Eliminate Violence and Bring Peace

Eliminate Violence and Bring Peace

As a great hero, you naturally upheld justice. You killed an evildoer who had terrorized the region, safeguarding the local peace and earning the admiration of the people.

Mission Eliminate Violence and Bring Peace completed. Calculating rewards.

Mission rating: C.

Received 20 Achievement Points!

Name: Li Rui

Age: 5

Talent: Martial Bone

Cultivation Method: White Ape Mantle Blade

Achievement: 40/100

C Grade.

Li Rui was not particularly satisfied with this rating.

But he had not followed the usual process of punishing evil and eradicating wickedness to begin with. Killing Zhu Lie and triggering the mission had merely been an accident. Even without last night's events, he would have found an opportunity to kill Zhu Lie.

"Retribution truly never misses."

Li Rui smiled and shook his head.

Twenty Achievement Points were an unexpected delight.

An old man in his twilight years was doing the things of a young Wandering Swordsman.

Li Rui took out the Tiger Bone Pill he had obtained from Zhu Ping.

"An Eighth-Rank Spirit Pill."

The clear, ancient fragrance wafting from the pill alone was enough to intoxicate anyone.

After returning to the Heaven and Earth Alliance,

Li Rui had deliberately made a trip to the Medicine Hall. Only after confirming that the pill in his hand truly was a Spirit Pill did he set his mind at ease.

"Zhu Ping was certainly generous."

He had accepted Zhu Ping's gift.

That meant cooperating with the Zhu Family, but it did not conflict with killing Zhu Lie. In the future, he simply would not touch the rest of the Zhu Family—as long as they did not come seeking death themselves, of course.

Accepting the gift was friendship.

Killing Zhu Lie was interest.

One matter was one matter. That was what it meant to have standards.

Li Rui did not have the habit of hoarding treasures only to stir up more trouble later.

Although the Tiger Bone Pill would have been most effective if taken when he was on the verge of breaking through to the Eighth Rank, it was safest once it was in his stomach. He had no desire for the treasure he had obtained to end up making a wedding dress for someone else.

With a tilt of his head,

he swallowed the pill.

The Tiger Bone Pill's medicinal power was swiftly absorbed by his internal organs. With the beating of his heart, it flowed through his limbs and bones, especially toward the Martial Bone along the great dragon of his spine, which squeezed every last thread of medicinal power dry.

Li Rui closed his eyes in comfort.

He only felt warmth spreading through his entire body.

Upon closer sensation, his strength had actually increased by more than fifty percent.

Even Li Rui could not remain calm in the face of such an astonishing increase.

The effects of taking a Spirit Pill for the first time were truly tyrannical.

He could already faintly see the threshold of the Copper Bone Realm.

Before long, he would surely step into the Eighth Rank!

Elsewhere.

The Zhu Family.

"Family Head, we have sent people everywhere, but there is still no news of Second Master."

The Zhu Family steward spoke.

Zhu Family Head Zhu Ping's face was grim. His right hand clenched the Grand Preceptor's Chair made of huanghuali wood until it creaked.

"Keep looking!"

Ever since leaving Flower Night House last night, he had spoken some harsh words. Zhu Lie had flown into a rage and had not returned to the Zhu Family with him.

Such things were actually common.

Second Master Zhu Lie did not spend much time living at the Zhu Family to begin with. Most of the time, he ran around with his shady friends from the martial world's underworld.

Zhu Ping had long ceased to find it strange.

But last night,

the corpses of two underworld experts close to Zhu Lie had been discovered in an alley.

Moreover, according to the tavern keeper, Zhu Lie had been drinking with those two men last night before leaving with them.

Zhu Ping drew a deep breath.

"I warned you long ago that if you kept entangling yourself in this, disaster would eventually fall upon you."

Zhu Lie had offended far too many people over the years.

There was simply no way to investigate them all.

The authorities had already sent constables to investigate. Apart from learning that the two men had been killed by arrows, they had found no other clues.

Whoever had acted was at least a martial artist, and their mind was meticulous. They had not left behind the slightest trace.

There was no need to think about it. Before long, it would become another headless unsolved case.

Zhu Ping released his right hand and slumped back into the Grand Preceptor's Chair.

"Perhaps it is better that he died. His grudges have ended with him alone, so they will not implicate the Zhu Family."

Otherwise, with Zhu Lie's temperament, he would sooner or later cause a great disaster.

When that time came, perhaps the ones to die would be the entire Zhu Family.

Looking at it that way, had the Zhu Family actually come out ahead?

"Zhu Lie had a perverse temperament and became increasingly reckless in his actions. I heard he even dared to rob the Blood Tiger Gang's business. Sooner or later, something was bound to happen."

Wu Tu grabbed a pig's trotter and gnawed on it.

He sat across from Li Rui in a private room within a gambling house, the table between them filled with all manner of dishes.

This gambling house was the Heaven and Earth Alliance's business in Clear River.

Wu Tu was the steward in charge of this establishment.

"What Brother Wu said is true. I watched Zhu Lie grow up. His nature was indeed rather rash, and he was prone to trouble."

Li Rui raised his cup and took a sip, speaking of Zhu Lie as if nothing had happened.

Wu Tu glanced at Li Rui and thought to himself.

The old bastard really knows how to put on an act.

If he had not known the inside story, he might truly have believed that Li Rui had nothing to do with Zhu Lie's affair.

Wu Tu did not intend to dwell on the matter and changed the subject.

"Old Brother Li, Zhao Wei did not make things difficult for you, did he?"

Li Rui shook his head. "Deputy Master Zhao is busy with countless matters. He has no time to bother with an insignificant old man like me."

Wu Tu's expression relaxed somewhat.

"That is good. Back when I was young and hot-blooded, I had some conflicts with him. I was afraid that might drag you into it, Old Brother."

Li Rui was immediately intrigued.

"Brother Wu, what exactly happened?"

He had previously heard Ding Liang mention that Deputy Master Zhao had once been one of the Qinghe Dark Eight Gates, and had even been the leader of the Heng Sect. At that time, Wu Tu had been Zhao Wei's subordinate.

Wu Tu sighed softly.

"They are all old stories. Back then, I was young and hot-blooded. I wanted to challenge Zhao Wei and become the leader of the Heng Sect, but Zhao Wei used underhanded tricks and I suffered a crushing defeat. Unable to swallow my anger, I chopped down the man Zhao Wei had ordered to drug me and fled the Heng Sect as a traitor."

"Later, Zhao Wei left the Heng Sect to pursue martial arts, and the matter gradually settled down."

He had never expected that when he encountered Zhao Wei again,

the man had already become an Eighth-Rank martial artist and the deputy master of the Heaven and Earth Alliance.

Zhao Wei was someone who held grudges.

Wu Tu had originally arranged the right connections and should have been able to take the position of a Heaven and Earth Alliance hall master. But Zhao Wei had thrown obstacles in his way, leaving him reduced to guarding a gambling house.

Within the Heaven and Earth Alliance, he had always lived with his tail tucked between his legs.

Fortunately, he was not without support behind him. Otherwise, Zhao Wei would have driven him into a far worse state.

"It is easy to avoid the King of Hell, but hard to deal with the little devils. Chang He of the Discipline Hall is Zhao Wei's trusted confidant, so Old Brother, you must be extra cautious. That man is a smiling tiger."

"Thank you for the reminder, Brother Wu."

Li Rui chuckled.

The smile on Wu Tu's face deepened. "Old Brother Li, I heard that you once took part in Huaqing Sect's operation at the abandoned temple outside the city?"

Li Rui's heart skipped a beat.

He did not understand why Wu Tu had brought up this matter.

Wu Tu hurriedly explained, "Old Brother, do not overthink it. I merely have a good brother at the County Office, and I heard about an assignment from Huaqing Sect."

He lowered his voice. "Huaqing Sect wants to deal with the Ghost Underworld Sect, and the Heaven and Earth Alliance will also take part. The expert Huaqing Sect sent to Clear River is offering a mid-grade Eighth-Rank Spirit Pill as a reward for information on a Huaqing Sect disciple who defected to the Ghost Underworld Sect."

"After asking around, I learned that when you were with the Zhu Family, you had participated in this matter."

Li Rui smiled bitterly. "At the time, I was just a Groom, watching the horses at the foot of the mountain. I did not see anything."