Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“The lord?”
Jiang Chen was surprised to learn the Gaos’ plan. Since his family name wasn’t Gao, he had never thought about being their lord, but on second thought, the Gaos had intended to appoint his mother, Gao Yue, as the lord in the first place. In that case, her child would naturally be the next successor.
His only concern was Gao Ke. He wasn’t sure whether his uncle would be happy with the new arrangement, and as a result, hold a grudge against them.
After all, he was the acting lord. Anyone would show their darkest side if their benefits were harmed.
However, Gao Ke intended to protect Gao Yue at the risk of losing his position as lord. Jiang Chen felt like he was overthinking at the thought of this fact.
So Jiang Chen accepted the Gaos’ arrangement and went to see Gao Jinghong the next day.
“My waiting finally paid off. Every cloud has a silver lining.”
Gao Jinghong didn’t care at all that Gao Yan had poisoned him. He grasped Gao Yue’s hands and burst into tears.
He was glad to hear that Gao Yue had been accepted by the family and that the clan elders hadn’t tried to stop it from happening. He was even happier with his grandson, but he could feel that Jiang Chen wasn’t so happy with him…
Gao Jinghong didn’t blame him for that. He had forced Gao Yue to take poison.
Gao Ke stood beside them silently, watching the happenings.
Suddenly, someone paid them an unexpected visit. A pretty girl showed up at the door, saying as soon as she entered the room, “Grandpa, Jiang Chen’s family name isn’t even Gao. Why did you make him the successor to the lord’s position?”
“Huoling!”
Gao Ke looked annoyed immediately. He shouted, “When did you come back?”
“Father, you’ve been working hard as the acting lord for more than ten years, but these two took everything away from you as soon as they came back here!” The girl called Huoling didn’t find it fair to him. Her tone was full of disdain when she mentioned Jiang Chen and Gao Yue.
Pah!
Gao Ke harshly slapped his daughter right away. Her cheek swelled up instantly.
“Gao Ke!”
“Brother!”
Both Gao Jinghong and Gao Yue thought he had overreacted. In their eyes, Gao Huoling was still a kid.
Gao Huoling, ranked on List A of the Dragon Rise List, was a young genius. She was already a Cloud-Seven Reaching Heaven State.
There were more than 100 Cloud-Seven Reaching Heaven States in the Dragon Field, but only 100 people were ranked on List A. This meant she was excellent in martial arts techniques, as well as other areas.
This slap was totally unexpected to her. She burst into tears.
Soon, another pretty woman came in. She stopped beside Gao Huoling. “Gao Ke, why did you slap your own child?!”
“You called her back?” asked Gao Ke.
“That’s right! Anyway, you should be the next lord!” the woman said emotionally.
Jiang Chen sighed. They were acting in their own interests.
Gao Ke was willing to give up the lord’s position, but other people didn’t agree. He wasn’t surprised to see this.
“Grandpa, I can’t accept your decision. He was lucky enough to have genuine blood. Except that, what does he have to make him a better candidate than me?” Gao Huoling ignored her father and complained to Gao Jinghong, still lying on the bed.
“Huoling…” Gao Jinghong didn’t know what to say.
“Your mother isn’t as strong as my father, and you’re worse than me. What do you think you have that makes you deserve to be the lord of the Gaos?” Gao Huoling started to target Jiang Chen again.
“You think I’m worse than you?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Huh, I’m ranked on List A of the Dragon Rise List. If you were good enough, you would be ranked on it, too,” Gao Huoling provoked.
Since there were too many factors that decided one’s combat power, state was valued less and less. Sometimes, two people in the same state could have a huge gap.
Gao Huoling was best of the best among Cloud-Seven Reaching Heaven States.
Gao Jinghong made a decision. He said, “Huoling, what about this? If you’re still better than Jiang Chen when I retire, the position of lord will go to your father. If you’re surpassed, it will go to your aunt. How does this sound to you?”
“Father!” Gao Ke frowned and said, “This will break the rule!”
“Haha, why’s that? It’s the law of the jungle, but Huoling, it won’t count if you win through a dirty trick. That applies to you, too, Jiang Chen.” Gao Jinghong didn’t think it was a big deal, so he warned the two respectively.
“Grandpa, I won’t need any dirty tricks to deal with him.”
Gao Huoling was pleased to hear that. She looked towards Jiang Chen again with a smile and said, “Get ranked on List A of the Dragon Rise List first if you want to compete with me. If I remember correctly, you’re currently ranked at the bottom of List B of the Dragon Rise List.”
“Am I?”
“Shui Chun. You defeated him, and he was ranked on List B.”
“Okay. I see.” Jiang Chen tumbled to the realization.
Like the Eternal Flame List, the winners replaced losers on the Dragon Rise List.
The Dragon Rise List consisted of Lists A, B, C, and D.
There were 100 people on each of them. Shui Chun had been ranked at the bottom of List B, which meant Gao Huoling was at least 100 ranks ahead of him.
With his experience with the Eternal Flame List, Jiang Chen knew that between higher-ranked people, there were greater gaps.
Shui Chun had been a Cloud-Three Reaching Heaven State. His creation of water hadn’t been bad.
Gao Huoling was his first well-matched rival since Ning Haotian.
“If I remember well, you’ll be expelled from the Hero Palace in ten days!” said Gao Huoling.
“Expelled?”
Jiang Chen was surprised. Then he recalled his punishment—he had to kill someone ranked on the Slay Demon List.
“The man ranked at the bottom of the Slay Demon List is ranked on List A, too.”
“Are you done?” Jiang Chen asked.
“Ha, you’ll live in my shadow forever!” Gao Huoling gave him a stare and turned around, leaving.
“Jiang Chen, don’t underestimate Huoling. She’s one of the best among the Gaos’ direct-line disciples. You’re not a match for her for right now,” said Gao Jinghong.
“I’m not a match for many people right now. But soon, they won’t be a match for me,” Jiang Chen said.
“Haha.”
His brave words made Gao Jinghong burst out in laughter.
“Jiang Chen, I’ll hold onto the three drops of essence blood for you. You shouldn’t use them until you’ve experienced how magical phoenix blood is,” Gao Yue suddenly said.
“Yeah, I agree,” Gao Jinghong nodded.
It seemed the Gaos had made his practicing schedule for him, but Jiang Chen had to leave it on hold for a while due to his urgent task.
The Gaos certainly wouldn’t agree. They didn’t think it was a big deal to be expelled from the Hero Palace, but they couldn’t talk Jiang Chen out of it. Anyway, Jiang Chen had information from them regarding ten people ranked on the Slay Demon List, so he left for the Fire Phoenix City.
However, he returned to the Black Dragon City first to look for the dragon ball the black dragon had mentioned.
Since the black dragon and the dragon ball could sense each other’s positions, it didn’t take him long to dig it out of the ruins of the mountain that he had destroyed.
It was interesting that he wasn’t the only one there. Many people wanted to find the Black Dragon City’s treasure.
Seeing Jiang Chen had found something, they surrounded him and said, “Stop. Let me have a look at it!”
“You mean this?”
Jiang Chen took the dragon ball out. Looking at the greedy people around him, he said with a smile, “You want it?”
