Chapter 199 - Lu
At the Rockblade mountains just outside Zhoutian Sword School, Jian Chen sat cultivating on one of the sword-shaped peaks.
His Qi was saturating under the clouds in the shape of swords, gliding around like eagles
Jian Chen opened his eyes when a pigeon called, he opened his hand as the bird released the small scroll it carried. He widened his eyes after reading the text, clenched onto and crumbled the paper.
“For the past three months I have been training day and night just to improve my sword techniques and refine my Bloodmoon Assassination Sword, but I guess that does not give me the right to fight you again.” Jian Chen’s Sword Qi accelerated as he became more emotional.
“I will catch up with you, the next time when I have the chance to challenge you I will be the victor!” His competitiveness and thirst for power became his drive. Jian Chen decided that Ye Wei was his worthy rival. The stronger his rival became, the more motivated he was.
Apart from the low-profile, Lin’s the other two royal families were recruiting youngsters to become a part of their forces.
Jian Chen had been famous and watched by many powerful people since he became a God’s Seven, he had recently been recruited by the Helian’s but since he cared more about the art of sword than anything else, he didn’t bother replying.
‘If I continue to stay in my own head, I will never overtake Ye Wei…’ The fifteen year old closed his eyes and took a deep breath, ‘I shall take the offer!’
***
Within the thirty-six outskirt cities region, Ye Wei’s previous opponents at the tournament were all shocked to hear the news, most of them were the strongest cultivator from their own cities. They could not believe that it only took three months of cultivating for Ye Wei, who had the strength of a ten-star condensed prime Warrior, to become strong enough to defeat a three-star returned prime Warrior.
After seeing Ye Wei defeating Qi Xiu from Polaris, Shi Huntian from Tri-Solar and single-handedly tamed Galaxy Academy’s line-up, a lot of the cultivators and citizens from the region were excited about the rising star. When they heard the news, they were proud and ecstatic, believing that Ye Wei would soon rise to become god’s prime Warrior.
As Ye Wei was now a cultivator comparable to the City Lord of Ning City, the region’s leader, The Green Army had now decided to not only see Ye Wei as a talent, but also a potential threat.
To the officials and established powers within the region the speed Ye Wei was growing seemed unnatural, it unavoidably raised concerns and disturbed the balance of powers. The families closer to the Army and the Runemaster Union had clearly gained popularity among the influentials.
***
At Ning City, the City Lord was discussing recent affairs with his strategists, inevitably the topic of Ye Wei came up.
“I like that kid, back at the tournament he was fighting like a peak ten-star condensed prime Warrior. That was only three months ago. I don’t think he will do anything against me, I saved his life in the end.” City Lord Chen Yuan expressed casually, felling slightly nostalgic about the tournament.
“But, Sir, the man he killed is a three-star returned prime Warrior who had spent time cultivating in one of the forbidden areas and survived!” The City Lord’s deputy was not as trusting as he didn’t fight alongside Ye Wei.
“If I say it’s fine, then it is. Rumors had it that he did what he had to, for his family and his city, if we should read anything out of the information we gathered, Ye Wei should be a trustworthy ally, not the opposite.” The City Lord explained to his man in a relaxed tone. “The Lu’s on the other hand, we may have to keep an eye on.”
“Are you sure, Sir? This kid will most probably become a god’s prime Warrior or even a Supreme! If we ever have a chance to deal with him, it will be now, when from what we’ve gathered, he is still injured.”
“Yes, I am sure. Keep the Ye’s close, help them if they need it.” Chen Yuan replied sincerely. “I’d rather him become a Supreme than any other youngsters I saw fighting in the tournament!”
Like the region’s capital, many martial families had taken the same approach towards the Ye’s treating the Ye family like celebrity, royalties.
The gates of the Ye mansion had become busy again, teaming with gift-bearing messengers. However, the Ye’s did not have the time for their guests, they were panicking over the missing young Runemaster, arranging search groups to cover the city and the surrounding areas.
***
On the edge of the Lu’s land at Qing State’s capital.
At the throat of a giant volcano sat a majestic palace, its white exterior was lit red by the radiating magma. The walls did not stop the heat and the raging flame from the outside, in the middle of the burning hall, a white-haired and bearded old man was sitting with crossed legs, cultivating on top of a large straw cushion.
The old man’s graceful figure flickered and crackled, periodically fading and materializing.
According to rumors, the Lu Patriarch was an eight-star returned prime Warrior, but he hadn’t fought in public in decades, his actual cultivation was a mystery.
“Granddad!” A stern-faced youngster appeared in thin air before the palace’s gate, a blurry white glare coated his body, and his white robe, insulating the lethal heat.
Lu Fan was the most talented young cultivator that had been born into the Lu family in the recent centuries, at the age of twenty-two, his five-star returned prime level cultivation placed him amongst the dynasty’s elites.
After the Green Moon City incidence, the Lu elders held different opinions as of how they should react, while some insisted they should retaliate, some of them would like the family to officially apologize to the Ye’s, the Green Army and the Runemaster Union.
Without an unanimous decision, the board had no choice but bring the matter to their leader and Lu Fan was the only person the Lu Patriarch would see in person.
“Hey, come on in!” The old man’s gentle but sturdy voice echoed the hall, the gates slowly swung opened automatically. He opened his eyes, seemed happy to see his grandson. “What’s the matter?”
“Elder Qianhuan and half a hundred of our condensed prime Warriors were killed in Green Moon City by a kid called Ye Wei, the council could not agree on how the family should react and here I am, asking for your opinion.” Lu Fan respectfully looked towards the center of the burning hall.
“Who is this Ye Wei then?” The elder’s voice was unemotional, but his eyes lit up. Feeling offended but excited, the empire he build have not been challenged since more than decades ago.
“Ye Wei, from the Green Moon City’s Ye’s. Best young cultivator of the God’s Seven, one of the seven New Runes, as you can already guess, he has the power to defeat a three-star returned prime Warrior.” Lu Fan spoke slowly to make sure the patriarch got every bit of the information.
“Okay that sounds interesting.” The Lu Patriarch muttered, seemed to be impressed, moved. “So in terms of talent, he is not worse than you. I get the picture now.”
“That would be the case. From what we can gather, the kid was just a condensed prime Warrior less than three months ago.” Lu Fan took a deep breath and continued, “and that’s the reason we believe that he learned the Drakehead’s location.”
“The Drakehead?” The patriarch rose his brows.
“And also…” A cyan coloured flame appeared, the fire transformed into the shape of a humanoid in front of Lu Fan, “ I have just mastered this!”
“Cyan Clone!” The patriarch appeared not to be interested, just nodded and vaguely smiled, “not bad considering you are just twenty-two! You might even be able to hold your ground in the ring against the Head Elder. Speaking of whom, is he still at six-star returned prime level?”
“Yea granddad.” Lu Fan nodded, his fire clone shrank and returned into his body. He looked at the patriarch with an intense gaze and continued, “do you think I should take care of Ye Wei myself then?”
“He sounds like a dangerous character if I am honest.” The smile on the patriarch’s face vanished and his tone became harsh and cold. “It’s a shame he was not born into a powerful family.”
The Lu Patriarch shook his head as he made the decision. “I will send someone else to do the job, we can’t tolerate this kind of disrespect as much as we can’t put you at risk. This can get complicated.”
“Are you sure? He is one of the Seven New Runes.” Lu Fan tried as hard as he could to sound calm, “I am guessing you have already thought about how to deal with the Union then?”
“The Seven is just a silly title and the Qing state Union is just a shell, it has no real authority.” The patriarch grunted and answered. “We are not amateurs, we will not leave traces that leads the kill to us!”
“Okay, I understand!” Lu Fan nodded and backed to the exit. Just as he was about to leave, a flowing purple sigil appeared in the hall.