Fan Bailing, You Tanzhi

"Bold lecher! You still dare spout such wild words? Elder Fan, there's no need for you to act. Let Tanzhi personally deal with this lecher! Take my sword!"

The newcomer was a young man barely over twenty, dressed in a sky-blue martial outfit. Hearing Chen Feng insult him, he roared in anger and charged at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng was merely far stronger physically than an ordinary person. He knew neither martial arts techniques nor internal energy, so faced with the other man's attack, all he could do was keep dodging.

In the end, Chen Feng discovered that the donkey roll was truly useful. He simply dropped to the ground and refused to get up. Whenever his opponent attacked, he rolled aside, and before long, he was covered in dust.

"You lecher, weren't you acting mighty just now? With such paltry skills, you dare come out and commit evil? Surrender at once!" The more You Tanzhi fought, the more excited he became. As the young master of Juxian Village, he disliked hardship and never trained diligently. He also disliked his father's shield techniques, instead insisting on carrying a treasured sword to put on an air of elegance.

This time, Divine Doctor Xue and Chess Demon Fan Bailing of the Hangu Eight Friends had come to visit Juxian Village. During their stay, Fan Bailing said he intended to head to Jiangnan to find his old friend Feng Asan. The eight of them gathered in Henan once every two years, but Feng Asan had unexpectedly failed to reply this time, so Fan Bailing had decided to seek him out personally.

Though You Tanzhi was good for nothing, he still had the heart of a wanderer. He immediately begged Fan Bailing to take him along to Jiangnan to see the martial world.

The journey had been peaceful. Unexpectedly, just as they were preparing to return, they encountered a lecher whose strength was so lacking. It was clearly a fine and safe opportunity to make a name for himself.

"Watch out!" At that moment, Elder Fan, who stood nearby holding a chessboard, shouted. He plucked off a chess piece and shot it toward the young man.

Clang! The chess piece struck a Judge's Brush flying through the air and knocked it aside.

Then a figure darted out from the nearby woods, grabbed Chen Feng, and retreated to the side, shielding him behind his body. It was Zhu Danchen, who had been pursuing the lecher.

"He has an accomplice!" You Tanzhi cautiously retreated to Elder Fan's side. From the movement technique Zhu Danchen had used as he rushed over, he could tell that this man was an expert and not someone he could defeat.

"Who are you? Why did you attack Brother Xiaoyao?" Zhu Danchen was overcome with lingering fear. He had only chased after the culprit for a short while, yet Brother Xiaoyao had nearly come to harm.

If Brother Xiaoyao truly was the Prince's illegitimate son and he had died because of Zhu Danchen's carelessness, then even ten thousand deaths would not atone for his crime.

"Pah! Every man has the right to kill a lecher! Let me tell you, this is the renowned Fan Bailing, Elder Fan! Know what's good for you and surrender immediately, or don't blame us for being rude!" You Tanzhi spoke fiercely, but his body unconsciously edged closer to Fan Bailing again. The Judge's Brush just now had clearly frightened him badly.

Fan Bailing watched You Tanzhi borrow his name to intimidate them, but he did not stop him. For certain reasons, the eight martial siblings could not address one another as such, so they were collectively known as the Hangu Eight Friends. They were hardly unknown in the martial world.

Especially their fifth junior brother, Divine Doctor Xue Muhua, whose fame had spread far and wide. He had treated many fellow martial artists and was deeply respected by people of the martial world.

"Fan Bailing? You are the Chess Demon of the Hangu Eight Friends? I am Zhu Danchen of the Dali Kingdom. Might there be some misunderstanding here?" The other Hangu Eight Friends were not particularly famous, but Divine Doctor Xue Muhua was a celebrated figure in the martial world, which had in turn given the others some renown.

As one of the four great palace guards of the Dali Kingdom, Zhu Danchen had roamed the martial world for many years, so naturally he knew of him.

"Zhu Danchen? You are Brush and Ink Scholar? As one of the four great palace guards of the Dali Kingdom, why are you associating with a lecher?" You Tanzhi was startled upon hearing Zhu Danchen identify himself.

Though he was good for nothing, You Tanzhi had some intelligence. Moreover, his father and uncle often told him stories of the martial world, so he had heard of the four guards: Fisherman, Woodcutter, Farmer, Scholar.

"A lecher? The real lecher has already been subdued by me and tied up in the woods. Have you mistaken someone else for him?" Zhu Danchen looked at Chen Feng's bare upper body and the woman covered by clothing, and began to understand what had happened.

Before long, Zhu Danchen brought over Butcher Knife, whom he had tied up with his own trousers. Angered that he had been so easily deceived, Zhu Danchen had gone all out and captured Butcher Knife after only a few exchanges in the woods.

Not only had he sealed his acupoints, but he had also stripped off his trousers and used them to bind him.

Seeing that there truly was another lecher, Fan Bailing and You Tanzhi immediately realized they had mistaken the wrong person and hurried over to apologize to Chen Feng.

Chen Feng readily accepted their apology. He had not been badly hurt in the first place. Other than a large bruise on his back where the chess piece had struck him, he had merely looked somewhat pathetic while dodging the attacks. It was nothing serious.

Besides, the person he had been looking for was right before him. No matter how unhappy he was, he could not show it.

"Dead... dead... they're all dead! They're all dead!!!" The group gradually roused the unconscious woman, but the instant she awakened, she began screaming madly.

Having no other choice, they settled the woman in the carriage and headed for a nearby village where Fan Bailing had once stayed a year ago, hoping to learn her identity.

Fan Bailing personally led the way. After leaving the main road and entering a smaller path, they soon spotted a village in the distance.

It was already noon, yet not a single wisp of cooking smoke rose from the village. The group exchanged glances, each of them gripped by a bad feeling.

You Tanzhi rushed ahead on horseback, but before he had gone very far, he turned back.

"Elder Fan, Fourth Brother Zhu, Brother Xiaoyao, there's a corpse at the village entrance. Its throat was cut, and blood is everywhere." You Tanzhi's words shocked everyone.

The woman, who had been curled up in the corner of the carriage muttering that everyone was dead, suddenly raised her head. She burst from the carriage and ran toward the village.

The others hurried after her and saw her clutching the corpse as she broke down in tears.

Zhu Danchen and Fan Bailing used their lightness skills to rush into the village and investigate in different directions. The village was not large. Before long, the two emerged with faces ashen.

"Elder Fan, Fourth Brother Zhu, what happened in the village? Could it be..." Everyone could sense that something was wrong with the village.

When the two returned, Chen Feng and You Tanzhi stepped forward together. Though they had vaguely sensed what had happened, they still dared not believe it.

"Everyone in the village is dead," Fan Bailing said bitterly.

"That's right. From white-haired elders to infants in swaddling clothes, not one was left alive. On one of the village walls, someone even wrote in blood: 'Butcher Knife was here.'" Once Zhu Danchen finished speaking, everyone turned to look at the lecher tied to the horse.

"Mmph, mmph." Under their murderous stares, cold sweat immediately poured down Butcher Knife's face. His mouth was stuffed with cloth, and he made muffled sounds as if trying to say something.

You Tanzhi walked over and yanked the cloth from Butcher Knife's mouth. Butcher Knife immediately shouted, "It wasn't me! I'm not Butcher Knife! I only saw that little lady was pretty and got lustful thoughts. I really didn't kill anyone!!!"

Chen Feng and the others exchanged looks. They could not be certain whether this man was the culprit. After all, few people were capable of such utterly insane acts as massacring an entire village.

Even E Guan Manying, leader of the Four Great Evils whose bad reputation had spread throughout the martial world, only exterminated his own enemies to the last root. He had never, like this butcher, slaughtered innocent commoners without cause and left neither chickens nor dogs alive.