152 Chapter 151: Discussion (1/2)
Liang Shao Yang's expression darkened. He tried to retaliate, but found that he couldn't move his right arm at all. To his immense horror, he discovered that his right side had been frozen all the way to the bone, with frosty yin qi clogging up his qi circulation and gradually seeping and spreading across his whole body.
Unable to dissipate the frosty yin qi, he wisely decided to retreat for now. Instead, he merely nodded his head and silently passed Elder Zhao and Tang Qi Hong. Without another word, he hastily departed, disappearing from view.
Clearly he was in a hurry to expel the frosty yin qi that had infected his body.
”You managed to force him back?” Tang Qi Hong turned to stare at me, impressed. Her lips curled into a curious smile. ”If I'm not mistaken, Liang Shao Yang is at the peak of the Qi Fusion Stage, perhaps at the beginning level of the Pure Spirit Stage. You're only mid-level Qi Fusion Stage at most. How were you able to defeat him?”
”That's the problem with you people,” I retorted, irritated. ”Stages, realms, levels…all of you are obsessed with quantifying, categorizing and grouping people, without realizing that in reality all these elements cannot be measured and categorized so neatly. If strength was all that mattered, then why is a cobra able to defeat an elephant? Why can a mongoose defeat a cobra? How are honey badgers able to fight lions?”
Clearly nobody had any clue what I was talking about, which went further to prove the absurdity of the situation. Honestly, they were too rigid in their thinking. Amount of qi and brute force wasn't everything. Technique mattered, as did tactics, intelligence, speed and a whole range of other factors that certainly didn't include ”levels”, ”realms” or ”stages.”
”He had the advantage of attacking first, and he took Liang Shao Yang completely by surprise. Not to mention, he used the legendary Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula. It doesn't matter how much qi you have, if your qi is clogged up and circulates slowly because of the cold, you won't be able to use much of your qi or execute your techniques properly.”
To our surprise, it wasn't Elder Zhao who answered but the middle-aged lady. She was approaching us with an elegant smile on her weathered face.
”Heh…”
Tang Qi Hong glanced at me, still surprised. She then shook her head, bemused.
”Even so, you were too reckless. You shouldn't have started a conflict with Liang Shao Yang. He won't let this go, I'm sure.”
”What is he going to do?” I snorted dismissively. ”Kill me?”
Sure, if this was an ancient China-type of setting, or a xianxia story, or if I was a protagonist, then Liang Shao Yang would waste a ridiculous amount of time, effort and resources into eradicating me even though I was nothing more than an insignificant nuisance…all because I ”offended” him. Such a reason was so absurd that I suspected all these ”that loser offended me” or ”that weakling doesn't know his place” were merely stupid excuses contrived out of the authors' asses, and the only real reason why these antagonists tried everything within their power to kill the person even though it was highly impractical and not worth the trouble was simply because he was the protagonist. Period.
Li Mu from I Was Trash or Qin Lie from Spirit Realm or Lin Dong from Wu Dong Qian Kun or Li Fu Chen from Eternal Reverence or Lin Feng from Peerless Martial God or even Meng Hao from I Shall Steal the Heavens. Oh, don't even remind me of that last one. Most of that story was spent describing how Meng Hao got chased by various people, hunted down, him hiding, then growing powerful, and then killing his pursuers…only for him to end up being chased by a new group of people and forced to run around all over again.
The author should change the title of that story to I Shall Flee the Heavens instead.
Then again, I hadn't stolen anything yet either…the only reason why the title of my own adventure was as such was because Steal rhymed with Seal.
”Don't worry,” Elder Zhao assured Tang Qi Hong. ”The Blood Blades won't allow Shao Yang to do anything rash. Even if he's a favored head disciple, he's still bound to the rules of the sect. he can't just go around killing anybody for no good reason.”
Tang Qi Hong frowned. ”I hope nothing untoward happens…”
I did not say anything and instead silently glanced at the direction where Liang Shao Yang had vanished in.
Admittedly, even if Liang Shao Yang wasn't stupid enough to do something as reckless as killing me, he wasn't going to let this slight slide. I had half-expected him to behave like the typical arrogant young master and…you know, retaliate. I had anticipated Liang Shao Yang to become furious like all those typical arrogant young masters and rashly fight with their most powerful techniques in order to kill the person who ”offended” them.
However, even though he had only suffered a minor injury at worst, Liang Shao Yang chose to withdraw. A wise tactical decision, one that he quickly made when he realized that half of his body was paralyzed by ice.
Yeah, this guy is definitely not your average arrogant young master or one of those cliché hotheaded antagonists.
I was actually impressed and my estimation of Liang Shao Yang rose. This guy was definitely among the intelligent ones.
A big improvement from the idiot who pulled reckless, stupid stunts like murdering Hao Ying and tried to kill me with bugs over a year ago. I had thought he would still do meaningless things like attack me and slaughter me in front of Elder Zhao and the rest, but it seemed that he had somewhat matured. An antagonist actually growing up and realizing that his previous actions were stupid?! It was totally unheard of in xianxia stories. Normally they existed solely to be cannon fodder for the protagonist to defeat.
Then again, Liang Shao Yang had no reason to clash with Zhu Jiao, so there was room for him to grow instead of being disposed off like every arrogant young master or villainous antagonist that Zhu Jiao was forced to destroy.
Even though I believed all the realms and qi measurement systems to be meaningless, Liang Shao Yang surely believed in them and stuck by their rules as rigidly as everyone else in this world. So for him to refrain from attacking and retreat even though he was aware that he was supposedly of a higher stage than I was, and because he realized that he was at a disadvantage with half his body frozen, showed that he was neither rash nor stupid. If it was the past Liang Shao Yang, he might have tried to stab me in the back, even within sight of Elder Zhao.
Perhaps it was because he had spent a year in the position of a favored head disciple that he realized that he had too much to lose over a single moment of reckless self-satisfaction. He didn't want to lose everything just because he moved thoughtlessly in the heat of the moment.
For now, he was the most developed and mature opponent that I had the misfortune to face.
”Let's go. Ah Mo is inside.”
The middle-aged lady informed us with a gentle smile. Exchanging a glance, Elder Zhao, Tang Qi Hong and I stepped into the magnificent house.
Inside the main hall, leading to the workshop, we found a tall and thin middle-aged man dressed in a wrinkled white suit, his tie hanging loosely around his open collar, and his jacket unbuttoned and swaying to the side. He had been engrossed in reading a book, and didn't seem to have heard the commotion unfolding outside.
Honestly, I doubted he would care about the petty squabbles between young disciples. He clearly had better things to do with his time than to pay attention to the trivial conflicts and rivalries of the younger generation.
However, upon catching sight of Tang Qi Hong, he immediately placed the book on the desk and raised his head, a curious smile spreading across his face. Brightening up, he rose to his feet.
”Qi Hong! It's been a while since you've come here.”
”Greetings, First Elder.” Tang Qi Hong bowed respectfully. I hurriedly followed suit and bowed deeply.
”Greetings, First Elder,” I echoed.
”First Elder,” Elder Zhao also spoke up, and Elder Hai acknowledged him with a nod. He then turned to Tang Qi Hong.
”What brings you here, Qi Hong? Do you have something to ask about blacksmithing and Spirit Engraving?”
”As a matter of fact, I do.” Tang Qi Hong tilted her head slightly toward the direction where Elder Zhao and I stood. ”It has something to do with why you requested Elder Zhao and Fei Wu to come to your workshop.”
”Ah.” Elder Hai Mo smiled and swept his gaze over Elder Zhao and me. ”Very good. Then there's no need to waste any time. Let's get to the point. You are Fei Wu, right?”
He gazed upon me, his eyes gentle yet firm. I nodded.
”Yes, First Elder.”
”I heard from Miss Su that you have a few hundred battle-automata. You were trying to sell them to the sect, correct?”
Miss Su must be the lady receptionist I approached in the sec admin building this morning, or so I assumed. If that was the case, then there was nothing to hide. So I nodded in affirment.