Martial Arts Crossover: My Wife is the Top Scholar

Chapter 336 I've heard of the execution of that tyrant Zhou! What's the big deal?

"There's no dragon meat in my belly. So it seems you didn't steal it. Who did?"

Li Zhaoting glanced sideways at the surrounding gentry, a wicked smile appearing on his lips that was dozens of times more sinister than the most terrifying demon in the world, sending chills down everyone's spines.

The local gentry hurriedly knelt down: "Gods! We really have never eaten any dragon meat. We are lay Buddhists, we eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures, and we do not touch any meat at all."

A few of the more quick-witted ones hurriedly shifted the blame: "We are honest businessmen. It was Feng Tiannan who was ruthless and domineering, threatening us. We had no choice but to comply. Please investigate, sir. We have never done anything wrong!"

"Hero, please spare my life! Hero, please spare my life!"

"Shut up. Anyone who dares to cry out again will be sent to see Feng Tiannan. A few men, go to the jail and bring Zhong Asi out. Zhong Asi's wife, go search Feng Tiannan's belongings. I have other instructions later."

Ordinary farm women would never dare to search through a blood-soaked corpse, but Feng Tiannan bullied the weak and nearly destroyed the Zhong family. Zhong Si's sister-in-law deeply hated him and quickly went forward to search, taking off the ring and jade pendant.

"Great...Great hero, here you go..."

Sister-in-law Zhong handed the gold and silver to Li Zhaoting.

"After this incident, your family can no longer make a living in this area. You should take your money and move away!"

Li Zhaoting flicked his fingers repeatedly, unleashing a burst of sword energy, cutting the silver ingot into small pieces and handing them to Sister-in-law Zhong. Forcing the victim to leave her home seemed immoral, but given the circumstances, unless Li Zhaoting killed all the local gentry and thugs, they would have no peace.

Even if the local gentry don't provoke the Zhong family, the common people will silently ostracize them. After all, Li Zhaoting ruthlessly wiped out the entire Feng family, which made the people feel both satisfied and somewhat fearful. After Li Zhaoting left, this fear would be transferred to Zhong Asi, either openly or secretly.

Li Zhaoting snapped his fingers, and Jiang Yuyan brought a long bench from the restaurant and placed it at the entrance of the Beidi Temple.

Li Zhaoting sat on the stool, blocking the way out.

Coincidentally, Feng Tiannan was having a banquet with local gentry and nobles. In order to save his son, he led all the gentry to the Beidi Temple, where they were blocked by Li Zhaoting.

Zhong Asi was rescued from prison. Looking at Feng Tiannan, who was shattered into several pieces, he cursed twice, thanked Li Zhaoting profusely, and ran away with the loose silver.

In the crowd, a slender girl dressed in purple gritted her teeth. Her name was Yuan Ziyi, Feng Tiannan's daughter, and she was the one who shouted "Spare her life!"

Li Zhaoting took those words as a starting gun; upon hearing "Spare his life," he dismembered Feng Tiannan into eight pieces.

Yuan Ziyi was an Emei disciple who had met Li Zhaoting. Knowing that her martial arts skills were far inferior to Li Zhaoting's, she originally wanted to shout "Spare his life!" and then reveal her identity, using the rules of the martial arts world to persuade Li Zhaoting to spare Feng Tiannan.

According to the customs of the martial arts world, when someone shouts for mercy, most people will instinctively let go.

Unfortunately, Li Zhaoting was an exception.

Let alone Yuan Ziyi, even if the Heavenly King himself pleaded for Feng Tiannan, Li Zhaoting would still kill him without hesitation.

Once a head has fallen, it's too late to say anything!

Should I stand up and fight Li Zhaoting to the death?
What a joke!
Yuan Ziyi hid in the crowd to watch, wondering what Li Zhaoting was up to. She had just left her sect and was not very familiar with the affairs of the martial world, with very little experience.

Anyone with eyes could see that Li Zhaoting was deliberately blocking the entrance to delay the time, waiting until Zhong Asi's family was far away from Foshan before leaving Beidi Temple.

Bored, Li Zhaoting pointed at the local gentry and looked at the surrounding people: "Tell me, have any of these people ever done anything to bully men and women? If you can tell me, I'll help you get justice; if you can't, then forget it."

The people looked at each other, and an old man mustered his courage and stepped forward, pleading, "Immortal Grandfather, my granddaughter has been kidnapped by Zhang the Great Benefactor. Please help me find my granddaughter, and I will burn incense and make offerings to you day and night."

Li Zhaoting asked sternly, "Where is his granddaughter?"

"for this I……"

"Say!"

"Dead...dead! I'm willing to pay compensation! I'm willing to pay one thousand taels, five thousand taels, ten thousand taels! Ten thousand taels to buy a girl, what more do you want!"

"Looks like you ate the dragon meat!"

Li Zhaoting gave a signal, and Jiang Yuyan rushed towards the so-called "great philanthropist" with a knife. A flash of cold light, blood splattered, and the man's head fell to the ground, leaving no trace of his body.

Jiang Yuyan came from a poor family. She finally found her biological father, only to be sold to Ke Baisui by him. She deeply abhorred this kind of thing and showed no mercy when she did it.

Li Zhaoting doesn't have much time. Eliminating a few local bullies is the limit. If he wants to get rid of corrupt officials and restore order to the local area, he needs someone like Bao Zheng or Gongsun Ce.

Even so, there was still something that could be done within one's power. After waiting for about two hours, footsteps were heard outside. The most powerful local gentry, Feng Tiannan's protector, led his yamen runners to the temple.

"Who has set up a private court here?"

The big hat had already arrived before the person even got there.

"Is this enough?"

Li Zhaoting revealed Liu E's jade pendant.

Looking at the patterns on the jade pendant, the magistrate knelt down in terror: "Your humble servant greets Your Excellency..."

When Feng Tiannan was alive, the county magistrate might speak up for him out of respect for the money he offered. But now that Feng Tiannan has gone to the underworld, why would the county magistrate say a word?

Li Zhaoting then pulled out two more gold medals.

One of them was a gift from Zhao Zhen.

One of them was a gift from the Eighth Prince.

The county magistrate was a legitimate official who entered government service through the imperial examinations. Later, he committed some offenses and was demoted to Lingnan. He recognized these three plaques and wondered, "Who is this high-ranking official? Could he be an imperial envoy sent to inspect the administration?"

"Have I set up a private court?"

"Feng Tiannan has committed numerous evils and is incorrigible. Your Excellency has rid the people of this scourge and restored order to the world. This is the righteous path of the world, and Your Excellency should be honored with a monument and a biography."

"Erect a monument? Want to know who I am?"

"May I ask your name, sir?"

"I advise you not to be so curious. Curiosity killed the cat. I just read your fortune, and your forehead is dark, which means you're in for some bloodshed!"

"Without knowing the name, how can a monument be erected..."

"My name is Li Zhaoting!"

“Li Zhao… Jiazi… Tai…”

The magistrate's face turned ashen, his whole body trembled, his eyebrows and eyes twitched incessantly, cold sweat poured down his face, and he was so terrified that he vomited a mouthful of bile and was scared to death.

Li Zhaoting said, "Yu Yan, take the Eighth Prince's token to the local prefect and have him clean up the mess."

"Yes!"

Jiang Yuyan had met many important figures and was not intimidated at all. She took the token to the government office, and Li Zhaoting signaled everyone to disperse. He then disappeared without a trace in a few flashes.

The bailiffs looked at each other, then hurriedly carried the magistrate back to the morgue.

As for the bodies of Feng Tiannan and his son, his men were either killed or crippled and were too busy running away to collect their bodies.
Lan Fenghuang and the others quickly surrounded them.

Miss Wang asked, "Husband, why go through all this trouble to uphold justice? The chivalrous deeds I've read about in martial arts novels are done cleanly and efficiently."

"Because the storybooks were not well thought out."

These notorious gangsters, cruel officials, and powerful gentry all shared a basic rule: they liked to settle scores after the fact.

If I simply beat up Feng Tiannan and make him compensate Zhong Asi, the moment I leave, Zhong Asi's entire family will be killed, or even more viciously.

Based on the assumptions we just made, let's analyze this.

I beat up Feng Tiannan, and Feng Tiannan compensated Zhong Asi with silver. Tonight, Zhong Asi's entire family will be killed, and then a huge fire will be set on fire. The government will conduct a massive search for the murderer. Can you guess who the murderer is?

Of course it is me!

Feng Tiannan can find a hundred witnesses. The magistrate will write a flawless case file.

I told Zhong Asi's family to run quickly and block the temple gate to prevent the local gentry from leaving, which was to buy time.

Furthermore, killing Feng Tiannan is a matter of martial arts conflict, and scaring the county magistrate to death is a minor but troublesome matter. I asked Yu Yan to take the Eighth Prince's gold token to the prefect and suppress the matter from the official level to prevent the prefect from being implicated by innocent people.

Why assume that the prefect would implicate innocent people?
The county magistrate has died, and the case needs to be solved within a limited time.

If they fail to capture me and bring me to jail within the stipulated time, all the yamen runners will be punished. In order to avoid punishment myself, I can only ask the onlookers to bear it.

They can catch a few scapegoats, torture them into confessing, and get away with a vague statement.

Upholding justice is no easy task.

Bandit strongholds can be wiped out directly.

Local tyrants like Feng Tiannan, who dominate the area and collude with local gentry and officials, must be dealt with with caution.

Li Zhaoting poured himself a cup of tea and casually tossed it out the window: "You must be thirsty after listening for so long. Why don't you come in, have a seat, and have some tea? I'm in a good mood today and can answer your questions."

Yuan Ziyi gritted her teeth and pushed the door open to enter.

"Master Li, your martial arts are superb; you could kill me a hundred times with a single sword strike. But the martial world has its own rules. I asked you to spare my life, so why did you suddenly resort to such ruthless tactics?"

"Miss, is the assessment of Feng Tiannan as tyrannical, bullying, incorrigible, and deserving of death untrue? Does Feng Tiannan deserve to die?"

"Feng Tiannan has committed numerous evils and deserves to die!"

"Excuse me, young lady, you know that Zhong Asi was beaten bloody by Feng Tiannan, and that Zhong Asi's wife was forced by Feng Tiannan to slash her own son with a knife, right?"

"I already know what happened!"

"Excuse me, young lady, shouldn't people in the martial world prioritize chivalry when doing things? Shouldn't we draw our swords to eliminate a wicked bully like Feng Tiannan who commits all sorts of evil?"

"Exactly this!"

"Excuse me, young lady, do we know each other?"

"do not know!"

“We are complete strangers. I uphold the most basic code of honor in the martial arts world: to punish evil and promote good, and to kill tyrants. Do you have any reason to tell me to stop?”

"I...I...I..."

How does the Emei Sect educate its disciples?

"This is my private matter, it's a private matter!"

"Could Feng Tiannan be your father?"

"Feng Tiannan... Feng Tiannan..."

Mencius said: "He who harms benevolence is called a thief; he who harms righteousness is called a cruel person. A cruel and thieving person is called a mere man. I have heard of the execution of a mere man, King Zhou, but I have never heard of the murder of a ruler. What is the meaning of this statement?"

Li Zhaoting stared intently at Yuan Ziyi.

Yuan Ziyi was speechless, her face deathly pale.

Yuan Ziyi is indeed Feng Tiannan's daughter, but she is not a rich young lady. Theoretically speaking, Yuan Ziyi and Feng Tiannan have a deep-seated hatred that is irreconcilable.

Yuan Ziyi's mother was named Yuan Yingu. She was originally a fishmonger on the street when Feng Tiannan took a liking to her. Feng Tiannan forcibly raped Yuan Yingu. Yuan Yingu's father went to Feng Tiannan to reason with him, but was beaten by Feng Tiannan and fell ill from anger. Several months later, he passed away.

Yuan Yingu's uncles and aunts ostracized her, forbidding her from wearing mourning clothes for her father, from kowtowing to the coffin, and even wanted to drown her in a pig cage. Yuan Yingu fled overnight, gave birth to Yuan Ziyi, and became destitute, begging on the streets.

A fishmonger's apprentice fell in love with Yuan Yingu. He didn't care about her past and was willing to marry her. When Feng Tiannan found out about this, he felt that his authority had been challenged and had the apprentice beaten to death.

Yuan Yingu escaped with her life and fled to the residence of Tang Pei, a hypocritical man who claimed to "benefit seven provinces with sweet rain." Tang Pei took a liking to Yuan Yingu's beauty and forcibly defiled her. Yuan Yingu was devastated and hanged herself. Yuan Ziyi was rescued by an old nun from the Emei Sect and has been raised by her ever since.

Are they father and daughter?

Feng Tiannan never gave Yuan Ziyi a single bowl of rice or a single penny, yet he killed Yuan Ziyi's maternal grandfather and adoptive father, causing Yuan Yingu a lifetime of misery. Their hatred is irreconcilable!
The quote Li Zhaoting made comes from a dialogue between Mencius and King Xuan of Qi. King Xuan asked Mencius, "When Cheng Tang exiled Jie of Xia, and King Wu attacked Zhou of Shang, did a subject kill his own king? Is there any logic to this?"

Mencius's answer was brilliant.

"To corrupt benevolence is to be a thief; to corrupt morality is to be cruel; a cruel and thieving person is a tyrant. I have only heard of King Wu killing traitors, not of King Wu murdering his own ruler."

Never say that Confucianism teaches people to be blindly loyal and filial.

Mencius's idea was very clear: everyone should kill those wicked and treacherous villains.

So what if he's your biological father?
It's just changing one word of Mencius's words.

—I have heard of the execution of a tyrant, but I have never heard of the murder of one's father!

Yuan Ziyi and Feng Tiannan only harbored hatred. Before leaving the mountain, she swore to release him three times. Li Zhaoting did not agree to what Yuan Ziyi had promised. In terms of reputation in the martial arts world, when Li Zhaoting was about to kill her, she dared to shout "Spare his life!" These four words were equivalent to releasing Feng Tiannan four times!

The oath is made, and all grudges are settled!
Staying will only bring shame upon ourselves.

Those who argue and cause trouble may be torn to pieces by a flurry of swords.

Yuan Ziyi sighed and took her leave.

Li Zhaoting lit incense and offered a prayer to the starry sky.

In his past life, when reading martial arts novels, besides tragedies like Xiao Feng, A Zhu, Ding Dian, and Ling Shuanghua, the one that Li Zhaoting found most heartbreaking was the unjust death of Zhong A Si.

The honest farmers were driven to ruin and death simply because their vegetable plots were targeted by a local bully. Zhong Si's wife killed her own son and went insane from the shock. They finally got the chance to seek justice from the chivalrous Hu Fei, but Hu Fei was inexperienced and inexperienced. Feng Tiannan killed Zhong Si's entire family and used this to frame Hu Fei.

Hu Fei truly deserves to be called a great hero.

Feng Tiannan offered him gold and silver jewelry, but he refused!
Feng Tiannan invited several highly respected elders to a banquet to mediate and apologize, but they wouldn't listen!

Yuan Ziyi pleaded gently, but to no avail!
Money, fame, favors, and beauty—things that people in the martial arts world care about—Hu Fei doesn't want any of them. He just wants to hunt down Feng Tiannan and get justice for Zhong Asi!

Is there any connection between Hu Fei and Zhong Asi?

No!

We're complete strangers!

Zhong Asi is an ordinary vegetable farmer.

It is precisely because the two are complete strangers, and because Zhong Asi is an ordinary person, that Hu Fei's noble sentiments are all the more apparent; this is the purest form of chivalry.

If we have to make a connection, Hu Fei does indeed have a fourth uncle, Uncle Ping, who raised him.

Ping Si risked his life to raise Hu Fei because Hu Yidao was approachable and generous, making Ping Si, the inn's young waiter, feel respected and warm for the first time. To exaggerate a bit, Hu Yidao was a ray of light in Ping Si's life, illuminating his stifled and filthy existence, and Ping Si was willing to risk his life to repay him.

Hu Fei was born just as Hu Yidao passed away, but their chivalry was exactly the same.

Li Zhaoting rubbed his chin, thinking to himself, "Shouldn't Hu Fei go out into the martial world to gain experience? If Hu Fei goes to Lingnan and Yunnan to gain experience, perhaps I can introduce him to Xiao Feng."

Xiao Feng's swordsmanship.

Burning wood knife method.

Master Xuanku's most proficient skill!

　Thank you to Lonely Monkey for the donation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)