The man at the front was an elderly man with long hair. A small gourd sat atop his head as a topknot, and his beard was starkly divided, half black and half white.
The two men behind him were clearly brothers. They wore fitted martial outfits and bore a strong resemblance to each other, and each carried a shield in his left hand.
The speaker was the Old Man.
"Father! Second Uncle, what brings you here?" You Tanzhi cried happily when he saw them, hurrying over to greet them.
"We were worried about you. Elder Fan wrote to say the same thing had happened elsewhere. We thought something major might be going on, so we came at once." You Ju looked at his son and spoke softly.
"Divine Doctor Xue, Lords You, what brings you here?" Seeing Xue Muhua, Hall Leader Chen immediately went up to greet him.
"Divine Doctor Xue!"
"Divine Doctor Xue!"
Greetings rang out from the crowd. Although Xue Muhua had an eccentric temper and required anyone he treated to teach him a martial skill in return, his medical expertise was superb, and he had helped many of his fellow martial artists. As a result, he enjoyed a considerable reputation.
"Hall Leader Chen, it's been a while." Xue Muhua greeted him, then came before the gathered crowd and saluted Qiao Feng. "Chief Qiao, I apologize for showing up uninvited."
"We couldn't be more pleased to have you here, Divine Doctor Xue. May I ask what brings you?" Qiao Feng quickly returned the salute.
"I came because I have an important matter concerning the people of the Central Plains that requires the Beggar Clan's help. But it seems the clan has its hands full at the moment. In that case, let's discuss something else. Elder Bai, I, Xue Muhua, am willing to testify in person. Is that good enough?"
After receiving a letter from his second senior brother, Fan Bailing, Xue Muhua had hurried over, eager to see Xiaoyao in person. After all, thirty years had passed since their master, Su Xinghe, had pretended to be deaf and prevented the teacher and disciples from acknowledging one another. No one could understand the feelings of the eight fellow disciples.
"Divine Doctor Xue, this..." Xue Muhua's words left Bai Shijing at a loss. He was just about to reply when Xue Muhua cut him off.
"If you feel that my being a man makes it inappropriate, I also know some highly skilled midwives. I could even invite a female physician from the Imperial Medical Bureau. A woman's pelvic bones are clearly different after childbirth, so one examination would settle the matter."
"You—you..." After Xue Muhua finished speaking, Kang Min's face changed drastically. She pointed at Xue Muhua and Chen Feng, managed to say "you," and fainted.
Everyone present was a skilled martial artist. Even from a distance, they could tell from her breathing whether she had really fainted or was only pretending.
But this was an internal matter of the Beggar Clan, so the others kept quiet. Judging by the way things looked, it was all but certain that Madam Ma had given birth before she married.
The others also gave Quan Guanqing hostile looks. After all, if Chen Feng's theory was true and Kang Min had conspired with her lover to kill Ma Dayuan, then the person most suspect was Quan Guanqing, who was now frantically running about.
Quan Guanqing panicked, too. Who could have known that Kang Min, the wanton woman who had seduced him, was hiding such a secret? It had thrown all their plans into disarray.
They had no proof to pin Ma Dayuan's murder on Qiao Feng. They had only meant to use the suspicion and Qiao Feng's Khitan heritage to force him to step down, which would make everything much easier to arrange. But Chen Feng's sudden appearance had ruined the plan.
"Divine Doctor Xue, let's set this matter aside for now. What exactly was the important matter concerning the people of the Central Plains that you mentioned?"
Qiao Feng had managed to turn the tables, but if they pursued the matter further, it would become a major scandal for the Beggar Clan. So he immediately changed the subject.
Xue Muhua glanced at Qiao Feng without replying. He turned and nodded to You Ji, then went to stand beside Chen Feng. He had come solely for Chen Feng. He had no wish to interfere in the Beggar Clan's affairs, nor did he have any standing to do so.
"Fellow martial artists, brothers of the Beggar Clan. My son sent me a letter saying that a village not far from here had been wiped out. Everyone had been killed, from the elderly to the infants. Not a single person had been spared. The name Butcher Knife had also been left behind." Seeing Xue Muhua's signal, You Ji immediately spoke up.
"After receiving my son's letter, I also heard from someone at my manor that two horrifying massacres had taken place near Bianjing City. A village and a town had been slaughtered, respectively, by people calling themselves Blood Skeleton and I Love Firewood. Not a soul had been spared."
"What? How could that be?"
"But that's Kaifeng Prefecture!"
"What kind of madman would do such a thing?"
"Blood Skeleton, I Love Firewood—what kind of names are those?"
The Beggar Clan disciples erupted into discussion at You Ji's news.
"Silence!" Qiao Feng roared, his face ashen. The roar, infused with Internal energy, made Chen Feng's ears ring, and the Beggar Clan disciples around them fell quiet at once.
"Their names are so strange that they must be aliases. Lord You, have you found out anything about them?" Qiao Feng asked slowly, fighting down his anger.
The Beggar Clan's main headquarters was in Kaifeng, and the clan was the best-informed organization in the land. Yet something this serious had happened, and they had to hear about it from an outsider. It was a slap in the face.
"Butcher Knife was killed by my son. As for Blood Skeleton, I heard that tracking experts from the Imperial City Department found his whereabouts and that he has already been captured."
"As for I Love Firewood, there has been no trace of him so far. He's an expert in poison, and everyone in the town was poisoned to death in a single night. Even Divine Doctor Xue couldn't identify the poison."
"Their names are strange, so I suspect they're code names used by some organization. Relations between Song and Liao are growing increasingly tense, and these people have committed such bloody crimes in the Central Plains. They're bound to spread fear among the people. I believe there must be some grand scheme behind it." You Ji laid out his thoughts all at once.
He had prepared these words before arriving, all for this moment. Neither he nor his sworn brother, You Ju, was especially skilled in martial arts, but both were men who valued their reputations. Otherwise, they would not have founded Juxian Village, where they went out of their way to befriend those who passed through the martial world and did their utmost to help anyone who asked.
"Beggar Clan disciples, hear my orders! The death of Deputy Leader Ma is riddled with unanswered questions. Law Enforcement Elder Bai will personally take charge, interrogate Quan Guanqing, and investigate the suspicious points. The other five elders will lead the disciples of their respective branches in a full investigation of these massacres."
"Since Qiao is one of the suspects, I will no longer serve as clan leader. Whoever stole my folding fan and tried to frame me—I will get to the bottom of it, sooner or later."
With that, Qiao Feng used Dragon Catching Skill to seize the Dog-Beating Staff, the symbol of the Beggar Clan leader, and thrust it into the ground.
Qiao Feng cupped his hands and saluted everyone in turn. "The green hills remain, the waters keep flowing. My good brothers, we'll meet again. Whether Qiao is Han or Khitan, I swear that as long as I live, I will never take the life of a single Han. If I break this oath, may I end up like this saber."
As he spoke, he stretched out his left hand and reached through the air toward Dan Zheng.
Dan Zheng felt his wrist jolt. He could no longer keep hold of the saber in his hand; his fingers loosened, and Qiao Feng snatched it away.
Qiao Feng braced his thumb against his middle finger and flicked the saber's spine with his right hand. With a clang, it snapped in two. The blade flew several feet away, while the hilt remained in his hand. He turned to Dan Zheng. "Pardon me." Then he dropped the hilt and strode away.
Before you continue