Chapter 47 Uninvited Guest

Along with a shout, a loud commotion was heard outside Chongwu Courtyard, and then wisps of thick smoke were seen spreading into the courtyard through the gaps in the gate and the windows of the pavilion. Even larger clouds of thick smoke covered the sky and pressed over the courtyard wall, and rushed towards the martial arts field with the wind.

"what happened?"

The sudden change surprised everyone. They all stood up and looked outside the yard with curiosity.

"Don't panic, everyone. I will go and find out what happened first. I will give you an explanation later." The Jiangnan Lu family actually made such a joke in front of the heroes of the world. Such rudeness really made Lu Tingxiang embarrassed. He hurriedly explained to everyone and walked out of the courtyard with an angry look on his face.

"Strange! This kind of thing has never happened in the Lu Mansion in decades. All items are in order. How could it suddenly catch fire?" Sikong Zhu followed behind Lu Tingxiang, muttering to himself.

At this moment, due to the thick smoke billowing between the sky and the earth, everyone was feeling uneasy and they all rushed towards the gate of the courtyard.

Fire and water are merciless, and no one wants to be implicated. For a moment, the orderly Chongwu Academy suddenly became a mess, with noises, shouts and messy footsteps coming one after another. In the increasingly thick smoke, no one could see each other clearly, and it was inevitable that there would be some bumps and subsequent shouting.

The chaos lasted for about an incense stick of time, and the thick smoke gradually dissipated, but no open fire was seen. Everyone stood in the martial arts field with a bewildered look on their faces, not knowing whether to leave or stay.

A moment later, Lu Tingxiang, with a gloomy face, returned to the martial arts field angrily with Sikong Zhu and a group of guards. At this moment, he was holding a half-soaked charcoal in his hand.

Sikong Zhu sent people to clean up the martial arts arena and signaled everyone to sit down again. Lu Tingxiang suppressed his anger and walked slowly to the center of the martial arts arena. He held up the half-sliced ​​charcoal in his hand and said in a deep voice, "Excuse me, there is no fire in my house. It's just that someone deliberately placed a lot of soaked charcoal in the hidden places around Chongwu Courtyard, which caused the billowing smoke. It seems that a friend deliberately wanted to play a joke on me."

The reason why Lu Tingxiang said this was because he was confident that with the strict defense of the Lu Mansion, it was impossible for an outsider to come in and set a fire. This must have been done by someone inside the mansion.

In addition to the Lu family, the rest of the people in the mansion were disciples from various sects who came to participate in the Jinpen Washing Hands Conference. These people were all guests invited by Lu Tingxiang himself, so they were naturally considered friends. Although he said it lightly, Lu Tingxiang was actually very angry in his heart, but it was just that he couldn't get angry because of the situation today.

"Although this move is inappropriate, it is harmless." Lu Tingxiang said insincerely, "It does not affect..."

"Child...my child...who took my child away?"

Before Lu Tingxiang finished speaking, he heard a woman's terrified and hurried cry from the sidelines: "Master, Master... our... our child was just taken away..."

The crying woman was Mo Cen's wife. She raised her hands tremblingly in the air, grabbing randomly, as if she was struggling to snatch something from someone. However, there was nothing in front of her at this moment, and the baby she had just held in her arms was nowhere to be found.

In the chaos, Mo Cen stood in front of them to protect his wife and children, concentrating on waving away the smoke with his sleeves, but he did not pay attention to his wife and children behind him. When he heard his wife's cry, Mo Cen suddenly realized that his child had been taken away by someone in the chaos. At this moment, in addition to surprise, his old eyes were also mixed with indescribable anger.

"What's going on?" Mo Cen grabbed his wife's collar and savagely dragged her to him, his heavy breathing hitting her panicked face. Mo Cen's ferocious appearance was very scary at this moment, and he wanted to eat his wife alive, and he kept shouting: "Where is Hu'er? Where is Hu'er?"

Hu'er was the nickname of Mo Cen's son.

"I don't know... I was just standing here holding Hu'er, and then... someone snatched him away from my arms in the thick smoke..." Mo Cen's wife recalled with tears in her eyes, "That person was very strong and very fast. Before I could hold Hu'er tightly, that person had already snatched Hu'er away and disappeared in the thick smoke..."

"You, a woman, can't even take care of a child. What's the point of me keeping you?" Without waiting for the woman to finish her words, Mo Cen angrily slapped his wife hard in the face, knocking her to the ground immediately, leaving five shocking red fingerprints on her delicate face.

"Senior Mo, please calm down first. Your wife is just a woman. Why do you have to make things difficult for her?" Luo Tianjin advised.

Lu Tingxiang nodded and said, "Yes, someone deliberately set off fireworks first, and then took advantage of the chaos to snatch Senior Mo's child. This is definitely not a coincidence. Someone must have deliberately made trouble." After that, Lu Tingxiang looked around with a gloomy look and said seriously, "Although the world is big, no one can do whatever they want in my Lu Mansion! Although I don't know which friend is secretly making trouble, I have just ordered a strict investigation. Before this matter is fully investigated, not even a fly can fly out of the Lu Mansion."

Hearing what Lu Tingxiang said, everyone present looked at each other in bewilderment. However, when they saw the Mo Cen couple crying bitterly and filled with grief and indignation, they could not say anything more out of moral righteousness. After all, most of the people present were upright and had nothing to fear from the shadows, so why should they fear a strict investigation?
Mo Cen's eyes, trembling with anger, swept across everyone present viciously, and said in a deep voice: "I kindly invited you to come and witness me retiring from the underworld, and I sincerely regard you as my friends. But now someone has ignored my sincerity and deliberately made trouble. I have indeed offended some people in my decades of wandering in the martial arts world, but there is a rule in the martial arts world that 'misfortune does not extend to wife and children'. Now taking advantage of the chaos to snatch my child away is not considered a hero. If you have the guts, stand up. I, Mo Cen, will stand here today and let you deal with me. You can take revenge if you have grievances, but don't embarrass my son. Otherwise, even if you are the king of the world, I will never let you go!"

"No matter who it is, I hope you can take the initiative to stand up and admit it, and hand over Mr. Mo safely." Lu Tingxiang's eyes were like knives, and he looked back and forth among the crowd, and echoed in a deep tone, "As long as you are willing to take the initiative to admit it and return Mr. Mo, I can treat today's matter as a misunderstanding, and promise in front of all the heroes in the world that I will never investigate it further! But if you are stubborn and wait for Lu to track it down, then don't blame me, the Jiangnan Lu Mansion, for being ruthless!"

Lu Tingxiang's words were quite domineering, which inevitably made people feel uncomfortable, but in this place today, he, Lu Tingxiang, did have the qualifications and capital to be domineering.

"Lu Tingxiang, this is not a misunderstanding!"

When the martial arts arena was in complete silence, a playful and sharp sneer suddenly sounded on the roof of Chongwu Hall. Everyone was startled and looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a masked man in black quickly appear on the roof. The man in black held a cold dagger in his right hand, and in his left hand, he held a baby whose life or death was unknown. That was Mo Cen's son.

"Put down my child..."

Mo Cen was eager to save his son, and he was furious when he saw this scene and wanted to rush forward, but the man in black had a playful look in his eyes, and then he put the dagger in his hand directly on the baby's neck, which frightened Mo Cen so much that he stopped in his tracks. He was so nervous that he staggered a few times and almost fell to the ground.

"Who are you? Why are you trying to steal my baby?" Mo Cen's old eyes were filled with sadness and anger, but he did not dare to act rashly, fearing that the man in black might hurt the baby's life again. "I have been living in seclusion for many years, and I should not have provoked anyone. You..." "Haha..."

Seeing Mo Cen's helpless and pitiful appearance, the man in black laughed unscrupulously and said, "Mo Cen, others are getting smarter as they grow older, but why are you getting more confused? Can't you guess my intention?"

"Asshole!" Si Kongzhu shouted in a deep voice, "Where did you come from, you bastard, to dare to run wild in the Jiangnan Lu Mansion? Hand you back to Master Mo, and I will leave you with a whole body. Otherwise, I will make sure you live and die!"

The man in black sneered nonchalantly, and the dagger in his hand moved closer to the baby's throat again, saying, "Mo Cen, I won't waste my words with you. Hand over the Wind and Rain Diagram, and I will return my son to you."

"You really came here for the Jingfenghuayutu." Lu Tingxiang said coldly, and then pointed at the people present with his finger ring, saying, "Today, all the heroes in the world are gathered here. You are really bold. Do you think you can leave alive?"

"You are such a fool. You didn't even pick a good time to steal the map, and now you are seeking death today." Qin Da mocked, "You can't take the map, but you have to give up your life today!"

Master Yuankong of Shaolin said, "It's a sin, it's a sin! Young Master Mo is young and ignorant, and has nothing to do with the grudges in the martial arts world. Why do you have to embarrass an innocent child?"

"That's right!" Elder Gu Chen of Wudang nodded and agreed, "If you return Master Mo now, I can ask Master Lu to spare your life. Otherwise, you will definitely die today. No matter how powerful your martial arts are, can you still defeat all the masters present today? Life or death, you should know which one to choose."

The man in black sneered, "If I was afraid of death, I wouldn't have come! If you have the guts, just kill me now. It would be worth it if the young master of the Mo family were to be buried with me."

"you wanna die!"

"Come on, let's see who dies first!"

The man in black was not afraid at all in the face of the threat from the gang. Instead, his eyes became fierce, and his right hand was about to cut the sharp dagger into the baby's pink neck. Looking at his resolute and bloodthirsty look, it seemed that he was really determined to die together with Mo Cen's son.

"No! Don't be impulsive!"

The provocation of the man in black had already triggered the public anger. Disciples from various sects drew their swords and were ready to kill the man in black. However, Mo Cen was the first to dissuade them loudly, "Everyone, I know you all mean well, but my son is still in his hands and his life is in danger. I beg you not to act impulsively, otherwise my son's life will be in danger!"

"Mr. Mo, this man has trespassed into our Lu Mansion and is already guilty of a capital crime. Now he is even provoking us in public and treating all the heroes in the world as if they are nothing. If we don't kill him, how can our Jiangnan Lu Mansion explain to the people of the world?" Sikong Zhu said to Mo Cen in a stiff tone with cold eyes.

The man in black said coldly, "Mo Cen, if you don't want your son to die, then tell them to put down their weapons. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Mo Cen's heart skipped a beat when he heard that. He turned to Lu Tingxiang with a pleading look and begged, "My dear nephew, you know how important Hu'er is to me. He is my life. Even if I have to sacrifice my own life, I will never let Hu'er get hurt. I beg you, I beg you, for the sake of my brotherhood with your father, don't make things difficult for him first. Let's discuss everything after Hu'er is safe, okay? I beg you! I beg you..." Mo Cen was so anxious that tears were streaming down his face. As he spoke, he knelt down in front of Lu Tingxiang with a plop and kowtowed heavily like pounding garlic.

Lu Tingxiang was stunned upon seeing this, and hurriedly leaned over to help Mo Cen up, saying with a bitter face: "Senior Mo, please get up quickly, you are really embarrassing me!" Then he turned around and signaled the Lu family guards and disciples from other sects to put away their swords.

Luo Tianjin looked at the man in black with suspicion and said, "You dared to sneak into the Jiangnan Lu Mansion alone and remained calm in front of so many masters. I really admire your courage. Since you have such courage, you must be a master. In this case, why don't you follow the rules and fight with him? As long as you can beat Liu Xunyi, you will naturally have a chance to get the Jingfenghuayu Tu. Why do you have to do such a mean thing? As long as you are willing to let Mr. Mo go and fight with him, I, Luo Tianjin, am willing to guarantee in the name of the Xianwang Mansion that you will be treated fairly, and at least your life can be saved."

"That's right!" Liu Xunyi responded quickly, "Since you want the Wind and Rain Painting, why don't you come down and teach me? Wouldn't it be better to win the painting in a fair and square way? Now you are using a weak child as a hostage, which is really unworthy of a man."

The man in black glanced at everyone silently, and finally cast a sinister gaze on Mo Cen, saying, "Mo Cen, are you going to hand over the Jingfenghuayu Tu or not?"

"Although you are not afraid of death, you don't want to die either." Luo Tianjin ignored the black-clothed man's threat to Mo Cen and spoke to himself, "If you really wanted to die, you wouldn't threaten Mr. Mo. In the final analysis, you still want to survive. You should know that even if you get the Jingfenghuayu Tu, it is impossible for you to escape unscathed from so many masters by yourself."

The man in black clearly showed annoyance in his eyes as he watched Luo Tianjin's relentless attack. He snorted angrily, tightened his grip, and the dagger cut through the baby's skin, causing a trace of bright red blood to ooze out instantly.

"Mo Cen, do you think I'm joking with you? Since you don't want to hand over the Wind and Rain Map, then get ready to collect your son's body!"

"Don't..." Seeing this scene, Mo Cen and his wife were immediately frightened and pale. Before Luo Tianjin and others could speak again, Mrs. Mo Cen screamed and fainted. Mo Cen looked at Lu Tingxiang with complicated and bitter eyes, while Lu Tingxiang's face was as solemn as his. Obviously, he had no other good ideas at the moment.

After pondering for a moment, Mo Cen couldn't help but let out a sigh, and his whole body collapsed to the ground like a deflated ball, feeling disheartened, with empty eyes, and he could only hold back his sobs.

"If you release my son, the Shocking Wind and Rain Painting will be yours..."

……

(End of this chapter)