The entire street instantly fell silent after Lu Fan finished speaking.
"Then kill them all…" It was a plain and simple sentence, and he had said it calmly, but it made many of them… shuddered with fear.
Luo Cheng pulled out the sword at his waist. His eyes were bright and sparkling, and his heart was racing. He'd been waiting for Lu Fan to say this.
"Yes, sir!" he answered readily.
With that, he lifted the long sword in his hands and addressed the Ironblood troops.
"For those who are holding weapons, kill them!"
"For those who are guilty of rebellion, kill them!"
The moment the order fell from his lips, the Ironblood troops behind him made their move, and a deafening "zzzing" sound resounded in the air.
They had all pulled out their swords from the scabbards at their waists.
Chen Beixun's eyes widened in disbelief. He never imagined Lu Fan would be this fearless and decisive!
If news of this got out, Lu Fan would incur the wrath of everyone living in this city!
But, actually, he should have already incurred their wrath for killing so many Confucianists.
Chen Beixun suddenly became a little confused when he thought about this.
Lu Fan seemed ill and frail, like a fragile piece of jade, but compared to Lu Changkong, he was much more wild and bold!
Liu Ye and Zhu Yishan were completely stunned, and their straight backs slumped again after hearing Lu Fan's order.
The three major aristocratic families had joined hands with various merchants to hire a large number of protesters, but these protesters were actually just local hooligans and useless gangsters who did nothing all day long.
But gathering crowds and causing trouble was something they did quite often.
The people were stunned at Lu Fan's order.
But then someone shouted, "You despicable man! We're going to fight this out with you!"
And then the gangster protesters started to move.
The group was stronger in numbers than the soldiers, as most of the Ironblood troops were stationed at the city wall, guarding Beiluo City.
Luo Cheng's little team only numbered ten or so.
But Luo Cheng's expression was cold as he swung his long sword, and one slash of the blade cut one of the gangster protesters in half.
The other Ironblood soldiers were equally cold and resolute. They were soldiers, well-trained elite soldiers, so a group of ordinary folk was no match for them.
Then Nie Changqing made his move.
He wielded the butcher knife in his hands and joined the Ironblood troop.
With the addition of a Six Resonances Grandmaster, the gangsters were definitely no match for the soldiers. The rabble stood their ground for a while, but then many of them broke down in fear before the power of the soldiers and the Grandmaster.
Many of them were terrified, and the various bats and axes in their hands fell to the ground.
They started crying in terror.
"We were only hired to do this. We weren't trying to rebel!"
"We were wrong, we were in the wrong! Please have mercy on us!"
"We weren't really going to rebel… we really weren't!"
...
But none of the protesters' pleas made Luo Cheng feel pity or have a change of heart.
He lifted his hand and swung his sword, and blood ran down the next three miles of the main street of Beiluo City.
The people watching on either side of the street were too frightened to even make a sound. Some of them had joined in the protest and had chanted along earlier for bragging rights. Now, their faces were deathly pale, and they were trembling in fear, about to pee their pants.
In the middle of all this bloodshed, Lu Fan was calmly playing with a chess piece in his hand.
Ordinary folk were no match at all for soldiers.
The protesters were quickly brought under control.
Or, rather, they were all wiped out. Lu Fan had instructed Luo Cheng to kill all the protesters, so he didn't leave a single person alive.
Besides, they didn't need to keep anyone alive. It was clear who had instigated the mob.
Yi Yue put her pretty hands on the handles of the wheelchair and gently pushed it along.
Its wooden wheels rolled over the bloodied tiles of the street, and there was a chill in the atmosphere. The sun was high in the sky, but everyone felt a shiver run down their spines.
Liu Ye and Zhu Yishan had despair written all over their faces. After witnessing the hellish scene, they were trembling inside.
They could very well meet the same end as the protesters.
Their last shred of hope had been completely dashed by Lu Fan.
Chen Beixun remained stubborn, but the slight trembling of his beard showed his true emotions.
BOOM!
Luo Cheng kicked down Liu Manor's door with one foot.
They dashed into Liu Manor.
Inside, privately hired soldiers, who had once been eliminated by Lu Changkong, were wielding weapons, but they were quickly overpowered by Luo Cheng.
There was blood everywhere.
There were some people of high status within Liu Manor, so they were arrested instead.
Some of the martial arts practitioners under the Lius tried to fight back and managed to hold their own against a few of the Ironblood soldiers, but they were soon overpowered, and many of them decided to fall on their swords to escape defeat, their blood flowing from them like a river.
...
At Chen Manor...
A group of people were still chatting and enjoying good wine around the Phoebe zhennan wooden round table.
Suddenly...
A disciple belonging to the Chen family rushed into the manor.
"Bad… bad news!" he said. "The authorities have massacred the protesters and wiped out Liu Manor and Zhu Manor on charges of rebellion. They're now headed for Chen Manor!"
His face was filled with terror. The horrifying scene of blood staining the street had made it difficult for him to breathe.
Lu Fan's decisiveness and the Ironblood troops' cruelty had struck terror deep in his heart.
"WHAT?!" The representatives from the Liu and Zhu families got up and slammed their fists against the table. The strong fighters from Sword Sect were also filled with disbelief.
They were talking about hundreds of ordinary people here. How dare Lu Fan give an order to kill all of them?!
It was largely understood that the law didn't dole out punishment when there were so many offenders at once, but Lu Fan wasn't following that rule!
They thought they could threaten the City Master's office by getting protesters to cause trouble, but they hadn't expected Lu Fan to be completely unfazed and kill all the troublemakers.
There were several representatives from the merchants there who were trembling.
"What are you afraid of? You really think Lu Fan would dare to kill off the three major aristocratic families and all the merchants?"
"If he does, Beiluo City will definitely descend into chaos. We merchants are the ones that help keep people's livelihoods stable, and this is well understood…"
"He's just showing off his power…"
Many merchants at the table murmured among themselves and exchanged opinions.
But the Liu and Zhu families' representatives were pale, and looked close to fainting.
The Sword Sect martial arts practitioners seated at the table also frowned.
"Rumor has it that Beiluo City's City Master's son, Lu Ping'an, has a violent temper because he's been crippled for so long. Now... it looks like those rumors are true."
"But doing whatever he likes will cost him… by massacring the people like this, he'll incur everyone's wrath. Since he's done so much evil, Sword Sect… will kill him today!"
The strong fighters from Sword Sect all held their swords and got up from the table.
The large and small merchants instantly clapped and cheered them on.
The more chaos in Beiluo City, the better. In the chaos, they could do anything they wanted and escape detection and reap better rewards.
But the representatives from the Liu and Zhu families didn't say anything. They felt numb and cold.
"Senior Brother Jing Yue, why aren't you coming with us to kill that demon?!"
Suddenly, the leader of the Sword Sect fighters, a swordsman with three swords in his sword box, looked questioningly at the other side of the table. One swordsman was still seated at the table, enjoying his meal.
But Senior Brother Jing Yue merely shook his head. "Wait a while longer. I've already called on the other six Heroes to come… once all seven Heroes are here, we'll definitely win this fight."
This person was Jing Yue. He was the swordsman who had made a run for it back at Beiluo Lake.
The abilities of the man who had been standing beside Lu Fan had been beyond what he'd expected.
He could never defeat Nie Changqing alone. Of the Seven Heroes of Sword Sect, at least four of them would need to come to have a chance at winning.
"All seven Heroes? Senior Brother Jing Yue, you're being too cautious. With all of us combined, even a Seven Resonance Grandmaster would back down, so why are you so afraid of Beiluo City's City Master's son's two bodyguards?"
The swordsman with three swords in his wooden sword box looked disdainfully at Jing Yue, a glint in his eyes.
But Jing Yue remained seated at the wooden table and didn't say anything. He continued to pour wine for himself.
The swordsman realized that Jing Yue was ignoring him, so he scoffed, and with a flick of his wrist, put two fingers on his sword box.
There was a loud "zzzing" sound as he pulled a sword out of the box and held it in his hand, them made his way out of Chen manor.
The rest of the Sword Sect swordsmen got up from the table and left the hall, and the various merchants followed behind them to watch the fight.
Suddenly...
The first swordsman had just made it out the door of the main hall when he felt his heart jolt, and his eyes widened. As a Five Resonances Grandmaster martial arts practitioner, he had heightened senses and strong intuition.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
His Qi and blood blasted five times in a row within his body.
A dark shadow seemed to slash down from the sky, and it was cutting through the air toward Chen Manor.
Everyone's eyes became crossed from watching its quick movements.
Then the shadow disappeared and became a black butcher knife.
The swordsman with three swords in his sword box didn't even manage to shout.
The butcher knife had come flying by itself through the sky and had struck him on the head.
He died the minute he walked outside.
The entire Chen Manor instantly became silent.
The strong smell of blood filled the nostrils of the people who had just walked out of the main hall…