Wang Yuyan was so stunned by her maternal grandmother's amorous affairs that she could not collect herself for a long while. Kang Min, for her part, was still wondering whether she had ever slept with a monk.
Just then Qiao Feng turned to the Beggar Gang and shouted at the elders before him, "Who ordered this gathering? I, Qiao Feng, am chief of the Beggar Gang. Why did I not even receive word?
Are you trying to reduce me to a figurehead?"
With that roar, his immensely deep pure yang internal energy became a wave of sound, shaking the leaves throughout Apricot Grove into a loud rustle.
The Beggar Gang disciples bore the brunt of it and were driven back two steps. At the very front, Quan Guanqing and the Four Great Elders went pale, and even the flow of true qi within them turned sluggish.
"I ordered the brothers of the gang to assemble here. Have I, Xu Chongxiao, not the standing to do so?"
An old man walked out from the rear of the crowd. It was none other than Xu Chongxiao, an elder of the Beggar Gang.
This Xu Chongxiao had been an elder of the previous generation, the martial uncle of former Chief Wang Jiantong. He had lived in retirement for many years and stood a full two generations above Qiao Feng.
Out of respect, Qiao Feng cupped his fist. "Elder Xu, may I ask just where I have offended you, that you should move against me like this?"
Xu Chongxiao answered coldly, "You have not offended me. But the crimes you have committed are intolerable to Heaven, and any man may put you to death for them! I am not afraid to tell you: I called the brothers here today for no other reason than to depose you, Qiao Feng!"
Qiao Feng's gaze turned sharp. "You mean to strip me of my place as chief? In that case, let our hands decide!"
The words had barely fallen when he crossed both palms and drove them forward in a furious push. Hard force stacked layer upon layer as he unleashed Dragons Battle in the Wild. The moment that overbearing palm force burst forth, a fierce wind howled toward Xu Chongxiao.
Xu Chongxiao: "??!!"
You won't even ask why I'm deposing you, and just start fighting?!
Faced with Qiao Feng's ferocious strike, Xu Chongxiao was frightened half to death. He desperately circulated his internal energy and thrust both hands out level before him.
In the next instant came several sharp cracks. Both of Xu Chongxiao's arms, and the ribs across his chest, broke outright. His whole body flew sideways, spraying blood. He hit the ground and lay there without moving, and for the moment no one could tell whether he was alive or dead.
Quan Guanqing jumped in fright and said in disbelief, "Qiao Feng, how dare you strike Elder Xu so viciously?"
Qiao Feng shot him a contemptuous glance, leaped, and landed before him. One Dragon Claw Hand crushed Quan's right arm. Then a slap knocked out four of his teeth and sent him flying.
"You are all set on deposing me, and you still expect me to go easy on you?
Second Uncle said that one must treat one's enemies with the severity of deep winter! Leaving you your mangy lives is already the greatest reverence I can show for life."
Quan Guanqing rolled several times on the ground. The violent pain filled him with regret, and he thought, It's over. How could I forget that Qiao Feng has never been the soft-hearted sort...
Not long ago, he had colluded with Kang Min, meaning to frame Qiao Feng for Ma Dayuan's death and take Qiao Feng's place once he was deposed.
Because they were not strong enough, they had gone out of their way to pull in the Beggar Gang's Four Great Elders, and also Xu Chongxiao, the retired elder of the highest seniority in the gang.
They had thought that if they trotted out Elder Xu, the man of highest seniority, to lend them his name, Qiao Feng would not dare strike.
Who could have foreseen that Qiao Feng would cripple Elder Xu at the first clash, and that most of the scheme Quan had laid would collapse at once?
Now Qiao Feng had ruined his right hand as well. Even if they managed to depose Qiao Feng today, Quan himself would probably never be able to become chief and lead the Beggar Gang.
One careless move, and the whole game was lost. Red-eyed, Quan Guanqing climbed up from the ground and stared at Qiao Feng with hatred. "Qiao Feng, you can kill me to cover up your crimes, but can you kill everyone here?"
Qin Zheng's eyes lit up. He called loudly toward Qiao Feng, "Nephew, need me to step in? I can kill every one of them. I guarantee not a single one gets away! Never mind these mere few hundred. Wiping out their entire clans would be nothing to me!"
"Ah!!"
A chill shot through the scalps of the martial artists present, and they all burst out cursing Quan Guanqing.
"Quan Guanqing, you have no conscience left! Even as you die you want to drag us down with you! Fuck eighteen generations of your ancestors!"
"Quan Guanqing, you black-hearted wretch! How dare you slander Chief Qiao and try to split the Beggar Gang! Chief Qiao, let me kill this scum of the martial world for you and rid the Central Plains martial world of this pest!"
"All together! Kill that dog Quan Guanqing!"
Quan Guanqing stared blankly at the heroes of the martial world, his mouth gaping wide enough to swallow his own fist. "......"
This isn't right, is it? You're ganging up on the wrong man!
The one who boasted he'd kill you all was clearly Qin Zheng!
Seeing the situation about to spin out of control, Qiao Feng gathered his internal energy and shouted, "Stop!"
The people yelling in the grove fell silent at once. In a flash it grew so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Qiao Feng took a step forward and fixed Quan Guanqing with a sharp look. "You keep saying that I, Qiao Feng, have committed an unforgivable crime, yet you never make it clear. What is it you are really after?"
At those words, a wave of bitterness rose in Quan Guanqing.
I want to say it, but you have to give me the chance to open my mouth!
He glared viciously at Qiao Feng and said, full of grievance, "You killed Deputy Chief Ma. Does that not count as a monstrous crime?"
Qiao Feng frowned. "Brother Ma and I were as close as kin. How could I kill him? If you dare spout nonsense again, don't blame me if I show no mercy!"
Seeing Qiao Feng raise his palm, Quan Guanqing hurriedly said, "I have witnesses and evidence. Madam Ma, come out and testify!"
At his call, Kang Min walked slowly out from behind the crowd. She was dressed in mourning clothes, which only set off her features and made her look all the more alluring. Many of those present stared, dazed.
She bowed to the crowd and said with a face full of grief, "At the place where my late husband, Ma Dayuan, was murdered, I found a folding fan. After the brothers of the gang identified it, this fan was found to belong to Chief Qiao, Qiao Feng."
As she spoke, she drew a folding fan from her sleeve, opened it, and displayed the face of it before everyone.
Quan Guanqing gave a cold snort, looking as though victory were already in his grasp. "Qiao Feng, do you recognize this fan?"
Qiao Feng glanced at the fan a few times. "This fan was a gift from Chief Wang Jiantong on my twenty-fifth birthday. He inscribed the poem, and Xu Chongxiao painted it."
Quan Guanqing cried out in excitement, "Good that you admit it! If you had not killed Deputy Chief Ma, how could this fan have been left at the scene of his murder?"
Qiao Feng laughed coldly. "What can one fan prove? Could someone not have stolen my fan to frame me?
And there is more than one of these fans. Who says this one must be mine?"
Quan Guanqing froze, then flew into a rage. "You're twisting words! In all the world, who else has this fan besides you?"
Qiao Feng looked toward the Beggar Gang. "Brothers, whoever has this fan, take it out and show him!"
The words had barely fallen when seventy or eighty people stood up from among the Beggar Gang, and each produced a fan of the very same style.
Quan Guanqing stared, dumbstruck, and said in disbelief, "Impossible. How can there be so many identical fans?"
Qiao Feng glanced at Qin Zheng and said, brimming with confidence, "I, Qiao Feng, have sworn brotherhood with many men, and some were bound to do evil while posing as my brothers.
To guard against that, Second Uncle gave me an idea. He had me use the fan as a printing template. Each time I swore brotherhood with someone, I gave him a replica fan as a token.
There are more than three thousand fans like this in the jianghu. How can you prove that this one is the fan I lost?"
"......" Quan Guanqing looked at Qiao Feng, then at the seventy or eighty Beggar Gang disciples holding fans. For a moment he was speechless. He clenched his teeth and glared with hatred at Xu Chongxiao, whose life or death was still unknown.
The idea of framing Qiao Feng with the fan had been Xu Chongxiao's. Xu had even said there was only one such fan in all the world, and that the painting on it was his own hand...
And now look. The damn fans had been turned out wholesale. This time the man had truly ruined him!
Chapter 21