He was still at that same room in that leisure building locating within the pavilion, where the sound of moving water could be heard.
Jin Wangsun sat alone by the pond in an erect sitting posture. He was flipping through a book in his hands and carefully reading every word. The maids and servants in the pavilion were moving about as per usual. The incident that took place yesterday shook up the entire city, yet it seemed as though his life and mood at as the new master of Gold and Silver Sect wasn't affected in the least.
The Emperor's punishment was so light that it was unbelievable. It made people feel as though the Gold and Silver Sect's honour far surpassed the other Seven Champion White Princes.
As a consequence, the servants within the estate were indifferent to the entire incident. They didn't consider it a big deal, despite knowing that their Master had caused trouble.
However, those few family slaves that were close to him and present at the location were aware that Jin Wangsun's mood couldn't be any worse.
Jin Wangsun was still that young master of Jin Clan, who was always three feet behind his father and rule abiding. Thus, he should've been delighted and thanking the Emperor for his leniency and tolerance, for it was practically a blessing after what he did. After all, he sent his family slaves out, who then went and hit members of the royal family, which included His Majesty. Yet he was merely grounded for ten days and permitted to go about life as usual and suffered no material losses, in spite of the severity of his crimes.
However, this punishment he was subjected to caused him to feel incomparably bad, despite still being the same Jin Wangsun and having been the master of Gold and Silver Sect for so long, for the reason that one should confine himself to his own duties.
The Seven Champion Princes are essentially guardians of Nanjing. Each one of them has their own territory and forces, similarly to Barons given their own territory to rule. He controls the taxes, sets the prices for food and can kill without consequences within his territory. That's the right given to the Seven Champion White Princes by the Imperial Court. In terms of practical authority, their authority stands even above Princes of the royal family. Furthermore, most of the territories of Princes are returned to the Imperial Court after a hundred years. The Seven White Champion Princes, on the other hand, get to keep passing down their territory within their families.
Jin Wangsun is the master of Gold and Silver Sect; hence, every interaction he has with the Imperial Court directly influences the attitude of the Imperial Court toward Gold and Silver Sect. For him to be placed under house arrest after his marriage proposal is a major blow to both him and Gold and Silver Sect.
How would the other Seven Champion White Princes and even others in the martial world look at Gold and Silver Sect after he is placed under house arrest in the capital? That's not all. How were his loyal subordinates in the sect going to evaluate him when he's found himself in this predicament as soon as he took up the post?
He obtained a high-ranking position at a young age and led the capture of Night Fortress, thereby taking the throne to rule over the martial world in Hangzhou. He didn't sacrifice so much blood and sweat to be locked up in the capital.
All of this worried him. He was unsettled and even felt somewhat violent and insulted.
Jin Wangsun's ideal plan fell through. Besides his personal fondness for Princess Hongzhuang, whom he fell for at first sight, he also had his own difficulties that he couldn't mention.
A major incident occurred internally in the sect, so he required the assistance of the Imperial Court. Therefore, Princess Hongzhuang was of utmost importance to him. At first, he was worried about Princess Hongzhuang being dislikeable, for a man's most important woman was his main wife. Wives are different to concubines. You can have a hundred concubines, but regardless of how much power you wield or if your wealth could rival the nation, you can only have one wife. Consequently, the most important thing for families was marrying into or bringing into the family somebody with equal status, wealth and so forth, which is the most important thing particularly for prominent families. Of course, that is with regards to one's wife.
Jin Wangsun was not only pleased with the Princess, but was also fond of her from first sight, but this situation was completely unexpected.
"Hongzhuang…"
Jin Wangsun turned left as he murmured the Princess' name. The charming silhouette of the beauty flashed past in his mind, causing him to feel his heart heat up. The young master couldn't help but think of the Princess whenever he thought about his predicament.
Upon looking back on it, he realised that he was truly faced with one difficulty after another, after taking the mantle as the leader of the sect.
When he succeeded the post as head of the clan, he suggested having the Emperor fulfil his promise back then, only for his father to unexpectedly lash out at him, "A man turning to another for assistance when it's his own family problem?! Weakling! Only you would be able to do something so cowardly! I can't! That marriage contract was merely a something His Majesty left for our family to commemorate my friendship with His Majesty. It's meant to be used purely to look at for some fun, yet you want to turn around a joke His Majesty made while under the influence and force him into a marriage? How did I end up with such an unscrupulous son like you?!"
The more the former master scolded him, the angrier he got, until he turned around and left. Back then, Jin Wangsun pretended to bear with it on the surface, but had actually stolen the contract and prepared for his trip to the capital to ask for the Princess' hand in marriage.
Nonetheless, his plan was exposed in the end, causing the father and son pair to have an intense fight in the sect headquarters. It was only natural that the former master was more skilled than he was; except, the rules of Gold and Silver Sect are strict. One of the rules was that skilled fighters within the sect had to obey the commands of the reigning master. One was the former master, while one was the newly crowned master, so neither was assisted.
As such, Jin Wangsun managed to get the upper hand with the six family slaves helping. Plus, he was wielding the Golden Crow Eater Sabre when he fought him, as he was the reigning master. As a consequence, the former master inevitably lost to their superior numbers and weapon.
However, the former master of the sect was a stubborn man. He'd rather die than be shamed. He, therefore, gathered up his brothers and left the headquarters with roughly a quarter of the members and stated they wanted to retire from the pugilistic world. They erected a new place elsewhere in their territory and named it 'Old Gold and Silver Sect,' and made an oath to tear down Jin Wangsun's world.
The former master was ruthless, but Jin Wangsun was even more ruthless than him.
Taking advantage of his father's departure, he leveraged his influence to bring the other territories and headquarters under his control. He then demanded that somebody forge a letter to the Emperor using his father's handwriting. In the letter, he said that Gold and Silver Sect was giving the royal family some of their territory, which was the location where the former master established his branch…
He gave his father's territory away as a gift!
Of course, to give away so much land in one go, Jin Wangsun couldn't bear it. He had no choice but to do that, though.
He was aware that snatching land from his father would result in an intense fight between them. It wasn't that he wasn't confident he wouldn't win, but that it was inevitable. And so, he gave away land at his father's expense, yet when a problem arose, it became, "It's not my problem; you people from the Imperial Court can deal with it." The only way you could describe his sly scheme was, "He's the child of a merchant family, no doubt about that."
With that said, Jin Wangsun still wasn't convinced that he could force the Emperor to betroth his precious daughter to him with just a joke he made under the influence and the Golden Crow Moon Eater Sabre. After all, it was the infamous daughter-con Emperor, who was the man in question. Regardless of how valuable the sabre may be, it's just a weapon at the end of the day. He, thereby, needed to provide the Emperor with more practical benefits, for him to have a solid chance of succeeding with his plan.
It should've been ninety percent in the bag. He had thrown his father, who was his issue, to the Imperial Court. Then he got to take home a beauty and borrow the Imperial Court's power with his status as a Fuma. It was three birds with one stone.
He never expected a Ming Feizhen to come out of thin air!
The guy literally came out of thin air, and besides messing things up, he only messed things up even more. He resembled a slovenly mess and was a mere low-ranking constable at Liu Shan Men, yet three major orthodox sects in the martial world stood up for him, not to mention the fact that he was a third generation disciple of Mount Daluo. He was riddled with shortcomings and things to criticise, yet he was able to rival him.
'I wouldn't be in this predicament if it wasn't for him!'
It still escaped Jin Wangsun. All he did was send out some men to give Ming Feizhen a beating, so why did they beat up the Princess, the Elder Statesmen, the Princess' uncle and even the Emperor? He would be one step away from clan extermination if it wasn't for his special identity.
'It's come to this and yet that Ming Feizhen hasn't suffered a damn thing!'
'What the hell is going on?!'
"Ming Feizhen! You really are a plague!" Jin Wangsun's fury collected on his forehead. He fastened his grip on the book and tore it to shreds. Jin Wangsun thoughtlessly threw it aside, causing the sheets to float through the air similarly to snowflakes. He shouted, "Men!"
The Emperor had an army surround his estate, but his family slaves were sent back into the estate. Things weren't made hard for any of them. This was the only thing that Jin Wangsun was relieved about.
Frankly, beating the Emperor's father-in-law and an Elder Statesman could be forgiven with gifts and an apology, but they also hit the Emperor. If it was treated as a minor matter, they could laugh it off. If it turned into a major issue, it could result in a clan's extermination. The penalty the Emperor gave them was very lenient.
But then, nobody came even after a long time after Jin Wangsun called for someone. He frowned. He had begun reaching for his sharp, long blade at his waist. He grabbed the handle and readied himself for combat. He was a very strict man. Any servant who didn't respond within three breaths after his call was punished. There had never been an occasion where he never got a response as with the case this time. Given that nobody answered his call, there either had to be a spy or a powerful foreign enemy.
And it turned out just as predicted. It wasn't a servant that appeared at the end of the garden, but a tall man dressed in grey clothing, slowly walking over.
"That was quite the fast reaction. You don't disappoint as Jin Buhuan's son."
The man's voice wasn't loud, but his inner energy seeped into it. Jin Wangsun immediately felt a grim feeling. He had to mould his internal energy to reduce the impact of the man's inner energy to be able to remain collected.
Jin Buhuan is the name of the former master of Gold and Silver Sect. Because the man addressed his father by his name, Jin Wangsun frowned and asked, "Who may you be? What have you come here to see me for…?"
The man's footsteps were slow and collected as his tone was. However, he slightly leaned his body forward whilst speaking to Jin Wangsun. The man had moved up to the side of the pond in the pavilion in an instant, leaving only a grey shadow left behind in the air. In fact, his robe was still fluttering upwards.
Realising that his visitor had made his move, Jin Wangsun swung his blade out in an arc with his right hand, aiming to lop his head off without any hesitation.
His visitor raised his hand, bringing up a powerful flow of qi. It seemed as though he struck out a lightning bolt.
Finally, their palm and sabre collided.
Jin Wangsun recognised the style of the palm strike user before it clashed with his sabre.
"Forbidden Lightning Wind!"
When the violent lightning and sabre clashed, a white light was emitted from the sabre, which led to it emitting heat as hot as fire. Judging his opponent's palm strike to be immensely powerful, Jin Wangsun had to retreat.
After two clashes, Jin Wangsun was rocked back.
After the man in grey sent him back with one palm strike, he slowly asked, "I am close to your father. We have been friends for decades. What is your reason for sending men out to harm my father?"
After being knocked back by the palm strike, Jin Wangsun tried his best to nullify the lightning. He was making guesses about his opponent's identity, but learnt of it from him, himself, in the end.
The words "The Magnificent Genius of the World, Wang of the Dark Robes," flashed into his mind.
'Could he be one of the Seven Champion White Princes? Could he be the leader of the Dark Robe Sect, Wang Du?!'
As soon as he had the thought, he immediately managed to piece it all together.
'His Majesty didn't spare me out of respect for the Seven Champion White Princes, but because he knew that the person who truly wanted to teach me a lesson was somebody else! His Majesty never forgot about the grudge!'
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