The next day.
White strips of cloth had been put up outside the Liu Family estate by the yamen.
"Slowly, slowly..."
Several constables were carrying corpses out of the estate, accompanied by the "huff, huff" of people hauling heavy loads.
People on the street were also buzzing with discussion.
"Seventeen years old, and already at the Post-Heaven Great Accomplishment..."
In front of the estate, Constable Yan glanced at the noisy street and paid it no mind. Instead, he examined the sword wounds on the corpses.
With inner strength behind it, a sword could inflict wounds like a saber, clean and decisive, taking a head with a single strike.
Whoever had done this clearly possessed formidable inner strength.
"This Qilin Prodigy... really is impressive."
Constable Yan marveled, already wondering how he could find him.
By rights, the Liu Family had colluded with bandits and harmed the townsfolk. They deserved to be killed.
But wiping out the entire family seemed a little too much like "leaving no loose ends."
Constable Yan figured that someone like this would be difficult to get along with.
Just then, though,
in the crowd,
a burly man stood among the people and shouted in a booming voice,
"The Liu Family colluded with bandits and wanted to kill our townsfolk. They deserved it!"
As he spoke, he drew on his standing as the town blacksmith, having forged many weapons for the yamen, as well as his good relationship with Constable Yan.
Before long, he turned toward Constable Yan, who was pondering the matter in front of the estate, and called out,
"Brother Yan! You must judge this fairly!"
As he spoke, the blacksmith took a couple of steps forward, though his left leg was somewhat lame.
When he was young, he had also roamed the jianghu.
But it was precisely that sort of hatred for evil that had gotten him injured in a fight while championing justice.
Even now, he had not changed.
Though his injured leg meant he no longer acted rashly,
whenever he saw something satisfying, he still liked to say a few words.
"Mm..." Hearing the blacksmith's booming voice, Constable Yan merely nodded slightly and said nothing more in public.
But the moment the blacksmith finished speaking, several people saw the constable nod, as if agreeing with him, and chimed in one after another:
"Sir! I think Blacksmith Zhang is right!"
"Young Hero Chen did well to kill them!"
After learning what had happened, most of those present felt that this revenge was deserved.
But some people, seeing the corpses covered in white cloth all over the ground, could not help feeling pity.
At that moment, a young man frowned and said, "This Qilin Prodigy... was he a little too vicious?
It was clearly a matter between Patriarch Liu and his son, yet he slaughtered the entire family..."
"Haha! Vicious?" A man retorted when he heard that. "The Liu Family had already contacted bandits and was preparing to swallow up the Zhao Family. Wasn't that vicious?
If Young Hero Chen hadn't come back, do you think the Liu Family would have taken pity on the Zhao Family and spared them, instead of swallowing up their shops?"
"Exactly!" A Knight-Errant said bluntly. "Repay others in kind. That's how we people of the jianghu should act!
What's there to pity?
If you ask me, this was justice: a debt of vengeance repaid."
"Justice?" The few who had felt sorry for the Liu Family said nothing more after hearing the Knight-Errant's words.
They knew that people of the jianghu were not particularly fond of reasoning things out, but they did love settling grudges with swift vengeance.
Of course, if this had happened to them today,
they would have uprooted the whole lot and left no loose ends.
Only a fool would leave a pack of enemies alive.
Amid the debate outside the Liu Family estate, more and more voices of support rang out.
The news that the Liu Family had been slaughtered to the last, along with the death of the Bamboo Swordsman, spread through most of the town in less than a day.
That afternoon,
in a private room on the fifth floor of Yanhe Pavilion,
Bandit Brother looked at the shop assistant who had come to report the news in astonishment, then asked in confusion,
"My Brother Zhu was killed?
And the culprit was... was the Zhao Family's Qilin Prodigy I was planning to invite?"
Bandit Brother was truly dumbfounded.
He had never expected that in the space of a single day,
his guest would kill his own sworn brother.
What the hell kind of story was this?
"Yes!" The shop assistant reported honestly, then shared some of the rumors he had heard.
Many people had seen Chen Guan take the Bamboo Swordsman's head the previous night.
"So Brother Zhu went after the Qilin Prodigy first, trying to assassinate him..."
After hearing the whole story, Bandit Brother understood.
He knew that the Bamboo Swordsman liked to prey on young prodigies of the jianghu.
Then again, birds of a feather flock together.
The two had hit it off and called each other brothers, so neither of them was any good.
But now, the Bamboo Swordsman was dead.
Bandit Brother had lost the only good brother who could handle certain private matters for him.
He was deeply distressed.
Because he no longer had anyone to take care of things for him.
"Brother Zhu picked a fight with the wrong man this time..."
Bandit Brother sighed.
"He lost his life to Little Qilin."
"Alas..." The shop assistant sighed too, then glanced up at his sorrowful boss.
"Then... should we cancel the banquet invitation to Little Qilin?"
"Cancel it?"
Bandit Brother fell silent for several breaths, his mind torn.
"If he could kill the Bamboo Swordsman, then Little Qilin's skill... must be even greater than I imagined!"
After thinking of Chen Guan's abilities, Bandit Brother put his grief aside.
Now, he was thinking more about how Chen Guan was even younger and more formidable.
"With skills like that at such a young age, Little Qilin clearly has a boundless future..."
He thought it over. Now, he wanted even more to befriend this young hero.
But
when the shop assistant saw the change in his boss's expression, he seemed to know exactly what was going through his mind and quietly advised him,
"Boss!
Everyone in town knows you and the Bamboo Swordsman were close friends.
If you ignore that relationship and don't avenge the Bamboo Swordsman, yet invite Little Qilin instead,
that... wouldn't sound good if word got out!"
He added a couple more words,
"Especially if Little Qilin finds out about your connection to the Bamboo Swordsman. He probably won't come. He'll worry you've arranged a Hongmen Banquet for him!"
The shop assistant spoke, feeling that this whole thing was a bad idea.
"What Hongmen Banquet? What close friends? Do you even know what you're saying?"
Hearing this, Bandit Brother looked amused.
"The Bamboo Swordsman secretly colluded with bandits and mountain outlaws, harming our townsfolk. His deeds were despicable; he was a disgrace to the jianghu.
Now that I know what kind of man he was, of course I must make a clean break with him.
And Little Qilin rid the people of a menace. He also helped me see what sort of man the Bamboo Swordsman was, saving me from falling into the hands of this scoundrel.
In every sense, I should hold a banquet to invite this Qilin Young Hero!
If I didn't invite him or ask after him, that would be a sign I had something to hide!"
Having made his point, Bandit Brother looked at the shop assistant, who stood there stunned.
"Am I right?"
"I... well... you..." The shop assistant stared blankly for a few seconds, then raised his right hand and gave a thumbs-up.
"As expected of the boss! Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"
That morning,
in the yamen study,
"That is exactly what happened..."
After returning to the yamen, Constable Yan reported the whole affair to the County Magistrate.
When he had finished,
the County Magistrate thought it over for a while before saying,
"Constable Yan, you understand people of the jianghu.
Tell me.
The Qilin Prodigy is so young, yet he acts like such an old hand. Isn't he a little too ruthless?"
"I wouldn't call him ruthless," Constable Yan said with a smile. "My lord should know that the Zhao Family's Qilin Prodigy left home as a child and spent ten years away.
To have survived to this age when he was so young, and to have learned such martial skills—
who would believe he hadn't suffered in the jianghu?"
"True." The County Magistrate nodded in agreement, then shook his head with a wry smile.
"I really am getting old. My mind's grown dull, and I can't figure some things out anymore.
I wonder when the court will send a new magistrate. These days, all I want is to go home, water the fields, and tend the flowers.
Work at sunrise and rest at sunset."
"My lord, you're still young!" Seeing his uncle looking ready to retire to the countryside, Constable Yan felt deeply saddened.
For one thing, after decades spent together, he naturally could not bear the thought of his uncle leaving.
For another, he had no idea what the new magistrate would be like or whether they would be easy to get along with.
But people always returned to their hometowns when they grew old. It was inevitable.
"Constable Yan."
At that moment, the County Magistrate remembered something and spoke to Constable Yan, who had been feeling rather melancholy. "The Qilin Prodigy first killed the bandits, then wiped out the entire Liu Family.
In three days, a hundred people have died in town.
The matter has already caused a huge stir.
Now, whether or not we risk offending the Qilin Prodigy, we must summon him and ask him about it."
"Yes, sir!"
Constable Yan answered, putting aside his melancholy to attend to the business at hand.
Meanwhile,
at the Zhao Family estate,
in the back courtyard,
Chen Guan sat inside his room meditating, restoring his spiritual energy while deepening his cultivation.
Beside him were several martial arts manuals on fist and leg techniques, recovered from the Liu Family.
Outside in the courtyard,
Patriarch Zhao, the Eldest Young Master, and the others paced back and forth like ants on a hot pan, exchanging glances, yet no one dared go in and disturb Chen Guan.
"Father... do you think the rumors going around about the Liu Family tragedy are true? Did my Fifth Brother really wipe out the whole family?"
"Father, why don't you go in and ask? I don't dare..."
"How am I supposed to ask? You don't dare, but I do?"
As they talked,
every so often, they glanced at the wall beside them.
At that moment,
two guards were trying to repair the wall as quietly as they could, afraid they would disturb the Fifth Young Master's cultivation.
"Senior Zhu is dead..."
In their occasional remarks, the guards marveled at the Fifth Young Master's inner strength, and at how he had returned after ten years away from home and killed the Bamboo Swordsman with a single move, vaulting to become the third-best fighter in town!
To them, he was just like one of those Strange Heroes from the tales told by storytellers!
Before you continue