivators in total.

He had killed half of them.

That left Wang Xiong and Hu Bufan.

Li Ziren was obviously in league with Wang Xiong and his people.

The one who could come running over to kill him was most likely Hu Bufan.

Why didn't he act before? Why choose today in particular?

Lu Chen didn't know.

He didn't want to know, either.

What did it have to do with me?

The gentleman on the wall fell silent.

He glanced at the blazing flames in the distance and reached into his robes. A jade pendant appeared in his hand.

"Catch. This is my token. If you need to find me, you can use it to leave a letter at the Cloud-Coming Inn in the east of town! Brother, your skills are extraordinary, and you hate evil as though it were your enemy. I admire you greatly! Today isn't the right occasion, but if we get the chance another day, we can have a few drinks together! Farewell!"

With that, he vanished into the darkness in a few leaps.

Lu Chen looked at the jade pendant in his hand. There was only a plum blossom on it.

He put the pendant away and quickly returned to his room.

He briefly sorted through the spoils from this trip.

He had swept up all the Black Kill Pavilion's intelligence and taken it away.

It filled two burlap sacks.

There were also Elder Ning's medicine chest, medical books, and books on medicines, which filled one sack.

Several thousand taels of money.

Some medicinal ingredients.

Some of Ghost Hand's poisons, stored in porcelain bottles. But there were no names written on them, so he had no idea what they were. He planned to mix them before using them; they couldn't poison him to death anyway.

The things from Li Ziren's home were straightforward: several thousand taels of silver and a copy of "Vajra Body."

"I wonder if Li Ziren cultivated it. If he did, why did I feel so little resistance when I stabbed him?"

Lu Chen smiled, put everything away, and slowly settled down to sleep.

The day had been far too exciting.

He had helped a branch of a nationwide chain close its doors to customers for the time being, and had also helped a court official cover his retreat.

The red scarf on his chest felt brighter than ever.

Lu Chen felt that, wherever he was, he had always put the core values into practice, kept his original aspiration firmly in mind, and never forgotten his mission.

What a good kid!

After giving away the jade pendant, the gentleman on the wall hurried home. He had just changed his clothes when someone knocked on the door.

"Young master, a house caught fire, and several bodies were found inside. Assistant Magistrate Meng Ping sent people to find you. They're at the door now. Would you like to see them?"

"Mm, let's go!"

Hu Bufan came out and saw two constables, one older and one younger. He even yawned. "How are things? I heard a house caught fire. Has it been put out?"

"Reporting to you, sir, the fire wasn't large and didn't spread to the surrounding buildings. It's already been put out. But we found seven bodies inside, all dead in different ways. Among them, among them..."

"What about them?" Hu Bufan frowned.

"Among them was County Commandant Li's eldest son, Li Jun! And there were words written in blood on the wall!"

Hu Bufan narrowed his eyes slightly.

Li Jun? Words in blood?

That fellow who didn't look like a good person also wrote words in blood in Li Ziren's bedroom just now. Could it have been him?

"Take me there!"

When he arrived at the scene, Meng Ping and Wang Xiong were already there.

Both wore grave expressions.

This year was fucking cursed. So many things had happened in just one short month!

Almost everyone who had died that month was a martial artist. More had died than in several previous years combined!

Seven bodies lay neatly arranged in the courtyard, covered with hastily procured straw mats.

After exchanging nods with Wang Xiong and Meng Ping, Hu Bufan looked down at the bodies.

The first was none other than Li Jun.

The second body gave Hu Bufan a shock.

Wasn't this a member of the Black Kill Pavilion?

Before coming here, he had already familiarized himself thoroughly with the information on Shahu County, so he naturally knew what people and matters here were worth paying attention to.

He hurriedly looked at the other bodies.

They were all members of the Black Kill Pavilion!

Could the whole place have been wiped out?

Another massacre?

It was the same method used on the Black Pole Gang, and there were also plenty of traces of hidden weapons on the bodies.

But there are no blade wounds this time. Could it have been someone else?

Or were these cases not committed by one person, but by a group?

"Your Honor, there are words written in blood over here too. Come take a look!"

Assistant Magistrate Meng Ping led Hu Bufan to the rear courtyard.

On the wall, in large, bright-red characters, were the words: "The Black Kill Pavilion slaughtered innocents, cared only for profit, and was worse than beasts. The Flying Eagle Horse Gang has slain them!"

Holy shit, Hu Bufan cursed inwardly.

It really was that person!

His expression darkened. "Has the Flying Eagle Horse Gang become so unrestrained just because it has a little strength?"

He cursed, then said, "Why hasn't Li Ziren come yet? His son is dead. Has nobody notified him? If I remember correctly, his youngest son died a few days ago too, didn't he? Ah, a white-haired man burying his black-haired sons! Still, investigate what Li Jun came to the Black Kill Pavilion for. Was he hiring killers?"

Meng Ping and Wang Xiong looked at each other.

At a time like this, who cares about hiring killers?

He's dead.

"We've already sent someone to fetch Brother Li."

"Mm."

Early the next morning, Lu Chen woke up with his lovely students still on his mind. He gathered up some of the gold, silver, and valuables in his room and packed them into a burlap sack, tucked "Vajra Body" into his robes, replenished his weapons and pills, changed into a normal set of clothes, and strolled out of Sand Lake County Town.

Eating the big meat buns Lu Chen had brought back, Lu Ming and Lu Tang joined the class.

They seemed to have grown numb to their brother's frequent mysterious comings and goings.

"All right, everyone sit properly. Class begins!"