Chapter 133: The Intelligence of a Simp

“Uncle Lu!” Tofu’s face lit up with delight.

“Tofu, are you all right?” Lu Yan asked.

“Uncle Lu, I’m fine, but my father’s leg seems to be broken. Will he be unable to walk in the future?”

Tofu spoke anxiously. When he reached the part that worried him most, his voice choked up, and tears welled in his eyes.

“Did he do this?” Lu Yan asked, pointing at the burly man.

Tofu nodded repeatedly.

By then, the burly man had recovered from his shock. When he looked at Lu Yan, a trace of fear flashed through his eyes.

Clearly, Lu Yan’s strength far surpassed his own.

But when he saw the two men standing nearby in purple robes, with sharp-sword emblems embroidered along their collars and cuffs, his courage immediately returned.

Lu Yan had held back earlier precisely because he had noticed those two men. He had merely slapped the burly man once to teach him a lesson instead of dealing him a serious blow.

They were Martial Constables.

They were the Zhao Clan’s force for maintaining order, similar to the Liu Clan’s Red-Robed Guards and the Li Clan’s Hundred Herbs Guards.

Their title, however, had not been changed. It had been inherited from the Great Chu Dynasty.

At the height of the Great Chu Dynasty, every city had constables composed of martial artists. They were also known as Martial Constables.

“You are the Martial Marquis living in this household?” the burly man demanded, glaring at Lu Yan with resentment.

“That’s right.”

Lu Yan nodded, his brows drawing together slightly. He had no idea what was going on.

This man had come to his door for no apparent reason and had even brought Martial Constables with him. What had happened?

He had done nothing lately.

Moreover, in his current identity, he had not offended anyone.

“Then that settles it. Honored Martial Constables, this is the man who killed my junior sister!” the burly man shouted, pointing at Lu Yan.

The two Martial Constables also turned solemn and slowly approached Lu Yan.

“Everyone, is there some misunderstanding here?” Lu Yan asked, frowning. He looked at the burly man. “Who is your junior sister?”

“My junior sister’s name was Lin Qiuyu. She lived in the room next to yours. I came to see her today, only to discover that she had been killed inside her room. Her clothes were torn, and her death was horrific.”

The burly man ground his teeth, his hatred surging. His face twisted slightly, and his eyes reddened.

“The room next door? That seductive woman is dead?”

Lu Yan was stunned, completely caught off guard.

She had been perfectly fine when he encountered her a few days ago. Had she gone too far and provoked someone she could not afford to offend?

But that woman had been a Fourth-Level Martial Marquis. Killing her would not have been easy.

“Even if we lived close to one another, the fact that your junior sister is dead does not prove that I killed her,” Lu Yan said.

“My junior sister’s cultivation was not weak. She was a Second-Level Martial Marquis. Killing her would not have been simple; the killer must have been stronger than her. And you are extremely powerful, fully capable of killing my junior sister.”

The burly man spoke with hatred.

“A Second-Level Martial Marquis? Not a Fourth-Level one?”

Lu Yan was puzzled.

Perhaps no one knew that the woman cultivated the unorthodox art of harvesting yang to replenish yin. Its progress was astonishingly rapid, so she had concealed her true cultivation before others.

That was Lu Yan’s guess.

“You say I am powerful, so I must be the one who killed your junior sister? What kind of logic is that? Dragon King City is full of experts. Does that mean every one of them is a suspect?”

Lu Yan sneered.

At that moment, one of the Martial Constables produced a garment.

“Is this yours?”

“This garment was found in your bedroom. Don’t even think about denying it,” the burly man shouted.

Lu Yan nodded. “It is mine.”

The Martial Constable then took out a small strip of cloth and said, “This strip was found inside the victim’s room. There happens to be a missing piece from the sleeve of your garment, and the two pieces match perfectly.”

“You entered the victim’s room and clashed with her. You even exchanged blows. What else do you have to say?”

Lu Yan fell silent.

That night, he had exchanged two moves with the seductive woman, and she had torn off a small piece of his sleeve. He had changed clothes the next day, but the garment he removed had remained in his bedroom.

He had never attached much importance to the matter.

He had never imagined that the seductive woman would suddenly die, murdered inside her own room.

Nor had he expected that the strip of cloth would become evidence.

“You have nothing left to say, do you? Tell me, why did you kill my junior sister? Did you see her beauty and try to violate her? Speak!”

The burly man roared.

Clearly, his feelings for his junior sister were not ordinary. They went beyond the relationship between fellow disciples.

That was understandable. Who could see such a bewitching beauty and feel nothing?

“More than ten days ago, I did enter her room and exchange blows with her. But after only a few moves, I withdrew. I did not kill her,” Lu Yan said.

“The evidence is conclusive, yet you still want to deny it!” the burly man roared. “Besides, my junior sister had never known you. Why did you enter her room and fight with her? You obviously had ulterior motives.”

The two Martial Constables, as well as the surrounding onlookers, looked at Lu Yan with suspicion. Clearly, they did not believe his explanation.

You insist on making me say it.

Lu Yan sighed inwardly and said, “Because your junior sister cultivated an art that harvests yang to replenish yin. At night, she absorbed the blood essence and vital energy of men. That night, I heard strange noises and entered her room to investigate. I saw her drawing the blood essence and vital energy from a man. When she realized that I had discovered her secret, she attacked me. We exchanged a few blows, but she could do nothing to me. I had no desire to involve myself in other people’s affairs, so I left.”

“You’re talking nonsense! You’re slandering my junior sister! To protect yourself, you dare smear her reputation? How dare you insult the honor of a female Martial Marquis—you—”

The burly man nearly leaped into the air. His eyes bulged, bloodshot, and his face contorted with fury.

If he had not known perfectly well that he could not defeat Lu Yan, he would probably already have thrown himself at him in a desperate fight.

Lu Yan looked at him as though he were an idiot.

“Her goddess image has shattered, and he has lost his mind? What a hopeless bootlicker. He has become so irrational that even a dignified Martial Marquis has turned brainless.”

Lu Yan despised him inwardly.

Sure enough, every world was the same.

Once a man became a hopeless bootlicker, his brain shrank and his intelligence dropped to zero.

“Whether I am slandering her can be determined with a search. I believe I am not the only person who fell victim to your junior sister. Most of the bodies of those victims are probably still hidden inside that house, buried somewhere. A careful search will reveal the truth.”

The two Martial Constables exchanged doubtful looks.

The burly man, however, remained furious. He continued to curse Lu Yan for slandering his junior sister and refused to conduct an inspection.

Lu Yan could not be bothered with him. He strode toward the woman’s room.

The two Martial Constables exchanged a glance and followed him inside. The burly man had no choice but to enter as well.

In the seductive woman’s bedroom, Lu Yan saw her corpse.

She lay naked on the bed, covered by a white cloth. Her eyes were still wide open, and they seemed to hold an expression of disbelief.

There was a bloody hole between her brows.

She had been killed with a single strike.

The attacker had definitely been a Fifth-Level Martial Marquis.

Judging from the color of the corpse, she had not been dead for long—probably only a day or two.

“Wait. A day or two…”

Lu Yan immediately thought of the night before last, when he had returned and seen Zhao Hao rushing out of Lin Qiuyu’s room.

Could it have been him?

But Zhao Hao’s cultivation was only at the Second Level of the Martial Marquis realm. How could he have killed Lin Qiuyu?

Lin Qiuyu was a Fourth-Level Martial Marquis. Even if he had attacked her by surprise, it should have been impossible to kill her so cleanly with a single blow.

Looking around, Lu Yan saw almost no traces of a struggle.

The destructive power of Martial Marquises was astonishing. Once they fought, it was difficult for the surrounding buildings to remain intact.

“I live right next door. If I had killed her, why would I leave the corpse here instead of disposing of it? Why would I wait for someone else to discover it and even leave behind clothing as evidence?”

Lu Yan said.

“Who knows what you were thinking? Not everyone is as meticulous as you are,” the burly man sneered.

Lu Yan ignored him.

They began searching the room. Before long, Lu Yan noticed something unusual in the rear courtyard.

Although the soil there had been carefully disguised, close inspection revealed that it had been disturbed and freshly turned.

The two Martial Constables noticed it as well and immediately began digging.

Before long, a shriveled corpse was unearthed.

Limit-Breaking martial artists—especially those who had broken through their limits four or five times—possessed powerful bodies that decayed very slowly. Thus, even after being buried for some time, the corpse had not yet decomposed.

The burly man’s face turned as black as ink, his expression extremely gloomy, as if he had suffered a tremendous blow.

They continued digging.

Then they uncovered a second corpse, a third, and a fourth.

In the end, they unearthed five male corpses in total.

Their deaths had all been identical. Their bodies were shriveled, and two had already begun to rot, emitting waves of foul stench.

Everyone present had witnessed plenty of grisly scenes and paid it little attention.

“Honored Martial Constables, the evidence is right here. It is sufficient to prove that I was not lying,” Lu Yan said.

The two Martial Constables nodded.

“Even if my junior sister cultivated some sinister martial art, that does not prove you did not kill her. Perhaps you were the one who killed her after all,” the burly man said coldly.

“If you accuse me of murder, produce the evidence,” Lu Yan replied.

“Hmph.”

The burly man’s face darkened. But where could he find evidence? The garment from earlier was no longer enough to prove that Lu Yan had killed anyone.

“I will find the evidence sooner or later and avenge my junior sister,” the burly man said resentfully. With that, he turned and prepared to leave.

In his eyes, Lu Yan saw venom and hatred—far more intense than before.

In other words, by exposing Lin Qiuyu’s true nature, Lu Yan had caused this man to hate him even more.

With one step, Lu Yan appeared in front of the burly man and blocked his path.

“You slandered me, failed to produce any evidence, and now you want to walk away?”

Lu Yan’s voice was cold.

“What are you trying to do? The two Martial Constables are here. Do you dare touch me?”

The burly man retreated several steps in fright, shouting with a show of bravado that barely concealed his fear.

“Sir, killing one another is strictly prohibited within Dragon King City. Please do not make things difficult for us,” one of the Martial Constables said.

“A Martial Marquis cannot be insulted. If someone slandered the two of you like this, would you simply let it go? Could you swallow such an insult?”

Lu Yan asked.

The two Martial Constables fell silent. After a moment, one of them said, “Killing is forbidden within Dragon King City.”

The implication was clear: as long as no one was killed, anything else was permissible.

The burly man’s expression changed drastically. He sprang to the side, attempting to flee.

But a large hand reached toward his face.

The burly man was far weaker than Lin Qiuyu. He was only a First-Level Martial Marquis. How could he evade Lu Yan?

Lu Yan seized him by the face and lifted him into the air.

Crack! Crack!

Lu Yan kicked twice in succession, striking the man’s legs. The sound of breaking bones rang out.

Both of the burly man’s legs twisted grotesquely, the bones crushed to pieces. He convulsed in agony and struggled desperately, but it was utterly futile. In Lu Yan’s grasp, he was no different from a chick.

Still gripping him by the face, Lu Yan carried him out of the house.

The previous two chapters were held up for review today, delaying the release by several hours.

End of Chapter