Blood Must Be Drawn When the Blade Is Drawn!

Though Chen Wu was only a lowly Black Robe Guard, he was still a capable fighter who could take on seven or eight Tang Family Disciples.

A man like that counted as an elite in the Martial Guard Bureau, yet he had been dismissed so easily?

Tang Wenbo stared at the writing and seal on the paper scroll, dazed for a moment.

"Brother Yuan, th-this, this is real?"

Chen Wu's shoulders trembled as he fought with all his strength to suppress his emotions.

His Chen Family had served as Martial Guards for generations. He had entered the Martial Guard Bureau to take over his father's post.

Could the Martial Guard position end in his hands?

"After what happened last night, do you think you can return to the Martial Guard Bureau?" Zhang Yuan's single question drained the color from Chen Wu's face.

A fight.

Offending the Tang Family.

Being thrown into the prefectural city prison.

He, Chen Wu, had already brought shame upon the Martial Guard Bureau. That was why he had been expelled.

He had been wrong.

Zhang Yuan had told him to think about where he had gone wrong. Last night, he should not have made a move...

What use was martial skill alone? He was still just a lowly Black Robe Guard. How could he offend one of the great families in the city?

Zhang Yuan ignored the shifting expressions on Chen Wu's face and calmly folded the paper scroll in his hand.

"Haha, once that Black Dog Hide is stripped off, this fellow won't even qualify to be a dog anymore." Only now did the Tang Family Disciples beside them react, arrogant delight appearing on their faces.

"See that? So what if it's the Martial Guard Bureau? You dare offend my Tang Family?"

"Aren't you good at fighting? From now on, every time I see you, I'll beat you once. Without that Black Dog Hide, beating you to death will be no different from beating a wild dog to death!"

The Tang Family Disciples jeered, but Chen Wu paid them no heed.

He merely clenched his fists, lowered his head, and said nothing.

He did not know what he was supposed to do to be right.

What was the point of cultivating martial arts?

Could this be the lesson Brother Yuan wanted to teach him?

To make him see the world clearly, to see exactly how much he weighed?

But back at the academy, Brother Yuan and Master Tao had never taught them this way.

Brother Yuan had always said, when a matter was hard to judge, ask the blade in your hand...

Tang Wenbo's gaze swept across Chen Wu before slowly turning to Zhang Yuan.

He had thought the Martial Guard Bureau would show more backbone. He had not expected them to be so spineless.

Earlier, he had been angered that the Martial Guard Bureau had sent only an Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard to apologize. Now that he thought about it, the Martial Guard Bureau had clearly tucked its head in and left Chen Wu for the Tang Family to handle as they pleased.

No wonder this Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard had acted that way earlier. He had already abandoned Chen Wu.

Since that was the case—

Tang Wenbo narrowed his eyes, cold severity flashing within them. "What about the hundred Silver Ingots for the medicine?"

A hundred Silver Ingots was ten years of pay for a lowly Black Robe Guard.

He did not believe Chen Wu could produce it.

The Tang Family did not truly want those hundred Silver Ingots. What Third Master Tang wanted was to establish his authority!

The Tang Family was one of the city's great clans, with officials, merchants, fields, and land.

But Great Qin had built its path through martial might. Since his second brother, a Late Houtian Realm expert, had fallen, countless people in the city had wanted to step on the Tang Family.

Now that the family head was about to be promoted to Seventh-Rank County Magistrate, it was time for the Tang Family's former prestige to return!

"As for the hundred Silver Ingots—"

Zhang Yuan's expression remained calm and unruffled. He raised a hand to grip his staff, while his other hand reached for his waist.

Shing—

The long blade left its sheath.

"What are you doing—"

"What does this mean—"

The Tang Family Disciples cried out in panic.

Tang Wenbo's arm twitched, and his hand unconsciously clenched tight.

Zhang Yuan twisted the hilts in both hands together, turning them into a battle blade a Zhang long.

"This blade has followed me for five years. It is worth a hundred Silver Ingots. I'll pawn it to the Tang Family first!"

The long blade was put down as collateral for a hundred Silver Ingots?

Tang Wenbo's hand trembled. He had nearly swung it down hard to summon the guards forward.

You should have said so earlier. Why make everyone so nervous?

The facial muscles of the Tang Family Disciples twitched as well.

They had thought he was about to fight. Who would have expected he was merely pawning his blade?

Behind Zhang Yuan, Chen Wu's eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the blade in Zhang Yuan's hand.

He knew what this blade meant to Zhang Yuan!

This was the blade Zhang Yuan had brought back from Fengtian County City. For five years, he had never allowed an outsider to touch it.

This blade represented the memories of that bloody battle, and even more so, Zhang Yuan's martial inheritance!

He was pawning this blade for a hundred Silver Ingots?

Impossible!

Because Zhang Yuan was not removing his blade from his waist. He was drawing it!

In the first lesson when Zhang Yuan had taught Chen Wu blade techniques, he had told him: blood must be drawn when the blade is drawn!

If you drew your blade before others, it meant your killing intent had been decided.

If a martial artist lacked an unwavering enough conviction, if the blade he had drawn could be casually sheathed again, then his martial path would not go far.

The blade's edge was the intent of the heart.

Without killing intent, how were you worthy to draw your blade?

Every sentence Zhang Yuan had spoken surfaced in Chen Wu's heart.

The blood and qi that had been tightly gathered around him slowly relaxed.

He did not know what Zhang Yuan intended to do, but he knew that today, whatever Zhang Yuan told him to do, he would do.

From the unease when they had first come to the Tang Family, to anger, to the calm he felt now, Chen Wu's state of mind was transforming.

He wanted to see what Zhang Yuan's final lesson would teach him.

"A broken blade, and you dare claim it's worth a hundred—"

A Tang Family Disciple nearby sneered. Before he could finish, Zhang Yuan spun around and flung out his arm. The long blade howled through the air, spinning out from before the hall doors and embedding itself in the Tang Family courtyard's screen wall three Zhang away.

Boom—

The blade sank three feet into the wall and pierced straight through it.

The hilt hummed and shook, like rolling thunder!

That casually flung blade left the Tang Family Disciples scarcely daring to breathe.

The force behind that throw had to be at least a thousand jin, hadn't it?

"If I say it's worth a hundred, then it's worth a hundred."

Zhang Yuan glanced at Tang Wenbo and spoke coldly.

Inside the hall, the expressions of the Tang Family Disciples shifted.

Tang Wenbo's face darkened.

He could already tell that the Martial Cultivation revealed by that strike was at least Houtian Mid-stage.

Perhaps even higher!

No wonder the Martial Guard Bureau had sent this man to the Tang Family.

He had thought the Martial Guard Bureau had sent its face to the Tang Family to be slapped. He had been wrong.

They had come to slap the Tang Family's face!

The Martial Guard Bureau had sent neither a Seventh-Rank Black Robe Guard Leader nor a military officer. They had sent only a mere Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard, yet that was enough to control the Tang Family!

On one hand, the Martial Guard Bureau had abandoned Chen Wu, making outsiders see them as yielding to the Tang Family and winning sympathy.

Yet on the other hand, they had sent an Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard at Houtian Mid-stage to pressure the Tang Family.

Was this called wielding kindness and might together?

Had the Martial Guard Bureau brought all those officialdom tricks to his Tang Family?

Looking at Zhang Yuan's calm expression, Tang Wenbo felt the rage in his chest becoming impossible to suppress.

If the Tang Family's powerful experts were still here today, if his second brother were still here, would this mere Black Robe Guard dare draw his blade?

"Hmph, a mere Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard dares run wild in my Tang Family." A Tang Family Disciple standing to one side of the hall raised his head to look at Tang Wenbo. "Third Brother, he truly doesn't take you—or Eldest Brother—seriously."

"That's right. He's already drawn his blade. How is this an apology? It's plainly a threat!" A disciple clutching half his face echoed him.

Tang Wenbo raised his hand and shouted loudly, "Men!"

As his voice fell, the Tang Family guards who had already been waiting nearby surged forward, blocking Zhang Yuan and Chen Wu's path.

The two gatekeepers had been watching all along. They hurriedly shut the main gates, then came over holding two long clubs. Fierce expressions filled their faces as their gazes swept over Zhang Yuan and Chen Wu's legs, as though they would break both men's legs the moment an order was given.

Tang Wenbo stood on the stone steps with his hands behind his back, fury surging across his face. "I thought you had truly come to apologize to my Tang Family. I never expected you came to slap my Tang Family's face?"

Zhang Yuan and Chen Wu were not weak, but so what?

This was the Tang Family. They had no shortage of guards, no shortage of strong and sturdy family disciples.

The Tang Family head was about to become a Seventh-Rank County Magistrate. That was the Tang Family's confidence!

"Break their legs and send them to the Martial Guard Bureau. Say they came to my Tang Family to make trouble and damaged property. Draw up a list and make them pay for it for the rest of their lives!"