Chapter 335: Obstructing One’s Merits
Translator: chuchutrain Editor: DavidT, Rock
Before they parted, something had happened.
After XiMen Sa and Ling Tian both cupped hands in farewell, Ling Chi had taken a step forward and greeted, “The young noble of the XiMen family certainly is good stuff, not only possessing an elegant bearing, but also very good looking, just like a young lady. No wonder that’s why my house’s young noble feels so much in common with you!” This sentence caused the expressions of XiMen Sa’s subordinates to contort. Ling Chi seemed like he had met his mother-in-law but chose to address her as Aunt instead. Other than trying to be funny and doing something pointless, he also sounded extremely offensive! Looks of fury appeared on a couple of their faces, but they wisely did not move for fear of Ling Tian’s counterattack.
XiMen Sa chuckled, “This brother is overly praising me. To talk about favoritism from young noble Ling, how could I compare to the five of you? From this, I can see that the people in Sky Bearing are the best looking. Hmm… let’s put it this way, the last time I went over to Sky Bearing, I met a very interesting friend called Dog Egg or whatever. After not meeting for such a long time, I wonder how he’s doing now.” As he spoke, XiMen Sa let out a long sigh, and said with a reminiscing tone, “The past seems ethereal like wisps of smoke. I wonder how that Dog Egg is doing now. I remember that once in order to steal some chicken to eat, he even fell into a family’s latrine pit…”
Ling Chi’s face alternated between red and purple, and viciously stared at XiMen Sa. “Young noble XiMen, who knows, you might also fall into a latrine pit one day yourself. Goodbye!” XiMen Sa burst out into laughter at this sentence.
While the upper half of his sentence was venomous, the latter half was neither here nor there. However, this gave his subordinates the impression that their young noble had wit surpassing a normal human, and allowed them a good comeback. Thus, they did not bother to nitpick his words.
Surprisingly, Ling Tian’s temper was also extraordinarily good. Not only did he not rebut XiMen Sa, but he ignored it!
As Ling Tian brought Ling Chi and the others back to Yan County, Ling Tian had on a poker face but his eyes glittered with laughter. Obviously, his mood was excellent! However, Ling Chi seemed like a grouchy old person the entire journey, grinding his teeth and seeming very depressed. Ling Yun, Ling Nineteen, and the others were also behaving abnormally, all rolling with laughter while on horseback, laughing so hard that their faces were cramping up.
What happened to this group, did they all go crazy?!
The truth was that ‘Dog Egg’ was the name of Ling Chi when he was still a beggar. All those directly under Ling Tian would of course be aware of Ling Chi’s most shameful point, which was also a taboo subject for him. How could Ling Chi not leave in anger after having that touchy subject unearthed? Could he even try to argue with XiMen Sa?
The reason why he did not dare to argue with XiMen Sa, and also why Ling Tian did not interfere in the end, was because XiMen Sa also went by another name: Ling Thirty!
Ling Thirty was involved in begging together with Ling Chi when they were young and was also one of the final fifty who made it past Ling Tian’s training. Of course, he would be extremely familiar with such a matter! However, saying that Ling Tian treated Ling Chi and the others better compared to him, every word of this was from his heart and was full of naked jealousy! He himself would also kill to stay beside Ling Tian and accompany him, but of course, how his subordinates interpreted his words was another matter altogether!
That year Ling Tian had sent Ling Thirty over to the XiMen Aristocratic Family to be an undercover agent because he had a knack for covert operations. With his above average intelligence, coupled with the intelligence reports he always got beforehand from Ling Tian, it didn’t take long for him to be noticed by the XiMen Family and he was adopted as a XiMen member. While he was named XiMen, it was only meant as a way to tie him to the family. However, now that Ling Tian had wiped out all the legitimate heirs of the XiMen Family, this ‘figurehead’ Ling Thirty now had free rein, and had turned into the leading figure of the younger generation of the XiMen house!
As to why Ling Thirty seemed to have cultivation on par with the five Ling brothers that accompanied Ling Tian, this was due to a miraculous panacea that the XiMen family had. Consuming the pill would greatly boost one’s prowess, but the side effect was that the user would be stuck forever below the XianTian stage, unable to further improve. However, with the Great Cyclic Pellet that Ling Tian just gave to Ling Thirty, the nourishment provided by it should be able to eliminate any side effects in Ling Thirty’s body, giving him a chance once more to improve!
Today’s matter was also out of Ling Tian’s expectations, so while he was making his deal together with Han TieXuan, he had already sent a messenger falcon out to bring an intelligence report to Ling Eight, informing him to pass the message to Ling Thirty, bidding him to rush here by the next day. Ling Thirty had thrown everything aside and rode through the night, finally reaching here on time as per the young noble’s orders.
While Han TieXuan had left behind a vice general as well as a few thousand troops to clear up the spoils of war, Ling Tian did not even bother with such small fry. He intended to pass on all the spoils of war to this ‘new friend’ he met today, Ling Thirty.
Ling Tian had two purposes in doing this. The first was to further cement Ling Thirty’s position in the XiMen Family, expanding his influence by improving his relations in the eyes of the Western Han imperial family as well as the army. After all, not everyone was worthy for Ling Tian to give away his rewards just like that. Ling Thirty’s performance had always impressed Ling Tian, especially with the battle of wits previously. Not everyone would be able to do such a thing in an impromptu situation!
Secondly, since Ling Tian had already understood that Han TieXuan was a subordinate of the Yu Family, why would he allow Han TieXuan to swallow all the merits on his own? This was something Ling Tian needed to prevent at all costs!
This move was obvious to all and Ling Thirty got to take advantage of it for free. While he could be said to be courageous enough to go one-to-one against Ling Tian, he was still taking credit from the hard work that Han TieXuan had put in! However, Ling Tian was certain that the Western Han family would remain silent and split at least half of the rewards to Ling Thirty!
This was how a monarch would scheme. As long as the monarch of Western Han wasn’t an idiot, he would definitely not allow Han TieXuan, who commanded such a huge military force, to return with such huge merits! The territory obtained from the conquest this time was enough to cover half of Western Han’s original territory! Based on such a merit, the imperial family had no reason not to reward nor confer a title to him! Having Ling Thirty take half of the impact would be an unexpected joy for them! Not only would they be able to restrict Han TieXuan, they could also allow the dying XiMen family, who had suffered great losses back in Sky Bearing, to recoup and become great once again! If there was anyone that would not be happy about that it would probably only be Han TieXuan, but that was not what Ling Tian cared about.
Based on Ling Tian’s conjectures, for Yu ManLou to give him such an effortless victory, this would mean that the Yu Family had absolute confidence in taking over the entire Western Han! While this was only his hypothesis, but whatever the case, Ling Tian would still not allow more power and influence to land in Han TieXuan’s hands! He did not wish to see that scenario happen at all!
As he thought about this, Ling Tian couldn’t help but smile stupidly as he envisioned what would happen if the XiMen Family were to make Ling Thirty the successor of their family because of his merits. What a wonderful thing that would be, and how much time that would save him!
As he finally calmed down, he noticed the other brats sneakily staring at him, trying to figure out what was on his mind. Ling Tian laughed it off by saying, “Inform Feng Mo to look after the surrendered soldiers well. Split them into a few sections to separately send them back into Sky Bearing. In addition, prepare a few extra horse carts with extra bedding to make them comfortable for my father’s and my journey back.”
Ling Chi nodded and nudged his horse ahead of the rest. What a sneaky guy, to take the chance to avoid all the people laughing at him!
“The dust should have settled down on both sides, but after we return, we will still have a lot to do!” Ling Tian addressed his subordinates with a smile, but suddenly frowned as he thought, The enemies are already gone like the wind, but… why do I still feel nervous? As though a torrential downpour is oncoming towards us? Is it a mistaken premonition? Or did I forget to calculate something?!
Shaking his head, he thought, Forget it, the boat will go along with the current until it reaches the harbor. No matter what, I can probably afford a rest before the next event.
Northern Wei had already exhausted their threats and was like a bird at the end of its flight! Now that Sky Bearing had been taken over by the Ling Family, Ling Tian could finally relax a little. After being cautious for such a long time, even for someone as hardened as Ling Tian, he was already fatigued. Ling Tian felt like he finally deserved a rest. At least, he wanted to fully throw himself into cultivation, sitting aloof from the rest of the mortal world. Just that should be possible, right? Ling Tian thought to himself.
However, Ling Tian was destined to be disappointed.
How could a man be able to have everything going their way all the time?!
In this world, a legend as large as Ling Tian’s had just begun to unfold, and his life, surging on this great momentum, had just opened a new chapter.
…
In the Northern Wei palace. In the dark of night, while everyone was sleeping.
Wei ChengPing suddenly jumped up from his bed as he screamed and shouted with his eyes closed, “No! No! Please please please… wuwuwu… don’t kill me… wuwuwu… young noble Ling, no Daddy Ling, Grand Daddy Ling, Ancestor Ling, I beg you to let me go… I was wrong, please don’t kill me…”
The palace maids stationed nearby all let out a sigh. Not again! What sort of stimulation had their crown prince undergone with this young noble surnamed Ling? Why was he so afraid of him? Even to the point of calling him an ancestor, how could this be the bearing of a monarch-to-be?!
Ever since Wei ChengPing managed to escape with under the crazed protection of his guards, he had fallen ill with a high fever in which he had mumbled incoherent words for three whole days!
In those three days, he continuously mumbled nonstop, grinding his teeth and cursing unceasingly. Sometimes they could hear him pleading for mercy. But the content of it all was similar, all only to one person, Ling Tian!
