"Does that kid still dare to co here?"
"Humph, he’s gotten too proud and is bullying others too much!"
Inside the main gate of the Zhou family, several disciples whispered with heads bowed.
Their gazes were all concentrated on the group from the Zhang family.
There, apart from the Zhang family father and son and their disciples, there were two particularly conspicuous individuals— one in a black cloth robe with sharp eyes, and the other tall with a shaven head and a goatee beard. They were none other than Li Yan and Sha Lifei.
The disciples of the Zhou family were sowhat unable to suppress their anger.
It was easier to speak about other forces; everyone was from Xianyang City and had more or less so old connections or grudges with the once-prominent Zhou family, and today, they needed to settle things clearly.
But who did Li Yan think he was?
He ca to Xianyang, crippled Zhou Bai to make a na for himself, and even caused Zhou Peide to take risks and end up in prison, where he would be executed after the autumn.
From all appearances, he never suffered any setbacks.
And now here he was, showing up at their door. Wasn’t this blatantly disrespectful?
Of course, given the current circumstances, none of them dared to speak out.
After the anger, helplessness and sadness surged in their hearts.
Li Yan, with his keen Spiritual Sense, naturally noticed the hostile stares.
He couldn’t be bothered to care, instead glancing toward the rear.
A middle-aged man stood there, dressed in black and wearing a square hat, towering with graying temples, dignified facial features, and imposing deanor, followed by two governnt officials.
It was none other than Guan Wanche, the arrest officer of Xianyang.
Seeing this, Sha Lifei, full of disdain, whispered, "Why bother looking at him? Four Seas Gang, he’s just a spineless opportunist not worth our ti."
Sha Lifei was right. Many in the Guanzhong area knew that Guan Wanche and his father, Li Hu, had been sworn brothers. By rights, he should have been much closer to the elder Zhang than anyone else.
However, he never appeared when his father died, never visited Li Family Castle to see his grandchildren, and Li Yan didn’t even know such a person existed.
According to Zhang Shitong, when Guan Wanche was transferred to Xianyang to beco an arrest officer, many thought he was here looking for trouble with Zhou Pan, but he made no moves.
The only ti he took action was during an incident where Zheng Xianhuai’s family was massacred, and a governnt official tried to use him as a scapegoat, which Guan Wanche stopped.
Li Yan didn’t care about personal feelings.
In the pugilistic world, it was common for friendships to cool once soone was gone.
What puzzled him was, what was Guan Wanche doing here?
Seeming to notice his gaze, Guan Wanche approached directly, expressionless and after sizing him up, said indifferently, "Do you hold a grudge against ?"
Li Yan calmly responded, "Why should a stranger have grievances?"
"That’s good."
Guan Wanche nodded and scoffed coldly, "I was eight sworn brothers with your father, but he disappointed my sister, who ran away to Taibai Mountain to beco a devotee, leaving my mother to cry every day. Have you ever seen such a brother?"
Li Yan’s expression stiffened, and he awkwardly smiled, "I’m not very clear about the matters of the previous generation."
As he said this, he rembered sothing from the past.
His father had not co ho during the New Year, which already displeased his grandfather. Then two beautiful won arrived, bickering and fighting at the doorstep, which angered his grandfather terribly.
One of them seed to have the last na Guan.
And from what they said, it seed his father had even more romantic debts...
Thinking about this, Li Yan felt sowhat helpless.
Looking around, not only was Sha Lifei wide-eyed, but even the nearby Zhang family father and son and their disciples all perked up their ears, full of curiosity.
"Go on,"
Li Yan pushed Sha Lifei away, speaking earnestly, "I shouldn’t speak much about the older generation’s affairs, but whatever grievances there are, just bring them on."
"Grievance?"
Guan Wanche scoffed coldly, "My sister was honest and swallowed her grievances, but so won aren’t so easy to deal with. Can you handle it?"
Saying this, his expression softened slightly as he sighed and patted Li Yan’s shoulder, "After all, you are the son of an old friend. Now that you have entered the pugilistic world, take care of yourself and don’t follow in your father’s footsteps."
He then turned around and strode into the Zhou family mansion.
Beside him, Zhang Yuanshang also stroked his beard and nodded, "It seems that Arrest Officer Guan isn’t heartless, just harboring so resentnt."
"Let’s go, today we send off the old monkey."
Saying that, he led everyone into the mansion with large strides.
Li Yan intentionally lagged a few steps behind, unnoticeably pulled a piece of paper from his shoulder seam, read the handwriting on it, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes.
......
The Zhou family’s compound was indeed spacious, with several attached courtyards inside and out, each with a practice field and a variety of displayed weapons, reportedly having hundreds of disciples in its heyday.
These were just the martial arts school disciples, not including those under the direct command of the ’Eight Trigrams’.
One could imagine the past glory of the Zhou family.
Now, however, fewer than a hundred disciples remained, many courtyards were desolate and unkempt.
Soon, the main hall of the Zhou family was filled with people.
This main hall was also not small, three tis larger than the Zhang family’s martial arts school, with important figures seated on both sides and disciples standing behind them.
Even so, many areas inside the great hall remained empty.
The host of the gold basin retirent ceremony was Zhou Yuanshan, a disciple of Zhou Pan, and one of the Eight Trigrams. He was also from the Zhou Family. However, unlike Zhou Peide, he was tall and appeared simple and honest.
He bowed to all sides and said, "Today is an auspicious day, the ti for my master to wash his hands of the pugilistic world. Your presence brings honor to the Zhou Family."
"Enough with the niceties."
A man in green, looking sowhat disconcerted, took a sip of tea and said coldly, "With so many in the pugilistic world here, it’s too much for Zhou Pan not even to greet us at the door, making everyone wait."
The speaker was Boss Han of the Cao Gang.
The Cao Gang was indeed a juggernaut, dominating many docks in the North. Wherever rivers flowed, disciples of the Cao Gang could be found, and they had many sub-halls.
The Cao Gangs in the North, the Pai Sect in the South, and the Four Seas Gang by the sea—everyone who lived off the water was basically connected to them.
Xianyang’s Cao Gang was just one of its smaller branches.
Nevertheless, Boss Han’s status was truly extraordinary, and he himself was a Force Transformation master on par with Zhou Pan.
It was indeed the involvent of the Cao Gang and the Taixing Carriage Shop that made Zhou Pan wary, sparking the idea to condense his power and preserve his strength.
Seeing Han Kun’s anger, Zhou Yuanshan imdiately sweated profusely. Just as he was about to explain, a series of aged coughs ca from behind.
"Boss Han, it is not that I am putting on airs."
An elderly man slowly stepped out from the side door of the main hall—it was Zhou Pan.
His face was worn, his hair and beard white, seemingly aged a lot in just a short ti.
"I am embarrassed in front of you all."
Seeing the astonished looks from the crowd, Zhou Pan laughed self-deprecatingly, "I was just handling so family matters. It’s one thing for my disciple not to show up, but even my own family, they are causing a stir wanting to split the family assets—truly laughable."
Many present were household heads themselves.
If you’re not the head, you wouldn’t understand the costliness of daily necessities.
And once you are the head, you realize that daily necessities are the least of your concerns; it’s the discord among people that truly troubles you.
Reminiscing Zhou Pan’s past dominance, the crowd couldn’t help but feel uneasy, realizing how difficult life in the pugilistic world could be, and wondering when it might be their turn.
Zhou Pan seed to have lost his spirit, bowed with his fists clasped, and said hoarsely, "In my life, I have been combative and made few friends, but many enemies. Only now do I realize that everything is fate, and nothing is under our control."
"If I have offended anyone in the past, I hope you can forgive ."
Seeing that everyone remained silent, he laughed dryly and shook his head, "I am tired now, I want to return ho and be a simple farr. Let’s settle any feuds we have today."
"Alive or dead, let all grievances dissolve!"
After saying this, he looked to the side and nodded.
A bronze basin had already been prepared there, its stand was made of fine sandalwood and the basin itself was a high-quality item, glittering gold and engraved with five bats, filled halfway with clean water.
Zhou Yuanshan lit three sticks of incense, bowed thrice to the Ancestor’s portrait in the main hall, and then placed them in the incense burner.
The Cao Gang, Taixing Carriage Shop, and various martial arts schools led by the Zhang Family, had all made prior arrangents and naturally would not make things difficult.
The household heads nodded and imdiately, a disciple ca forward with a red ribbon, tying it on the fra beneath the basin, signifying no objections.
After the three sticks of incense had burned out, and no one raised objections, they could begin the gold basin washing ceremony to officially retire from the pugilistic world.
"So things really need to be discussed!"
Luo Shihai slamd his teacup down forcefully, his voice cold, "Don’t play the pity card here, old monkey. When you were flaunting your power, you didn’t think of these things!"
Zhou Pan seed to have anticipated this, he bent down and clasped his fists, "Brother Luo, I have wronged you in the past. Bring him up!"
As soon as he finished talking, two disciples dragged a person onto the main hall.
He was a handso middle-aged man, clearly once a talented individual, but now his eyes were puffy, his face showing the exhaustion of indulgence and full of terror, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing nonstop, "Uncle, please spare , please spare !"
Zhou Pan sighed, "When a family grows large, many things are beyond one’s control. When my mother was still alive, with her orders, I had no choice but to offend Brother Luo."
"Zhou Luohai has also committed so cris, and I have already reported it to the officials. The arrest officer is here today and will take him away. It will likely end with a late autumn execution."
"Brother Luo, are you satisfied?"
"Ha!"
Luo Shihai was far from satisfied, scoffing, "You old thing, you really know how to sacrifice your kin for righteousness. What took you so long?"
Despite his words, he had no grounds to cause further trouble, and he angrily glanced at Zhou Pan and let his disciple tie a red ribbon.
Zhou Pan’s expression remained calm as he addressed the crowd:
"Does anyone else want to resolve their feuds?"
He might have lost everything, but since he was retiring, he wouldn’t be unprepared, having secretly contacted various parties and made many concessions beforehand.
The only tricky one, Luo Shihai, also had a strategy.
Once the retirent ceremony was over, he would leave Xianyang imdiately.
But just as he was feeling smug, Li Yan slowly stood up.
"Oh?"
Zhou Pan’s expression darkened, "Young man, others are reasonable, but you crippled my Zhou family disciple. We are the ones who have a grievance with you!"
"Resolving feuds is not done this way..."
Li Yan, expressionless, stepped into the hall and asked bluntly, "I just want to know, was my father’s death related to you?"
Zhou Pan shook his head, "Your father died without honor. If I had the chance, I would rather have defeated him honorably."
"What an ’honorable’ way!"
Li Yan’s eyes glead murderously, "Anqing Hall, Lu Gongyuan, don’t tell you forgot, Zhou!"
Hearing this, Zhou Pan’s expression imdiately changed...
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