"The hell...damn monkey...damn monkey...hiss...meow..."

Outside was the night rain. In an unknown supply warehouse in the south of Jiangning City, a small oil lamp was lit on a high pile of goods. Two young figures, stripped to the waist, were using the faint light to apply medicinal wine to each other's bodies, then grimacing and desperately rubbing it in, completely ignoring the flammable sacks beneath them.

According to the slightly older of the two young men: "If it catches fire, it catches fire. Burn those bastards to death."

Anyway, this damn warehouse belonged to Baofeng Company.

The two had been beaten badly tonight. The little monk was less injured, but his entire body was covered in bruises. He had mainly been chased by Jin Yongsheng of the Taishan Panjin tonight. The opponent was old but still strong, but lacked agility. The little monk relied on his tricky fighting style to attack where he was forced to defend, so he didn't suffer too much. But when he was hit a few times, he inevitably rolled around on the ground, suffering both internal and external injuries. A gap had even been knocked into his mouth, making him look quite pitiful.

But compared to his elder brother Long Aotian, the little monk's injuries were nothing. As the main force in blocking Li Yanfeng and Jin Yongsheng's pursuit, this domineering young man had taken most of the pressure from the two Green Forest heroes in the initial period of covering Yan Yunzhi's escape. He not only took Jin Yongsheng's iron abacus head-on, but also wrestled and fought with Li Yanfeng, who was skilled in boxing, for a very long time.

After estimating that the girl had already escaped, the two young men fled desperately one after the other, and their injuries lessened somewhat. But when they found a place to settle down, the little monk was shocked to discover that almost no part of his elder brother's upper body was unscathed, and he had spat out a lot of blood, indicating that his internal injuries were also severe.

After resting and adjusting their breathing slightly, the two found medicinal oil to treat each other's injuries. The little monk grimaced as Long Aotian rubbed him, and he also used his hands to rub the other man's body vigorously, dispersing the bruises and purplish-red marks, and started flattering him admiringly.

"Brother Long is really amazing. He took so many hits and his bones are fine... You can really take a beating..."

"Hiss...damn monkey...ah...need you ask? We train in taking beatings before we train in hitting people. My family has been training in the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training Golden Bell Cover since we were little...hiss, ouch, ouch...haven't you trained in it?"

"I was too young when my master taught me martial arts. Training in taking beatings was useless. I always relied on dodging..."

"It'll be useful when you're older... It's a pity. The Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training is a virgin skill. It's most effective when started from a young age... Damn it, I'll kill that monkey sooner or later... and that old thing!"

"I don't know who that old grandpa is..."

"The one with the abacus, and old too. Just ask around and you'll find out... I'll take you to get revenge."

"Amitabha...uh, ouch, ouch..."

"Ah, hiss, ouch...be gentle..."

The two rubbed and massaged each other, hurting each other in the process. After a while, they calmed down a bit and began to reflect on the gains and losses of tonight. The biggest problem seemed to be that their luck was a little bad. They said they wanted to secretly spy on Li Jianfeng's situation and then find an opportunity to kill him in private. Who knew they would run into the man himself before they even got there and were beaten into a sorry state while fleeing in disarray, completely losing the reputation of the Twin Heroes.

"...But when I thought about it, we ran into people and started fighting for no reason. I don't think I announced my name, right? Wukong, do you remember if that's the case?" Long Aotian, whose head had been beaten into a pig's head, reacted and recalled the key point.

The little monk thought for a moment: "I, I think so..."

"Then it's okay." Long Aotian said, "Good thing we didn't ruin our reputation, otherwise that monkey would laugh at us... Hmph, his martial arts are just so-so. If the two of us join forces and set up a few more traps, it'll be enough to kill him."

"Amitabha, this humble monk thinks we should be more cautious."

"What are you afraid of! Don't worry, I still have a lot of moves I haven't used yet. Let me think carefully, and we'll definitely succeed next time! Hmph, watch me do this beautifully."

Coming to Jiangning from the southwest, it was a great thing to finally find a like-minded little brother who got along well and had a tacit understanding when fighting. Unfortunately, after joining forces, the two suffered setbacks every time they tried to do something big. They couldn't find "Skykiller" Wei Xuwen's location, accidentally bumped into and killed one of his little brothers. They said they wanted to find Zhou Shang, but there were no clues. They turned around to catch Li Jianfeng, wanting to change their strategy, investigate first and then proceed slowly. As a result, they ran into the opponent head-on and were beaten bloody, fleeing with their heads in their hands... As the backbone of the two, Ning Ji, who always spoke eloquently about the plans, really felt a little embarrassed.

After all, Long Aotian had his pride.

Of course, since he was still young, Long Aotian's face, though not as resistant to beatings as his body, which had been trained in the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training since childhood, then learned the Tai Chi unloading technique, and then spent some time crawling and rolling on the battlefield, could easily cast the slight embarrassment to the other side of his memory after a bout of cursing.

A young man's slight setbacks were best treated as if they never happened.

After healing their wounds for most of the night in the night rain, they blew out the oil lamp and rested in the warehouse for a while longer. After the internal injuries, which could not heal in a day or two, had temporarily subsided, the two figures found rain capes to put on and sneaked through the dark city in the rain, returning to the Wuhu Inn where they were temporarily staying.

It was already Choushi (1:00-3:00 AM) in the morning.

Near the Wuhu Inn, Lu Xian and others, who had originally come to investigate the Four-Chi and Five-Chi *y* demons on Wei Xuwen's orders, were still staking out the inn.

This was originally a relatively simple matter, but when they took action to investigate at night, the waiter they caught turned out to be from the Reading Club, which suddenly made the whole incident more complicated.

This so-called "Reading Club" in the Fair Party was a strange thing that had only emerged at the end of last year. At first glance, the name was harmless, but the pamphlets it secretly spread contained discussions of equality originating from the southwest.

This matter could be big or small in the Fair Party. After all, on the surface, the source of He Wen's idea of establishing the "Fair Party" came from the southwest, and to this day, no Fair Party member has formally denied this argument—after all, the Huaxia Army's tiger skin was really easy to use.

But for the middle and high-level members of the Fair Party, the Fair Party's uprising and the southwest's discussion of ideas had completely different meanings. The southwest's discussion of ideas was too pure in some aspects and too conservative in others. Copying it wholesale was absolutely impossible. Moreover, in some almost public opinions, it was no great secret that He Wen did not like the Huaxia Army of the southwest. The Fair Party was established by pulling the Huaxia Army's tiger skin, but when the five great kings divided the territory, the entire system would sooner or later diverge from the Huaxia Army of the southwest. This was not difficult to understand, and the reason why it was a divergence rather than a conflict was simply because the two sides were too far apart.

Of course, since the Fair Party had used the name of the Huaxia Army from the beginning, it was not surprising that although most of the middle and high-level members subsequently accepted the reality that the two sides were not on the same path, a small number of them began to lean towards the southwest, admire the southwest, and even start learning from the southwest. Because of these complex reasons, those in the Fair Party who were curious about the southwest initially circulated pamphlets in the form of "Reading Clubs," and most people turned a blind eye.

But this perfunctory attitude did not last for more than a few months. For some deep-seated reasons, several great kings in the Fair Party began to investigate and clean up the existence of "Reading Clubs." Among them, "King Yama" Zhou Shang's cleanup of the Reading Clubs was the most forceful. Almost as soon as they were discovered, a large number of those involved were killed. This was because Zhou Shang's followers were the most fanatical among the five great kings. They advocated the equal distribution of wealth and land in the most extreme way. Discussing how to handle affairs rationally and how to achieve the goal of "fairness" in a practical and feasible way in such a team was tantamount to rebellion.

And the other great kings, including "Fair King" He Wen, also secretly chose to suppress the existence of this "Reading Club." Although their situations were different from Zhou Shang's, Lu Xian was able to perceive during the six months of investigating the Reading Clubs that the pamphlets spread by these "Reading Club" members might not actually be the original thoughts from the southwest.

In other words, there was a certain group that, starting at the end of last year, had been secretly passing on their own "private goods" in the Fair Party under the name of "Southwest Huaxia Army." This contained, perhaps, a conspiracy that could shake the foundation of the Fair Party.

For any "great king" of the Fair Party, they did not need a "orthodox" fair thought to exist here. After all, if the orthodox "fairness" appeared, how would their own thoughts position themselves? The Jiangnan Fair Party now had a scale of tens of millions of people, and the so-called "orthodox" had to be forged from a bloody battle from the beginning. Anyone who promoted orthodoxy would inevitably be beaten bloody by everyone.

The whole thing was truly ironic even in Lu Xian's eyes. At first, "Fair King" He Wen started an uprising by pretending to be from the southwest, but in reality, he was not on the same path as the southwest. Now someone wanted to undermine the foundation and engage in some conspiracies, and on the surface, they also wanted to use the name of the "southwest," but secretly they revised the thoughts from the southwest for their own use.

And in this entire complex situation, Lu Xian could also feel that although they had unanimously suppressed the "Reading Club," the big shots behind the scenes had always harbored the worst worry, that was...they were worried that the mastermind behind the "Reading Club" might really be someone sent by the "Heart Demon" from the southwest.

After all, if this opponent was someone inside the Fair Party, everyone could still weigh the situation and would not be too surprised. But if it was really Mr. Ning from the southwest who stretched his hand across thousands of miles to strangle this deformed "孽子 (illegitimate child)" of the Jiangnan Fair Party in its cradle with those ethereal pamphlets... those who usually boasted about the heroes of the world could really be afraid.

Because of these reasons, the suppression of the Reading Club never surfaced, but the participants all knew the seriousness of the matter. Lu Xian had temporarily detached himself from this matter. Only after catching the waiter did he feel that things had become tricky.

He gathered his subordinates nearby, first silenced them, and then sent Li Duanwu, the most experienced Jianghu figure in the team, to investigate the surrounding situation in detail. The two *y* demon matters were nothing compared to the "Reading Club." It was one thing to arrest members of the Reading Club in King Yama's territory, but now that they were in Jiangning, the forces of the five great kings were intertwined, and if a background figure from the Reading Club emerged, he might be someone he couldn't afford to offend.

"...A mission is a mission. We received orders from above to investigate the Reading Club, so there's nothing to say. But now we don't have this mission. We just happened to run into it. Whether to provoke it or not has to be carefully considered."

In the night rain, Lu Xian hid in the darkness, watching the stakeout and imparting Jianghu experience to the younger brothers who followed him.

"...The Wuhu Inn is under the banner of 'Farmer Sage' Zhao Jingci. Although, generally speaking, the 'Fair King' has seven sages under him, and the 'Farmer Sage' is known for not causing trouble, not causing trouble doesn't mean he doesn't have the ability to cause trouble... After our Fair Party started an uprising, we divided up the territory in the entire Jiangnan. We were the most decisive in killing the gentry and landlords, but the territory we divided was also dilapidated. The 'Equal King' engages in business and has the most gold and silver under his command, so he seems to be the richest, but if you really want to talk about living peacefully, it's still on the side of the 'Fair King.'"

"...Why is that? Because in the territory of the 'Fair King,' land reclamation and agricultural restoration are the fastest. We've been fighting back and forth for two years, and a lot of land is barren, and no one has planted it yet, because if they plant it, it will be burned down. Only on the side of the Fair King have crops been planted in several large cities, and this year's harvest is okay... You'll see. This winter, the fewest people will starve to death will be on their side... And these things are managed by 'Farmer Sage' Zhao Jingci and 'Chapter Sage' Shen Li."

"...They don't cause trouble because if others provoke them, they don't even have to do it themselves. These people will be mysteriously killed. Especially this year when everyone is short of food, Zhao Jingci cannot be provoked easily."

Lu Xian was able to gain a foothold under Wei Xuwen because of these fellow villagers and clansmen around him, so he took care of them wholeheartedly, and would explain things carefully when necessary. After he finished speaking, everyone looked at the Wuhu Inn again with complicated expressions.

Lu Chuanwen, who was relatively young among the juniors, had previously participated in the interrogation of the waiter, and later killed the waiter and buried him somewhere. At this time, he was somewhat anxious.

"Then what do we do? We've already killed someone. No matter what, if they find out someone is missing, I'm afraid they'll also startle the snake. Brother Xian, are we going to turn around and leave like this? If we stay here and are discovered, that would be a big problem."

"When you encounter big things, you have to be calm." Lu Xian glanced at him. "The Martial Arts Alliance Leader and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven haven't returned yet, so what's the hurry?"

Lu Chuanwen was glared at like this and didn't dare to speak anymore. Someone beside him said: "It was previously rumored in private that the 'Reading Club' affair was likely instigated by the southwest. This child who calls himself the 'Martial Arts Alliance Leader' is also said to be from the southwest. Brother Xian, if this Wuhu Inn is the southwest's foothold here, this matter... could be big or small."

"If we report this upwards, we'll make a fortune."

"If it's true, can we handle the follow-up after we report this upwards? I'm afraid we'll have the life to collect the money but not the life to enjoy it..."

"The southwest is thousands of miles away from here. How can it be so mysterious..."

The crowd whispered in the darkness, each expressing some opinions. Lu Xian didn't participate in the discussion anymore. After a while, Li Duanwu returned with people.

"Something happened in the city. Fireworks were set off randomly in the first half of the night. Someone died at the Golden Tower. The envoy sent by Liu Guangshi was killed. A lot of people are at the Golden Tower, fighting with bloodied heads. This time, things are going to blow up..."

Everyone met in the darkness. Li Duanwu first said some news that wasn't directly related, and then walked to the side with Lu Xian.

"We asked around about the background of this Wuhu Inn. The boss's banner was taken directly from the 'Farmer Sage.' It's not a random one... This also makes sense. If you randomly insert a banner, not many people would insert one of the 'Farmer Sage' line. Since he inserted the Farmer Sage, then he is most likely a direct subordinate... could be big or small..."

The banners within the Fair Party were chaotic, but in general, direct subordinates would mostly have someone to cover them. As subordinates of "Skykiller," if they really offended "Farmer Sage," the final result would be hard to say.

Lu Xian nodded: "We were just saying that the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and the Great Sage Equal to Heaven are so flamboyant, maybe they have some background... Long Aotian is clearly from the southwest. Uncle Duanwu, if it's really found out that the 'Reading Club' affair has the southwest's instigation behind it... we're either one step to heaven or one step to death. There's also the possibility that the whole village will be wiped out."

"We have to be more cautious." Li Duanwu nodded. "Fortunately, this time there's no shortage of scapegoats who can help us test the waters."

In the darkness, Lu Xian also nodded.

"Let's wait and see first. As long as we confirm that these two are really in this inn... things will be easy to handle."

They decided on this, and then continued to stake out for a while. After Choushi, Li Duanwu finally discovered two sneaky figures circling around the area several times before quietly entering the second floor of the inn.

"Everyone withdraw first. Keep tonight's events a secret. No one is allowed to say anything. This matter will be temporarily handled by me and Uncle Duanwu."

The entire matter had been complicated by the Reading Club. Lu Xian didn't dare to leave any novices, so he sent the remaining subordinates back, leaving himself and Li Duanwu to stake out here.

The two did not intend to go in to arrest the Five-Chi and Four-Chi *y* demons, because at this time in the city, there were many people who were even more interested in them.

"Go report to Baofeng Company first." Li Duanwu said, "Don't tell that Shopkeeper Jin. He's an old Jianghu figure and acts with discretion. Find a way to pass the message to that Young Master Shi of Baofeng, whose name seems to be Shi Weiyang. Young people are easily impulsive. This time, he was cuckolded by that Five-Chi *y* demon. It'll be easier to make things bigger if he comes forward."

Lu Xian thought so too.

He crossed the dark rain and headed towards the Juxian Pavilion in Zhong'an Fang.

Just as dawn broke this day, the Second Young Master of the Shi family, upon learning the shocking news, gathered his men and killed their way to the Wuhu Inn in a mighty manner.

At this moment, the two little *y* demons, who had been beaten black and blue in last night's fight, were still sound asleep in bed, unaware that danger was about to descend in the morning rain.

In a客栈(inn) in the north of the city, Yan Yunzhi sat in front of the bed, watching the morning light gradually unfold its misty eyebrows from the dark rain. The day had arrived. She had bandaged the wound on her chest, but she hadn't slept all night, her mind in a mess.

"Your grandfather..."

"Let you..."

"...Did he leave——"

The figure of the young man fighting seemed to still be shaking before her eyes. His roar had even suppressed the invincible Monkey King.

It wasn't a very pleasant memory.

But from the first sight she saw in Tongshan, this young man from the southwest had been so fierce and domineering. He could go to someone's manor and kill people. For the sake of a scholar, he could unscrupulously oppose the entire force of Tongshan. Even in Jiangning, a place where heroes gathered, he was still so invincible in opposing Li Yanfeng and Jin Yongsheng, Green Forest magnates...

Is he still alive?

Originally...

...I hoped he was dead...