to continue....
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Gui Jingyuan suddenly leapt up and exclaimed, “Come if they want to, even that old devil Ba died in our hands. If his sons of turtles have the guts they can come out and see if I don’t kill them myself!”
Everyone in the hall was quiet, no one dared to answer. Only his own booming voice resounded in the hall.
Ling Yuxiang clutched the letter in his hand and added with a dry laugh, “Fine, descendants of Bashu, us ‘Five Dragons of the Martial Arts Realm’ are not so old yet that we cannot take out our swords. We can still have a duel to the death!”
Liu Yiyan contemplated, “With the martial arts of the four of you, you’re already considered legendary so of course there’s no need to fear. But the problem is, the enemy is in hiding while we are in the open. We don’t even know who the descendants of Bashu are so I’m afraid we’ll be at a slight disadvantage.”
Leng Xue said solemnly, “The most important thing is, once Ba Shuren’s ‘Flying Blood Sword’ is executed, the murderer may not be the match for four of you in terms of martial arts but if you are constantly not on the alert, even if your skills are the best in the world, you won’t be able to avoid the attack.”
Liu Jiyan added, “So the most important thing right now for us is to find out who is the descendent of Ba Shuren. I feel that you should let those in the hall leave first to avoid alerting the enemy and make them hide themselves.”
Ling Yuxiang nodded his head and turned to Murong Shuiyun, “Second Brother, please go and tell Fourth Brother Shen about this matter and ask him to come back here. At the same time, you can settle the matters in the hall as well.”
Murong Shuiyun replied, “Sure.”, and flitted out of the room.
Liu Jiyan heaved a long sigh and thought for a while before saying, “The attacker is very fast. Third Hero Jin only screamed once and all of you rushed here, yet he managed to escape.”
Gui Jingyuan stared and curled his hands into a fist, roaring, “Damn, if I see him, I’ll…”
The servant who delivered the letter suddenly spoke up fearfully, “Report… reporting to Master Ling…”
Ling Yuxiang answered irritably, “What is it, speak quickly.”
The servant replied fearfully, “Before I went to the hall, I seem, seem to see Ah Fu walking past with a pale look on his face. I was being a busybody so I asked… asked him what happened. He, he said, he saw who killed Master, but, but he dared not say it out…”
Ling Yuxiang jumped up, “Did he say who it was?”
The servant was even more panicky, “No… no… no. Later while passing by the garden on the way to the hall, I was…”
Ling Yuxiang murmured, “No wonder when I dashed here, Ah Fu looks as if he wanted to tell me something… but I was in a hurry then and did not stop…”
Liu Jiyan’s expression changed totally, “Great, this is a clue. Where is Ah Fu now?”
The servant said, “He, he seems very afraid and went… went to the woodshed.”
Liu Jiyan replied, “Good. Brother Ling, I’ll go with Fifth Hero Gui first to question Ah Fu who he had seen. Fifth Hero Gui is more familiar with the Jin residence and with him around, he’ll know who Ah Fu saw. Also, Brother Leng Xue, you’re good at pursuing and have never missed. Can I trouble you to follow that Liu Jiuru after the guests have dispersed, because he was once arrested in Liuzhou on suspicion of murder. He was later released due to lack of evidence so amongst all those people, he is the most suspicious. If he is indeed the murderer, you can follow him back and see if there are anything suspicious or maybe find the murder weapon… I’ll have to trouble Brother Leng to make a trip on this matter. Brother Ling, I’ll leave Madam Jin and the crime scene here for you to take care of.”
Ling Yuxiang sighed, “I feel really bad that both of you have to work so hard over the affairs of us brothers.”
Liu Jiyan brushed it off, “We definitely have to handle this matter of Third Hero Jin. Brother Leng Xue and I are both Third Hero Jin’s friends and this is also our job so of course we must handle this personally, there is no need to thank us. If this matter proves to be too difficult, I will seek the assistance of Zhuang Zhidong and Gao Shanqing. They are very familiar with Cangzhou so with them around, the case will definitely come to light very quickly. That’s settled then, let’s split up and get to work.”
Ling Yuxiang was overjoyed and commented, “If we have the help of Elders Zhuang and Gao, even if Ba Shuren comes back to life, he cannot do anything to us.”
Since this is a martial arts world with many troubles, a martial arts world with many highly skilled exponents, cases like robberies and murders are definitely numerous as well.
Therefore there must be some highly skilled people in the Investigation Bureau in order to control the desperados in the martial arts realm.
Over these years, a few highly skilled people indeed emerged from the magistrate courts and ‘Four Famed Constables of the World’ and ‘Divine Constable’ are among the best.
In Cangzhou itself, the most problematic person for the bandits is the famous constable ‘Iron Awl’ Zhuang Zhidong. Zhuang Zhidong is only in his thirties but is outstanding both in martial arts and wits. He’s also on good terms with the officials and officers of the magistrate courts so he can be considered the leader of constables amongst the constables in Cangzhou.
He has a close friend called Gao Shanqing.
There are 100,000 imperial guards in Cangzhou and naturally the trainer of the 100,000 imperial guards must possess extremely fine martial arts skills. This trainer is changed every three years and ‘Divine Giant Staff’ Gao Shanqing has been the Head Trainer for three terms.
These two are both significant people in Cangzhou Prefecture’s political martial arts circle.
Their reputation in the vast martial arts realm is of course still below that of Leng Xue and Liu Jiyan but within Cangzhou Prefecture itself, their names definitely ring louder than that of Leng Xue and Liu Jiyan.
Leng Xue and Liu Jiyan, and on top of that Zhuang Zhidong and Gao Shanqing, would be just like what Ling Yuxiang has said. Even if ‘Flying Blood Sword Devil’ Ba Shuren was resurrected, the four of them together with the remaining four of ‘Five Dragons of the Martial Arts Realm’ is enough to kill Ba Shuren.
But would things really be that simple?
Things would not be that simple.
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