Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

Qiao Rui once again met the idle Lu Yanjun in the Lotus Restaurant, so he asked him to sit down and talk.

"Have you caused trouble for Wen Shuyan in the past few days?" Qiao Rui asked.

"No, absolutely not! Since you have spoken, how dare I not listen? But I heard that Wen Shuyan and her family have moved away." Lu Yanjun said with a flattering smile.

At this time, the waiter brought new bowls and chopsticks, and Qiao Rui picked up the wine jug and poured him a bowl of wine.

Lu Yanjun felt quite flattered. He thought Qiao Rui was going to cause trouble for him, but it turned out to be a false alarm. It seems that as long as he didn't make him angry, his old classmate was quite easy to talk to.

Lu Yanjun heaved a sigh of relief, picked up the wine bowl and toasted Qiao Rui. He gradually became bolder and showed his signature smirk, saying, "I figured it out after I went back that day. My family is rich and powerful, so there is no need to bother with a master like you just for Wen Shuyan, right?"

"I'm glad you understand!" Qiao Rui nodded and stopped dwelling on it. He casually chatted about some past events and the changes in the town over the years.

After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Lu Yanjun was a little tipsy and his true nature gradually revealed. He spoke more and more boldly. He looked at the little treasure in Liu Xinyue's arms and smiled, "This child is very cute. Could it really be your child?"

Liu Xinyue blushed and said angrily, "I picked it up on the road, what does it have to do with you?"

Seeing Liu Xinyue's embarrassment, Qiao Rui also frowned and said to Lu Yanjun, "You can't control your mouth again, right?"

Lu Yanjun was no longer afraid, and said with a grin, "Why would you come if it's not yours? Are you recruiting disciples? It's so hard to raise such a young child! Do you want me to get you some three to six-year-olds, both boys and girls, and make sure they are well-behaved and obedient!"

"Oh? Your family has this kind of business?" Qiao Rui asked casually without comment.

"What kind of business is this!" Lu Yanjun laughed and said with a smug smile: "You also know that my family is very influential in Lianhua County. It is no problem for me to personally help you find some clever orphans or good family children!"

"Will you charge for it?" Liu Xinyue interrupted.

"Hehe!" Lu Yanjun rubbed his hands and smiled flatteringly, "It's just to make some pocket money, but don't worry, the quality and quantity are guaranteed, and the price is cheap."

"Isn't it illegal?" Liu Xinyue asked in surprise. Isn't this human trafficking?

"Lady, no matter what era it is, there are a lot of human traffickers on the street, but because the government wants to collect taxes, the prices are high and the quality of the goods is mixed, most of them are criminal slaves. Although we are in the dark, the goods we get are definitely of high quality and low price. The government can only turn a blind eye and can't stop it!"

"Okay, I'll find you when I open a sect and recruit disciples." Qiao Rui didn't care. If he really wanted to recruit disciples, he couldn't just pick a group of kids casually. It's not like running a school in the past where they recruited, taught, and graduated everyone, and then the people who graduated were of varying quality. Recruiting disciples in this era is a very rigorous matter. One has to pick and choose, and one has to examine one's aptitude, one's interpersonal qualities, and one's character in dealing with people and things from all aspects before one can find a good person to inherit the mantle.

"I heard that your brother is already a second-rate master?" Qiao Rui changed the subject and mentioned his brother Lu Yanqing.

"No, no! I'm just a second-rate guy. I'm still slightly inferior to you, the great master Qiao!" Lu Yanjun spoke modestly, but he couldn't hide the pride on his face.

"Since you joined the Beggars' Sect, have you learned the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms and the Dog Beating Stick Technique?"

"How can such a peerless martial art be so easy to learn?" Lu Yanjun replied, and then muttered softly: "It's just that my family is capable in the local area, so I found someone to run errands for me!"

"What?" Qiao Rui asked.

"Nothing, nothing!" Lu Yanjun raised his glass to toast Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue.

There was another round of toasting and then everyone left.

When they returned to Longxing City, it was already the end of the day and the sun was setting. Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue immediately went to Changyun Carriage and Horse Company to find Manager Chen to hand over the task and asked him to help safely place Xiaobao.

After listening to Qiao Rui's introduction of Xiaobao's origin, Shopkeeper Chen frowned, pondered for a moment, called a maid to take Xiaobao away, and explained everything in detail.

Seeing that Shopkeeper Chen frowned and seemed unhappy, Qiao Rui smiled awkwardly: "It's not that I don't know the seriousness of the matter, but I felt so sorry for those women and children that I was soft-hearted and caused trouble for Shopkeeper Chen!" He clasped his fists towards Shopkeeper Chen and did not explain the matter of the secret book. He just said that the women and children of the Zhu family in Feiyun Manor begged for mercy and he could not bear it, so he took Xiaobao away.

Shopkeeper Chen nodded and said, "This is just the first time. It won't happen again!"

Qiao Ruilian said that he didn't dare, which was considered to be the end of the matter.

Afterwards, Shopkeeper Chen asked someone to calculate the income from this mission, and took out 20% of it, which was 900 taels, and gave it to Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue. Together with the gold and jewelry that Qiao Rui had started to hide, the two of them each earned nearly 1,000 taels of silver from this mission. It was a generous harvest, but such things were rare after all. There was not much money to be made from arresting ordinary martial arts criminals, and the most one could earn was some merit.

Qiao Rui collected the money and asked Shopkeeper Chen, "Has anything happened in the city these days?"

"What's the matter? What could it be?" Shopkeeper Chen asked puzzledly.

"What I mean is, haven't there been a lot of martial artists appearing these days? Have they caused any major incidents, or is there anything different from the past?" Qiao Rui explained.

Shopkeeper Chen shook his head and said, "No, how can we lose the first battle of the Qingtian Guard to control the martial arts world? For these martial artists who suddenly appeared, we should either recruit them into the Qingtian Guard or warn them to be good citizens. As for those vicious and evil people, we will either capture them or kill them. Those who run fast can only wander around the martial arts world and have no chance to gain a foothold in our city!"

"The old man has a strong sense of belonging to the Qingtian Guard. His words are full of a sense of honor. Could he be an old man of the Qingtian Guard? Otherwise, why would he be so unhappy because I brought Xiaobao with me? In his eyes, this might be favoritism and breaking the law in the process of enforcing it!" Qiao Rui said secretly.

Just as he was thinking, he saw Manager Chen took out the North-South Mission Book and handed it to him, saying, "Speaking of special things, there is one thing. The notorious flower-stealing thief Yizhihongxing has recently appeared in the south and committed crimes one after another, causing many heroes to chase and intercept him. I also have many people in the Sky Guard who have accepted this mission. Do you want to join the encirclement and suppression? The reward for this mission is not much, but the merit is rich. If you are lucky enough to capture and kill this thief, plus the merit you just earned, it will be enough for you to be promoted to the Gold Seal Sky Guard."

"Is this guy very powerful? Why is he worth so many merits?" Qiao Rui took the booklet and asked.

"This thief's martial arts skills are average, but he is cunning and agile. He has been a scourge to the martial arts world for many years and has escaped from the encirclement and suppression of many heroes several times. He is very difficult to catch, so it is normal that his achievements are high!" said Shopkeeper Chen.

This mission was registered in both the north and south mission books, which showed that it was a nationwide scourge. The two men opened the booklets and saw that it said: The flower-picking thief Yizhihongxing, his appearance and age are unknown, his personality is as cunning as a fox, his martial arts origins are unknown, but his body movements are as fast as a ghost. He likes to attack the wives and concubines of wealthy families, rape and kill them after abducting them, and insert an iron-cast red apricot branch with flowers on the chest of the naked corpse, so he was called Yizhihongxing.

"What a pervert!" Liu Xinyue angrily handed the task book back to Shopkeeper Chen, then turned to look at Qiao Rui and said, "Qiao Rui, let's accept this task and go hunt down that rapist now!"

Qiao Rui closed the task book and said with a wry smile, "This guy is abominable, but the Yunlai Inn will be open in a few days. I'm afraid I don't have the time to track down and destroy the rapist Yizhihongxing!"

"Let's take it first. What if he comes to Longxing City?" After saying that, Liu Xinyue turned around and asked Manager Chen: "What if I don't complete the task after taking it? Is there any punishment?"

"No, for tasks like this that don't limit the number of people, they will be canceled after others have completed them. However, you can only take on one more task before the current one is finished. If there were no such restrictions, everyone would take on a task and not be able to complete it, which would give people the opportunity to wander around and be indecisive." Shopkeeper Chen explained patiently.

"Very good, we accept this mission, let's sign up!" Liu Xinyue ignored Qiao Rui's bitter smile and made the decision in a domineering manner.

Qiao Rui shrugged, looking as if he really couldn't do anything to him. Shopkeeper Chen laughed and turned around to register the task.

After taking care of everything, the two of them left the carriage and horse shop and went straight back to Half Moon Lane. From the strange phenomenon in the world to here, they struggled to survive and fought and killed all the way, and finally settled down. The rest was to wait for the inn to open so that they could concentrate on looking for Jiang Xueyun. Well, there was also the relationship problem with Liu Xinyue. Thinking about what his grandfather said that day, Qiao Rui was secretly distressed.