The Lin Family.
Crying echoed through the grand mansion.
Deeper inside, everyone in the hall wore grave expressions.
A corpse lay in the center of the hall, covered with a white cloth. Its body was riddled with cuts from sharp blades, and the fatal wound was the slash across its throat.
Madam Zhang, Lin Yan's mother, wept bitterly. "My lord! You must avenge Yan'er! Who could be so heartless as to kill my Yan'er?"
"Was it that little beast from the Chen Family?"
"Was it that beast?"
"It must have been him! It must have been!"
"Yan'er had only just gotten into a fight with him, and now he's been murdered! How could anything be so suspicious? I want him dead!"
"And that group who drank with Yan'er yesterday! They should die too! They can all go to hell! Every last one of them!"
"And that Meng fellow! He should die too! Go to hell!"
"Every last one of them can go to hell!"
Her shrill cries stabbed at everyone's eardrums.
"Why was it my Yan'er who died? Why wasn't it them?"
"Did they join forces to frame my Yan'er?"
"Ahhhhh! My Yan'er!"
Madam Zhang's sobs gradually turned hoarse.
"Calm down."
Lin Chong'an spoke in a low voice.
"Are you even human? How can you expect me to calm down? My Yan'er is dead! My Yan'er is dead!"
"I've already asked people from the Black Tiger Gang to deal with Chen Feng. He's as good as dead, but he may not be the killer. There are no signs of Five Elements Fist on Yan'er's body..."
"I don't care! He has to die! He has to die!"
"He'll pay with his life!"
Just then, a servant rushed into the hall in a panic.
"My lord, we have terrible news!"
Madam Zhang was already weeping in anguish. The servant's interruption only stoked her fury, and she swung a slap at his face.
The servant instinctively ducked.
He narrowly avoided the incoming slap.
"You dare dodge?" Madam Zhang scolded.
The servant's face turned deathly pale.
All color drained from it.
After scolding him, Madam Zhang swung again. Her palm struck his cheek with a sharp smack, and a red handprint rose on his skin.
Lin Chong'an frowned and barked,
"Slap yourself!"
The servant dropped to his knees in terror and began beating his own face.
"This lowly servant deserves to die! This lowly servant deserves to die!"
Madam Zhang was still furious. She rushed over and kicked and punched him, venting her rage as she shouted, "Die! Die!"
The servant was so terrified he nearly lost his soul. He slapped himself over and over, the smacks echoing through the hall.
Only after his face had turned bright red and blood began to seep from it
did Lin Chong'an finally order him to stop.
"What is it? Speak quickly! Then get out!"
The servant panted, his eyes bloodshot and his speech slurred.
"Ch-Chen Feng... b-became Zhou Guanzhu's Personal Disciple..."
After speaking, he collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness.
Lin Chong'an stared wide-eyed. Everyone else was stunned and began whispering among themselves.
As for the servant, he was like a stray dog dead by the roadside, ignored by everyone. In the end, another servant would likely dump him outside and leave him to fend for himself...
Meanwhile,
in Pingcheng's busy streets,
the crowds surged, a sea of heads stretching as far as the eye could see, while vendors shouted from the roadside.
Steam billowed from the pancake stalls. A few children played beside a fruit shop, and peddlers with shoulder poles wove through the crowd.
"Second Senior Brother, did Master really tell you to do this?"
Chen Feng walked along, eating a skewer of candied hawthorns.
Second Senior Brother Yao Xingzhi was holding a skewer too.
He had licked the sugar coating clean off the top few hawthorns, but the fruit itself remained untouched.
He didn't like sour things.
Chen Feng couldn't help wondering what two grown men were supposed to do wandering the streets.
"What exactly did Master say?"
"'Take your junior brother around town for a stroll...' That's what he said."
"Come on, trust me. This is the only fun place in Pingcheng. Everywhere else is boring." Yao Xingzhi sounded utterly confident.
Chen Feng's eyelid twitched.
Why did he get the feeling Master had meant for Second Senior Brother to bring him out and show his face, so the other powers in Pingcheng would recognize him?
"What's with that look? You think I'd trick you?"
Yao Xingzhi looked at Chen Feng, then deflated like a punctured ball and sighed. "Sigh, there just aren't any festivals coming up. If we'd caught a good day, it would've been much livelier."
"I can't exactly take you to drink and listen to music at a Goulan, can I? There's nothing interesting about that."
Chen Feng's expression shifted slightly.
A Goulan to listen to music?
He'd been here for so long and still hadn't embraced the local customs.
Maybe...
"Never mind, Second Senior Brother. Tell me about the other senior brothers. I've only met Senior Brother Zhao, and I haven't seen the rest."
Chen Feng asked. In the end, his willpower won out over temptation.
Though Yao Xingzhi didn't know why Chen Feng had suddenly said "never mind," he nevertheless began explaining in detail:
"Our eldest senior brother, Zhou Ling, is Master's only son. He went wandering the martial world when I was little. You probably won't get to meet him. Even Master may not be able to contact him. He sends a letter back every now and then."
"Our third junior brother, Lu Jinghong—how do I put it... His fist techniques are first-rate, but he likes practicing swordsmanship. His sword skills are atrocious, an absolute eyesore."
"Our fourth junior brother, Zhao Shanyue, you know him. He's very strong, and his fist techniques are decent too. Though he's my junior brother, he's the oldest after Eldest Senior Brother, and he's a steady fellow."
"Last is our fifth junior sister, Su Wanqing... She chatters like a little sparrow. She's quite cute, but her staff skills are mediocre, and she doesn't have much talent."
After listening, Chen Feng was a little skeptical of Second Senior Brother's claim that she "didn't have much talent," but at least he had a general idea.
Then he asked,
"What do the Personal Disciples usually do?"
"They take care of the new disciples, or practice martial arts on their own. Every so often, they represent the school in matches against other martial arts schools. That's about it."
"After all, the Dragon Walk Martial Arts School is the top school in Pingcheng. The other schools often gang up on us, so we have a few matches every month."
Yao Xingzhi added,
"But you've only just become a Personal Disciple, and you're a Martial Artist too. They won't put you in the matches. You can just watch from the sidelines. You don't get many chances to observe real combat."
Chen Feng nodded to show that he understood.
"That's about it. Anything else you want to ask?"
As Yao Xingzhi spoke, his eyes wandered as he looked around.
Chen Feng glanced over and saw that only the hawthorns remained on his Second Senior Brother's skewer. It looked like he was searching for somewhere to toss them.
"I heard Martial Artists in the Blood Refining Realm can take official posts to earn silver. But since I'm a Personal Disciple, would that..."
Yao Xingzhi paused.
"Oh, right, that's a thing. You need to keep one thing in mind..."
Yao Xingzhi took aim at a chicken coop in the corner and gave his wrist a light flick. The hawthorns landed neatly inside.
The fruit broke into little pieces, and several chickens scrambled to peck at them.
Chen Feng had already braced himself for the possibility that joining the school meant he couldn't earn extra money on the side.
But after tossing away the skewers, Yao Xingzhi lifted his free hand and held up a number—
"You can't charge less than this. It'd make you lose face."
Before you continue