[V6C199 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Li Kuanglan?
Qianye immediately recalled that lightning-fast sword of ice, that mirage-like blue robe, and that friend-c.u.m-foe, Li Kuanglan. It was just that Zhao Jundu had already blocked that life and death battle for him, so why was she calling on him now?
Qianye actually had no interest at all in a showdown on the eve of such a great battle. He would rather use any extra strength he had against the dark races. Was the enemy a.s.sault not serious enough? Even the Zhang clan had been beaten back.
On the other hand, a madman like Li Kuanglan might do just about anything. One couldn’t speak reason with her. Additionally, with her powerful combat strength and the Li family as support, she had long since gotten used to causing trouble—almost nothing could restrain her.
It was just that her actions seemed to go against her promise with Zhao Jundu. With the fourth young master’s temperament, he might actually bring the army to the Li family to “debate” this matter.
The moment he thought of this, Qianye threw the notion to the back of his head. Zhao Jundu took pretty good care of him, but he couldn’t keep relying on this brother for everything.
Moreover, Qianye’s combat arts had been refined in fire after going through a perilous battle with Eden and not too far off from Zhao Jundu himself. After formally reaching the level of an ancient vampire count, his body was being upgraded by the auric flame blood with each pa.s.sing day.
Hence, he started looking forward to his meeting with Li Kuanglan.
Qianye began thinking of something as he put the letter down. Just who was this lieutenant?
On the other side of Indomitable, an ashen-faced Song Zining rushed into the Zhao clan camp and made straight for Zhao Jundu’s central army. At every checkpoint, he only needed to flash his ident.i.ty token to be allowed through. In truth, the seventh young n.o.ble was currently quite famous on the floating continent, if not throughout the world, and most of the Zhao clan soldiers recognized him. The inspections were only formalities born of obligation and duty.
He faced obstruction only when he reached Zhao Jundu’s office. However, Song Zining lifted the female secretary up with a wave of his fan, put her down behind him, and then entered the room.
Zhao Jundu was reading a battle report behind his desk. He said without even looking up, “Bullying my secretary, what standards! Are you going to take responsibility for her?”
“The standard of your words is really not impressive!” Song Zining mocked unceremoniously.
“Hey, you’re doing quite a lousy job with nurturing your temperament. At this rate, your cultivation will drop in a couple of years.” Zhao Jundu seemed to be in a good mood.
Song Zining noticed that he was indeed too anxious. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and said, “What’s with Li Kuanglan?”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know! Why is she here to find Qianye?”
Zhao Jundu finally looked up calmly and said, “Oh you’re talking about that. You’re pretty well-informed, aren’t you?”
Song Zining replied furiously, “Rubbis.h.!.+ She wasn’t hiding it at all. What’s so strange about me knowing about it? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
Zhao Jundu smiled indifferently. “Of course, I know. But it’s nothing serious, don’t fret about it.”
“Nothing serious my a.s.s! Haven’t you already settled things with her?”
“Of course I have, but the thing I settled was the life and death battle. I don’t care about anything else. Li Kuanglan didn’t come here to fight to the death, either. She only wants to swap pointers.”
Song Zining sneered, “Swap pointers? Don’t tell me you don’t know about her sword arts. More than one person has died ‘swapping pointers’ with Li Kuanglan.”
Zhao Jundu leaned onto the chair and looked at Song Zining with a spurious smile. “In any case, it’s fine as long as no one dies. It’s fine even if he’s beaten black and blue. Speaking of which, it’s pretty strange for you to be so concerned!”
Song Zining stared at Zhao Jundu for a long while. His face sank upon seeing that the latter had no intention of giving in. “Do as you wis.h.!.+ But if something really happens, don’t blame me for what I’ll do.”
Zhao Jundu said indifferently, “You probably can’t do anything to the Li family with your current power.”
Song Zining was just about to step outside the door, but he stopped upon hearing these words. He responded slowly, “I really don’t have a lot of merit, but I do like to hold grudges.”
With that, he left, banging the door loudly behind him.
A frosty smile appeared on Zhao Jundu’s lips. “You dare slam my door? Looks like you don’t know how vengeful I am. Men!”
The female officer entered after hearing his summons. “What are your orders?”
Zhao Jundu replied, “Collect a list of all the unmarried girls from our family.”
“I’ll handle it immediately.” The secretary left, puzzled as to why the fourth young master would want this list. It would seem he was looking to arrange an engagement for a certain young n.o.ble? However, the fourth young master had never been interested in such matters. Could it be that he had finally thought it through and was about to start preparing for his succession?
Within the office, Zhao Jundu was tapping lightly on the table. He pondered for a moment before breaking into a sudden laugh and muttering to himself, “Be obedient or I might just let Yuying marry you!”
After leaving the Zhao clan camp, Song Zining ran back to his office and summoned his trusted aides for a secret meeting. Soon, these subordinates left in a hurry. An intelligence network thus sprang to life, collecting all information regarding Li Kuanglan’s visit.
The Song Zining of today didn’t just hold the status of a Song clan young master. He had long since gained his own agents and influence.
Presently, the young geniuses from back then were already capable of wielding great power on their own.
Zhao Jundu was publicly recognized as a person who could handle great responsibilities, and Song Zining had also revealed outstanding talents. He was already qualified, albeit barely, to manage the defense of several counties. Qianye wasn’t as famous, but judging from how he could slaughter a virtuous count, he was beyond qualified for the lieutenant-general rank. The only issue was that his origin power cultivation was still somewhat lacking.
Comparatively, the older Song Zicheng still needed to borrow his status as a Song clan young master to do everything, and he would likely need to continue doing this for many years to come.
Song Zining mobilized his information network without the slightest bit of hesitation, but Li Kuanglan had arrived much faster than antic.i.p.ated.
At dusk, a slender and magnificent airs.h.i.+p appeared over the horizon and flew rapidly toward Indomitable. Li Kuanglan stood as calm as an ancient well, her hands clasped behind her back as she gazed at the approaching city.
The tender maid standing behind her asked, “Just who here is worth traveling tens of thousands of kilometers for? You even set aside such important matters.”
Li Kuanglan replied, “You don’t understand, I must come.”
The maid pouted. “Even though I don’t understand war and statecraft, I can tell what’s good and bad. It must be those senseless fellows causing problems again.”
Li Kuanglan said with a laugh, “It is indeed related to those people, but this time, it is I who wanted to come and see a certain person.”
“Who is it that you have to rush over to see?”
“A dumb but interesting fellow.”
The maid’s eyes lit up as she cried out, “Oh ho ho, this is the first time I’ve heard you give such an evaluation. I really must see this person.”
Li Kuanglan’s expression instantly turned wooden. “Are you looking to die?”
The maid wasn’t afraid of her at all and only kept on giggling.
The airs.h.i.+p sped forth at full speed and arrived above Indomitable. The other airs.h.i.+ps patrolling the airs.p.a.ce approached the vessel but returned to their routes after seeing a certain insignia, allowing the airs.h.i.+p to fly right above the city.
Apparently sensing something, Li Kuanglan leapt head first off the airs.h.i.+p and shot toward the city like a comet.
“Ah! Wait for me!” the maid cried out and actually followed suit. She made a couple of turns through the air and flew toward Indomitable.
In the courtyard, Qianye was feeling quite restless. He tried to cultivate several times, but he didn’t dare activate the Profound Combatant Formula in this state of mind. The reason for him losing control last night hadn’t been made clear yet, and he just couldn’t get that icy tide out of his mind.
Song Zining had told Qianye before that there were countless experts from both sides disrupting the heavenly mysteries of this floating continent. This rendered most divination arts ineffective, and even he himself couldn’t calculate anything. For ordinary warriors, it would affect their sensitivity to danger and cause their state of mind to fluctuate.
But that was for ordinary soldiers—how could it affect those with great willpower like Qianye, Zhao Jundu, or even Zhao Yuying and Wei Potian?
Yet for some reason, this abnormal problem had happened to Qianye. This made him restless and even unable to cultivate.
After several unfruitful attempts, Qianye had no choice but to leave the cultivation chamber in frustration. Not to mention the great war going on at the moment, the level of his own blood energy had far surpa.s.sed his daybreak origin power once again and was in urgent need of balancing. How could he not be frustrated after encountering problems at such a juncture?
Qianye returned to his room and produced a box of divination sticks. He quietly circulated his origin power as Song Zining had taught him and threw the tokens onto the table. With his skill in divination, there probably wouldn’t be any proper results. He wasn’t hoping for anything and was simply doing it to kill time.
The inscribed sticks fell onto the table and, quite surprisingly, formed an exceptionally clear symbol.
Qianye was startled—when had his divination skills become that impressive? Could it be that he had some talent in this field? He glanced over at the table and became somber almost immediately.
The meaning of the symbol was: “Calamity descends from the heavens.”
Even someone with firm willpower like Qianye felt rather upset after seeing such a result.
Qianye raised his hand and was just about to sweep the sticks off the table when a loud noise arose from the courtyard. Soon, the earth began to quake violently, the shockwave kicking up a tempest in the room which threw open all of the doors and windows.
Qianye released his origin power reflexively. This s.h.i.+elded an area several meters around him, effectively blocking out the incoming dust and gravel. After the dirt had settled, Qianye saw a slender silhouette standing in his courtyard, with hands clasped behind and a shallow pit beneath the feet. Apparently, this person had just fallen down from the sky.
He didn’t need to look clearly. Just from those blue robes and that temperament resembling an unsheathed sword, Qianye knew that Li Kuanglan had arrived. “So, it’s you!”
Li Kuanglan was baffled by his sudden words, but she soon noticed the divination symbol on the table.
As a highly intelligent person, she soon realized what was going on. Her face turned livid as she muttered through clenched teeth, “Are you saying I’m the calamity?”