Chapter 88 - The City of Yangpu

Bam!

Jia Rong fell to the ground under Yunxiao’s startled gaze. “Young Master Yun, this is not true! He’s lying!” While fuming, he stood up and jerked a finger at Zhong Tai as he snapped, “I know Jia Rong, and I know you are not his disciple!”

“Although Master Jia did not take me as his disciple personally, his disciple Shi Yuan and I are good friends. As we often discuss alchemy together, I’m considered a half-disciple of Master Jia.” He studied them suspiciously and asked, “How could someone like you know Master Jia Rong?”

Wu Guang was already losing his patience. “Why waste your breath with these bumpkins, Zhong Tai?” He pointed at Yunxiao and said, “Hurry up and tell me how much you want me to give you for the herb and the girl.”

Yunxiao narrowed his eyes as they flashed with a killing intent. With a cold smile, he said, “It’s cheap…you can just pay me with your heads.”

“What! How dare you!” Wu Guang flew into a rage. “Do you really know who I am?”

“Slap him, and that ‘Master’ as well!”

Pa!

Jia Rong jumped over first and threw Wu Guang to the ground with a slap, then rushed to Zhong Tai and began beating him. With his cultivation base of a warrior, beating Zhong Tai was an easy task. He hated this guy to the bones. He would not be so angry if he had only used his name to deceive others, but he should never have said that to Yunxiao. At the thought that his good opinion in Yunxiao’s heart was reduced because of this, Jia Rong immediately boiled with rage.

Meanwhile, Meng Wu and Meng Bai were beating Wu Guang up. Both of them were warriors, and after they had cultivated the Murderous Air Script, they were shrouded in a faint but intense murderous aura, which made them look fierce and violent.

The shopkeeper was struck dumb. After gaping at them for a brief moment, he ran over and cried out, “Hey, you can’t beat them! Stop it! Please, I beg you, stop beating them!”

He knew he would have to bear a huge responsibility now that the son of city lord and Zhong Tai were beaten up by someone in his shop. His situation would be better if the four of them were captured and put in jail, but if they fled after this, he would be completely doomed. So, the shopkeeper felt his heart ache even though it was not he who was being beaten up.

“That’s enough! They will die if you keep beating them like that,” Yunxiao finally called a stop. However, they did not stop immediately, but continued the beating for a while. Only then did they spit at the two poor guys and leave the shop with Yunxiao.

“Are you alright, Young Master Wu Guang?” The shopkeeper was scared out of his wits. Hurriedly, he helped them up, but was shocked to see that their faces were already swollen like pigs. He could hardly recognize them. “Which of you is Young Master Wu Guang?” he cried out in horror.

The guy on the left pointed at himself and said in a hoarse voice, “I… I am.” Then, he reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a signal flare before handing it to the shopkeeper. “Qui-quickly…send the signal! I…I…I’m going to kill them!”

While trembling, the shopkeeper took the signal flare and ran outside the shop before pulling the trigger. A plume of smoke and flare towered into the sky immediately and spread out, looking rather magnificent. But, the shopkeeper was not in the mood to appreciate such a beautiful firework. He just prayed that the people of the City Lord Mansion could arrive as soon as possible. As long as the four culprits were captured, he should be fine, or so he hoped.

Yunxiao stopped suddenly and looked up at the fireworks in the sky. “It seems to come from the medicine shop,” said Jia Rong with a frown. “I smell trouble.”

“Trouble?” Yunxiao smiled. He was not a troublemaker, but he was not afraid when trouble came to him.

Sure enough, before they left the city, columns of troops had already rushed over from all directions and surrounded them. Wu Guang and Zhong Tai were quick enough to wrap their swollen faces with bandages, exposing only their eyes.

The leader of the troops was a middle-aged man with a pair of sharp eyes and an imposing manner. After glancing at the four of them for a while, he said in a cold voice, “Who are you, kids? Where are you parents?”

At a glance, Yunxiao, Meng Wu, and Meng Bai all seemed teenagers who were about fifteen years old, and Jia Rong was the only one who looked older, about twenty years old. So, the man directed his questions at him. As the commander of Yangpu City Guards for many years, Ban Bingbai’s judgment was naturally more precise than that of ordinary people. Although the four of them were well-dressed, that was not what concerned him. The key was that they were all warriors, and one of them was even a peak eight-stars warrior.

What did a fifteen-year-old peak eight-stars warrior mean? It told him that this group of teenagers should have a pretty strong background. And because of that, he did not rashly give up the order to capture them.

Jia Rong was angered by the question, and he said in an even colder voice, “Get out of the way!”

Wu Guang’s nostrils flared. “Don’t waste your breath with them, Commander Ban, capture the men, tie them up, and beat them to death! And send the girl to my room! I’m going to make her suffer!”

Ban Bingbai felt his head reel. How he wished he could slap this profligate son in the face. ‘Why can’t he tone his arrogance down a little in front of so many people?’ But, as the commander of the City Guards, he was forced to perform his duty. With a sullen face, he said to Jia Rong, “Do you know what crime have you committed? You will have to face a serious consequence if you don’t call your parents over!”

“You will have to face an even serious consequence if you don’t get out of the way!” said Jia Rong disdainfully in a cold voice.

Ban Bingbai knew it was pointless to talk further, so he waved a hand. Immediately, the troops drew their sabers or spears and crowded over.

“Hold on!” Yunxiao shouted suddenly. “Are you trying to bully us with numbers?”

Wu Guang said, “Yes, we are! Why? Not satisfied? Well, I’ll beat you until you satisfied!”

Yunxiao nodded slightly. Among the guards, he saw many experts of the Origin Realm, and the commander sitting on the horse was even a Great Martial Master. He had no fear of them, because none of them could stop him if he wished to leave. But, it would not be so easy for Meng Wu and the others. “I thought you asked for our parents? Give us five minutes.”

Ban Bingbai waved again. At the gesture, all the guards stopped instantly, standing straight as spears and waiting for orders. Clearly, they were well trained.

Meanwhile, Yunxiao took out an arrow from his pocket and threw it up into the sky, which burst into eight smaller darts and shot out in all directions with plumes of thick smoke and blinding light.

“A Cloud Piercing Arrow!”

Ban Bingbai blurted out in horror, his eyeballs almost dropping out of their sockets. Beads of cold sweat began to seep out of his forehead as he studied the four youths again.

As someone who served in the army before, he naturally knew what that arrow was. It was an assembly signal of the highest order in the military. Made of steel, each such arrow contained a material called Flaming Cloud Powder, which could produce thick smoke and strong light when detonated, and would shoot in all directions with the eight darts in the arrow. So, no matter where the troops were, they could always accurately find the exact location of the assembly point.

Although Wu Guang did not know the arrow, he was struck dumb as well. But then, his eyes beamed with excitement suddenly. “Kill them all, Commander Ban! I want that arrow! It looks so much stronger than my signal flare!”

Ban Bingbai nearly fell off his horse, and his face had already turned pale green. ‘Damnit! His is the strongest signal flare in the military, and yours is just a firework, they are simply two different things! Idiot! You’ve gotten yourself into trouble now!’

He immediately concluded that the four of them were not just some common people. Hurriedly, he whispered a few words to a guard standing nearby, who received the order and ran wildly toward the City Lord Mansion.

All of a sudden, a great commotion rang out from the city gate, and the ground began to shake as well.

“Run! Run for your life!”

“Who are you? Who gave you permission to enter the city of Yangpu?”

“Run! There’s an army attacking the city!”

“Inform the City Lord and Commander Ban at once!”

The commotion in the distance startled everyone. Ban Bingbai realized what was happening when he saw the calm expressions on the faces of the four youths and the trace of a smile hanging on the corners of their mouths. His heart sunk in an instant. ‘We’re done this time! We’ve offended someone we should never have offended! After committing all sorts of mischief in Yangpu for many years, Wu Guang has finally run into a brick wall!’

In just about ten minutes, two thousand student troops, each emanating a strong murderous air, had surrounded the City Guards of Yangpu.

“Wh-who are you?” Wu Guang finally panicked and seemed to have understood something. He gave Ban Bingbai a quick push and asked in fear, “Wh-what should we do now, Commander Ban?”

Ban Bingbai swallowed hard; he was already drenched in a cold sweat. When the troops poured over, their menacing murderous air had already made his heart skip a beat, even though he was a Great Martial Master. And what frightened him was that a mighty pressure had locked down the void around him, and the murderous air had seeped straight into his bone marrow. He did not even dare to move right now.

He believed that as long as he moved, even if it were just a casual movement, he would be killed instantly!

‘They have an army of two thousand warriors, and among them is even a Martial Lord! Heavens, who exactly are these four people? Could one of them be a prince? But…even a prince would not have such a frightening army!’ He felt stiffed all over, with only sweat trickling down his cheeks and back.

The air became extremely quiet. Although the place was crowded with thousands of people, there was not even a single noise that could be heard.

Wu Guang was at a loss when he did not get any response from Ban Bingbai. His panic grew, and he glanced around nervously. The murderous air emanated from each of the warriors and the solemn look on their faces sent a chill down his back.

“Alright, we can start the game now,” Yunxiao said. “Tell me, pighead, how do you want to play?”

As soon as Yunxiao spoke, Ban Bingbai felt the air around him loosen and the pressure vanish. However, he could still vaguely feel that he was being targeted by a divine sense. If he tried to do something, he would likely be killed in an instant.

How would Wu Guang have the courage to speak now? He had long thrown himself against the neck of his horse, not daring to even lift his head.

Ban Bingbai had no other choice but to straighten himself and swing down his horse. His imposing manner was gone, and he asked in a very cautious voice, “May I know who you are? This is Yangpu, and we are protected by the laws. You cannot bring your troops into the city without permission.”

“The laws?” Meng Bai rolled his eyes and laughed. “When you have more men than us, you want to take us down by force. But, when we have more men, you suddenly recall that there are laws?”

Yunxiao sneered, “At the beginning, the few hundred of you wanted to beat the four of us, and now my two thousand men want to beat you. If we calculate by the ratios, we’re still on the losing side. But never mind. Commander Ban, let’s begin and not waste any more time. I’m very busy.”