Wangchun Pavilion

"You needn't believe me!"

"I've already received reliable intelligence. The true owner behind Wangchun Pavilion is a demon."

"Why not join me tonight and storm Wangchun Pavilion to kill this demon?"

"Then you'll naturally know whether I'm trustworthy or not!"

Lu Xuening looked at Chen Fan and spoke in a grave voice.

"Fine."

Chen Fan nodded upon hearing that.

He did not even ask what level the demon at Wangchun Pavilion was. He simply agreed.

Lu Xuening was slightly stunned as well. She had only said it casually, never expecting Chen Fan to agree so readily.

"That ape demon of Wangchun Pavilion is a demon at the Blood Martial Saint level, the fourth stage of the Divine Treasury Realm. But demons are born with physiques stronger than us humans, so even a martial artist at the fifth stage of the Divine Treasury Realm, the Marrow Asura level, would not find it easy to kill that ape demon."

"Have you truly decided to go with me and kill him?"

Lu Xuening pressed for confirmation again, while also revealing some information about the demon entrenched in Wangchun Pavilion.

"What level are you at?"

Chen Fan could not help asking.

"I crossed the five stages of Skin Devil King, Bone Vajra, Sinew Bodhisattva, Blood Martial Saint, and Marrow Asura, reaching the peak Divine Treasury Realm."

Lu Xuening straightened her slender waist and spoke with a touch of pride.

"Then that's enough."

"We'll storm Wangchun Pavilion and kill that ape demon!"

Chen Fan's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He had never imagined that this delicate-looking female constable before him was actually a martial artist at the peak Divine Treasury Realm.

Did that not mean she was an expert on the same level as the Hundred Household Officer of the Ping An County Brocade Guard Precinct?

More importantly, how old was she? She looked about the same age as Chen Fan.

Yet Hundred Household Officer Cao was already past fifty.

Comparing the two, the difference between them was obvious at a glance!

Wangchun Pavilion.

The largest brothel in Ping An County, and also the tallest building in the entire county. It could be called one of Ping An County's landmark structures.

Wangchun Pavilion stood seven stories high, like a seven-tiered pagoda. Once night fell, it blazed with lights, and people streamed in an endless flow.

"As expected of the largest pleasure house in Ping An County. It was built with true grandeur."

Chen Fan, dressed in plain black clothes, stood before Wangchun Pavilion and spoke in a low voice.

"Don't tell me you've never been here before?"

Lu Xuening, dressed in a blue scholar's robe, glanced at Chen Fan and raised an eyebrow.

"I really haven't."

"I only joined the Brocade Guard last year. Before that, I was a beggar raised on the charity of a hundred households. After joining the Brocade Guard, I trained diligently, and only then did I gain my current strength."

Chen Fan answered without changing expression.

"You joined the Brocade Guard for one year and cultivated to this level with nothing but the commonplace 'Body Tempering Fist'?"

Lu Xuening spoke in surprise.

"And a copy of 'Blade Draw Slash.'"

Chen Fan added.

"What difference did that make?"

Lu Xuening shook her head and smiled.

In her eyes, although the Body Tempering Fist was commonplace, it still had a few redeeming qualities. But Blade Draw Slash was merely a basic saber technique, simply too wretched to behold.

"Honored officers, please come inside!"

The moment Chen Fan and Lu Xuening stepped into Wangchun Pavilion, the women greeting guests in its first-floor hall swarmed around them.

Though they made their living selling flesh, who would not want to entertain a few handsome patrons?

Chen Fan was tall and striking, with swordlike brows, starry eyes, a face carved as if by a blade, and wheat-colored skin that gave him a robust masculine charm.

After Chen Fan saw through her disguise at a glance, Lu Xuening had gone to great lengths with her appearance this time. Now, disguised as a man, she looked thin and frail, with delicate features and an androgynous beauty. Dressed as a scholar, she was no less remarkable.

"How did this elder sister see through our identities?"

Chen Fan pulled a sweet-faced, voluptuous woman into his arms and asked softly.

"Wasn't that simple?"

"You're holding a Hundred-Refined Embroidered Spring Blade of the Brocade Guard, and you're wearing standard Brocade Guard boots. Naturally, you must be an officer of the Brocade Guard."

"And this handsome young gentleman beside you may be holding a longsword that isn't standard issue, but he is wearing official yamen boots. Naturally, he must be an officer from the yamen."

The voluptuous woman said with a smile.

Chen Fan and Lu Xuening broke out in cold sweat. So the two of them had that many flaws.

They had thought their disguises were excellent, yet a courtesan in a brothel had immediately exposed their identities.

The two exchanged a glance and a look, then each embraced a woman and headed upstairs.

"So he liked that type."

"Shallow!"

Lu Xuening watched Chen Fan walk ahead with the voluptuous courtesan whose curves bulged in all the right places. Then she lowered her head to look at her own chest and silently spat at him in her heart.

"Honored officers, which floor would you like to enjoy yourselves on?"

The woman in Chen Fan's arms asked.

"What was the distinction?"

Chen Fan asked.

"I can tell from that question that this is the first time you two have come to our Wangchun Pavilion."

"Our Wangchun Pavilion has seven floors in total. The top floor is not open to guests. The sixth floor is where the courtesans live, the fifth floor houses the pure courtesans, the fourth floor is where we red courtesans reside, the third floor is a gambling house, the second floor is a tavern, and the first floor is the theater."

"Where would you two honored officers like to take a look?"

The courtesan in Lu Xuening's arms asked with a seductive smile.

"Let's go to the second-floor tavern and have something to eat first!"

Chen Fan said.

The two came to the second floor, booked a private room, and ordered a table full of wine and meat. Lu Xuening took out two taels of silver, gave one tael each to the two courtesans, and told them to leave for the moment, saying that she and Chen Fan had matters to discuss.

The two women happily took the silver and left. All sorts of people came to Wangchun Pavilion, including plenty like Chen Fan and Lu Xuening, who wanted a private room to discuss some shady business. Once their discussion was settled, they would find a few women at Wangchun Pavilion to spend the night with.

"How did it feel?"

Lu Xuening asked.

"Pretty good. It felt like coming home."

Chen Fan answered with complete seriousness.

Lu Xuening: "???"

"Who asked you that? I'm asking whether you noticed any suspicious points!"

Lu Xuening said, her face dark with black lines.

She felt bringing Chen Fan here had been a mistake. Originally, she had planned to sneak into Wangchun Pavilion in secret, wait until the dead of night, find the true owner behind Wangchun Pavilion, and kill him in one stroke.

Yet the moment she and Chen Fan entered Wangchun Pavilion, two courtesans saw through their identities. Before long, the true owner behind Wangchun Pavilion would probably receive word that the two of them had come here.

They had been completely exposed!

"The top floor of Wangchun Pavilion should be where that true owner resides. We'll quietly sneak up there later and take a look. If we find traces of a demon, we strike immediately. Finish the fight and call it a day!"

Chen Fan said with utmost calm.

"But the two of us have already been exposed."

Lu Xuening said helplessly.

"Every day, quite a few nobles and dignitaries come to Wangchun Pavilion. I heard that even the County Governor often comes here to drink flower wine with the courtesans."

"The Brocade Guard in our Brocade Guard Precinct, along with the constables from the county yamen, may not come often because their pockets are empty, but they still come a few times a year."

"So if two obscure officers like us come here for a meal and some wine, do you think the true owner of Wangchun Pavilion will pay us any special attention after learning of it?"

Chen Fan smiled faintly and said.

He found that Lu Xuening was young and strong, but she did not view matters comprehensively. She was clearly a flower raised in a greenhouse. Who knew which great family's young miss had come to Ping An County to gild herself and experience life?