Martial Arts Showdown: My Wife Asked Me to Be the Champion

Chapter 112 Tang Clan Branch, I really want to lift Mount Hua and smash my brother-in-law to death!

Chapter 112 Tang Clan Branch, I really want to lift Mount Hua and smash my brother-in-law to death!

"Brother-in-law, you look increasingly prosperous after just one month! Have you gotten married?"

"Brother-in-law, don't talk nonsense. A scoundrel like me has no chance with women. Even if I did, I'd squander it all. Why don't you teach me something?"

"Generally speaking, if I—if I meet a girl I like, I can take the initiative to walk up to her and ask if she'd like to get to know each other and have a meal together!"

"and then?"

"The other party will offer to pay for the meal!"

Xu Qingya was being tactful, lest she anger Yin Yewang to death. In most cases, it was the girls who took the initiative to approach Xu Qingya; even becoming a maid required queuing up.

Yin Yewang looked at Xu Qingya's face, touched his own face, and sighed, "Brother-in-law, is there any way that doesn't rely on looks?"

I'm not as handsome as you!

Xu Qingya shrugged: "Brother-in-law, it's not that I'm being stingy, but until now, I don't know what it feels like to be rejected, Susu—"

Xu Qingya was stomped hard by Yin Susu.

Your family property has been stolen for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and you still have the mind to talk about these trivial matters? Get to the point!

Xu Qingya hurriedly said, "Brother-in-law, do you know about the Blissful Pavilion? Bah! What a waste of your time! How am I supposed to get there? Arrange an identity for me!"

"What are you going to the Paradise Tower for?"

"The Blissful Pavilion is making counterfeit banknotes and using them to steal money from the Great Tong Bank. The Great Tong Bank has many business dealings with the Heavenly Eagle Sect. In other words, someone is using blank paper to steal our money. What do you suggest we do?"

"Damn it! She dared to steal my money! And she even gave me that dirty look! That top courtesan, what's her name, Wu Yan? She's always pretending to be all high and mighty, playing those games! What a bastard!"

"Brother-in-law, please find me a way to disguise myself without being recognized."

"That's easy. I'll just say you're Tang Zhuquan, the eldest son of the Tang family in Hangzhou. No one will recognize you!"

"Brother-in-law, you're insulting my intelligence! Even though you're my brother-in-law, if you continue to blatantly insult my wisdom, I'll definitely beat you up!"

Xu Qingya clenched his fists fiercely.

Yin Yewang is definitely talking nonsense!

In the Jiangnan region, the Yin family mainly manages the order of the underworld martial arts world, while the Tang family controls the legitimate martial arts world.

The head of the Tang family is named Tang Songting. He is a collateral branch of the Tang Clan in Sichuan. He is upright, brave, and chivalrous. He is fond of marksmanship and never uses poison or hidden weapons.

Forty years ago, Tang Songting started his own business.

The Tang Clan is a large and powerful family with more than a dozen direct descendants and dozens of collateral descendants. If you add them all together, the Tang Clan probably has more than a hundred descendants, and they have long been unable to make ends meet.

The Tang Clan strongly encourages its collateral branches to establish their own households, allowing them to take their family wealth with them and to start businesses in other states, with only two taboos.

First, the Tang Clan's poison techniques and hidden weapon skills cannot be passed on to people outside the Tang Clan. They can use them themselves, as long as they are surnamed Tang. This can be described as extremely lenient.

Secondly, the Tang Clan's techniques for detoxification and making hidden weapons cannot be passed on to outsiders. Similarly, anyone with the surname Tang can use them freely without any restrictions.

In other words, anyone with the surname Tang can use the skills of the Tang Clan. You can pass them down as family martial arts to your children, as long as you don't pass them on to outsiders.

Sichuan is the land of the dragon's rise and the land of abundance, but there are also major sects such as Qingcheng, Emei, and Bashan here. There is no longer enough territory to go around. In order to make money, the Tang Clan can even sell the poisons and hidden weapons passed down from the Tang family to outsiders.

Even so, they couldn't support more than a hundred families of all sizes. The Tang Clan's internal management structure was already bloated and unbearable. Everyone was a relative, and the patriarch had thousands of relatives. Who could possibly support that?

The collateral branches of the family must be encouraged to voluntarily separate.

Tang Songting is the most successful of the Tang Clan disciples who established their own sect. With his upright, impartial, brave and decisive attitude, as well as his decades of perseverance, he has become a famous hero in the martial arts world and a well-known figure in the Jiangnan region, despite the negative influence of the "Tang Clan"!

Tang Songting had a son and a daughter.

The son's name is Tang Zhuquan!

My daughter's name is Tang Zhujun!

The daughter possesses unparalleled beauty and is engaged to Long Chengbi, the third young master of the Long family in Jinan. The two will marry in two years, and she rarely travels in the martial arts world.

The son has the capacity to drink the waters of three rivers, and is known as the number one drunken swordsman in the martial arts world, with an unparalleled capacity for alcohol!

Some people might ask, could Xiao Feng not outdrink Tang Zhuquan? In terms of alcohol tolerance, Xiao Feng is by no means inferior to Tang Zhuquan, but this guy weighs over 300 jin (150 kg), and with his large stomach, he can make Xiao Feng lose his temper first.

The problem is this: Tang Zhuquan weighs over 300 jin (150 kg), with at least 200 jin (100 kg) of fat on his body. Neither of the two Xu Qingyas are that fat—carrying a wine jar is not difficult for him, but I don't have a big belly!

Yin Susu also knew about the Tang family's situation. She and Tang Zhujun were practically best friends. Yin Tianzheng belonged to the righteous path within the demonic sect and had a very good relationship with Tang Songting!

Yin Susu glared at Yin Yewang: "You dare turn my handsome husband into a 300-pound fat man! I'll tell everyone when we get home! I'll have Daddy beat you to death!"

Yin Yewang hurriedly said, "Brother-in-law, I'm really not lying! Brother-in-law is too handsome. No matter how he disguises himself, he will be noticed. Even the back of his head is much more handsome than others!"

Yin Susu continued to glare at Yin Yewang.

Yin Yewang quickly explained, "Only by disguising myself as Tang Zhuquan, that fat, drunkard, can I guarantee I won't be recognized. Who would pay attention to a fat man reeking of alcohol? As for the body image issue—brother-in-law will have to suffer a bit, wrapping himself in three layers of cotton!"

Yin Susu immediately objected: "No! What if my husband gets too hot? Let's find another one!"

Yin Yewang was filled with regret, feeling that his beloved sister had been completely taken away by Huang Mao, and he wished he could lift Mount Hua and smash Xu Qingya to death.

"Sister, your husband is a Grandmaster of the Heavenly Gang Sect. His internal martial arts are superb, and he is impervious to heat and cold. Even if you wrap him in ten layers of quilts, he won't feel hot!"

"Tang Zhuquan is skilled in finger techniques, while Qingya's hand skills are quite average. How could he impersonate Tang Zhuquan?"

"That's easy. There's a manual at home that records finger-knife kung fu, similar to sword finger. With my brother-in-law's foundation, he can grasp 70-80% of it after reading the manual once. It'll be more than enough to fool those good-for-nothings in the Paradise Tower."

Yin Yewang looked at Xu Qingya seriously, secretly delighted. He thought to himself, "Let you show off, I'll make you a fatso and see how you pick up girls then."

Xu Qingya smiled and said, "Brother-in-law, I'm not familiar with Tang Zhuquan. How about this: I'll disguise myself as you, and you'll disguise yourself as Tang Zhuquan. We'll investigate together, and all the credit will be yours!"

"No, no, no! Absolutely not! Everyone in the area knows that my sister and Tang Zhujun are close, and Tang Zhuquan and I—that fatso looks down on me! He thinks I'm immoral and have a terrible reputation in the underworld!"

"Brother-in-law, I think Tang Zhuquan's evaluation of you is very fair. Besides, if you don't need to enter the Blissful Pavilion, I can just disguise myself as you. It's such a simple thing, can't you think of that?"

"I—I am—"

"Does my brother-in-law want to see me become fat?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Susu, I'm leaving her to you!"

Xu Qingya got up, went out, and closed the door.

Yin Susu walked toward Yin Yewang with a cold smile.

Yin Yewang's martial arts skills were superior to Yin Susu's, but recently, Yin Susu had been following Xu Qingya and gaining a lot of experience points, which greatly improved her martial arts skills. In addition, Yin Yewang doted on his younger sister, so how could he possibly hurt her? He was chased and beaten until he ran away with his head in his hands!

Xu Qingya went to another inn where Yang Yan and Hua Baifeng stayed. Yang Yan gathered intelligence, while Hua Baifeng prepared various disguise items. She was a disciple of the old man from the frontier and was skilled in various esoteric arts.

Yang Yan and Hua Baifeng also changed their outfits.

Yang Yan dressed up as a wealthy woman from a salt merchant family; with her temperament, there was no more suitable role for her.

She possesses both the gentle grace of a virtuous wife and loving mother, and the ruthless cunning of a salt merchant who kills without shedding blood.

Hua Baifeng disguised herself as a disciple of Lingjiu Palace.

The disciples of Lingjiu Palace rarely travel the martial world. They only go to the territories of the Thirty-Six Caves and Seventy-Two Islands every spring and summer to distribute antidotes and urge the delivery of this year's tribute.

Judging by the timing, now is the perfect time for the disciples of Lingjiu Palace to travel the world. They have lived deep in the mountains for a long time and have no enjoyment of life. When they come to the world of pleasure, they can't help but go to the dens of iniquity. No one can find fault with that.

The den of iniquity was not just for men.

Women are also VIPs in this den of iniquity.

Women who can afford to frequent such lavish places are either young ladies from martial arts families or wealthy women; regardless of age, they are all rich and used to the life of the super-rich.

These kinds of people never treat money like money; they'll spend lavishly on anything they like without hesitation. As long as you serve these people well, you'll have everything you need for the rest of your life.

For example, Yin Susu!

Xu Qingya disguised himself as Yin Yewang.

Yin Yewang was forced by Yin Susu to wear three layers of thick cotton clothes, carry a large wine jar, disguise himself as Tang Zhuquan, and be forcibly stuffed into the coffin. Other coffins could hold two or three people, but this extra-large coffin could only hold one, and it looked very cramped.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Tang Zhuquan, the drunken swordsman who was fighting alongside Long Chengbi to uphold justice and vanquish demons, sneezed violently several times.

"Damn it, I have a feeling someone's plotting against me. If I'm not mistaken, it's probably that bastard Yin Yewang. Yin Tianzheng is old but still strong, and Yin Susu has the demeanor of a great lady. How could the Yin family produce such a scoundrel as Yin Yewang? The evil sect is corrupted by him!"

Tang Zhuquan snorted angrily a few times.

Long Chengbi joked, "Think positively, maybe Yin Yewang is just using your name to do chivalrous deeds!"

Tang Zhuquan angrily retorted, "Pah! This bastard is a chivalrous hero? I think he's probably just using my name to frequent brothels and then putting the score on me!"

"That can't be right! Fatty Tang! If you've never been to a brothel, how could Yin Yewang fake it? If he can fake that you went to a brothel, it means you have!"

Long Chengbi keenly sensed something was amiss.

Long Chengbi chuckled: "You don't want me to tell Old Man Tang about your visits to brothels, do you?"

Tang Zhuquan was so shocked that he took seven or eight steps back, only to be grabbed by the arms by his two close friends, Wei Kongkong and Sima Xue.

"Snow Blade Prodigal" Longchengbi;

Tang Zhuquan, the "Number One Drunken Swordsman Under Heaven";

Wei Kongkong, the "Head-Stealing Hero";

Sima Xue, the "King of Assassins";

The four were inseparable friends who loved to fight for justice. Wherever they went, the effect was similar to that of the Four Great Constables: the dead were left without a complete corpse, and no one survived.

The biggest difference between them and Lu Xiaofeng and Chu Liuxiang is that they show no mercy when they strike. One's knife moves as fast as lightning, one's finger snaps a skull, one's sword is used to chop off heads, and one's longsword is stained with blood. Every time they do chivalrous deeds, they leave behind countless corpses.

Long Chengbi wasn't "extorting" Tang Zhuquan; he had no choice. The Long and Tang families were engaged, and Long Chengbi and Tang Zhujun were a couple, so no one objected. The entire Long family had no objections either. Tang Zhujun's aunt liked Long Chengbi, her nephew-in-law, very much and had no objections either.

Tang Songting was the only one with some objections. He was a bit old-fashioned and didn't like the carefree and unrestrained life of Longchengbi, so the matter was dragged on.

Tang Zhuquan used to be neutral, neither siding with his bad friends nor his father. He thought to himself, "Even my aunt couldn't persuade my father, so what weight do I have for him? I'd probably just get a beating for nothing!"

Now, we have no choice but to take action!

Given Tang Songting's temper, if he found out that Tang Zhuquan had gone to a brothel to drink and have fun, he would break at least ten rattan whips. If his aunt happened to see him, she would personally hand him a water and fire stick and break his legs instead!

Tang Zhuquan is fearless and dares to argue even with the leader of the Demonic Sect, but he is terrified of his Eighth Aunt. When he sees his Eighth Aunt, he is like a fat mouse encountering a cat.

Here's a little attempt to salvage Tang Zhuquan's reputation: Tang Zhuquan didn't go to the brothel to seek pleasure, but rather because there was a famous courtesan in Chang'an's Baiyulou who was known for having the best drinking capacity in the world, and Tang Zhuquan went to challenge her to a drinking contest—however, if this got out, it would be a double loss!

People believed it and actually went to drink heavily, which made people wonder if Tang Zhuquan was impotent in some way!

If others don't believe it, what's the point of saying anything?

Let Old Man Tang break ten of his rattan whips first!

Meanwhile, Xu Qingya and the others, with Hua Baifeng's skillful hands, disguised themselves and headed to the Paradise Tower together.

Thanks to the late emperor's great achievements, no matter how wealthy a prefecture was, there was no shortage of mass graves.

To facilitate the coming and going of guests, the Blissful Pavilion spent a high price to "contract" a mass grave, where dozens of nanmu coffins, painted with red lacquer, are scattered about, clearly old and valuable items!

Are coffins also subject to the requirement of "aging"?

Of course!

In some areas, the elderly will make their own coffins, painting them again and again. While others play with prayer beads, they play with their coffins until they pass away.

Some coffins have been worn for over a decade.

This coffin is extremely, extremely, extremely valuable.

Some wealthy people like to "reap the benefits without sowing"!

In certain special circumstances, if a small-time rich man unexpectedly squanders his fortune, the old man's coffin, which he has been collecting for over a decade, can be used to settle the debt. The coffin is very special; on the one hand, it is considered extremely unlucky, and on the other hand, it is extremely valuable.

Xu Qingya lay in the coffin, surrounded by neither beauties nor pets, and could only let his mind wander, his thoughts already drifting to Java.

Lu Xiaofeng, who was invited by the Hua family to investigate the fake banknote case and was working with Hua Manlou to put on an act, pulled Sikong Zhaixing into the coffin, preparing to go to the Blissful Pavilion to investigate.

The eyes of the fake owner, the real owner, the fake mastermind, and the real mastermind of the Paradise Tower were all focused on Lu Xiaofeng. As for Yin Yewang, he was completely ignored by them. It wasn't that they looked down on Yin Yewang, but that this guy didn't know how to investigate cases and was just here to enjoy himself!

Who would doubt that the top-ranking member of the Super VVVVIP, the courtesan's best friend, is here to investigate a case? Yin Yewang is a master at destroying families and wiping out entire clans; how could he possibly know anything about investigating cases?

Before long, dozens of Kunlun slaves came. They carried steel nails and sledgehammers, and with a clang, they nailed the coffin all the way in. Then they carried the coffin to the Blissful Pavilion.

Four people carried a coffin.

Kunlun slaves were known for their immense strength. The reason four people were needed to carry the coffin was twofold: first, to ensure stability, and second, because the customers were carrying large amounts of gold and silver, making the coffin exceptionally heavy.

These Kunlun slaves were highly trained and carried the coffin more steadily than a sedan chair. Xu Qingya secretly complained: "We should find someone to play the suona in front."

Yang Yan was somewhat surprised and doubtful. Kunlun slaves were stupid and mostly only knew how to do some heavy work. The fact that the Bliss Pavilion could train Kunlun slaves to this extent showed that it really had some ability!

Lu Xiaofeng ranted, "Sikong Zhaixing, everyone else has their own coffin, why should I share one with you? Do I look like a poor wretch?"

Sikong Zhaixing retorted, "Damn it! Some of them are the young master of the Sky Eagle Sect, some are salt sellers, some are disciples of the Spirit Vulture Palace, and there's the eldest son of the Tang family. Aren't they all rich? Who would dare to slight them?"

Lu Xiaofeng sneered: "A rich man? I don't think a thief like you is short of money, is he?"

Sikong Zhaixing rolled her eyes: "If I could afford to buy the golden basin, I would have already announced in the martial arts world that I was retiring from this business. I'm practically broke!"

"No money? What are we going to gamble with?"

"Figure it out yourself!"

"I feel so awkward!"

"If you feel awkward, just treat the coffin as a cabinet. Lu Xiaoji, do you often get cornered in a cabinet?"

Then her husband dragged her out of the closet and gave her a good beating, leaving her with a black eye!

"Hehe! Never!"

"It seems your lightness skill is quite impressive!"

Sikong Zhaixing loved to make bets with Lu Xiaofeng. Lu Xiaofeng would never admit defeat to Sikong Zhaixing, and the two would bicker and tease each other all the way.