Chapter 122: Letters from Marshal Li (2/2)

Unfortunately, what they could do was only to stare at the stones blankly at the moment.

Xu Yong took six Spiritual Stones out of the bag and placed them into another bag he retrieved from an inner pocket. The surrounding Spiritual Energy of Fire gradually dissipated as the Spiritual Energy of Fires was put away.

Xu Yong's bag was made from materials which contained snow silk from Tianshan Mountain and had the special function of insulating spiritual energy. It was a rare item, but was not that precious for a well-known family like the Wu's.

Due to the discovery of the underground fire vein, the Wu Family gave one to every Elder who came to Zhonghe Prefecture.

Putting the bag back inside his inner pocket, Xu Yong handed the rest of Spiritual Stones to Junior Leopard with a smile. ”You're still young. There are many chances in the future to use these Spiritual Stones for your practice. Keep them yourself!”

”But...”

”What? Chief Wang gave them to you. Are you afraid of being robbed?”

”I don't mean that!” Junior Leopard smiled. He thought for a while and once again passed the bag to Xu Yong. ”I've received a lot from Chief Wang and these Spiritual Stones are not that useful to me at the moment. In addition, I'm a scatterbrain and I don't have the habit of keeping stuff. Why don't you keep them for me? They'll be perfectly safe!”

Xu Yong muttered to himself and nodded. He took the Spiritual Stones in front of these jealous Elders. ”That's fine too. I'll keep them for you. You can come to me whenever you need them!”

”Please do keep them for me, teacher!” Junior Leopard excitedly replied.

”Right, I heard that you came out of the underground fire vein with Chief Wang yesterday. Why are you back now?” Xu Yong asked.

Junior Leopard looked displeased when this topic was brought up. ”I've been sitting on the fire vein passageway for three days and nights without eating or drinking. I almost starved to death after a few fights and fainted once I got out of there. So Chief Wang took me to the General Mansion, which is the Guard County Manor, for a rest. When I had just awakened, I heard you're here, so I came here to meet you!” Junior Leopard said. ”Oh, right! General Li asked me to hand you two letters. One is for you and the other is for the Family Head!” He took two letters out of his inner pocket and handed them over with both hands.

”Letters?”

Xu Yong's expression shifted. He had heard about General Li Yuan, but that was it. He had no connections to him, not to mention a fellowship. Moreover, he had nothing to do with the Wu Family. Why would he write to him and the Family Head for no reason?

Opening the envelope, he took out the letter and took a glance. He looked surprised and could not help looking up at Junior Leopard before returning his attention to the letter. He read the letter carefully from the beginning to the end.

Everybody watched his facial expression change from surprised to complicated, from cheerful to excite. Finally he calmed down and put down the letter slowly, but lost in thought.

”Elder Xu, what exactly is the letter about?”

Eventually, one Elder asked curiously.

Xu Yong did not try to hide anything and passed the letter to the Elder.

The Elder took over the letter and held it up to show the other Elders. The faces of those Elders were as capricious as Xu Yong was. They unexpectedly sighed in unison, all of them looking at Junior Leopard with a deeply conflicted expression.

”Elder Xu, you really do have an excellent disciple!”

The oldest Elder, also the most qualified one, sighed deeply as he patted Xu Yong on the shoulder and returned the letter to him. He did not say anything else.

There were two major points in the letter. First, General Li Yuan greatly admired Junior Leopard's courage and wanted him as his personal guard. Second, General Li Li will be the new Admiral of Zhonghe Prefecture. Though there no official letter of appointment yet, he had received the news from other sources. With his new role, he would assume military power with a permanent presence in Zhonghe City. Then he would have a substantial say in the underground fire vein.

This was a temptation, an undisguised temptation!

The Admiral of Zhonghe Prefecture had a strong say on the underground fire vein. If Junior Leopard really became his personal guard, would it not be easy for the Wu Family to benefit tremendously from the fire vein through him?

Though Yunzhou was far away from Zhonghe Prefecture, the benefits the Wu's could acquire would not be a penny lesser than any of the other three families. Instead, it would much more than what they could get.

As for the letter for the Family Head Wu Yansheng, it was totally out of respect. Anyway Junior Leopard came from the Wu Family, so he had better talk to the Family Head.

Of course both Li Yuan and Xu Yong clearly knew that Wu Yansheng would not reject such an offer.