Tremendous News

Huang Silang strode into a quiet chamber in the rear courtyard.

Inside, a lean-faced old man in gray robes sat cross-legged.

He was Lü Huanzhen, master of the Eight Gates Martial Hall and one of Great Grandmaster Chen Ruhai's direct disciples.

A grave injury in his youth had damaged his foundation, leaving him unable to enter the ranks of Grandmasters to this day. But on this little patch of turf in Linjiang County, no one except that old fossil at the Dragon Gate Escort Agency dared claim they could beat him for certain.

"Hall Master."

Huang Silang bowed respectfully and gave a detailed account of the visitor from the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, along with everything that had happened at the Zither Strings House last night.

After listening, Lü Huanzhen slowly opened his eyes.

They were not clouded at all. Instead, they held the eerie gleam of an old wolf's eyes.

"One hundred thousand silver dollars..." Lü Huanzhen said slowly, his voice hoarse. "There's something fishy about this. That old fossil in the Lu Family is probably going out of his mind."

He glanced at Huang Silang, a flicker of approval passing through his eyes.

"You handled it well. Whatever you do, don't change your story now, whether he really was Lu Jin, someone impersonating him, or the Lu Family putting on an act themselves."

"As long as those hundred thousand silver dollars are charged to Lu Jin's name, this is the Lu Family's domestic affair, the Lu Family's scandal."

"All we need to do is play the uninformed bystander and watch them nurse their headaches."

"Yes, Hall Master." Huang Silang understood perfectly.

The murkier Linjiang County's waters became, the better it would be for their Eight Gates Martial Hall.

"And that nephew of yours—what was his name again? Huang Shendu?"

Lü Huanzhen changed the subject, his tone turning somewhat cold. "Not enough ability to accomplish anything, but more than enough to ruin things. Fawning over a Foreign Lackey at the Zither Strings House last night—he utterly disgraced our Eight Gates Martial Hall."

"Once this storm blows over, send him back to Blackwater Ancient Town."

"Well..." Huang Silang's heart tightened.

"What? Can't bear to let him go?"

"Linjiang County's waters run too deep," Lü Huanzhen said coolly. "A reckless greenhorn who lets anything fly out of his mouth can't navigate them. Keeping him here would only harm him."

"Yes." Huang Silang sighed. He had been thinking the same thing.

Huang Shendu's performance last night, practically taking a thief for his father, coupled with his fawning worship of everything foreign, had indeed left Huang Silang, his fourth uncle, unable to hold his head high among his peers.

Had the boy not been his own second brother's only son, he would have blasted that spineless wretch away with a single punch long ago.

"Oh, right."

Lü Huanzhen seemed to remember something, and an expectant smile appeared on his face.

"I have some good news for you. You can put your heart back where it belongs."

"The final disciple your grandmaster took in the Great Desert will arrive the day after tomorrow."

"His final disciple?" Huang Silang raised his head, his eyes filled with shock. "Grandmaster took another disciple?"

Lü Huanzhen's eyes gleamed. "Master said in his letter that your young martial uncle was born obsessed with martial arts. He spent ten years enduring the bitter cold of the Northern Desert, tempering his muscles and bones until they were like cast bronze and forged iron. He has inherited the true essence of Master's Eight Gates Fist and follows the fiercest, most forceful path of the Chen Branch."

"Go meet him at the docks and arrange his lodging. Don't let anyone neglect him."

"In the contest seven days from now, this young martial uncle of yours will fight our third bout."

With this powerful reinforcement arriving out of the blue, Huang Silang felt thoroughly reassured.

Old Grandmaster Chen's personally trained final disciple taking on a newly opened Shocking Heron Martial Hall? Surely that would be as easy as taking something already in his grasp.

"Oh, right." Lü Huanzhen asked with apparent casualness, "Those two Hong Tianbao chose to lead the charge—what are they made of?"

Huang Silang recalled Li Xiang's composure when facing him, along with Qin Zhong's iron-tower physique.

"Their bones aren't soft." After a moment's consideration, he offered exceptionally high praise. "They have grit and composure. Promising material."

"Not soft?"

Lü Huanzhen looked approving. This was an older martial artist's recognition of the younger generation.

"Good. Bones that aren't soft."

"As martial artists, that's what we train—these bones of ours."

"With hard bones, even if you lose, even if someone breaks them, you can still die standing."

"But once your bones go soft, like that nephew of yours, you might still be alive, but your whole life is already ruined."

The Dragon Gate Escort Agency, rear residence.

Humming a Western tune and twirling his Walking Stick, Lu Jin headed cheerfully toward his father Lu Zongyuan's study.

He knew nothing of what had happened last night, nor that he had become the laughingstock and favorite topic of conversation throughout Linjiang County. All he could think about was hurrying to tell his father the important news.

The Western Archaeological Expedition had already set off for Blackwater Ancient Town.

This was a task the ancestor himself had assigned. Once Lu Jin accomplished it, his standing within the lineage would rise like a boat on swelling waters. When he then requested funds to return to Great Britain and pursue his prospects, his father surely would not refuse.

"Father, good news! Tremendous news!"

Without even knocking, Lu Jin pushed the door open and walked straight in, his face radiant with a smile that begged for praise.

"The Western Archaeological Expedition has already..."

"Kneel!"

The furious shout exploded through the study like a thunderclap out of a clear sky.

The roar stunned Lu Jin. His smile froze instantly, and the words "set off" lodged firmly in his throat.

Bewildered, he looked toward the center of the study.

Lu Zongyuan sat in a grand armchair, his expression so dark it might drip water. His normally refined eyes were now bloodshot, fixed on Lu Jin as though he were looking at a wastrel—or an enemy.

"F-Father, what is..."

"I told you to kneel!"

Lu Zongyuan slammed the table, making the teacups jump.

He stared hard at this son who had only just returned from studying abroad, clutching the portrait brought back from the Shocking Heron Martial Hall so tightly that he shook with rage.

"One hundred thousand silver dollars! A full hundred thousand!"

Lu Zongyuan trembled all over with fury. Even the finger he pointed at Lu Jin was shaking.

"The Azure Sea Conch, ranked seventy-ninth on the Top 100 Fate Artifacts Ranking! I've lived half my life without ever tasting whether it's salty or bland, yet a good-for-nothing wastrel like you got to sample it first!"

"Lu Jin! Lu Ten Thousand! Why don't you tell your father—was the Azure Sea Conch delicious?! Was that taste worth a hundred thousand silver dollars?!"

Lu Jin was utterly dumbfounded.

He knelt on the floor, the confusion in his head hurting more than his knees.

What hundred thousand silver dollars?

What Azure Sea Conch?

Last night, I was clearly drinking with a few foreign friends and fishing for information. When did I go eat seafood?

"Father, what are you talking about? I don't understand a single word!" Looking aggrieved, Lu Jin tried to stand and explain.

"Kneel! Who gave you permission to get up?!"

Lu Zongyuan snatched the inkstone from the table and hurled it at him. "You still dare play dumb?!"

The inkstone flew past Lu Jin's ear and smashed into the doorframe, splattering ink all over his face.

Scared out of his wits, Lu Jin obediently settled back onto his knees.

"Father, I spent all of last night dining at the hotel with Mr. Smith and the others from the West, trying to draw out information about the archaeological expedition. How could I have had time to go to some Zither Strings House?"

Lu Jin was nearly in tears. "I swear, if I went there, may heaven strike me down with lightning!"

"You still dare argue!" Lu Zongyuan crumpled the portrait into a ball and flung it hard into Lu Jin's face. "Look for yourself. Is that you or not?"

Trembling, Lu Jin unfolded the paper.

The man in the picture had slicked-back hair and leaned on a Walking Stick. That arrogant look, with his nostrils turned toward the sky, was the spitting image of him.

"That's me!"

"Then that settles it. It was you all along." The more Lu Zongyuan spoke, the angrier he became.

"You offered the astronomical price of a hundred thousand silver dollars for a Courtesan Cultivator. Now the story has spread throughout Linjiang County, and everyone calls you Lu Ten Thousand."

"This... this..."

Lu Jin trembled all over with rage, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.