Chapter 464 - Succeed by Luck
The trio walked another seventy to eighty feet forward before the shadows by the roadside suddenly rustled. A cold and strict voice sounded, “Stop there! Identify yourselves! If you make any rash moves, don’t blame me for being heartless!”
The richly dressed noble lightly furrowed his brows, impatiently replying, “It’s me!”
“Ah.... So it’s the third young noble.... Forgive this subordinate for his offense.” The person hidden within the shadows revealed himself at this point. He solemnly bowed and continued, “Right now, the situation in the city is precarious, a troubled time. If third young noble wishes to go out at night, it would be better to have more helpers.”
“Hmph!” The young noble only let out a snort as he interrupted, “Has the assassin been caught yet?”
“Up until now, there has been no news. The superiors have all continuously searched for the previous few nights, but there have been no results.” The man in black lowered his head as he shamefully replied.
“Bunch of wastrels!” The third young noble snapped. “It’s just capturing a few assassins, and you guys actually turned the city upside down but still can’t find any clues. I wonder why my family is even paying you people so much money!”
He paused here for a while, before angrily shouting, “What are you waiting for? Hurry and scram so I can cross. Why are you still standing here like a wooden block? Are you bent on obstructing my path?!”
“This subordinate doesn’t dare,” the black-robed man stuttered. “However, based on the orders that the family head has left, would Young Noble please sign here, so I have something to account to the family head for?”
“Pa!” In a towering rage, the third young noble lashed out with a palm, slapping the black-robed man squarely across the face as he spat, “Bstrd! This young noble here even needs to sign when entering or exiting his own house? Are you ill? Don’t tell me you think this young noble is a spy from the outside?!”
Having been slapped so hard he spun around, the man held a hand to his rapidly swelling face, speaking even more softly, “This is the strict order passed down by the family head, and he mentioned that in these few days, even he himself needed to sign it.... third young noble, please be magnanimous and allow me to stay out of trouble.”
“I won’t give you any trouble! No more troubles for you! I’ll just beat you to death! You darned son of a btch!” The third young noble was apoplectic with rage, spitting out insult after insult as he continuously rained punches down. He snarled in resentment, “Don’t think I’m not aware that after elder brother left, you bunch of black-robed dogs have worked hand in glove together with second brother to make life difficult for me. Do you think this young noble is a fool?! Now this young noble here even needs to sign his attendance in order to enter his own external courtyard, this is really going overboard! Dmned dog slave!”
The man in question was beaten till he couldn’t separate east from west, but he didn’t dare to retaliate, and furthermore didn’t dare to even let out a sound. In the darkness of the night, all one could hear was the ‘pa pa pa’ sound of fists hitting flesh, similar to that of setting off firecrackers.
Gazing at this situation, Ling Tian thought to himself, This third young noble is indeed the despotic and arrogant person to actually treat his subordinates in this way. The way I see it, he should be the third son Yu LiuShui. To think that the battle for the successor of the Yu Family had already reached such a state, this is out of my expectations.
Then the external courtyard that Yu LiuShui just stepped out of was likely to be his personal courtyard. Just that, what was the origin of those people who were in discussion with him within? They didn’t seem like people from the Yu Family.
Besides, just looking at the tyrannical auras that they released, one could identify them as first-tier experts! Could it be that Yu LiuShui was trying to secretly cultivate a personal force on his own? But from the style of conversation just now, they were clearly equals, and did not have a master-subordinate relationship. So what is the catch hidden within? Ling Tian couldn’t help but become more curious. A weird thought suddenly struck him. Could it be that my random running around led to me succeeding by luck?
By the time he cleared his thoughts and turned back, the third young noble had finished venting his frustrations. The black-robed man was lying like a sack of dirt on the ground, having long since fainted. However, the unappeased third young noble still viciously kicked him twice before finally stopping to catch his breath, brushing off the dirt on his clothes as he spat out, “F**k! Don’t believe that I can’t beat you guys till you listen! Dog slaves, dammit!” He straightened his sleeves, before arrogantly walking off with the two guards behind him.
It was only after this shadow disappeared that rustling from the shadows could be heard once again. A team of black-robed men as well as two men in white detached themselves from the shadows. They only shook their heads and sighed before softly lifting their comrade who was beaten beyond recognition to bring him away. Given the impressiveness of their martial skills, this group should have long ago arrived the moment they heard the commotion, but rather didn’t dare to intervene, instead choosing to stick in the shadows.
Ling Tian laughed coldly to himself. If Yu ManLou’s children were all such wastrels, then it would definitely save him much of his strength. Especially so in the case of the third young noble, who was so incomparably arrogant and despotic, wantonly insulting his subordinates. How could he obtain their trust this way? As for the second young noble, he was probably huddled up inside the pavilion of his secret mistress. Likely, this was another person blinded by lust and debauchery, a true profligate. The eldest son with the greatest potential was said to have already been cut down by Ling Jian and the rest in front of the Yu Family’s front door. Originally, Ling Tian was a little worried that the shock would be too great for Yu ManLou, causing him to retaliate against them and causing irreparable losses. However, now that he saw it, this could have been an unexpected benefit. Since the original tripod balance had now been broken, the other two brothers would end up collapsing sooner or later as well.
Even so, Ling Tian was still a little startled. Does the Yu Family now lack a qualified successor? With the abilities of Yu ManLou, how could he raise up such useless children? Or he should rephrase as, how could Yu ManLou bear to raise such a useless son? Even if he was totally occupied with work, he should still have the time to discipline his children every now and then, right?
Recalling back to the times when his father Ling Xiao was the Grand Marshall, he would be out of the city for three quarters of a year yet the spankings he received from him were still not just a few! Every time he began to beat him, his grandma or mother would mysteriously appear at the appropriate time, never allowing him to be beaten more than a few times... as he reminisced, his hand subconsciously moved over to his buttocks. While he now knew that this was an accidental seamless cooperation by father and son, but he had never used his internal strength to remove the pain from his hurting buttocks. Thinking back to those spankings, he still had a little trauma regarding them, as well as heartfelt warmth towards the attitude of his father.
As he shook his head to clear his thoughts, he noticed that far up ahead, Yu LiuShui had already gone into the Yu Family compound. With a cold smile on his face, his body moved, floating up mysteriously like the clouds being carried by the wind, merging into the darkness... without sound or notice, without shape or shadow, without tracks or trace...
As though snowflakes would fall on the ground, Ling Tian softly and quietly landed in the external courtyard that Yu LiuShui had just walked out of. Although Yu LiuShui had mentioned it as an external courtyard, that was only by comparison. With two huge gardens and a flower patch in the backyard, even in Bright Jade City this was an upper-class residence. From this one could see how much money and effort the third young noble had invested in this place.
Ling Tian’s current position was directly situated above the main residence in the external courtyard, at the rooftop. After straining his ears and not hearing any noises, he lightly shifted his weight, controlling his body to silently go into a lying down position.
The moonlight from the skies scattered around his body, as though lending him a sacred halo. Ling Tian slightly narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the moonlight. By now, Ling Nineteen and the rest should have returned to Ling Jian’s side, right? Upon thinking of how Ling Jian’s tongue got scalded so badly that it was blistering, Ling Tian couldn’t help but find it funny.
Li Xue that lass was indeed vicious but also equally mischievous. To think that she could come out with such a method to control Ling Jian. However, with their affinity to each other, Ling Tian naturally knew that this was also in a manner of her helping Ling Tian to punish Ling Jian. While that infiltration had been necessary, it was certainly too dangerous, and Ling Tian had actually wanted to berate him, only stopping himself because of the heartache he saw from the injuries.
With this mischief from Li Xue, Ling Tian also considered this matter settled. However, he prayed that Ling Nineteen and the rest would not attempt to provoke this little grandaunt, or else if she flew into a rage, even Ling Tian himself would have some fear restraining him!
As he allowed his thoughts to wander, Ling Tian eventually found himself comparing the fiery nature of Li Xue against the calm and soothing Ling Chen back in Sky Bearing. Unknowingly, he felt a ball of heat rising up from his abdomen. This time, while being pursued by Justice, Ling Tian had really been pent up, and if Ling Chen were to be in his place, he probably would have... hehe... the more the thought about it, the more he felt as though all the blood in his body was being diverted towards his lower half. He almost involuntarily moaned out loud. In his heart, he subconsciously started to curse Justice. If he wasn’t being pursued by Justice, chances are this young noble here would still be happily frolicking in Sky Bearing, right?
As he was engrossed in his thoughts, his senses spiked, and he immediately restrained all his bodily functions, becoming as light as a feather. Where he lay was directly where the eaves of the roof shielded him from view. However, he could sense that on the opposite side were a few trees, and if one didn’t take notice, within that area a person was actually hidden!
Two shadows suddenly landed in the courtyard with the sound of rustling clothes, and immediately a voice sounded from the inside, “Who?!”
“It’s me!” One of the two whispered back, before asking, “Has big brother and the rest returned?”
With a slight creak, the door to the residence opened, and someone spoke, “Hurry and enter. Big brother is not back yet.” After sounds of assent, the two men quickly shot into the house, and the door quickly shut itself once again.
This sentence however left Ling Tian in shock! This was because the voice was clearly someone whom he had heard before, belonging to the expert from Above Heavens, Meng JueChen! At this time, a preposterous thought began to rise within him, that he had indeed succeeded by luck!
But what left him in shock was mainly because Meng JueChen was not dead after battling it out with Justice! Furthermore, from the robustness of his voice, he didn’t seem to be injured! So what was going on? Could it be that the strength of the Above Heavens, when combined, would be so fearsome? That even Justice could only retreat when faced against them?