Chapter 482

"It is not because he is mysterious, but because his methods were extremely ruthless; he was a more vicious person than even Chen Pi."

"Moreover, his moods were volatile, making people feel that he was simply a madman!"

"Mentioning such a person makes one's heart run cold."

"Among the Laojiu Sect, except for Xie Jiuye, who was his neighbor and had a relatively good relationship with him, everyone else was terrified of meeting him."

Hearing Zhang Lin describe Half-a-Li in this way, many in the audience could not help but gasp.

How did a madman and villain like this become one of the Upper Three Sects?

Everyone had already witnessed how ruthless Chen Pi was through Zhang Lin's storytelling.

That was a man who would shake an egg until the yolk broke!

Even a person like Chen Pi was not as vicious as Half-a-Li?

The level of Half-a-Li's cruelty was already beyond imagination!

What made everyone feel even more unsettled was why a villain like Half-a-Li was able to enter Lei Cheng.

Although Lei Cheng was not a holy land, the Thunder-Listening Clan boasted of being the spokespeople for the will of Heaven.

People who could enter Lei Cheng should at least be vetted!

Such lack of discrimination, not even checking one's character, made many people feel a bit jealous.

Some even felt that if a person like Half-a-Li could go, then they could too!

They had spent their lives doing good deeds and accumulating merit; they were the ones who truly deserved to enter Lei Cheng and step into the Thunder Pool.

There were not a few people with such thoughts; Zhang Lin could tell just by looking at the resentful expressions on the faces in the audience.

But opportunities are never encountered based on a person's moral character.

Most of the time, it is just coincidence—what people often call fate!

Some people just have that kind of fate, and there is no reasoning with it!

In the mysterious room, Mr. Zhou was in high spirits listening to Zhang Lin's storytelling.

Especially when Zhang Lin mentioned that Half-a-Li might have entered Lei Cheng, Mr. Zhou immediately turned his head to ask Chang San beside him.

"Mr. Wei, did outsiders really enter Lei Cheng back then?"

"Judging by Mr. Zhang Lin's meaning, the time Half-a-Li entered Lei Cheng should have been when he was very young."

"It has been several decades since then; do you know about this?"

Chang San was very alert now; he had not lied to Mr. Zhou when he said he hadn't returned to Lei Cheng in a long time.

Therefore, Chang San could not be certain whether someone had truly entered Lei Cheng decades ago.

But having clashed with Zhang Lin several times without gaining the upper hand, Chang San felt increasingly uneasy.

He always felt that there was something fishy about Half-a-Li entering Lei Cheng as described by Zhang Lin!

It was just a pity that the Thunder-Listening Art had no effect on Zhang Lin.

Chang San had specifically listened to the thunder several times for Zhang Lin's sake, but the results were always hazy and unclear.

He simply could not decipher the information coming from the thunder.

In layman's terms, it was just a pile of garbled code!

This was a situation he had never encountered in all his time as a Thunder-Listener.

The various strange phenomena surrounding Zhang Lin made Chang San increasingly wary of him!

Now, hearing Zhang Lin talk about Half-a-Li entering Lei Cheng, Chang San's first reaction was not to verify the truth of the matter.

Instead, he wanted to judge whether Zhang Lin was trying to trip him up again!

Seeing Mr. Zhou still staring at him waiting for an answer, Chang San said solemnly: "I truly do not know if this event exists."

"I have not returned to Lei Cheng for a long time, so naturally, I am unaware of things from decades ago."

"However, entering Lei Cheng is not simple; it is not something one can enter by mere chance."

"Therefore, whether this is true or false requires us to continue listening to Mr. Zhang."

Mr. Zhou nodded in agreement and then said: "I understand what you mean; you want to judge whether this story is fabricated based on the way Half-a-Li entered Lei Cheng in Mr. Zhang Lin's story, right?"

"Since that is the case, let us continue listening!"

"In any case, there isn't much time left for storytelling today; we'll listen to as much as we can."

……

"You all know now that the reason Li Tangzhu is called Half-a-Li is because his legs were broken by someone when he was young!"

"This past event is the key to his entry into Lei Cheng, so I must explain it to everyone in some detail."

"Half-a-Li, Li Tangzhu, had the most connections among the Upper Three Sects!"

"His parents died when he was young, and eventually his older brother passed away early too, leaving only a sister-in-law to take care of him."

"At that naive age, his sister-in-law was both a sister-in-law and a mother to him!"

"His childhood was full of hardship; to raise him, his sister-in-law suffered greatly."

"Half-a-Li grew up in such an environment, possessing a sensitive heart; that extreme personality of his likely stemmed from this!"

"Once, when his sister-in-law was washing clothes at someone else's house, she was beaten until she was deaf in one ear for tearing a cheongsam, and afterward, that entire family was burned to the ground."

"That was a cold case, but everyone rumored that it was Half-a-Li who did it!"

"The two lived under the same roof, and as Half-a-Li gradually grew up, gossip began to spread."

"Moreover, in those old houses, there was only a curtain, and one could always see things that shouldn't be seen."

"Half-a-Li's sister-in-law was not much older than him, and the atmosphere between the two gradually became strange!"

"The way Half-a-Li looked at his sister-in-law was also changing; after all, she was a woman who had been married, and she understood too well what those looks represented."

"To prevent anything crossing the line from happening between them, Half-a-Li's sister-in-law took charge and sent him away to another city to be an apprentice!"

"It was this, Half-a-Li leaving Changsha to go elsewhere as an apprentice, that changed his life."

"Half-a-Li was only in his teens then; he knew his sister-in-law's life was hopeless, and he had to strive to make her suffer no more."

"He had planned it well: once he earned money, he would marry his sister-in-law and take care of her for his older brother; this was the best ending he could imagine at the time."

"So, Half-a-Li, who should have been properly apprenticing elsewhere, hid it from everyone and secretly followed tomb raiders to learn the trade, dreaming of getting rich overnight just like many young thieves of that time!"

"The result was a heavy blow from life; not only were his legs broken, but he also nearly died in the tomb."

Hearing this, many people's hearts skipped a beat.

It is said that pitiful people must have their detestable aspects, and detestable people are the same.

Half-a-Li's ruthlessness had many similarities to Chen Pi's!

The lack of emotional support in childhood led to his twisted and extreme personality.

Originally, his sister-in-law was his spiritual sanctuary; for the sake of this sanctuary, Half-a-Li was willing to work hard, yet he was met with betrayal!

After escaping death, he naturally lost trust in everyone and became even more sensitive and vicious.

This was the survival method for people like Half-a-Li and Chen Pi!

At this moment, Zhang Lin said again: "Half-a-Li had his legs broken by others and was thrown into a tomb, yet he managed to survive."

"In the end, not only did he come out of the tomb alive, but he even mastered incredible tomb-raiding skills!"

"After he recovered, he found the group of accomplices who had harmed him, broke their legs one by one, and dragged them into an ancient tomb to starve to death!"

"Hearing this, haven't you all noticed the unreasonable parts of this story?"

"An apprentice who had only just started learning to raid tombs followed others down into the ground and met with disaster."

"Not only did he not die after having his legs broken, but after coming out, his tomb-raiding skills became extraordinary!"

"If anyone says Half-a-Li didn't have an encounter in that ancient tomb, even a ghost wouldn't believe it!"

…….