Chapter 121: The Challenger
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Taking the opportunity before Princess Ying Chuan arrived, Wu Qi quickly came to a conclusion with Lu Chengfeng. After that, Lu Chengfeng grabbed up a paperweight made from thousand years old Dark Iron Wood placed in front of him and forcefully he thudded it onto the narrow table. Secretly he had circulated his cultivation and injected a great amount of energy into the paperweight, causing it to produce a loud boom that sounded like a sudden thunderclap, and shook the entire main hall.
Both emissaries from the Gao Ling Kingdom and the Li Shan Kingdom were startled by the loud boom. Together, they tidied up their outfits, then knelt before Lu Chengfeng with the utmost respect and said, "Your honorable West Supervisor, please pardon our impoliteness."
Coldly, Lu Chengfeng snorted and gave both men a fierce gaze, then he shouted, "What do you think this place is? Is this a place you can shout and yell and fight at? Someone, bring the two of them to the left and right side hall so they can have their sober minds back, and only to come back after they have the solution. Remember this well, both of you, you are at Ji City, the capital city of Great Yan Dynasty. This is a place with laws and rules, and you cannot wantonly mess around with the Imperial system of Great Yan!"
Luo Kedi and a few guards rushed up in a crowd and separated the emissaries and retinues of both kingdoms, half-forcing and escorting them into two different side halls on the left and right side of the main hall. Then, they shut the door. Numerous guards were deployed around both side halls, making sure not even a fly could escape. After that, Lu Chengfeng gave Wu Qi a gaze, rose to his feet and walked towards the side hall where the emissary of Li Shan Kingdom was sent into.
Before Princess Ying Chuan came presenting her conditions that Wu Qi had known in advance, Lu Chengfeng had to first convince the emissary of Li Shan Kingdom.
On the other side, Wu Qi called up Zhao Chenzui, Meng Xiaobai, and a few men to follow him, as he hastily went out through the main entrance of West Supervisor Court. Right when he came to the main street, to his surprise and delight, Wu Qi saw the luxurious coach of Princess Zhang Le coming towards his direction. Eight Ghost Immortals enshrouded in a gloomy and eerie energy were following beside the coach while bearing an aggressive look in their eyes. A couple dozens of burly Palace Guards were seen riding on horses far behind the coach, as they dared not to come too close.
Noticing Wu Qi coming out from West Supervisor Court, Princess Zhang Le lifted up the veil on the window happily, revealing half of her smiling face as she said, "Are you purposely coming out to greet Zi Xuan as you know Zi Xuan is coming? Hold on, are you going somewhere with these men?"
Wu Qi went quickly down the stairs and came beside Princess Zhang Le's coach, brought up a smile on his face and said, "I'm going to do something really fun. It just happened that I lack some manpower. Zi Xuan, can I borrow these eight seniors of yours?"
Princess Zhang Le narrowed her eyes, then she stretched her arm out from the coach like a sudden lightning bolt and grabbed Wu Qi's ears. She lowered her voice and asked, "Why do you need to borrow them? If there is something really fun, you will have to bring me along. If you are trying to hide it from me and enjoy the fun yourself, hmph, I guarantee that nothing you try to do will be accomplished."
Although Wu Qi was having his ear pulled by her, but the smile on his face actually became brighter. Well, he was actually waiting for Princess Zhang Le to say that. If she did not come here and mention it herself, Wu Qi would have paid her a visit in the Imperial Palace, inviting her to oversee the mission that he was going to accomplish. With Princess Zhang Le following him, no matter how absurd the matter that Wu Qi engaged in was, supposedly, everyone would think that it was reasonable and logical. As he was using this spoiled and unruly princess as his cover, Wu Qi actually felt some wicked pleasure.
Wu Qi did not explain to Princess Zhang Le what he was going to do. He called up those Palace Guards and asked them to find a coach that was used by ordinary wealthy merchants, and replaced the luxurious coach of Princess Zhang Le with it. Then, he requested the eight Ghost Immortals to restrain their strong and dense energy of ghosts, tied their disheveled hairs into a bun, and messily decorated them with some ornaments, barely making them look like eight elderly woman servants from a random decent clan.
Wu Qi ran his eyes up and down on all eight Ghost Immortals, and the coach which had now taken a different look, then worriedly turned his gaze at Princess Zhang Le's long dress. It was a too luxurious and rather bold, a style completely opposite to the conventional and conservative palace dress of Great Yan Dynasty. The long dress took a strange fashion, and the variety of tiny symbols on it had blatantly shown off the prestige status of Princess Zhang Le, which, might cause some unnecessary troubles for what he was going to do later.
Obviously, Princess Zhang Le saw the troubled thought behind Wu Qi's face as she said, "Don't mind about me, just lead the way. Bai Zhu'er always bring extra dresses with her. I'll change into one of her dress later. So, tell me, what exactly are you going to do? And why did you ask them to dress like that?"
Princess Zhang Le frowned and stared at the eight Ghost Immortals, who had now transformed into ordinary serving women. Her mind was packed with questions.
Wu Qi did not explain to her, but placed his hand on Princess Zhang Le's head and pushed her into the coach. He too had changed into a different outfit. After that, he leaped onto the coach and sat in the place of the coachman, waved a long whip in his hand and cried out aloud, driving the coach toward the direction of the city gate. Discontentedly, Princess Zhang Le murmured a few words of complaint while sitting in the coach. Then, Wu Qi heard the sound of clothes changing as she had begun to change into a different dress.
Meanwhile, Wu Qi could sense that the peculiar ripples in the coach which stirred and disturbed the surrounding energies of five elements had slowly faded away. He nodded his head and thought to himself that Princess Zhang Le was indeed a witty girl, as she had retracted her five colored divine rays in advance. With the cultivation base of Princess Zhang Le and eight Ghost Immortals, by exerting utmost strength in controlling their cultivation, they could restrain the strange signs of Gold Core for most probably six hours. After that, they would lose the ability to further suppress the energy ripples emanating from their bodies.
But six hours was more than enough for Wu Qi.
The coach moved and began the journey, bringing along a large group of Palace Guards, secret agents of Scouting Office, and private guards from Duke Yan Le's Mansion, who were all disguised in different garbs. The company left the Inner Districts and Middle Districts like a great flood. After roughly two hours into their journey, they arrived at the west of Outer District One, a very famous street in the entire Ji City - the Mighty Martial Street.
It was a popular trend to practice martial arts in Great Yan Dynasty. Even Little Meng City of Lu Kingdom, a place located at the remotest land of the dynasty, had approximately one to two hundred thousand martial art practitioners earning their living there. Countless rangers and rogue warriors were roaming in the entire territory of Great Yan Dynasty. As the heart of the dynasty, it was naturally that Ji City was a blessed land with the highest concentration of higher-tier warriors. Warriors who fancied they could have a bright future in Ji City and be able to set root or even become wealthy and famous, were all flocking here from every corner of Great Yan Dynasty. And the Mighty Martial Street was the place where all the martial art practitioners gathered in Ji City.
The street measured fifty feet from edge to edge, and it stretched twenty-five miles long. The main street, together with twenty-four branch streets and alleyways on both sides, were clustered with all kinds of warrior clubs, martial clubs, dojos, associations of swordsmen, archers, and other professions that were related to martial art, and at least ten thousand venues of great variety and diversity. Each of those warrior clubs and martial clubs of the largest scale had at least ten thousand followers, and many of them were warriors of peak Xiantian realm.
The background of these clubs and associations was rather complicated. Perhaps, some of them were established with the investment given by some important ministers of Great Yan Dynasty. As a matter of fact, many of them were considered the private soldiers and guards that were supported by the supreme, prestigious members or super wealthy men, and they didn't even occupy the allowed quota of private legal soldiers. When these wealthy and influential existences wished to conduct some secret and dirty work, they could always send these warriors out.
From time to time, even the Scouting Office, a secret agent organization of Great Yan Dynasty, would recruit some younger warriors who came from decent clans in the warrior clubs here. They would give them training and eventually make them the lower rank officers of Scouting Office. And sometimes, when they were about to carry out a high-risk mission, the Scouting Office or the Criminal and Justice Minister would straightaway recruit warriors here and deploy them in the mission.
Therefore, this Mighty Martial Street was definitely a place with the most complex composition of people in Ji City. When more than a few hundred thousand warriors and martial art practitioners were gathered in an area, incidents like wrestling and gang fighting, night assassination, murder in broad daylight, were all common scenes here. This was the only place in Ji City where the Imperial Law could not function as it supposed to, and was purely governed by the cruel and savage rules of the jungle.
Actually, it was intentional for the authority of Great Yan Dynasty to loosen the administration of the Mighty Martial Street and a few surrounding districts. No matter whether these warriors committed murder, arson, or any other crime, as long as they did not hurt ordinary civilians, no one would take action against them. All the warriors were tigers, were wild wolves, and in order to maintain their savageness and aggressiveness, they would have to go through the selection of the jungle rule. So, only the fittest would survive.
As a result, Mighty Martial Street was a place that no stranger would visit. Those who dared to step into this street were either wealthy men with a deep pocket, who had prepared to pay money and hire someone to work for him, or high-ranking officials who could make some lucky warriors to soar high literally overnight, or rogue rangers who considered themselves to be highly skilled in martial arts and would be able to have bright future in this place.
When Wu Qi drove the coach and entered the Street of Mighty Martial with a large group of guards, he was halted by two gangs of rangers, who appeared to be fighting with each other in the middle of the street, with blade and swords in their hands. No one seemed to know what they were fighting for. However, right next to them stood a few young and beautiful girls, shouting and yelling with shrill voices. Supposedly, it was a gang fight that broke out because of these girls.
In just a short time to finish a pot of tea, three rangers had fallen to the ground with blood all over their body, and were quickly dragged by a group of men clad in black outfit using iron hooks into an alley on the side of the street. With their bodies smeared and stained with blood, those rangers who obtained the final victory were waving their hands towards some tall and burly warriors gathered around them, fully satisfied and contented. They then started laughing out loud while hugging those few beautiful girls and walked into an inn on the side of the street.
Wu Qi looked at these men, then shook his head disapprovingly.
Curiously Princess Zhang Le poked her head out from the coach. A bright smile bloomed on her face when she saw the blood stain on the ground, then she said, "So, there is such an interesting place in Ji City? Hey, Bai Zhu'er, Bai Zhu'er, remember to give those few damn servants a round of heavy beating when we return! Why did they never inform me about this nice place? Oh, my! There is really someone who got killed here just now? How many were killed? Look at all that blood, so red and beautiful!"
Although Princess Zhang Le had changed into a black and conservative long dress, she still looked very beautiful and charming. A few burly men who happened to pass by the coach saw her, and couldn't refrain themselves from letting out a sharp whistle. "Hey pretty girl, what is your purpose of visiting Mighty Martial Street? Are you looking for someone to help you kill someone or a handsome companion? Although we have an ugly face, our bones and tendons are strong, and that makes us a good companion for your bed!"
In an instant, Princess Zhang Le's face turned livid with rage, and the indistinct energy ripples started to emanate.
Wearing the same expression, Wu Qi twisted his wrist, thrusting the long whip in his hand whistling out and slapping the face of these few burly men. He knocked them back over one hundred feet away with their faces covered in blood and crying out loud. The surrounding warriors saw the mighty bearing of Wu Qi when he waved the whip. They quickly bowed their heads and dared not to say anything. Those few burly men who got slapped by Wu Qi were all experts of peak Houtian realm, and the man who could trounce them must be a Daoist of Xiantian realm.
A Daoist of Xiantian realm was merely the coachman for someone else. Thus, without even asking, the status of the person in the coach must be of extremely prestigious, and who dared to say anything stupid to her again? That would be a foolish act of courting for death!
The coach weaved past the stream of people along the Mighty Martial Street and traveled further for nearly a dozen miles, before finally halting before the entrance of a large warrior club.
This warrior club had an eye-catching facade. It had a six-doors entrance, each standing thirty feet tall and fully painted in green. A large plaque, six feet tall and thirty feet wide, was seen hanging on top of the entrance. Four large calligraphies forged using pure gold were mounted on the plaque - 'Compel Submission by Martial'. Underneath the glittering plaque stood a row of eighteen burly men, holding their head high up and standing straight with an awe-inspiring appearance.
Wu Qi sneered. He crooked his finger at a few palace guards who had changed into a different outfit and said, "Kick the door open, break both hands and legs of those watchdogs at the entrance and throw them in. Ask them to inform their Master, Shi Tianmo, that our young miss has taken a liking to his warrior club, and we are here to challenge him and seize the ownership of this venue!"
The few palace guards were struck dumb by Wu Qi's words, but Princess Zhang Le was so happy that her brows were moving up and down, as if they were dancing excitedly.
With a powerful kick, Princess Zhang Le smashed the coach and leaped down to the ground. Then, with a flick of her body, she dashed up the stair, thrust her leg out and kicked the door flying away.
"Who is Shi Tianmo? The Princ... the Young Miss commands you to get out right now! The challenger is here to seize your venue!"