Through the discussion of the crowd, Li Mu roughly learned that the Beggar Gang had recently been suppressed by a rising force in Jianghu in the Northern Song Dynasty. Its branches in various provinces were raided and suffered heavy losses. That was a rare situation, because the Beggar Gang seldom participated in Jianghu disputes and had no connection with the government. Basically, it was in a state of playing its own game. There was no absolute interest dispute, so few people or forces would fight against such a faction.
Moreover, to Li Mu's surprise, the name of that faction was very familiar to him.
The Bloody-moon Faction.
That surprised Li Mu a lot.
The first faction he knew when he came to that world was the Bloody-moon Faction.
On that stormy night, the Bloody-moon Faction inexplicably sent masters to hunt down Li Mu in that world. As a result, they met Li Mu in the Earth by accident. Under the Zhenwu Boxing that Li Mu had practiced for more than ten years, those masters were KO'd. Later, in Taibai County, some Bloody-moon Faction members were also killed by Li Mu in a fit of rage. Later, the Bloody-moon Evil Master, the Grand Master of the Bloody-moon Faction, challenged Li Mu in a tough way. But he was so frightened by Li Mu's amazing achievements that he postponed the date of the contest, which made him a laughingstock in the Western Qin Jianghu.
Recently, the Bloody-moon Faction had quieted down in the Western Qin.
Why did another Bloody-moon Faction appear in the Northern Song Dynasty?
Were they from the same faction?
Or was it a coincidence that they had the same name?
Li Mu was quite curious about it.
At that time, Divine Beggar, the Grand Master of the Beggar Gang on the stone platform, opened his mouth again and said, "Brothers, as you all know, these days, all the branches of our Beggar Gang have been raided by the Bloody-moon Faction. Our brothers suffered heavy losses. A few days ago, I was also ambushed and almost killed. Our Beggar Gang has always stood aloof from worldly affairs. But now, we have been attacked again and again. It is clear that they want to destroy our Beggar Gang.
His words aroused the tens of thousands of Beggar Clan disciples on the rocky beach to shout with righteous indignation.
Divine Beggar continued, "There's a question, but I don't know whether you've thought about it or not. Every branch of our Beggar Gang is guarded by masters. After the previous sneak attacks, we rearranged our men and strengthened our vigilance. But why did the Bloody-moon Faction always succeed? We've set up several ambushes, but none of them worked. On the contrary, this time, when I personally led the masters of our Beggar Gang to ambush the Bloody-moon Faction at the Heaven Gate branch, we were caught off guard by the Bloody-moon Faction, which led to the death of several old brothers of our Beggar Gang. The Bloody-moon Faction knows our every move like the palm of their hand. Why?"
There was a commotion all around.
Tens of thousands of people were making a racket. It was chaotic and disorderly.
Wang Shiyu whispered, "Could there be a traitor?"
Lu Changfu, who was standing beside her, turned around and said, "Don't talk nonsense. The disciples of our Beggar Gang are all poor people who have fallen to the other side of the world. We're all in the same boat. How could there be a traitor? It's impossible …"
To everyone's surprise, before he could finish, Divine Beggar on the stone platform continued, "This question has been bothering me for months. Now, I finally have the answer. It turns out that there are some heartless traitors and spies in our Beggar Gang. They betrayed our brothers for their own interests. Do you think we can tolerate such a thing?"
Instantly, uncontrollable cries of alarm rose from the rocky beach.
A stone stirred up a thousand ripples.
The expression on Lu Changfu's face instantly froze.
In the midst of all kinds of angry comments around him, his swarthy face looked extremely shocked. He also found it hard to accept the truth. "How could there be traitors in the Beggar Gang? We're all good brothers!"
Seeing his expression, Wang Shiyu couldn't bear to see him like this.
Li Mu also shook his head.
Wang Shiyu once said that Lu Changfu was an honest man. Now it seemed that she was not lying at all. Not only was he honest, but he was also a little idealistic. Such a large gang had tens of millions of Beggar Gang members in the Northern Song, and tens of thousands of core masters. As the saying went, the more people there were, the more mouths there were. How could they all be good?
Divine Beggar continued, "It's sad that there are traitors in our gang. But fortunately, there are many loyal and resourceful people. Just last night, a hero with both wisdom and courage stepped forward and caught a member of the Bloody-moon Faction alive. It was an altar master of the Bloody-moon Faction. After interrogating him overnight, he finally helped us find out the traitor. Guys, do you think we should reward such a hero?"
"Of course we should."
"Our Beggar Gang has never been short of good men."
"That's right. Who is the hero? Come out and show us!"
"Haha, I guess it must be Brother Li Yuntao!"
There was a hubbub around, and the crowd was excited.
For the people of the Beggar Gang, they had suffered a series of sudden changes these days and suffered heavy losses. Their Grand Master was almost killed. It was indeed a case of continuous rain when it rains. Now, finally, there was a piece of good news. Everyone was very excited and their morale soared.
Lu Changfu also looked excited. He said, "The black sheep must be a minority. Most of the people in our Beggar Gang are generous men. Haha, I guess it must be Li Yuntao. Among the new generation of masters in the Beggar Gang, the one with both wisdom and courage must be this guy!"
"Is he the Hero Li Yuntao nicknamed 'Dragon Palm'?" Wang Shiyu also asked with great interest.
"Of course." Lu Changfu said excitedly.
Wang Shiyu introduced Li Yuntao to Li Mu in a low voice. It turned out that Li Yuntao was a rising star in the Beggar Gang in the past ten years. He was known for his palm technique and claimed to be the best in the Beggar Gang. He ranked third on the Earth Ranking in the Northern Song Dynasty. Moreover, he was chivalrous and straightforward. He was an upright man with both wisdom and courage. He was very prestigious in the Beggar Gang and was highly valued by the Grand Master, Divine Beggar. At a young age, he was already one of the Grand Elders of the Beggar Gang. Many people regarded him as the successor of the next Grand Master of the Beggar Gang.
Li Mu listened without saying a word.
He didn't know much about the Beggar Gang, but he had heard of the Heaven, Earth and Human Rankings in the Northern Song Dynasty.
For example, Huang Youlong, the former head of the Heavenly Waterside Citadel, was one of the top five masters on the Heaven Ranking. The so-called Heaven Ranking referred to the overall strength ranking of the entire Wulin in the Northern Song Dynasty. The Earth Ranking was the ranking of those martial arts masters who had been famous for more than ten years but were less than 50 years old. As for the Human Ranking, it was the ranking of the rookies in Jianghu under the age of 30, also known as the Hidden Dragon List.
The Heaven Ranking, the Heaven Ranking, and the Human Ranking were quite authoritative in the Northern Song.
At that time, on the stone platform, Divine Beggar, the Grand Master, said again, "I know you must be very eager to know this hero … Come on up."
Light swirled.
A figure appeared on the fighting ring.
It was a handsome young man in a purple robe. He was tall and slender, and his face was as white as jade. He opened the folding fan in his hand with a snap. On the fan, there were four big characters, "I am invincible", written in a domineering and vigorous style. He looked very pretentious. He fanned himself a few times in front of his chest and then smiled. He cupped his hands in front of his chest in a seemingly humble but actually quite arrogant manner. Then, he said, "Greetings, old brothers."
"Huh?"
"Is this Li Yuntao, the Dragon Palm?"
"It's different from what Li Mu imagined. Instead of a rough man, it's a fair-faced young man?"
"How come it's him?" Lu Changfu was dumbfounded.
The impassioned chatter around also came to an abrupt end the moment the fair-faced young man showed up. It was as if hundreds of quarreling ducks were suddenly strangled. Many experts and disciples of the Beggar Gang looked surprised, as if they had just lifted the veil on their wedding night and found the bride was not their sweetheart.
Wang Shiyu was also very surprised.
Li Mu looked at her.
Wang Shiyu explained. It turned out that the pale-faced scholar was not Li Yuntao, the Dragon Palm that everyone had been talking about and looking forward to. Instead, he was Liang Zhi, the last disciple newly accepted by Divine Beggar, Grand Master, half a year ago.
Liang Zhi had only joined the Beggar Gang for half a year, but he had risen very fast. Now, he was already the Grand Elder of the External Affairs Department. But because he was a bit overbearing, mysterious, and rather feminine in daily life, and because he was a disciple of the Beggar Gang, he was not accepted by most of the disciples.
On the platform, Divine Beggar, the Grand Master of the Beggar Gang, seemed not to notice the reaction of the crowd. He shouted, "This time, thanks to Liang Zhi, we can foil the Bloody-moon Faction's plot and catch one alive. Liang Zhi has made a great contribution. Guards, bring Ma Xun, the Altar Master of the Bloody-moon Faction."
Immediately, two Celestial Beings of the Beggar Sect escorted a badly mutilated man to the stone platform.
After a while, many disciples of the Beggar Gang confirmed that the bloody figure was indeed Ma Xun, the Flowing Wind Swordsman, the expert of the Bloody-moon Faction who had launched several sneak attacks on other branches of the Beggar Gang. More than a thousand disciples and experts of the Beggar Gang had died under his sword, including three branch leaders.
For a moment, many experts of the Beggar Gang stared at Ma Xun with fire in their eyes, wishing they could skin him and eat his flesh.
Ma Xun's body was covered with all kinds of sealing tools and torture marks. He was really miserable. He lowered his head, listless, and did not say a word.
"God bless our Beggar Gang. After Liang Zhi's interrogation, we finally dug out the mole from this thief's mouth and captured him … Guards, bring him here." Divine Beggar shouted.
A burly man in his thirties was brought forward. His aura was weak and there were no fluctuations of energy. It was obvious that his cultivation method had been broken and he had become a cripple. However, his expression was firm and sharp. He looked like an eagle that had fallen into the hands of a hunter. Although his wings had been cut off, he was still arrogant and unruly.
"What?"
"That's impossible …"
Uncontrollable exclamations rose from the crowd.
Lu Changfu jumped to his feet and shouted, "That's impossible!"
From the various exclamations and discussions around him, Li Mu learned that the man whose cultivation had been abolished was actually Li Yuntao, the Dragon Palm who was wise, brave, and unparalleled chivalrous in the eyes of the crowd.
Obviously, the experts of the Beggar Gang could not accept that their hero, the perfect successor to the Grand Master, turned out to be a traitor.
It was chaos on the rocky beach.
Li Mu's interest was finally aroused.
"That's interesting."
"The hero has turned into a mole?"
"Is he going to turn the tables?"
"This burly man named Li Yuntao doesn't look like a bad guy. But the world never lacks the lesson of judging a book by its cover …" Li Mu actually did not care much about those Jianghu affairs. But when he saw that scene, his interest was aroused. He had covered the entire rocky beach with his spiritual force, searching for the aura of Zuo Luyi, the old beggar.
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