Zhu Chengwan finally no longer had to carry a broom around all day like before.
The title of the Zhu Family’s eldest son returned to him once more.
But after experiencing this wave of ups and downs, Zhu Chengwan became much more mature than before.
The previous air of arrogance and frivolity was swept away, replaced by steadiness and experience.
For instance, at this moment, he was facing several martial arts hall masters visiting his home, dealing with them with poise, speaking calmly, and maintaining a warm and friendly attitude. However, whenever matters of interest were brought up, he simply did not respond.
After chatting like this for a while, seeing that Zhu Chengwan didn’t speak a word of truth, these masters could only reluctantly take their leave.
Once they were gone, the smile on Zhu Chengwan’s face gradually faded, and he spat angrily on the ground.
"Bah, a bunch of heartless people, trying to incite our Zhu Family to go against Young Hero Zhao with them. Am I crazy or just foolish?"
"Alright, Chengwan, these guys are being forced into a corner, otherwise they wouldn’t come to us."
As the voice sounded, Zhu Zihao walked out from behind the screen.
Now he had shed his previous shabby look, dressed richly, with a rosy complexion, even his once shrunken belly had rounded out again.
"Father, these people are really overestimating themselves. Don’t they know what kind of person Young Hero Zhao is? He’s a fierce character who even dares to kill members of the Wei Family. And these nobodies think they can resist him, it’s laughable." Zhu Chengwan said disdainfully.
Zhu Zihao chuckled.
Now he was filled with relief.
Although this turmoil caused the Zhu Family to lose at least eighty percent of their wealth, the effects were evident.
For instance, his son Zhu Chengwan, who used to act based on likes and dislikes, had now become much more mature.
This was a priceless improvement.
"Actually, these people might not really intend to rebel, they are not fools, they know perfectly well what kind of person Young Hero Zhao is, not to mention he’s backed by that Elder Lu, who’s unstoppable."
"Then what are they doing?" Zhu Chengwan asked confusedly.
"It’s simple, they’re using this way to show Young Hero Zhao a certain attitude, they are not ants waiting to be trampled, if truly pushed to the edge, they dare to fight to the death."
"Them?" Zhu Chengwan was full of disbelief.
Zhu Zihao also laughed, "But imagination is one thing, reality is another. This group clearly overestimated themselves and underestimated Young Hero Zhao. So I think at most three days, this storm will be over."
Actually, Zhu Zihao had overestimated these people, Zhao Ya solved the matter in less than three days.
His method was simple, he directly sent a final ultimatum to these martial arts halls.
In one day, dismiss disciples and voluntarily close down, or he would pay a visit himself.
One simple sentence, yet the impact was enormous.
No matter how enraged they were before, or how much they shouted about fighting to the death.
But after receiving Zhao Ya’s ultimatum, all their bold words became void.
They obediently expelled their disciples, then closed their doors.
Overnight, the city’s martial arts halls were down by forty percent.
Many people were dumbfounded.
They thought this wave would last for a while, but they didn’t expect Zhao Ya to resolve it so swiftly and cleanly.
Following this, the Mountain Guardian Boxing Hall, Hundred Steps Martial Arts Hall, Black Tiger Martial Arts Hall, etc., began recruiting these dismissed disciples en masse.
For a time, the situation in the commandery changed dramatically, but overall it was moving in a positive direction.
Especially after purging those martial arts halls with ulterior motives, the Martial Dao community of the commandery presented a thriving scene.
Finally, after four to five days of turbulence, the situation gradually stabilized, and the entire Martial Dao community of the commandery presented a brand new appearance.
Chenfeng Martial Arts Hall was gone, and the four major martial arts halls became three, with Dingtai Martial Arts Hall naturally being the strongest, followed by Guangrui and Ren Yong.
Among the medium-sized martial arts halls, Mountain Guardian Boxing Hall stood out, if not for the fact that its master hadn’t yet reached the half-step Fifth Realm, it would have been upgraded to a Grand Martial Arts Hall.
Next were the Hundred Steps Martial Arts Hall, Black Tiger Martial Arts Hall, and other mid-sized martial arts halls forming the main body of the commandery’s Martial Dao community.
Below them were some small martial arts halls, which were the most numerous and were the foundation of the entire Martial Dao community.
While the external situation underwent drastic changes, Zhao Ya, who orchestrated it all, disappeared from public view.
At this moment, he was sitting in a room, three piles of items laid on the table in front of him.
Two of these piles were gathered from the Shi Brothers, while the other pile came from Wei Hongbin.
These items should rightfully belong to Lu Dingtai.
After all, he was the one who killed these three.
But Lu Dingtai didn’t claim them and gave them all to Zhao Ya instead.
Since there were so many things to deal with at the time, Zhao Ya didn’t open them immediately and waited until now.
With everything finally wrapped up, Zhao Ya could spare time to take stock of his gains.
Although he possessed an innate immunity to poisons, Zhao Ya still habitually wore gloves and began counting.
First was the collection from the Shi Brothers, which comprised two bulging bundles.
Zhao Ya had high hopes for these.
After all, this was Zhao Ya’s first time inventorying items from a Fifth Realm martial artist.
But upon opening them, besides some miscellaneous items needed for traveling the Jianghu, there were none of the imagined secret manuals or elixirs, and not even many gold notes.