Looking at his mother's earnest, worried eyes, Dai Youheng felt a rare twinge of guilt. He nodded and answered with a reasonably sincere tone, "Don't worry, Mother. I understand. Once I reach the academy, I'll train hard. I won't disappoint you or Luoli."
Yet only he knew how much of that promise came from the heart, and how much was merely his habitual way of brushing her off.
Deep down, the idea of training hard was nowhere near as important or practical as "clinging to Huo Yuhao's coattails."
In his eyes, as long as he maintained a good relationship with Huo Yuhao, a casual helping hand from Huo Yuhao after he became a god would be far easier and more effective than decades of grueling cultivation.
Standing beside them, Dai Luoli was still young, but he spoke obediently nonetheless. "Brother, do your best at the academy! I'll take care of Mother."
Dai Youheng patted his younger brother's shoulder and forced a smile. "All right. I'll leave things at home to you."
It was getting late. A middle-aged man in fitted martial attire, his presence steady and composed, quietly appeared outside the courtyard gate. He bowed respectfully. "Young Master Youheng, the carriage is ready. We can depart."
This man was the guard assigned to Dai Youheng by the Duke's Mansion, a rank fifty-eight Soul King.
Compared with the Soul Emperor guards who accompanied Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin whenever they traveled, this Soul King guard was clearly a notch below.
But as far as the Duke's Mansion was concerned, assigning a high-ranking Soul King to escort a concubine's son was already quite generous treatment, enough to handle the vast majority of dangers on the road.
Dai Youheng was not particularly dissatisfied. After all, he had long since grown accustomed to the different treatment given to the sons of the principal wife and those of concubines.
He said his final goodbyes to his mother and younger brother, then turned and boarded the carriage, relaxed-or perhaps blindly complacent-at the prospect of returning to Shrek and continuing his career of "clinging to coattails."
"Let's go," he instructed the driver and the Soul King guard.
The carriage slowly set off, leaving through a side gate of the Duke's Mansion and merging into the morning streets of Star Luo City. It headed out of the city, bound for the distant Shrek Academy.
Inside the carriage, the bootlicking Youheng might still have been plotting how to draw closer to Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and the others after returning to the academy, and how to find a way into the Tang Sect. He had no idea that a net of death had quietly spread around him.
Meanwhile, at the window of a private room in a distant teahouse, another Dai Youheng watched the receding carriage coldly, an icy curve forming at the corner of his mouth.
The prey was out of its cage.
He gently set down his teacup, then vanished from the window like a phantom, silently melting into the bustling crowd below and following from a distance.
The hunt was on. Today, that bootlicker would die.
More than fifty li outside Star Luo City, the wind sighed bleakly through the desolate wilderness.
Dai Youheng's carriage traveled along the main road at an unhurried pace. Inside, he remained somewhat distracted. Though he gazed at the scenery slipping past the window, his thoughts had already flown back to the resplendent Imperial Palace in Star Luo City, and to that princess who shone with starlight.
"Jiujiu... just wait a little longer..." he murmured, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of obsession and anticipation. "Yuhao will dazzle everyone in this tournament! Once he starts rising, I'll beg him to use his power to help the Star Luo Empire, to help you. Then you'll definitely see me in a whole new light!"
He was immersed in the beautiful fantasy he had woven, utterly unaware of the approaching danger.
Suddenly.
Boom-!
An overwhelming, terrifying force struck from the side without warning. Like an invisible giant hammer, it slammed viciously into the carriage!
The sturdy carriage crumpled and warped as though it were made of paper, then abruptly lifted off the ground and tumbled through the air!
"Enemy attack! Be careful, young master!" At that hairbreadth moment, the Soul King guard reacted with extraordinary speed. With a fierce shout, he instantly activated his martial soul possession. His agility-type Wind Wolf martial soul manifested, and five Soul Rings-two yellow, two purple, and one black-flared around him.
He seized the horrified Dai Youheng and moved like lightning, smashing through the wall of the tumbling carriage and landing on the ground a short distance away by the narrowest of margins.
Amid the billowing dust, Dai Youheng looked up, still shaken, and finally saw his attackers clearly.
Their leader was a powerfully built man whose face was twisted with rage, dark energy suffusing his entire body. It was Huang Heyun!
Beside him stood a middle-aged man holding a vicious-looking Executioner's Greatsword that flashed with cold light. Six Soul Rings-two yellow, three purple, and one black-slowly revolved around him. That thunderous strike had clearly come from this Soul Emperor!
"Huang Heyun! What are you doing?" Dai Youheng demanded, shocked and furious, completely unable to make sense of the situation. "Have you lost your mind? How dare you attack a carriage belonging to the White Tiger Duke's Mansion!"
He would have been better off keeping quiet. That question only set Huang Heyun's rage ablaze.
"I've lost my mind?" Huang Heyun's eyes were bloodshot, his teeth grinding audibly as he pointed at his own face. Though the grime had been cleaned away, the humiliation was branded into his bones. "Dai Youheng! What the fuck did you do last night? Weren't you awfully cocky when you ground my face into the mud? What? Scared now? You had the guts to do it, but not to own up to it!"
"Last night? Ground your face into the mud?" Dai Youheng looked bewildered and wronged. "What nonsense are you talking about? I went to bed early yesterday to prepare for today's journey. I never even left the mansion, let alone went to see Jiujiu! Huang Heyun, have you mistaken me for someone else?"
"Mistaken you for someone else?" Huang Heyun was so furious he nearly laughed, his voice seething with violence. "I could mistake anyone else, but never that disgusting bootlicker's face of yours! I'd recognize you even if you were burned to ashes! Stop fucking playing dumb!"
Unable to restrain his murderous intent any longer, he roared at the greatsword-wielding Soul Emperor beside him, "Uncle Huang Yan, take down that guard! Leave this bootlicker to me. Today, I'll make him learn his lesson!"
At those words, a sharp gleam flashed through the eyes of the greatsword-wielding Soul Emperor named Huang Yan. He raised his Executioner's Greatsword, locking directly onto the Wind Wolf Soul King with an incomparably fierce presence!
The Wind Wolf Soul King's expression grew grim. Though his opponent was a Soul Emperor, his Soul Ring configuration was not optimal. He had only one Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, and his soul power fluctuations were not much stronger than the guard's own, placing him at roughly rank sixty-two.
A high-ranking Soul King was not entirely incapable of contending with a low-ranking Soul Emperor. He shouted, "Run, young master! I'll draw him away and hold him off!"
He knew that Dai Youheng could never withstand the shock waves of a Soul Emperor-level battle. He had to move the battlefield away.
At the same time, he knew full well that Huang Heyun might give Dai Youheng a vicious beating, but would never dare actually kill him. Beating a duke's son to death and merely beating him up were entirely different matters. After all, a concubine's son was still a son. Rashly killing a young master of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion could very well trigger a large-scale conflict between the two families.
Before you continue