bookbashuk Chapter 14 If it doesn't work, change the city lord
Chapter 14 If it doesn't work, change the city lord
Lu Yuan stared at that line of text for a long time.
Then he slowly got up from the cushion.
Because even the strength to get up must be conserved.
He kicked the prayer mat into the corner.
I'm not practicing anymore.
Three days.
For the past three days, he has been a useless person.
He was still at the mid-stage of Body Tempering, but he couldn't mobilize a single trace of Qi and blood within his body.
Let alone cultivation, even if a martial artist in the early stage of Body Tempering came to provoke him, the only thing he could do was turn around and leave.
Of course, this is assuming the other party allows him to leave.
The problem is that now the entire city of Qingzhou knows that he has the "Qilin bloodline".
He just crippled Blood Butcher, who was at the peak of Body Tempering, with a single palm strike.
In front of Qin Lie.
In front of Zhao Tianxiong.
In front of half of Qingzhou City.
Lu Yuan, who possesses the bloodline of the Qilin... what would it look like if he suddenly went into seclusion!
He must continue to appear in public and maintain his previous public persona.
If you suddenly shut yourself in, all sorts of speculations will swarm around you like flies.
Once a persona is established, it cannot be allowed to collapse.
Lu Yuan sat back on the bed and poured himself a cup of tea.
The tea has gone cold.
He took a sip and began to make plans.
Anyway, I use fishing as an excuse to practice my spiritual cultivation every day.
Why don't we... actually go fishing?
The fact that "Lu Yuan loves fishing" is no secret in the Lu family.
This time, consider it a break for him.
Drink tea when you're supposed to, go fishing when you're supposed to, and play the part completely.
Three days later, the side effects subsided, and he was still the genius.
The next morning, Lu Yuan went out with his fishing rod as usual.
I even brought Lao Huang along this time.
As he passed by Suzaku Avenue, he noticed something.
People on the street were watching him.
It wasn't watching secretly, it was watching openly.
The hawker selling candied hawthorns turned his head with his stand, the cloth shop assistant leaned half his body out from behind the counter, and even the old man carrying manure put down his load to take a second look.
No one crowded around him, no one pointed or whispered, but everyone's eyes were glued to him.
No one called out to him, but whispers followed his retreating figure.
"Look, that's Lu Yuan. The one who stopped the Crimson Blood Horse with one hand."
"One palm strike crippled Blood Butcher! Peak Body Tempering, one palm strike!"
"The bloodline of the Qilin. Didn't you see? The Qilin on his right arm, it's rising from the flesh, just like a living one."
"The Two Heroes of Qingzhou? To say that the Eastern Continent is far superior to the Western Zhao is an understatement. The bloodline of the Qilin and the bloodline of the Blood Tiger are worlds apart. Zhao Li's Blood Tiger is nothing more than a big cat in front of the Qilin."
"Exactly. The Zhao family has been so arrogant these past few years, with the Blood Wolf Gang acting as their lackeys, running rampant in Qingzhou City."
"This time, Blood Butcher used the Blood Burning Secret Technique to launch a sneak attack, and Zhao Tianxiong was sitting below the arena watching. He tried to use dirty tricks in front of Qilin and slapped him away. Zhao Tianxiong's old face turned as black as the bottom of a pot on the spot."
"I have something to tell you, but don't tell anyone. My cousin works at the City Lord's mansion. He said that after City Lord Qin returned home that day, he said something in his study... 'This young man will surely amount to something great in the future.' When has Qin Lie ever praised anyone?"
......
at the same time.
The inner hall of the Zhao family.
Two figures sat facing each other across the table.
The tea in front of them had long since gone cold, and the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup had turned white, but no one had touched it.
"idiot."
Zhao Tianxiong's voice wasn't loud, but in the closed inner room, every word felt like a nail piercing.
He sat in the armchair, half his face hidden in shadow, his eyes fixed on the Blood Wolf opposite him.
"Qin Lie had already said at the time that it was best to stop there."
He spoke slowly and deliberately.
"You Blood Butcher, you clearly admitted defeat but still resorted to dirty tricks... That's not called dirty tricks, that's called slapping Qin Lie in the face right in front of him."
"If you want to deal with Lu Yuan...won't you do it secretly?"
Blood Wolf leaned back in his chair, his pupils flashing with an unusual light.
"What's the panic?"
"Qin Lie is just an old guy who's been sitting in Qingzhou City for ten years without making a move. Who knows what real skills he still has?"
"What do you know?"
Zhao Tianxiong sneered.
"You don't really think Qin Lie was just a minor official guarding a city, do you? He must have held a very high position in the Daqian army back then."
"Why did he retire from the army ten years ago? Why did he choose Qingzhou City, this godforsaken place, to be the city lord...? Have you investigated these matters?"
Zhao Tianxiong raised his voice a few decibels and slammed the cup lid he was holding onto the ground in front of Blood Wolf.
"Don't tell me 'it's nothing' if you haven't checked!"
He picked up the cold tea and took a sip; the bitter taste calmed him down a bit.
"Your Blood Butcher... must be dealt with."
Blood Wolf's eyelids twitched. "Patriarch, this..."
"It wasn't me who wanted to kill him." Zhao Tianxiong's tone was devoid of any emotion.
"It was Qin Lie. You think this matter just passed because Qin Lie didn't say anything back then? If you don't deal with it, Qin Lie's people will take care of it for you. They'll deal with you while they're at it, it won't be too much trouble."
Blood Wolf fell silent.
Zhao Tianxiong put down his teacup and lowered his voice.
"Have you ever thought about this...? Qingzhou City is located on the border of the Great Qian Dynasty, and the power of the imperial court is far beyond its reach."
Qin Lie has been in this city for ten years, controlling its defenses, taxes, and all trade routes. By what right?
"Because he is an official appointed by the imperial court?"
The city lords on the border of the Great Qian Dynasty have changed one after another, and how many of them can serve for a full five years?
What gives Qin Lie the right to sit in this position for ten years?
Blood Wolf's eyes narrowed.
"you mean……"
"What I mean is... since we've already offended them, we might as well just make things clean."
Zhao Tianxiong tapped his finger lightly on the table.
"Changing to a more obedient city lord would be beneficial for both of us."
Blood Wolf remained silent for a moment.
"Meridian Opening Realm. Although he hasn't made a move in ten years, he's still at the Meridian Opening Realm. What do you think you can do against him?"
Zhao Tianxiong did not answer directly.
He stood up and walked to the wall at the deepest part of the inner hall.
The walls were made of blue bricks and looked no different from the other three walls of the inner hall.
He took a key from his sleeve and inserted it into a barely visible hole between the bricks.
A crisp, mechanical sound rang out.
A hidden compartment slid open in the wall.
A box lay quietly in the hidden compartment.
A talisman was pasted on the box; the paper was yellowed and the edges were slightly curled.
The talisman paper was covered with dense patterns drawn with cinnabar.
"Inside is a Yuan-breaking crossbow."
Zhao Tianxiong didn't reach out to touch the box; he just looked at it.
"This is a forbidden weapon in the military. Ten crossbow bolts, specifically designed to break through the qi and blood shield of a Qi cultivator at the Meridian Opening Realm. I acquired it ten years ago at the cost of half my fortune, but I've never used it."
He closed the hidden compartment and turned around.
"I'll handle the matter of the Meridian Opening Realm. But there's one person who can no longer stay."
Blood Wolf knew who he was talking about.
"Lu Yuan".
When Zhao Tianxiong uttered those two words, it was as if he had spat out two thorns that had been pressing on his heart for a long time.
"The two heroes of Qingzhou, Donglu far surpasses Xizhao, Qilin far surpasses Xuehu... You've heard the wind blowing in the city today."
"My Zhao family has been operating in Qingzhou City for thirty years, and we have never been humiliated like this before."
Li'er is my own son. I watched him practice martial arts until midnight every day...
Now everyone in the city is saying that the Blood Tiger is just a big cat in front of the Qilin.
"Moreover, with Lu Yuan around, the Lu family could potentially lord it over us!"
He tapped his finger lightly on the table.
"This Lu Yuan must be eliminated!"
Blood Wolf downed the cold tea in his cup in one gulp and stood up.
"I'll take care of it. This time, I won't need someone at the Body Tempering Realm. I'll send someone at the Blood Condensation Realm. I refuse to believe that a Blood Condensation Realm warrior can't kill him!"
"Ha, genius... only those who can grow and develop can be considered geniuses!"