Chapter 804

No matter how unwilling he was, he never received Liu Jingyi's reply; his consciousness sank into darkness, and he died just like that...

"Mm! Who are you?"

Liu Jingyi withdrew his fist, watching this man's expression shift several times, as if looking behind himself.

But right now was the moment of battle, and he wasn't certain whether this man was truly dead.

So he simply asked.

But after a long while, this man's body suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground.

"Dead?"

Liu Jingyi was utterly bewildered.

Judging by the stance this man had used to sneak-attack Qiu Dongluo, his Wu Gong was at least at the Grandmaster level, possibly even Shenzhida Sect.

Yet his own hasty punch, though it had struck this man's heart meridian vital point.

How could it have killed him so easily?

"Big Brother, Big Brother..."

At this moment, Qiu Dongluo seemed to finally react.

He rushed forward and, facing this man's corpse, struck it viciously several more heavy blows.

His manner was as if afraid the man wasn't completely dead yet.

"Dongluo, stop for a moment."

Liu Jingyi couldn't help frowning and held Qiu Dongluo back,

"This man is already dead. Why must you still abuse his corpse?"

Only then did Qiu Dongluo wake as from a dream, his face full of lingering fear, and said,

"Ah? Dead? Was it Big Brother who killed him, or was it me?

This dog of a thief actually resorted to trickery and a sneak attack.

If not for Big Brother, I fear I would have either died or been crippled just now.

I was only too eager in facing the enemy just now; please forgive me, Big Brother."

Seeing Qiu Dongluo's attitude was good, Liu Jingyi shook his head, pointed at the corpse, and asked,

"Who is this man? How did he infiltrate Wu Zhuang?"

In fact, Wu Zhuang, as the Weitiandi Society's Northwest Branch, had quite a few scouts both openly and covertly.

The fact that Hearing Hearing Fu Qingzhu and Wu Yuanying were able to drive straight in and reach the front of the ancestral hall to see Liu Jingyi,

was mainly because the scouts in the shadows recognized Wu Yuanying.

Since they were people from his own estate, naturally they wouldn't show themselves to block the way.

Yet this man had tattoos on his face, looked fierce and vicious, and at a glance clearly wasn't someone from the estate.

Yet he had suddenly appeared near the ancestral hall, and with that kind of attitude too.

Liu Jingyi only felt it was utterly bizarre.

The scouts he had arranged—he knew them!

Even a late-stage Bianshida Sect expert couldn't possibly have broken in completely without a sound.

"This... I don't know either..."

Qiu Dongluo's face was blank, and he shook his head as he replied.

"The scouts on the estate have always been your responsibility.

The enemy has already broken through to the ancestral hall—why is there still no response?

Go quickly and inspect every area, see if there's anything else unusual."

Liu Jingyi's brows knitted into a mountain shape, and his tone grew somewhat urgent.

"Big Brother, today it's all Dongluo's fault; I'll go investigate the scouts right now."

Qiu Dongluo accepted the fault, and only after seeing Liu Jingyi wave him off did he withdraw.

Once he left, many others followed him, such as that Wu Madman from before.

The village elders and senior elders also crowded over at this moment, all talking at once about retreat and migration matters, earnestly requesting Liu Jingyi to be very prudent.

In fact, given what Qiu Dongluo and the others had said earlier, plus the autumn harvest being imminent, Liu Jingyi had truly temporarily given up the plan to evacuate the estate.

Yet this enemy who had suddenly appeared before his eyes made Liu Jingyi faintly feel that what Hearing Hearing Fu Qingzhu said was true!

Wu Zhuang was in danger!

But at the moment Liu Jingyi only felt a thousand tangled threads, unable to sort them out.

Seeing also that the village elders and senior elders were unwilling to migrate, he could only let it go for now.

Seeing Liu Jingyi Songkou, these village elders in their seventies and eighties all praised Liu Jingyi's wisdom repeatedly.

Then they each withdrew.

Liu Jingyi, however, stared at the corpse at his feet, lost in thought.

"Father, are you all right?"

After a long while, a beautiful woman came to Liu Jingyi's side and asked softly.

"Yufang, why aren't you sleeping? What are you doing here?"

Liu Jingyi didn't need to turn his head to know the one who came was his beloved daughter Liu Yufang.

He set aside the doubts in his heart and, his face full of smiles, looked at his beloved daughter.

"It's so chaotic here, I was worried..."

Though Liu Yufang didn't finish her words, she was clearly worried about her old father Liu Jingyi.

"It's nothing! Just some petty thief broke in."

If he could, Liu Jingyi naturally would not let Liu Yufang be exposed to too much of the affairs of the Jianghu.

After all, the so-called Jianghu has not only fine clothes and fiery horses, the swift gratification of feuds and favors, but far more of mutual deceit and scheming.

This was also why Liu Jingyi, within the Heaven and Earth Society, though his Wu Gong was not weak and his ability was not ordinary,

was content to be tucked away in the wastelands of the northwest, serving as the helmsman of a Northwest branch.

Only it was a pity that, at this moment, the corpse of this strange person was right at Liu Jingyi's feet — there was no hiding it now.

"This person is awfully strange — what's all that tattooed on his face?"

Liu Yufang knew her old man's worry, and with feigned composure she looked at the corpse before her.

"Enough, these aren't things you should be seeing — hurry back! The children may have been startled awake too, they need you right now."

Liu Jingyi urged her gently.

To keep Liu Yufang far from the Jianghu, he had even hired renowned teachers to teach her to read and write.

After her studies bore fruit, Liu Yufang returned the favor by giving lessons to the children of Wu Zhuang.

All along, the children of the Zhuang — big matters and small — had been looked after by her.

"Mm! Alright!"

When it came to the children, Liu Yufang could only hold back her curiosity,

"Father, then you should rest early too, it's not early anymore."

"Mm! Father knows."

After saying this, Liu Yufang only then turned around and headed toward the children's direction.

Liu Jingyi could not help but sigh, and could only find someone to hastily deal with the corpse of this strange person.

What followed, naturally, was a night with nothing to say.

By the second day, everything within the Zhuang went on as usual.

Now it was the season for the autumn harvest of wheat; the sky had only just begun to brighten, and many Zhuang folk were already eager to go reap the wheat.

Liu Jingyi sat at the east end of the Zhuang, gazing into the distance.

Every Zhuang folk who came by greeted him.

He too responded with a smile, then once again gazed into the distance, lost in thought.

Last night he had not slept a wink, sitting right here at the east end of the Zhuang.

He was not only the helmsman of the Heaven and Earth Society's Northwest branch, but also the Zhuang Lord of Wu Zhuang.

The nearly thousand lives in this entire Zhuang were all in his hands.

Although, because of Qiu Dongluo and the various elders and senior villagers stirring things up, in the end no resolution to migrate and evacuate the Zhuang had been settled.