Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue followed the route indicated by the proprietress, and after twists and turns, they arrived at a main street in the south of the city. From a distance, they saw a flag hanging in front of a shop with the words "Lao Tan Blacksmith Shop" written in large letters.

"This is it!"

The two men walked over quickly. The door of the shop was open. There were several wooden racks on both sides of the door. On them were some farm tools, such as plows, rakes, hoes, pickaxes, sickles, etc. There were also some daily necessities, such as kitchen knives, spatulas, planers, scissors, etc. The innermost wooden rack held several swords.

"Is the store owner here?" Liu Xinyue shouted while choosing a sword.

In one corner of the room there was a large furnace, a baking furnace, with a charcoal fire burning fiercely and a piece of ironware on top burning red. On one side of the furnace was a bellows, which was used to blow air to make the fire stronger. On the other side was a large iron forging table and a water tank for quenching.

"Shopkeeper...is anyone there?" Liu Xinyue picked up a long sword, and seeing that no one answered, he shouted again loudly.

Qiao Rui looked at the ironware in the oven that was almost deformed by the fire, thinking about something. He walked to Liu Xinyue, motioned her to be quiet, picked up a knife from the wooden rack, and quietly walked into the inner room.

Qiao Rui slowly lifted the curtain of the inner room with a knife, and a strong smell of blood hit him in the face. He saw four corpses, three big and one small, lying in a pool of blood.

An old man was lying at the door, holding a long iron spear in his hand, having died from a sword attack. Not far away was a young man, holding a large iron hammer, with three sword wounds on his body, the fatal wound being a pierced heart, with blood all over the floor. In the innermost part was a wooden bed, and a baby was lying on the floor beside the bed, with the back of his head shattered, apparently having been thrown to death. A young woman was lying on the bed, her clothes torn, her fair body covered in bruises, her lower body filthy, holding a pair of scissors in both hands and stabbing them in her chest, perhaps committing suicide after being humiliated.

The two of them slowly left the inner room and came to the lobby. Liu Xinyue said hatefully: "Who is so cruel? He killed the whole family and even spared no baby. If I meet him, I will cut him into pieces!" After that, she stabbed the wooden table with a sword. The sword shook and the wooden table broke into pieces.

"Either a local scoundrel has been coveting the man's wife for a long time and took advantage of the chaos to commit the crime today. Or someone from our place came to buy swords and was tempted by her beauty and wanted to kill her." Qiao Rui analyzed calmly, "Looking at the burning fire, it seems that the incident happened not long ago and the murderer may not have gone far. Let's go look around and see if we can meet the murderer."

Liu Xinyue nodded, and the two walked to the street. The street ran east-west, and they started from the west, and they didn't encounter anything unusual, so they chased along the east side of the street.

Not long after the chase, there was a sound of fighting coming from the corner ahead. Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue looked at each other and hurried over. It was a dead end, and two constables with sticks were fighting with a strong man. The strong man was dressed in ancient costume, coarse linen clothes, and had short straight hair. It was obvious that he was not a local like Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue.

The sturdy man was short and stocky with a face full of flesh, but he wielded the sword in his hand skillfully and deftly, forcing the two constables to retreat step by step, making them look very embarrassed.

Without saying anything, Liu Xinyue shook his sword and used the 19th style of Huashan Jade Maiden Sword Technique to cover the sturdy man. After a few moves, the sturdy man could not withstand the attack of the three people. Seeing that there was still someone who had not attacked, he secretly groaned in his heart. His sword technique suddenly changed, and he used a feint, jumped out of the circle, and hurriedly said: "Stop!"

Liu Xinyue paused, pointed at the sturdy man with a sword gesture, and shouted, "You beast, what else do you have to say?"

The strong man wiped the sweat from his forehead and said hurriedly, "I don't think I have ever offended you two, so why do you want to take my life as soon as you come?"

Liu Xinyue said angrily, "How could Old Tan the Blacksmith and his family ever offend you? You want to kill four people in the family, not even the baby in the cradle."

"It wasn't me. I just wanted to go in and buy a sword, but when I went in, I found that the whole family was dead. Then I came out immediately. It really wasn't me!" The sturdy man kept explaining himself, looking very aggrieved.

When the two detectives nearby heard this, the older one said anxiously, "Young men, don't listen to his excuses. We were patrolling near Old Tan's house and heard some noise so we went in to check. Old Tan's daughter-in-law had already committed suicide. We immediately went out to track down the murderer and saw that he was acting sneaky so we approached him to question him. But when he saw us approaching, he ran away. Isn't this just a guilty conscience?"

"You are slandering me. How could I run away? I saw that Old Tan was dead, so I took the sword without paying. Naturally, I didn't want to get entangled with you officers." The strong man's eyes rolled around and he kept explaining.

Qiao Rui walked forward unsteadily with a big knife in hand, and stood in a row with Liu Xinyue. He said to the burly man, "I have carefully examined the body of Old Tan's daughter-in-law. There are some skin scraps and bloody flesh between her fingernails. I think she must have left a lot of scratches on you. We will know once you take off your shirt!"

"No, why should I show it to you!" The sturdy man refused anxiously, then subconsciously wrapped his chest with clothes.

"Haha, you feel guilty!" Qiao Rui said with a smile.

Looking at Qiao Rui's expression, the sturdy man suddenly understood and said angrily: "You cheated me!"

Qiao Rui tricked the guy into revealing his true intentions with a few words, then he sneered and started to chop with his knife. Seeing this, Liu Xinyue and the two constables also surrounded the strong man, and saw the flash of swords and the flying of sticks. Qiao Rui's knife was sharp and the knife light was cold. Liu Xinyue's sword skills were complicated and layered, like a long river flowing endlessly. The two constables' stick skills were similar, but they had their own way of entangling and fighting. For a while, the strong man was forced to panic. After only five rounds, Qiao Rui found an opportunity and chopped him into two pieces with one knife.

Seeing the murderer was killed, the two constables came over to express their gratitude. The older one was about thirty years old, of medium height, thin, with a sharp face and bright eyes. He bowed to Qiao Rui and said, "My name is Chen Nian, and this is Lu Jia. We are both local constables. Thank you for your help. Otherwise, my brother and I would be in great danger today. May I know your names, young heroes?"

Qiao Rui waved his hand and said with a smile: "No need to be polite, I'm Qiao Rui, and this is my friend Liu Xinyue. We just happened to pass by and met by chance. Besides, being chivalrous and righteous is the principle of our generation."

The constable named Chen Nian sighed, "Today, a large number of gangsters appeared in the city. Their characters are mixed. There are noble men like Young Master Qiao and Miss Liu, but there are also quite a few heinous criminals. In addition, there are local rogues who are taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble. All of us constables have been dispatched to patrol the city, but we are still stretched to the limit and exhausted. I have sent someone back to report, but I don't know when the reinforcements will arrive."

"Those people are evil and have no conscience!" The young constable named Lu Jia said angrily, "Some people eat and drink lavishly in restaurants, and not only don't pay, but also extort money from the shopkeeper, and kill people and rob money when they disagree. There are also people who appear in other people's homes for no apparent reason, and then steal and rob, and even worse, kill the whole family, and even sneak into the girl's boudoir to do that kind of indecent thing."

"This is outrageous! These people are worse than beasts! If I meet them, I will kill one if I see one, and kill both if I see a pair!" Liu Xinyue said angrily.

Qiao Rui's heart was moved, and he said solemnly: "Such a crime is intolerable by heaven. If you two adults don't mind, we are willing to lend a hand!"

Upon hearing this, the two detectives Chen and Lu were overjoyed and said with a smile, "What's the big deal? We are so happy that you two are willing to help us put down the riot. How dare we despise you? With your help, we will definitely bring those villains to justice!"

"Okay, in that case, you guys handle the case and we'll assist in the arrest!"

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