The world is like a prison, my body is holy

Chapter 17: Jianghu Vendetta (asking for monthly ticket)

That night, Wang Wen returned to the Qinghe Gang and sought out Huang Xingde to discuss the matter of Cao Gang disciples entering the Sitianjian.

"Manpower is easy..."

After listening to Wang Wen's narration, Huang Xingde's face was not worried or impatient at all. Instead, he showed a sense of relief: "We Cao Gang don't have much else, but we have a lot of money and people. Let alone fifty people, I can gather five hundred for you."

Wang Wen patiently continued to listen to his story. He believed that with Lao Deng's experience in the underworld, he would not fail to understand such a simple question.

“The problem isn’t the people.”

As expected, Huang Xingde quickly continued, "It's with you."

Wang Wen sighed softly, "Are you worried that those officials will destroy the bridge after crossing it?"

Huang Xingde looked at him in surprise and said with a smile: "My son has really made progress!"

Wang Wen curled his lips, picked up the teacup beside him and drank it in one gulp. "To be honest, I don't know these people very well, so I can't say for sure what kind of people they are. If we spend all our money and effort on them, only to end up making wedding dresses for them... that would be extremely insulting!"

Huang Xingde stroked his beard with satisfaction and nodded, "That's true, but since you've already seen the problem, it's no longer a problem. In other words... are my Cao Gang disciples that easy to use?"

Wang Wen understood what he meant and shook his head, saying, "Not worth it!"

Huang Xingde felt even more relieved when he heard this. He smiled and whispered, "It's really not worth it to fall out with them just for forty or fifty people, but what if it's two or three hundred, or four or five hundred?"

Wang Wen looked at him in confusion, wondering if this old man had lost his mind. If forty or fifty people were to fall out, wouldn't four or five hundred people be fighting like a bloody war?
Huang Xingde took a sip of tea slowly, then said with a smile, "Young man, don't be so extreme in everything. Sometimes a knife is more useful when it's in its sheath than when it's unsheathed!"

Wang Wen was stunned for a few seconds, then his eyes suddenly lit up: "You mean...it's you, Huang Tianba!"

The Chief Astronomical Observer, who only has forty or fifty disciples of the Cao Gang, is Zhao Zhiling and his group's Chief Astronomical Observer.

But there is a Chief Astronomical Observer who is composed of four or five hundred disciples of the Cao Gang. That is the Chief Astronomical Observer of the Cao Gang!

"You're a jerk with no respect for your parents."

Huang Xingde cursed with a smile, then said seriously: "But this can only be relied on temporarily. How far you can go in the Dusi Tianjian still depends on your own ability. If you are not good enough, even if you are given 800 brothers, sooner or later you will..."

"I understand, I understand!"

Wang Wen felt a headache when he heard his earnest words: "Don't worry, as long as they don't break the bridge, I will definitely do a good job in the Dusi Tianjian!"

Huang Xingde reminded him, "You better avoid getting into trouble. The government office is not like home. No one is your father!"

Wang Wen revealed a mask of pain: "Yes, yes, I will definitely avoid causing trouble... Will we gather all the manpower tomorrow?"

Huang Xingde: "Don't worry, the people who keep them are all strong men!"

Wang Wen: "No, no, all the useful ones have been taken away, what are you going to do?"

Huang Xingde: "Don't worry about the family, I know what's going on!"

Wang Wen ignored the stubborn old man, his eyes rolling around as he calculated for a long time before finally nodding: "Okay, then let's do as you say!"

He agreed immediately, but Huang Xingde became worried.

"Don't mess around, you bastard!"

He was extremely alert, staring at Wang Wen intently. "The government has its own rules, and the underworld has its own rules. Now that you have one foot in the government, you are a member of the government from now on. You can't do things as recklessly as before!"

Wang Wen said perfunctorily, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what's going on. Just put your mind at ease!"

Huang Xingde: "You have no idea what's going on!"

"Okay, it's getting late. I need to go to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow."

Wang Wen saw that he was getting angry and ran away quickly: "You should go to bed early too, don't do that crazy thing."

Before he could finish his words, he was already outside the lobby.

Huang Xingde had a word stuck in his throat and didn't say it out.

He watched Wang Wen's back blend into the thick night, and silently picked up the tea bowl and took a sip.

After a long while, he finally let out a long breath, narrowed his eyes, and cursed with a relieved smile: "Damn it, I've finally done my best for you!"

……

The full moon hangs high in the sky, and all is quiet.

"Hey, beautiful lady..."

Wang Wenzhen, who was soundly asleep, was playing hide-and-seek with the older sisters from Lichunyuan in his dream. While playing, the Yin Chaling suddenly appeared in front of him.

In his dream, Wang Wen stared blankly at the Yin Cha Ling and scratched his head: "What the hell is this? Oh, yes, Yin Cha Ling... Yin Cha Ling? Yin Cha Ling!"

He suddenly opened his eyes and rolled over without thinking.

"Boom."

He fell face down on the pedal, a dark shadow passed before his eyes, and the chilly wind gave him goose bumps all over his body.

"Fuck you, Qin Laoba, are you serious?"

Without thinking, he rolled over onto all fours, smashed the door with his body like a pig and a wolf, grabbed the two-meter-long spear under the eaves, turned around and pointed it at the dark door, and shouted angrily: "Hey, who are you, the monster? How dare you mess with the Tai Sui!"

"Clap clap clap..."

At that moment, several very subtle sounds of tiles moving came into Wang Wen's ears.

Wang Wen suddenly raised his head and looked towards the eaves: "Are there any other experts?"

He bent down and jumped two meters high, swung his spear in the air, sweeping across the army and covering most of the eaves.

"clang."

A sharp long sword blocked the spear, but also exposed the position of the person wielding the sword.

Wang Wen looked intently, and just as he landed on the eaves, he crushed them with one foot, leaped up again, and thrust his spear at the man: "Die!"

The shiny gun tip reflected the bright moonlight, bursting into a ball of brilliant gun flowers.

"Dang-dang-dang-dang..."

The dense sound of metal clashing rang out, and the flying sparks illuminated the man in black who was swinging his knife wildly.

"Wow..."

The man in black, who was forced to retreat continuously by Wang Wen's spear, missed a step and fell into the gutter between the eaves and the courtyard wall.

Seeing this, Wang Wen did not hesitate to raise his spear and chase into the darkness.

"Snapped."

There was a loud crack of a whip, and Wang Wen screamed "Ah!" and hurriedly retreated back to the moonlit courtyard, dragging his gun.

He first raised his gun and pointed it at the gutter, then took the time to glance at his right chest, and saw that his inner shirt was torn in a large piece, and the area around the tear was quickly turning black... He was definitely injured.

"Grass!"

Wang Wen looked up at the gutter in anger, and saw the man in black slowly walking out of the gutter dragging a pale whip.

This is not the point. The point is that on both sides behind him, there is a phantom with disheveled hair floating on one side.

Even from three or four meters away, Wang Wen could sense four sets of resentful gazes. To be frank… his calves were a bit cramped.

"Who are you? How did I provoke you?"

He gripped his rifle tightly and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Do you dare to reveal your identity?"

In the silent night, his shouts resounded throughout the Qinghe Gang.

Suddenly, chaotic shouts came from all directions.

Wang Wen felt relieved and was thinking of saying something to buy time...

There was a "snap" sound, and a pale whip shadow came like lightning.

Wang Wen calmly shook the spear, and a ball of gun flowers burst out from the spear tip, accurately pushing away the long whip without being entangled by it.

But at this moment, he felt a flash in the corner of his eyes, and a ghost with disheveled hair appeared within three feet in front of him!

He was horrified and instinctively shook his spear, swinging the tip of the spear horizontally towards the ghost...

Only a "whoosh" sound of gas explosion was heard, and the spear swept across the ghost's waist as if hitting the air, but the ghost did not move at all and was unharmed.

Then the ghost shadow flashed again and disappeared on the spot.

When he reappeared, he was already in front of him, stretching out his hands to strangle his neck.

Wang Wen was so scared that he rolled backwards, but the ghost still scratched his right shoulder with a claw, causing a burning pain.

To make matters worse, before he could get up from the ground with his spear, he saw another ghostly figure appear in front of him on the left, and a pale whip shadow fell from the sky and hit him on the head!
At that moment, he seemed to see a big blood-red word "death"!
"I'm a bastard!"

He cursed loudly in confusion, and threw his spear across the air towards the whip shadow. At the same time, he jumped up and used a mad move "Tiger Climbing the Mountain" to hit the ghost shadow in front of him on the left.

The ghost figure didn't seem to have much intelligence, and it just raised its hands with dark red nails like knives and stabbed them into his chest.

In a flash, Wang Wen's hand, filled with dark energy, took a step ahead of the ghost's hands and slammed it on the top of its head.

With a "bo" sound, the ghost turned into a ball of black gas and dissipated, and a light golden Yincha order popped up in front of Wang Wen's eyes.

But he didn't even bother to look at the Yinchaling. As soon as he landed, he used the force to roll to the left.

"Snapped."

The pale shadow of the whip flashed by where he had just landed.

Wang Wen, who had steadied himself, glanced around hastily and found that his spear had been thrown onto the roof... It was because he had thrown the spear horizontally just now that the long whip that was coming towards him was wrapped around the spear, and the man in black took advantage of the situation to wrap his spear around and throw it onto the roof behind him.

Without his gun, no matter how fierce Wang Lao Hu is, he is just a toothless tiger!

Wang Wen also discovered his current predicament... With weapons in hand, he couldn't hurt the evil ghost; without weapons in hand, he couldn't deal with the man in black.

The desire to run away is maximized at this moment!

Coincidentally, at this moment, a large number of chaotic footsteps came from outside the courtyard wall, mixed with Huang Xingde's lion-like angry roar.

"Quick, quick, surround me! Don't let the assassin escape!"

"Listen up, everyone in there! If you dare to hurt my son, I, Huang Tianba, will skin him alive and tear him into pieces. I swear I won't be a human being!"

The man in black who was walking slowly towards Wang Wen in the yard and trying to force him into a corner heard the noise outside and hesitated for a second.

Wang Wen, who was slowly retreating while staring at the man in black and the ghost, seized this fleeting opportunity, turned around like a vicious dog pouncing on its prey, flew over, grabbed the top of the courtyard wall, pulled it hard, and used the force to jump over the wall.

"Snapped."

"Ow!"

Wang Wen, who was whipped again, howled and fled over the wall, barking furiously like a defeated dog: "If you have the guts, don't leave! I'm going to call for help and kill your whole family!"

The man in black took a look at the wall where he escaped, turned around and jumped onto the roof, bent down and quickly left along the ridge. After a few jumps, he disappeared into the thick night.

……

"Sir, please make the decision for your subordinates!"

A moment later, Wang Wen, with disheveled hair and bare feet, stood at the bottom of the lobby of the Dusi Tianjian Yamen, sobbing and pointing at his scarred chest and complaining: "Look at how that evil spirit scratched me, here, here, here... It wasn't scratching my chest, it was clearly scratching your face!"

"puff……"

Zhao Zhiling, who was drinking tea from a tea bowl in the hall, spat out a big mouthful of tea and coughed several times in a ridiculous manner.

Taoist Ji Liangxu, monk Shouan, Cheng Xian, Li Heng and others on both sides also had strange expressions on their faces.

"Erhu!"

After a while, Zhao Zhiling finally spoke with difficulty: "Let's just say, is there a possibility that this is... a vendetta?"

"impossible!"

Wang Wen flatly denied it, "I've always been selfless and kind to others, so where do I get any enemies? Besides, how could a ghost help me in a vendetta?"

"Sir, it's obvious that someone didn't want to see you secure your position as Junior Supervisor of the Yangzhou Astronomical Bureau. You threatened their interests and survival, so they murdered me!"

"If not, why didn't the assassin come earlier or later? My Lord, just now I ordered my subordinates to recruit the Si Tian Guards and fill the troop shortage, and the assassin came to us?"

"The person behind the assassin must have been so certain. If his subordinate dies, our Astronomical Bureau will never be able to recruit even a single decent young man from the Twenty-Four Bridges of Yangzhou again!"

His analysis was well-reasoned, penetrating, and full of veiled innuendos...

The expressions of the five people in the hall who disagreed gradually became serious.

Although they all felt that this matter was a bit strange, they had to admit that what this man said made sense!
If this fellow were to be harmed by a fierce ghost the moment he stepped into the Astronomical Observatory, what would his adoptive father Huang Xingde think? Would he vent his anger on the Astronomical Observatory?
Considering the power of the Cao Gang in Jiangnan, if Huang Xingde is determined to make things difficult for them, then they will really be like the Si Tianjian, who will run into obstacles everywhere in Yangzhou and have difficulty moving forward. Even if they don't transfer troops from other government offices, they won't be able to make up for the shortage of troops within one or two years!

If they were hindered by the Cao Gang, it would be tantamount to giving those "interested people" who are hostile to the Great Zhou Sitianjian system time and space to do evil!
And Zhao Zhiling just happened to know that under the dark side of the Great Zhou, there were indeed several evil and heterodox organizations that were fighting against the Imperial Observatory!

"Erhu's words make sense!"

After Zhao Zhiling pondered for a long time, he made the final decision.

Wang Wen quickly clasped his fists and said, "Thank you for your trust!"

Zhao Zhiling waved his hand: "Seeing how confident you are, I'm sure you already have some doubts in your heart, right?"

Wang Wen: "Your Excellency, I do have a suspect."

Zhao Zhiling: "Oh? Tell me about it!"

Wang Wen: "Beggars' Gang!"

Zhao Zhiling: ...

Taoist Ji Liang: ...

Monk Shouan: ...

……

You still say it's not a vendetta?

　PS: All data during the new book period are very important. I request you not to hold back on the book for a while. If you have extra votes, please vote for this seedling to fertilize and water it... I will be very grateful.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)