Chapter 146 - 147: Tit for Tat
“I know your son was instigated by someone, something about Royal Young Gang, right? Led by Zhao Xi and Zhao Yin Ge, all a bunch of good-for-nothings…” Zhu Heavenly Officer said.
“Yes, yes, yes, I only found out a few days ago, and from now on I will make sure my son Feijun cuts off all ties with them!” Gu He said anxiously.
“What good-for-nothings, Zhu Heavenly Officer, do you sit here because you can’t see my lady?” Madame Zhao said sternly to Zhu Heavenly Officer.
“Madam Zhao Qin, whether you are here or not, your son is still a good-for-nothing. There’s no need for us to have a pointless squabble over this, is there?” Zhu Heavenly Officer smiled.
This remark almost made Madam Zhao Qin faint from anger!!
“Zhu Heavenly Officer, what exactly are you up to, insulting the Royal Family in public like this??” Madam Zhao Qin finally said furiously after some time.
“The Royal Family naturally has its respectable members, but there are also good-for-nothings and some surname-clinging shrews,” Zhu Heavenly Officer continued.
“Who are you calling a surname-clinging shrew, you… you…” Madame Zhao was incoherent and her face had turned red with blackness!
“Madam, Madam, don’t argue with such a rude person, mainly because you can’t outtalk him. Let’s go sit over there, sit over there, take a breath, eat some watermelon to cool off,” Hao Yong hurriedly said on the side.
Hao Yong helped the nearly fainting Madam Zhao Qin and headed towards another tent under the scorching sun.
Meanwhile, Gu He, vice leader of the Chess Sect, was restless. He wanted to plead for his son, but he didn’t know what to say to make Zhu Heavenly Officer believe him.
“Gu, my brother, you’ve taken a narrow path. Why can’t you trust me, Zhu Heavenly Officer? Why must you side with those old-fashioned, ignorant, parasitic powers?” Zhu Heavenly Officer patted Gu He on the shoulder and turned to walk towards the palace walls.
“Master Zhu, Master Zhu, my son is foolish and manipulated, please don’t take this matter to heart, there are so few in our Chess Sect who inherit the Power of God and Mortality, please consider our Sect Forest is already in decline, show some leniency. In the future, I will definitely come to apologize personally, I definitely will…” Gu He chased after Zhu Heavenly Officer, bending over so low that his body almost touched his belly.
“How could I not know he was manipulated?” Zhu Heavenly Officer sighed softly, stopped his steps, and turned to Gu He. Before Gu He’s face could ease, Zhu Heavenly Officer continued with a stern look, “But a grown son, lacking his own judgment, following a group of troublemakers from Imperial City and bullying others. They have powerful backgrounds that can save their lives, but what does your son have? Over the years, you’ve groveled and ingratiated yourself with all the powerful forces, and it’s not been easy to build up a bit of influence and improvement for Sect Forest, but in the end, you show not a shred of sincere respect for me, Zhu Heavenly Officer, for Zhu Gate.”
Gu He, hearing these words, froze in place. The sky was clear, but it felt like thunder rolling, as if everything he had worked so hard for crumbled because of that sentence!
“Master Zhu, Master Zhu, please have mercy, please have mercy, please have mercy…” Gu He lay prostrate on the ground, continuously shouting in the direction Zhu Heavenly Officer left!
At the golden tents by the palace walls, there were many influential figures. Their gazes fell on the abject Gu He.
Some were perplexed.
Some sneered.
Some were indifferent.
Yet, there was not a single person willing to step forward and say a word for Gu He, nor anyone to help him up from the scorching sun.
Zhu Heavenly Officer left in the distance, Gu He lifted his gaze, his pupils wet and bloodshot.
He looked at the nobles in the golden tents, seeing their indifferent faces, and fire surged within him at that moment.
On the Ancient Bronze Battlefield, Chess Sect’s Gu Feijun still had a sullen look, unaware that his Sect Forest no longer existed.
He still wanted victory, loudly commanding those Dragon Trainers within his formation, foolishly hoping to use the formation’s advantage for a strong attack.
But his formation was suppressed by the thriving realm of the Divine Green Holy Dragon, and he himself had no real combat ability.
A man dressed in white, slowly emerged from the dense forest.
The extremely dangerous vines, moss flowers, and roots all cleared a path for him as if they too were controlled by the man’s will.
“Zhu Minglang!” Gu Feijun stared at him, saying with revulsion.
“Chess Sect?” Zhu Minglang asked.
“Yes!” Gu Feijun replied.
“A member of the Royal Young Gang?” Zhu Minglang continued asking.
“What Royal Young Gang, I simply can’t stand people like you who bully others with sheer power. During the competition for influence, life and death are fated, and yet, just because your younger brother was accidentally injured, you had the gall to threaten violence at the memorial hall. Do you even have any regard for the laws of the Imperial City!” Gu Feijun said with righteous indignation.
“Oh, so you’re just not very bright.” Zhu Minglang gave a faint appraisal upon hearing his words.
For a chess master, the most important thing is wisdom.
This Gu Feijun’s brain really isn’t fit for a chess master.
For someone with a feeble mind, Zhu Minglang could spare his life.
But for the rest of his life, it would be better spent in bed!
Zhu Minglang saw no need to show leniency just because the other party was foolish, especially since, when he set up this chess formation to kill ten pieces, he did not consider how dangerous his own situation could become.
Feathers like blades, dancing wildly, created a fierce blade-feather storm around Zhu Minglang, clad in white.
With a flick of Zhu Minglang’s hand, the storm phantom feathers flew towards chess master Gu Feijun in an instant, dense and terribly sharp!
These storm phantom feathers precisely avoided Gu Feijun’s vitals, slashing his tendons at the wrists and ankles, severing his elbows, chopping off his fingers, cutting into his thighs, his back, his calves…
“Ah!!!!!!”
The piteous cries of pain from Gu Feijun echoed throughout the entire Ancient Bronze Battlefield.
He seemed to have been tortured, yet every part of his body was intact.
The blades had sliced through every joint, severing tendons and bones, yet they had avoided the vitals…
The storm phantom feathers spun around, flying out and then circling back to Zhu Minglang’s side, still without a single drop of blood on them, clean and white.
Zhu Minglang turned away, too lazy to even glance at the paralyzed man.
Just then, a Quick Dragon that had been lurking nearby burst forth, choosing the perfect moment right after Zhu Minglang retracted his storm phantom feathers to attack the Dragon Shepherd himself.
Zhu Minglang’s white garment suddenly billowed, and, like a ghostly figure, he floated dozens of meters away. The Quick Dragon’s claws missed their mark, and in its anger, it tried to pursue Zhu Minglang, but he calmly dodged with his ghostly garment, the Quick Dragon not even touching the hem of his clothes.
“Boom!!!!!!”
Suddenly, a Silver Fir Giant Demon Guard stomped down, and before the Quick Dragon could even react, it was crushed into a mound of flesh!
With the Quick Dragon’s death, a scream came from the vines nearby, likely from some Dragon Trainer suffering the soul-searing pain of their Dragon Beast’s death.
“Deal with it,” Zhu Minglang said to the Silver Fir Giant Demon Guard.
The Silver Fir Demon Guard headed over there, and soon the screams of terror from that Dragon Trainer could be heard.
Whether that person was dead or alive, Zhu Minglang didn’t care at all.
In any case, Zhu Minglang wouldn’t have the slightest bit of mercy for these people who ganged up on him.
The Silver Fir seeds buried in the soil grew more and more robust, and several more Silver Fir Demon Guards appeared in this thriving land, following Zhu Minglang’s side.
Zhu Minglang went wherever, slaughtering those Dragon Beasts.
If they encountered a Lord Level, the Silver Fir Giant Demon Guards would step in. With other Silver Fir Demon Guards joining the attack, even Lord-level Dragon Beasts couldn’t withstand it.
“Either your dragon dies, or you die, choose for yourself,” Zhu Minglang said coldly.
There was a Lord-level Dragon Shepherd from an unknown power whose possession was precisely a Heavens Tearing Dragon, with strength considered strong in this second round of the battlefield, a true lower-level Sovereign.
The Silver Fir Giants had battled it for quite some time, but in the end, they couldn’t withstand the increasingly numerous Silver Fir Demon Guards joining the encirclement.
The man wanted to recall the Heavens Tearing Dragon back into the Spirit Realm and escape from this forest woven by the Divine Green Holy Dragon, but Zhu Minglang wouldn’t let him leave unscathed!
“Do not push people too far!!” the young man glared back in anger.
“So it turns out that I’m the one bullying others…” Zhu Minglang sneered.
The pain of death in their final moments couldn’t possibly bring a great epiphany to such scum who couldn’t discern right from wrong.
It would be better to kill all their dragons and then cripple these people. Only through the humiliation of being unable to fend for themselves in life, would they gradually understand the folly of their actions today!
Of course, he wasn’t the only one destined to end up disabled and paralyzed. There were ten individuals present today. They could live together in the same sanatorium later on, exchange their conditions with each other, and their later years wouldn’t be lonely.
If anyone finally came to their senses, and could hold each other, weeping bitterly and full of remorse, then Zhu Minglang’s benevolent intentions of sparing their lives today would not have been in vain!
“Bai Qi, roam around and see if there are any fish that slipped through the net. Leave none behind!” Zhu Minglang said to Little White.
Little White leaped down from Zhu Minglang’s shoulder.
It harvested the lives of these Dragon Beasts even faster, for to it, all the Dragon Beasts trapped within this dense forest were nothing more than prey to be wantonly trampled upon.
Its figure darted into the dense forest that blotted out the sun, the Ice Morning White Dragon killing cleanly and swiftly, leaving behind terrified screams everywhere it went…
Outside the Ancient Bronze Battlefield, the fighting continued unabated.
Those Dragon Shepherds and God and Mortals mostly fought to a point. Realizing they couldn’t defeat their opponents, they would take the initiative to leave the battlefield and retreat beyond the boundary.
In the area of the forest summoned by the Divine Green Holy Dragon, what had unfolded was pure slaughter.
More and more Silver Fir Demon Guards were joining, killing those Dragon Beasts.
The Divine Green Holy Dragon overlooked from above, its battle in the skies having already ended. Six Flying Dragons, including that Lord-level Wind Annihilation Dragon, had all been killed by it.
And those Dragon Beasts scattered within its Spirit Realm forest were as easy to slaughter as chicks, carrying their owners in search of an exit from the maze of dense woods but meeting only creeping dread.
Outside of the blooming prosperity, Lu Bin of the Azure Dragon Palace was shocked beyond measure.
He had assumed Zhu Minglang would be in grave danger, always struggling internally over whether to intervene in such an exceedingly nefarious act.
But before he could make a decision, the Divine Green Holy Dragon had already displayed its awe-inspiring might.
The ones in grave danger had turned out to be people from the Chess Sect and those conniving Dragon Shepherds.
“This Zhu Minglang, how viciously cruel, to have killed all those people’s dragons. Fortunately, I left the scene early that day,” Fu Jinguo said, still shaken.
“Jinguo, you’re mistaken there. That day, his Black Violent Dragon, no matter how ferocious it became, never dealt a killing blow to any dragon that had lost the fight. But today, he has embarked on a great massacre… In my eyes, these juniors have brought it upon themselves. A proper grand competition among powers, each fighting their own battles, yet they conspired together using such despicable tactics to gang up on one person in the field!” an elder from the Azure Dragon Palace said.
“So that’s it, an eye for an eye. It’s fortunate that the senior brother did not take advantage of others’ peril, or else, I fear the outcome would have been the same,” Fu Jinguo said.
“Hmph, if he’s going to be so unreasonable, he deserves to die,” said an elder of the Azure Dragon Palace.
The dense forest gradually dissipated, leaving only a blood-red carpet of moss.
Zhu Minglang emerged from the corpses of those dragons, with all the Silver Fir Demon Guards standing loyally behind him like ancient guardians.
They were towering and imposing, exuding a powerful oppressive force.
The Divine Green Holy Dragon stood on the shoulder of a Silver Fir Giant Demon Guard, overlooking the Ancient Bronze Battlefield.
Radiant in green light, holy and majestic, with just a command from it, all the Silver Fir Demon Guards could trample willfully over all the combatants in the Ancient Bronze Battlefield.
However, unlike the first round, Zhu Minglang simply stood in his spot and did not advance further into the battlefield.
This greatly relieved all the descendants of influential powers in the Ancient Bronze Battlefield.
If Zhu Minglang wanted to clear the field as before, there was no way they could struggle into the next round.
The area around Zhu Minglang was essentially empty…
No one dared to move even half a step closer to that area; approaching it seemed more terrifying than being disqualified for stepping out of bounds.
After all, Zhu Minglang only occupied one spot, and everyone had tacitly acknowledged that he had already advanced to the next round. They were already fortunate if this “great Buddha” bore no other thoughts towards them!
At the Daguan Pavilion.
Behind a curtain of white gauze, Zhao Yin Ge sat like an iceberg, with anger burning ceaselessly in his eyes!
Why is this guy, even without his sword cultivation, still so difficult to deal with.
“Yo, young princely heir, with your legs in such an inconvenient condition, you still haven’t forgotten to come watch my lively battlefield performance,” Zhu Minglang’s voice suddenly came from the battlefield.
The thin white gauze curtain seemed to be no barrier to Zhu Minglang’s gaze.
Zhu Minglang’s eyes were fixed on the person inside the Daguan Pavilion.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yin Ge’s entire being seemed to grow even colder.
“Looking at the young princely heir’s condition, I fear a talented mechanist must have crafted a pair of flexible and comfortable prosthetics for you. I wonder if they are more comfortable than the ones you had before?” Zhu Minglang continued.
As these words reached his ears, rage felt like it was about to burst through the white gauze curtains of the Daguan Pavilion!!
Others standing by could feel the terrifying aura emanating from Zhao Yin Ge!
Prosthetics??
The princely heir of the Royal Family, Zhao Yin Ge, is using prosthetics??
No wonder he was wearing such heavy brocade robes in this sweltering heat—was it to prevent others from noticing his limbs were different??
“Zhu Minglang!!!” Zhao Yin Ge’s face was almost twisted in anger.
“The life of my brother, Hao Shaocong alone is not enough to compensate. Young princely heir, you’d better hope I don’t find out you had any involvement in this matter. Otherwise, next time, Zhu Minglang won’t stop at just your limbs!!”
In front of everyone, Zhu Minglang said with a smile to the highly esteemed princely heir of the Royal Family!