Chapter 335 (1/2)

Before they parted, something had happened.

After XiMen Sa and Ling Tian both cupped hands in farewell, Ling Chi had taken a step forward and greeted, ”The young n.o.ble of the XiMen family certainly is good stuff, not only possessing an elegant bearing, but also very good looking, just like a young lady. No wonder that's why my house's young n.o.ble feels so much in common with you!” This sentence caused the expressions of XiMen Sa's subordinates to contort. Ling Chi seemed like he had met his mother-in-law but chose to address her as Aunt instead. Other than trying to be funny and doing something pointless, he also sounded extremely offensive! Looks of fury appeared on a couple of their faces, but they wisely did not move for fear of Ling Tian's counterattack.

XiMen Sa chuckled, ”This brother is overly praising me. To talk about favoritism from young n.o.ble Ling, how could I compare to the five of you? From this, I can see that the people in Sky Bearing are the best looking. Hmm… let's put it this way, the last time I went over to Sky Bearing, I met a very interesting friend called Dog Egg or whatever. After not meeting for such a long time, I wonder how he's doing now.” As he spoke, XiMen Sa let out a long sigh, and said with a reminiscing tone, ”The past seems ethereal like wisps of smoke. I wonder how that Dog Egg is doing now. I remember that once in order to steal some chicken to eat, he even fell into a family's latrine pit…”

Ling Chi's face alternated between red and purple, and viciously stared at XiMen Sa. ”Young n.o.ble XiMen, who knows, you might also fall into a latrine pit one day yourself. Goodbye!” XiMen Sa burst out into laughter at this sentence.

While the upper half of his sentence was venomous, the latter half was neither here nor there. However, this gave his subordinates the impression that their young n.o.ble had wit surpa.s.sing a normal human, and allowed them a good comeback. Thus, they did not bother to nitpick his words.

Surprisingly, Ling Tian's temper was also extraordinarily good. Not only did he not rebut XiMen Sa, but he ignored it!

As Ling Tian brought Ling Chi and the others back to Yan County, Ling Tian had on a poker face but his eyes glittered with laughter. Obviously, his mood was excellent! However, Ling Chi seemed like a grouchy old person the entire journey, grinding his teeth and seeming very depressed. Ling Yun, Ling Nineteen, and the others were also behaving abnormally, all rolling with laughter while on horseback, laughing so hard that their faces were cramping up.

What happened to this group, did they all go crazy?!

The truth was that 'Dog Egg' was the name of Ling Chi when he was still a beggar. All those directly under Ling Tian would of course be aware of Ling Chi's most shameful point, which was also a taboo subject for him. How could Ling Chi not leave in anger after having that touchy subject unearthed? Could he even try to argue with XiMen Sa?

The reason why he did not dare to argue with XiMen Sa, and also why Ling Tian did not interfere in the end, was because XiMen Sa also went by another name: Ling Thirty!

Ling Thirty was involved in begging together with Ling Chi when they were young and was also one of the final fifty who made it past Ling Tian's training. Of course, he would be extremely familiar with such a matter! However, saying that Ling Tian treated Ling Chi and the others better compared to him, every word of this was from his heart and was full of naked jealousy! He himself would also kill to stay beside Ling Tian and accompany him, but of course, how his subordinates interpreted his words was another matter altogether!

That year Ling Tian had sent Ling Thirty over to the XiMen Aristocratic Family to be an undercover agent because he had a knack for covert operations. With his above average intelligence, coupled with the intelligence reports he always got beforehand from Ling Tian, it didn't take long for him to be noticed by the XiMen Family and he was adopted as a XiMen member. While he was named XiMen, it was only meant as a way to tie him to the family. However, now that Ling Tian had wiped out all the legitimate heirs of the XiMen Family, this 'figurehead' Ling Thirty now had free rein, and had turned into the leading figure of the younger generation of the XiMen house!

As to why Ling Thirty seemed to have cultivation on par with the five Ling brothers that accompanied Ling Tian, this was due to a miraculous panacea that the XiMen family had. Consuming the pill would greatly boost one's prowess, but the side effect was that the user would be stuck forever below the XianTian stage, unable to further improve. However, with the Great Cyclic Pellet that Ling Tian just gave to Ling Thirty, the nourishment provided by it should be able to eliminate any side effects in Ling Thirty's body, giving him a chance once more to improve!

Today's matter was also out of Ling Tian's expectations, so while he was making his deal together with Han TieXuan, he had already sent a messenger falcon out to bring an intelligence report to Ling Eight, informing him to pa.s.s the message to Ling Thirty, bidding him to rush here by the next day. Ling Thirty had thrown everything aside and rode through the night, finally reaching here on time as per the young n.o.ble's orders.

While Han TieXuan had left behind a vice general as well as a few thousand troops to clear up the spoils of war, Ling Tian did not even bother with such small fry. He intended to pa.s.s on all the spoils of war to this 'new friend' he met today, Ling Thirty.

Ling Tian had two purposes in doing this. The first was to further cement Ling Thirty's position in the XiMen Family, expanding his influence by improving his relations in the eyes of the Western Han imperial family as well as the army. After all, not everyone was worthy for Ling Tian to give away his rewards just like that. Ling Thirty's performance had always impressed Ling Tian, especially with the battle of wits previously. Not everyone would be able to do such a thing in an impromptu situation!

Secondly, since Ling Tian had already understood that Han TieXuan was a subordinate of the Yu Family, why would he allow Han TieXuan to swallow all the merits on his own? This was something Ling Tian needed to prevent at all costs!

This move was obvious to all and Ling Thirty got to take advantage of it for free. While he could be said to be courageous enough to go one-to-one against Ling Tian, he was still taking credit from the hard work that Han TieXuan had put in! However, Ling Tian was certain that the Western Han family would remain silent and split at least half of the rewards to Ling Thirty!