That day, dozens of Herb Gathering Hall disciples who had taken part in the unauthorized brawl were caught on the spot by members of the Enforcement Squad. Quite a few were inner-hall disciples. Once caught, they shouted that they had been wronged, claiming they hadn't started a fight but had been cornered and beaten by outer-hall disciples. The captured outer-hall disciples protested loudly in turn, saying the inner-hall disciples had provoked them and challenged them first; otherwise, they never would have fought them.
The Enforcement Squad's captain, Xie Yun, didn't listen to their excuses at all. On the grounds that they had taken part in an unauthorized fight, he sentenced every captured inner- and outer-hall disciple to thirty lashes. In the Herb Gathering Hall, flogging was considered a relatively light punishment, though it still left them suffering for their pains.
As for those inner- and outer-hall disciples who hadn't been caught on the spot, they denied having taken part, escaping punishment by sheer luck. The captured disciples didn't dare open their mouths and betray their fellow disciples, either. That was a major taboo in the martial world, far worse than fighting without authorization.
With the Enforcement Squad's heavy-handed suppression, the incident involving the Herb Gathering Hall's young disciples gradually died down. No one dared bring up the matter of the fight outside the city that day again.
The Enforcement Squad's captain, Xie Yun, didn't really care about the brawl within the hall. It was a minor matter; a punishment would suffice. What truly bothered him was that a mysterious expert had defeated him with a side kick, leaving him humiliated.
He strongly suspected that this mysterious expert wasn't an outsider, but one of the hall's young disciples. Without drawing attention to himself, he secretly investigated every young disciple in the