The Earl and His Son

Looking at Liu Feng, Gilbert's eyes filled with an extreme pride and disdain. He did indeed have the capital to be proud: at sixteen years old, he had already reached the strength of a mid-grade Level Six warrior, making him an absolute genius on the Falan Continent. Even in the Palister Family—which had produced experts in droves back in the day, though it had now declined—he was a genius figure rarely seen in the past several hundred years.

As for Liu Feng, he was nothing but a useless waste who could not cultivate, one who had burdened the family with seventeen years of outside ridicule. The gap between them could be imagined.

A streak of cold light flashed through Liu Feng's eyes without anyone noticing, yet his face still wore a gentle smile. "So it's Second Brother. Father summoned me for something, so I came over."

By now, Liu Feng's resolve to leave the Count's Mansion as soon as possible had become completely firm. Naturally, he was in no mood to haggle over anything with Gilbert. After speaking, he turned, walked around Gilbert and those attendants, and headed toward the rear courtyard once more.

"Trash, did my young master say you could leave?" An angry shout rang out. A short, thickset, ugly-looking attendant flashed forward and blocked Liu Feng's path.

This fellow was called Bike, nothing more than a Level Three thief, yet he was incomparably domineering and arrogant. A faint bitter smile rose on Liu Feng's face. He gave the fellow a cold look, tugged at the furious Turner, then sidestepped him again and continued toward the rear courtyard without paying him any attention.

Meeting Liu Feng's icy gaze, utterly devoid of emotion, Bike suddenly felt a chill in his heart. The curses that had reached his lips were swallowed back down in an instant, and he did not even have time to make any move. He simply watched Liu Feng's back recede into the distance.

Only after Liu Feng disappeared from the front courtyard did Bike finally spit fiercely and curse, "Damn it, why does that piece of trash look a little strange today?" As he spoke, he looked back at Gilbert, only to find that this second young master was also frowning slightly, as though he too had sensed something wrong with that waste.

Looking at the wooden door of the study, which stood slightly ajar, Liu Feng knew that Count Derek must be inside. He exhaled deeply, signaled for Turner to stay outside, stepped forward, and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" A deep, resonant voice rang out from inside the room.

Liu Feng pushed the door open and entered. At a glance, he saw Derek, the current head of the Palister Family, leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed, seemingly pondering something.

Derek had just turned forty this year. His appearance was much like Gilbert's: the same head of long golden hair, the same incomparably handsome looks. However, he possessed an added air of steadiness and noble ease. Only, at this moment, his face unexpectedly carried a weariness and worry that should not have been there, as though some difficult concern weighed on his mind.

Golden hair and handsome features were the hallmarks of the Palister Family bloodline. Almost every member of the family was like this. Nicholas alone was the exception.

Although Nicholas's appearance was delicate and refined, there was still quite a distance between that and handsome. Moreover, Nicholas's hair was not golden either, but instead a pale blue that was extremely rare even on this continent. This was also one reason Gilbert and the others in the family had always looked down on Nicholas.

If not for the fact that Derek still held some authority within the family, people would probably have long since begun guessing whether this useless eldest son was truly the count's biological child.

"You're here!" Derek slowly opened his eyes. When he saw that it was Liu Feng, he paused slightly and said.

"I'm here!" Liu Feng answered blandly, without the slightest expression on his face.

Hearing Liu Feng's response, which did not conform to etiquette, Derek's eyes did not show the dissatisfaction they should have. Instead, another strange feeling welled up in them. After carefully sizing Liu Feng up, that feeling changed into a kind of gloom.

"Master Faraday told you?" Derek sighed softly.

"Mm. When do I leave?" Liu Feng still showed no expression at all.

In truth, he did not know what sort of expression he should have. Toward this cheap old man, Liu Feng's heart was filled with both strangeness and dissatisfaction. The strangeness came from the fact that Liu Feng, in reality, had not the slightest relationship with Derek. The dissatisfaction, however, came from the unfair treatment Nicholas had suffered.

"Then leave tomorrow! Sigh, going out to clear your mind is fine too. These years have been hard on you!" By the end, the gloom in Derek's eyes had grown even thicker, yet he still failed to notice anything strange about Liu Feng. After all, although the two were father and son in name, they had met very rarely, so coldness was quite normal.

"Hard?" Hearing this word that seemed like comfort, Liu Feng felt an inexplicable, incomparable anger surge up within him. He sneered and said, "I wouldn't dare trouble Lord Count with concern. For a waste like me, hardship is nothing more than a habit! It has nothing to do with you!"

"You!" Seeing Liu Feng answer so rudely, Derek first grew angry, but in the end, it once again turned into gloom. He sighed, but did not speak.

Toward this useless son, Derek also felt he truly owed far too much. Liu Feng's anger was within his expectations.

Derek did not know what else to say, and Liu Feng was even less inclined to speak. For a time, the study fell into silence, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward.

"If there's nothing else, I'll go back!" This wordless heaviness made Liu Feng feel as if he were sitting on pins and needles. He did not want to stay even one minute longer. Moreover, toward this cheap old man, Liu Feng was now thoroughly disappointed. In his mind, no matter what, Derek ought to have said a few more words of comfort, but after that initial sentence, Derek seemed not to want to say another word.

What disgusted Liu Feng most was Derek's hypocritical manner. He clearly did not care about this useless son at all, yet he insisted on acting as though there were some shameful difficulty he could not speak of. It made a strong wave of contempt surge up in Liu Feng's heart.

"Mm, right. I have also canceled the marriage with Minister Hols's family. In the future, in the future I will find another suitable marriage for you!" Derek sighed as he looked at Liu Feng, who had reached the doorway, and spoke.

"Oh! Then thank you for your concern, Lord Count!" Liu Feng's body paused slightly, his tone not changing at all, and then he walked out.

This Hols was the minister of internal affairs of the Saint Mavana Empire, the empire's number two figure of power. He had always had a good relationship with the Palister Family, and when Nicholas was young, he had even arranged a marriage with Derek, betrothing his little daughter, who was the same age as Nicholas, to Nicholas. But later, because Nicholas had already been judged to be a waste who could not cultivate, there had suddenly been no further word of this marriage.

Now it seemed Hols no longer intended to keep dragging it out, and Derek had rather consciously canceled the engagement as well.

Liu Feng did not take this sort of childhood betrothal to heart at all. Even if Hols was willing, Liu Feng might not be willing himself. Toward a girl whose face he had never even seen, Liu Feng had not the slightest interest.

Watching Liu Feng and Turner's backs disappear into the rear courtyard, a trace of pain flashed through Derek's eyes again. He looked toward a spirit tablet in the study and murmured, "Doreen, ah, Doreen, was the decision you made back then right or wrong? Treating a child like this—wasn't it too unfair?"

After a pause, Derek sighed again and said, "A genius who originally possessed the purest bloodline of the family was turned into a waste just like that. Doreen, ah, Doreen, what exactly did you do this for?"

Looking at the open portrait of the family ancestor on the desk, Derek's eyes were filled with endless confusion.

On the first page of that portrait, a man holding a massive sword was throwing his head back and laughing wildly with extraordinary domineering air. His extremely eye-catching long pale-blue hair danced in the wind, making the man's bearing seem even more graceful and extraordinary.

Beneath the portrait, a line of words was written with incomparable clarity: "Haojue Palister!"