Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Zhou Donghuang!” Finally, Li Rui mustered her courage and called out to Zhou Donghuang. “I am Li Rui, you… still remember me? My mother is the chairperson of the commerce association of Ningping town, Li Yun. She is good friends with your mother, Lin Lan.” To Li Rui, with the power that Zhou Donghuang had now, as long as he supported her in even the smallest way possible, she would benefit greatly.
“Li Rui… knows this Zhou Donghuang?” Hong Qian’s eyes widened in disbelief. Hong Qian was the side disciple of the preeminent Hong family of Yunfeng prefecture capital. She would never have thought that her friend could possibly be acquainted with the Connate-level teenager of Yunyang country, who was now a Primal Core adept. Instantly, her eyes sparkled. If Li Rui was able to make connections with this man, she would also be able to take advantage of it!
“Li Rui?” Just as the people around her were looking at her with envy, Zhou Donghuang, who was floating in the air, opened his eyes slowly and glanced at her. “I remember you, you’re the daughter of Aunty Yun.”
“Correct, correct!” Seeing Zhou Donghuang remember her, Li Rui answered excitedly. The gaze of the other people boiled with jealousy.
“Is Aunt Yun doing well?” Li Rui nodded her head like a chicken pecking at rice. In that moment, she was blushing out of sheer excitement. “Brother Donghuang, you rarely come back to Yunfeng prefecture… why don’t you stay for a few more days so that I can properly take care of you?”
“Brother Donghuang?” Hearing how Li Rui addressed him, Zhou Donghuang looked at her with a complex expression, a smirk playing on his lips. “Miss Li, I am not worthy of you calling me that… I, Zhou Donghuang, in your eyes, am just a martial invalid who is not worthy of you.”
With that, the expression of everyone there changed as they looked at Li Rui as if she was an idiot. This Li Rui had looked down upon Zhou Donghuang? She had thought that he was a marital invalid? A twenty-year-old Primal Core adept, a martial invalid? Was Li Rui blind?
“Brother Donghuang.” Although she could hear the sarcasm in his voice, Li Rui still plastered a smile on her face. “I was too young then and did not understand anything… these things, someone as magnanimous as you, please do not take it to heart.”
“You are really able to bend yourself anyway you like.” Zhou Donghuang smiled faintly, and closed his eyes, ignoring Li Rui. Beside her, Hong Qian’s hopes were dashed as well.
Hong Qian could tell that Zhou Donghuang had no intention of paying any attention to Li Rui. After repeated attempts to talk to Zhou Donghuang, Li Rui’s face slowly darkened as she realized that Zhou Donghuang was simply ignoring her. Finally, sensing the disdain from the crowd around her, she could only feel extremely embarrassed as she fled sneakily.
“Lu Qinghu greets Young Master!” Not long after Li Rui had left, a tall slender figure appeared in the courtyard like a phantom. He bowed respectfully to the young man in mid-air, his eyes filled with both respect and shock.
In such a short time, that young man had already reached the Primal Core stage and had become a Primal Core adept? Just now, hearing the words of his son Lu Yuan, he had not dared to believe it. It wasn’t until now, upon seeing the young man float in midair, did he fully believe that it was true.
“It’s been a while.” Long before Lu Qinghu arrived, Zhou Donghuang had already opened his eyes. He smiled in return to Lu Qinghu’s greeting. “This time, I am back to bring my mother with me to leave Yunyang country… I am here today to ask if you wish to leave with us?”
“As long as we do not burden you, I, Lu Qinghu, will go anywhere with Young Master,” answered Lu Qinghu without a second of hesitation.
“In that case, come with me.” With a stroke of his hand, the white glow of his inner Yuan wrapped around Lu Qinghu and lifted him up to the skies, right in front of the entire crowd. He brought him away from the Lu family household, disappearing before everyone’s eyes.
“The old chief of the Lu family really struck gold… as long as he follows Zhou Donghuang, a Primal Core adept, in the future, even the Yunyang imperial court will no longer dare to offend the Lu family.”
“The Lu family is really lucky.”
“It is truly their fortune to have Lu Qinghu in the family!”
The disciples of the preeminent and lesser families in the courtyard all shook their heads and sighed, their eyes filled with envy.
…
When Zhou Donghuang and the rest arrived at the Valley of Medicine Masters, the Valley Head Su Mo came out personally to receive them, leading them to a residence which he had prior arranged for them.
“This small valley… did you especially carve it out?” Zhou Donghuang remembered that the Valley of Medicine Masters was in a vast valley that did not have this small valley covered with lush grass. With the power that he had, Su Mo could easily create a small valley like this with just a simple flick of his hand. However, as easy as it was to create the valley, the newly created valley would have looked unsightly. Yet the valley before them was filled with greenery, with birds singing and flowers blooming… in such a short time, to transform the valley into something like this clearly required a large amount of effort.
“Master, this small valley is my gift to Madam and Miss… I wonder if they are satisfied with it.” Su Mo looked at Lin Lan beside Zhou Donghuang and Yun Lu in his arms as he bowed and smiled.
“Valley Head is really thoughtful,” said Lin Lan in surprise. After all, the middle-aged man before her was the Head of the Valley of Medicine Masters, and the true leader of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley.
“Madam, you can just call me Su Mo.” Lin Lan’s words frightened Su Mo that he hurriedly dropped to his knees, his body trembling. He looked up carefully at Zhou Donghuang, as if afraid Zhou Donghuang would be unhappy with his performance. To Su Mo, his Master Zhou Donghuang was like a deity far above him, one that could not be offended. And Lin Lan was the mother of his Master.
“Valley… Su Mo, what are you doing? Get up, get up.” Su Mo’s action shocked Lin Lan. She would never have thought that the ruler of the Sixteen Countries of the East Valley and the Head of the Valley of Medicine Masters would be so frightened by how she had addressed him that he would drop to his knees.
In that moment, another voice called out from the distance. “Su Mo, you are really getting worse as you age… how can you kneel in front of a woman!”
Long before they heard the voice, Zhou Donghuang had already noticed the appearance of someone new. Besides the elder of the Valley of Medicine Masters and his flying beast who had welcomed them just now, there was another flying beast on the platform. On it, there were two men standing.
The one who had spoken was the middle-aged man standing slightly behind the other. The man was dressed in a mandarin gown, his eyebrows fearsome. As he looked at Su Mo, his tone was filled with sarcasm, his eyes filled with disdain.
“Tan Che?” As Su Mo stood up, his eyes landed on the man who had spoken as he said calmly, “What I do has nothing to do with you! Why aren’t you at the Guiyuan Sect, but instead came here to poke your nose in my business?”
Tan Che was the leader of the Guiyuan Sect. The Guiyuan Sect ruled over the Fourteen Countries of Southern Jiang, which was neighboring the Valley of Medicine Masters. Due to their great distance from the Shenguang Empire, they had not been under its influence.
“An ultimate Connate stage demon?” Just then, the old man in gray standing in front of Tan Che spoke up. His originally dull eyes lit up as his gaze landed on Big Gold, which was standing not far away from Zhou Donghuang. Greed was visible in his eyes as he asked, “Who would’ve thought that we would have this surprise waiting for us here.”
“Congratulations, Lord Chi Ping,” Tan Che congratulated the old man. He looked at the massive golden-crowned eagle as he puzzled, wasn’t there only one early Connate demon in the Valley of Medicine Masters? Where did this penultimate Connate demon appear from?
“Hm?” Su Mo’s eyes landed on the old man in gray, his eyes turning into a slight frown. “This is?”
“Su Mo, this is Lord Chi Ping from the Xuanyin Sect,” said Tan Che with a bright smile. “Lord Chi Ping had left Xuanyin Sect for the Valley of Medicine Masters… but he wrongly came to our Guiyuan Sect and was unsure of the directions here, so I brought him here personally. Su Mo, who would’ve thought that you were so bold that… you even dare to offend someone from the Xuanyin Sect.” Tan Che looked gleeful.
“Someone from the Xuanyin Sect?” As he looked at the old man once again, Su Mo’s expression darkened. “Sir, you are looking for me?”
Of course, although he was asking this, Su Mo had already guessed that this man had come here to find him most likely because of Chen Dandan, who had been accepted into the Xuanyin Sect.
“On Miss Dandan’s request, I have come here to destroy your entire valley, as well as someone named Zhou Donghuang.” Chi Ping was an early Primal Core adept from the Xuanyin Sect. He enjoyed bootlicking and tried his best to get closer to the two ultimate Primal Core elders in the Xuanyin Sect but never got his chance. He wanted to get closer to the lesser disciples of the two elders, but even they did not pay him any attention. Until recently, he had gotten to know Chen Dandan, a new female disciple under the wing of the elder Zhong Ya. She had instructed him to destroy the whole Valley of Medicine Masters and one person. To him, this was an opportunity to perform a favor for her, so he had come right away.
He could easily destroy a small sect whose strongest member was just a late Connate adept. As for the man named Zhou Donghuang with a spear sphere, he similarly thought nothing of him.
