by Dragon King
He knew exactly what he should and shouldn’t say. However, Premier Xia was grateful to Hao Ren’s sincerity towards him and decided to give him some hints.
“The incident about your destruction of half of the West Ocean Dragon Palace is spreading to each corner of the dragon palace. Some applauded you, and some disapproved of your impulsiveness. Many of them are saying that the fire in the West Ocean Dragon Palace is spreading to the East Ocean Dragon Palace. Hehe, maybe my old ears were playing tricks on me, but I seem to… have heard some of the purple-robed senior elders suggesting stripping your status as the Fuma to end the crisis.”
Premier Xia looked old with his hunch back, and his words were not connected. However, he had delivered the most important information to Hao Ren.
At Hao Ren’s expectant look, Premier Xia yawned and covered his mouth. “I was sleepy. What did I say?”
“Premier Xia, you said nothing,” Hao Ren answered cooperatively.
However, Hao Ren had a general idea of the situation, knowing that the purple-robed elders in the dragon palace were the most powerful and influential elders.
331 If Third Lord Was Here…
Silently, Premier Xia walked Hao Ren to the main gate of the dragon palace while different emotions surged in his heart.
After Hao Ren brought back large quantities of godly elixir pills from the Nine Dragons Palace, all the elders got their share, and Hao Ren was allocated only one bottle. However, the Fuma didn’t have any complaints.
Now that the East Ocean was in a crisis, the first thought they had was to sacrifice the “outsider”—the Fuma. Premier Xia sighed a little. But as the head manager of the internal affairs of the dragon palace, he wasn’t one of the decision makers of the dragon palace. Comparatively, those purple-robed elders’ words weighed more than his.
“Well… If Third Lord were here, such a thing would never happen. Although Third Lord doesn’t quite like the Fuma, he is honorable and fierce; he would never abandon the Fuma.”
Nurturing these thoughts, Premier Xia found they had arrived at the main gate of the dragon palace without noticing.
“Premier Xia, please go back in. I’ll head back now,” Hao Ren turned to him and said in a low voice.
“Ok! Take care, Gongzi Hao,” Premier Xia took Hao Ren’s hand in his and said sincerely.
He was reluctant to leave Hao Ren and the words “take care” were not just out of politeness.
As the East Ocean Fuma, Hao Ren was now under the protection of the East Ocean. But if the East Ocean Dragon Palace abandoned him, then the things Hao Ren had done for the East Ocean Dragon Palace would get him in big trouble.
The troubles included the West Ocean Dragon Palace’s revenge, the grudge of the Inspector Qin Shaoyang and the minor forces previously suppressed by the East Ocean Dragon Palace…“Let’s go!” Hao Ren took out Little White and patted its rump. Splitting the water, he took off swiftly.
Standing at the gate, Premier Xia looked after Hao Ren’s retreating back and heaved a heavy sigh. Then he turned and walked back through the huge gate of the dragon palace.
Sitting on Little White, Hao Ren traveled across the night sky over East Ocean City and returned to East Ocean University in the blink of an eye.
The dorm was noisy. With Zhao Jiayi’s victorious return, room 302 was going crazy.
“Zhao Jiayi, you are awesome! This is the sixth victory in a row!”
“I heard that the cheerleader captain sent you a love letter. Is that true?”
“It’s awesome that you can skip classes and tour around while having matches!”
“Treat us to a meal after you become the champion! No! After entering the semi-finals!”
In the dorm of only five square meters, the guys surrounded Zhao Jiayi like a hero, shouting cheerfully.
Zhao Jiayi was baffled that he had played better and better in the matches while his physical strength improved as time went on. The last time when he had a fitness test, he had reached the standards of national athletes and was almost enlisted by the national team.
He didn’t know that the Essence Replenishment Pill Lu Linlin and Lu Lili mixed in the cake they ate had cleansing effects on their meridians. Since he had been active in sports, he had absorbed part of the pill, and the results were showing.
Besides, he slept under Hao Ren’s upper berth. While Hao Ren cultivated during the night and absorbed nature essence, part of the essence that couldn’t be transformed traveled down along the bed frame and was absorbed by Zhao Jiayi in his sleep.
In fact, Zhao Jiayi had now reached the realm of an ordinary martial arts master, and it was no wonder he could sweep across the basketball court in matches.
“Hao Ren, why are you so late? Come and have a drink with us!” Seeing Hao Ren at the door, Zhao Jiayi immediately beckoned to him. Although he had become a celebrity in the school, he didn’t forget Hao Ren, his good buddy.
With the East Ocean University entering the national quarterfinals, the dorm was having a small celebration.
After the experience of the drinking competition, no one dared to try Hao Ren again. When he walked into the room, Huang Jianfeng and others all offered their seats to him.
After drinking and eating, they went to the school public bathhouse together. After receiving cold treatment from the East Ocean Dragon Palace, Hao Ren enjoyed this happy time with his buddies very much.
It was about eight o’clock in the evening; the peak time of the school public bathhouse. Wearing an undershirt and a pair of flip-flops, he went to the bathhouse with Zhao Jiayi and the other four buddies.
The bathhouse for the guys was on the first floor while the one for girls was on the second floor.
Zhou Liren and Zhao Jiayi were red-faced from drinking; even gentle Cao Ronghua was walking on clouds.
“Hao Ren!”
They were paying for admittance when they spotted Xie Yujia and Ma Lina at the ticket window with wash basins in their hands. Xie Yujia was wearing a white long-sleeved T-shirt with cartoon characters on it, a knee-length skirt, and a pair of pale green flip-flops.
No doubt, they were there to take showers.
At the sight of Xie Yujia’s white, long, and slender legs, Zhou Liren froze in a daze.
“Are you here to take a shower?” Since Ma Lina had called out his name, Hao Ren had to say something.
“Of course we’re here to shower. Do you think we came here for dinner?” Ma Lina retorted with a snicker.
Xie Yujia tugged at her, signaling her to enter the girls’ bathhouse instead of chatting with the guys.
“I say, why haven’t you gone out with Yujia these days? She’s bored to death in the evenings,” Ma Lina stared at Hao Ren and complained.
At Ma Lina’s words, Zhao Jiayi and others suddenly woke from their sluggishness.
“Hao Ren hasn’t been spending his nights in the dorm recently, and he has not been with Xie Yujia. Is it possible…” They looked at Hao Ren with complicated expressions and suddenly remembered that besides the great beauty Xie Yujia, he had the twin sisters…
“Since you are Yujia’s boyfriend, you must act like one!” Ma Lina added.
“Ma Lina, let’s go in!” Xie Yujia dragged Ma Lina into the bathhouse for girls.
“Hiss…” After Xie Yujia and Ma Lina entered the girls’ bathhouse, Zhou Liren inhaled sharply and stared at Hao Ren. “Brother Ren, you are awesome! How many girls are you seeing at once?”
“Go!” Hao Ren bumped Zhou Liren’s butt with his knee and pushed him into the guys’ bathhouse. Together, they entered the change room.
Recently, he had been busy with cultivation and tutoring Zhao Yanzi in the evenings. Thus, when it was late, he would spend the night in Zhao Yanzi’s home. That was why he hadn’t come to the bathhouse with Cao Ronghua and others for a long while.
Zhou Liren took off his clothes quickly and rushed into the shower room to get spots. Since it was peak time, it was hard to find several free shower booths togeth
er.
The public bathhouse in East Ocean University was different from the ones outside of the school because it had no bath pool. Instead, it had only shower booths. However, if they could have several booths next to each other, they could talk to each other while showering.
“This way! This way!” Zhou Liren who was the first one to rush into the shower section called out to them.
Hao Ren, Zhao Jiayi, and the others were walking in the direction of his voice when they suddenly heard another voice, “Sorry, we’ll take this place!”
“I came here first!” Zhou Liren retorted. With his six feet height, he was the tallest in Hao Ren’s dorm, enough to frighten some guys off.
Hearing the argument, Hao Ren and the others rushed over and saw six or seven guys surround Zhou Liren, and the leader was no other than Huang Xujie.
In this section, a group of students had just finished showering and left seven booths empty. Zhou Liren went and took the booths when Huang Xujie came over with his club members after the club activity.
It was the peak time of the bathhouse, and it was impossible to find another section of free booths.
Wearing a pair of briefs, six-feet-tall Huang Xujie saw Hao Ren and his buddies walking over. He chuckled, “Well, we meet again.”
Standing beside Hao Ren, Zhao Jiayi was not tall, but he was as solid as a thick brick.
Huang Xujie certainly recognized the popular new captain of the school basketball team. However, he didn’t think Zhao Jiayi, who had no strong background, was worthy of his attention.
“My friend was here first. Go find another section,” Hao Ren took two steps forward and said.
Involuntarily, Zhou Liren turned to look at Hao Ren and was startled at the sight.
In his impression, Hao Ren had strong legs since he had been a long-distance runner when he was in the middle school, but his upper body was not robust, and thus Hao Ren had never been his match in arm-wrestling.
However, this Hao Ren he saw right now was totally different from the one in his memory. Although Hao Ren didn’t have the bulging muscles like those fitness models on TV, his firm back, thick arms, broad chest and perfect inverted triangle figure were very impressive.
“When did this guy turn into a fitness guy?” Zhou Liren was amazed.
He didn’t know that each morning and night Hao Ren practiced several times of the fundamental boxing techniques he learned from the East Ocean Dragon Palace. This set of military boxing movements used by Dragon Palace soldiers were very useful in keeping fit.
Besides Zhou Liren, even Zhao Jiayi who was very confident with his own body proportions was surprised when he saw Hao Ren’s body after he took off his jacket. After all, Zhao Jiayi had spent hours training in the gym, and he wondered how Hao Ren found the time to keep fit.
Seeing the two groups in confrontation, the students in the bathhouse came over to watch.
With more students coming over to watch them, rows of booths were now empty, but Hao Ren and his buddies didn’t want to leave their original spot, and Huang Xujie didn’t want to back off and lose face. So, the two groups continued to face each other in a deadlock.
“Is that guy the captain of the school basketball team, Zhao Jiayi?”
“And the guy standing beside him is Hao Ren who defeated Huang Xujie with one attack at the bus stop.”
“Oh, I remember. The arm-wrestling match.”
All kinds of comments floated around the bathhouse.
In the hot steam, the running water splashed on the tile floor. With gritted teeth, Huang Xujie took a step forward and stared at Hao Ren. “I’ll take this place!”
Now he couldn’t back off to find another section to shower. Otherwise, he would lose face!
“We were here first,” Hao Ren answered him coolly.
Huang Xujie clenched his fists.
After Hao Zhonghua’s inauguration ceremony, he knew from his father, the deputy mayor, that Hao Ren was, in fact, the son of Hao Zhonghua whom even his father couldn’t afford to mess with.
Because of the incident during the ceremony, he was scolded severely and almost got a beating. His father warned him repeatedly not to mess with this ‘Gongzi Hao’, or his father would break his leg! If he offended the son of Hao Zhonghua and Yue Yang, it would put his father’s career in danger!
Hao Zhonghua had a personal relationship the provincial governor!
“Forget it! Let’s move to another section!” Huang Xujie said suddenly.
The guys watching including the members of the Rock Climbing Club thought they had heard wrong.
“Huang Xujie backed off at this moment?”
Everyone could see that Huang Xujie had admitted defeat during the confrontation! Huang Xujie, the son of the deputy mayor and the famous bully at school, had backed off! After a few seconds of hesitation, the guys booed at him.
With a livid face, Huang Xujie led the members of the Rock Climbing Clubs out of the section. They didn’t move to another shower section. Instead, they walked in the direction of the change room!
They were in no mood to shower.
With the end of the confrontation, the naked guys scattered. Undoubtedly, this incident would soon spread all around the school.
Huang Xujie was defeated by Hao Ren three times now. He had lost in the rock climbing competition, the arm-wrestling match and now he backed off from the confrontation in the public bathhouse!
“Your presence was magnificent!” After Hao Ren forced back the group of the Rock Climbing Club, Zhou Liren walked over and said to Hao Ren.
The aura Hao Ren emitted was so powerful that it even chilled Zhou Liren who watched the confrontation on one side. After all, they were standing in a bathhouse full of hot steam!
“Take your shower!” Hao Ren turned to bonk Zhou Liren on his head with a wash basin before walking over to turn on the shower.
Zhao Jiayi was also secretly admiring Hao Ren’s aura, which was rare even in top-tier basketball players. With this aura, he believed Hao Ren would have downed six to seven of Huang Xujie’s guys if they had broken into a fight.
“I say, Xie Yujia was really beautiful in a short skirt.” Zhou Liren changed the subject while showering. “Ren, I finally understand why she’s attracted to you.”
“Why?” Hao Ren asked casually.
“Your body! You attracted her with your body. You two must have…”
Hua… Hao Ren tossed a basin of water toward him, knowing nothing good would come out of his mouth.
Zhao Jiayi and the others laughed.
The buddies chatted in the shower. When they came out, half an hour had passed.
“I need to go out. You head back first,” Hao Ren pushed his wash basin into Zhou Liren’s hands and said.
“Got it. Got it.” Zhou Liren winked at him.
He thought Hao Ren would wait at the entrance of the bathhouse for Xie Yujia and they would go to the Hongji Square for a date.
Hao Ren didn’t explain. Watching them walk to the dorm area outside the campus, he turned and walked toward the small forest in the school.
At this time of day, many students came to take a shower. While he walked to the small forest close to the girls’ residential area, he didn’t notice someone was following him.
Walking into the forest, he took out Little White and put up an energy sphere. With a gust, he flew up into the sky in the protection of the energy sphere.
Huang Xujie had been following him from a distance. But when he rushed into the forest, he saw no trace of Hao Ren.
332 This Is My Territory
Every time Hao Ren went up to Fifth Heaven for the night, he would take the opportunity to patrol the sky over East Ocean City. He drove Little White swiftly around the boundaries of First and Second Heaven.
Second, Third, and Fourth Heavens were the middle territories between the dragon cultivators and the human cultivators. The human cultivators were allowed to leave the Fifth Heaven and patrol these territories. However, last ti
me when the two cultivators from White Sand Sect scouted below the First Heaven, they were trespassing, and the dragon cultivators on land had the right to kill them.
It was about eight o’clock in the evening, and the sky had darkened. Hao Ren closed his eyes and tried to feel the nature essence fluctuations around him using his spiritual sense.
He was not very familiar with the use of spiritual sense and could barely cover an area with a diameter of a hundred meters. If he had not been in the clouds, it would have been better to watch with his eyes. However, for the masters in Qian-level and Kun-level such as Su Han, they could sense every movement in an area with a diameter of one kilometer.
He was about to end his patrol when two cultivators’ presence broke into the range of his senses.
Obviously, the two cultivators had sensed Hao Ren’s presence before he sensed their presence since they were fleeing. However, Little White was too fast for them.
According to their experience, the dragon cultivators patrolling the boundaries in First Heaven were usually inspectors who were the elites of the Dragon Clan. Most of the inspectors were the equivalent to Nascent Soul Realm cultivators and thus were more powerful than them.
That was why they split up and fled the moment they sensed the cultivator flying up from below First Heaven.
However, Hao Ren wouldn’t let them go. Two of his fingers flicked out two sets of sword energies; each set contained a basic sword array consisted of 16 sword energies, shooting toward the two fleeing cultivators.
The sword array was simple, but its power was great.
Two sheets of light, one white and the other yellow, shot onto their backs.
Pu! Pu!
They stumbled forward about six meters and were severely wounded. Desperately, they sped up and shot up toward Third Heaven, so fearful that they didn’t even glance back at their attacker.
If they had known that the attacker was only a cultivator of the Zhen-level which was equivalent to low-tier Core Formation Realm, they would have regretted their decision to flee.
Withdrawing the 32 sword energies, Hao Ren patted Little White’s rump and continued to patrol. These two cultivators were stronger than those two who had been captured by him last time. If they hadn’t fled in panic, Hao Ren probably would not have been their match.