Chapter 60 Tongfu tells stories, the third generation of Quanzhen disciples

"Why, did Black Stone come to you?" Li Ming asked curiously.

“Not this year.”

Magistrate Lou paused, then continued, "But it may be soon. To be honest with you, Master Li, Black Stone is more rampant than rumored. He is even so arrogant that newly appointed officials of the court have to pay tribute to him regularly, otherwise they will encounter disaster."

Speaking of this, County Magistrate Lou's face was full of bitter smile and worry.

"In the first three years of my tenure, I was repeatedly blackmailed by Heishi. Not only my colleagues in this county, but also those in nearby prefectures and counties were not able to escape. Anyone who disobeyed would be assassinated by Heishi. This matter has been reported to the higher authorities many times, but it has not been resolved."

“Black Rock may come again this year, but our county has already been drained of its wealth by them.”

Looking at the sad face of County Magistrate Lou, Li Ming nodded, probably understanding his difficulties.

The Black Stone is the cornerstone of darkness in the imperial court.

Li Ming simply didn't believe that they were just an ordinary underworld killer organization, as they were so arrogant that they made the imperial officials pay tribute to them regularly, and they had been at large for so long.

Considering the true identity of the Chakravartin, that he was just a small ninth-rank messenger in the palace, there was a 99% chance that the shadow of the Imperial Guards was behind the Black Stone, and what he did was tacitly approved by the court.

It would be strange if Magistrate Lou reported this to his higher authorities and received no response.

Li Ming could understand that County Magistrate Lou was short of money now.

Almost everyone in Qixia Town knew that County Magistrate Lou was a good official. He seldom accepted gifts, and his official career was not very profitable. He could not be said to be completely incorruptible, but he was certainly not that wealthy.

"Then Magistrate Lou wants to..."

Li Ming asked.

"This county has decided that if we receive threats from Black Stone again, we will return to our hometown in Lingnan to take shelter."

"It's just that after I leave, I don't feel comfortable handing over the affairs of this town to Captain Xing. I'm also worried that Black Stone's killer will get angry and cause trouble in the town. When that happens, I would like to ask Master Li to help me. I will definitely reward you handsomely."

Li Ming pondered for a moment and agreed.

With his growing fame and influence, in the eyes of martial artists, Qixia Town has become his sphere of influence.

If anyone causes trouble here, I will take care of it, regardless of whether they are from Black Stone or not.

However, when faced with this problem, County Magistrate Lou did not think of increasing efforts to collect money to supply Heishi, but instead ran thousands of miles back to Lingnan to avoid disaster, which surprised Li Ming very much.

This also shows that County Magistrate Lou is indeed a good official.

"Besides these, things are getting more and more chaotic outside now."

Magistrate Lou rubbed his temple and took out a stack of wanted documents issued from above.

"I heard that there have been many murders in the nearby prefectures. There is an evil monk from the Blood Knife Sect and a thief known as the Flower-Catching Bee. Look, there is also a woman here, nicknamed the Red Snake Fairy. She has risen rapidly recently and is bloodthirsty. She has committed many murders of families. She is not far from us..."

Magistrate Lou flipped through the pages and showed them to Li Ming.

"So our town is so peaceful now, all thanks to Master Li. Although Captain Xing is doing his job well, his martial arts skills... are not good enough to deal with these evil thieves, so Master Li needs more help..."

After a period of discussion, Li Ming left the county government.

In order to get Li Ming's help, Magistrate Lou promised him some benefits and told him that if the martial arts school needed any help, he could ask. Li Ming did not hesitate.

However, Li Ming was not really nervous. Although Heishi was powerful, according to Li Ming's estimation, the Chakravartin was at most at the Grandmaster level.

In the past few days, Li Ming has accepted the second batch of disciples selected by the Beggars' Sect.

Since they were picked by Elder Fa, their qualifications must be good.

Not only can he obtain attribute points from them by exchanging silver for the martial arts school's income, but he can also make a profit by practicing martial arts.

In addition, there is the hard work of his three direct disciples in practicing martial arts, as well as the income brought by the construction of the martial arts school.

Li Ming has accumulated a large amount of attribute points and should be able to break through to the Grandmaster level soon.

By then, there should be nothing to worry about for most of the Grandmasters in this known world of martial arts.

The only ones who could pose a threat to him are probably those geniuses in the same realm, the great masters who live in seclusion in the major forces, and the legendary celestial beings.

However, the news of his victory over Xuan Nan had spread recently, and it had indeed brought him a lot of troubles.

The martial arts school's business was naturally good. Most of the first batch of disciples it accepted were from wealthy families nearby.

But now, there are people who come from farther places with huge sums of money and take the trouble to become disciples.

But the motives of these people are not so pure, and many of them even have martial arts skills and want to infiltrate the martial arts school and wait for an opportunity.

More and more warriors gathered in the town. After Li Ming's last warning, no one dared to harass openly.

But they were still not honest and did a lot of tricks around the martial arts school.

With the addition of those warriors who came simply to join in the fun, Qixia Town has indeed become a lot more lively recently.

There were even more warriors who disliked each other and ended up fighting. The complexity of the matter was a bit annoying, which made Li Ming more determined to speed up the training of core disciples and expand the scale of the martial arts hall.

Li Ming thought about it and quickly returned to the martial arts hall.

As soon as I entered the door, I saw a group of disciples gathered together and whispering to each other. Even Lin Pingzhi, who usually didn't like the crowds, stood by and tiptoed to look inside.

"If you're not practicing, what are you looking at here?"

Li Ming's sudden appearance startled the disciples and they all stood up.

"Master, we are looking at the new issue of Jianghu Monthly, and your content is included in it!"

As he spoke, a disciple handed over the monthly report.

"Jianghu Monthly? Where did it come from?"

"Master Sister brought it from the inn."

As he spoke, Li Ming took the newspaper, but when he saw the words on it, his face suddenly looked a little strange.

"The Shaolin monk was defeated, the Beggars' Sect elder was murdered, this martial arts school has already shown its ferocious fangs!"

"How much blood and gore this ruthless and unscrupulous gym owner will bring to the martial arts world? Let's wait and see!"

"What the hell!"

Even Li Ming, who usually had a good temper, was almost laughed out loud by the contents of the Jianghu Monthly.

It turns out that I am playing a negative role in this Jianghu Monthly.

"Where's Mo Xiaobei? She's on break at the academy today, so I didn't see her... Qiu Xiaodong isn't here either."

"Big sister, she is busy with the Jianghu Monthly."

Yang Guo took over.

"The eldest sister said that there are more warriors coming and going in the town recently, and many of them want to eat at Tongfu Inn. Everyone must be interested in the interesting stories of the martial arts world. This is a big business opportunity."

"So the eldest sister asked someone to buy a few hundred copies of the latest issue of the Jianghu Monthly, and is now busy selling them to the Jianghu people in the inn. Because the business is so good, the eldest sister also asked Qiu Xiaodong to help."

When the disciples nearby heard this, they all sighed in admiration.

After all, she is the eldest sister. Her business acumen is not to be underestimated. She can even discover such a tricky business opportunity.

Yang Guo seemed very excited: "Master, you are described as so powerful in this Jianghu Monthly Report! It feels like our martial arts school is an evil force that disrupts the Jianghu. It's so cool."

"You're so handsome!"

Li Ming felt helpless upon hearing this and glared at the other disciples.

"What are you looking at? Go practice!"

The other disciples hurriedly dispersed.

Yang Guo wanted to escape, but Li Ming kept him, along with Lin Pingzhi, to check their martial arts progress...

Inside Tongfu Inn, the lobby was already full of guests, with no empty seats.

As a last resort, Tong Xiangyu even added a few tables.

Qiu Xiaodong was standing by, hawking the new issue of Jianghu Monthly.

Mo Xiaobei simply set up a table in the inn, took a wake-up stick, and began to read books to the guests in the inn in a serious manner.

The content of the storytelling was exactly Li Ming's several battle achievements.

When Mo Xiaobei added fuel to the fire and described in vivid detail how Li Ming had killed Fei Bin and five other innates, many people in the inn even cheered loudly.

Soon, a lot of change was thrown on Mo Xiaobei's table.

"Little girl, what you said is too exaggerated. Is it true?"

Someone made a surprise.

Mo Xiaobei raised his chin impatiently and responded seriously: "I am a disciple of the martial arts school. I have first-hand information. How can this be false?"

At the tea stall outside the inn, an elderly Taoist nun and two younger Taoist priests listened for a while.

One of the Taoist priests snorted coldly: "Tsk, exaggerating, grandstanding, if she said that, combined with the age of this Master Li, wouldn't he be more powerful than our Chongyang Patriarch back then?"

"Maybe, let's go to this martial arts hall to have a fight and see what Master Li is capable of. Let him also learn the power of our Quanzhen martial arts. Don't you agree, Junior Brother Zhen?"

Another Taoist priest shook his head and said, "We are here to track down the evil female demon Li Mochou, so let's not make things complicated."

The attention of the people around was attracted by Mo Xiaobei's strong desire to show off. No one noticed their conversation, and no one recognized that these two Taoists, named Zhao Zhijing and Zhen Zhibing, were the best among the third generation of disciples of Quanzhen Sect.

(End of this chapter)