I Can See Your Combat Power

Did Xiao Zheng have prestige? Of course, he did, in brothels, antique shops, merchant associations, and martial arts arenas.

Whenever the gentry of Xiling saw him, they would greet him as Sir Zheng, to show their respect, but the respect only went so far.

If anyone can completely ignore Xiao Zheng’s prestige, it was bound to be Mi Chu. This is because, at the top layer of Xiling’s gentry, powerful warriors who speak through strength take precedence. They didn’t even need to be recognized, just a name is enough to make the crowd step back.

“Take a good look at yourself, do you really think you can mess with my affairs?” Mi Chu’s voice was calm as can be, almost sounding as natural as stating the sun rises from the east.

Xiao Zheng was composed, not taking Mi Chu’s public insult to heart. However, internally he was anxious. He knew how barbaric and willful Mi Chu could be. If he didn’t interfere there and then, Mi Chu would certainly inflict harm on Mi Bai. Therefore, he had to come forward and take up this challenge, regardless of whether he was capable of handling it or not.

“This is about a friend. Even if I can’t handle it, I must!” Xiao Zheng stood his ground and looked straight into Mi Chu’s eyes. “The Beast King’s House has recruited many strong fighters over the years, and there are also many capable and unusual people in my mansion. This would make for a good battle.

Why do many aristocrats deem martial arts training useless? It’s because, in Xiling, conflicts are resolved through servants’ battles, and they don’t enter the arena themselves. Now that Xiao Zheng has decided to take up this challenge , for Mi Bai, he would not back down, even if it meant provoking the Beast King’s

House.

“Huh.” Mi Chu sneered, revealing a cold smile: “First it was Xiao Ziyu, and now it’s you. I’m becoming increasingly interested in this painter. Since you have decided to take up this grudge, bring the painter to Jiang Forest outside the city on the first day of August. Let’s see if you can protect him.”

Having said that, Mi Chu turned around and left without giving the painting in the display cabinet another glance.

Xiao Ziyu looked gloomy. He watched Mi Chu walk away, then turned to look at Xiao Zheng, who was expressionless all among, feeling increasingly worried.

22nd, of July

Retreat in the back mountain of the Family Sanctuary

Tang Han rushed to the training room where Tang Luo was in retreat, intending to update him with some important news. Whenever any family decedents retreated, they would inform their family and unless something significant came up, they were not to be disturbed. However, this former family elder received a letter every few days.

The contents of the letters were varied and all-encompassing. They included invites to the Yaochi Altar’s tea party, challenging letters from the gentry of Xiling, invites to the Martial Hall’s competition, invitations to watch rites at Miaoy’in Square, invitations to banquets of the Great Elder, invitation to Tang Ya’s funeral, invitations from the Academy, invitations from the Wind Media Department, among others too numerous to mention. It almost covered all the major forces of the Tang Clan, it seemed the family was paying more attention to this former elder now that he was no longer in the prestigious position.

Tang Han had no issue with all of these, but one problem was that he felt as if he had become the exclusive steward for Tang Luo. What he feared the most each morning was the receipt of another letter. When he chose this position, it was to live leisurely and concentrate on his martial arts progress with less interruption. However, he was now even busier than usual tasks; how could it be this way?

“Tang Luo, here is your letter!” called Tang Han, not too pleased, to the large shadow still striking the mountainside.

At first, he treated this former elder respectfully, but seeing the sheer amount of letters changed his views, and gradually he began to deal with him more informally.

As usual, the bare-chested, muscular young warrior trained by punching on the rocky mountain. The rock wall was filled with countless handprints varying in depth. This meant Tang Luo had not finished the power training or the whole rock wall was supposed to have blasted into stone dust from the inside out, instead of being scattered with handprints.

“Yes, it has come—” Tang Luo responded loudly, giving up his return strike. Looking at the half-foot deep handprint on the rock wall, he shook his head.

Whether it was wanting too much too soon, that power needed time to grow, or that his power was changing everyday causing confusion, he hadn’t made any progress in the power technique. His power, however, was becoming larger under the nourishment of innate qi, but he was growing more and more confused about the way of power.

Seeing the unhappy look on Tang Han’s face, Tang Luo laughed and consoled him saying, “Didn’t I tell you that you can disregard any letters that are not from the constant steward and flower steward? That way, you wouldn’t have to keep coming and going.”

His training room deep in the mountain range was difficult to find, even for someone with cultivation. Each time Tang Han came, he would waste half a day, which was why he had made it clear that if the messages were not from home, there was no need to forward them.

“It’s easier said than done!” Tang Han took out the letter and handed it to Tang Luo angrily, “Look at this, this is not a letter from the elder, it’s from the mountain elder. There are also other important invitations. I would have responded for you, but what if they gave me trouble later?!”

He didn’t know how many connections were pulled to get to this retreat and he didn’t want to lose this position due to negligence. He’d had no tears left to cry.

“Just read it quickly and reply so I can leave.” Tang Han, looking as if in despair, sat on the ground. He looked at the iron-like human figures that had been hammered into iron dumplings with apathy, “Look, why is your power training so hard? Your power has already reached a high level. It’s actually okay not to practice power, right?”

Generally speaking, power training is meant to increase the lethality of close combat. Seeing the thousands of pounds of iron people hammered into one piece, what was the point in practicing such overbearing power? If a punch came down, without protection, the other party would shatter. That’s why he plainly didn’t understand what Tang Luo was so infatuated with.

Tang Luo just smiled and didn’t answer. He also sat down with his legs crossed and put a stack of letters beside him. He opened the first one, glanced at it, and threw it aside.

“Ey ey ey!” Tang Han was anxious, “You really should take a closer look. If you’re like this, it’s hard for me to work.” He didn’t dare to reply directly because the first letter turned out to be from the respected elder, which Tang Luo discarded without looking at.

“Don’t worry, I’m not familiar with the elder any way, what’s the point of going to his birthday feast?” Tang Luo replied while picking up another letter. He, however, found out they were all similar invitations, the headings of which were all he needed to understand the contents.

Picking up a pen, without even opening the envelopes, Tang Luo directly wrote replies on them, so straightforward that it stunned Tang Han.

Not going!

Busy!

No more in the future!

“Gulp”, Tang Han swallowed. This was how Tang Luo responded to Xiao Zheng’s invitation last time. He initially thought Tang Luo was just indifferent to Xiao Zheng, but Roluo’s responses remained just as tough towards the authorities of the Tang Clan.

Clearly… he was too wild.