by Shian Jeen
Returning to the Royal City, Ruler Lu Zhe did not rush back again to the palace, but rather decided to pay a visit to Tianxuan Mansion. In Tianxuan Mansion, King Lu Zhe chatted enthusiastically with Huwang Peng for several hours before making his way back to the palace.
Personally seeing King Lu Zhe off from Tianxuan Mansion, Huwang Peng felt like he was dreaming while he watched the disappearing back again of the kingdom’s ruler.
This person that treated him so warmly and filled with enthusiasm while keeping his arm caused goosebumps to rise on Huwang Peng’s skin. Was that really the same Luo Tong Kingdom’s Ruler Lu Zhe?
Though it was true, Huwang Peng still had trouble believing it.
After time for the palace, King Lu Zhe summoned Marshal Haotian.
Marshal Haotian entered the palace, and after discussing some issues related to the kingdom's borders and army, Ruler Lu Zhe paused with hesitation, “Marshal, can this King ask you something regarding one matter?”
“Your Highness, please ask.” Marshal Haotian said. He didn’t know what Ruler Lu Zhe wished to ask, but he could more or less guess what it was about.
Just as Marshal Haotian expected, King Lu Zhe asked, “That... what is that Zhao Shu’s identification?” Ruler Lu Zhe was a good little nervous looking forward to Marshal Haotian’s answer.
“This one doesn’t dare reveal Senior Zhao Shu’s identity. But, I could say that Older Zhao Shu’s strength is much stronger than my Master’s.”
Much stronger?!
Lu Zhe was dumbstruck.
Haotian’s Get good at, Yu Ming, was an existence infinitely near to the Saint realm. Someone much more powerful than Yu Ming... didn’t that mean that Zhao Shu was…? King Lu Zhe’s face paled slightly. Thinking of the possibility, he shivered and broke out in a cold perspiration, nearly falling off of his dragon throne. Ruler Lu Zhe felt his heart beating madly.
Zhao Shu was actually a- ?! He halted his own train of thought.
What about Huwang Xiao then? What's Huwang Xiao’s true identity?! Even someone like Zhao Shu called him Young Lord!
Cold sweat dampened Lu Zhe’s back. At that same time, he was immensely happy that he treated Huwang Peng ‘warmly’, becoming ‘brothers’ with him. If he offended Huwang Peng somehow, leading to Huwang Xiao’s ire, only a simple fart from that Zhao Shu was enough to annihilate the entire Luo Tong Kingdom.
“Carry out this order: confer the rank of Grand Duke to Huwang Peng, it will be a hereditary name.” Lu Zhe recovered his senses, and quickly ordered the eunuch next to him: “Also, make Su Yan a First-rank Lady! [1]”
The eunuch was shocked, “Your Highness, this doesn’t appear right, does it?”
In the whole Luo Tong Kingdom, there have been only three Grand Dukes, and most of them were conferred during the founding of the kingdom.
Now, conferring Huwang Peng with the title of Grand Duke for no rhyme or reason would cause the entire hierarchy of civil and military ministers to raise strong opposition.
But, just like the eunuch spoke, Lu Zhe’s palm slapped over the eunuch’s face, sending him flying.
“Are you the King, or am I the King?” Lu Zhe spat what coldly.
Note:
[1] First-rank Woman: the best name bestowed to a government official’s wife (with salary but no authority.)
Ch.159
Being struck so suddenly, the eunuch’s face turned deathly pale and he quickly kowtowed over and over, begging for mercy, “This servant be damned, this servant be damned!”
Not long from then on, the news of King Lu Zhe conferring Huwang Peng with the title of Grand Duke spread throughout the Royal City, and the whole city boiled into commotion.
“Huwang Peng? Huwang Xiao’s father? Even if Huwang Xiao represented our Luo Tong Kingdom and received first place in Duanren Empire’s Imperial City Fight, King Lu Zhe can’t just confer such a high noble name as Grand Duke to Huwang Peng, right?!”
“That’s right. Furthermore, that Huwang Xiao has yet to earn first place! Huwang Xiao hasn’t even broken to the Xiantian world, who’s to state he'll even stay alive until the end in your competition!”
“Did Ruler Lu Zhe lose his marbles after being kicked in the top by a donkey?”
From the top of the social ladder to the very bottom, frenzied discussions took place between all of the large and small scale forces.
Even the commoners residing within the Royal City walls experienced their King had gone crazy.
In the palace’s main hall.
Both civil and armed service ministers filled the huge hall.
Marshal Haotian stood at the leading position on the armed forces side, and standing at the same position opposite Marshal Haotian was a tall, robust old man with a full mind of white hair who were in his eighties. This eighty-something year old fellow was the leader of the civilian faction, Prime Minister Wu Feng.
“Your Highness, conferring Huwang Peng with the title of a Grand Duke is highly inappropriate.”
Highly inappropriate!
Perhaps among the many numerous ministers of the kingdom, only Prime Minister Wu Feng and Marshal Haotian would dare to speak in such manner with King Lu Zhe.
“That’s correct, Your Highness. Since the founding of our kingdom, only three people had the honor of being conferred with the name of the Grand Duke and each one of them performed great meritorious deeds towards founding of the kingdom!” A civil minister stood out and said.
Following his example, more and more ministers spoke, which eventually led to most of them voicing their objections.
“Enough!” Just like another minister objected, Lu Zhe, who had been quiet the entire time suddenly stood up from his throne. One finger pointed at Wu Feng and the ministers behind him, snapping loudly in frustration, “All of you are blabbing dogfarts! Dogfarts in every word! I-am-Luo-Tong-Kingdom’s Ruler, I get to say who gets conferred as Luo Tong Kingdom’s Grand Duke!”
All the ministers were struck speechless.
The palace’s main hall seemed crushed with a thick silence.
Dogfart?!
The perpetually dignified and calm King Lu Zhe actually behaved just like a commoner thug on the streets, cursing at them and calling their words dogfarts?
While the Luo Tong Kingdom’s King was arguing about Huwang Peng’s Grand Duke title, Huwang Xiao’s small band of four had cut through Big Dawn County and arrived at one of Luo Tong Kingdom’s borders.
On the way, Huwang Xiao also received news that Lu Zhe wanted to confer his father, Huwang Peng, with the title of a Grand Duke, but he couldn’t be bothered with it. For him, whether his dad had the title of Luo Tong Kingdom’s Grand Duke or not was moot.
When he settled down in Duanren Empire, he planned to move the Huwang Family over to the Imperial City.
Half of a month later, they attained Luo Tong Kingdom’s most southern border, Southern Cliffs City.
Arriving in Southern Cliffs City, Huwang Xiao suddenly thought about the scene of the last Castellan of Southern Cliffs City, Wei Yang, and his concubine’s death. After Wei Yang passed away, the new Castellan who changed him was named Sun Qing.
Before being promoted to the post, Sun Qing was a general guarding one of the kingdom’s borders. A subordinate of Marshal Haotian’s subordinate’s subordinate.
By the time Huwang Xiao’s group joined Southern Cliffs City, it was already late. Thus, Huwang Xiao decided to stay in the town for one night and continue his journey the next day.
Huwang Xiao didn't bother Sunlight Qing with his stay static in Southern Cliffs City.
The four of these simply chose a passable inn close to the Castellan Manor called Warm Fragrance and rented four rooms for the night.
The night gradually deepened.
The surrounding was quiet with the majority of the people asleep.
Clear moonlight shone down like rippling water.
Huwang Xiao was meditating in his room when suddenly,
a light footstep sounded from the rooftop.
Huwang Xiao was alerted and stepped out of his room. Searching for the source of the disturbance, he detected two black-clothed men with masked faces jumping over rooftops. And with agile leaps over the walls, both black shadows snuck into the Castellan’s Manor.
When Huwang Xiao arrived of his room, Zhao Shu, Yu Ming, and Fei Hou also came out using their rooms.
“Sovereign, do we…?” Zhao Shu had taken a step forward and asked.
Huwang Xiao’s tone of voice sounded solemn, “First wait and see what’s going on.”
At this point, the two black-clothed men that snuck in to the Castellan Manor came to an end at a certain courtyard building. Standing there, one of the men quickly removed something from the clothing overlapping his chest that looked like a tube. Positioning the tube, the man blew into it. After some time, the other man jumped into the room and exited while carrying a sack over his make.
Cautiously giving the surrounding a glance, both men bypassed the Castellan Manor’s patrolling guards and leaped on the walls, carrying the sack from the manor.
Huwang Xiao and the others saw the two men’s activities clearly. Judging off their actions, these two men rendered the person in that room unconscious using some drug and abducted them.
“Zhao Shu, Yu Ming, the two of you wait around here; Fei Hou and I are going to have a look.” Huwang Xiao said.
“But!” Zhao Shu and Yu Ming were reluctant.
“Don’t worry, it’s simply a few small shrimps, they won’t be any problem.” Huwang Xiao reassured them.
“Yes, Sovereign!” Both of them relented.
Thus, Huwang Xiao and Fei Hou leaped away, following the two men quietly from behind.
Originally, Huwang Xiao had no interest in meddling in these affairs.
However, since these folks dared to trespass in to the Castellan Manor to abduct a victim, Huwang Xiao’s curiosity was piqued, attempting to see what these people were up to.
Huwang Xiao vaguely guessed that this event wasn’t as simple as it seemed on the top.
Huwang Xiao and Fei Hou followed the two black-clothed men the whole time, and one hour later, both men entered an abandoned, dilapidated courtyard on the northern part of Southern Cliffs City.
Inside the courtyard, six people stood waiting. Seeing these people, Huwang Xiao immediately took notice of their sect uniform: it belonged to Big Sword Sect.
Big Sword Sect!
“Senior Brother Wei!” At the moment, the two black-clothed men called out towards one of the young men, putting the sack down on the ground.
That young man asked, “Where is the individual, did you bring them?” His eyes swept within the sack on the floor as he said this.
“Senior Sibling Wei, don’t worry, Sun Qing’s daughter is right inside here.” Among the black-clothed men grinned and directed at the sack, “She will probably wake up in an hour’s time.”
Hearing this, the son laughed, “Not bad.” He walked for the sack and untied the knot, revealing the pretty face of the seventeen to eighteen 12 months old girl.
“After my father was killed, I didn’t expect they would give Sunlight Qing, that old fellow, the chance to seize the Castellan’s position. Since he doesn’t know what’s best for him, refusing to cooperate with our Big Sword Sect… Sun Qing, your youngest daughter is quite the beauty! Tonight, I will enjoy myself, and have a flavor of your daughter.” That young man laughed wretchedly, “If you refuse again, then next will be your eldest child!”
The other disciples were looking enviously at that son.
Huwang Xiao was surprised as he observed this young man some distance away. He was the kid of the prior Southern Cliffs City Castellan that he killed? The son that joined Big Sword Sect, Wei Xiaodong?
On the other side, Wei Xiaodong turned towards the several Big Sword Sect disciples with him stating, “All of you leave, keep an eye out.” Evidently, he was anxious to ‘deal’ with Sunlight Qing’s girl in this dilapidated courtyard.
“Yes, Senior Brother Wei!” The disciples clarified.
Just as their voices ended, another voice sounded suddenly. It came about too all of a sudden, and Wei Xiaodong’s body shuddered from being startled. Turning around, he saw a man around seventeen to eighteen walking in their path with a middle-aged man behind him.
Wei Xiaodong stood up quickly, and his eye glared furiously at both black-clothed men, “Can’t you take action right for once!” The two ‘guests’ surely tailed both of these.
Both black-clothed men cast down their heads, not daring to utter any sounds.
Ch.160
Wei Xiaodong observed Huwang Xiao and Fei Hou for a moment before walking up to them with several Big Sword Sect disciples behind him.
“Who are you?” Wei Xiaodong asked as he looked straight at Huwang Xiao.
As he asked this, his eyes signaled the two men in dark, plus they proceeded to secure the sack and hid it from view in it.
Huwang Xiao noticed both black-clothed men’s actions, but he did not mind it. Looking at Wei Xiaodong, he said, “The person who wants your life!”
The person who wants your life!
Wei Xiaodong’s center tightened; on the surface, however, he chuckled, “I think you’re joking, right? We’re Big Sword Sect’s disciples.”
“Look at me personally, do I look like I’m joking with you?” Huwang Xiao shrugged non-chalantly, “Big Sword Sect disciples are exactly the ones I want to kill.”
While Huwang Xiao was speaking, Wei Xiaodong’s hands abruptly waved out towards him, countless cool darts whistled through the environment, shooting at Huwang Xiao and Fei Hou. These cool darts shone with an eerie green color underneath the moonlight. Clearly, these frosty darts were coated with toxic poison.
Watching this, Huwang Xiao sneered, and both he and Fei Hou elevated a palm at exactly the same time. With hook push forward, a gust of violent wind deflected the cold darts, slamming them down to the ground.
Seeing this result, Wei Xiaodong paled slightly. Without a word to the number of Big Sword Sect disciples, he transformed around and fled.
Without missing a beat, Huwang Xiao’s body blurred into motion and appeared right before Wei Xiaodong. Wei Xiaodong produced a fist and punched out, but Huwang Xiao raised a hands and firmly grasped Wei Xiaodong’s fist in his hand, then exerted a little pressure. The crackling of bone fragments breaking rang out and Wei Xiaodong’s scream split the quiet surrounding.
With Huwang Xiao’s current strength, just a little squeeze could crush a thousand-year-old tree, not to mention Wei Xiaodong’s fist.
Crushing the bones in Wei Xiaodong’s fist, Huwang Xiao threw him back to the original place he is at.
The several Big Sword Sect disciples also issued painful screams from being attacked, and in the blink of an eye all of them were ‘taken care’ of Fei Hou, including the two men in black.
The thick scent of blood vessels filled the air, assailing the nose.
Wei Xiaodong smelled the scent of blood coming from the Big Sword Sect disciples and dread crept up his face. Ashen-faced, his backside dropped to the ground, sliding across the soil, “Don’t, don’t destroy me, I, I can give you anything!”
“Can give me anything?” Huwang Xiao mocked, “What is it possible to give me?”
Wei Xiaodong blanked.
“Beg, I beg you, please i want to go, I could do whatever you want me personally to! ” He quickly pleaded, head knocking loudly on the ground repeatedly.
Huwang Xiao’s cold voice ridiculed him, “You’re wussier than your father.”
“My father?” Wei Xiaodong dazed for a second at the sudden mention of his father.
“It’s you!” Wei Xiaodong’s eye widened in surprise.
“I’m the one which killed your dad, don’t you want to avenge your father?” Huwang Xiao incited him.
Different feelings flickered across Wei Xiaodong’s face
, but in the end, he squeezed out a smile saying, “This sibling must be joking with me.”
Huwang Xiao shook his mind. Phoning out the Cutting blades of Asura, he no longer bothered to talk non-sense; both hands swung out and two icy razor-sharp rays of blade lights slashed out. One slit across Wei Xiaodong’s throat, and the other drew blood from his eyebrows.
Wide-eyed, Wei Xiaodong tumbled to the bottom with blood seeping involved with it.
“Sovereign, what do we do about the girl?” Fei Hou asked. A finger pointed toward the sack containing the Southern Cliffs City Castellan’s little girl.
“Bring her back again first.” Huwang Xiao said, sounding solemn.
“Yes, Sovereign!”
A while later, Huwang Xiao and Fei Hou disappeared from the dilapidated courtyard, bringing Sun Qing’s daughter with them.
Soon, they returned to the inn with Fei Hou carrying Sunlight Qing’s daughter.
Seeing them come back with a girl, Zhao Shu and Yu Ming asked Fei Hou what occurred. Fei Hou respectfully recounted the events to the two seniors.
At that moment, Sun Qing’s child regained consciousness, and when she found four strange men in the room, she bolted up from the bed, frightened, “Who are you all? What do you want to do?!”
Huwang Xiao looked over at Fei Hou, Fei Hou understood and briefly described the occasions of the night time.
After Fei Hou finished, Sun Qing’s daughter relaxed a little, but she didn't let go of her wariness towards Huwang Xiao and the three men. It appeared she did not completely trust Fei Hou’s words.
“You can go back now.” Huwang Xiao spoke.
Whether the other party believed them or not, Huwang Xiao didn’t treatment, it was an instant of curiosity and coincidence, after all.
“I can return back?” Sunlight Lin repeated doubtfully, and then she cautiously strolled to the door. Taking two steps, she viewed her shoulder at the four men before departing.
She walked out from the room, then out of the inn, yet nothing happened, allowing her to release a sigh of relief as she hurried off.