Chapter 124: A perfect plan
When Liu Xunyi and the other two were having a secret meeting with Pan Chuba in the study, the East Lake Gang held a memorial ceremony on the bank of the Huai River. Li Laohu personally led the East Lake Gang to send Li Bao off for the last time.

On a hazy moonlit night, at this hour, the riverside should be completely dark and silent. But tonight, the place is crowded with people and brightly lit. Hundreds of blazing torches make the surging river as bright as day.

At this moment, six or seven hundred Donghu Gang disciples gathered by the river. They stood in a fan shape, surrounding an open space. In the middle was a huge pile of firewood about fifteen feet high. On the pile of firewood was a coffin placed horizontally. The person in the coffin was Li Bao.

Although there were many people, they were extremely quiet. All the members of the Donghu Gang held their breath and stared at the coffin silently, with expressions of sadness, confusion, anger, or sorrow on their faces.

The night wind was blowing gently, the river was surging, and the world was filled with a deep sense of sorrow and desolation.

Li Lao Hu stood at the head of the disciples, with a faint firelight flickering in his pupils. His face was solemn, and he said nothing. There was a thoughtful look between his eyebrows, as if he was recalling the past when he and Li Bao had shared the joys and sorrows. Unknowingly, his eyes had turned red.

"Boss." Liu San held up a torch and stepped forward carefully to remind him, "The time has come. It's time to send the Second Master off."

"Brother..." Li Lao Hu took a deep breath, trying to calm his inner waves. He looked up at the coffin on the fire, and said to himself: "You have been with me through life and death, ups and downs, and suffered a lot. I finally got to a stable life, but you were killed. As your eldest brother, I can't kill the traitor and avenge you. I am sorry for you... Now I have seized half of the Pan family's property. After I send you away tonight, I will arrange for you to enter Pan Huai Shipping Merchants tomorrow. Sooner or later, Pan Huai Shipping Merchants will become ours. Then the brothers will be able to do some legitimate business and live a peaceful life. They don't have to worry about fighting and killing anymore... Big brother once promised you that when our life is stable, I will find you a wife and live a down-to-earth and rich life, but I didn't expect..."

Before Li Lao Hu finished speaking, he couldn't hold back his tears. Liu San and the other Donghu Gang disciples who were watching could not help but feel sad.

"Forget it!" Li Lao Hu waved his hand to wipe away his tears and grinned, "Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by God. Although you have gone ahead, maybe one day I will go down to accompany you. You don't have to be afraid of being alone. I know your preferences, and I have asked people to prepare a lot of paper money and make dozens of paper people and paper horses. I will burn them for you later. Brother, with them to accompany you, you will not be lonely on your way to the underworld."

After that, Li Lao Hu raised the wine bowl in his hand and shouted in great sorrow: "Send the Second Master to his death!"

"Second Master, have a safe journey!"

Hundreds of people shouted in unison; their voices were so sorrowful and their momentum so overwhelming that the heaven and earth shook, the cold wind slowed down, and the Huai River stopped flowing.

Li Lao Hu led the crowd to scatter the wine on the ground, and then smashed the wine bowls. Accompanied by a series of "crackling" sounds, the crowd began to cry and wail in grief, and the atmosphere along the Huai River suddenly became extremely sad.

Li Lao Hu, crying bitterly, held a torch in his hand and walked slowly to the firewood pile. He looked deeply at Li Bao in the coffin, then his eyes became fierce and he threw the torch with all his might.

The burning torches fell into the firewood pile like a flying meteor, and in an instant it spread like wildfire. The huge firewood pile burst into flames with a "boom".

The merciless fire, urged by the cold wind, devoured the coffins in the woodpile crazily. The flames shot up into the sky, illuminating half of the sky and hundreds of angry and grief-stricken faces.

When everyone's eyes were focused on the blazing flames, Li Lao Hu suddenly discovered that a figure had appeared on the other side of the flames. The figure was distorted in the light of the fire, appearing and disappearing, sometimes close and sometimes far away.

Li Lao Hu ordered his disciples to throw the sacrificial items into the fire, while he himself walked towards a remote place opposite the fire, full of doubts.

"Who are you?" Li Lao Hu came to the river and looked around cautiously. "Since you dare to come here to find me, why are you hiding? Come out!"

"Your brother died in a horrible way, and as the eldest brother, you didn't avenge him, but you just pretended to be kind and righteous here. It seems that I overestimated you before. You are not as loyal and righteous as the rumors say."

A dry and hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind Li Lao Hu. He turned around and saw a thin figure limping towards him. Because the person was facing away from the raging fire, Li Lao Hu could only see a black shadow standing in front of the fire, but he could not see his face clearly.

"Who are you?" Li Lao Hu asked carefully, "How dare you talk nonsense in front of me? Aren't you afraid that I will cut off your tongue?"

"Did I say something wrong?" The hoarse voice sounded again, "Although you were crying sadly just now, you were actually laughing in your heart. You took advantage of Li Bao's death to make a fortune and took away half of the Pan family's assets. Now you only regret that you don't have more brothers like Li Bao? So that you can take the opportunity to extort more money."

"You're talking nonsense!" Li Lao Hu was immediately furious when the lame man revealed his thoughts. He shouted, "There are hundreds of brothers from the East Lake Gang here. As long as I give the order, they can chop you into minced meat in a moment..."

"Why? Did I guess your true intentions and want to kill you to silence you?" The lame man sneered indifferently, "Are you afraid that your hypocrisy will be known by the brothers of the East Lake Gang? Or are you afraid that Li Bao will know that you used his death as an excuse to make a fortune, and he will haunt you forever?"

"You..." Li Lao Hu was furious, his facial muscles trembling slightly, and he said angrily, "Do you think I don't want to avenge Li Bao? But I don't even know who the murderer is, how can I take revenge?"

"Oh?" The lame man asked, "From what you implied, it seems that you think the people in the Xianwang Mansion are not the murderers?"

"Although I'm not smart, I'm not stupid either." Li Lao Hu snorted coldly, "Such an obvious bill of lading was placed intact next to the body. It's obvious that they wanted to deliberately frame me and let me point the finger at the Xianwang Mansion. How could I be easily fooled?"

"So you have already guessed that they are not the murderer." The lame man laughed, "So you just used the bill of lame as an excuse to deliberately blackmail the Pan family, and you didn't really want to force them to hand over the murderer. That's right! No wonder the Donghu Gang can dominate Yingchuan. You are really smart. You know how to take advantage of the situation and know how to stop when you are ahead. It seems that the second wife of the Pan family has told you a lot about Pan Chuba, otherwise you would not know that the three people in the Xianwang Mansion are the key to the Pan family. You use them as a threat, and Pan Chuba will definitely compromise."

Li Lao Hu didn't expect that the lame man even knew about his affair with Ding Cui. He was shocked and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"

"You are so smart, it is impossible that you can't guess who I am." The lame man said calmly, "I appeared here tonight, and I know everything about Li Bao's death. Who do you think I am?" "Could it be that Li Bao is you..." Hearing this, Li Lao Hu suddenly realized and wanted to blurt out something, but stopped abruptly. Because he suddenly realized that he might be in danger at this moment, so he pretended to be confused and shook his head and said, "I don't know."

As he spoke, Li Lao Hu slowly moved backwards, trying to find an opportunity to escape from here.

"I am the murderer you are looking for." The lame man said bluntly, "I killed Li Bao, and I left the bill of lame on purpose. My purpose was to make you cause trouble for the Xianwang Mansion, but I didn't expect you to be smarter than I thought. Of course, you are also more cunning than I thought."

Seeing the lame man confessing, Li Lao Hu's expression changed. He knew that this man had good means and must have come with bad intentions tonight. If he fled in a hurry, he would definitely be chased and killed by him. On the contrary, just now at the riverside, he had his back to the lame man. If he really wanted to kill him, he would have succeeded long ago. Why wait until now? Since the lame man talked to him for so long, he probably didn't come to kill him.

Thinking of this, Li Lao Hu's courage suddenly grew. He stopped and looked directly at the lame man, asking, "I have no grudge against you, why did you kill Li Bao? And why did you try to sow discord between me and the Xian Wang Mansion?"

"You know a lot about the Pan family, and you should also know that next year there will be a life-and-death contest between the Pan family and the Hexi Qin family." The lame man explained calmly, "Although the Pan family has no chance of winning this battle, behind Pan Chuba, there is a meddlesome Prince Xian's Mansion. Once Luo Tianjin intervenes, complications are inevitable. And I don't want the Pan family to have the slightest chance of winning. Do you understand?"

"So you killed Li Bao and wanted to use me to get rid of the Pan family for you?" Li Lao Hu asked angrily, "You want to kill someone with a borrowed knife?"

"It's not to get rid of the Pan family, but to use the bill of lame to lure you to deal with the people in the Xianwang Mansion. As long as you can kill anyone in the Xianwang Mansion, even if they are seriously injured... Luo Tianjin will be angry with the Pan family, and the friendship between the two families will be affected. By then, the Xianwang Mansion will no longer protect the Pan family, and the Pan family will naturally have no chance of winning against the Hexi Qin family." The lame man smiled helplessly, "It's just that I calculated everything, but I miscalculated you. I underestimated your cunning and overestimated your character."

"You really overestimate me." Li Lao Hu sneered, "Although I am reckless, I also know who to offend and who not to offend. The Donghu Gang's confrontation with the Xianwang Mansion is tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg, and it will destroy itself. Don't say that Li Bao was not killed by someone from the Xianwang Mansion. Even if he was, I will not seek revenge for this."

"I've thought of it." The lame man sneered, "That's why I came to you tonight to make you settle for the next best thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Since you don't dare to target the Xianwang Mansion, then help me deal with the Pan family."

Li Lao Hu heard the lame man's words as if they were a huge joke, and he couldn't help but sneer: "You killed my brother and framed me in danger, and now you want me to help you deal with the Pan family? This is really ridiculous. Don't you know that what you have done is enough to make me hate you to the core? I wish I could cut you into pieces and grind you into ashes!"

"In fact, you have already guessed my identity, so there is no need to pretend. Since you don't dare to be an enemy of the Xianwang Mansion, you also don't have the courage to be an enemy of me." The lame man sneered, "I might as well tell you that you have to help with this matter whether you want to or not!"

"You dare to threaten me?"

"Help me, and everything in the Pan family will be yours in the future." The lame man said dimly, "If you don't help, the Donghu Gang will disappear from Yingchuan forever within ten days."

"You..." Although Li Lao Hu was filled with anger, he had to consider the lame man's proposal. After all, he had guessed that the power behind the lame man was probably the Hexi Qin family. As for the notorious Qin family, Li Lao Hu really didn't dare to provoke them.

"You wrongly accused the people of Xianwang Mansion of killing Li Bao, and used this as an excuse to seize half of the Pan family's property. In fact, you have offended the Pan family and Xianwang Mansion." The lame man instigated, "Pan Chuba doesn't bother with you now because the war is imminent next year. But if the Pan family can survive this disaster safely next year, Pan Chuba will definitely join hands with Xianwang Mansion to settle accounts with you. What will happen to you then? You know it yourself!"

Li Lao Hu frowned, thinking over and over again, and hesitated for a long time before asking back: "If I help you, how can you guarantee that the Pan family and the Xianwang Mansion will not cause trouble to me in the future?"

"If you help me, the Pan family will be wiped out next year, and Pan Chuba will never have the chance to return to Yingchuan. By then, everything the Pan family has in Yingchuan will be at your disposal." The lame man said with a smile, "And once the Pan family declines, the Xianwang Mansion will never come to Yingchuan again and cause trouble. If necessary, the Hexi Qin family can come forward to protect you in front of Luo Tianjin. Although Luo Tianjin is called the Northern Xianwang, he will never be an enemy of the Hexi Qin family for a few dead people. By then, you can still call the shots in Yingchuan, and you will be even richer and more powerful than you are now!"

"Is this true?"

"Even if you are unwilling to help, the Pan family still has little chance of winning. I asked you for help just to make sure everything is safe. This time you are not only helping me, but also helping yourself."

"I..." Li Lao Hu paused, and began to think secretly in his heart again. After a moment, he made up his mind and promised with gritted teeth: "Wealth and honor are sought in danger! Since I have offended the Pan family and the Xianwang Mansion, I can't escape the bad luck. I might as well take the initiative and risk my life."

After that, Li Lao Hu cast a ferocious look at the lame man and said bluntly: "How do you want me to help you? Bring people to massacre the Pan Mansion overnight?"

"No! Doing so will make too much noise. Not only will it annoy the Xianwang Mansion, it will also arouse suspicion from other sects in the martial arts world, which is disadvantageous to me. More importantly, doing so will force Pan Chuba to perish with the 'Xuan Shui Xia Juan'. Since we are in the martial arts world, we must act according to the rules of the martial arts world. This is both reasonable and will not give people a reason to criticize us."

"what do you mean……"

"According to the rules, the Qin and Pan families can only send their own family members to compete, so Pan Chuba will definitely select the three best martial artists in the Pan family." Having said this, the lame man limped to Li Lao Hu and whispered in his ear, "So you only need to..."

……

　Hesitate and hesitate. Next article, thank you for the release... Thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)