I Have My Reasons
For the tussle with Pangu, I emptied out my tank. When Pangu went back into its shell, I was spent – completely, be it my strength or the Fengpeng’s energy. As a matter of fact, I was dead inside before the end of the fight. My injuries may have healed in my sleep, but my energy store was still empty. That was why not even Tianhu could find any traces of developed internal strength inside me. My stronger-than-average pulse and qi flow were all but standard for any martial arts practitioner.
My white hair was a product of my training. Once I lost my skills, it’d revert back to black. Therefore, my black hair was natural, flowing, beautiful black hair.
Though I was gasping blood as though I had a foot in the grave, I wasn’t hurt as bad as surface symptoms suggested. Yes, I couldn’t shield myself with any martial arts abilities, but I was built differently, though I couldn’t tell if that was attributed to the Fengpeng or my training. Either way, I always recovered unnaturally fast. Kind of made me feel that that I wasn’t human…
First things first.
“Bosh, don’t wowwy. I can handle dis.” Blame my weird enunciation on the blood that kept pouring out of my mouth while I was trying to speak.
“Shut up! I’m worried enough as it is!” Boss was in a hurry to find me help, only to turn around and see Mount Daluo’s clique.
Young Shiyi didn’t need a recount to figure out what went down when she could see Tianhu’s position and my shape. “You asked for it.”
Young Shiyi went straight for Tianhu’s face right out of the gate. Unfortunately, in spite of her improved grasp on Enlightenment and Overarching Heaven, Tianhu could still stop Overarching Heaven between two fingers. In a match between people of their calibre, the one who had the upper hand was decided the moment they took their opponent’s weapon. Young Shiyi, however, didn’t give a toss, smashing her golden sword qi into Tianhu’s Enlightenment.
Save for one individual, nobody present wanted to be anywhere near the fight.
“Please cease this!” Despite being nowhere near their level, Emperor Yuansheng didn’t mind the risk of injury to get in between the two. “Miss Ming, I am to blame for failing to intervene in time. Tianhu is guilty, but now is not the time for vindication. Please stop for now. I shall make sure Earl Ming is compensated.”
Young Shiyi had no choice but to back off once Emperor Yuansheng spoke up. Likewise, Tianhu also backed off. Tianhu wanted no part in fighting Young Shiyi because, once he was done with her, he had my siblings ready to fight him right away from every angle, my shifu and the others afar. One mistake from him and it would be all-out war between Emperor’s Entourage and Mount Daluo. If he was in the right, then he could break a leg. In this case, though, he was in the wrong.
Emperor Yuansheng summoned, “State Preceptor Lai!”
Lai Jingzhen, sleeping inside the room, woke up, then whipped the bottom half of his robe aside. “Your Majesty?”
“Save him.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
In one leap, Lai Jingzhen propelled himself a good thirty-six metres using Gliding Golden Goose. Following that, he performed Diagonal Swallow to leap back over the heads he leapt over. He executed Seven Stars Steps to finally reach Tianhu. “Who dares hurt my Brother Tianhu?!”
“Who told you to save Tianhu?! I want you to treat the one on the ground!” thundered Emperor Yuansheng. “The ugliest one if you can’t tell!”
Lai Jingzhen cast his gaze my way.
Go away! You have the wrong man! Why did you look my way?!
“Eh?” Lai Jingzhen started using his fingers for a divination instead of checking my pulse, alternating between his left and right hands repetitively. He muttered under his breath, “Strange. Very strange. How come someone invincible isn’t a part of Supreme Ten Saints?” He gusted up a wind that elevated me up and into his sleeve. “Strange. Still very strange. How come he’s so weak? Is he hurt?” He glanced down to the blood across the ground, then continued, “This injury is nothing, yet there’s a difference?”
Lai Jingzhen twirled his sleeves, performing his time-reversal-like technique, sending the blood I spilt back into my body. It wasn’t just my blood that was returned to me; even my wounds healed.
Honing on my true qi circulation – courtesy of Polarisation Style – blew my mind. I had seen plenty of touted disciplines, but this was magical. Every time I felt a spot heal, I could comprehend a dao mental cultivation’s operation. The natural control Lai Jingzhen had over it could be considered the pinnacle.
The indescribable process lasted around ten minutes.
“Puha!” I desperately breathed upon being thoughtlessly released from Lai Jingzhen’s sleeve.
“Feizhen!” Young Shiyi and Boss Shen, taking an arm of mine each, pulled me off the ground.
Damn, oxygen never tasted so sweet until Tianhu winded me.
By no means was Lai Jingzhen some deity. My blood replenishment and closed wounds were the product of his discipline.
Forcing a smile, I expressed, “That was incredible, State Preceptor. Thank you for saving this one’s life.”
“It doesn’t look it. It doesn’t look it,” Lai Jingzhen muttered as he walked circles around me, examining me from head to toe. “In other words, it doesn’t seem so.”
Erm… Given his love for using language that’s illogical to people to distinguish himself or test people, is there some profound meaning to what he’s saying?
Lai Jingzhen pointed to my nose and said, “God damn, son,” and then zoomed off.
Emperor Yuansheng came over to check on me. “Are you all right, Earl Ming? Are you still hurt anywhere?” He did three laps around me before he was assured. “I’m glad you’re all right. You gave me a big fright back there. Worry not, I will ensure justice is upheld. Tianhu! Come over here!”
It was probably the first time Emperor Yuansheng had raised his voice at any of The Ultimate Three.
Notwithstanding what I went through, Tianhu, face ashen, still tried to check my true qi reaction when he came over. Regrettably for him, it was such a mess that he couldn’t find anything to incriminate me with.
“You lost the gamble, yet, instead of accepting the outcome, you would try to kill an Earl I just promoted in my presence? What am I to you? Is credibility just a word to you? How can you attack someone innocent?”
While he did have his head down in silence, I could tell Tianhu wasn’t listening at all.
“Don’t just stand there! Apologise to Earl Ming!”
It was really satisfying to listen to, but you have to know where to toe the line in life.
“Your Majesty, your subject is not worthy of Sir Tianhu’s apology. Your subject has but only one request.”
“Just say that word. I will comply with anything.”
Touched, I nodded and smiled. “Wash his hair with manure.”
I cracked it! I cracked the unyielding mask.
Glossary
Given his love for using language that’s illogical to people to distinguish himself or test people – This is three characters translated… As an example of this situation, it’s English, but it’s Shakespearean English, and I can’t say I understand a conversation in Shakespearean English. That’s what Ming Feizhen is referring to.
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