“Mu Fan, this is not the time to deal with your nonsense, we are in the middle of a spar. And I assure you I have no idea what you're talking about, I didn’t pressure your Mu Clan.”
“Of course you did you bastard! I’m sure you did! Someone from your Ming Clan came to my Clan and have my father sign a Blood Oath Contract that says he relinquish his position as the Clan Head!!”
“What does that have to do with me, and why would I do that? I have no interest in your Clan affairs to have your father relinquish his position as Clan Leader. You really are crazy after all, this is just a misunderstanding but you went ahead a react like this. How do you even know that it was someone from our Ming Clan and not some conflict happening within your Clan itself?”
Just by listening to his story, Shiming could understand what was going on. He was sure his Ming Clan hadn’t done something like that, even with this crazy bastard's personality, they still wanted to win over someone of his talents to their side.
Why would they pressure his family to join them? That would lead to him holding hatred for them even if he does join. And that was a disaster waiting to happen if that were the case.
As Shiming was thinking this, a Soul Sense message came from Jiaying which said in a worried voice.
‘Young master he’s right. Someone from our Ming Clan forced the current Patriarch of the Mu Clan to abdicate his position as Clan Head.’
Shiming almost fainted when he heard that.
Enraged and dumbfounded, he asked back with his Soul Sense, ‘Who was it? We wanted him to willingly join our Ming Clan and have his Mu Clan become one of our subsidiary Clan. If he’s forced to join then there wouldn't any be meaning in it!!’
“Young Master, the person who did it was the son of a branch elder. The report I got said he requested the Patriarch’s daughter's hand in marriage. When the Patriarch refused he schemed with the Patriarch’s younger brother to have Mu Fan’s father abdicate his position.”
Hearing that this situation came about because of some horny bastard from his clan, Shiming ground his teeth in anger. He almost had his head lopped off from Mu Fan’s saber streak if he hadn’t dodged in that humiliating manner.
‘Send word to have that person confine to 8 years in our Winter Cold Formation. And have that branch elder step down from his position.’
Shiming's orders were more absolute than most Head Elder of the Clan because of his status. Punishing a branch elder was trivial to him.
But now that it was confirmed that his Ming Clan had indeed been involved with this matter, getting this crazy Mu Fan to join them multiplied in difficulty.
The exchange between Jiaying and Shiming was fast, and Mu Fan was just responding to Shiming’s denial of his Ming Clan involvement.
“Bastard you won’t admit it? Fine! I’ll join this competition, let’s battle, come-on come-on, stop hiding behind numbers and face me!”
Mu Fan’s frail-looking body trembled in anger as he stared at Shiming’s group.
Ping Su responded, “This is a group competition on the Sword Pavilion mountain. You're neither in a group nor are you a member of the Sword Pavilion!”
Mu Fan shot a nasty glare at Ping Su, which caused the latter to take a step back in fright.
He was intimidated by Mu Fan since he heard even Tengfei couldn’t stand up to two strikes from his saber. And Mu Fan looked like the type of crazy you would want to avoid crossing paths with.
Because of that, some would consider it a waste and tragedy that someone so talented was so bat-shit crazy. For some reason, highly talented individuals always have unique and quirky personalities or traits, that make them stand out from common people. It was like some kind of prerequisite for being a genius in this world.
Mu Fan after glaring at Ping Su, turned to Yang Su who was standing by the side, and said, “You, who are you? What’s your name? Which group are you in? And why the hell is your hair so red? Did you color it or something?”
Hearing the rapid-fire questions coming to him Yang Su blinked, not knowing which question to answer first.
“Um, it’s my natural color hair, I’m in my young master’s group, my name is Yang Su, and ah, um, I’m me?” Yang Su ended up answering the questions in the wrong order.
“Yang Su is it? Who’s your young master? Tell him to let me join his group to battle that bastard.” Mu Fan said while pointing a thumb at a frowning Shiming.
Yang Su turned his head to Xi Shen and Mu Fan followed his gaze.
“It’s you? Who are you? Are you gonna let me join your group? And why are you not wearing any shoes? You're a weird kid.” Mu Fan asked his rapid-fire questions again, and he seemed to always ask the last question completely unrelated to the previous ones.
Xi Shen smiled a broad smile.
‘Found you.’
Xi Shen was watching in silence all this while, he was watching this apple as it fall out of the sky into his lap. This situation seemed almost too good to be true. Such a talented person who wasn’t among the Seven Major Clans was enraged at the Ming Clan and wanted to join his group.
Of course, Mu Fan meant just for this battle, but Xi Shen completely ignore that and only saw it as him willingly joining his Faction.
Seeing Xi Shen’s smile Mu Fan felt that this little brat was a strange one. He didn’t have any Qi fluctuations but was on the Sword Pavilion, much less in the Celestial Academy.
Of course, it could be because his cultivation was just too high, but Mu Fan didn’t even consider a brat nearly three years younger than him could reach a realm so far away from his own that he could hide his Qi fluctuations from him.
After smiling Xi Shen said, “Yes it’s me, and I’m Xi Shen. If you want to join my Faction then that’s fine, oh and I find it comfortable to go without shoes. Aren't you the same?”
“Huh?” Mu Fan said, and he look down to see that he was bare feet as well.
“Oh, would you look at that! It seems I didn’t control my strength properly again and they were destroyed when I was coming here, haha!”
Looking up at Xi Shen, Mu Fan said, “Little brat, it looks like we're bare-feet brothers, haha!”
While laughing Mu Fan’s figure disappeared before appearing in front of Xi Shen still laughing.
“Such speed!"
The crowd of disciples became stunned.
Seeing Mu Fan acting like this with Xi Shen, Shiming had a bad feeling well up in his heart.
Despite Mu Fan’s frail frame, his height was around 5’11, 6 feet. Xi Shen was still a growing boy who was hitting puberty in this life and along with his Heavenly Physique, his body was taller and bigger than normal 13-year-olds, being at the height of 5’6, 5’7 feet.
But he still had to look up at Mu Fan nonetheless.
After laughing, Mu Fan’s expression suddenly became serious as he said, “Hey, but I heard something about joining a Faction. I don’t think I said I was joining your Faction, wait, did I?” Question marks suddenly appeared above Mu Fan’s head while a thinking expression came on his face.
The people in the surroundings had strange expressions on their faces. It really was a waste that such a crazy person had so much talent. No, or was it a waste that such a talented person was crazy? Well, any which way it was all just a waste.
Xi Shen however, just nodded and said, “Yes, you did. To battle those Ming Academy disciples you said you’d enter the Sword Pavilion and join my Faction.”
“Huh? I did?” Mu Fan asked confused.
The disciples in the crowd became speechless at Xi Shen’s shameless tactics.
“Wait why would I say that? Only the Blade Pavilion has techniques suitable to me, why would I come to the Sword Pavilion? Hey, brat you aren’t trying to fool me, right?… right?”
Mu Fan’s expression was full of annoyance at first but then it turned to a questioning look as he stared down at Xi Shen.
“No, I’m not, why would I? I was just about to say that you can transfer to the Sword Pavilion without any worry. I’m the second prince so I can get you any saber technique you want.”
“Huh? Second prince?” Mu Fan's eyes open wide when he heard that.
Xi Shen nodded and said, “Yes, yes, all you have to do now is swear a Blood Oath to become my loyal subordinate and you’ll get any saber techniques you want. You’ll get to battle those people who have wronged you as well.” Xi Shen point to a fuming Shiming as he said that.
Lihua, Fang Chen, and Fei Yin who were beside him, along with everyone else in the crowd, were watching this interaction between Xi Shen and Mu Fan with dumbfounded expressions.
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Word Count: 1566