Chapter 52: Scholar and Military
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_
All the hustle and bustle of the world was only for money.
Two months ago, Little ng City was ‘besieged by barbarians’, and many wealthy tradesn and rchants had been killed, their dead bodies piling up like a small hill. A massive amount of wealth and money had been stolen. Two months later, countless tradesn had co from different kingdoms, once again opening up new shops in Little ng City.
But this ti, these tradesn were not in charge. They were only allowed to buy from the Little ng City Trade Union, and thus, only made a certain percentage of profit. Lu Chengfeng was well versed with the prices of the products and treasures from the mountain in every kingdom, and he allowed these foreign tradesn to earn the sa twofold profits. The rest of the profits would belong to Little ng City.
In just two months, the taxes collected by Little ng City were equal to the total taxes that were collected in a year and a half by Yi Yan and all the previous Mayors.
The coffers of Little ng City filled up fast. With high ambitions, Lu Chengfeng had begun the preparations for the rebuilding of the city wall of Little ng City. He was going to build a solid city wall, purely made from stone slabs, which could withstand the attacks of the barbarians. Also, the new city wall would expand in all directions, allowing Little ng City to accommodate a larger area and prepare for future expansion.
With the endless treasures of the mountain supporting them, Lu Chengfeng had the intention to grow Little ng City into a rich and prosperous city, a city that would be considered a major city in the Lu Kingdom. Currently, everyone had the sa firm impression that Little ng City was just a small remote city in a savage land. This would change.
On the tower of the City Gate, two servant girls were holding a ten-feet long scroll, which had the brand new city design drawn on top of it. Lu Chengfeng, whose face was glowing, was standing right in front of the scroll with a straight back, pointing here and there on the scroll and thinking about how Little ng City would look in the future.
Wu Qi absentmindedly replied to Lu Chengfeng. He turned his head sideways and stared out at the main road, which led to the world outside of the mountain. His brows were knit with a frown.
In two months’ ti, Wu Qi had absorbed all the essence contained within the Innate Water Serpent’s pearl, and his cultivation was approaching the peak of the Respiration stage. According to his calculations, with the help from serpent pearl and over two thousand water elental energy stones which he had stolen from the coffers of Little ng City, any ordinary cultivator would have broken through the Embryonic Breathing stage. They might have even ford their Golden Core.
But the Scroll of Stealing was a miraculous and extraordinary skill. While cultivating through the Xiantian realm, the Scroll of Stealing focused on building a strong foundation and preparing a perfect foundation for future cultivation. For example, at the ridian Cultivating stage, ordinary cultivators would only strengthen their ridians at most, nine tis, but in Scroll of Stealing, it suggested one must use innate water energy to strengthen ridians at least a hundred and eight tis.
So, according to the Source of Water Chapter in the Scroll of Stealing, to break through to the Embryonic Breathing stage, Wu Qi would need, at a minimum, twenty tis as many energy stones as he currently had. But there was no way for him to get so many water energy stones in Little ng City.
If he wanted to find a better place to continue his cultivation, he should probably search out and join one of those Sects in this world.
While chatting with Lu Chengfeng these past two months, Wu Qi learned that there were several sects in this world, and that all of them had a strong influence on the world. However, all these sects relied on the Great Yan Dynasty for their survival, and all the founders of these sects were either descendants of Emperor Yan Dan or his hanger-ons.
For example, the real background of the Scouting Officers was that they were all part of a huge sect in the Great Yan Dynasty. Its founder was the Chief General of the Great Yan Dynasty, Jing Ke! All the other big sects had the similar backgrounds. Their founders were all related to the Great Yan Dynasty. These sects were tightly controlled by the Great Yan Dynasty, and they would never teach their cultivation skills to outsiders. In order to beco one of their disciples, they must be a genius in cultivation, with a huge potential, or be a descendent of Great Yan Dynasty nobility!
It must be the nobility of the Great Yan Dynasty, not the Lu Kingdom! Those lords and influential families in the Lu Kingdom were nobodies in the Great Yan Dynasty.
Wu Qi was imprinted with Lu Chengfeng’s mark. Therefore, his wish to beco a disciple of a Great Yan Dynasty sect was difficult, extrely difficult! The Great Yan Dynasty wouldn’t allow a servant of the secret love child of a small influential family in one of its kingdom to beco a disciple in any sects. If they let in a disciple like him, this would create an instability among the kingdoms, and would cause a problem for the Great Yan Dynasty. Therefore, it was extrely tough for Wu Qi to enter any sect in the Great Yan Dynasty.
What a headache, Wu Qi furrowed his brows.
He stared at Lu Chengfeng, who was delivering his speech, and a big question appeared in his mind. Why he was a secret love child of Maiden Rongyang? If he were the secret love child of Yan Dan, that would be really great! With that, his wish to enter a cultivator clan would be a piece of cake!
Breathing out a helpless sigh, Wu Qi shook his head and decided to put this matter aside. He would take it slow for now.
Clearing his mind, Wu Qi was getting ready to listen to Lu Chengfeng’s explanation on the new city design when he suddenly saw a cloud of dust rising up into the sky above the main road, as if there was a large group of troops quickly approaching.
Wu Qi leaped up to the tower on the City Gate and stared into the distance. What he saw was a long line of troops, dressed in red, sprinting quickly in this direction. Wu Qi let out a piercing whistle and shouted out, “Close all the gates! All crossbown and archers, standby on top of city wall. Now!”
Lu Chengfeng had heard the rumble of the approaching troops too. He dismissed both serving ladies and imdiately leaped onto the top floor of City Gate, looking out into the distance. He narrowed his eyes and peered out for a mont. After that, he sneered and said, “Look at the color of their armor, they were sent by Lord Puyang!”
Troops of City Guards had stord onto the City Gate with their strong bows and crossbows, lining up in a straight line. A swarm of soldiers carrying huge shields and heavy blades was standing behind these crossbown and archers. After two months of cruel training, these City Guards had beco pretty powerful.
ng Xiaobai and a group of n from ng Village had co onto the City Gate as well. These masculine n from ng Village were carrying a two inch thick, pure steel shield in one hand and a huge broadaxe in the other. They were also wearing thick, pure steel armor. These n looked like a group of moving steel puppets, giving off a frightening visage.
Wu Qi looked at ng Xiaobai gladly, and thought to himself that this young man was not bad. Two months ago, he was the one who instigated the City Guards to fight a tough battle with Liu Zhong. In the end, he was captured by Liu Zhong and went through cruel torture, but he never begged for rcy. No matter how brutal the torture was, he didn’t even let out a single groan.
This young man could be put to a good use! Wu Qi was scared ng Xiaobai might be too impulsive and do sothing reckless again. He hurriedly shouted, “Xiaobai, co here and follow beside young master. You are still a child. Why are you following all the adults there?”
ng Xiaobai was not convinced and tried to refute him, but all the other n from ng Village were laughing out loud and chased him out of their group, asking him to stand beside Lu Chengfeng. ng Xiaobai kept muttering and walked towards the door of City Gate Tower angrily, then he just kept staring at the troops coming from far and didn’t look at Wu Qi at all.
“So you have finally learned how to be angry?” Wu Qi let out a cheerful laugh.
The rapid clatter was so loud that it eventually sounded like roaring thunder. In just fifteen minutes, over six thousand cavalryn, who were all wearing blood red armor, had quickly approached the city. Each of them was riding with two horses, and their armors and war robes were covered with dust. It looked like they had traveled to Little ng City without taking a rest.
The strong cavalry troop had ford into a square formation outside of the city, and an awful atmosphere aroused from where they stood. These cavalryn never took their eyes off the City Guards who were standby on top of City Gate. None of them said anything, as if they were just so stone pillars.
Wu Qi took a few steps forward, hiding behind a wall while sticking his head out, and asked, “Who is out there?”
After five minutes of complete silence, a skinny cavalryman, who was not more than six feet tall, slowly rode forward for about hundred feet. The man suddenly rolled his eyes and gazed at Wu Qi fiercely, then he snapped, “Personal guard commander of Lord Puyang, Luo Kedi. Under the command of Lord Puyang, we are here to fetch our Marquis.”
They were working for Lord Puyang, and they were here to receive the dead body of Liu Suifeng. Wu Qi suddenly felt regret. He should have sent soone earlier and had the dead body of Liu Suifeng returned to Lord Puyang. Doing so would have avoided giving Lord Puyang an excuse to send so many n to Little ng City. Over six thousand cavalryn were outside of the city, all of them elite soldiers. It was obvious that this Lord Puyang was up to sothing.
But what did he really want? To kill Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng to get revenge for his own son?
Wu Qi thought for a while, after which he shook his head and said, “We have limited space in the city. General Luo, please have your army encamp outside of the city.”
A well-mannered man who was holding a feather fan in his hand and wearing a blood red leather armor rode forward. He looked at Wu Qi and said with a loud voice, “The purpose of us here is just to fetch out marquis. Once you send the body of Marquis out here, we’ll return at once and won’t cause you any trouble here.”
Wu Qi looked at the well-mannered man and shouted, “Who are you?”
The gentleman replied with the sa loud voice, “I’m the hanger-on of Lord Puyang… My na is Ma Liang.”
Lu Chengfeng dashed beside Wu Qi. He looked at both n below the City Gate and let out a loud laugh, “I had long heard about there are two famous right-hand n of Lord Puyang… The military commander who has the ability to behead an enemy leader in the middle of a thousand soldiers, General Luo Kedi… The scholar who has the tongue that can kill anyone with his words, Mr. Ma Liang… I, Chengfeng, consider it a great honor to et both of you today!”
Ma Ling had a smile on his face, and casually held his fist towards the City Gate.
On the other side, Luo Kedi was shouting fiercely, “Enough of your nonsense. Hand over the body of Marquis and we’ll return at once.”
Six thousand blood red armor soldiers shouted at the sa ti, “Marquis! Marquis! Marquis!”
All of these soldiers had quite a strong cultivation level, as the cheers of the six thousand soldiers had shaken the city wall of Little ng City.
“Looks like they are furious!” Lu Chengfeng’s brows knit in a frown.
“Why do I have a feeling that once we open up the City Gate and send the body out, these soldiers will siege Little ng City and slaughter all of us?” Wu Qi looked at Luo Kedi and Ma Liang while smiling, and said with a low voice, “Is it because we have done quite a lot of bad things?”
Lu Chengfeng gazed at him, clearly displeased, and said, “Liu Suifeng was killed by a poisonous bug. It had nothing to do with us.”
Wu Qi remained silent for a while, then he whispered, “But I was the one who flicked that poisonous bug into his ear!”
Wu Qi sniggered, but Lu Chengfeng’s eyes suddenly beca pale, and he couldn’t say a word at all. He suddenly had the sa feeling as Wu Qi. No matter how he looked at it, those six thousand soldiers looked like they were getting ready to siege the city for revenge.
Both n kept looking at each other. After so ti, Lu Chengfeng finally shouted out, “General Luo, please co in, together with Mr. Ma Liang and one hundred soldiers… I’ll prepare the body of the Marquis for you.”
Luo Kedi raised his head up and stared at Wu Qi and Lu Chengfeng for so ti. After a brief mont, he waved his hand.
From the army behind him, one hundred cavalries sprinted forward.
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