Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

Outside Feiyun Manor, some people with ulterior motives led the people to surround Qiao Rui. These people were talking at once, and they were very angry. Their eyes were quite unfriendly, and it seemed that they would rush up and attack him if they disagreed with him the next moment.

Qiao Rui's eyes turned cold, thinking "They are really stubborn", and he was too lazy to persuade them anymore. He raised his hand and threw the goose feather knife in his hand. With a "puff", it stuck at their feet. The blade was half buried in the mud, and the handle on the surface was still trembling and buzzing. Qiao Rui pointed to the place where the knife was stuck and said coldly: "Anyone who crosses the border, regardless of gender, age or age, will be killed without mercy!"

The crowd was in an uproar, their eyes were evasive and uncertain, their voices gradually became smaller, and looking at Qiao Rui with a murderous look on his face, these people had no doubt that he would really go on a killing spree.

"Even Feiyun Manor is no match for us, so it won't be too difficult to kill you..." Liu Xinyue led out the yellow horse that Qiao Rui had ridden, mounted the horse, and slowly walked towards the crowd, "Go away, turn over a new leaf, and be good citizens in the future!"

The crowd quieted down and watched Liu Xinyue riding over on horseback. They finally parted ways and made way for her. Liu Xinyue nodded to Qiao Rui, shook the reins, and rode away.

Qiao Rui watched Liu Xinyue leave until he could no longer hear the sound of horse hooves, then he turned around and went back to Feiyun Manor. The people outside hesitated for a long time and finally dispersed, leaving only a goose feather knife stuck in the open ground, shining coldly.

Feiyun Manor was neither big nor small. It took Qiao Rui a lot of effort to search the entire manor, but he only found some daily necessities such as rice, flour, grain, salt and tea in the warehouse, and some loose silver in the bedrooms, but he did not find any valuables.

"It's impossible. How could there be so little money? It's not like ordinary people are living beyond their means. This is a den of pirates. They have robbed so many ships over the years. There must be one or two rare treasures, right? There must be several boxes of jewelry and jade? Or several boxes of gold, silver and copper coins, right? We must have overlooked something." Qiao Rui returned to the main hall and sat down. His fingers tapped the table unconsciously, while he thought secretly in his heart.

Looking around, the courtyard, the hall, the side hall, etc., Qiao Rui suddenly remembered that when he first came in, the table in the side hall was full of women and children eating. Where are they now? It's impossible for them to run away. Qiao Rui remembered that from the time he came in to Liu Xinyue's departure, the door was always locked. Feiyun Manor deliberately closed the door to kill them, but they didn't expect to be wiped out. If those women and children didn't run away, where did they hide? The secret room?

Qiao Rui patted his forehead. He had forgotten about this. How could a bandit's den like this not have a secret room to hide some things that cannot be seen in public? Thinking of this, Qiao Rui suddenly became alert and searched door to door again, especially the bedrooms and study rooms in the main house. While recalling some of the ways he knew to open the secret room mechanisms, he fumbled around, the books on the bookshelf, the bottles and jars on the museum shelf, the paperweights, pen holders and inkstones on the desk, the protrusions and depressions on the wall, he pulled and turned them, scratched and knocked them, and finally found something strange next to the big bed in the largest bedroom in the main house.

I removed the long footrest beside the bed, revealing the floor below. One of the boards was slightly different in color from the others. I knocked on it with my fingers, and the sound was hollow. Apparently, there was nothing underneath. I flipped over the board and saw a hole. It turned out that I was overthinking. How could such a sophisticated design come from a small country house in a remote town? The precise mechanism and secret room were all speculations. I guess there was an earthen cellar underneath.

He took a burning candlestick and shone it downwards. There was a wooden ladder placed against the inner wall, and Qiao Rui climbed down the stairs. With the candlelight, the situation below gradually became clear.

The earth cellar was quite spacious, about the size of a room. Two large boxes were placed in one corner, and in the other corner were seven or eight young women in their twenties or thirties and a dozen children of different sizes, looking at Qiao Rui in horror. The youngest child was still in swaddling clothes, and the oldest was only eight or nine years old. It seemed that the Zhu brothers got married late, but think about it, the five brothers lived a hard life at the beginning, how could they have money to marry a wife? It was probably because they became pirates that they had money to get married and have children.

"Are you the family members of the five brothers of the Zhu family?" Qiao Rui jumped down from the stairs, waved the candlestick forward, carefully looked at the situation in the cellar, and then asked.

"Yes, yes, please spare our lives, young man!" The group of people shrank back, and one of the women who looked a little older answered with a trembling voice.

"Don't be afraid, I won't kill you! The government will send people to take you away soon. It is the government's business to decide how to punish you in the future. I don't think your life will be in danger." Qiao Rui said as he walked to the boxes, removed the copper locks and opened them one by one.

The two boxes were filled with copper coins, estimated to be hundreds of strings. One of the boxes had two boxes on top of the copper coins, one box of land deeds, and the other box of jewelry, jade and gold ingots. Excluding the land deeds, this box of jewelry and gold ingots was estimated to be worth thousands of strings of money. It seemed that Zhu Feilong really used all the wealth he had looted over the years to purchase land, and he was determined to wash away his wealth and become a landlord, but now he has fallen into his own hands. However, if he had not accepted the task of eradicating the Sanshui River bandits, someone else would have taken it sooner or later. It is true that those who do evil will eventually perish, and it is only a matter of time.

Qiao Rui put the small box containing jewelry, jade and gold ingots in his arms, thought for a while, and decided not to take the land deeds. There was not much use for them, and he didn't want to start a business in the remote Sanshuihe Town. He decided to give them to the government for processing. After all, he could get a 20% reward.

Turning around and looking at the women and children, Qiao Rui sighed slightly in his heart, knowing that the man's sin would bring disaster to his wife and children, and turned around to climb the wooden ladder.

"Young hero, please stay!"

At this time, the slightly older woman, who was about thirty years old, suddenly spoke.

Qiao Rui paused, turned around and looked at them.

"Please, young man, save us for the sake of us orphans and widows!" said the woman pitifully.

"Help, please help me, young man!"

The women and sensible children nearby all echoed the words, sobbing softly.

“A country has its laws, a family has its rules. Without rules, there will be no order! The people in Feiyun Manor have committed many evil deeds, and their crimes are unforgivable. As their family members, while you are enjoying the bloody wealth they have brought, it is only natural that you will be implicated after the incident!” Qiao Rui felt sympathetic, but he also knew that they deserved it.

"I know we deserve the punishment. I dare not trouble you to release us all. I only ask you to let him go for the sake of this ignorant child. We adults will bear all the sins!" The woman looked sad. She took a baby from the woman next to her, held it up with both hands, and presented it to Qiao Rui.

The baby's face was rosy and white, with a little saliva at the corners of his mouth, and he was sleeping soundly. Qiao Rui glanced at the baby, hesitated, and said: "For such an ignorant child, the government will not impose a sentence on him. Why do you want me to take him away? Wouldn't it be better for you to take care of him by yourselves?"

"I only ask you to find a good family to raise him. It will be better for him to live a clean life in the future than to be a slave with us!" the woman pleaded, and pushed the baby forward.

Qiao Rui was silent in his heart, and subconsciously took the baby. Before he could say anything, the woman opposite him knelt down and bowed, saying: "Young man, I will never forget your great kindness. I have no way to repay you. I have a secret that I would like to tell you!"