Chapter 236 - Ren Bu Li
Edited by RED
From their first appearance until they disappeared, Xu Qi didn't manage to get a clear look at their faces. However, he guessed that Xiaoqi was among them.
When he saw those arrows on the ground still emitting purple light, Xu Qi suddenly went into a daze. He actually forgot about an important matter!
The arrows were all radiating purple energy! Didn't that mean that those people were all at the Reprisal realm!? Especially the one who shot the invisible Lian Tianwei with their arrow! It proved that they were all Rangers at the Reprisal realm!
First it was Xiaoqi, who was already an accomplished Ranger at the Reprisal realm at such a young age, followed by these dozen figures. All of them were at the Reprisal realm! Were experts at such a level such a common occurence nowadays!?
Xu Qi didn't dare to think about that anymore. All that was on his mind was to leave this place as soon as possible. Only the gods knew if those seven damned warriors were finished.
If they got back up, he would be doomed!
He sent Zhuque and the Icebright Bear back into the Four Divinities Cavern and beat his wings, taking flight.
As he flew, Xu Qi paused in mid air for a moment and stared at the saber-wielding petrified figure on the wall with a resolute gaze.
He continued his flight up to the hole, and stopped using the Five Elements Wings after he passed through it, recalling his experience of being struck by countless bolts of lightning after reaching a certain height.
His savior, Xiaoqi, had informed him that there was some flight-forbidding seal in place in the skies of Mt Fengwen. Who knew if it was the immortal Saint realm expert who had done such a senseless thing.
In any case, Xu Qi didn't dare to remain here any longer. He took a deep breath and ran back down towards the road he came from.
On his way back, Xu Qi didn't slow down at all, every leap covering over thirty meters. However, he suddenly felt chills. He kept feeling that there were a pair of eyes observing him from the shadows, following him wherever he went.
Being the cautious man that he was, he came to an abrupt stop on several occasions, but he didn't manage to discover anything amiss.
He had no idea where Tan, Chi, or that Lian Tianwei had gone. Could they be lying in ambush somewhere for me?
Xu Qi felt restless during his entire journey, on guard against anyone jumping him at any moment. At last, he left the vicinity of Mt Fengwen.
Once he stepped out of Mt Fengwen's bounds, the Five Elements Wings spread out from his back once more. He immediately soared to the skies, turning into a streak of light and disappearing to the horizon without looking back.
As peace seemingly returned to Mt Fengwen, a wave of shrieks suddenly rang out, and anyone who heard felt their hair stand on end.
If Xu Qi had not yet left the area and heard them, he would immediately realize that those were Tan and Chi's pained screams.
Back at Qi Kai Restaurant's inner court, where their boss, Xu Chen resided.
At this moment, the Icebright Bear was standing in the corner of Xu Chen's room with its head lowered. It seemed like it had suffered some mistreatment, while Zhuque had an ashen look on her face, playing with a ball of flames in her hand.
Meanwhile, Xu Qi was sitting by the side of the bed, injecting his rainbow energy into Xuanwu, who was lying on the bed.
As for Xu Chen, he was standing by the door, turned into an ad hoc guard.
Xu Qi retracted his energy. He took a deep breath and stood up, calling for Xu Chen.
The latter immediately responded to Xu Qi's call and entered the room, standing to the side respectfully.
"Send the word out. Have everyone rush over to Firesoul's Xin City and gather any and all information on the Monarchy Pavilion. Keep in mind to not raise any suspicions and alert them!" Xu Qi ordered with a displeased expression. As he mentioned the Monarchy Pavilion, he was so angry that his face puffed up.
Xu Chen immediately retreated after acknowledging Xu Qi. It seemed like his Young Master was in a bad mood, and he didn't dare to slack off at all.
Although he had no idea why Xu Qi wanted to move everyone who was collecting information on the Shadow Wind Sect in Ghosteem to Firesoul, he deduced from the look on Xu Qi's face that the Monarchy Pavilion was about to have some bad luck befall them.
Despite the fact that Xuanwu was lying in bed like a sickly person, the truth was that he wasn't in bad shape.
Zhuque had mentioned to Xu Qi in the past that after Xuanwu exhausted himself, he would automatically go into a hibernating state if he remained unconscious for an extended period of time. He would appear to be in a coma, but his body was in fact undergoing a special cultivation.
According to her, if Xuanwu underwent three days of such cultivation, then she would no longer be able to best him in a fight.
Xu Qi was uninterested in this unique cultivation method of Xuanwu's, however. All that was on his mind was the Monarchy Pavilion.
They were one of the seven top cultivation schools. Similar to the other top schools, they emerged and rose to the top overnight. They resided in the nation of Firesoul, conveniently where none of the other top schools were based.
Among the top schools, they were the only one who established their cultivation school within a large city.
The first master of the Monarchy Pavilion swept through all cultivation experts. Relying only on his saber, he sought and challenged anyone with the slightest bit of fame.
Xu Qi obtained a seemingly useless piece of information. That was, the first master of the respective top schools only challenged cultivation experts within the nation they decided to settle in.
After making a name for themselves, besides challenging any experts within their nation, the seven who seemingly appeared out nowhere began pouring their time into managing their own cultivation schools. According to rumors, those seven never met one another, nor was there a situation of one of them challenging another to become the undisputed number one cultivator.
The Monarchy Pavilion was relatively low profile compared to the other cultivation schools. There was never any rumors of them oppressing the commoners.
However, Xu Qi knew that whenever there was a huge incident, the Monarchy Pavilion wouldn't lose out to any of the other top cultivation schools. Low profile? It was more like they were concealing their strength and biding their time.
On this trip to the Saint realm expert's burial grounds on Mt Fengwen, not only did Xu Qi not see the shadow of a treasure trove, he even found himself in desperate situations on several occasions.
The only consolation he got from all this was the news he heard from Lian Tianwei regarding Lan Shu'er and their daughter.
In addition, the combined assault from Tan, Chi, Lian Tianwei, and the eight figures which he could only refer to as shadows, with their tough bodies and sabers, were all related to the Monarchy Pavilion.
Every incident from this trip pointed towards them, be it the sabers or the techniques. They were all traits of the Monarchy Pavilion's cultivation methods.
Ten days later, Firesoul's Xin City, where the Monarchy Pavilion was based in, was in chaos.
The Monarchy Pavilion's disciples were split into groups, searching for something within Xin City with their sabers out. All of them had unfriendly looks on their faces, making the citizens restless.
The most surprising thing, however, was that even under such circumstances, huge battles would break out within Xin City from time to time, and corpses of the Monarchy Pavilion's disciples would be found on the ground.
As such, citizens of the originally prosperous Xin City were now living in fear for their lives. All the doors were shut tightly despite the fact that it was still daytime. No one dared to leave their houses, afraid that they would be caught in the mess.
Meanwhile, Xu Qi had been staying in Qi Kai Restaurant in Mirrorlink's capital for the past ten days. He was holding onto a letter he'd just received with a fiery gaze.
"Monarchy Pavilion! That cursed Monarchy Pavilion!" Xu Qi yelled out in anger. Following which, the letter which only contained a short message was burned to ash by the All-Tempering Flame.
It was a letter personally written by Xu Zi, containing a few words with messy handwriting: "Entered city, ambushed by Monarchy Pavilion, several men poisoned, Qian Yin heavily injured."
At present, Xuanwu was still in hibernation. Xu Qi couldn't afford to wait around, but he didn't feel safe leaving Xuanwu at Xu Chen's place. After considering for a while, Xu Qi decided to send Xuanwu back into the Four Divinities Cavern and have Zhuque take care of him. That was the only method he felt appropriate.
That night, Xu Qi turned into a streak of light and flew south using his Five Elements Wings. He was obviously heading towards Firesoul's Xin City.
The Monarchy Pavilion was situated slightly to the north of Xin City. The Monarchy Pavilion owned quite a large piece of land in this prosperous city, where every inch was extremely valuable. The most widely discussed landmark in this city was the lake that surrounded the Monarchy Pavilion's grand hall.
This lake was named the Zhenhai Lake. It was said that the first master of the Monarchy Pavilion named it such.
The reason why the Zhenhai Lake was talked about so much was because of its unique feature.
On every first and fifteenth of the month, the lake would bubble like boiling water, yet the water's temperature wouldn't be hot. It was as warm as normal, and there would even be a pillar of water sprouting from the center of the lake, towering several zhang high, which everyone in Xin City could see.
According to rumors, within the lake lived a divine beast guarding over the Monarchy Pavilion, though no one really believed it.
At this moment, the current master of the Monarchy Pavilion, Wang Yiliu, who rarely appeared before others, was sitting in the main seat in the grand hall surrounded by the lake.
Speaking of Wang Yiliu, it wasn't his original given name. When he first entered the Monarchy Pavilion, his master noticed that his eyes were a little strange, and gave him the strange name, Wang Xialiu. Xialiu? Low-class? In the end he became Wang Xialiu.1
No one knew whether it was because of the provocation brought about by this ridiculous name, but Wang Xialiu had engrossed himself in cultivation. He would even cultivate during the hottest summers and the coldest winters, putting forth greater effort than anyone else. In addition, he was a talented man to begin with, and he climbed up to the seat of master before anyone knew it.
Naturally, the first thing he did after becoming the master was to change his name to Wang Yiliu.2 Wang Xialiu disappeared from the face of the world from then on, and no one dared to call him such anymore.
"Have they exited Xin City?"
"Reporting to Pavilion Master, it is unknown."
"Then how many of them are here?!"
"Reporting to Pavilion Master, about ten of them or so."
"Get lost! You trash! You can't answer any question! Our casualties amount to dozens a day, and this happened right at our doorsteps! How are we supposed to face others!?" Wang Yiliu yelled at his men.
"You have today! To find every single one of them! Summon the Elders that are still in secluded cultivation. You are to capture all of them by today! I must see them, be it alive or dead!" Wang Yiliu ordered. After issuing his command, Wang Yiliu stood up and left with three Elders.
Today, he would personally go looking for those cold-blooded murderers!
On the shore opposite the Monarchy Pavilion stood a reputable bun stall, renowned throughout Xin City. Countless people would come here every day to buy their buns.
However, the boss of this bustling stall had a rule: they would only sell two hundred buns a day.
Not only that, even the stall's name was rather strange. It was actually called Ren Bu Li!3
Due to its location, everyone from the Monarchy Pavilion had tried their buns. With their frequent business, they got acquainted with its boss.
During the Monarchy Pavilion's recent large-scale search, this bun stall was the only place in Xin City they didn't enter to search. Even when their disciples passed by, they would only joke around, saying, "Boss, are you hiding anyone?"
Whenever this happened, the boss never replied them. He would only let out a smile and toss a few buns at them, and the Monarchy Pavilion's disciples would leave with smiles on their faces.
Hiding people from the Monarchy Pavilion opposite their base of operations? Who would ever do that?
Contrary to anyone's expectations, it was exactly this bun stall that was currently housing an additional dozen or so people.
Translator's Note:
1: Wang Xialiu(/王瞎六/王下流)：Xialiu(/瞎六) literally means blind six, and sounds similar to Xialiu(/下流), which means cheap, vulgar, or low-class.
2: Wang Yiliu(/王一流)：literally means first-class.
3: Ren Bu Li(/人不理)：literally means pay no attention to anyone.