Everyone, I'd Like to See How Many Heads You Have

That rather provocative click of the tongue immediately drew several people's gazes.

Cao Shuang looked over and asked Zhou Buren, "Who is this?"

"This is my younger brother," Zhou Buren introduced him, then added, "He studies under Grandmaster Li Jingfei."

There was nothing wrong with the first sentence, but the moment the second came out, the atmosphere changed.

There might have been plenty of people named Li Jingfei in Suming County, but only one dared call himself a grandmaster: the Five Qi expert known as Astonishing Wind Leg.

A man at the pinnacle of martial arts in this city.

Barring anything unexpected, he was formidable even among Five Qi practitioners.

Cao Shuang immediately felt some regret. He seemed to have offended someone he should not have.

Even within the Song Kingdom's unique system, a martial artist who reached Five Qi held an extraordinary position. Usually, situations that brought such people forward were special ones.

On the Hall of Outstanding Heroes' side, the faces of those who had just been feeling pleased immediately fell.

How could they have known nothing about such important information?

What was going on?

As they looked at Zhou Muzhi sitting calmly, the expressions of all eight began to shift.

Suddenly, they thought of something very bad.

Could the person who had come to kill their subordinates have been Grandmaster Li?

If so, everything seemed to make sense. But if that was true, it meant the trap they had just been so proud of laying had strangled them too.

Bad. This was very bad.

They suddenly felt a chill around their necks.

On the Zhong Family's side, the elder raised his lowered head upon hearing this and looked at Zhou Muzhi nearby.

Shock filled his eyes. Then he glanced at Zhong Shao behind him, seemingly understanding what this young woman of his clan intended.

After a brief silence, Cao Shuang broke the stiff atmosphere.

He raised his cup toward Zhou Muzhi from a distance, then drained the wine within, his voice amiable.

"My poor eyes failed to recognize an accomplished disciple before me. Young friend, you have entered Grandmaster Li's tutelage at such a tender age. What realm have you reached now?"

This openly asked question drew everyone else's gaze as well.

Zhou Muzhi looked at him, then at the eight men. Holding his teacup, he glanced down at it, then raised his head. Rather than answering immediately, he clicked his tongue again.

"How dull."

Those words spared him no face whatsoever.

County Deputy Cao wore a stiff smile. It had been a long time since he had lost his composure like this. Ever since taking this position, he had only bowed to the county magistrate.

Yet this youth before him seemed to have quite a temper.

As he considered whether to smooth things over, Zhou Muzhi set down his teacup again.

He pressed his palm against the table, his voice utterly even. "Everyone, I'd like to see how many heads you have."

After he said this, only Zhong Shao stared at him in shock.

He had just said it outright?

Was he leaving no room at all?

Wasn't he afraid of being arrested on the spot for saying that?

Zhou Muzhi's words practically laid everything bare. He might as well have said, Come arrest me. I'm right here.

But as long as he did not admit it, they could not convict him.

Zhou Buren also looked at his younger brother, feeling that those words had gone a little too far.

Zhou Muzhi gave his second brother a reassuring look. He knew what he was doing.

In truth, this was what he wanted to say. After listening for so long, he knew this so-called banquet was meant to lay a trap for the Zhou Family.

Everything else was false. Only serving up the Zhou Family as a dish was real.

In that case, they could not blame him for overturning the table.

Besides, an unusual look entered his eyes as he looked at the eight men opposite him.

These eight seemed deeply connected to the matter of the vengeful spirit!

He still needed to find a few more people to make certain, and these eight would do nicely. Once he lit an auxiliary incense such as the Soul-Guiding Incense, he could give it a try.

At that thought, he no longer felt much like playing these mind games with them.

So he stood.

Seeing him rise so abruptly, the others were shocked again.

Especially Cao Shuang. He was being utterly ignored. It felt awful, infuriating, but he did not want to speak.

Although martial arts had declined and could not compare with scholars, that was only true for high officials. Minor officials like them were better off behaving themselves before martial experts.

After all, their lives were their own. The court would pursue the matter, but they would already be gone.

Sword in hand, he headed outside and said to his second brother, "Let's go, Second Brother. These people still won't give up. There's no need to talk. Use whatever needs using. It's fine."

Then he looked at the eight men from the Hall of Outstanding Heroes and decided to ambush them shortly, capture them all, and then start lighting incense.

For some reason, that single glance from Zhou Muzhi left all eight feeling cold, so cold that goosebumps rose on their skin.

Zhou Buren clearly understood his fourth brother's meaning too. He gave Cao Shuang an apologetic look. "County Deputy Cao, let's leave things here for today. My younger brother is feeling unwell, so we need to leave first."

As he spoke, he rose too. With their departure, everyone from the Zhou Family left, immediately leaving only a few people behind.

The Zhong Family spoke up at this point as well.

"We'll take our leave too. Send for us when we're needed."

It was the Zhong Family elder who spoke. By now, he could see that neither side was easy to provoke. Leaving was simply the best strategy.

Once only a few people remained in the banquet hall, Cao Shuang could finally no longer restrain his furious roar. His palm slammed against the table with a loud bang.

"Where is Master Qian? Didn't you say you would have him come?!"

Zhou Muzhi could withstand pressure from the county authorities, but that did not mean these eight could. They gave no answer. In truth, they did not know where he was either.

After some thought, Cao Shuang looked at the silent eight and snorted coldly. "Not a single coin short. Have the silver delivered before tomorrow afternoon!"

With that, he rose and left as well.

In the end, only the eight of them and some guards remained in the room.

"Let's go first. We'll leave separately. I don't know why, but the way that brat looked at us when he left gave me the creeps."

"Me too."

"With Eldest Brother absent, we'd better put caution first. Everyone, after tonight, go completely into hiding."

With that, all eight walked out together, descended from the second floor, left through the door, and went their separate ways.

Zhou Buren sat alone in the Zhou Family carriage, thinking of how his fourth brother had said he had something to take care of before vanishing outright.

As his second brother, there was nothing he could do either. His fourth brother had ideas of his own, so he could only let him go.

His fourth brother was more capable than he was now. He only needed to keep doing his own part.

Eight men from the Hall of Outstanding Heroes, eight carriages, eight directions.

For an ordinary person, there were too many directions to track them at all, but this problem simply did not exist for Zhou Muzhi.

At full speed, he was much faster than a horse at a gallop.

First came the first three. They were the slowest to leave, and Zhou Muzhi soon caught up with them.

He did not draw his sword. Using only the strength of his hands and his speed, he killed all their guards in fewer than three moves, then beat each man half to death under their terrified gazes, barely leaving them alive.

Striking this swiftly, Zhou Muzhi captured seven men in succession.

Until he reached the last one.

Beside a road, Zhou Muzhi killed the man's guards, then shattered the heart meridians of the coachman who was preparing to flee with a single palm strike.

He climbed onto the carriage and lifted the curtain, only to find it empty.

"Hm?"

This one was clever. Clearly, he had prepared more than one fallback. Finding him now would probably be difficult.

"Forget it. Seven will do."

He did not want to spend too much effort searching. Besides, the area was too large. He was indeed fast, but he could not search nearly half the county town in a short time.

His figure vanished from the road. When Zhou Muzhi appeared again, he was driving one of the carriages toward the outlying residence he had purchased specifically for this purpose.

Elsewhere.

The sole survivor, unaware that he had escaped death, headed to the place where he usually met their eldest brother, Qian Zhen, after noticing something was wrong, and waited for news from him.

Beneath the bright moonlight.

Shu Gong and the others lay unconscious in the middle of the courtyard. With them were four hired thugs who had also personally taken part in that night's events.

Zhou Muzhi was making arrangements in the courtyard. First, he placed the white candles he had prepared beforehand around the group in a triangle and lit them one by one.

Finally, he lit white candles at each of the four corners by the courtyard entrance.

Lastly, he took out an incense burner, inserted the Soul-Guiding Incense, and lit it.

With these preparations complete, Zhou Muzhi retreated to the steps before the house and took out two sticks of incense. First, he removed the mold from the Evil-Repelling Incense, lit it, and inserted it into the incense burner on his left.

The burning incense soon released billows of thick mist. The gray-white vapor rapidly enveloped Zhou Muzhi's entire body.

He then unpacked the most important incense and placed it within reach on his other side. He did not light this stick immediately, merely leaving it standing quietly in another incense burner.

Once he had done all this, movement stirred in the courtyard.

A breeze swept through the entire courtyard. Fallen leaves scraped audibly against the ground, and the white candles flickered before rapidly going out one after another.

The blood-red vengeful spirit appeared, its tasseled skirt resembling lengths of chain.

The instant it reappeared, its threadlike body immediately took shape.

Its head was indistinct. The moment it saw the people in the courtyard, its entire body flew toward them.

With a swish.

The blood-red figure passed through one body after another. From Zhou Muzhi's perspective, each passage pulled something out, and the vengeful spirit grew more solid.

When the last person stopped breathing.

The vengeful spirit's face was fully revealed as well.

Its oval face was utterly bloodless. Its blood-red eyes carried towering fury, its skin was unrealistically white, and long red hair hung loose.

Judging by its face and features, it was a typical woman of Jiangnan.

Finally, its gaze settled on Zhou Muzhi, who was shrouded in gray mist.

Zhou Muzhi knew the time had come. Holding a fire striker, he unhurriedly lit the Ghost-Controlling Incense.

The period from lighting it until it burned out was the window for controlling the ghost. As long as he subdued the ghost within that time, he could control it successfully.

But Zhou Muzhi's method was more aggressive.

He slowly rose from the steps, and the gray mist stretched upward with him.

"Come on. I let you evolve into your complete form because I considered that you might lose the room to grow after being subdued."

The vengeful spirit had no reason and naturally could not understand Zhou Muzhi's words. With a shriek audible to human ears, it flew straight toward him!