Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The middle-aged man’s attitude change was quite surprising to all the onlookers, especially for Young Master Lan. The slap almost made his cheek numb. However, he didn’t dare disagree with this middle-aged man. Now that he could see that even his second uncle had to restrain himself, the guy before them couldn’t be a simple fellow.
Young Master Lan took a closer look at Jiang Chen. He looked pretty elegant. The spiritual suit and the battle suit that he was wearing had a low-key design and color. It was natural that he hadn’t noticed them in the first place.
“Mister, please excuse us!” The middle-aged man turned around to apologize to Jiang Chen.
The onlookers were shocked that a Celestial Venerable was behaving in such a humble manner. They also looked at Jiang Chen in awe. At the same time, some people wondered what on earth Jiang Chen had shown so that the Blue Mountain Chamber of Commerce became so scared.
“Just go.” Jiang Chen waved his hand casually. He was not going to make things difficult for them.
The middle-aged man felt relieved. He waved his hand to sign to the soldiers to retreat. Then he said, “Master, if you need anything, please feel free to let the Blue Mountain Chamber of Commerce know.”
Jiang Chen gave him a nod without speaking.
Then the middle-aged man left with Young Master Lan.
Jiang Chen looked toward the azure-clad woman. He said, “So, you are really short-handed.”
The woman lowered her head. She said in a low voice, “Yes. What can we do?” Then she suddenly realized something. She hurried to look up to thank him. Then, she was turning around to leave.
“No rush. Didn’t you just invite me to work with you? Lest what happened just now happens again, I will accompany you on this journey.”
“Ah?” The azure-clad woman was taken by surprise since Jiang Chen had accepted her offer all of a sudden. She was pleasantly surprised, however, and at the same time it struck her that even the Blue Mountain Chamber of Commerce had to show him so much respect, he would definitely be a great protector. She said, “About the pay….”
She had claimed the pay wouldn’t disappoint Jiang Chen, but she had lost the confidence to say that again.
“That’s not necessary. See it as a favor from a friend,” Jiang Chen said.
He thought the azure-clad woman deserved this favor since she hadn’t blamed him for breaking Young Master Lan’s wrist and had even felt sorry for getting him into trouble. The woman realized what Jiang Chen meant. She nodded gratefully.
Then the two introduced themselves. Jiang Chen learned her name was Qiu Fuping.
Jiang Chen told her his real name too. Anyway, no one had heard of him in the Three Middle Realms.
Jiang Chen knew from Qiu Fuping that she had established a chamber of commerce with a few friends. They wanted to earn sufficient resources so that they could break through to Venerables. Jiang Chen supposed her friends would be just like her, not very talented and without the support of any force, unless they had a special background.
However, when Jiang Chen met her friends, he found in surprise that some of them had achieved the Venerable stage. Three of her friends were women, and one was man. One of the women was a Martial Venerable in the middle stage. Her state and clothes both told that she was the leader of these people.
“Fuping, what took you so long? We waited for you for a long time.” Seeing Qiu Fuping walking over, the other two women in the Reaching Heaven State complained unhappily.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t come back immediately since something came up.”
Jiang Chen had asked Qiu Fuping not to tell the others what had happened and to keep it a secret. Qiu Fuping assumed it was because he didn’t want any unnecessary trouble, so she agreed.
“Fuping, is this the escort you found? A Spiritual Venerable in the late stage. That’s perfect. You are doing better now.”
The Venerable woman didn’t blame her. Neither did she reproach the two women who had complained. She did not look at Jiang Chen until everyone had stopped speaking.
Jiang Chen was sizing her up too. She was good-looking. Both her makeup and the spiritual suit she was wearing looked noble. He supposed she was a young lady of some aristocratic family. However, he didn’t understand why she had started a business with some people in the Reaching Heaven states.
The woman explained it to him in person. “I’m Nangong Wan from the Nangong. My family assign different tasks to their disciples to test our skills in different areas, including business. We are not allowed to resort to the family’s power and influence during the test. That’s why I sent Qiu Fuping and others to ask for help.”
No matter whether what she said was true or false – she had told Jiang Chen she was from the Nangongs in order to intimidate Jiang Chen. After all, he was a Spiritual Venerable in the late stage. If he wanted to attack them, none of them could stop him.
“About the pay, we’ll pay you an amount appropriate for your state,” Nangong Wan said.
Qiu Fuping looked a bit odd after hearing this.
“Okay.” Jiang Chen nodded. Glancing over everyone around, he said, “Where are the other escorts?”
Except Nangong Wan and Qiu Fuping, the other two women and the man were obviously embarrassed. These three other Reaching Heaven states apparently failed to find anyone. Jiang Chen wouldn’t have been here either, if the episode with Young Master Lan hadn’t happened.
“You and I, we should be able to deal with it,” Nangong Wan said.
“Let’s start then.”
The group left the mountain city in Nangong Wan’s airship.
Before the airship accelerated to full speed, Jiang Chen said involuntarily, “Miss Nangong, now that I’m your escort, may I make a suggestion?”
Nangong Wan and the others threw him a puzzled look in response.
“Shall we change the ship?” Jiang Chen said with a bitter smile, “Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll be in big trouble.”
Nangong Wan’s airship was really too much. It could be compared to a fancy palace. Among all the different kinds of airships over the mountain city, it was really eye-catching. Since this was a business trip and he was the only escort, it was quite inappropriate.
“But this is the only ship I have,” Nangong Wan said, frowning slightly.
“I have one.”
Jiang Chen called out the airship the Elixir Association had given him. The size of the ship could be changed by situation. It was really convenient. Although it was not as superb as Nangong Wan’s ship, it was also a wonderful ship of good quality.
“What a shabby ship.”
“Yeah. And I’m sure it isn’t as fast as the Thousand Mile.”
“It will take us four or five days more. Won’t it be riskier for us?”
The other two women and the man said one after another. They were disdainful of Jiang Chen’s ship. The fact that Qiu Fuping had found someone successfully while they hadn’t made the three of them quite ashamed.So therefore, they were quite unhappy with Qiu Fuping.
“The longer it takes, the riskier it will be. Don’t you think so?” Nangong Wan did not want to change the ship either.
The Thousand Mile was a birthday gift from her grandpa. It was almost a moving palace. As a result, the journey wouldn’t be boring or dull with it. They even could enjoy the trip.
“It’s only a suggestion,” Jiang Chen said, smiling. He was not surprised.
“Okay.” Nangong Wan nodded. She started her airship after Jiang Chen had put his airship back. He had to admit her ship was really fantastic. It sped up instantly. The scenery along the way receded quickly. However, the inertia had no influence on the passengers of the ship at all.
“Young Master Jiang, sorry for that,” Qiu Fuping said in a low voice after coming up to him. The others thought Jiang Chen was doing this for money, but she knew it was not the case.
“It’s not your fault.”
Jiang Chen asked her tentatively why she could not mingle with the others on the ship. He was piqued with curiosity.
Qiu Fuping told him the reason frankly. She knew these people from the institute. Back then her family was still rich. And she and Nangong Wan had become friends there.
