Chapter 356: Qingyan Hall

Li Banfeng opened the crates and released all the children. He then hired a coal cart from nearby and loaded them onto it.

He pulled down the brim of his hat and drove the cart forward. Luo Zhengnan also lowered the brim of his army cap and walked behind the cart.

He felt very happy because his revenge was complete.

Although Xiao Zhenggong, the mastermind, was still alive, killing him wasn't something that could be done overnight. Having killed Pei Yikou, at least the immediate anger had been released.

It felt good to work with Li Qi.

If it had been anyone else, taking revenge would have dragged on for at least six months to a year, or even ten years, until the matter simply fizzled out.

But driving a cart full of children through the streets, wasn't that a bit too conspicuous?

Luo Zhengnan asked Li Banfeng in a low voice, "Seventh Master, shouldn't we leave now?"

"No rush. Go call that old man at the street corner."

An old man stood at the street corner, anxiously peering in their direction.

His granddaughter was missing; of course, he was anxious. He had been searching all night.

He suspected his granddaughter was on the cart, but he didn't dare approach to look.

In Qingyan City, the Jiangxiang Gang often snatched people in broad daylight. If the old man dared to rush forward, he would be risking his life.

Luo Zhengnan invited the old man over. Li Banfeng pointed to the children on the cart and asked, "Which one is yours?"

The old man trembled for a few minutes, then stepped forward, embraced his granddaughter, thanked them, and turned to leave. Li Banfeng frowned and said, "Leaving already?"

The old man, scared, pulled out money from his pocket. He had just over eighty yuan, which he handed to Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng pushed the money back. "Who asked for your money? Can you drive a cart?"

"Yes."

"Is your voice loud?"

The old man paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's alright."

"Shout for me. As you drive the cart, shout: 'If you've lost a child, come here to find them!'"

The old man didn't understand.

Li Banfeng gave him two hundred-yuan banknotes. "Shout, shout with all your might!"

The old man, not understanding the situation, could only drive the cart forward, shouting as he went: "Whose child is missing? Come here to find them!"

Luo Zhengnan looked at Li Banfeng and whispered, "Seventh Master, are we...?"

"Don't worry, just follow along."

The two followed far behind the cart. Before long, people started coming to claim their children.

At first, they were scared, but seeing their own flesh and blood on the cart, they no longer cared about anything else. They rushed forward, hugged their children, and hurried home, crying as they ran.

More and more people came to claim children. Luo Zhengnan pointed to one person and said, "This person seems to be from the Jiangxiang Gang."

Luo Zhengnan didn't recognize all the Jiangxiang Gang members, but this person was wearing an army cap and his attire was very similar to theirs.

As he walked away, holding two children, Li Banfeng blocked his path. "Who are you?"

The man said, "I'm their father."

The two children were crying fiercely and struggling continuously. Luo Zhengnan looked at the man and asked, "Which branch are you from? State your name."

The man looked around, then lowered his voice and said, "Qingyan Hall, Third Branch. I don't know what happened tonight..."

Li Banfeng slit his throat.

Still daring to come here looking for business?

Good that you came; it saves me the trouble of finding you one by one.

Before long, all the children were claimed by their families. Li Banfeng asked Luo Zhengnan, "Where is the main hall?"

"The main hall is on the next street."

"Are you familiar with all the branch offices?"

Luo Zhengnan paused for a moment and said, "Not one left?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "Not one left."

Luo Zhengnan led Li Banfeng to the nearest branch office. It was a two-story building, where several Jiangxiang Gang disciples were packing two children into crates.

These two children had just been kidnapped, and they didn't want to keep them. They were anxious to hand them over to the hall master.

"Move faster!" the branch master shouted from the stairs. "The hall master is leaving soon, and you'll miss the train."

Li Banfeng said, "If you miss this one, you can catch the next one."

"What do you know? This is the last one tonight..." The branch master stared blankly at Li Banfeng, unaware of when someone had appeared beside him.

"Not tonight. This is your last trip in this lifetime, and you'll definitely make it." Li Banfeng grabbed the branch master's head and smashed it against the stair railing.

If he hadn't been worried about harming the two children, Li Banfeng would have used "Trample Thousands of Rivers" to stomp once and take care of everyone in the room.

All the members in the branch office froze. Luo Zhengnan entered, picked up the two children, and went out. He knew when to do what.

All the Jiangxiang Gang members stared at Luo Zhengnan.

Luo Zhengnan even greeted them: "You guys go about your business. Don't mind me."

He closed the door and hadn't walked far with the children when the small building of the branch office collapsed.

Li Banfeng dusted himself off and walked over to Luo Zhengnan. "Take these two children back, then we'll go to the next branch office."

Qingyan City truly had many branch offices.

Luo Zhengnan said, "Pei Yuzeng did a lot for Xiao Zhenggong and was highly valued by him. With Jianren Gang's backing, the main hall has grown larger and larger over the years, with a total of ten branch offices under its command."

Li Banfeng said, "Such a large main hall, still relying on child trafficking for a living?"

Luo Zhengnan shook his head. "Child trafficking alone can't support so many people. Pei Yuzeng also has a lot of business at the mines. He kidnapped children not just for money."

Li Banfeng understood the reason. "It must be to please Jianren Gang, wouldn't you agree?"

Luo Zhengnan was about to answer when he saw Li Banfeng pat the face of the Fourth Branch Master. "I'm asking you. Does what I just said make sense?"

The branch master nodded repeatedly.

Li Banfeng ended his misery by slitting his throat.

As dawn approached, Li Banfeng and Luo Zhengnan arrived at the main hall. The Qingyan Hall members knew something had happened to their hall master. They had heard about the mangled bodies in the warehouse and seen the kidnapped children being returned.

But they didn't know the full reason behind it.

They tried to contact the various branch offices but found only ruins and corpses within them.

They wanted to contact Xiao Zhenggong, but all the gang members skilled in using hooks were gone.

When they saw Luo Zhengnan, they seemed to understand something.

A few people in the main hall knew the inside story. They looked at Luo Zhengnan and said, "Hall Master Luo, this has nothing to do with us. This is a matter between our hall master and the gang leader. Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. Please don't make trouble for us!"

Luo Zhengnan smiled. "Brothers, what are you saying? Pei Yuzeng is already dead. Why would I trouble you?

I'm not here for you. I just came to help you close the main gate."

With that, Luo Zhengnan closed the front door.

A group of people ran towards the back door.

Luo Zhengnan warned them, "Don't go to the back door."

Those who ran towards the back door found their bodies propelled outside, but their heads all remained in the backyard.

The remaining few rushed up the stairs. Luo Zhengnan warned again, "Don't go upstairs either."

The disciples who rushed upstairs found their bodies remaining upstairs, but their heads remained downstairs.

The Jiangxiang Gang was a second-rate gang. Its hall master only had a five-tier cultivation level, so how strong could his subordinates be?

They couldn't even see Li Banfeng's appearance; in the blink of an eye, they were all dispatched.

Blood seeped from under the door cracks. Luo Zhengnan sat in the main hall's courtyard and covered the child's eyes.

This child was found in the main hall, likely just acquired and not yet sent to the warehouse.

Li Banfeng walked out of the room, wiped his hands with a handkerchief, looked at the child, and asked Luo Zhengnan, "Ask him where he lives."

"I just asked. The child is too young and can't explain clearly."

Li Banfeng suggested going to the Commissioner of Border Defense. Luo Zhengnan shook his head. "Seventh Master, the Commissioner doesn't handle such matters."

"Why wouldn't they? They take so much money for nothing every year. Let's take the child there and try."

Luo Zhengnan disguised himself slightly and took the child to the Commissioner's Office. He waited in the hall for an hour, asking dozens of people, but no one paid him any attention.

Finally, someone asked him a few questions, and every word stung his heart.

"Is this child yours?"

Luo Zhengnan shook his head. "No."

"If he's not your child, why are you holding him? Are you a child trafficker?"

"I saw the child was lost, so I brought him here."

"How do you know the child is lost? How do you know the child isn't just out playing? You look like a child trafficker to me!"

"Officer, have you ever seen a child this young playing outside in the middle of the night?"

"What haven't I seen? Some children just like to do that. Do you have any evidence to say they're lost? If you can't provide evidence, I'll say you're a child trafficker!"

This was a damn contrarian.

Luo Zhengnan left the Commissioner's Office with the child and said to Li Banfeng, "Seventh Master, I just..."

Li Banfeng waved his hand. "No need to say more, I heard it all."

Luo Zhengnan wasn't angry; he had seen such things many times.

Li Banfeng's hat brim was pulled very low, making it impossible to tell if he was angry.

He picked up the child, found a rickshaw puller, and handed him two hundred Huanguo notes. "My surname is En, and my name is Engong. I found a lost child by the roadside. Can you find a way to help me take him home?"

The rickshaw puller listened as the child mumbled a few words, guessed roughly where he lived, and in less than an hour, found the child's parents.

The child's parents thanked the rickshaw puller profusely. The rickshaw puller waved his hand and said, "Don't thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank those two gentlemen."

Which two gentlemen?

Li Banfeng and Luo Zhengnan had already disappeared.

The rickshaw puller said to the couple, "That gentleman said his name was Engong. I don't know if that's his real name."

"Engong?" Xiao Zhenggong's cheek twitched. "Engong destroyed Qingyan Hall?"

"My subordinate investigated, and that person claimed to be Engong." The messenger was Song Yuwei, the hall master of Haichiling Hall. He had gone to visit Pei Yuzeng but only found corpses and ruins.

Xiao Zhenggong gritted his teeth. "Isn't Engong He Jiaqing?"

Previously, Li Banfeng had called himself Engong at Jianren Gang, and the Sage had already determined that Engong was He Jiaqing.

After dismissing Song Yuwei, the white clothes hanging on the clothes rack said to Xiao Zhenggong, "Senior Brother Xiao, this matter has now fallen on you. Will you handle it or not?"

Xiao Zhenggong bit on his cigarette, pondering for a moment. "Is He Jiaqing still in Waizhou or in Puoluo Prefecture?"

The white clothes also seemed perplexed. "Perhaps he didn't do this with Qingyan Hall himself; he might have ordered his subordinates to do it."

Xiao Zhenggong took the white clothes off the hanger, tossed them onto the back seat of the car, and drove to Yuezhao Third Hospital.

He Jiaqing, dressed in a suit and disguised as He Haisheng, was in a hospital room feeding He Haisheng a cigarette. "Third Uncle, just this one. The doctor will be making rounds soon, and we can't smoke in front of him."

He Haisheng exhaled a puff of smoke. The smoke swirled and quickly drifted from the hospital room towards the elevator entrance.

He Jiaqing froze, then rubbed his scalp.

His perception had recently declined. He needed to properly moderate this 'borrowing popularity' ability.

"Third Uncle, lie still." He Jiaqing felt around He Haisheng's body for a moment, then put the remaining half of the cigarette into his own mouth.