Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Oh right. Since the duel is over, should we get going?” Wen Zhaolun looked around. “There’s really no reason to stay here any longer!”
Wen Zhaolun’s voice immediately pulled Yan Liqiang’s thoughts back to the frosty Heavenly Lake. Yan Liqiang looked at the blood traces in the distance and the Soaring Heaven Sect beyond it. A smile appeared on his face. “I do want to leave, but I think the Soaring Heaven’s Sect Lord, Guo Yifei, is reluctant to let me leave just like this. We were actually about to fight right before you arrived.”
“What does the Soaring Heaven Sect still want with you?” Wen Zhaolun frowned as anger flashed across his face. “The duel is over already. Are they sore losers?!”
“Guo Yifei still wants to avenge his disciples from the sect though!”
“Well, where are those damned wretches?”
“Just over there…?” Yan Liqiang pointed toward the group of disciples from the Soaring Heaven Sect.
“Wait here for a while!” After Wen Zhaolun finished speaking, he immediately rushed in the direction where Yan Liqiang pointed. In just a flash, he was just ten meters away from the group of people from the Soaring Heaven Sect. He scanned the crowd before his gaze fell on Guo Yifei’s face. As the Sect Lord, he was naturally standing at the center and was surrounded by his people. Not only that, but even his cultivation realm and temperament were different from ordinary people.
“So, you are the Soaring Heaven’s Sect Lord, Guo Yifei?” Wen Zhaolun asked loudly.
Guo Yifei nodded with his face as black as coal. As soon as Wen Zhaolun walked toward him, Guo Yifei sensed that his cultivation was definitely not inferior to his. “Who are you?”
“I am Vice Hall Master Wen Zhaolun from the Soul Mountain Sect’s Thousand Engineering Hall!” Wen Zhaolun’s voice reverberated from afar. Apart from the Soaring Heaven Sect, everyone within a radius of several thousand meters from him could also hear him clearly.
“Lord Yan is a special guest of the Soul Mountain Sect’s Thousand Engineering Hall! Therefore, his affairs are my sect’s affairs. The duel is over. The Soul Mountain Sect will bear any grudges the Soaring Heaven Sect has against Lord Yan! If you have anything else you want to do, feel free to do it now. I shall handle it from here!”
The Soaring Heaven Sect was a mere sect in the northwestern region after all. As one of the four major sects in the Great Han Empire, the Soul Mountain Sect was on a totally different level than them in terms of both influence and power. Even their vice hall master’s cultivation was on par with Guo Yifei’s. How were they going to compete with them?
Guo Yifei’s arrogance wilted completely before a powerful existence like the Soul Mountain Sect. He didn’t even have anything to flaunt. Sects like the Soul Mountain Sect were considered to be on the ancestral level. If they were to play things the way people did in the pugilistic world, then surely the Soul Mountain Sect could play it harder than them. The Soul Mountain Sect might give some respect to the bureaucracy, but to ‘minor sects’ like Soaring Heaven Sect, they would surely crush them without a second thought.
Guo Yifei’s hands and heart were trembling. He knew that the Soaring Heaven Sect was really in hot water this time. Both Yan Liqiang’s capabilities and the Soul Mountain Sect’s sudden arrival were completely beyond his expectations.
“After this duel… any grudges between the Soaring Heaven Sect and Yan Liqiang… are dissolved…” Although the words were hard for Guo Yifei to say, he had no choice but to lower his head under such circumstances. With great difficulty, he forced the words out of his mouth and took back his statements. He was well aware that if he didn’t submit this time and a fight were to break out between them and the Soul Mountain Sect, the Soaring Heaven Sect would ultimately become a thing of the past very soon regardless if he could defeat Wen Zhaolun or not. After all, the prestigious reputation of being one of the four major sects was built upon the deaths of countless challengers.
“Fine then!” A smile appeared on Wen Zhaolun’s face. He swept his glance across Guo Yifei and the group of trembling Soaring Heaven Sect’s members before turning around and sprinting back to Yan Liqiang.
Watching Wen Zhaolun’s figure leave and the gaze of the other onlookers in the surroundings on him, Guo Yifei instantly felt his blood boiling. His heart was thumping loudly like thunder. He grabbed his chest as he struggled to breathe. Just when he was about to speak, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, then fell backward.
“SECT LORD…! SECT LORD…!” The people from the Soaring Heaven Sect were in full panic and they immediately flocked toward Guo Yifei.
Wen Zhaolun returned to Yan Liqiang’s side in just a flash and grinned at him. “I’ve already settled the matter with the Soaring Heaven Sect. They won’t dare to find any more trouble with you from now on. We can go back now, right?”
“Thank you for your help, Vice Hall Master Wen!”
“Hahaha, not a problem! How can we still call ourselves one of the major sects if our Thousand Engineering Hall’s symbol of worship is so easily bullied by someone else!”
“That’s true. Let’s go then!” Yan Liqiang let out a sincere smile, then made for the shore with Wen Zhaolun under everyone’s gaze.
Shortly after, the troops from the archery academy and the Soul Mountain Sect converged. They left the Heavenly Lake and rode toward the mountain pass amidst the sound of thundering hooves. Only with that did the archery duel that shook the entire northwestern region truly come to an end.
As soon as Yan Liqiang left, several tens of thousands of onlookers around the Heavenly Lake immediately cheered in excitement. The show today was simply too exciting.
Everyone was still replaying the scene where Yan Liqiang killed Cai Yingwu with that shocking attack. After this battle, Yan Liqiang from Gan Province’s Pingxi Prefecture was undoubtedly crowned as the best archer of the northwestern region. Everyone had personally witnessed the rise of a prodigy in the battle at the Heavenly Lake on Mount Azure Dragon today.
…
“Such achievements at such a young age…” On a hill at the edge of the Heavenly Lake, ‘Second Uncle’ sighed in amazement while shaking his head.
“He has the Emperor backing him up in the imperial court, and the Soul Mountain Sect is his shield in the pugilistic world. He calls Lei Sitong of Gan Province his uncle. He can fight the Transportation Office and suppress the Soaring Heaven Sect. This Yan Liqiang indeed has boundless prospects ahead of him! We must report the outcome of this duel to our clan head in great detail. Our clan should not take him lightly!”
“Second Uncle, could the rumors about Yan Liqiang being able to communicate with deities in his dreams… be true after all? It’s certainly not easy for an ordinary person to be proficient in either martial cultivation or the path of mechanics and the investigation of things. Yet Yan Liqiang seems to excel in both. How can a person like him possibly exist in this world…?” The handsome young man named Jia Cheng asked in bewilderment.
Even the ‘Second Uncle’ was stunned by the question, because he knew that his nephew had always been proud and arrogant. He would never submit to anyone, let alone believing in supernatural things. He didn’t expect Yan Liqiang’s duel today to sway his nephew’s beliefs. It would seem like Yan Liqiang had made a great impression on him.
“The clan head once said that anything is possible in this vast world. What we’ve seen may only be a drop in the ocean…”‘Second Uncle’ also sighed. “Stop thinking about it and let’s just go. Even if Yan Liqiang can communicate with deities in his dreams, it’s his luck. Everyone has their own luck and fate. Things like this are beyond our control…”
…
On a distant hill, two men dressed in black were watching the event at the Heavenly Lake on their rhinodrake steeds as the bone-chilling wind blew against their faces.
One of them appeared to be in his fifties or sixties and was clad in a bear fur coat. He had a pair of sharp eyes and a sharp nose on his aged face. The man’s eyes never left Yan Liqiang from beginning to end. He had his eyes glued on Yan Liqiang’s back until he left with Wen Zhaolun.
“This Yan Liqiang is the young lord you’ve been talking about?” The man only turned his head to look at Fu Changde with his shining eyes when Yan Liqiang’s figure had completely vanished from his sight. “Did you truly see the Shuiyun Token reacting to his blood?”
“Hmph, take it or leave it, Situ Feixing. The young lord might not even think much of your small troop. He didn’t even want me to seek assistance from you when he was going through his most difficult time, let alone now!” Fu Changde spat and threw a disdainful glance at the man beside him.
“I’m only informing you out of courtesy, seeing that we used to be comrades. Many from the Hui Clan Gathering, including my own son, have joined him. If you wish to continue living your life as a bandit, then continue being the coward you are. No one will stop you. However, if you wish to avenge for our brothers and the Protectorate General and live like a real man, then you know what to do!”
Without waiting for Situ Feixing to say anything, Fu Changde turned his steed around. He gave his steed’s abdomen a squeeze and left immediately, leaving behind the other man sitting on the back of his steed. There, the man stayed as still as a stone statue for a very long time as he gazed into the distance from the hill.
Several dozen tough-looking men who carried a bow and a saber with them approached him from behind on their black rhinodrake steeds. Some of the rhinodrake steeds were snorting while some were crushing the rock fragments and snowflakes beneath their hooves. It was only then that the man turned his steed around and shouted, “Let’s go…!”
