Quickly conquer the martial arts world, and let your fists dominate the heavens!

Chapter 74 Starting with the Martial Arts World!
Sister Hua thought to herself: Damn it, we're finally getting down to business.

He said, "Mr. Chen instructed us that since the Thieves' Guild has offended someone as powerful as you, it's only right that we do something to make amends. It's just that even you find it difficult to do this."

Chen Zhan smiled, ignoring her flattering yet deliberate tone, and continued:
"The first thing I need is all the information you've gathered about the various forces within Fengtian City over the years."

"Be detailed, comprehensive, and all-encompassing. Write down anything not recorded, and inquire about anything you don't know now."

“Especially the Miyako family and the Japanese, we must handle every detail with utmost care and clarity.”

"If this is done, five hundred silver dollars."

Once Chen Zhan entered the city, he didn't go to the Martial Gate's contact point. The things he had to do were too big, and it wasn't worth it to implicate the mole he had painstakingly hidden.

Moreover, they may not know enough.

I was hoping to find a gang to reason with and appeal to their emotions, but I didn't expect to run into someone from the thieves' guild. That saved me a lot of trouble.

When it comes to gathering information, is there anyone better than a thief?

Moreover, the Thieves' Guild has a long history and is a veteran in Fengtian, so it has a clearer understanding of the distribution of various forces.

When Chen Zhan first made his request, Sister Hua frowned slightly. As Chen Zhan went into more detail, she became more and more worried. But when he mentioned the five hundred silver dollars, she immediately beamed with joy.

With money, things become much easier!

"This is not difficult. I will send people to find the information in the sect. As for the events that have happened recently, I will write them down and give them to you tomorrow. If they are not detailed enough, I will have people in the sect investigate. How about that?"

As Sister Hua spoke, she looked at Chen Zhan.

Chen Zhan nodded, and Ye Ningzhen tossed out a gold ingot, weighing a full five taels.

It was taken by Chen Zhan from a bandit. Now, one tael of gold can be exchanged for forty silver dollars, and it is priceless.

"I'll give you the deposit, and the rest after I've finished the job. Do you trust me?" Chen Zhan said.

"Trustworthy. People in the martial arts world value their promises the most, and my thieves' sect is no less so!" Sister Hua said with a beaming smile.

Chen Zhan got up and left, saying at the door, "I'll come to pick it up before sunset tomorrow afternoon."

Sister Hua nodded, then asked, "You haven't mentioned the other thing yet."

Chen Zhan had already walked away, but his voice drifted back, "Things should be done one at a time."

After Chen Zhan and his companion left, Sister Hua held the gold ingot and played with it, lost in thought. After a short while, she called Li Yao over.

Li Yao asked impatiently, "Sister Hua, what conditions did they offer? Why did they leave?"

Sister Hua threw the gold to him and recounted Chen Zhan's demands.

Li Yao was stunned: "That's all? And you're paying for it?"

He thought he would have to pay a huge price.

"How badly are you all injured?" Sister Hua asked.

"It's alright, they didn't hit hard. Old Ninth's shoulder will be fine after it's been set. Only Little One's hand was pierced, and he'll need a long time to recover."

After pondering for a while, Sister Hua finally understood that Chen Zhan was just using the opportunity to make things difficult for them and had no real malicious intent.

The little guy was an accident. After all, he had a knife between his fingers, so it was wrong of him to strike first. It's normal for Ye Ningzhen to hurt someone.

"What do they want to do with the information on the Gong family and the Japanese?" Li Yao took Chen Zhan's emphasis very seriously.

"Go ask him, I want to know too!" Sister Hua said helplessly. The thieves' guild was in decline. The loss a few years ago was too great. It would take more than a decade to recover, let alone a few years.

Li Yao shook his head sullenly.

After a while, he added, "If, and I mean if, they want to deal with the Japanese, should we help them?"

Li Yao's voice trailed off, becoming almost inaudible.

Sister Hua stared at Li Yao with her almond-shaped eyes, saying each word slowly and deliberately: "Help, still help? How the hell are you going to help? What good are your little bit of thieving skills? Should I go and seduce the Japanese?" "Sister Hua, I was wrong, I was wrong, I won't mention it again."

"Damn it, if you had any brains at all, I wouldn't be so quick to go and get all that collected information," Sister Hua said, rubbing the crow's feet around her eyes.

Li Yao left in a hurry, and Sister Hua brought paper and pen, writing down all the recent events that had not been recorded.

In the world of thieves, gathering information and scouting locations is an essential task; one can learn many secrets without even trying.

She paused, omitting the events of a few years ago, and focused on writing about the major events that had occurred in the past two years involving various forces.

Chen Zhan and Ye Ningzhen left the courtyard, checked their bearings, and headed towards the bustling western part of the city to find an inn to stay in.

Sui Feng Inn.

The name is quite poetic. Inns have been gradually replaced by the times, becoming increasingly rare in the south and more common further north, especially in the northeast.

The Northeast and Northwest regions are known for their fierce and untamed people, and also for their strong sense of江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry).

The inn was nearly empty; the martial arts world had been scattered and fled by gunfire, so there were naturally fewer martial artists.

After checking into the room, we found that the inn also had food, so we ordered some to eat back in our room.

Inside the room, Chen Zhan and Ye Ningzhen ate and chatted. The food here couldn't compare to that of Jinlou, but the two of them weren't fussy. They hadn't eaten all day, so this meal was like autumn leaves swept away by the wind.

“That woman wasn’t telling the truth. There must be more to the story of the Thieves’ Sect,” Ye Ningzhen said.

"The more chaotic the times, the more prosperous the thieves' sects become. How could such a large sect have declined to this state without a story?"

"But it doesn't matter, we didn't come to Fengtian to rebuild the thieves' gang."

Chen Zhan didn't care about Hua Jie's concealment; no matter how much the sect declined, it was still their internal affair.

Ye Ningzhen agreed, and at the same time, she thought Chen Zhan's idea of ​​having the Thieves' Guild gather information and intelligence was a stroke of genius and couldn't be more suitable.

Whom do you want to target?

Ye Ningzhen only wanted to visit the Gong family and challenge them by using the old man as a wager.

If it were a challenge from another sect, the Gong family might be able to avoid it, but he had to accept the challenge from the Cheng School of Bagua.

This is a story from the past in the martial arts world, and they are also recognized as sworn enemies. If the Gong family doesn't accept the challenge, it's considered cowardly. In the future, the Cheng School will claim to be the true lineage of Bagua. How will the Gong family survive in Northeast China?
The blow to one's reputation is worse than losing a fight.

But from the moment she boarded the train, Ye Ningzhen obeyed Chen Zhan's every word and followed his lead.

It's not anything else; Chen Zhan has demonstrated his talents in various aspects since the time he started at the Buddhist temple. His martial arts, patience, strategy, and even temperament are all superior to hers, but she couldn't completely trust him before.

Now that their identities have been recognized and they share the same lineage, it's natural that he will take the lead in this relationship.

She also knew that Chen Zhan was up to something, and that the old man was just doing it as a side effect; even the Gong family's signboard was just a small part of the plan.

But it's unclear what Chen Zhan specifically intends to do.

"I'll take a look at the information tomorrow before making a decision, but I'll probably have to start with the martial arts world first, otherwise I won't have a chance once I start killing people."

Chen Zhan recalled the challenge from the Eight Extremes Sect.

After he turned Fengtian upside down, even the Gong family dared not see him.
That's not a conflict between sects, that's courting death.

So first, we need to get our hands on the old man and finish what we promised Ding Lianshan.

The next morning, Chen Zhan and Ye Ningzhen began to personally scout the area, maintaining a steady pace as they toured the entire Fengtian City, observing the strongholds of various forces and witnessing the cold and indifferent nature of life in the Northeast at that time.

Bullying and monopolizing the market, bullying men and women, are common occurrences.

Ye Ningzhen almost couldn't resist striking several times, but Chen Zhan stopped her, flicking silver needles into her acupoints from a distance. She wouldn't die immediately, but she would suffer more and more pain, even to the point of wishing she were dead.

In the afternoon, after turning around the alley a few times to make sure no one was following them, they arrived at the thief's courtyard.

(End of this chapter)