Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Lian Feng and Lian Ping felt that Wu Jingtao would never agree to the immense shame of being Zhou Donghuang ‘s driver.
However, Wu Jingtao’s reply had stunned them completely.
“Second Master, you… you…”
Lian Feng looked at Wu Jingtao in disbelief. As the wife of Wu Jingtao, she understood him better than anyone.
With the self-respect that Wu Jingtao had, he would rather die than suffer such humiliation.
“Feng’er, I’m sorry.”
Wu Jingtao looked tenderly at Lian Feng’s leg that he had broken himself. She was his first wife, and he was always tender and loving towards her and would not have taken such action unless it was absolutely necessary.
“When I struck you and Ping’er, it was all calculated and with good care and rehabilitation, both your legs should recover fully in about half a year,” Wu Jingtao said as he helped Lian Feng and Lian Ping mend their broken bones. He was an intermediate-level medicine master, and treating such injuries was child’s play for him.
Hearing Wu Jingtao’s words, Lian Ping’s eyes lit up, and he managed to resist the terrible pain from his thigh as he asked, “Uncle, what on earth is that Zhou Donghuang’s background? Why are you even afraid of him?”
At Lian Ping’s question, Lian Feng looked at Wu Jingtao as well with similar suspicion in her eyes.
“He does not have any background.”
Thinking of what his nephew, Wu Nanxun had told him about Zhou Donghuang’s background, Wu Jingtao shook his head with a bitter smile.
“He has no background?”
Lian Ping and Lian Feng were stunned.
“He is an ordinary person born and bred in Yunfeng prefecture, what kind of background can he have? Even the governor of Yunfeng prefecture would not dare remain standing if I asked him to kneel!” Wu Jingtao said with a sigh.
“Is he really from Yunfeng prefecture?”
Lian Feng was stupefied, and Lian Ping was also looking blankly at Wu Jingtao, disbelief in his eyes and on his face.
Lian Ping recovered shortly and asked with incomprehension, “Uncle, if he has no background, why are you afraid of him?”
“He has no family background…”
Wu Jingtao’s eyes gleamed, and he said in a low voice, “But he himself is a level-seven adept of Qi-gathering, and not just an ordinary level-seven adept at that!
“Do you think such a person would need any kind of background in front of me?”
Wu Jingtao threw Lian Ping’s question back at him.
“What?!”
This time, not only were Lian Ping and Lian Feng dumbfounded, but Wu Gan, who was standing to the side, was also dumbfounded.
That youth who looked sixteen or seventeen years old at most was actually a level-seven adept of Qi-gathering?
“Impossible!”
Lian Ping shook his head. “How old is he, how could he be a level-seven adept… Uncle, are you mistaken?”
“Me, mistaken?”
Wu Jingtao lifted his right hand and looked at his bandaged hand. “This injury on my hand was inflicted by him just half an hour ago.”
As the three of them sat in stunned silence, Wu Jingtao looked at Lian Feng and continued, “Half an hour ago, in the receiving chamber of our Wu family mansion, I was the first to be injured by him… then, my elder brother, Uncle Fan, and Head Elder took him on together. He sent my elder brother and Head Elder flying in one exchange with his spear and put them out of the fight.
“All that time, he was sitting in the wooden armchair in the receiving chamber as he fought us.
“Although Uncle Fan withstood his first attack with his spear, he was injured… then he got up and sent Uncle Fan flying through the wall with a single thrust of his spear, and he landed unconscious more than ten meters away.”
“Now, the wall of the receiving chamber has still not been repaired yet.”
Lian Feng and the others trembled more and more violently with every word that Wu Jingtao said, and they had not regained their wits even by the time Wu Jingtao had finished speaking.
Although what Wu Jingtao said seemed incredible, they knew that he had no need to lie.
“Uncle Fan is acknowledged as the strongest man in Guangling prefecture, and with his mastery of the third-grade technique, Cold Iron Jacket, no one in Guangling prefecture can break his defense… even he was no match?”
Lian Feng was so frightened that she turned white as a sheet, and thinking back on her earlier display of arrogance before Zhou Donghuang, she was simply grateful that she had escaped with her life.
“Why else would I say that he is not an ordinary level-seven adept?”
Wu Jingtao gave a bitter smile.
“Uncle, why would he go to the governor’s house, and moreover raise his hand against you?”
Lian Ping thought of this key question.
“He came back with Xun’er.”
Wu Jingtao’s eyes flashed, and he related the details of what had happened to Wu Nanxun in the capital of Yunfeng prefecture. “He probably only raised his hand against us to establish his superiority, so that we would not dare seek revenge on his family.”
“But we never imagined that after establishing his superiority, he would go for a meal at Liu Xiang Restaurant and come into conflict with you all.”
As he finished, Wu Jingtao could not help sighing.
Lian Feng, Lian Ping and Wu Gan were still thinking about Wu Nanxun’s misfortune, and they did not recover their senses for a long time.
Wu Nanxun, the young governor of Guangling prefecture and the cream of Guangling prefecture, had his meridians maimed by the youth they had just encountered?
Right then, Lian Ping realized how fortunate he had been and broke out in a cold sweat.
Compared to Wu Nanxun, his leg would recover completely, and the injury could be considered insignificant.
“If I were alone, and he asked me to be his carriage driver, I would never cooperate given my temperament… but I have the Wu family to think about, and I dare not refuse him.”
It was because he was afraid that the youth would take his wrath out on the governing Wu family of Guangling prefecture that Wu Jingtao had no choice but to comply with Zhou Donghuang’s request.
“Second Master, you have been wronged for the sake of the family.”
Lian Feng sighed.
“Uncle, he… he won’t take revenge on me, will he?” Lian Ping asked anxiously.
“If he wanted to, he wouldn’t have left… I think that what I did to you both has placated his anger.”
Wu Jingtao shook his head and instructed Lian Feng on some matters before leaving Liu Xiang restaurant to look for that youth.
Of course, before he left, Wu Jingtao emphasized to Lian Feng and Lian Ping that they were not to even think about going to Yunfeng prefecture and taking revenge against that youth’s family, or they would only end up bringing disaster to the Wu and Lian families.
Once Lian Feng and Lian Ping had known how Wu Nanxun had been maimed by that youth and how the governing Wu family of Guangling prefecture could only accept it, they were completely cowed and did not even entertain any thoughts of revenge against that youth.
…
Earlier at Liuxiang Restaurant, Zhou Donghuang was planning to get Wu Jingtao to send two Wu family juniors of reasonable ability to drive his carriage and take him to the Chu royal city when he arrived.
Although Fu could also drive the carriage, it would affect his practice.
Therefore, he intended to get someone else to drive the carriage.
When Wu Jingtao arrived, he felt that other than another level-six adept, no one else in the Wu family was more suitable to be his driver.
With Wu Jingtao’s ability, the journey to the Chu royal city would be much less tedious.
Because of this, he could focus even more intensely on practicing The Lord of the Four Supremes.
Under those conditions, his level of practice would progress at great speed, and perhaps he would be able to smoothly attain level-eight of Qi-gathering before he reached the Chu royal city.
On the road here from Yunfeng prefecture, the rate of practice kept increasing when I was able to practice The Lord of the Four Supremes without distraction… and it kept increasing even when we reached the capital of Guangling prefecture.
In other words, the rate of practice is not yet at a maximum.
From Guangling prefecture to the Chu royal city, even with three ferghana horses pulling the carriage at top speed, it would take at least four months… if my rate of practice can keep increasing during this period of time, never mind level-seven, I’ll even be able to attain level-eight of Qi-gathering by the time we reach the Chu royal city!
Level-seven of Qi-gathering is just the conservative estimate for practicing uninterrupted for two months with the maximum rate of practice.
At this thought, Zhou Donghuang’s eyes were filled with longing.
“Uninterrupted” did not mean that there could be no breaks while practicing, but that while taking breaks from practicing, there could not be too many distractions that divided one’s attention. Just eating and resting would not affect the state of mind required for uninterrupted practice.
For example, during his second last trip to the capital of Guangling prefecture, that uninterrupted state of practice had been forcibly disrupted.
Now, to enter a similar state of practice, he would need to start all over again.
The Lord of the Four Supremes was only a technique that could be practiced until the level of divine essence… However, just the portion comprising the stage of Qi-gathering is enough to defeat any of the techniques that I know of in ten thousand civilizations in the universe!
Sitting in the cabin of the carriage, Zhou Donghuang’s eyes gleamed and he thought to himself, If The Lord of the Four Supremes can only be practiced until the stage of fundamental essence… just the uniqueness of the portion of the stage of Qi-gathering in addition to the strength of the stage of contained primal essence, it can surpass any technique in the universe.
It was exactly as Zhou Donghuang thought.
With Wu Jingtao personally driving the carriage at top speed, the journey was extremely peaceful.
About twenty days later, the carriage left Guangling prefecture and entered the superior-level prefecture between Guangling prefecture and the Chu royal city. It then spent the next two months traveling through that superior-level prefecture before it arrived at the outskirts of the Chu royal city.
This was as fast as the carriage could travel.
Using three ferghana horses to draw the carriage had the same efficiency as using more than three horses to draw the carriage.
If not, Wu Nanxun, who was the young governor of Guangling prefecture, would not have used a carriage drawn by three horses to travel to Yunfeng prefecture.
A person of his status could easily have a carriage drawn by ten ferghana horses.
Because of this, Zhou Donghuang had not asked Wu Jingtao for additional ferghana horses to draw the carriage as it would have been meaningless.
“Young Master Donghuang, the Chu royal city is up ahead.”
On September 9, 1228 of the Ziyun Era, the carriage drawn by three ferghana horses and driven by Wu Jingtao finally arrived at the city gates of the Chu royal city.
They had set off from the capital of Guangling prefecture on March 3, 1228 of the Ziyun Era.
In other words, they had taken four months and six days to make the journey from the capital of Guangling prefecture to the Chu royal city.
