Chapter 80

"What are you talking about? I don't understand."

Zhou Pan's face quickly returned to normal, and he replied indifferently.

However, everyone present was an old hand in the martial world; how could they not see the trickiness?

In the Taihang Carriage and Horse Firm camp, a young man whispered to his companion, "Feng Feng Shixiong, what kind of gang is Anqing Hall?"

"It's not a gang." That Feng Feng Shixiong smiled slightly and whispered, "It was the largest male brothel in Chang'an City, and Lu Gongyuan was its hall master."

"Oh~"

The young man suddenly realized and looked at Zhou Pan, his expression becoming strange.

So-called male brothels were places for male prostitutes.

Those with a penchant for men or the "cut-sleeve" habit had existed since ancient times, but they were most prevalent in the capital and Minzhou, known as "Capital Male Prostitutes" and "Minzhou Sworn Brothers."

For example, in the capital, there were famous ones like "Chunhui Hall" and "Jingyi Hall." The male prostitutes inside not only had to learn music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but also had to be proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics, so appearance was secondary; if they weren't smart and didn't speak elegantly, it wouldn't work.

The West-bound Beggar Gang that abducted people and human traffickers everywhere would send any young boy they found with outstanding looks and refined speech to the male brothels, where they sold for higher prices than those destined to be famous courtesans.

But that was the strange habit of noble and wealthy families; ordinary people, especially those in the martial world who ate meat and drank wine in large bowls, didn't think much of it.

Hearing that Zhou Pan was involved with a male brothel, everyone's eyes became a bit strange.

It seemed this Zhou Monkey really had no children his whole life...

However, this was someone else's habit; they would at most laugh about it when drinking and chatting, so how could it be related to Li Hu's death?

In the hall, seeing Zhou Pan deny it, Li Yan narrowed his eyes, suppressed his cold killing intent, and said in a deep voice, "There is no wall in the world that doesn't leak wind. Do you think you can hide this?"

"My father took a job back then to find a young master who had been abducted. Many clues pointed to Anqing Hall, but he found nothing."

"It was you who colluded with Lu Gongyuan and sent people to secretly tip him off, letting my father go to the brothel to find informants, and he was killed as a result."

"Afterward, you rushed from Xianyang to Chang'an, cooperated with the government to raid Anqing Hall, hunted down Lu Gongyuan, and not long after, that brothel also caught fire for no reason, and all the prostitutes inside were burned to death."

"Did you think that by killing them to silence them, there would be no proof of this matter!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the hall was shocked.

Old Man Zhang's face turned gloomy, and he slammed the table hard. "Zhou Monkey, so there was this matter! Poor Feng Feng Shixiong Li, his reputation was damaged, and he couldn't rest in peace for ten years."

"Damn it, if you don't make this clear today, it's not over!"

Even Leader Han of the Cao Gang shook his head. "Zhou Pan, if this is really the case, your methods are too despicable. With so many lives lost, you still want to retire peacefully? There's no such good thing."

The others were also filled with righteous indignation.

Li Yan stood in the hall, his killing intent already impossible to hide.

These pieces of information were all secretly slipped to him by Guan Wanche; although he didn't know why the other party didn't point it out himself, looking at Zhou Pan's face, it was nine times out of ten true.

Thinking of the bitterness in his grandfather's heart all these years, he only felt a wicked fire rushing to his heart, wishing he could immediately step forward and chop off Zhou Pan's dog head.

Facing the questioning of the crowd, Zhou Pan was silent for a while, then finally sighed and shook his head. "I can only say that I was acting under the orders of the Chang'an Prefecture Commandant's Office to cooperate in the arrest of Lu Gongyuan. This matter happened a long time ago; even if I say it now, I imagine the Commandant's Office won't pursue it."

Saying this, he looked at the crowd. "Lu Gongyuan's male brothel and that brothel were both incense halls of the Maitreya Sect in Chang'an, secretly plotting rebellion."

"What?"

Everyone in the hall was shocked.

Such a thing could not be lied about.

More than ten years ago, there was a great drought in Guanzhong, and the Maitreya Sect took the opportunity to stir up trouble, bewitching the villagers to rebel; they not only killed officials but also forced other commoners and martial world people to participate. If they didn't agree, they would set fires and slaughter villages.

People in the martial world were naturally wary of the imperial court.

But the Maitreya Sect used evil theories to bewitch people's hearts, and more people died because of them.

Zhou Pan sighed, looked at Li Yan, and shook his head. "This matter concerns imperial secrets; I dare not say more. I can only say your father was unlucky to have stumbled into a thief's den!"

"Stop playing dumb!"

Li Yan sneered, "The Maitreya Sect is another matter, but if you hadn't deliberately lured him, would my father have fallen into an ambush?"

Zhou Pan seemed to have become impatient; his face darkened as he shook his head. "That's how it is. It was your father who sent himself to his death; do you expect me to have stopped him?"

"Even if you go to the government office, it has nothing to do with me!"

Between his words, he had admitted to the matter, but he was in a "what can you do to me" posture.

Seeing that Li Yan's killing intent did not diminish, Zhou Pan raised his neck, his eyes gloomy. "If you are dissatisfied, you can seek justice from me today."

"Fart!" Old Man Zhang was angry and stood up slowly. "Zhou Monkey, playing rogue and bullying a young man, are you? Come, I'll seek this justice for him!"

Bang!

Just then, a loud noise came from outside the hall.

They saw several disciples flying backward, rolling on the ground, blood flowing from their mouths, crawling backward while shouting, "Master, someone is breaking in!"

The sudden change disrupted the atmosphere in the hall.

Everyone turned to look, only to see the Zhou Family Martial Hall disciples being hit as if by a wild beast, flying out from the gate one by one, falling into the courtyard, screaming incessantly.

Afterward, two people walked slowly toward the courtyard gate.

A young man, about twenty years old, wearing ordinary coarse black clothes, with more than half of his face covered in burn scars, short and stocky, holding a "gudu" in his hand.

The gudu, this weapon, was similar to a hammer; it was a long handle with a small iron ball at the front, used as a ceremonial staff in the Tang Dynasty, later as a ceremonial guard, commonly known as a golden melon, also known as a melon-shaped mace.

According to its shape, it was divided into garlic-petal gudu and caltrop gudu.

The twin hammers in theatrical plays were all paper-pasted and cloth-wrapped; in actual battlefields, except for those born with divine strength and grandmasters, few people could use them, as they were too strenuous, and even if they could swing them, they couldn't fight for long.

!.

So real war hammers had small heads.

And this gudu thing was even smaller, with fierce power and easy to hide, so there were many users in the martial world.

A single strike could crack blue stone for an ordinary person.

Behind him followed a middle-aged man in a green cloak, holding a tiger-support in his right hand and a long banner saying "Medicine Saves the World" in his left, looking like a physician from the skin-trade.

His appearance was ordinary, his temples were gray, and he walked with a calm and leisurely demeanor, as if strolling in a garden; he was clearly there to hold the line.

Old Man Zhang saw this, his pupils shrank, and he slowly sat down and sneered, "Zhou Monkey, it seems you have more than one victim."

Zhou Pan's face also turned ugly, and he said in a deep voice, "Who are you people, and what are you doing in my mansion?"

The young man's gudu flipped in his hand, and he mocked with a hoarse voice, "Yo, isn't this washing hands in a golden basin?"

"Why, after settling the martial world gangs, can't we mud-legged people come to the door to ask for an explanation?"

Zhou Pan looked puzzled. "I don't remember having a grudge against you."

"Of course you don't remember."

The young man laughed like a night owl, turned his head to look at the crowd in the hall, "You martial world people, using martial arts to bully others, bullying the weak and fearing the strong; offending martial world peers is called a grudge, but if commoners die, it doesn't matter, right?"

Zhou Pan narrowed his triangular eyes. "To ask for an explanation, you have to make it clear."

The young man laughed, "Ten years ago, outside the village of Bazi in the Chang'an suburbs, those disciples of yours, under the guise of searching for bandits, broke into my home to search."

"They saw my elder sister was beautiful and had wicked intentions to insult her; my parents tried to stop them, so they were beaten to death alive, and then they set a fire, calling it a thief's den. Who would have thought that a ghost like me would still be alive?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone suddenly understood and shook their heads.

Zhou Monkey was lax in discipline and indulged in shielding his subordinates; he had done quite a few bad things in Xianyang City, so it was no surprise he would cause such a thing.

Zhou Pan was silent for a moment. "I really didn't know about this matter. Every debt has its debtor; you should find them. Why come to me?"

The young man laughed, "Rest assured, they are already dead; I skinned them alive, and didn't even spare their families. Tsk tsk, the human skins full of resentment sold for a good price."

"So, I've come to the door to ask you to accompany them on their journey!"

When the crowd heard this, they all looked at each other.

Exterminating a family for revenge, the methods were so bloody; this was no longer something that could be solved by ordinary martial world rules, and the government would have to intervene.

Sure enough, Guan Wanche stood up, reached out and waved, and the government runners immediately took down their crossbows from their backs and shouted sternly, "Stop, come with us, or you will be killed without mercy!"

"Killed without mercy?"

The young man's scarred face was ferocious, his eyes crazy. "You lackeys, sure enough, this world is full of demons, the sky is black, all should be executed!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's expression changed.

These words clearly had the intent of rebellion...

And at this moment, Li Yan was full of solemnity, staring at the old man behind.

He smelled a familiar scent on the other party.

It was that cockscomb snake he had seen before!

(End of chapter)