The others were also reminded by these words. That was right—they had come to participate in the martial arts marriage competition, so why was “Miss Su” a man skilled in martial arts who was also intimately involved with another highly skilled young hero?
Many people turned their gazes toward Lian Li.
By now, Lian Li’s veil had long since been lost. His clothes and hair ornaments were slightly disheveled, and he was still wearing a woman’s dress.
If he didn’t speak, no one would know he was a man; they would only think he was a woman of peerless beauty and a slender, graceful figure.
If he truly were a woman, with such an appearance, he would likely attract countless suitors.
However, Lian Li had already spoken. Although his voice wasn’t the rough or deep voice of a grown man, anyone with ears could not mistake it—it was the voice of a youth.
Furthermore, he possessed martial arts and had participated in the battle, so it was clearly impossible for him to be Miss Su.
After staring at Lian Li for a while, some people let out soft sighs, seemingly filled with regret.
However, those remaining here were all people of status. Even if they had certain thoughts, they wouldn’t act on them directly, so the scene fell silent for a moment.
After a long while, someone finally looked at Su Jun again, clearly wanting an explanation.
Many of them had traveled thousands of miles to participate in this martial arts marriage competition. If the beautiful “Miss Su” on the platform wasn’t actually the young lady, a reasonable explanation had to be given.
Su Jun’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly. He clearly couldn’t think of a good excuse, so after a moment of silence, he prepared to tell the truth.
Just before he could speak, Lian Li spoke up.
“Actually, it’s like this.”
As soon as he spoke, everyone’s eyes turned to him once more.
“This… er… Young Hero, please speak.”
“Actually, last night, some villains tried to break into the Su Mansion to kidnap Miss Su, but we intercepted them. From those villains, we learned they had accomplices. Fearing that something might happen to Miss Su again, I decided to disguise myself as Miss Su and attend today’s event.”
“After all, Miss Su is a girl and doesn’t know martial arts. If something really happened, it would be terrible. But it doesn’t matter for me.”
“I’m a man. Even if those people are disrespectful, I won’t lose out. Besides, I know martial arts. Although I can’t compare to all of you, I still have some ability to protect myself compared to Miss Su.”
“Originally, we only did this as a precaution, thinking that if any more scoundrels appeared, they would come for me.”
“I just didn’t expect these people to be so audacious. With so many heroes and legends present, they still dared to show up.”
“Fortunately, with everyone’s help, we managed to get through the danger without any mishaps.”
“Rest assured, everyone, Miss Su is safe at home. The villains didn’t harm a single hair on her head.”
Lian Li conveyed two main points.
First, the person on the platform for the past two days was Su Fu herself; the disguise only happened today to protect her, and Su Fu was unharmed.
Second, they only found out someone was plotting against Su Fu last night, and they didn’t know it was such a large group of people.
Among these, only the part about “not knowing there was such a large group” was true.
He spoke extremely fast, as if afraid someone would hear something too clearly. Before some people could even process his words, Yun Huizhou spoke up.
His words immediately diverted everyone’s attention.
He pointed at the dead man with the full beard and said, “That man called himself Double-Bladed Steel. He used twin sabers and had a face full of coarse flesh and a thick beard. Does anyone have an impression of him?”
The scene fell into an eerie silence for a moment.
After a long while, someone finally asked, “Is he someone very famous?”
Another person chimed in, “Given this man’s martial arts and age, he shouldn’t be completely unknown, but I have indeed never heard of him.”
Lian Li was also completely bewildered, even starting to suspect if Yun Huizhou was just making things up to distract them.
With his back to the others, he cast an inquiring look at Yun Huizhou.
Upon receiving the look, Yun Huizhou didn’t give him any subtle hints. Instead, he looked at the few disciples from various sects present.
Lian Li followed his gaze and noticed that almost all of them were lost in thought. The only two sect disciples who weren’t thinking deeply belonged to sects that hadn’t existed for long—less than twenty years—making them new powers.
Before long, the young hero among these sect disciples who possessed the highest martial arts skill showed a look of uncertainty and shock on his face.
The others naturally saw his expression and quickly asked, “Has Young Hero Zheng thought of something?”
“Does Brother Zheng know this person?”
“Who exactly is this man? Why are his martial arts so strong, and his age doesn’t look young, yet none of us have heard of him?”
“Yes, and there were several other first-rate experts. Logically, even if they were low-profile, it shouldn’t be that we can’t recognize a single one out of four or five.”
The other sect disciples also showed uncertain expressions.
Under everyone’s urging, the young hero surnamed Zheng finally spoke.
“I once heard the elders in my sect mention a man nicknamed Double-Bladed Steel. He used twin sabers, though they didn’t describe his appearance. Furthermore, I heard from the elders that twenty years ago, that man committed a massacre, exterminating an entire family. He disappeared after being wanted.”
“After he vanished, the Martial Arts Alliance’s bounty remained active. It wasn’t until five years after his disappearance that the bounty was removed from the main list. It’s said that because there was no news of him for five years, and no news of his death either, he was moved to the secondary list.”
At this point, Young Hero Zheng looked at Yun Huizhou and said, “If this bearded man truly is that person, Young Hero Yun can take his head to the Martial Arts Alliance to claim the bounty.”
Branches of the Martial Arts Alliance existed in almost every city of significant size. Although Fengyi City didn’t have many martial arts masters, it still had a branch of the Martial Arts Alliance.
If Yun Huizhou wanted to, he could go right now and claim a large sum of bounty.
However, Yun Huizhou was too lazy to move the corpse and had no desire to carry the man’s head.
Thus, he looked at Su Jun and said, “Young Master Su, could you please send someone to the Martial Arts Alliance branch to invite them here?”
He was preparing to have the people from the Martial Arts Alliance come over to verify the identity.
Su Jun nodded. This was the venue for the Su family’s martial arts marriage competition, so it was impossible for there to be no Su family servants around.
Quickly, Su Jun called over a servant boy and gave him a few instructions. The boy then ran off.
He was heading exactly in the direction of the Fengyi City branch of the Martial Arts Alliance.
Since it would take a while for the people from the Martial Arts Alliance to arrive, the crowd did not disperse.
It would still be a while before the Martial Arts Alliance arrived, and because of this incident, the martial arts marriage competition could not continue today. Since everyone was idle, someone asked a question.
“Young Hero Zheng, what was the story behind that family extermination case twenty years ago?”
If it were a normal vendetta—for example, if the bearded man’s family had been killed, and he had escaped, mastered martial arts, and returned for revenge by wiping out his enemy’s family—he might be called ruthless, but he certainly wouldn’t be wanted by the Martial Arts Alliance.
After all, fighting and killing were normal in the Jianghu; people died every day, and new people made their debut every day.
