Gou Zai Xianwu Wenjing Search for Opportunities

As darkness fell, Hongliu Lane remained brightly lit.

Many prostitutes hung lanterns in front of their doors, attracting passersby to stop and linger.

Lin Yuan, clad in armor and wielding a sword, took advantage of the darkness to navigate from the alleyway to the nearest dead-end alley in Red Willow Alley, and entered a house.

When everyone gathered, Li Shi, along with his trusted men from the pavilion, met up with the bandits, while Li Si led three martial arts instructors from the mansion.

According to Zhao Sheng, to ensure everything went smoothly, Li Shi asked the third steward to bring over several martial arts instructors from the mansion to oversee the operation.

In other words, tonight the martial arts masters of the Li family will be in charge of the main attack, while Lin Yuan, his fellow disciples, and the bandits will be responsible for the encirclement.

Once everyone was gathered, Li Shi led them out through the side gate at the back of the house, climbed over the wall, and entered the courtyard of Red Willow Lane.

Li Shi calmed the crowd down and whispered, "They're in the next courtyard. We'll follow their orders. Next door is Miss Peony's house, known as Lady Liu. She charges three taels of silver just for showing up and playing the pipa. Fourth Brother, you're in for a treat later."

Li Si asked, "Why don't we go in and ambush them?"

"Those bastards Liu Tianxing are incredibly vigilant. They sent people to keep watch in the alley beforehand, so we can't go there early. Anyway, this house has been empty for a while, so no one's here. Let's just wait for the signal here," Li Shi said angrily.

Just then, people were seen walking around in the neighboring yard and even talking. It turned out to be Wu Jingang's henchmen standing guard.

Everyone had no choice but to hold their breath and calm down. Fortunately, the other party was not a master and could not possibly detect that there were eavesdroppers.

When the moon was high in the sky, its silvery light covered the earth.

Suddenly, I heard a bowl shatter next door!

"Go!" Li Shi took the lead, scaling the wall and swiftly killing one of his underlings with a single blow.

The crowd filed in, with Li Shi leading several martial arts instructors as they rushed into the house. Li Shi then directed the others to disperse and surround the house to prevent anyone from escaping.

Lin Yuan observed the layout of the courtyard. It was an open space on all sides, with a two-story pavilion in the middle. He found the escape route that thieves liked the most: the window!

He and the others lined up in a row, each guarding a position. Wu Yong was on his left and Hu Cai was on his right, so they could support each other.

Soon, the sounds of fighting and a woman's cries filled the room.

A moment later, a window opened and someone jumped out from that window, directly in front of Wu Yong.

Wu Yong reacted swiftly, slashing with his sword. Lin Yuan found a position to flank him, instantly locking down the space the man was using to gain leverage.

"Ah!" the man roared, desperately trying to avoid a vital spot, but he still took a blow from Lin Yuan. Unfortunately, the blow didn't hit a vital spot, only the thigh, and blood gushed out immediately.

The man had just landed and was about to flee when Hu Cai swung his blade down, shouting, "Die!"

He slashed the man in the chest with his knife, and the man immediately stopped moving, slowly leaning back.

Lin Yuan quickly delivered the finishing blow, and after the two blows, he grabbed the man by the back of the neck. He noticed a faint light flickering in the man's mind and was overjoyed.

This trip was worthwhile!

He didn't even bother to close his eyes and look in the mirror. He quickly sheathed his knife and surveyed his surroundings to prevent anyone else from escaping.

Just then, a constable shouted from across the alley, "Help! Someone come quick!"

Lin Yuan and the other two rushed over and saw a figure dart out from afar. In a few flashes, the figure left the courtyard and disappeared.

Upon closer inspection, one of the constables was injured and lay on the ground, unable to get up.

At this moment, Li Si led his men out of the house, but seeing that the man had disappeared, they stopped chasing and cursed, "Damn it, that old bastard Liu Tianxing actually resorted to underhanded tactics!"

Hu Cai quickly pointed the way: "I just saw him flee to the east!"

Li Shi, clutching his shoulder, followed them out, saying, "Don't chase after him. If he pulls another trick on us, we're done for. Damn it, Liu Tianxing isn't crippled after all! He's kept it from us for so many years! He's really cunning!"

Li Si said resentfully, "Judging from his appearance, his cultivation level isn't low!"

"At least a seventh or eighth grade!" Li Shi turned to his left and right and asked, "Did you catch Wu Jingang?"

Lin Yuan dragged the man he had just killed under the lantern: "Is this it?"

"Small eyes, thick eyebrows, that's him! Alright, carry him and Wang Jingang to the pavilion. Later, have a few pavilion guards clean this place up, then take some men to search the house. I'm going to the Li residence to find the third steward; everyone else, disperse."

So Li Shi led his men to the Li residence to report the incident and also took the injured constable there for medical treatment.

Zhao Sheng led Li Si and the constables to raid the house overnight, and asked Lin Yuan and the others if they wanted to go.

Lin Yuan didn't rush to grab the food; instead, he helped carry the corpse back to the pavilion. Hu Cai, who loved excitement, followed along.

Wu Yong had no interest in searching the house, so he followed Lin Yuan. The two returned to the pavilion, where Lin Yuan used the excuse of going to the outhouse to close his eyes and look in the mirror.

The man in the mirror with small eyes and thick eyebrows was Wu Jingang.

"Fairy Mirror, Fairy Mirror, tell me everything he's been through?"

The mirror-like clouds parted, revealing the scene:

Wu Jingang's real name is Wu Heiyu. He was born into a fishing family on the Lishui River. His parents died early. He loved to fight from a young age. Later, he was adopted by Liu Tianxing and taught the "Black Snake Fist" and "Black Snake Knife Technique". He became "Red Vajra" under the hall master.

Wu Jingang's resume was almost identical to Sun Jingang's; both of them did dirty work for the Black Snake Gang, including murder and arson, running gambling dens and lending money at interest rates, seizing territory and fighting for control of docks, and robbing and plundering. These kinds of scenes flashed by, but there were quite a few of them.

Because of his talent in martial arts, he was secretly taught the Snake Intent Fist, a unique skill of the Snake Intent Sect, by Liu Tianxing. The two people who learned Snake Intent Fist with him were Zhang Dengfeng and Xu Niang.

He called Zhang Dengfeng "elder brother" and Liu Xu "second sister," and it was his second sister who taught him the most martial arts.

Therefore, he had a secret affection for Liu Xu, and was extremely obedient and submissive to her.

Unfortunately, Wu Jingang's adoptive father married Liu Xu to Zhang Dengfeng, which made him very angry. As a result, he accidentally damaged his body, which prevented him from making progress in martial arts.

Later, Zhang Dengfeng left with Liu Xuniang and became a retainer in the Zhang family mansion.

Wu Jingang never married again, spending his days seeking women to vent his frustrations, and occasionally taking a stroll around the Zhang family mansion.

Until one day, Liu Xu brought Yu'er back. Her adoptive father only took in the second sister, but ordered her to send Yu'er back to the Zhang family.

He was determined to marry Liu Xu this time, but his second sister disagreed, and his godfather also disagreed.

This infuriated him. When the Lishui Pavilion changed its allegiance, Wang Jingang secretly contacted him to join the Li family, but he refused, unwilling to betray his adoptive father. However, he did not report his adoptive brother, but let him do as he pleased.

Even today, when Zhang, the constable, invited the three of them to a banquet, Wang Jingang died, and Zhang himself was hacked to death by the three men.

The scene in the mirror ends here.

After reading it, Lin Yuan didn't have many thoughts. These Vajra were all pretty much the same, doing dirty and tiring work for Liu Tianxing.

But to Lin Yuan's surprise, he saw Zhang Dengfeng and Xu Niang in Wu Jingang's memories. What surprised him even more was that Liu Xu actually knew martial arts.

She is not a weak woman!

Was Grandpa Zhang deceived by her?

These details were not in Sun Husun's memory.

According to Wu Jingang's memory of their ages, Liu Tianxing recruited the eight Vajras in different periods. The first two recruits were Zhang Dengfeng and Liu Xu, with Wu Jingang ranking third. After Zhang Dengfeng and Liu Xu left, no one knew about them afterward, or perhaps not many.

Lin Yuan immediately made a bold conjecture: perhaps from the very beginning, Liu Tianxing never intended for Zhang Dengfeng to be exposed, and the only people who truly knew were Zhang Dengfeng's family, as well as insiders like Liu Tianxing and Wu Jingang, while the other Black Snake Gang disciples were completely unaware.

Lin Yuan was puzzled. Liu Tianxing had taken Zhang Dengfeng as his adopted son and spent a lot of money to train him to become a martial arts master, but instead of letting him fight for the gang to earn back his investment, he let him enter the Zhang family as a retainer and suddenly rose to prominence.

The real dirty and tiring work was done by Wu Jingang and the other Jingangs.

This doesn't make sense!

Tonight, Liu Tianxing disguised himself as crippled and concealed his true strength, successfully escaping the encirclement and attack of several martial arts masters from the Li family. This man is no ordinary person.

Could he have sent Zhang Dengfeng to infiltrate the Marquis's residence as an undercover agent?

Then Zhang Dengfeng stole something important from the Marquis's mansion, which is why he was hunted down by the Marquis's family.

Where did Zhang Dengfeng escape to? Is he dead or alive?

Why did Liu Tianxing pretend to be disabled? Why did he train him? What was he after from the Zhang family?

Thinking this through, Lin Yuan decided against going, as the information was insufficient. He was curious about Zhang Dengfeng, but he was also interested in the "Snake Intent Fist".

He decided to let the mirror decide: "Mirror, mirror, what of his experiences would be most useful to me right now?"

The image in the mirror changed:

Liu Xu, dressed in a smart outfit, looked dashing and very capable. She said, "Third brother, Father asked me to teach you the 'Snake Intent Fist.' I'll teach you the incantation first: 'Snake-like steps, oblique stance, fists and palms embrace, the posture is complete...'"