Meng LiGe shivered a little in response, and could not help but glance down at his own attire as well as think about what he said previously. Finding no faults, he was at a loss for words. Why did the young noble look at me as though he wanted to swallow me whole?
"I'm here to fetch Madam Yu BingYan back, and furthermore, Yu ManLou wrote a letter to young noble." After checking himself repeatedly and ensuring that there was no problem, Meng LiGe drew out a letter from his bosom.
"Read it!" Ling Tian leaned on the side of his chair with an extremely ungainly manner as he replied.
"To Young Noble Ling: That day we parted at Bright Jade City, your voice and appearance are still embedded within my heart. I do not know when will the two of us be able to drink together and discuss the myriad changes in life.
Young noble must surely still remember the North Western battle. The agreement of five years, wagering with everything below the heavens! I think back often to that wager made under Heaven and Earth, how fast time has passed since then. When I think about the matters from then, I cannot help but feel the blood boiling inside me. Young noble is an outstanding person of this world, much more than I am, and can be considered as an outstanding person in this generation! Only by controlling all under the skies will we then not let down the ambition within our hearts. As for vying with each other for supremacy, even if it ends in failure, it will still be a hundred times better as compared to the mundane men, living out their withered and rotten lives!
The weather is cold and the snow has fallen, thus the soldiers cannot fight, and the unstable situation has settled for now. Next year, when the weather warms and the flowers open, it will be the Yu and Shui Family generational battles. While niece BingYan is now your wife, she, after, all belongs to my Yu Family. The battle has been long fixed, and cannot be changed. I've specially invited the six elders of my Yu Family over to Sky Bearing in order to escort BingYan back. Young Noble is a gentleman, and I believe you will not disappoint me."
Ling Tian narrowed his eyes as he listened to the entire letter of Yu ManLou before snorting out loudly. He furiously replied, "This old fogey Yu ManLou, he knows that Yu BingYan belongs to my Ling Family, but he actually wants her to participate for the Yu Family! Furthermore, he doesn't know that her Divine Black Negative Meridians have already been removed, so he obviously wants her to die so as to form a blood feud between me and the Shui Family, yet I have no grounds to reject this! Old man that refuses to die, this is the epitome of viciousness, but a brilliant plan!"
Meng LiGe laughed out loud as he asked, "Since that's the case, then how should we reply to him?"
Ling Tian rubbed his forehead for a moment as he asked, "Regarding the assault on the Lei Family, to what degree are our preparations?"
"The First Pavilion has achieved outstanding success each time they acted, and the Lei Family now can be considered to have collapsed. While there are some remnants left over, they cannot cause any more large waves."
"Cannot cause any large waves? That will not do." Ling Tian ruthlessly spoke, "Those who dare to shake my family's foundations, if I do not give them a good shake in response, wouldn't the world think that I, Ling TIan, am good to bully? So long as it's of the Lei Family, raze it down! This matter has no grounds for negotiation!"
Taking his feet down from the table, Ling Tian snorted twice as he continued, "Yu ManLou actually dares to make BingYan go out to battle, using this chance to sow discord between me and Water of Heavenly Wind. If he does not pay any price, then wouldn't that be going too easy on him? Tell the Yu Family that I want the Lei Family in return! All the lives of the survivors! Even the elderly and the children are not to be spared. If there's even one left over, I will not accede to his demands!"
Meng LiGe couldn't help but curse in disagreement. Ling Tian obviously wanted to use the influence of the Yu Family to achieve his goals, but his deeper meaning was to give a warning to those people sheltering under the Yu Family as well as those vacillating small powers. As for Madam Yu BingYan participating in the generational battle, it was something that Ling Tian had planned long ago, but he still wanted to use this chance to scam Yu ManLou.
Meng LiGe grumbled incessantly, but of course would not give voice to his thoughts. He could only grunt in assent and leave.
"Oh wait a minute, who did the Yu Family send this time?" Ling Tian suddenly asked out.
"It seems to be the Colliding Heaven Pavilion's Head, Yu XiaoRan, as well as the five elders within the pavilion." A smile that was yet not a smile appeared on Meng LiGe's face. He knew that since Ling Tian had asked, these few people were definitely going to have a tough time. "They're all people with some fame to their name."
"People with fame to their name?" A cold smile lurked on the corners of Ling Tian's mouth. "Let Ling Jian go and entertain these famous characters, and tell him that he has to properly take care of them, with all his attention."
How vicious! This was the first thought in Meng LiGe's heart.
To make Ling Jian go and welcome them, wasn't it as good as he himself ripping their skin off? For someone like Ling Jian who had once suffered a loss in the Yu Family, how could he let go of such a heaven gifted opportunity? Furthermore, this brat was a crazy killer addicted to bloodshed!
Inside Meng LiGe's dictionary, the name Ling Jian was synonymous with a perverted murderer!
Before he even walked out of Ling Tian's study, he was already bemoaning the fate of the universe and mankind. He had already started to pray for those ambassadors of the Yu Family, that they... wouldn't die too quickly... This old man here wants to see a good and lasting show...
Ever since the Colliding Heaven Pavilion Head Yu XiaoRan arrived in the Ling Family Courtyard, he had felt as though the atmosphere here was heavy and solemn. During the construction, the careful planning of Li Xue had focused on bringing a sense of simple yet dignified solemness to the entire architecture, integrating all of them with the main entrance into the mountain. This allowed everyone who was about to walk into the Ling Family Courtyard to subconsciously place their attention on the buildings, coming face to face with the arrogance akin to a monarch looking down upon the world!
In the vicinity of the secret chamber, from top to bottom, there were numerous wall sections that were smoothed, with a carving of a couplet written on the sections.
The upper verse was: Who knows whom shall rule the Universe?
And the lower verse was: But the owner of this place controls the winds and clouds!
And on the horizontal row of words: Reign Supreme below the Heavens!
These three sentences were not just shining due to splendor, but because Ling Five had actually used a whole thousand ingots of gold and melted them to form the gold ink needed to fill these carvings. If the day was bright and sunny, the rays from the sun would shine down and reflect off the gold, as though creating a walkway of gold into the place!
The couplets were the handiwork of our great Miss Li Xue, but of course, since her handwriting was atrocious, the words were inscribed by Ling Chen instead. However, even though they were couplets, they did not act as antitheses to each other, but rather one could say that their purpose was to expand the aura of dignity and dominance! Of course, their only motive in doing the couplets was to flaunt their power, thus in Li Xue's heart, she gave no hoots about the conditions of the couplets needing to match. However, it was unknown why, but Ling Chen vehemently denied that she had ever personally carved these words...
Even though it was the time where snow flew all over the place, there were still people in charge of sweeping the area where the couplets were, to prevent a situation where they were covered by the snow.
Now was already not the time to continue hiding. The strength of the Ling Family Courtyard was no longer afraid of any power in the world! As such, what they had to do now was to boldly and confidently step onto the world stage!
I will rise and fall with the waves!
Looking down arrogantly on the world!
The real cause behind Yu XiaoRan feeling depressed was that in the guest hall which they had been shown to, if one looked out to the snow-covered fields, they would see these fourteen words. They were roughly carved yet filled with a cold ray of light, as though it would pounce towards them at any given moment.
This gave Yu XiaoRan a feeling of indignance, making him unsatisfied. As a lofty Yu Family Elder, the head of the Colliding Heaven Pavilion, when had he ever suffered from such cold treatment?
After coming to the Ling Family, the person who received them was actually an icy-cold lady in white robes, and together with her was a middle-aged man around 40 years of age. The man was polite, but at that time, Yu XiaoRan already had a belly of anger. They had walked all the way into the Ling Family Courtyard without so much as a single person coming out to greet them, and it was actually the guards that had brought them over to this hall...
This sort of undisguised disdain made Yu XiaoRan extremely furious.
The most infuriating matter was that the man surnamed Meng mentioned that he would go and report to the young noble, but he actually disappeared for such a long time. Meanwhile that cold and proud icy-faced lady sat on the main seat, without even the slightest hint of wanting to apologize, and had merely spoken two words since she sat down, "Send tea."
Should they bear with this, or not?
After forcing themselves to endure for half a day, Yu XiaoRan finally could take it no longer, and stood up with a face full of frost as he coldly asked, "Lady, may I ask, what time would the young noble Ling Tian arrive? In the end, the Ling Family is the owner of this place, so is it possible for someone in charge to come over?!"
The white-robed lady was holding a book, seemingly engrossed with it. It was to the point that no one knew if she had heard what Yu XiaoRan said, but she never lifted her head from start till end.
Yu XiaoRan was after all still an elder in the Yu Family, so when had he ever received such treatment? He was so angered he nearly spat out blood, and his teeth ground together, providing unpleasant cracking sounds. His eyes looked as though they could shoot fire, his beard quivering non-stop. It seemed as though an eruption was imminent.
At this time, the white-robed lady suddenly let out a small voice of assent, as though she had just noticed Yu XiaoRan's question. She raised her head, an expression of innocence in her eyes as she replied, "What questions do you have? I can take over as the person in charge! Oh, did you just ask me when young noble Ling Tian would come over?"
"Yes, that's right. I beg for answers from Lady. I'm in a rush to fetch the little princess home, after all, the generational battle is about to begin, and it brooks no delay...."
However, before Yu XiaoRan could finish, the white-robed lady continued with another sentence that made him feel like spewing out all his blood. ".... but who can I ask to get an answer?"
"You!....." Yu XiaoRan leaped out of his seat as he pointed at the lady, his finger shaking in anger as he spat, "What's the meaning of this? Is this how the Ling Family treats its guests? Didn't you say that you can make the decisions here? Please allow my family's little princess to meet with us, that you can at least agree, right?!" His temper was already at the limits, and Yu XiaoRan was ready to storm off in a rage. However, he suddenly recalled how the family head sincerely entrusted this task to him before he left to the Ling Family, and he forced his temper down. So long as he could see Yu BingYan, then everything would be easier to settle.
The white-robed lady in question was the great miss Li Xue, of course. She was already nursing a belly full of anger because of Ling Tian since the early morning, and when Meng LiGe requested for her to accompany him to host the Yu Family people, the reason was that Ling Chen seemed to have not gotten out of bed yet...
Knowing the reason for Ling Chen's tardiness, Li Xue's anger had already soared to the high heavens, and she had almost thrown Meng LiGe out on the spot. As such, she bore an icy look the whole day. However, to think that the Yu Family people did not know what was good for them, to actually provoke the already unhappy Li Xue, pushing her to the edge of exploding.
Upon hearing his words, Li Xue rolled her eyes and said, "How the Ling Family hosts their guests is our own matter. Why, do you have a problem with this? Even if you have an issue, you had better swallow it back down. This is the Ling Family, not the Yu Family! I can make the decisions, but that is my problem, and you wanting to see your little princess is your own problem!" Right after she finished, even before she could take a proper breath, she solemnly continued, "This is Sky Bearing, not Bright Jade City! Understand?! You're already so old, yet you cannot even understand this simple fact. You must have lived your life in vain!"
Yu XiaoRan saw his world fade into darkness as he nearly fainted in anger.