Chapter 34 The Beginning of the Internal Strife

"Brother Tan was poisoned by his rivals, and his bones are not yet cold. This revenge must be taken. However, Chen Feng is frighteningly brave and his troops are strong. I know all of you brothers are deeply grieved, but this matter needs to be discussed in the long term."

Inside the heavily guarded Cangshui Stronghold's main hall, the leaders were holding a meeting to discuss their next move.

The position of leader, which originally belonged to Tan Peng, was now occupied by Yan Yuan, the second-in-command, who was using a tone of shared hatred to rally the crowd.

The other leaders were still sitting below, but compared to the past, quite a few seats were empty.

Yan Yuan spoke for a while, then said solemnly: "Chen Feng is eyeing us covetously. The lives of us brothers are tied to this place. We cannot have internal strife. Anyone who causes trouble is disregarding the lives of all the brothers! I will temporarily take over as the leader of the stronghold to issue orders. After we survive this difficulty, we can discuss other matters."

Upon hearing this, the others cupped their fists in agreement on the surface, but in reality, they had different thoughts.

The stronghold had changed, and people were in a state of panic. Among the leaders present, some were supporters of Yan Yuan's rise to power. The act of plotting against Tan Peng was a conspiracy of these people.

Others were neutral leaders who had not participated in the plot to harm the chief. They were the object of Yan Yuan's appeasement. They still needed to contribute to resisting Chen Feng, otherwise there would be no one available, so he needed to win them over.

Many neutral leaders knew that things were strange, but they did not dare to object rashly, so they had to agree with him for the time being.

Tan Peng's trusted aides were not here at the moment. Yan Yuan and others had taken the lead and placed them under house arrest. He knew that these people would not easily compromise and were all destabilizing factors.

Tan Peng had always refused to be recruited, blocking the path for many brothers. The faction led by Yan Yuan had long been dissatisfied. Now that they were at odds with Chen Feng, they did not want to follow Tan Peng down a dead end.

In their opinion, Tan Peng's refusal to rely on the imperial court was simply an incomprehensible act.

Everyone was risking their lives; wasn't it all for wealth and glory? Now that the imperial court had extended an olive branch, why was Tan Peng abandoning the broad road and insisting on taking a narrow path?

Wasn't this delaying the brothers' future!

So they contacted the imperial court's envoy in private. After discussing it, they finally decided to go all the way and remove Tan Peng, the stumbling block, usurp the throne, and accept the imperial court's recruitment.

Plotting to harm their sworn brother was an act that could not be tolerated in the pugilistic world, so naturally they could not admit that they had done it. Fortunately, there was an external enemy like Chen Feng, so they blamed everything on him, which could also arouse the subordinates' sense of shared hatred.

These people chose to be recruited not only because they coveted fame and fortune and pursued orthodoxy, but also because they were afraid of Chen Feng.

They had all seen Chen Feng's power and had no confidence in defeating this opponent on their own. Since they would be enemies anyway, they might as well get help from the imperial court.

The deed was already done, and they were not afraid that the imperial court would abandon them after they had served their purpose. They felt that Chen Feng was a greater threat to the government than them, so even if the imperial court had other ideas, they would continue to support them until Chen Feng was defeated.

Just then, a lackey rushed in anxiously, reporting that Chen Feng showed signs of a large-scale invasion.

As soon as he finished speaking, the faces of the leaders present tightened.

Yan Yuan said in a deep voice: "With a formidable enemy at our doorstep, all brothers must not panic. Mobilize the troops to meet the enemy."

He was not surprised by this. He had expected that the internal strife in the stronghold would attract Chen Feng's attack.

However, the two sides had only fought each other some time ago. Chen Feng's side had not fully reorganized his army and was still a tired force. Even if another war broke out, it was estimated that neither side could do anything to the other.

So in his opinion, although it was a gamble to usurp the throne at this juncture, there was still a chance of winning. As long as he stabilized his own internal affairs and resisted Chen Feng, there should be no problem.

——As long as they held on for a while, dragged the battle into a long-term war, they could wait for the imperial court's assistance, and he would be firmly in his position by then, and all his plans would be completely successful!

Yan Yuan calculated secretly.

…

As the saying goes, speed is essential in war. Taking advantage of the enemy stronghold's internal strife, Zhou Jing gathered his troops and navy and attacked the enemy's territory with lightning speed.

The army advanced mightily and quickly confronted the enemy at the crucial passes.

However, the enemy had deployed heavy troops here and took advantage of the terrain to adopt a defensive posture, making it difficult for the army to conquer for a while.

One day, Zhou Jing was discussing the war with the leaders in the camp when his men reported that someone had come to join them, a leader from the enemy's stronghold.

Zhou Jing immediately met with this man, who told him that he was dissatisfied with the fact that Tan Peng was harmed by villains, so he came to join them.

This man offered a plan to act as an inside agent, so that he would not have to be on the same sinking ship as those people, and he could also avenge Tan Peng.

After thinking it over and over, Zhou Jing decided to adopt the plan and act accordingly.

With internal cooperation, they easily captured the enemy's pass.

After that, the army went straight in, breaking through the stronghold and camp all the way, unstoppable, and plunged straight into the hinterland.

Yan Yuan's troops retreated steadily, and more and more leaders turned to join Zhou Jing's command. For a time, they had no power to fight back.

Although the imperial court wanted to help, Zhou Jing acted too quickly and they could not intervene.

The imperial envoy who had participated in the secret plot to harm Tan Peng was even more inwardly cursing.

He had not completed all the procedures yet, and Yan Yuan and his group had already taken action, which made him secretly scold the outlaws for being unworthy of scheming, being too hasty, and acting too quickly.

After a long battle, Zhou Jing's power grew like a snowball, and soon forced Yan Yuan and others to a dead end.

Yan Yuan and others could only retreat to the main stronghold with the remaining troops, struggling to support themselves and stubbornly resist.

After thinking about it, Zhou Jing did not take a forced attack, but let the enemy leaders who had come to join him shout in front of the battle day after day, repeatedly saying that Tan Peng's death was due to poisoning by Yan Yuan and others.

After half a month of this, an internal conflict finally broke out in the enemy's stronghold. Some leaders tied up Yan Yuan, opened the gate, and surrendered the entire stronghold.

In the camp, Zhou Jing sat in the main seat, and many leaders gathered.

Yan Yuan was tied up and brought in by the lackeys. Seeing those "traitors" who had defected to Zhou Jing, he couldn't help but glare at them, gnashing his teeth with hatred.

Seeing this, Zhou Jing immediately slammed the table and shouted:

"A defeated general, how dare you be so arrogant?"

Yan Yuan turned to look at Zhou Jing, knowing that there was no hope of survival, and said with a miserable smile: "It's just a matter of the victor being the king and the loser being the bandit. It's just a knife anyway, kill me quickly!"

"You want to die, but it's not that easy! You killed Tan Peng and poured dirty water on me. Quickly tell me the truth about the reason!"

Zhou Jing asked in a cold voice.

"It was you who poisoned Tan, don't talk nonsense here!" Yan Yuan refused to admit it.

Hearing this, the leaders present were furious and scolded him.

"Shameless villain, really hateful!"

"You are about to die, and you still dare to distort the truth!"

Zhou Jing waved his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet, and then snorted coldly:

"I, Chen, have good martial arts skills, as everyone knows. Why would I need to use such despicable means? If you tell the truth, I will give you a quick death, otherwise there are ways to deal with you, so that you can't live or die!"

"Come on if you have the guts. If I frown, I'm not a good man!"

Yan Yuan shouted with his neck stuck out.

"You won't shed tears until you see the coffin!"

Zhou Jing suddenly stood up, came to this man, and pressed his finger on an acupoint on his chest.

Yan Yuan only felt a numbness in his chest, and then a strange force rushed into his body, wandering all over his body, and suddenly a bone-deep itching and pain arose, which was unbearable.

With a thud, he fell to the ground, screaming loudly, arching around, wishing he could tear his flesh apart if his hands and feet were not tied.

Zhou Jing said expressionlessly:

"This is the Bone-Penetrating Force of the Xisha School. Those who are hit by it will feel itchy in their bones and be in so much pain that they want to die. It will take half an hour to subside, but when I use it, the effect can last for about an hour. If you continue to distort the truth, I will give you one every hour to see if your bones are really that hard."

In the past few months, although he had been fighting all the time, he had not wasted his martial arts practice. He had read all the martial arts secrets submitted by the various schools and picked some interesting ones to practice.

The martial arts talent of Star Realm Apostle Chen Feng had been enhanced before, reaching the deep purple level. These martial arts moves were almost mastered at a single touch and learned very quickly.

Now he can be regarded as possessing the superior martial arts of various schools. He can use either internal force or martial arts aura to perform them, and the latter is more powerful.

Although these newly learned martial arts moves are not particularly high in level, with the blessing of [Martial Arts Genius], the actual effect far exceeds the level it should have. No matter what move he uses, its power will be greatly increased.

"I confess, I confess! Give me a quick death!"

Yan Yuan screamed repeatedly, not at all like the iron-willed man he thought he was. He couldn't bear it and begged for mercy, explaining the cause and effect of poisoning Tan Peng like a bamboo tube pouring out beans.

After listening, the leaders who had originally worked for Tan Peng were furious and cursed loudly.

"Good thief, Tan was a hero all his life, but he was planted in your hands!"

"In order to be recruited, you dare to murder the chief and usurp power. How dare you say that we are traitors?!"

Everyone was indignant.

Zhou Jing heard this, looked around at everyone, and said loudly:

"This is clearly the imperial court's trick to sow discord. Everyone has seen it, this is the end of being recruited! Although Tan Peng was my enemy, he had hard bones, and I admire him too. I have long been at odds with the imperial court and there is absolutely no possibility of being recruited. If any of you brothers are not happy, you can leave on your own, and I won't stop you."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone was in an uproar and noisy.

"What are you talking about, Brother? Since we follow the chief, we will never have any second thoughts!"

"Does the chief look down on us brothers? How can we be like Yan Yuan and other rats, who are greedy for wealth?"

The leaders present expressed their loyalty loudly.

Zhou Jing heard this and laughed loudly, saying three good words in a row, and then pointed at Yan Yuan, who was rolling on the ground, and shouted angrily:

"This kind of disloyal person deserves to be chopped into mincemeat, but since I promised him a quick death, I will not break my promise. Come on, drag him down and cut him down with one knife, beheading him for public display to pay tribute to Tan Peng's spirit in heaven!"

"Thank you, thank you!"

Yan Yuan burst into tears, only asking for a quick death.

The lackeys stepped forward, escorted Yan Yuan out, and soon the sound of beheading and execution came from outside the tent.

Zhou Jing didn't say anything and also beheaded Yan Yuan and his accomplices to sacrifice the flag, successfully taking over the power left by Tan Peng.

From then on, Huyang was pacified, and one force dominated.

The rise of the "World-Wrecker" Chen Feng was shockingly fast. In just one year, he eliminated the Three Flood Dragons of Huyang, gathered seven or eighty thousand people, and became one of the top bandits in the southern pugilistic world, making people tremble with fear.

With his power growing again, he did not launch a large-scale attack on the trembling prefectures of Huyang, but instead recuperated and began to focus on development.

Although he did not take further action, his influence in dominating Huyang quickly spread to all parts of the country.

His successive victories in Huyang shocked the world, especially his "water" ability to overturn rivers and seas, which was simply appalling.

Thus, following "Life-Reaping Yama" and "World-Wrecker," he gained a new title that was widely circulated and talked about in the pugilistic world—

"Dragon King" Chen Feng!

In the eyes of the common people, who else but the Dragon King can suppress the "Three Flood Dragons"?

As for whether this would offend the emperor...do we bandits care about this?

And Chen Feng's forces were also respected on the road. People compared him to the Heavenly King Stronghold in the north, calling him the "Dragon King Stronghold"!

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Thanks to Qi Pei jia's short, weak, and universally known Alliance Master's 100,000 reward!

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