Chapter 42 The Mastermind

  Su Tang walked into the courtyard with Mo Xiaobei's support, and Long Qi also followed out. The hall had already transmitted ear-piercing crashing sounds, angry roars, and miserable screams. Apparently, the battle had already broken out.

  "Do you know what consequences this will bring?" Long Qi asked slowly.

  "What's the consequence?"

  "Loyalty is a very important part of the rules. A samurai with a family must be loyal to his family, a samurai with a team must be loyal to his team, and a member of the Myodo Pavilion must naturally be loyal to the Myodo Pavilion! The Great Master is after all the Great Master of the Myodo Pavilion, if you dare to kill even him, your heart has no restraints. How can such a person be welcomed by others?" Long Qi said: "You will be ostracized! Everyone will be on high alert against you, they won't trust you again, and they won't cooperate with you again."

  Su Tang smiled slightly.

  "I know you look down on them, but if you can't blend in with this group after all, your path will be difficult."

  "Look down on them? Do I?"

  "I could see it back at De Sheng Tai." Long Qi said in a low voice, "They were either bragging about their own strength or discussing various women. You refused to join in, and several times turned your head to look at the sky, proving you were very impatient and wanted to leave. But do you really think that with just the power of Miao Dao Ge, you can handle everything? No! You need their help!"

  "I know that Wen Ping is arrogant and often causes trouble for the Miao Dao Pavilion. If I could get rid of him, I would have done so long ago." Long Qi continued: "Why did you keep him until today? As long as Wen Ping is alive, they will sympathize with me, take my side, and even suggest that I get rid of Wen Ping and become the leader myself. But if I really took action, they would definitely distance themselves from me, thinking that I have no bottom line. That's why the Miao Dao Pavilion has its current reputation!"

  "Brother Long, who said it was me who killed Big Master?" Su Tang asked with a smile.

  Longqi was stunned on the spot.

  "Zhao Baocheng first ordered someone to assassinate me, and then Zhao Liangchu sent someone to sneak into the Miao Dao Pavilion and kill the Grand Master." Su Tang said: "This is an irreconcilable blood feud..."

  Longqi's expression became even more complicated, he couldn't say a word, staring blankly at the corner door in front of him.

  Just then, with a loud crash, the wall of the rear building was shattered by someone, and through the crack, Tong Fei was seen jumping up, his iron hammer heavily hitting Mr. Wen's back of the head, the fighting sounds stopped completely afterwards, the atmosphere became exceptionally quiet.

  "Brother Long, go rest early, tomorrow will be busy." Su Tang said: "Xiao Bai, no need to see me off, you arrange things here." After finishing speaking, Su Tang shook off Mo Xiao Bai's hand and walked slowly towards the corner door alone.

  When Wen Xiang and others walked out of the building, they only saw Su Tang's back, Wen Xiang frowned and said: "He left?"

  "A person has been killed, but shouldn't you think of some way to deal with the aftermath?" Xiao Buwu was also somewhat dissatisfied. Any power that wants to develop and grow must gain recognition from its surrounding environment, or in other words, have a certain legitimacy. The former Miao Dao Pavilion was certainly legitimate, but they had already killed the legitimate master of the Miao Dao Pavilion. Whether they could continue to gain recognition from their surroundings was still unknown. Some people or forces that were full of malice towards the Miao Dao Pavilion would not let go of this opportunity to kick them while they were down.

  "Mr. Su said it was Zhao Liang's man who assassinated Big Master," said Long Qi.

  Xiang Xiang, Xiao Bu Hui and others looked at each other in shock. If it was a long-planned rebellion, Su Tang would have come up with such a plan very easily. But just now, it was completely an impromptu decision. They understood that Mr. Wen tried to cover up Zhao Liangdong, which thoroughly enraged Su Tang. Everything happened in a flurry, and in the blink of an eye, he thought of framing others, how sinister!

  "Smell the fragrance, you go catch that Zhao Liangzhu." Long Qi said in a low voice: "Absolutely cannot let him fall into someone else's hands."

  "Will anyone believe it?" Wen Xiang asked.

  "Zhao Baocheng is a timid person, and he would never dare to send someone to assassinate Mr. Su by himself; there must be something fishy behind his back." Long Qi said: "The death of the great master has given us more weight in our argument and an opportunity, once we expose the person behind Zhao's back, people will naturally believe us."

  ****

  News of Mr. Wen's death spread quickly in Changshan County, with some people rejoicing and others secretly worrying. The assassination of Su Tang had already made the atmosphere in Changshan County extremely tense, and now that Mr. Wen had also been assassinated, no matter how crazy My Taoist Temple reacted, it would not be unexpected.

  The next morning, the warriors of Miaodao Pavilion sealed off the entire street in front of the pavilion, not allowing anyone to enter or exit. They also temporarily stopped accepting commissions from other parties. However, those wandering warriors who had been hanging around Miaodao Pavilion for years did not idle about. They were all hired by Miaodao Pavilion and roamed around in groups of three to five, filling the entire Changshan County with an atmosphere that seemed to foretell a storm.

  On the third day at noon, Mo Xiaobai walked into the secret room with a stack of materials and respectfully said to Su Tang: "Mr. Su, it's all here."

  Mr. Wen is dead, and Su Tang should have been promoted to be the new Mr., taking charge of everything in Miao Dao Pavilion. However, Su Tang asked people in Miao Dao Pavilion to continue calling him Mr., as changing too quickly would definitely raise suspicions from others.

  "Will Zhao Liangdong hide something?" Su Tang asked while taking over the materials.

  "It's impossible." Mo Xiaobai said, "The questions we asked, whether they're useful or not, he'll drag out a big pile of them, afraid that he won't explain thoroughly enough, haha... He's almost been scared crazy."

  Su Tang flipped through a few pages, his eyes landed on a long string of names, and as his mind became clear and refreshed, his memory and analytical skills were greatly enhanced, and in just a few minutes, he found the interesting places.

  "What did you find?" Su Tang asked.

  "It's probably the Cheng family." Mo Xiaobai nodded and walked to the table, flipping through the documents again, pointing as he spoke: "Sir, you see, three days before your assassination, Cheng Siyuan of the Cheng family hosted a dinner party at De Sheng Tai. He only invited two people, one was Tie Changhai from the Tie family, and the other was Zhao Bocheng. According to Zhao Liangzhu's confession, he remembered that his father Zhao Bocheng left in high spirits but returned feeling depressed and complained about Mr. Wen being incompetent, always being bullied by subordinates."

  "Is there anything else?" Su Tang asked.

  "Sir, look here." Mo Xiaobai flipped through the documents: "The day before you were assassinated, Zhao Liangdun went out of town to clear his mind and ran into Cheng Mudan. Cheng Mudan is the eldest son of Cheng Siyuan. Zhao Liangdun recalled that at the time, Cheng Mudan asked him why he looked so worried, and he told him about his troubles. Cheng Mudan kept consoling him, saying things like 'enduring for a moment will bring a lifetime of peace', 'men sometimes have to pretend to be turtles', 'if you can't win, don't provoke trouble' and so on. There were some words that Zhao Liangdun really couldn't remember, but anyway, when he got home, he felt like his chest was about to explode."