The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, becoming a disciple of Yue Buqun.

The villagers nodded repeatedly, indicating that they understood. After taking back their bowls and chopsticks, they left, their faces showing excitement as they went.

Seeing that the group of beggars did not dare to force their way out of the village, Lin Pingzhi sheathed his sword and walked back, saying to Jiang Ning.

"Senior brother."

Jiang Ning nodded and said to the other Huashan disciples, "Senior brothers, in order to prevent these beggars from escaping at night, someone needs to keep an eye on them. You all go to sleep first tonight, I will keep watch tonight."

Ying Bailuo was among them, and he immediately said, "How can we leave you alone? I'm not sleepy either, I'll stay with you and keep watch."

The other Huashan disciples also said they were not sleepy and did not need to sleep.

Lin Pingzhi then said, “Senior brothers, stop arguing. We’ll probably have to watch over this group of beggars for the next few days, so we’ll need to take turns. Tonight, it’ll be just me and my senior brother on night duty. You all go and rest first, and we’ll take turns later.”

After Lin Pingzhi said that, they had no objections and then went to find villagers to stay overnight. At this time, only Jiang Ning, Lin Pingzhi and the group of beggars were left outside in the dark village.

As time passed and the night grew colder, the group of beggars couldn't help but huddle together for warmth. As time went on, they became hungry and cold, and drowsiness crept in. One of them kept nodding up and down, as if he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

Seeing that the beggar was about to fall asleep, Jiang Ning said to Lin Pingzhi.

"Junior brother, go over there and slap him, then ask him if he's asleep."

Chapter 588: He doesn't treat us like human beings!

Since Jiang Ning intended to torment these beggars, he wouldn't let them sleep at night.

"Yes, senior brother."

Lin Pingzhi nodded, strode up to the beggar, and slapped him hard across the face.

"What?"

The beggar had almost fallen asleep and forgotten his hunger when he was suddenly awakened by Lin Pingzhi's slap. He couldn't help but cover the slap mark on his face and stared at Lin Pingzhi in a daze.

Lin Pingzhi chuckled.

"I saw you were about to fall asleep, so I came over to ask if you were asleep."

"you!"

The beggar was both indignant and helpless.

He felt that the other person was there to torment him.

"Okay, it's alright now."

After saying this, Lin Pingzhi walked away.

He was slapped for no reason, and now the beggar couldn't fall asleep even if he wanted to. The other beggars who were almost asleep also lost their sleepiness.

"Senior brother, if you're tired, you should rest for a while. I'll watch over them."

It was already late at night when Lin Pingzhi spoke to Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning shook his head to indicate that he was not sleepy.

Lin Pingzhi didn't insist any longer. Time quickly passed to dawn. It was still dark, but some villagers were already carrying farm tools and preparing for a day's work.

However, the villagers were surprised to see a large group of beggars lying around at the village entrance.

The beggars, who hadn't slept all night, were in poor spirits, their eyes were dry, and they felt cold. They curled up involuntarily, and many of them were drowsy. But just as they were about to fall asleep, Lin Ping went up and slapped them awake, asking them if they were asleep.

They felt extremely unwell after just one night.

In contrast, Jiang Ning and Lin Pingzhi, who hadn't slept all night, showed no signs of fatigue, with Lin Pingzhi being particularly energetic.

Both of them were martial artists. Lin Pingzhi looked weak, but he was now a second-rate martial artist. Staying up all night was nothing to him.

As dawn broke, more and more villagers got up and went out, and they all saw what the group of beggars looked like.

Ying Bailuo and the other Huashan disciples, who had rested for a night, also came over.

"Junior brother, nothing happened last night, right?"

"Imperial asked."

Lin Pingzhi shook his head: "No."

"Oh dear, what happened? They look so haggard."

A disciple of Mount Hua noticed the group of beggars' demeanor and couldn't help but ask curiously.

Lin Pingzhi laughed and said, "Last night, my senior brother said not to let them sleep. If they do sleep, wake them up. They are sleepy, cold, and hungry."

It's still late March, not yet April. Although winter is over, the temperature is still quite cold, especially in the middle of the night. These beggars are shivering from the cold.

Hearing Lin Pingzhi's words, the Huashan disciples couldn't help but click their tongues in amazement.

They originally thought that imprisoning these beggars and depriving them of food and water was already torturous enough, but they didn't expect Jiang Ning to not even let them sleep, especially now that it's so cold, it's simply torture.

Looking at Jiang Ning's calm face, Ying Bailuo couldn't help but sigh, "As expected, Master is too gentlemanly. He can't do anything about these rogue beggars. Junior Brother is much more resourceful and has plenty of ways to deal with them."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ying Bailu realized his mistake and quickly added, "I didn't mean you're not a gentleman, Junior Brother. What I meant was..."

Jiang Ning smiled, not minding, and said, "I understand what you mean, Senior Brother. There's no need to use gentlemanly methods to deal with these people."

Just like what he said to Linghu Chong in Hengshan City, you should use different methods to deal with different people. For gentlemen, be upright and honest. For reasonable people, reason with them in the same way.

But to deal with evil spirits and scoundrels, we need to use even more ruthless and shameless methods.

Just like this time when the Beggars' Sect disgusted the Huashan Sect, Yue Buqun was too fixated on the methods and had no way to deal with them.

How can we uphold justice if we are not more shameless and more wicked than them?

Upon hearing Jiang Ning's words, the Huashan disciples, including Lin Pingzhi, all became serious and fell into deep thought.

Lin Pingzhi goes without saying. No matter what Jiang Ning says or does, he thinks it's right. Now he has become Jiang Ning's staunch supporter. He wouldn't hesitate for a second even if Jiang Ning asked him to die.

The other Huashan disciples thought that Jiang Ning was already Yue Buqun's personally designated successor and the future leader of the Huashan Sect. The Huashan Sect's style of doing things would definitely be influenced by Jiang Ning. Since Jiang Ning had said so, they should follow his example.

"Ah."

At that moment, a beggar couldn't help but sneeze. His face was cold, and his hands and feet were trembling, as if he had caught a cold.

Not only this beggar, but several other beggars also caught a cold.

"Let...let us go."

A beggar, shivering from a cold, spoke.

Upon hearing this, Ying Bailuo laughed and said, "I told you to leave before, but you wouldn't. Now you want to leave? Too late."

Another beggar couldn't help but grit his teeth and say, "You've been treating us so cruelly, our leader and elders won't let you get away with this."

Ying Bailu chuckled and said, "What abuse? Isn't this just doing what you wanted? You can't get rid of me or keep me here. You guys are quite difficult to please."

At this moment, another Huashan disciple sneered, "You won't let us go? If your Beggars' Sect dared to start a war with my Huashan Sect, you wouldn't resort to such despicable means."

The group of beggars were furious at Ying Bailuo's appearance and the words of another Huashan disciple, but they were helpless.

They could only hope that the elders would come to their rescue as soon as possible.

……

It is a county located a few dozen miles from Mount Hua.

"Gentlemen, the brothers who went to harass the village yesterday said that King Ning is back. What should we do? You tell me."

The burly man addressed the others present.

They were all elders of the Beggars' Sect, and they came to Yue Buqun to demand an explanation and account. However, instead of getting an explanation and account, they were beaten up by Yue Buqun.

The burly man who just spoke was the mastermind behind the Huashan Sect's scheme to have the beggars harass the villagers.

"What else can we do? Of course, we need the Huashan Sect to give us an explanation and hand over Ning Yanwang!"

"A hot-tempered elder shouted."

However, his words did not elicit any agreement from the others; instead, they all fell silent.

Just kidding. Last time they went to demand an explanation, they got beaten up. Now that King Ning has returned to the mountain, if they still go to demand an explanation, it won't just be a beating; they'll lose their lives.

Yue Buqun is a gentleman swordsman, so they can reason with him. But what kind of person is Jiang Ning? Can the King of Hell, Jiang Ning, reason with them? If they come up the mountain and start wailing about wanting Jiang Ning to commit suicide or something like that, Jiang Ning will probably slash at them with his sword before they even finish their sentences.

They dared to say to Yue Buqun that they would hand over Jiang Ning, but they wouldn't dare to say such a thing to Jiang Ning.

Yue Buqun could still treat them like human beings, but Ning Yanwang truly didn't.

Chapter 589: Why is the Huashan Sect so different from before?

No one agreed with him, and the hot-tempered elder remained silent.

To be honest, he was a little scared too.

Seeing that the elders present remained silent and unable to offer any advice, the burly man also didn't know what to say.

The burly man coughed and said, "When we came to Mount Hua before, the gang leader instructed us not to personally initiate the conflict with the Mount Hua Sect. We are only here to inquire and communicate, and to discuss a solution with Yue Buqun. It has little to do with whether Ning Yanwang returns or not. Now the gang leader has gone to Shaolin Temple, so let's wait here for the gang leader's letter."

"Of course, that doesn't mean we'll stop doing anything. We'll continue doing what we're doing now. Anyway, Yue Buqun can't do anything to us, and he has no excuse to take action. If we just keep dragging this out, Yue Buqun will eventually get fed up and come to talk to us again."

Immediately after the burly man spoke, an elder nodded in agreement: "Very well."

The other elders seemed to have no objection to this.

After the discussion, the big man got up to write a letter to Jie Feng explaining the current situation between them and the Huashan Sect, and asking in the letter what the Shaolin Temple's attitude was and what Jie Feng should do next.

After the big man left, the other elders did not leave, but remained seated.

After a long while.

"Why is the Huashan Sect so different from before?"

One of the elders couldn't help but mutter to himself.

The other elders remained silent upon hearing this.

Yes, how come it's different?

Although the Huashan Sect was famous in the past, that fame belonged to the Five Mountains Sword Sects. To put it bluntly, the Huashan Sect was not taken seriously by them in the past.

If it were the Huashan Sect of the past, they could have wiped out any branch of the Beggars' Sect. If the Huashan Sect had dared to provoke them in the past, their leader could have made Yue Buqun tremble with fear with just a word, lest he bring disaster upon himself.