Chapter 71: Reunion

This is no place to talk. Follow me.

Yao Yumen led us to a secluded corner, completely sheltered by rocks in every direction.

Once we stopped, I immediately asked, "That sworn father of Brother Jian, who they said is named Xie Qirong—is this person a man or a woman? Where is he from? Why does everyone seem so terrified of him?"

Sister Hong frowned and said, "The Changchun Society encompasses all sorts of underworld figures from every walk of life, and among them are plenty of capable desperadoes. The modern Changchun Society is not as peaceful as it looks on the surface. Since the late nineteen-nineties, it has gradually split into the Old Faction and the Young Faction."

"The woman who used white owls and small caliber pistols to control people before belonged to the Young Faction, while Little Braid's gang belongs to the Old Faction. There used to be a rumor in the underworld that Xie Qirong slaughtered the entire family of a descendant of Swallow Li San back in the day, and defiled his wife and daughters. Coincidentally, the Meteoric King of Beiping, Shao Yuan, is also a descendant of the Swallow Li San lineage."

"And then? Did this Shao Yuan avenge his fellow sect members?" I asked.

Sister Hong shook her head. "Later, Shao Yuan was defeated by Xie Qirong, who had both of his eyeballs gouged out. Overnight, he went from a martial arts hero in Beiping who could leap over roofs and vault over walls to a completely blind man!"

"To deal with Xie Qirong, the leader of the Changchun Society later dispatched seven top masters, and only then was the sect purged of him."

"That was more than a dozen years ago. I never expected... this man is still alive." Sister Hong sighed, shaking her head.

Yao Yumen glanced at Sister Hong and nodded. "You know quite a lot. It seems you have collected no small amount of intelligence regarding the Changchun Society."

Sister Hong clenched her fists, then slowly relaxed them.

"Let's put this aside for now." Yao Yumen whistled, summoning a Tibetan macaque.

She pulled a circular pendant from her bosom and hung it around the monkey's neck.

"The plan has changed. We need to meet up earlier. Take us to see them."

The macaque sniffed the spherical pendant with its nose, let out a squeak, and immediately bounded away.

We followed the macaque through numerous twists and turns for a long time until we finally arrived in front of a mountain cave.

Suddenly, another macaque jumped out from somewhere. Upon closer inspection, I noticed this one also had the exact same small spherical pendant hanging around its neck.

With the circular pendants swinging from their necks, the two macaques entered the cave together.

Less than five minutes passed.

Judging that enough time had elapsed, Yao Yumen stood outside the cave entrance and chanted, "When cutting the twist, there is a fierce tiger; when reversing the twist, there is an azure dragon; with the sunny twist, there is flowing water; with the secret twist, there is Qi and Liu."

Shortly thereafter, footsteps echoed from within the cave. A middle-aged man walked out holding a torch in one hand. His skin was very fair with well-defined facial features, but a large scald scar covered the left side of his face. The macaque with the spherical pendant around its neck followed closely behind him like a servant.

Yao Yumen gave a slight bow and said, "Yao Yumen of the Northern Faction. On behalf of my uncle Yao Wenzhong, I bring greetings to the Qi and Liu family."

The middle-aged man nodded with a smile and said, "There is no need for such formalities, Miss. Just call me Liu Yushan."

Yao Yumen shook her head. "Generational ranks cannot be disordered. Since you put it that way, I will boldly address you as Brother Liu."

The middle-aged man smiled and nodded, offering no objection.

It was only later that I came to understand why Sister Yu held this man in such high regard.

Back in the day, the Qi and Liu family of Jiuhe and Tianjin was a prominent clan, and their descendants had long since stopped performing street monkey acts or selling martial arts arts on the streets. In 1942, Henan suffered a severe drought, followed immediately by a plague of locusts. Millions of people were affected, with eastern Henan, south-central Henan, Zhumadian, and Xiping being the hardest hit.

The head of the Qi and Liu family at the time was Liu Yuan. He held a high-ranking position within the Changchun Society and was a prominent, influential figure in the underworld whom everyone addressed respectfully as Master Liu.

Upon rushing to Henan and witnessing starving refugees everywhere, Liu Yuan was deeply heartbroken and wept bitterly.

The Liu family emptied the wealth accumulated by their clan over more than a hundred years, using every last coin to buy grain for the disaster victims, yet it still proved to be merely a drop in the bucket.

Thus led to the famous incident known as the "Grey and Yellow Grain Barn Raid."

In the winter of 1942, on the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, a bizarre event occurred. This incident, along with the later resurrection of the cat-faced old lady in Harbin and the ghost haunting in Lizhivan, Guangzhou, was recorded among the top ten bizarre anomalies. According to eyewitnesses, countless large rats and yellow weasels—numbering in the tens of millions—appeared on the streets that night.

These rats and weasels moved in massive packs, coming and going throughout the night, completely emptying the local military granaries of the Japanese invaders overnight. The rats and weasels carried the stolen grain in their mouths and distributed it to the refugees, saving countless lives with those rations.

When the Japanese devils investigated and ultimately discovered that Liu Yuan of the Tianjin Liu family had orchestrated the affair, the Liu family suffered a catastrophic disaster. Not only did they lose their ancestral home, but many of their members were also executed by firing squad. The righteous Liu Yuan met his death heroically. This was the Grey and Yellow Grain Barn Raid that took place in Henan in '42.

To this day, a Rat Immortal Temple is still preserved in a large mountain west of Zhumadian. Throughout history, building a temple specifically for rats is a singular, unprecedented occurrence.

Ever since then, although the Tianjin Qi and Liu family declined, they have always commanded deep respect in both the underworld and legitimate circles. Naturally, I also held deep reverence for the heroic feats of these people back then.

Upon entering the cave, Liu Yushan inserted the torch into a crevice in the wall and invited us to sit down and talk.

"Brother Liu, according to the plan, we weren't supposed to meet for a few more days. But because of what happened to Yunfeng and Chen Hong, we cannot wait any longer. Where are the Boss and those other two?" Yao Yumen glanced around.

Liu Yushan pointed backward. "Look, aren't they here?"

"Boss!" A total of three people walked in. Catching sight of the elderly man in the lead, I instantly leaped up from the ground and cried out in astonishment.

The old man was dressed entirely in black. Though his temples were tinged with gray, his eyes were bright and full of spirit—it was none other than Boss Wang.

"Yunfeng, it's been a few months, hasn't it?" Boss Wang walked over and patted my shoulder with a smile.

"Wang Xiansheng, is this the young man you mentioned?"

I looked back. The person speaking was clad in utter rags, his clothes looking as though they hadn't been washed in years, coated with a shiny, dark layer of grime. His hair was as messy as a bird's nest, covering half of one eye. With this outfit, he looked precisely like a beggar. Yet his gaze was exceptionally bright and pure, resembling that of an infant.

Yao Yumen bowed deeply and saluted the beggar, saying, "Master Liu."

The other helper Boss Wang had brought along was quite elderly, about the same height as Sister Hong. Dressed in black with a full head of white hair and a face covered in age spots, he stood there hunched over while carrying a dark blue cloth bag, giving off a lifeless, deathly aura.

"Yunfeng, this is Master Zhao from western Hunan," Boss Wang introduced.

My heart shuddered. I knew this gentleman was the corpse-driver from western Hunan hired by Boss Wang; no wonder he exuded such an aura of death. I hurriedly lowered my head and respectfully called out, "Master Zhao."

The hunchbacked old man narrowed his eyes, glanced at me, and said nothing.

Boss Wang coughed and said, "Yunfeng, Xiao Hong, do you regret it now? Do you regret not listening to my advice back then?"

"Especially you, Yunfeng. You even teamed up with Old Third to trick me into thinking you were going to Dongguan to have fun? What kind of fun did you have? How did you end up playing your way all the way down here?"

Sister Hong was too embarrassed to say a word. Remembering the suffering we endured down below, I grievance-strickenly poured my heart out: "We were wrong, Boss, we were wrong. We only wanted to find Second Brother."

Boss Wang patted my shoulder, looked at Sister Hong and me, and said, "The martial arts world is treacherous, Yunfeng, Xiao Hong. Consider this a lesson learned for the future."

Boss Wang narrowed his eyes. Staring at the flickering torchlight on the wall, he said in a solemn voice, "The Changchun Society is not someone to be trifled with, but Wang Xiansheng is no pushover either."

"Those who dare to touch my people—whether they are human or ghost..."

"Must give an accounting for it."