Chapter 566: Fire on All Sides
October 21st, nightfall.

Tonight, as usual, Tianxiang Tower in Luoyang City is bustling with people and traffic, business is booming, and customers are coming in droves.

In the brightly lit lobby, waiters were running around, calling orders and serving dishes, while guests gathered in groups of three or five, toasting each other with glasses.

The wine glasses were flowing, all the food and drinks were served, the aroma of food and wine filled the air, and there was a hustle and bustle upstairs and downstairs.

"Wine and song, life geometry……"

"fart!"

"Bang! Bang!"

Suddenly, a very discordant shouting and cursing was heard from the bustling Tianxiang Tower.

Then, seven or eight men stood up aggressively, and one of them smashed the wine glass in his hand to the guests at another table, immediately smashing the cups, plates, bowls and chopsticks on the other table into pieces.

"What are you doing?" Several young men dressed as scholars were frightened by the sudden wine glasses and their faces changed. They stood up and dodged.

"What are you doing? I hate you scholars who are just showing off their literary talent. You are just hypocritical and just talk nonsense."

"What does our reciting of poems have to do with you?" A young man was indignant and refuted, "Confucius said to become a martyr, Mencius said to pursue justice. You are so overbearing, how can you be a gentleman..."

"court death!"

Before he could finish his words, a burly man overturned the table and rushed towards the young gentlemen, cursing. Amid screams from all around, the two sides started fighting.

"Stop fighting! Stop fighting now!"

Despite the repeated dissuasion from the waiters of Tianxianglou, the group of people did not restrain themselves, but became even more rampant. Not only did they beat several young masters, but they also turned their attention to the diners who were watching the fun, beating and scolding them, acting extremely arrogantly.

In the blink of an eye, the once harmonious Tianxiang Tower was filled with curses and fighting.

"Where did this lunatic come from? How dare he run wild in Luoyang City? You know this is the territory of the Northern Sage King..."

"I don't care about the Northern Sage King or the Southern Sage King. If I don't like them, I will beat them up!"

In a blink of an eye, Tianxiang Tower was in a mess, and the guests were running around in panic.

Occasionally, there were brave guests who wanted to go up and argue with them, but unexpectedly, this group of lunatics pulled out sinister steel knives from their bags and chopped at everyone they saw without saying a word.

In an instant, a strong smell of blood filled the Tianxiang Tower.

"Quick! Go to the Xianwang Mansion and call for help..."

"You're not going anywhere!"

A ferocious-looking man blocked the door with a knife, and chopped down every one that came. If two came, he would chop them both.

His ferocious sword skills and sharp changes of moves showed that this man was a thorough martial artist.

In just a cup of tea, Tianxiang Tower was turned into a hell on earth. This group of maniacs were chasing and hacking the panicked guests who were running around with their heads in their hands like crazy. They attacked with impunity and killed without mercy.

For a moment, screams, wails, curses, pleas for mercy... came one after another, endlessly.

……

South of the city, Donghai Teahouse.

"Where is the shopkeeper?"

A shout attracted the curious eyes of many tea drinkers.

A burly man in coarse linen clothes, holding a pile of tea bags in his hands, stood at the door with a frown on his face. Behind him, there were 20 to 30 people dressed in the same way.

Seeing this, a waiter quickly stepped forward and said with a bow, "The shopkeeper has to go out for something. What can you do for me, gentlemen?"

"The tea you sell is bad." The man threw the tea bag in his hand to the ground and said unhappily, "Not only does it not have any fragrance when I drink it, but it is extremely sour and astringent, and it is difficult to swallow."

"Is there such a thing?" The waiter picked up the tea bag doubtfully, put it under his nose and sniffed it gently, and said with a smile, "Sir, the tea is obviously fragrant, how can it be sour and astringent..."

"Stop talking nonsense! Who is drinking it, you or me? If I say it's sour, it's sour!" the man yelled, "Don't think that you can do whatever you want and sell inferior goods as good ones just because you have the support of the Xianwang Mansion behind the Donghai Teahouse. You want to bully customers because of your big store, but you can't do it!"

As the man complained, the twenty or thirty people behind him couldn't help but echo him.

"No! No!" The waiter was worried that the matter would get out of hand, so he waved his hands and said, "Gentlemen, calm down. I am just discussing the matter..."

At this point, the waiter saw that the man was still angry and saw that more and more people were gathering around him. He was afraid that the teahouse's business would be affected, so he gave in and said, "Since you guests are not used to our tea, I will refund you the tea."

After that, the waiter fiddled with the tea bags and calculated, "One bag of tea is fifty coins, and a bundle of four bags is two hundred coins..."

The man interrupted, "Your tea made us sick, but you don't have to pay for the medicine? What about the lost wages?"

The waiter was stunned and asked in astonishment: "According to what you want, how much do you want?"

Hearing this, the man slowly stretched out a finger and shook it a few times in front of the waiter.

"One or two?"

"One hundred taels!"

"hiss!"

When these words were spoken, not only the waiter was shocked, but even the guests in the teahouse gasped.

Until this moment, everyone finally realized that this group of people did not come to reason at all, but came to deliberately find trouble.

The smile on the waiter's face gradually disappeared, replaced by a look of contempt and coldness. He said dissatisfiedly: "If you want to blackmail me, I'm afraid you have come to the wrong place. I kindly advise you to leave quickly before our boss comes back, so as to avoid any consequences!" "What? You don't want to pay?" The man sneered, with a fierce light in his eyes.

"What do you think?" The waiter challenged without fear, "If blackmail fails, do you want to rob me?"

"boom!"

Before he finished speaking, the man suddenly raised his foot and fiercely kicked the waiter in the abdomen. The kick was so powerful that the waiter, who was caught off guard, was kicked from the door to the counter.

"Cough...poof!"

The guy who fell to the ground in a mess coughed violently a few times, then spit out blood, his head tilted, and he was motionless.

As if disturbed by the noise in the lobby, twenty or thirty thugs armed with sticks quickly rushed down from the teahouse.

"You came just in time, and I can stretch my muscles while I'm here!"

There was no unnecessary nonsense, and the two sides started fighting as soon as they met.

Don't be fooled by the shabby appearance of these men. Their attacks were extraordinary. They beat those thugs to a pulp with almost no effort.

"As expected, the store is big and bullies the customers!" The leading man stepped on the chest of a thug and sneered, "Now I don't want a hundred taels, I want ten thousand taels, and ten thousand taels per person! If you don't give it to me, I will smash your black store today!"

Having said that, he didn't even give the accountant a chance to answer. He just picked up a bench and started smashing things in the teahouse.

How could the tea drinkers have expected such a situation? They were immediately frightened and afraid of getting themselves into trouble, so they even forgot to pay for their tea and fled in a hurry.

……

In the east of the city, there is the famous Ling Yayuan.

"Someone come quickly! Mr. Xu is dying!"

Accompanied by a terrified scream, a dishevelled woman stumbled out of the room on the second floor, shouting loudly downstairs without any reserve.

"what happened?"

Downstairs, the heavily made-up madam was greeting guests with great interest. Suddenly, she heard a cry from upstairs. Her face immediately changed and she looked up and scolded, "Daughter, why are you yelling about this? Tell the waiter to throw the man out through the back door. Don't let him die at home."

A drunken regular customer joked, "Madam, you've caused a death here. Who will dare to patronize here in the future?"

"Puh, puh, puh!" The madam waved her peach blossom fan and said with a gloomy face, "Good luck, he is not dead yet! We will throw him out later, and whether he is dead or alive is none of our business."

"It's said that 'whores are heartless and actors are disloyal'. Today, it seems that this is indeed true!" Another guest teased, "Your girl was just being affectionate with me, how could she disregard my life and death in the blink of an eye?"

"Oh my!" the madam said coquettishly, "Master, please don't make fun of us. The girls in Mingling Yayuan are all weak and powerless. They can play the piano and sing songs easily, but who can bear the consequences of a death?"

"Oh! Young Master Sun is dying, someone come and help him!"

Before the madam finished her words, a woman's scream was heard from another room.

"What happened again?" The madam complained angrily, "Daughters, can you be more careful and don't cause trouble for me!"

"Master Qian is no longer able to do it."

"Uncle Zhou is also..."

For a moment, cries of panic came one after another like mushrooms after rain.

"With so many people dying at the same time, it must be haunted!"

Someone shouted loudly, which immediately frightened all the guests and made them panic and pale.

One by one, no longer caring about the temptations of wine and women, they rushed to get up and leave. No matter how the madam tried to keep them, she could not stop their hasty steps.

"What on earth is going on?" The madam looked at the crying girls in bewilderment, and said in astonishment, "Normally, this kind of thing only happens once in a year or two, why are they happening one after another tonight..."

"Boss, something seems wrong!"

The man who had just led his men to throw Mr. Xu out the back door ran to the madam in a hurry and whispered, "I saw Mr. Xu's face turned blue. It seems that he was not suffering from a stroke, but... poisoned."

"Poisoned?" The madam was horrified and asked in disbelief, "How is it possible?"

"It must be poisoning!" a girl upstairs cried, "Otherwise it wouldn't be such a coincidence that so many guests got into trouble at the same time."

"No, no!" At this moment, the madam gradually realized the seriousness of the matter. She was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. She paced back and forth in the hall, muttering to herself, "So many people died at once. There will definitely be a lot of people causing trouble tomorrow, and the government will definitely investigate... It's likely that someone deliberately framed me and forced me to close Mingling Yayuan..."

"Boss, could it be that the other brothels in the city are jealous of our booming business, and therefore..."

"No way? The rules set by the Northern Sage King state that everyone should follow their own path and rely on their own abilities. No one can cheat or cause trouble." The madam said anxiously, "For so many years, everyone has always lived in peace. Why would they suddenly start a fight?"

"That……"

"Never mind!" The madam made up her mind and ordered the man, "Throw all the bodies out, the farther the better. Then close the door tightly and don't accept any guests for now to avoid any unnecessary trouble. All the girls stay in their rooms, and no one is allowed to go out without permission until the matter is resolved."

"I see." The man quickly responded, "Then...what about you, the shopkeeper?"

"Me? Where else can I go? Of course I should go to the Xianwang Mansion to ask for clarification." The madam said upset, "We take money from people and help them get rid of disasters. The Xianwang of the North takes so much gold and silver from us every year, shouldn't he help us find out about this matter? No, no, this matter cannot be delayed, I have to go now!"

After saying this, the madam hurriedly gave a few instructions and then walked out of the garden without looking back.

……

(End of this chapter)