Ai Hui was wondering about the fire lotus seeds. Several days had passed, but no one else came to buy them.
Fire lotus seeds were supposed to be hot sellers, as many people came to ask about them and were interested in them. Judging from the situation then, it shouldn’t be this unmarketable.
He would look into this when he had time.
Having finished today’s training, the three students and Fu Yonghao teetered home.
Before leaving the training hall, Su Qingye suddenly went up to Ai Hui and whispered, "Teacher, my dad said you must be cautious with the challenge."
Ai Hui paused for a second and then patted Su Qingye’s head, "Got it. Go home now boy."
Seeing Su Qingye leaving, Ai Hui was absorbed in thought.
Suddenly, the message tree began to flicker.
Ai Hui came back to his senses and walked to the message tree. He was surprised to see the message. It was from Jiang Wei.
When Jiang Wei left last time, he asked Ai Hui if he could take a leaf of the message tree with him. At that time Ai Hui was marveling that Jiang Wei was being as cautious as before. They were now in the same city. If anything happened, he could just fly here to convey the message. Why bother to use the message tree?
"The challenge is dangerous!"
Ai Hui’s face looked extremely grave. The message was a scrawl. It seemed that Jiang Wei wrote it down in a hurry.
Together with what Qingye had said just now, Ai Hui knew that there would be something fishy.
A dangerous light flickered in Ai Hui’s eyes.
"Don’t go to the training hall for the next couple of days."
Hearing what Fu family’s oldest daughter said, Fu Yonghao paused for seconds before he realized what it meant, and asked "Why?"
Fu family’s oldest daughter said, "Isn’t Miao Hai going to challenge Ai Hui?"
Fu Yonghao laughed out loud, "Are you kidding me, Big Sister? How stupid is Miao Hai to challenge Ai Hui with five hundred essence elemental beans? I have to say that Ai Hui’s demand is really shameless. I’ve seen so many people, but he is the most shameless one."
Fu family’s oldest daughter put down the teacup in her hand and gave him a glance, "Who told you Miao Hai isn’t going?"
Fu Yonghao was surprised.
The gates of Dragonrise Training Hall were wide open. Twenty teachers stood in two rows to see Miao Hai off.
The person walking in front of Miao Hai was Ren Haitong, who was holding a plate in his hand, on which there was a pile of glittering essence elemental beans like a hill.
Miao Hai was calm and unruffled. He was wearing a crimson armor and carried on his back an iron box that was around his height, exuding an imposing manner.
The teachers shouted in concert, "Branch Master is bound to win!"
The mayor’s residence of Peace City was heavily guarded with sturdy soldiers.
But inside the mayor’s residence the atmosphere seemed extremely harmonious. Three people were drinking and chatting cheerfully at a table.
A Jinai was good at maintaining a pleasant atmosphere. As long as he was present, there would be no awkward silences. The one sitting beside him was Huo Yaliu, Jiang Wei’s direct leader. Captain Huo, who used to be serious and taciturn, was now beaming with smiles and toasted with them again and again. Captain Huo was born in a small family. Now that he had an opportunity to build a relationship with those in the Ling residence, he would definitely try his utmost best.
Captain Huo arrived all of a sudden with his subordinates to take over the mayor’s residence.
Jiang Wei looked just as usual without any anger or joy. As long as A Jinai proposed a toast, he would drink up the wine in one gulp.
A Jinai was drunk. With hazy eyes, he said, "Wei, I know you are feeling uncomfortable in your heart, but I’m doing this for your own good. You are too emotional and impulsive. I know this step that I take is not noble, but I have to. So I apologize to you here. Wei, we have been friends for years. You can rest assured that I wouldn’t do this if I had no confidence. When the battle comes to an end, you will be promoted for sure."
Hearing what A Jinai said, Captain Huo also raised his glass and said with jealousy, "Wei, your future is boundless. Don’t forget me by then."
Jiang Wei raised his glass and drank a toast to them, saying, "Thank you for your blessings. But I actually know Ai Hui very well. I don’t think Miao Hai can defeat him."
A Jinai was elated to see that Jiang Wei was not getting angry. He laughed out and said, "Wei, you should know that to those big shots, we are just like ants. Even though Ai Hui is of higher capability, he is just a bigger ant than most. The reason why he could defeat Sha Wuduan was largely due to his wealth. But now, he has run out of money, and there’s nothing he can depend on."
A Jinai said jauntily, "He has fire lotus seeds, and thought that everyone would scramble to buy them. But he didn’t know that as long as the higher-ups gave the order, no one would dare to buy from him. This is what aristocratic families can do. As I told you, Jiang Wei, the world is theirs."
Captain Huo nodded repeatedly as he totally agreed with A Jinai. His family was sort of influential locally, but they were of the lowest class in the pyramid of aristocratic families.
Jiang Wei drank up again and praised, "That’s really a comprehensive plan."
A Jinai, having drunk up the last drop in the glass too, was tipsier. "Not only this. The roads of Peace City and the sky above have all been blocked, and anyone passing through will be strictly checked. As soon as Ai Hui’s identity was exposed, the higher-ups had started to take precautions against him, in case those whom Ai Hui has helped before hear the news and come to help."
Jiang Wei spoke loudly, "This is wise. Come on, cheers!"
They both drank up again.
Jiang Wei put down his wineglass and asked in a slurred voice, "A Jinai, I have a question that I haven’t been able to figure out for a while. You must answer it for me today."
A Jinai laughed out loud and squinted at him, "You want to know why they have to crack down on Ai Hui like this?"
Jiang Wei nodded and blurted, "Yes. I don’t know why. Why can’t they recruit him?"
A Jinai raised his glass to Captain Huo, "This is not weird at all. Even Captain Huo can see through it."
Captain Huo drank the wine in his glass, wiped his mouth and said, "It’s simple. Ai Hui is a new citizen, and his reputation among the new citizens is too high. Therefore, he must die. Back then, the whole Induction Ground was almost completely destroyed, which has definitely led to a gap in the talent reserve. The largest number of survivors are in Central Pine City, and the higher-ups will depend on you the most in the future. Many of the key talents like you are survivors from Central Pine City, right? They now call all of you the Central Pine Faction. Ai Hui has just exposed his identity, and so many people are coming to him. You can see how highly admired he is among you guys."
"What will the higher-ups think about this? If he was born in an aristocratic family, then it’d be good for him because he could be the leader of the next generation. But he is a new citizen, which means he is a snake in the grass to the higher-ups. If he stands out among his fellows in the future, and you all follow him, will you still work for the higher-ups? It’s fine to have new citizens in the team, but they cannot be leaders. Otherwise, no one will obey the command of the aristocratic families."
Hearing what he said, Jiang Wei was at a loss.
Captain Huo continued, "Wei, you are different. Once you marry the Ling Third Master’s second daughter, you will be a member of theirs and your future will be boundless. Besides, if you want, maybe you can even start your own aristocratic family."
Jiang Wei came back to his senses, and laughed. He proposed a toast to Captain Huo, "Captain Huo, you are absolutely right. Cheers!"
Captain Huo burst into laughter while drinking the wine in his glass.
Jiang Wei was so drunk that he could not even sit steadily. He laughed and asked, "Then why do they still need new citizens? The aristocratic families can simply abandon them."
"Haha, of course not," A Jinai was already resting his head on the desk. Hearing what Jiang Wei said, he struggled to sit up and answered, "Aristocratic families don’t have enough men. Without new citizens, who will do the dirty work?"
Jiang Wei shook his head and sighed, "This is…the reality!"
A Jinai said, "Reality? Haha…Good point! The aristocratic families are never built in a day. Nobody knows how much hardship they have been through. But as long as they are in power now, they are the rulers. For our future, we new citizens must follow their leadership."
Captain Huo also laughed loudly. He held up his glass and said in a rough voice, "For our future!"
"For our future!"
The two raved in a high voice.
A Jinai flushed in excitement.
Jiang Wei beamed with smiles.
No one noticed that under the table, his fist was clenched tightly.
"As per your requirement, here are five hundred essence elemental beans. Although the challenge today is only an exchange of fight skills, I will spare no effort, as this is the way in which I show my respect to you. You don’t need to show mercy either. If I can witness the essence of your swordsmanship, I have no regrets even if I die."
Miao Hai’s voice was loud and vigorous like thunder that could be heard throughout Peace City.
In the sky above Peace City, two figures stood still face to face.
Ai Hui spread his Starry Gem Swordwings in full. The black wings were glittering under the sun like the wings of the devil.
Miao Hai didn’t use his azure wings. Instead, he was standing on a cloud, which was his cloud deck. The crimson armor sparkled like morning glow, shrouding him and his cloud deck. The iron box was put to his side.
"Sure!"
Before he finished saying the word, Ai Hui had disappeared in the sky.
Miao Hai looked solemn, eyes downcast. Suddenly he grabbed the iron box and smashed it on the cloud, and with a thundering sound, an intangible shock wave swept down in all directions with a loud crash.
Ai Hui appeared again out of nowhere and bumped into the shock wave. Like an agile bird, he stepped slightly on the shock wave and then disappeared again.
On the cloud deck, the big iron box was open wide, inside there were seven javelins altogether.
The crimson tips of the javelins were thin and sharp as if they had been saturated in blood. The shafts of the javelins were covered with blue and silvery streaks. This kind of javelin was made of more than twenty materials that were integrated by supreme elemental energy.
Someone shouted out loudly in surprise. "It's Baneslayer!"
"Baneslayer javelins!"
This greatly excited the bystanders and caused a stir. Among all javelins, the Baneslayer were rare treasures. Its maker had originally intended to make a set of Heaven-grade javelins, but failed due to a lack of materials. Still, the Baneslayer was top grade compared to other kinds of javelins, and was therefore called the "Best Javelin" among Heaven-Grade javelins.
It was a common way of fighting, to throw javelins when diving.
But this meant that javelins were consumables. Therefore, not many people were willing to waste too much good material on them. That was why javelins of high grade were not often seen.
This time Miao Hai chose to use cloud deck instead of azure wings, which was an even rarer tactic. This meant that he hadn’t considered dodging at all, which revealed his confidence in his javelin attacks.
Ai Hui also understood this. The red light of Miao Hai’s armor indicated his strong defensive power.
Miao Hai reached out his hand and grabbed the first javelin. His palms were like cattail leaf fans, which were far larger and wider than ordinary people’s palms. The instant he had the javelin in his hand, his eyes opened widely, and terrifying power burst out from his body.
His muscles tensed up, making his figure larger than before like a giant.
Dazzling golden light suddenly burst out from the javelins. Before anyone could clearly see his movement, the golden light rippled like water and the javelin disappeared.
In that instant, Ai Hui, who was standing hundreds of meters away, sensed great danger.
Without any hesitation, Ai Hui shook his waist and the Dragonspine in his hand splashed starry lights into the space in front of him.
Just at this moment, he unleashed ten [Heavenly Thrust]s!