"This..."
Faced with Wu Dao's rebuke, Zhao Jianji's thick-skinned face flushed with awkwardness. He scratched his head and said, "Answering you, senior, this junior is twenty-six."
"I'm nineteen, and you're twenty-six, yet you're calling me senior. Aren't you embarrassed? Keep talking, and I'll crush your skull!"
Wu Dao issued a cold warning, then fell silent. If they'd been out in the wild, he would've yanked this guy's tongue right out.
As for being nineteen...
He hadn't been talking nonsense. Now that he could use Internal Vision, his understanding of the human body naturally let him know the exact age of this body.
Nineteen...
Zhao Jianji's insides twisted. I, Zhao, already have a thick enough skin. I never thought someone could be even more shameless than me.
What kind of nineteen-year-old has a nine-foot frame, a back like a tiger and waist like a bear, arms thick enough for a horse to run on, and looks like an Ancient Ferocious Beast?
Still.
Faced with Wu Dao's warning,
Zhao Jianji didn't dare say another word. He obediently turned around and stood straight.
In the martial world, ranks were strictly observed. If he really offended someone in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm, with his Divine Strength cultivation, he wouldn't even know how he'd died.
With Zhao Jianji's incessant chatter gone,
Wu Dao finally had some peace. He followed the flow of people entering the city, and half an hour later, after paying the entry fee, he crossed through the imposing city gates.
Once inside,
Wu Dao didn't hurry to the White Whale Martial Arts Hall, since the so-called Hero Assembly wouldn't begin until tomorrow.
First, he found an inn and booked a room. After eating and drinking his fill, he joined the other martial-world wanderers in taking a good look around Lancang City, getting a proper taste of its exotic atmosphere.
It had to be said,
Lancang City was truly enormous.
Wu Dao strolled at a leisurely pace for several hours without managing to see it all.
The streets ran in every direction, packed with traffic and lined with rows of commercial buildings. Huge residential districts stretched on and on, and here and there he passed vast private estates under tight security.
Along the way,
He occasionally saw squads of people from the White Whale Martial Arts Hall keeping the peace. It seemed they had completely taken the government's place.
But with the White Whale Martial Arts Hall keeping the city in check, the general atmosphere in Lancang City was, all in all, not much different from that of a peaceful, prosperous age.
Of course, that was only if one...
Ignored the groups of refugees wandering outside the city like Evil Ghosts.
As the Great Sun sank toward the western horizon,
Wu Dao had had his fill of sightseeing.
After checking the prices of some precious medicinal herbs at several pharmacies controlled by the White Whale Martial Arts Hall, he had a good idea of things and returned to the inn, waiting for the assembly to begin the next day.
The following day.
"Dong, dong, dong—"
As the Golden Crow broke the dawn, a resounding peal of bells rang out from the inner city.
Throughout Lancang City,
Martial-world wanderers from every corner of the land rubbed their hands together, brimming with fighting spirit, and headed for the broad training grounds in the inner city, eager to make a name for themselves.
As things stood,
The White Whale Martial Arts Hall was an absolute power in the north of Guangqing Prefecture. Anyone who could climb aboard this great tree would have a bright future; wherever they went in the martial world, they could walk tall and hold their heads above everyone else.
What's more,
With troubled times approaching, when the storm winds blew, it was hard to remain untouched. In such circumstances, having a backer to shelter you from the wind and rain would naturally give you more confidence.
For all these reasons,
The White Whale Martial Arts Hall had made a grand affair of this Hero Assembly. Martial artists of every stripe had gathered, and their strengths were an utter hodgepodge.
Wu Dao followed the crowd. Along the way, he saw one renowned Divine Strength expert after another.
Now and then,
He also spotted a few exceptionally imposing Cocoon-Breaking Realm experts, treated like pandas and surrounded by admirers.
But Wu Dao only glanced at them before losing interest. At most, they were a notch stronger than Uncle Ya. Their strength was nothing special.
They were nothing like the two middle-aged men carrying spears whom he'd encountered yesterday. They were also in the Cocoon-Breaking Realm, but Wu Dao couldn't see through them at all.
By comparison,
He guessed that those two were either at the peak of the Second Rebirth or had reached Transformative Force. He had no idea what they'd come to Lancang City for, but he hadn't seen them among the people attending the Hero Assembly.
After entering the inner city,
He soon arrived before a high, solid wall, heavily fortified. Through the rows of gates, he could see enormous white-stone training grounds within. Their flags snapped in the wind, and quite a few black-stone fighting platforms had already been set up.
This was the White Whale Martial Arts Hall's headquarters.
From above, one could see a stretch of pavilions and towers, courtyards, ponds, and rock gardens beyond the training grounds, arranged in orderly fashion. The grounds were vast, practically a city within a city.
Once there,
The White Whale Martial Arts Hall staff began sorting the crowd by strength and directing them into different training grounds.
There was no need for any testing.
Experts from every realm stood guard at the gates. Their eyes were sharp enough to see through a visitor's strength at a glance.
The entrance to the Cocoon-Breaking Realm training ground was guarded by
A white-haired old man with a flat nose. He held a wine gourd in his hand, and his old face was flushed red, but his eyes weren't the least bit clouded. He fit Wu Dao's fixed image of an expert perfectly.
"Skull-Crushing Hand Black Pupil, you're quite capable. But some things aren't yours to take. You'd be wise to return them soon."
When it was finally Wu Dao's turn to enter, the old man seemed to know his information inside out. He took a drink, narrowed his eyes, and spoke with pointed significance.
His sinister tone made it sound as though he had a grudge against Wu Dao.
Someone from the Council of Elders?
Elder Qin?
Wu Dao understood. He paused, turned to glance at the old man, and said with a smile, "When you get old, you should drink less. Otherwise, one day you might 'accidentally' end up dead in the street. That'd be a miserable way to go!"
Ever since killing that gang of bandits at the bridge, Wu Dao had known he'd offended people from the White Whale Martial Arts Hall's Council of Elders.
So,
From the moment he'd entered the city,
He had kept his strength hidden. He'd suppressed his vital energy and blood, and drawn all of his Mental Armor back into his body.
To outsiders,
He looked like nothing more than an ordinary Unified Force martial artist.
The reason
Was to draw out Elder Qin, the man behind the scenes.
If he hadn't hidden his strength,
With power comparable to someone in the Second Rebirth, it would only be a matter of time before he became a core figure after joining the White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
Even the most foolish Elder Qin wouldn't openly retaliate against him. He'd only strike from the shadows.
Spears in the open were easy to dodge; arrows in the dark were hard to guard against!
Wu Dao would never entrust his life to luck. Nor was he the sort of fool who, after offending someone, would obediently wait for them to scheme against him before striking back.
Rather than live on edge,
It was better to take the initiative, find any possible danger ahead of time, and snuff it out in the cradle!
That was Wu Dao's constant creed.
But what he hadn't expected was
That Elder Qin's hatred for him ran so deep. He'd come right to the gate and exposed himself, saving Wu Dao a great deal of trouble.
"Heh heh. It's good to be young. You've got plenty of days ahead of you."
Hearing the barb in Wu Dao's words, the old man didn't get angry. He only took another unhurried sip of wine, as if to say, We'll have plenty of time to play.
This old man
Was indeed Elder Qin, the man the bandit leader had mentioned yesterday. When he learned that his source of wealth had been cut off, he flew into a rage.
That was why he'd snapped up this assignment.
He wanted to see what kind of monster Wu Dao was, daring to bare his claws at him.
And now that he'd seen him,
Wu Dao was only a Unified Force martial artist, and he spoke with such arrogance. He had to have the guts of a bear and the heart of a leopard!
You had to understand,
He'd poured no small amount of resources and effort into raising that gang of thugs. They were practically his right and left arms, and over the years they'd "earned" him who knew how much silver.
But just yesterday,
Wu Dao had slaughtered every last one of them!
Cutting off a man's livelihood was no different from killing his parents!
If Elder Qin hadn't been a patient man, a snake that bit from the shadows, he would've attacked Wu Dao the moment he laid eyes on him!
Thanks to Jingbao Xiaonenye for the tip.
Also, some readers keep saying there aren't enough updates. The truth is, during the new-book period I still need to get a recommendation, so please understand. I'll post more once the book is on sale.
Before you continue