48: Chapter 48 Lucky Money

Red candles shone brightly, and clamor filled the sky.

The Li family residence was adorned with lanterns and streamers everywhere, red silk like fire, reflecting a festive red glow across the night sky.

Amidst the Li family's intense preparations, the wedding day finally arrived.

Guests were like clouds, filling the front courtyard's main hall and the side corridors, their boisterous laughter almost lifting the roof.

It goes without saying that the prominent gentry, wealthy households, and neighbors from Panshi City were all present.

Even the chief escorts from well-known escort agencies and martial arts gym masters from neighboring cities rode over, drawn by Steward Li's reputation as a great philanthropist and the generous gifts he offered.

Adding a touch of Jianghu flair to this

In the center of the main hall, two Dragon and Phoenix wedding candles, as thick as a child's arm, burned brightly.

Under the red light, Steward Li, dressed in a festive scarlet steward's robe and a hat adorned with flowers, smiled so wide his teeth were visible.

His plump face was shiny with oil, as if covered in a thick layer of grease.

Beside him, the bride, Qiu Shuzhen, wore an intricately luxurious Phoenix Robe of crimson palace attire.

Golden threads woven into phoenixes shimmered under the candlelight, magnificent and extraordinary.

A golden brocade veil embroidered with a golden Phoenix covered her face.

Only the delicate lines of her jaw and a hint of her cherry lips were visible, yet her posture remained graceful, drawing murmurs of admiration from all the guests.

However, beneath that veil, the depths of her watery eyes concealed not shyness and sweetness, but an ineffable complexity.

Her gaze occasionally swept towards the side of the hall, seemingly trying to pierce through the clamor to find something.

Beside a pillar in the hall, Ding Qing stood like a reef at the edge of the surging crowd, his arms crossed.

He wore a black military uniform, black boots on the ground, and his hat brim was pulled low, the shadow almost covering his entire face.

Within three feet of him, there seemed to be an invisible barrier, and the lively guests instinctively avoided this area.

Leaving behind an incongruous cold and murderous aura.

The high-pitched chanting for bowing to Heaven and Earth rang out, with the master of ceremonies drawing out the words.

Steward Li was beaming, about to lead the bride in a graceful bow.

"Wait! Steward Li's great joyous occasion, our Black Wind Stockade has also come to ask for a cup of wedding wine and share in the good fortune. I wonder if you would grant us the honor?"

A sinister voice, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, yet with an eerie penetrating power, instantly suppressed the hall's clamor, clearly drilling into everyone's ears.

The entire hall suddenly fell silent.

The music stopped abruptly, and the guests' laughter froze on their faces, as if they had been choked.

Everyone's gaze, in unison, turned towards the main entrance.

Several figures emanating Evil Qi were seen parting the crowd and entering the wedding hall as if no one else was there.

The leader was actually a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar.

He was pale and beardless, with a gaunt face, and a pair of slender eyes slightly narrowed, with more white than black, revealing an uncomfortable gloom.

He wore a faded blue cloth gown, with a foot-long Judge's Brush hanging from his waist, and his steps were silent.

Although he looked clean, he carried a cold, sinister aura like a scavenger.

Behind him followed seven or eight burly men, each with a steel saber at their waist, their eyes fierce.

Like hungry wolves ready to devour people, they brazenly scanned the guests in the hall, especially the well-dressed female relatives.

Those gazes were filled with naked possessiveness.

"Black... Black Wind Stockade?!"

Someone gasped in alarm, their voice filled with uncontrollable fear.

"It's 'Pale-faced Yama' Third Chieftain Sun!"

Guests who recognized the newcomers turned ashen, instinctively backing away.

Black Wind Stockade, outside Panshi City, was infamous.

This 'Pale-faced Yama' Third Chieftain Sun was especially known for his ruthlessness and hidden malice behind a smiling face.

Though he looked like a scholar, the lives he had taken far outnumbered those of all the brutes in the stockade combined.

His insidious and cunning Judge's Brush technique, in particular, was terrifying.

Steward Li's smile instantly froze.

The color drained from his face in a flash, and his plump body trembled slightly.

He opened his mouth, making a gurgling sound in his throat, but couldn't utter a single word.

The once high-spirited great philanthropist was now left with only fear.

That dazzling wedding robe now made him look even more like a grotesque sacrifice.

The housekeeper and the head guard, Wang Tieshan, also turned pale, their hands on the hilts of their sabers and staffs.

However, their eyes were filled with apprehension and fear; no one dared to step forward.

The festive atmosphere in the hall vanished, leaving only a deathly silence and suffocating chill.

The pale-faced scholar, who called himself Third Chieftain Sun, slowly strolled forward.

His gloomy gaze swept over Steward Li's plump body and Qiu Shuzhen's dazzling Phoenix coronet and robes, and a chilling, fake smile pulled at the corner of his mouth:

"Steward Li, congratulations! The bride is truly a Heavenly Immortal, Steward, you are truly blessed!"

His voice was sharp, like a dull knife scraping bone.

"My brothers of Black Wind Stockade are accustomed to hardship in the mountains. Hearing of such a joyous occasion for you, Steward, we also wanted to share in your good fortune, and incidentally..."

"...ask Steward for some auspicious silver to spend, for good luck, and so our brothers can return and have a bowl of rough wine, sharing in your good fortune, Steward. What do you think...?"

His words seemed polite, even a bit playful, but he emphasized the words

That undisguised intent of extortion, like cold venom, instantly permeated the entire wedding hall.

The burly bandits behind him cooperated by letting out strange, cackling laughs.

Their gazes scanned the guests even more brazenly, especially the female relatives brought by several wealthy merchants, scaring them pale and trembling.

Steward Li's entire plump body trembled, cold sweat soaking his inner garments.

He looked at Wang Tieshan and the guards behind him for help.

But those men, facing the infamous Black Wind Stockade, were already terrified, their eyes darting away, not daring to meet his gaze.

He instinctively looked in Ding Qing's direction again.

Ding Qing remained motionless.

The shadow of his hat brim was deep, and no one could see his expression, only his crossed-arm posture, carrying an unchanging steadiness.

As if the unwelcome guest disrupting the wedding banquet was no different from the noisy crows on the tree branches in the courtyard.

Steward Li's heart sank to the bottom. He wasn't sure if Ding Qing would intervene in this matter.

"Sun... Third Chieftain Sun..."

Steward Li finally squeezed out a voice, heavily trembling, a smile uglier than a cry forced onto his plump face.

"To... Today is my humble wedding day, and for Third Chieftain to honor us with your presence brings glory to my humble abode... Auspicious silver is negotiable, negotiable..."

"Housekeeper, quickly! Go fetch..."

"Wait."

A low, hoarse voice, like two pieces of raw iron grinding together, not loud, but instantly overriding Steward Li's fawning and the bandits' strange laughter, clearly echoed through the silent hall.

Everyone's gaze, as if pulled by invisible strings, instantly fixed on the figure who had been silent as a mountain, cradling an infant.

Ding Qing slowly raised his head.

Beneath the shadow of his hat brim, those eyes, like the depths of a lava abyss, finally revealed themselves.

His cold gaze, like a tangible blade, precisely impaled the face of the pale-faced scholar, Third Chieftain Sun.

There was no anger, no killing intent.

Only an indifference that chilled one to the bone, like a beast observing an insect that had wandered into its territory.

"You want money?" Ding Qing's voice sounded again, still low, but with a cold dominance that crushed everything. "You can have it."

His left hand, cradling the swaddled infant, remained motionless, but his right hand slowly rose, reaching towards a saucer holding guest tea cups on the nearby wedding table.

He extended two fingers and lightly tapped the edge of a delicate porcelain teacup.

Clink!

A crisp, pleasant sound, like a jade chime, rang out.

The next instant, at the source of that crisp sound, a sudden change occurred!

"Puff!"

A dull sound like tearing rotten leather, accompanied by a shrill, distorted scream, suddenly burst forth!

Third Chieftain Sun's outstretched right hand, which seemed to be signaling his subordinates to prepare to collect money, suddenly had a thumb-sized hole appear in its palm without warning.

Blood spurted out like a fountain!

The edges of the wound were charred black, as if the flesh had been instantly burned through by an invisible flame.

A smell of burning flesh instantly permeated the air.

"Ah—!"

The sinister smile on Third Chieftain Sun's face instantly twisted into extreme pain and horror.

He clutched his bleeding right hand, staggering backward.

His slender eyes widened in agony and disbelief, staring fixedly at Ding Qing, as if he had seen a living ghost.

The bandit henchmen behind him were also scared Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering by this sudden turn of events, their strange laughter abruptly ceasing.

It was replaced by gasps of horror and the clanging sound of weapons being drawn.

The guests in the hall were all stunned into immobility by this bloody scene, forgetting even to gasp.

The main hall was so silent one could hear the crackling of the burning candles.

Ding Qing slowly retracted the two fingers that had tapped the cup's rim, as if merely flicking away a speck of dust.

His cold gaze swept over Third Chieftain Sun, who was convulsing from extreme pain, and his voice was like wind blowing from the icy Hell:

"Is this Auspicious Money enough?"