Gao Wu Da Ming: Starting as a military household and ascending to the rank of Martial Saint

Even at his peak, Liu Xingye was only at the third level of the Body Tempering Realm. Over the years, with his advancing age and his constant womanizing and scheming, his martial arts have fallen into disrepair. He's already grateful to have reached 80% of his former strength.

More importantly, after seeing Zhao Daikui killed, he was so terrified that he lost all will to fight.

After all, the other party dared to kill even the military officers of the imperial court, which shows that he was a vicious and ruthless person. Killing an ordinary citizen like himself would be a piece of cake for him.

"Brother," Liu Xingye greeted with a bow according to the rules of the martial world, forcing himself to remain calm, and asked in a loud voice, "Have you come here seeking wealth or revenge?"

"Neither." Yu Shaowu shook his head, strode to the table, looked around, casually placed a chicken leg on the table, and put it in his mouth as he said, "Sit, sit. I've come tonight without permission to ask you about something."

Hearing his polite tone, Liu Xingye grew increasingly frightened. He pretended to be very enthusiastic and sat down next to Yu Shaowu, bowing as he said, "Brother, what do you wish to inquire about? I will answer to the best of my knowledge..."

As he spoke, he quietly reached into his robes, pulled out a short knife, and thrust it straight at Yu Shaowu's heart.

Little did he know that Yu Shaowu was prepared. He raised his hand and precisely grabbed the hilt of Liu Xingye's knife, twisting and snatching it away in one swift motion. Then, he used Liu Xingye's own methods against him, the short knife flashing coldly as it stabbed straight into Liu Xingye's chest.

Yu Shaowu struck with deadly accuracy, his fingertips firmly gripping the hilt of the knife, holding back his attack without firing. He chuckled lightly, "This blade is only a hair's breadth from your heart. You'd better behave yourself, lest I slip up and send you on your way."

Liu Xingye stared at him in disbelief, his voice trembling, "This move is called 'Entangling Silk Dragon Capture,' you learned the Boxer Rebellion?"

"Exactly." Yu Shaowu nodded and said, "If I didn't understand your boxing style, how could I dare to sit next to you? Actually, according to seniority, I should call you senior uncle."

That address of "Uncle-Master" gave Liu Xingye a glimmer of hope, and he quickly pleaded, "May I ask which junior disciple you are? Since we are fellow disciples, please spare your uncle's life."

"Should we spare our fellow disciples?" Yu Shaowu said, "When you were sending your fellow disciples' lives into the jaws of wolves, did you ever think that we were all fellow disciples?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Xingye turned pale and trembled all over, only muttering, "I...I...I was wrong, please spare my life, nephew. From now on, I will obey your every command and will never dare to disobey."

"You don't know you're wrong, you're just afraid of death," Yu Shaowu said. "I'll ask you a few questions. If you're willing to answer, I'll spare your life, how about it?"

Liu Xingye quickly said, "Please tell me, please tell me. I'll tell you everything I know."

Yu Shaowu asked, "Why would the government use the pretext of wolf extermination to lure people into the mountains to feed the wolves? What is the actual situation in the mountains? How many other people are involved? Tell me everything you know."

"Yes, yes." Liu Xingye felt a sharp pain in his chest, and dared not move his body even slightly. He didn't even dare to take a deep breath while speaking: "This matter started because Guo Shanying and Xiao Shan Jushi used some kind of witchcraft to raise wolves in the mountains. They said that if you feed the wolves with living people, the wolves' cultivation level will increase dramatically. They had already sent several people in before, but it was still not enough. So the three of them wanted to send more at once, so they cooperated with the prefectural government and ordered us to take charge. Last time, Yu Shaowu from Yaomaodun ruined things, and we were forced to prepare for this second time..."

Yu Shaowu asked, "Who are these 'Over-the-Mountain Eagle' and 'Xiaoshan Hermit'?"

Liu Xingye replied, "Guo Shanying is the big boss of Tangzishan in the Lüliang Mountains. As for Xiao Shan Jushi, I've heard he's been smuggling salt, iron, grain, and tea to the barbarians along the border for years. He has a huge business in Zhangjiakou. I've never met either of them."

Yu Shaowu's heart skipped a beat, and he asked, "What kind of people are you referring to as 'barbarians'?"

"There are many more," Liu Xingye replied in a trembling voice. "They have dealings with the Tumet, Ordos, Khalkha, the Aohan tribe in the east, even the Chahar of Huduntu, and the Jurchens far away in Liaodong. They do business with whoever can afford the price. Especially the Jurchens... I heard that they learned this evil art of raising wolves from those barbarians."

Upon hearing this, Yu Shaowu suddenly realized what was going on. It turned out that the border merchants were the ones behind this whole affair.

He had always wondered what kind of person would do something as heinous as feeding wolves with humans. Now that he realized it was these traitorous merchants colluding with bandits, it wasn't surprising.

These people are wealthy, powerful, and have connections everywhere. In addition, they are ruthless and have no bottom line. Doing this kind of thing is their forte.

The local officials, led by Prefect Hu Nan, betrayed the imperial court and harmed the people for their own gain, making them even more despicable than the border merchants and bandits.

Yu Shaowu loathed Liu Xingye at this moment, and with a gentle turn of the knife handle, he plunged it into Liu's heart.

Caught off guard, Liu Xingye felt a chill in his chest and a surge of hot blood welled up in his mouth.

He raised his hand tremblingly, pointing at Yu Shaowu and said, "You bastard...you said...you said you'd spare me..."

Before he could finish speaking, he collapsed to the ground, breathless, and remained motionless.

After checking the two men's breathing and confirming that they were definitely dead, Yu Shaowu walked around the house to see if there were any survivors.

The house seemed to be very secluded; apart from a few guards, there were no other members of the Chang family present.

After searching through Chang Qi's study, he found several silver notes. By the light of the candle, he discovered that they amounted to a total of 15,000 taels.

Regardless of the era, money is an all-purpose commodity. It is what everyone strives for with all their might.

Yu Shaowu was overjoyed to receive this money. From now on, he would no longer have to be frugal or live frugally. He could freely use any pills that could help him improve his cultivation, such as Body Tempering Pills, Meridian Opening Pills, and Qi Gathering Pills, without any worries.

After obtaining the money, Yu Shaowu returned to the house where the murder had taken place. Next, he needed to do something important.

He approached Zhao Daikui, carefully avoiding the bloodstains inside the room, squatted down, took Zhao Daikui's right hand, dipped it in the bloodstains on the ground, first wrote the character "Li", then wrote a crooked "hand" radical.

Then, he placed Zhao Daikui's right hand on the blood-written words, but hid it.

After doing all this, he stood up, left the Chang residence without lingering, and quietly departed.

The case he committed tonight will surely cause a huge uproar. And this is his plan to divert trouble, with the target being Li Zhencai, the commander of the Baode Thousand-Household Garrison.

This method of framing someone may seem naive, but as long as Li Zhencai is brought in and some political maneuvering is added, even the most naive scheme can achieve its purpose.

This was also a plan that Yu Shaowu had carefully considered.

Li Zhencai, as the commander of a thousand-household garrison, held a fifth-rank official position, but his status was actually not high. According to the officialdom rules of the Ming Dynasty, in the eyes of the prefect, there was not much difference between a commander and a deputy commander.

However, the state government chose Chang Qi, the deputy commander, to do this task, while Li Zhencai remained completely out of the loop.

This is something that defies common sense.

Yu Shaowu guessed that Li Zhencai might have had a conflict with Hu Nan, or perhaps there were some special reasons why Hu Nan was unwilling to easily transfer Li Zhencai.

Regardless of the reason, there must be some conflict between the two parties.

Under such circumstances, any suspicious clue would lead Hu Nan to point the finger at Li Zhencai—even if the clue was full of flaws and could not withstand scrutiny.

For Hu Nan, he probably already wanted to get rid of Li Zhencai. Yu Shaowu's move was tantamount to handing him a knife. Regardless of whether the knife suited his hand or whether the clues were true or false, he might still pick up the knife and stab Li Zhencai.

Writing the words in blood was just something Yu Shaowu did casually, nothing to mention. But if he could really use someone else to do the dirty work and reap the benefits, then it would be a huge profit.