Chapter 46 - The inner court's war of words (down)
Ling Xiao rapidly hid behind Ling Cang. He even intentionally poked his head out and yelled, "You murderer!"
Everyone here were Ling family's elders. All of them just stood and blankly looked at Ling Xiao without replying. This brat had such great guts that he could blatantly insult the two elders.
Then, the fifth elder raised his voice, "Chief, you've heard that. Ling Xiao has clearly insulted the second elder. This is clearly to undermine the second elder. What penalty do you think would be suitable in this case, Fourth Elder?"
The fourth elder pondered for a moment as he stole a glance at Ling Cang, before answering to it casually, "This should be punished by cutting of one of his arms as a warning. If he is to ever commit that again, we'll remove his Xuan force and expel him from the family."
"Haha, such a great sin. Didn't all of you clear your ears just now? I just said "If" and did not confirm it as a fact. Does that also mean undermining the elders?" Ling Xiao spoke without any fear, with a faint smile on his face.
"Is it so casual for you to say "If" with the elders? Fourth Elder, should we carry out the punishment first?" The fifth elder urged. Obviously, he didn't consider Ling Cang as a threat.
Recently, both the second and the fifth elders had been a bit upset, mostly because Ling Xiao was taken in by the grand superior elder as his disciple heir. That fact made the party led by Ling Cang possess much more leeway, as they had more advantages. Every time during the elders meeting, they were extremely repressed. Therefore, this day was the chance for them to attack the party of Ling Cang, and it would clearly be for the best if they could eliminate this bastard Ling Xiao.
"So I cannot say "If" to the elders, but they could just casually accuse me randomly like that? Truly unreasonable!" Ling Xiao spoke out very discontentedly and he continued, "And you, the Fifth Elder. Even though the fourth elder is yet to open his mouth, you just jumped in to give orders as such. I believe that you think yourself as the head of the family or maybe as the fourth elder. So, why don't you just switch places?"
These words made the fifth elder's face turned gloomy. His palms were slightly sweating. The brat had said too directly, so he explained, "I'm only telling the truth, so is it not okay?"
"Of course, it is okay. Just that the posture when you were giving out the order was so powerful that both the fourth elder and the head of the family are forced to stand aside." Ling Xiao utilized this chance to mock him.
"You. . ." The fifth elder was so furious that his moustache stood erect. His aging eyes rolled and opened so big, yet he had no words to deflect.
"Ling Xiao, don't talk nonsense any further. Quickly explain the story in detail." Ling Cang coldy cut off both of them. From within, he was really sweating in place of this daring grandson. At this point, he could even pull out the tiger's skin here.
At this moment, every one quieted down. Li Chongqian and Lan Zhenfeng had very suspecting eyes. Both of them stayed silent to wait for Ling Xiao to speak out and see how he would explain.
Ling Xiao withdrew his smile and his face became very serious. He directed his gaze onto Li Chongqian and Lan Zhenfeng as he said gloomily, "Did both of you bring the gifts here today?"
As Ling Xiao just finished speaking those words, numerous questions appeared in everyone's mind. How could this brat ask something out of nowhere like that, asking people if they brought gifts while they were here for his life?
Both people didn't talk but just gave out a heavy grunt.
"I see that you both haven't brought any gifts. So don't think of leaving this place today," Ling Xiao replied plainly.
"You maniac!" Both the elders stood up in a short moment and shot out two waves of spiritual power rushing toward Ling Xiao. These waves weren't like the ones before to scare off people, these were realistic. Even Xuan warriors could be directly impacted by this and wounded.
Right at the moment Ling Cang wanted to protect Ling Xiao, there was an old voice that resounded outside the room, "Who dares to oppress my disciple!"
"Old Master, if you did not come, perhaps this super handsome disciple of yours would have been killed." Ling Xiao yelled out loud.
The grand superior elder was here!
Among the inner court, everyone had come up with this thought.
The spirit of Li Chongqian and Lan Zhenfeng immediately dissipated, and in contrast, they were pushed back by a few steps.
Everyone who watched the situation appeared quite terrified. The grand superior elder had taken action!
"Respectfully welcome the grand superior elder!" Ling Cang led the group to bow respectfully. It was then followed by the Ling family's elders after hearing the shout.
The grand superior elder crossed his arms behind his back and walked slowly inside the inner court. His eyes, which used to be dim and unclear, suddenly became penetrating as he scanned around in all directions. Eventually, his glance stopped on the heads of Li and Lan family.
The heads of Li and Lan family exchanged looks with the grand superior elder. They trembled with a timid appearance. Eventually, both braced themselves to greet the grand superior elder, "Ling Old Master!"
The grand superior elder just grunted without talking, as he walked toward the seats next to the head and sat down. Only then did he proclaim, "Whoever dares to touch my disciple, I'll eliminate his whole family."
Once done, the grand superior elder said no more but closed his eyes to maintain his aura.
At this moment, those led by the second elder lowered their head in guilt. They had finally seen which side the grand superior elder took, so their hearts and support for the second elder started to wane.
Both the second and fifth elder didn't dare to breathe heavily. They quietly retreated to their seats.
Only then could Ling Cang finally exhale as he felt a sense of relief on behalf of Ling Xiao.
The one who felt glad the most would be no other than Ling Xiao. From the start, he had sent for the grand superior elder. Even though Ling Cang would protect him, in case there was too much pressure, it would be a shame if he were to be executed. Thus, he was pulling out the tiger's skin for this long to wait for the grand superior elder's arrival. Until then, he really couldn't feel calm.
"It's good that everyone taken their seats. Now, let Ling Xiao explain a bit as to what has happened in reality." Ling Cang took this opportunity to voice out.
Ling Xiao waited until everyone had completely seated down to tell the story from beginning to the end, within which there were additional details added here and there, of course.
"Chief, all the elders, you all hear this: my step-sister, and also the step-great granddaughter of the Old Master, were kidnapped to become prostitutes. How could this kind of thing be tolerated? Is it that the people of the Ling family are all cowards? Of course not, so I immediately went to convince Li family's lady to release people, having said that I am from the Ling family. However, she said that even if the great immortal elder of Ling family was requesting, she would not release people. She even called for Lam family's young master to come and kill me. In order to protect myself, I had to reluctantly defend. Lam family's young master was at Xuan warrior level, while I was only an intermediate Xuan scholar. Thus, how could I be able to kill him, if not for the timely appearance of Tiger Six and Tiger Seven; otherwise, I would be dead and wouldn't be capable of standing here today to tell all of you of this tragic story." Ling Xiao crossed his arms behind his back, and adopted the posture of a storyteller as he casually shook his head and squeezed his fist.
"Definitely nonsense! Clearly it was you who killed Kuang Shen!" Lan Zhenfeng would naturally not believe in such fallacious claims by Ling Xiao. There seemed to be quite a number of witnesses at the site and the situation was definitely not as what Ling Xiao said.
Ling Xiao didn't pay attention to Lan Zhenfeng's words as he continued to pretend being pitiful, "After Lan family's young master had been killed by both Tiger Six and Tiger Seven, I wanted to tell Li lady to apologize to my stepsister to end things. Not only had Li lady not respected us, she even cursed my step-sister as a little bitch and mentioned that our Ling family was just head-retreated black turtle that was all impotent, and only by killing her would prove our impotency!" Up until here, Ling Xiao paused for a moment before he continued. "I'm a man from Ling family, and of course with his manhood, so how could I be a shrunken black turtle? Thus, there was only one way of killing her to prove that every man of the Ling family were potent. Don't all of you think so too?"
Ling Xiao said it with such honest emotions, so quite a number of elders nodded in agreement with his words while their gazes were still directed towards the head of Li family, filled with hatred. After all, they were all elders of the top rank family in the Jiangxi City, so how could they bear being called a shrunken black turtle by a child. Thus, they could only direct their hatred on Li Chongqian.
"Such partial words, you could just say anyhow you'd like!" Li Chongqian shouted angrily.
"Whether those were partial words or not, let's wait for a while, then we'll know. Third uncle, have you brought the people here?" Ling Xiao replied casually before he called towards the door.
"They are here." Ling Tao replied and then brought four people forward.
Everyone looked suspiciously at Ling Xiao, not knowing what Ling Xiao wanted to do.
"This man here is the owner of fabric shop, do you remember her?" Ling Xiao pointed at an old man about fifty years old. Surprisingly, he was the owner of the fabric store from yesterday.
The owner glanced at Bai Yu Xi nearby and quickly nodded, "Yes, I recognize her. Yesterday, she arrived to sell fabric at my store. When she walked out, she had carelessly bumped into Miss Qing and was hit by her. Then, Miss Qing and Lan family's young master took her away."
The shop owner replied miserably. Even if it was Ling or Li family, he dared not to cause any mistake as killing him was so easy. Yet, he had to stand as a witness. Fortunately, this young master agreed that he would receive protection from Ling family. This might help his business later on as well.
Then, it was Xiaomei, Bai Yu Xi and Solitary Eagle who came out to prove that it was in fact Li Qingqing who had done wrong first to receive its due justice from Ling Xiao. They also mentioned that all of these events were caused by Li Qingqing.
Once done with the testimonials from everyone, Li Chongqian felt so angry that his moustache stood upward, while Lan Zhenfeng's face was extremely ugly.
"Chief Li, Head Lan, things have already been made quite clear. Lan family's young master was the accomplice while Miss Li was the mastermind. You say, could we, people from Ling family, just let them bully us, or would you have told me to open my eyes widely and just watch my stepsister being turned into a prostitute?" Ling Xiao stepped forward to look at Li Chongqian and Lan Zhenfeng and questioned.
Both people just coldly grunted, yet they didn't want to talk.
Ling Xiao once again directed his eyes on both the second and fifth elder, "Both elders, do you still think my killing is wrong? Still think I have affected Ling family's benefits?"
Both the elders' faces were so ugly that they also didn't talk further. From the start, they didn't quite understand the situation, so they just reckoned that Ling Xiao had acted recklessly after he had become the disciple of the grand superior elder. Then, as he seemed to also find fault with Li and Lan family, they took this chance to arrest Ling Xiao and then attacked Ling Cang's party as well. Regretfully, no matter how much calculations they had made, they couldn't predict that the grand superior elder would cover for this boy. He just walked out of to the inner court to protect Ling Xiao. Moreover, if it was according to Ling Xiao's words, it would be the people of Li family who were at fault, and Lan family's young master - an accomplice. They were both from Ling family, so until this point, there was obviously no possibility that they would help outsiders to bully family members. Even with a hundred lives, they wouldn't dare to. Losing support from other elders would make their plan to reclaim the throne much more difficult.
"Since things have been explained clearly, do Chief Li and Head Lan have anything else to say?" Ling Cang queried.
"Chief Ling, sorry that we have been bothering you. Off we go, Head Lan!" Li Chongqian knew that the balance of this situation wasn't tipped in their favor. Moreover, in fact, he had foreseen failure, yet he just wanted to observe the attitude of Ling family today. As he had clearly understood the internal conflict within Ling family, he calculated that he could employ it a bit more to his favor to destroy Ling Xiao. Eliminating Ling family would just be sooner or later.
Li Chongqian and Lan Zhenfeng were about leave, yet Ling Xiao spoke again, "Two of you, don't you intend to compensate anything for my stepsister? Yesterday, she was extremely scared."
These words from Ling Xiao almost made them both fall flat onto the ground.
People had been killed by him, and now he even reached out asking for benefits. This brat was so insolent.
"Before tomorrow, send people to bring here a thing no less than second-level mid-range, or else I'll come to your door myself for it." The grand superior elder suddenly said it out.
Hiss!
All the Ling family's elders inhaled a breath of cold air, thinking that the grand superior elder had pampered Ling Xiao too much!
This time, Ling Xiao had badly influenced both families and caused both second and fifth elder to lose face. His future road would be thornier.
However, would he keep those obstacles as such?
The answer was no!