Unable to dissipate the frosty yin qi, he wisely decided to retreat for now. Instead, he merely nodded his head and silently pa.s.sed Elder Zhao and Tang Qi Hong. Without another word, he hastily departed, disappearing from view.

Clearly he was in a hurry to expel the frosty yin qi that had infected his body.

"You managed to force him back?" Tang Qi Hong turned to stare at me, impressed. Her lips curled into a curious smile. "If I"m not mistaken, Liang Shao Yang is at the peak of the Qi Fusion Stage, perhaps at the beginning level of the Pure Spirit Stage. You"re only mid-level Qi Fusion Stage at most. How were you able to defeat him?"

"That"s the problem with you people," I retorted, irritated. "Stages, realms, levels…all of you are obsessed with quantifying, categorizing and grouping people, without realizing that in reality all these elements cannot be measured and categorized so neatly. If strength was all that mattered, then why is a cobra able to defeat an elephant? Why can a mongoose defeat a cobra? How are honey badgers able to fight lions?"

Clearly n.o.body had any clue what I was talking about, which went further to prove the absurdity of the situation. Honestly, they were too rigid in their thinking. Amount of qi and brute force wasn"t everything. Technique mattered, as did tactics, intelligence, speed and a whole range of other factors that certainly didn"t include "levels", "realms" or "stages."

"He had the advantage of attacking first, and he took Liang Shao Yang completely by surprise. Not to mention, he used the legendary Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula. It doesn"t matter how much qi you have, if your qi is clogged up and circulates slowly because of the cold, you won"t be able to use much of your qi or execute your techniques properly."

To our surprise, it wasn"t Elder Zhao who answered but the middle-aged lady. She was approaching us with an elegant smile on her weathered face.

"Heh…"

Tang Qi Hong glanced at me, still surprised. She then shook her head, bemused.

"Even so, you were too reckless. You shouldn"t have started a conflict with Liang Shao Yang. He won"t let this go, I"m sure."

"What is he going to do?" I snorted dismissively. "Kill me?"

Sure, if this was an ancient Chintype of setting, or a xianxia story, or if I was a protagonist, then Liang Shao Yang would waste a ridiculous amount of time, effort and resources into eradicating me even though I was nothing more than an insignificant nuisance…all because I "offended" him. Such a reason was so absurd that I suspected all these "that loser offended me" or "that weakling doesn"t know his place" were merely stupid excuses contrived out of the authors" a.s.ses, and the only real reason why these antagonists tried everything within their power to kill the person even though it was highly impractical and not worth the trouble was simply because he was the protagonist. Period.

Li Mu from I Was Trash or Qin Lie from Spirit Realm or Lin Dong from Wu Dong Qian Kun or Li Fu Chen from Eternal Reverence or Lin Feng from Peerless Martial G.o.d or even Meng Hao from I Shall Steal the Heavens. Oh, don"t even remind me of that last one. Most of that story was spent describing how Meng Hao got chased by various people, hunted down, him hiding, then growing powerful, and then killing his pursuers…only for him to end up being chased by a new group of people and forced to run around all over again.

The author should change the t.i.tle of that story to I Shall Flee the Heavens instead.

Then again, I hadn"t stolen anything yet either…the only reason why the t.i.tle of my own adventure was as such was because Steal rhymed with Seal.

"Don"t worry," Elder Zhao a.s.sured Tang Qi Hong. "The Blood Blades won"t allow Shao Yang to do anything rash. Even if he"s a favored head disciple, he"s still bound to the rules of the sect. he can"t just go around killing anybody for no good reason."

Tang Qi Hong frowned. "I hope nothing untoward happens…"

I did not say anything and instead silently glanced at the direction where Liang Shao Yang had vanished in.

Admittedly, even if Liang Shao Yang wasn"t stupid enough to do something as reckless as killing me, he wasn"t going to let this slight slide. I had half-expected him to behave like the typical arrogant young master and…you know, retaliate. I had antic.i.p.ated Liang Shao Yang to become furious like all those typical arrogant young masters and rashly fight with their most powerful techniques in order to kill the person who "offended" them.

However, even though he had only suffered a minor injury at worst, Liang Shao Yang chose to withdraw. A wise tactical decision, one that he quickly made when he realized that half of his body was paralyzed by ice.

Yeah, this guy is definitely not your average arrogant young master or one of those cliché hotheaded antagonists.

I was actually impressed and my estimation of Liang Shao Yang rose. This guy was definitely among the intelligent ones.

A big improvement from the idiot who pulled reckless, stupid stunts like murdering Hao Ying and tried to kill me with bugs over a year ago. I had thought he would still do meaningless things like attack me and slaughter me in front of Elder Zhao and the rest, but it seemed that he had somewhat matured. An antagonist actually growing up and realizing that his previous actions were stupid?! It was totally unheard of in xianxia stories. Normally they existed solely to be cannon fodder for the protagonist to defeat.

Then again, Liang Shao Yang had no reason to clash with Zhu Jiao, so there was room for him to grow instead of being disposed off like every arrogant young master or villainous antagonist that Zhu Jiao was forced to destroy.

Even though I believed all the realms and qi measurement systems to be meaningless, Liang Shao Yang surely believed in them and stuck by their rules as rigidly as everyone else in this world. So for him to refrain from attacking and retreat even though he was aware that he was supposedly of a higher stage than I was, and because he realized that he was at a disadvantage with half his body frozen, showed that he was neither rash nor stupid. If it was the past Liang Shao Yang, he might have tried to stab me in the back, even within sight of Elder Zhao.

Perhaps it was because he had spent a year in the position of a favored head disciple that he realized that he had too much to lose over a single moment of reckless self-satisfaction. He didn"t want to lose everything just because he moved thoughtlessly in the heat of the moment.

For now, he was the most developed and mature opponent that I had the misfortune to face.

"Let"s go. Ah Mo is inside."

The middle-aged lady informed us with a gentle smile. Exchanging a glance, Elder Zhao, Tang Qi Hong and I stepped into the magnificent house.

Inside the main hall, leading to the workshop, we found a tall and thin middle-aged man dressed in a wrinkled white suit, his tie hanging loosely around his open collar, and his jacket unb.u.t.toned and swaying to the side. He had been engrossed in reading a book, and didn"t seem to have heard the commotion unfolding outside.

Honestly, I doubted he would care about the petty squabbles between young disciples. He clearly had better things to do with his time than to pay attention to the trivial conflicts and rivalries of the younger generation.

However, upon catching sight of Tang Qi Hong, he immediately placed the book on the desk and raised his head, a curious smile spreading across his face. Brightening up, he rose to his feet.

"Qi Hong! It"s been a while since you"ve come here."

"Greetings, First Elder." Tang Qi Hong bowed respectfully. I hurriedly followed suit and bowed deeply.

"Greetings, First Elder," I echoed.

"First Elder," Elder Zhao also spoke up, and Elder Hai acknowledged him with a nod. He then turned to Tang Qi Hong.

"What brings you here, Qi Hong? Do you have something to ask about blacksmithing and Spirit Engraving?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Tang Qi Hong tilted her head slightly toward the direction where Elder Zhao and I stood. "It has something to do with why you requested Elder Zhao and Fei Wu to come to your workshop."

"Ah." Elder Hai Mo smiled and swept his gaze over Elder Zhao and me. "Very good. Then there"s no need to waste any time. Let"s get to the point. You are Fei Wu, right?"

He gazed upon me, his eyes gentle yet firm. I nodded.

"Yes, First Elder."

"I heard from Miss Su that you have a few hundred battle-automata. You were trying to sell them to the sect, correct?"

Miss Su must be the lady receptionist I approached in the sec admin building this morning, or so I a.s.sumed. If that was the case, then there was nothing to hide. So I nodded in affirment.

"That"s right, sir."

"If I"m not mistaken, these battle-automata don"t have any Spirit Engravings yet, or at least their Spirit Engravings have been erased over the ages. Apparently you collected them from the Nascent Soul Stage Pract.i.tioner"s ancient tomb discovered about two weeks ago. If that"s true, then that explains how the Spirit Engravings wore away…"

By now, Elder Hai Mo was musing to himself, stroking his chin. I had a sudden impression of an experienced scholar who emanated a wise and veteran author, a man who had seen and experienced a lot of the world, and learned a lot.

"That"s correct. I learned from Elder Tie that it would take too much time and resources to inscribe Spirit Engravings on each and every one of them, so I decided it would be better to sell them to the sect instead. Otherwise they will remain…uh, well…useless in my possession. It would be a waste to let so many of them rot in my storage s.p.a.ce for so long. I"m sure the sect will need them a lot more than I do, and make better use of them."

Elder Hai Mo studied me with that intense gaze of his, and I squirmed, feeling like a bacteria being a.n.a.lyzed under a microscope. He finally relaxed those steely eyes of his for a moment.

"Objects that do not have Spirit Engravings cannot be considered Spirit Artifacts or Spirit Weapons. The object is inert and lifeless, but the Spirit Engravings contain life and vitality. It is the Spirit Engravings that give an object its soul." He glanced at my pockets, as if half-expecting me to have my spatial device there. "Your judgement is correct. Without Spirit Engravings, no matter how powerful or highly ranked the battle-automata in your possession used to be, they are useless pieces of junk if they don"t have any Spirit Engravings. If you leave them as they are, they will just be a waste of s.p.a.ce."

Wow, the old man sure didn"t hold anything back, did he?

Fortunately, Elder Hai Mo broke the tension with a warm smile and he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You made the right decision to sell them to the sect. Unless…you did not realize that you"ll be able to sell them for a higher price outside? If you place them on an auction, you"ll surely earn a lot more money. No…even in a public market, these battle-automata will fetch higher prices than they would if you sell it internally in the sect."

"You may not believe me," I began. "But my goal was never to become rich."

Of course everyone wanted to be rich, but I wasn"t greedy. I was aware that if I took the trouble and auctioned them outside, or found a major corporation – particularly paramilitary corporations in need of manpower – I could easily get several times the price of how much the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect could offer me.

But I wasn"t that interested in money. I just needed enough for my family and for me to survive. I was aware of the dangers of greed, and to me, my time was far more valuable than any amount of money. Furthermore, I didn"t want the risk of selling my hard-earned battle-automata to unscrupulous dealers or aggressive paramilitary corporations who would then use them for atrocities, such as raiding outlying villages or launching military conquests of their own. There was also the danger that my battle-automata would somehow end up in the black market and fall in the hands of demonic sects, and I shuddered to think of the consequences if that happened.

Auctions, especially, were one way the demonic sects could bypa.s.s the law and purchase whatever they needed. While I didn"t believe that demonic sects were intrinsically evil, not all of them were good either…and obviously those scrounging through black markets and auctions to purchase battle-automata were the ones I could trust the least.

"I don"t mind making a small loss. And I would rather the battle-automata be in the possession of people I can trust than selling them to strangers. Who knows what they would do with the battle-automata they buy from me?"

With the exception of Liang Shao Yang, I felt that I could trust most people in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, especially the elders and the Sect Leader and his wife, never mind the majority of my fellow disciples.

"Very good." Elder Hai laughed. "Even so, it"s not just a small loss, you know? The amount of resources our Nine-Tailed Fox Sect can spare to purchase your battle-automata is very limited. We"ll try to compensate you as best as we can, but I"m afraid we can"t offer more than a token sum. Even though it"s pretty large in terms of pure quant.i.ty, it"s only a fraction of what you can get if you sell them outside the sect."

"Then think of it as me selling them to the sect at a discount. At a subsidized rate. Since we"re practically family, I"m not going to quibble and be calculative over profits and losses. It"s not as if I"m giving them away for free."

"Excellent!" Elder Hai slapped my back. "I like the way you think! But you"re mistaken about one thing. We"re not practically family. We are family!"

He then turned to Elder Zhao, who nodded with a smile.

"I can see why you prize this boy so highly, Zhao Shi. Your praise was not exaggerated, after all. No wonder you labeled him as one of your most cherished subordinates. The Blood Blades are lucky to have someone like him."

"Good thing Qi Hong brought him to Tushan when she did, eh?" Elder Zhao glanced at Tang Qi Hong, recalling our first meeting over a year ago. "Otherwise I wouldn"t have spotted him and recruited him. One of the better decisions I made over the last few years."

"You"re giving me too much credit."

I was trying to hide my embarra.s.sment by taking out the battle-automata out of my spatial device and giving them straight to Elder Hai, but he raised his hand.

"Just leave about twelve of them. Given my schedule, I don"t believe I have the time to Spirit Engrave all of them."

"Um…First Elder!" Tang Qi Hong raised her hand. "That"s why I"m here. I"m actually here to request you to teach me about Spirit Engraving for battle-automata. I also have a few personal ones of my own that I bought from Fei Wu, but I don"t believe I have learned the proper Spirit Engravings for them yet."

I wondered why she approached Elder Hai directly for that. Elder Tie seemed to know about battle-automata Spirit Engravings as well, and was also a perfectly suitable candidate to teach her about them. Perhaps she didn"t know about his knowledge of battle-automata?

"Yes, in time. Not just you, but I believe I"ll have to teach the disciples of the Blood Blades, and many of the masters as well." He turned to Elder Zhao. "Zhao Shi, this is why I"ve summoned you as well. I want the Blood Blades to take possession of the battle-automata and be in charge of them. Each disciple and master is to perform their individual Spirit Engraving and take control of at least one battle-automata or battle puppet. That will increase the Blood Blades" combat ability by several fold."

"Is that really all right?" Elder Zhao almost choked in surprise. "Don"t we have to discuss with all the other elders and Sect Leader first? We can"t just go over their heads and make this decision on our own. Even if you"re the First Elder…"

"Oh, you don"t have to worry about that," Elder Hai a.s.sured him. "Before you guys came, I"ve already contacted Shou De. Even though we will need to formalize it eventually, the sect leader has already given the go-ahead and permitted this. He"ll deal with persuading the other five Great Elders, with the help of Sect Lady if necessary."

With the strongest Lady Zi Da Ji backing him, I doubted anyone would want to go against the sect leader"s decision.

Elder Zhao nodded, despite looking a little uncertain. "If you say so."

"I"ll be honest." Elder Hai narrowed his eyes and glanced around. His wife nodded at him, which seemed to be a signal that there was n.o.body to overhear us. "We can"t trust everybody in the sect. as much as I loathe to say this…sometimes I question the judgement of the other Great Elders. Their decision—making of late, in particular, have been…odd."

Elder Zhao said nothing, but he didn"t vehemently object. Tang Qi Hong looked a little worried and appalled, but I was more curious than outraged. Got to love listening to gossip like this. I didn"t care for inner sect politics, but this was just juicy tabloid news that provided more than a small measurement of entertainment.

"For example, their favoring of Liang Shao Yang." Elder Hai shook his head in disgust. "His personality is clearly dangerous and venomous. Both Sect Leader and I have realized this long ago. The deaths of Long He and Hao Ying are obviously connected to Liang Shao Yang. The evidence is all there for us to see – evidence that you have provided, Zhao Shi."

"Shen Cha and his investigation team deserve the credit for that," Elder Zhao replied flatly. Elder Hai nodded to acknowledge that.

"But even so…the other Great Elders do not care about his murderous behavior and dark personality. They insist that such malevolence can be easily controlled, slowly educated and gradually guided back to the right path."

Elder Zhao snorted at that. "Do you actually believe that bulls.h.i.t?"

"I don"t, but the other Great Elders and a lot of the powerful people in the sect apparently do." Elder Hai scowled. "There"s a storm coming…their minds are being poisoned, most probably by the Divine Shadow Sect. I wouldn"t be surprised if they are in league with other sects, in exchange for power or personal benefit. That might explain their favoritism and overly enthusiastic call for pushing Liang Shao Yang over Tang Qi Hong as the next sect leader."

Tang Qi Hong shuffled restlessly, not at all comfortable with being used as a p.a.w.n in whatever political game the Great Elders were playing. Even though she had been brought up with the eventual goal of taking over as the sect leader, she was growing increasingly disillusioned with the cruel reality of politics.

Elder Hai glanced at her sympathetically, and then continued.

"Or perhaps they are deliberately closing out their senses, refusing to see the approaching danger. They cannot be trusted. Their judgement cannot be relied on. That"s why…to protect the sect from the imminent future threats, Sect Leader and I can only rely on you, Zhao Shi."

He then cast a glance at the battle-automata that I had taken out, before turning back to his colleague.

"That is why I am entrusting you…entrusting the Blood Blades the battle-automata. When the time come, I know you will do what is right, to protect the sect." he glanced at me fondly, and then turned back to the leader of the Blood Blades. "We need more people like you and Fei Wu to defend the sect from enemies both without and…within."

"I…" Elder Zhao hesitated for a moment, at a loss for words. Then he took a deep breath and steeled himself determinedly. "I…no, we will do our best to protect the sect, no matter the cost."