Chu Li glanced at the four Grandmasters and turned to look at Song Shi Ling, “Heir to the High Duke, do you really want to do this?”
“Dispel his martial arts!” Song Shi Ling shouted.
The four Grandmasters immediately rushed to Chu Li.
Suddenly, Chu Li disappeared in a flash and appeared behind Song Shi Ling. He gave a light pat.
Song Shi Ling had not reached Innate Mastery’s Boundary, but he did not expect that Chu Li would dare to attack him. Due to his carelessness, his personal Grandmaster was not around.
A pat from Chu Li, his body suddenly froze and became motionless, several of his main acupuncture points were instantly sealed.
Chu Li stood behind him and watched the four Grandmasters quietly, smiling at the six pairs of angry eyes.
“Surnamed Chu, you are audacious!” Song Shi Ling flew into a rage and shouted, “If you dared to touch even a strand of my hair, I will let you die without a burial!”
Chu Li reached out his hand and grabbed a strand of hair from Song Shi Ling, snapping it gently, “I just touched one of your hair. What are you going to do?”
“Kill him!” Song Shi Ling roared.
Chu Li placed his hand upon Song Shi Ling’s shoulder and smiled, “Before you kill me, heir to the High Duke will die ahead of me and we will go to the netherworld together.”
“Surnamed Chu…,” Song Shi Ling scoffed through gritted teeth, “Spit it out! What is your condition?”
“I know that if I ask for the Wang brothers, heir to the High Duke will not agree,” Chu Li said.
“Of course!” Song Shi Ling scoffed.
The Wang brothers were worth four Grandmasters and losing the two of them will cause the strength of Huay Public House to decrease significantly and the strength cannot be restored in a short amount of time.
Chu Li said, “I would like to ask heir to the High Duke to write a confession memorial [1] to explain this matter in details to the Emperor. As for how the Emperor will deal with it, it is not something that we can decide. Based on the capability of your public house, it is not that difficult for you to extricate yourself.”
Song Shi Ling said coldly, “Impossible!”
Chu Li pressed Song Shi Ling’s shoulder, “If that is the case, I can only take heir to the High Duke to my public house to discuss this matter!”
“You think that you can escape?” Song Shi Ling sneered, “You don’t dare to do anything to me. Even if I go to Yi Public House, nobody can force me if I don’t want to write the confession.”
Chu Li said, “Heir to the High Duke is of highborn. I don’t dare to piss you off. I will not do anything to the heir to the High Duke.”
Song Shi Ling smiled smugly.
Chu Li sighed, “At most, I will take off heir to the High Duke’s clothes and walk around the town. I believe that the public will be happy to see it. Within a month, the whole Great Ji will know the name of the heir to the High Duke!”
“Despicable!” Song Shi Ling scoffed through gritted teeth.
Chu Li smiled, “This is what heir to the High Duke forced me to do. You gave me no choice.”
“…Very well, I will write it!” Song Shi Ling said coldly, “I will remember this!”
A wise man knew when to concede. Surnamed Chu was audacious. He even dared to kidnap him. He can basically do anything to achieve his aim.
He will write it to fool him first and when Chu Li let him go, he will then send all the Grandmasters in the public house against Chu Li to kill him and recover the confession no matter what!
“That’s good!” Chu Li laughed.
He patted Song Shi Ling’s back lightly and all acupuncture points in Song Shi Ling’s upper body were unsealed, regaining their abilities to move. However, his legs were still tingling and he cannot walk.
Chu Li reached out a hand to hold Song Shi Ling and both of them flew up and landed in front of the table that was below the window.
Chu Li rubbed the inkstick [2] personally.
After he had done rubbing the inkstick, he gestured with his hand, “Heir to the High Duke, please—!”
Song Shi Ling glared at him coldly and picked up the ink brush, contemplating motionlessly.
Chu Li stared at him from a side, turning a blind eye to the four ashen-faced Grandmasters.
They were in a tight spot and they itched to kill Chu Li with a slap.
Before their very eyes, they watched Chu Li took their heir to the High Duke as a hostage. Even if the heir to the High Duke did not bear grudges, they were still aggrieved. They felt unworthy of their post as a High Official.
Song Shi Ling put brush to paper and wrote a page full of words in one go. After that, he threw the brush fiercely out of the window and stared coldly at Chu Li, “Are you happy now?”
Chu Li took paper and blew it. After glancing at its content carefully, he nodded with satisfaction, smiled and said, “Thank you very much, heir to the High Duke!”
Song Shi Ling deadpanned, “Now, can you let me go?”
“Of course,” Chu Li patted Song Shi Ling with a smile, “Heir to the High Duke, till we meet again!”
He disappeared suddenly in situ.
Song Shi Ling shouted, “Chase after him! Get the memorial back!”
“Yes,” the four High Officials said gruffly and rushed out.
Lu Yu Shu sat at the stone table below a peach tree, sipping tea lazily, “Sir Xi Wu, sit down. You don’t have to be so uptight.”
Xi Wu’s eyes surveyed the surroundings, “I am not thirsty. I’m fine with standing.”
Lu Yu Shu said, “Sir Xi Wu, he is not that terrifying.”
Xi Wu said, “Master, you shouldn’t have angered him!”
“Humph! If I don’t provoke him, he will be friendly with me?” Lu Yu Shu pursed his lips, “Think about how many of our people were killed by him!”
Xi Wu shook his head, “This is for Lady Lu Yu Rong to worry about. Master doesn’t need to provoke him!”
“Anyway, I have already provoked him, so we might as well kill him!” Lu Yu Shu scoffed, “He is not that big of a deal. Didn’t he get driven out of the House in disgrace?”
“Hai…,” Xi Wu shook his head with resignation.
Master Lu Yu Shu was young and uppity. He did not experience Chu Li’s might. The more he said, the less convinced Master Lu Yu Shu was and the more Master Lu Yu Shu wanted to compete with Chu Li. His words were counterproductive, so he was better off keeping quiet.
Right at that moment, Chu Li appeared suddenly in front of the two in a flash, smiling at them.
“You!” all of Xi Wu’s hair stood on end, channeling his inner energy crazily.
“Chi!” Chu Li shot a cold glint from his left hand and it instantly reached Xi Wu.
Xi Wu knew that his flying blade was very powerful and he dodged it just barely.
“Chi!” just after he avoided the flying blade, he heard another flying blade being shot out.
“Master, be careful!” Xi Wu shouted with widened eyes. His shout was like a clap of thunder.
The cold glint that was shot from Chu Li’s right hand instantly hit Lu Yu Shu and Lu Yu Shu flew into the air. Chu Li smiled at Xi Wu and disappeared suddenly.
Xi Wu could not care less about chasing Chu Li. He caught Lu Yu Shu in the air anxiously.
Lu Yu Shu’s right chest was stabbed with a flying blade but it was not bleeding. His face was pale and his eyes were dazed and helpless.
Xi Wu quickly channeled his inner energy to protect Lu Yu Shu’s heart and asked hurriedly, “Masterer? Master?!”
Lu Yu Shu looked down slowly and struggled violently.
Xi Wu held him down in a hurry, “Master, stop moving around!”
“I’m going to die?” Lu Yu Shu stared at the flying blade in his chest and shouted in a panic, “Am I going to die?”
Xi Wu said quickly, “Master doesn’t have to worry. You won’t die. It’s not fatal … this flying blade stabbed your right chest. If it was on the left, you might be dead.”
“On the right …,” Lu Yu Shu looked down and then laughed, “Hahaha, it’s on the right! It’s on the right! …This Chu Li is such a fool!”
Xi Wu opened his mouth and shut it again.
Lu Yu Shu laughed heartily, “He must have mistaken the right as the left. What a fool!”
Xi Wu took out a jade bottle and poured out a red pill. He stuffed it into Lu Yu Shu’s mouth and hit Lu Yu Shu’s chest with his finger several times quickly. He pulled out the flying blade suddenly and the wound surprisingly was not bleeding.
Xi Wu looked down and studied the flying blade.
The flying blade was ice-cold and it turned out to be driven by an extremely cold inner energy. In this way, the wound will freeze straight away and Lu Yu Shu will not bleed to death.
“Hahaha…,” Lu Yu Shu was excited because he just escaped death. He was laughing non-stopped, “The next time I see him, I’ll make sure to thank Chu Li properly, to thank him for his mercy! Hahaha!”
He revealed a cheeky expression and laughed increasingly loudly.
“Hai…,” Xi Wu shook his head and sighed.
He did not want to say anything more and Master was not stupid too. After a while, he will calm down and will be able to understand the reason behind Chu Li’s mercy.
“Hahaha… Did this fool really even make our public house suffer heavy casualties? Younger sister is confused!” Lu Yu Shu laughed heartily.
Xi Wu had enough, “Master, do you really think that Chu Li would make such a mistake?!”
Translator Notes
[1] A memorial to the throne that was written on paper folded in accordion form. It was an official communication to the Emperor in Ancient China.
[2] Inkstick is a solid ink used traditionally in China for calligraphy. An inkstick is ground against an inkstone with a small quantity of water to produce a dark liquid (ink) which is then applied with an ink brush.