Chapter 161: Thunder on Flat Ground!

Outside the window, the heavy rain pours like a waterfall; inside the room, the scent of peach blossoms lingers.

On the long table, white silk is spread out, with ink-dipping brushes, coloring brushes, row brushes, crab-claw brushes, and eyebrow brushes arranged in order on a five-peak brush rest.

In the color-mixing cup, there are four soft colors: ochre, mineral blue, gamboge, and rouge.

A beautiful woman sits holding the silk, while Du Wenzhang holds a brush to outline.

"After the Great Qian, everyone likes literati paintings, using thick rice paper, and consequently, painters don't even use silk anymore.

But if you ask me, painting still requires this silk; it takes color well and doesn't easily spread ink. Spring is warm and rainy; if you used rice paper, you couldn't even paint a single picture."

"Lord Du not only writes good poetry, but I never imagined your painting was also so formidable."

"Eh, little lady, you don't know. When I was taking the imperial examinations, I was also a poor scholar, and I was good at painting, especially painting beauties. I often went to sell paintings; the more beautiful the beauty, the better I painted. It's a pity, a pity."

Little Chun'er blinks her eyes: "What is the lord pitying?"

Du Wenzhang shakes his head: "It's a pity that today's painting is likely the peak of my life. From now on, I will never find a beauty more beautiful than Chun'er to paint a better painting!"

"Pfft... The lord really knows how to joke."

The beauty laughs, and Du Wenzhang is pleased with himself.

For two people to be together, feelings must reach the intent; having desire without affection cannot last long.

Although he is fat, he is also a literatus who has read books for a lifetime.

"I am not..."

"Lord Du!"

Outside the door comes the Private Secretary's rather urgent shout, stopping the ambiguous atmosphere in the room.

Du Wenzhang puts down his brush, not annoyed; the Private Secretary has followed him for a long time and naturally knows he wouldn't come to bother him without an urgent matter.

"Wait a moment."

He walks quickly out of the room and closes the door gently.

"Panicked, what happened?"

The Private Secretary's eyes are full of panic: "The Whale Gang's main headquarters has been picked off!"

Lightning strikes across the sky, a thunderous sound explodes, and the rain washes the roof tiles, forming a curtain from the eaves.

Du Wenzhang's expression changes suddenly.

"What's going on? Speak quickly!"

"It's a message from the people below, saying a seventeen or eighteen-year-old young man suppressed the Whale Gang members, carrying a spear to the Whale Gang's main headquarters, and none of them were a match for a single blow..."

The Private Secretary has been running all the way, his mouth dry; he swallows his saliva and tells the story of what happened at the Whale Gang's main headquarters bit by bit.

The more Du Wenzhang hears, the more shocked and flustered he becomes, grabbing the Private Secretary by the collar.

"What about Liu Jie and Liu Yi? Did they just watch their own people die?"

"Dead! They are all dead!"

"Dead?"

Du Wenzhang screams.

"That person carried their heads on the door! Only Zheng Tianfu is still alive, but all four limbs are broken, no different from a dead dog!"

Du Wenzhang feels the world spinning, staggering backward, and the Private Secretary quickly steps forward to support him.

A massive Whale Gang, with hundreds of people, just the martial artists alone number in the hundreds.

Picked off by one person!?

"Did you see it clearly?"

Du Wenzhang's voice is slightly distorted and hoarse.

The Private Secretary smiles bitterly: "I don't believe it either, but the person who reported it is my nephew. He swore a poisonous oath that it was Liu Jie's head and Liu Yi's corpse. If he saw wrong, he would cut off his own head and give it to me."

"What is that young man's name?"

"I don't know, only that he is wearing the River Patrol Office's official uniform, with auspicious cloud patterns on half of his body. He must be a River Lord of the From Eighth Rank."

A River Lord of the From Eighth Rank...

Du Wenzhang's head feels like it's about to explode, forcing himself to think.

Those nobles and military families wouldn't come to be such a small official of the eighth rank, let alone the From Eighth Rank, which is only half a grade higher than the ninth rank.

Could it be locally recruited?

Liu Jie is at the Galloping Horse Realm!

The entire Fengbu County only has one Wolf Smoke expert, which is the County Lieutenant. Other than that, Liu Jie is the number one person!

Not even seventeen or eighteen years old, could the River Patrol Office actually recruit such talent locally in Pingyang County?

Du Wenzhang's chest feels as if it's blocked by blood.

How could things develop like this?

He knows the whole process too well; a small spirit monster incident would never attract a high-ranking River Lord official.

The whole thing only had two outcomes: either the River Lord official returned fully loaded, or the next River Lord official who came returned fully loaded; it could always be negotiated.

He never expected Liu Jie and Liu Yi to lose their lives because of this!

Is there really a cat that doesn't steal fish?

Can he continue to take action against that young man?

No.

Du Wenzhang denies it immediately.

His own actions and intentions are too obvious.

And anyone with a brain knows that such a talented young man is a hot commodity everywhere; who wouldn't pick up gold if they saw it on the side of the road?

Killing one would only cause bigger trouble.

He even has to worry about others framing him on purpose, getting himself into trouble.

After pondering for a long time, Du Wenzhang can only pray that since he collected so much money from the Whale Gang every year, the Whale Gang didn't leave any evidence in the accounts...

"I only have two years left before I leave office. If there really is evidence, they should have taken it out to demand an official position long ago. There shouldn't be, there shouldn't be..."

The Private Secretary's eyes widen.

"Lord Du, what... what if there is?"

Du Wenzhang's head aches.

"If there really is... then it can only be the work of the clerks. Yes, it's the clerks!"

"Framed?"

The Private Secretary thinks quickly.

The clerks do seem to be a target to shift the blame onto?

Great Shun county magistrates come and go, but clerks are officials for generations; being framed is a common occurrence.

The more Du Wenzhang thinks, the brighter his eyes become.

"Right, I was framed by them! I have no power, I can only be a pleasure-seeking county magistrate. The Whale Gang has nothing to do with me! It's the clerks who deceived their superiors and concealed the truth, colluding with foreign enemies!

Someone, come here! Quickly get me a straw raincoat!

I want to pay a visit to this little hero! He helped me eradicate the biggest scourge in Fengbu County!"

In the Whale Gang's main headquarters courtyard, gang members lie on the ground in pieces, or surrender obediently, lying prone to the side.

Liang Qu comes to the courtyard to string the profound iron great bow and practice target shooting.

The process of taking down the entire Whale Gang headquarters is very simple.

The gang members who could stay at the headquarters are at most at the second barrier; Liang Qu doesn't even need to defend, as they fundamentally cannot break through the protection of the Sturgeon Demon inner armor, tungsten gold bracers, and mountain cowhide belt.

Bang!

Another target is shot and explodes into scattered wood chips.

"Change the target!"

A Whale Gang member holds a wooden target, trembling as he steps forward to insert it, then quickly flees the courtyard.

The fierce man is too fierce; he really worries if he will want to practice on a living target in the next moment.

Liang Qu rubs his shoulder.

His compatibility with the bow is higher than he imagined.

As the saying goes, "a hundred crossbows, a thousand bows, ten thousand slingshots."

That is, shoot a crossbow a hundred times, a bow a thousand times, and a slingshot ten thousand times to practice a certain level of accuracy.

The difficulty of the three increases step by step; conversely, it decreases step by step.

The River Lord Emperor is a slingshot master, so using a bow is actually easy difficulty.

"Where is the young hero who eradicated the scourge?"

Noisy shouts come from outside the headquarters courtyard.

Liang Qu stares at a few gang members.

The few are startled by the stare and quickly go out to check.

No wonder so many people like to take on underlings; there's always someone to run errands, always someone to do things.

While pondering, the few return to report.

"County Magistrate?" Liang Qu raises an eyebrow. "Let him in."

The main gate opens wide, and a "mountain of meat" wearing a wet straw raincoat runs toward the courtyard with a face full of sorrow.

Liang Qu widens his eyes.

The mountain of meat has at least three hundred jin of fat!

This, this is the County Magistrate of Fengbu County?

"Young hero, young prodigy! You have eradicated a great scourge for Fengbu County!" Du Wenzhang grabs Liang Qu's hands and shakes them vigorously. "Pity me, I have been county magistrate for over ten years, never expecting to be framed to this point, achieving nothing! I am ashamed of the people, ashamed to be a parent official!"

Between his words, he is full of regret, and hearing it makes one shed tears. ===== CHAPTER 162 =====