Chapter 84 : Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Sneak into the Thousand-Household Office at Night and Teach Cheng Yu a Lesson!

A few days later.

A tremendously sensational piece of news spread throughout Jiannan Circuit.

Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander Cheng Yu had led men to raid and wipe out the Gao Family Ancestral Residence!

He had killed until corpses littered the ground!

Just as people were discussing how Circuit Intendant Gao would fly into a rage and launch sweeping retaliation, even more explosive news emerged.

This time, it had been Gao Song himself who personally cut down the Gao Family members and smashed apart the ancestral graves!

And he declared

that he had absolutely nothing to do with the slave-keeping at the Gao Family Ancestral Residence, and had instead chosen to place righteousness above kin!

Afterward, Gao Song vomited blood on the spot and fainted, nearly losing his life.

Madam Li Jianying left the Gao Residence in disappointment.

Hundreds of Gao Family household slaves were given a new lease on life and regained their freedom.

Everyone in Jiannan Circuit discussed the matter without end.

They all knew perfectly well that Gao Song was not the sort of man who would place righteousness above kin, and he had even coughed up blood in fury.

He had definitely been forced into it!

And the only person who could force him to that point was that Jinyiwei Lord Cheng!

Meanwhile.

At the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office.

Cheng Yu was practicing the Taiyi Mysterious Gate Sword Art and instructing his two disciples in the Sword Dao.

“When Taiji Qi rises, move with the Taiji. Speed is slowness, and slowness is speed.”

Holding a wooden sword, Cheng Yu guided a misty, ethereal sword intent.

Although he had only been using the Taiyi Mysterious Gate Sword Art for a short time, his terrifying talent in the Sword Dao meant that after practicing it only two or three times with the Demon-Slaying Sword, he had already fully mastered it and reached an extremely profound level.

The wooden sword moved slowly, and beneath his feet, a Taiji diagram was drawn.

As the Taiji Qi of the mental formula circulated through the meridians of his body, a continuous stream of misty, mysterious sword intent flowed forth.

Liu Xiong watched his master’s demonstration with a furrowed brow, saying nothing.

He could not understand it at all!

Jian A, who had bitterly cultivated the Wudang Sword Art for some time, could at least understand a little. Holding the Wind and Cloud Sword, he copied the movements and followed along.

But precisely because of that, Jian A was far more shocked than Liu Xiong.

He understood it, and because he understood it, he understood even better.

Cheng Yu’s Taiji sword intent had gone, after only three run-throughs of the technique, from being inferior to Jian A’s, to surpassing Jian A’s, to reaching a realm Jian A found impossible to believe.

If his master had not instructed him before not to make a fuss over everything, Jian A would have wanted nothing more than to kneel on the ground and admire such supreme talent in the Sword Dao.

【The Host teaches the Wudang Sword Art and the Taiyi Mysterious Gate Sword, imparting the Great Dao of Arms · Sword. Reward: Comprehension of Taiji Sword Intent!】

“You have learned it now, yes?”

Cheng Yu slowly lowered the wooden sword in his hand, and the Taiji sword intent vanished like a passing breeze.

A falling leaf drifted down in a wavering spiral.

It was shredded into powder by a strand of seemingly gentle sword intent.

The two disciples’ eyes widened once more.

Their master truly was the one they firmly believed could ascend to the absolute summit of the Sword Dao!

Jian A stilled the Wind and Cloud Sword in his hand. The violent gale sword qi that had been suppressed by the Taiji sword intent immediately regained the upper hand.

He respectfully bowed to Cheng Yu.

“Master, have you considered the matter I mentioned to you?”

Hearing this, Cheng Yu nodded.

“I have no objection to meeting your Sword Chief, but you should find him first.”

The Sword Chief of the Sword Bearers was a free-spirited and unrestrained man, and even his own people found it difficult to track him down.

“No rush, no rush!”

Jian A replied excitedly.

“With your attainments in the Sword Dao, he will come looking for you himself sooner or later. I guarantee that when the time comes, he will be faster than I was to take you as master!”

Hearing his disciple talk so casually about a Grandmaster ranked on the Heavenly Ranking, Cheng Yu smiled helplessly.

Just then, a Jinyiwei appeared, delighted, holding a sheet of paper.

“My lord, it is finished!”

Cheng Yu took the paper from his hand and examined it carefully.

In the end, he nodded in satisfaction.

“Well written.”

It was an invitation letter.

It invited every prominent and influential figure in all Jiannan Circuit to gather at the Thousand-Household Office and discuss how they would coexist in the future.

To sum up the specific contents in a single sentence:

Everyone here is trash. Those who accept it can come crawling over to pay their respects. Those who do not can come and compare notes.

The format was even more vicious, calling people out by name and insulting them one by one, with the range of attack covering an extremely broad scope.

The writing of it had quoted the classics and dredged up a great deal of dirt.

Quite a bit of effort had clearly gone into it.

Cheng Yu did not mistreat the man either, rewarding him with a Tiger-Strength Internal-Fortifying Pill.

“Go and have this printed. Distribute it through every prefecture in Jiannan Circuit.”

“Yes!”

That very afternoon, the “invitation letter” spread throughout the entire Jiannan Circuit.

The jianghu was shaken.

【The Host overawes an entire circuit, his momentum surging like a rainbow, raising the name of the Jinyiwei. Reward: Internal Energy!】

...

By the roadside.

At the Brotherhood Tavern, which served only people of the jianghu.

A rugged man as broad as a small mountain, clad in white tiger fur, sat at a table.

He gripped a sheet of paper in one hand and smashed the wine jar on the table with the other.

“Outrageous! A little whelp still smelling of milk actually dares call me a brainless brute!”

The flesh on Mei Feng’s face trembled as he roared, his wide mouth gaping open.

The broad saber at his waist, as wide as a door panel, struck the table with a dull thud.

“Mei Feng, if you smash one more thing, get back to your Plum Saber Stockade!”

The beautiful, voluptuous proprietress slapped the table, clearly displeased with Mei Feng’s behavior.

“A brute indeed! You men are all the same—every last one of you is useless and revolting!”

Liu Erniang swayed her waist as she walked over and moved the wine jar aside, glaring at Mei Feng.

A gloomy voice suddenly rang out.

“Proprietress, if I remember correctly, they mentioned you too. They said you only rose to prominence by relying on men.”

“Qin Mosheng, what did you just say?!”

Two daggers flashed into Liu Erniang’s hands as she lunged toward the scholar sitting with his eyes closed and arms folded not far away.

Clang!

Sparks flew.

A folding fan with hard fan-ribs blocked the strike.

“You thing that got called a sour cur, and you still have the nerve to mock me!”

Liu Erniang withdrew her weapons and spoke hatefully.

The scholar’s lips twitched, and his cultivated expression instantly twisted into something savage.

“I am not sour! Nor am I a dog!”

“Hah! At least when they called me a brute, I was still human. Some people are not even human!”

“And now you are comparing that too?”

The other martial artists in the tavern watched the clash between these great figures with trembling fear, not daring to say a word.

The root of it all was that “invitation letter” posted by the Jinyiwei.

It specialized in cursing the prominent and influential figures by name.

Compared with that, these people had merely been brushed over in passing, or not named at all, so their situation was not quite as urgent.

After the three of them clashed for a while without truly coming to blows, they finally sat down to discuss serious matters.

Mei Feng asked in a deep voice, “A junior acting this arrogantly—what do you two think?”

The scholar shook his head and looked at the invitation letter posted by the Jinyiwei.

“He has already insulted us by name. If we endure it in silence, the fellow people of the jianghu will only mock us for being cowards.”

That letter had cursed every jianghu power in Jiannan Circuit. No one could remain untouched.

Bang!

Mei Feng slapped the table.

“A junior dares be this arrogant! I am going to kill my way over there and demand an explanation!”

They were all people of status and reputation in Jiannan Circuit.

Yet now they had been publicly humiliated by a mere junior, and were even being ordered to gather in Jiannan City.

It was simply outrageous!

If Cheng Yu did not already possess a fearsome reputation and the attention of the Great Qian Emperor, then with Mei Feng’s violent temper, he would already have stormed the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office to demand justice.

“Have you gone mad?!”

Liu Erniang shot him a glare.

“Have you forgotten the fate of Sword-Forging Manor? If an Eighth-Rank expert shows up, which of you is going to face him?”

They did not fear one mere junior, but they did fear the experts of the Jinyiwei.

Hearing this, the rage in Mei Feng’s heart was doused like cold water being poured over it.

“Then what is there left to say? I might as well ignore this and return to Plum Saber Stockade!”

“Then go back,” the scholar said, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes. “It just so happens they already called you a turtle that does not even retort when insulted.”

If they ignored it, then they would have lost face for nothing.

“Then what do we do?”

Liu Erniang raised her brows.

“If we do not go, we suffer humiliation for nothing. If we do go, we only make fools of ourselves. Would we not just become a laughingstock?”

“Not so, not so!”

The scholar shook his head.

“Going to the banquet does not necessarily mean we are weak. On the contrary, it is our chance to regain our face.”

“Since he threatens us, can we not repay him in kind?”

The moment those words were spoken,

Mei Feng and the others’ eyes lit up at once.

The scholar had come up with a plan!

To people of the jianghu, reputation mattered most of all. If they could retaliate against Cheng Yu, regain face, and still avoid giving Cheng Yu any leverage to use against them, then it would be the best of both worlds.

“So what should we do?” they asked.

The scholar let out a cold laugh.

“Does Cheng Yu not pride himself on his martial strength? Then we shall pay a night visit to the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Office.”

“That way, we leave behind no evidence for him to use against us, while still making him understand where the danger lies!”