Chapter 114: Extra Reward (1/2)
[Volume 3 - The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace]
The unforeseen event came suddenly, and shocked everyone present!
Qiqi was also temporarily startled, puzzled as to what was going on.
She heard Qianye speaking with a cold and apathetic voice, “I am a commoner, and I am only at rank four. So what? Didn’t you want to teach this bastard of a slum a lesson? Then stand up and continue!”
The young man’s limbs twitched as he struggled several times in attempt to climb to his feet. In the end, he collapsed on the ground and fainted.
The empire had very strong martial custom, and a duel in a feast was nothing to be surprised at. After the surprise, the initial cheers came mostly from girls. The glittering looks they threw at Qianye were both hot and bold. On the other hand, most of the young noblemen wore unhappy looks on their faces. The hatred born from Qiqi holding his arm hadn’t yet faded, and now that they heard that Qianye was actually just a commoner, most of them felt as if they had been offended.
Qianye raised his right arm. The restrictive formal wear was a major hindrance, so he decided to just pull off the gemstone cuff links and undid his upper garment. Then, he swept a glance across the young man and his few other companions and said coldly, “Who else will come forward?”
Qiqi’s eyes glistened with extraordinary splendor as she put on the appearance of someone awaiting a good show. Yuan Zeyu shook his head and said nothing.
The few youths froze where they stood and looked worriedly at their fallen companion and Qianye. For a moment, they weren’t sure how they should deal with this situation. Their companion, who had been taken out in one punch was a rank five Fighter, and not only was he the highest ranking fighter among them, he also had the highest martial force. They could not understand at all why their companion had been defeated this quickly, but they at least knew that they would only be useless even if they had gone up stage.
It was at this moment a furious voice rang from the southern side of the crowd inside the hall. A young noble man cried out, “This is not the place where a mere rank four Fighter like you to act imprudently and arrogantly! Miss Qiqi should understand if I teach you a lesson!”
Qianye raised his eyes and looked towards that direction. Then he said in a straightforward manner, “Then come!”
The youth was absolutely furious, and he took a great step forwards. Suddenly, a hand pressed down on his shoulder, and he could not longer move at all. When he turned back to look, he was stunned, “Cousin?”
A slightly older noble young man sharing about a third of this youth’s appearance appeared beside him. The latter first nodded his head at Qianye before he turned around to scold the youth coldly, “You sure are all grown up now. A rank six versus a rank four? Hmph! Are you trying to throw away all of the Shen Family’s face?” once done, he added strength to his hand and dragged the impulsive noble youth back into the crowd.
On the second floor, Qiqi blew a whistle and said, “Shen Rongan is truly a fox! His younger cousin may be rank six, but if he truly went on the field he may not necessarily be able to beat my little Qianye!”
Yuan Zeyu nodded slowly and said, “The little fellow you bring has extraordinary strength, and his origin power is condensed to a point that is rarely seen. The common rank six Fighter really isn’t his match if they were even a little careless.”
Downstairs, the hall had completely fallen into awkward silence.
Shen Rongan’s act of pulling his cousin away had poured a cold bucket of water on many hot blooded and eager noble youths’ heads.
Most of the people who were qualified to participate in the mayor’s feast were not idiots. Qianye’s punch earlier was fierce and violent, taking out even a rank five Fighter in a single strike. Moreover, the guy on the floor wasn’t the kind of rubbish who only had origin power and nothing else. Here in this place where prestigious houses gather, who would dare cause trouble without a bit of confidence in their own skills?
Rank five Fighters no longer dared to take part, whereas rank six Fighters would lose face regardless if they win or lose.
Qiqi said smilingly, “Uncle Yuan, sorry for messing up your feast. I’ll make amends some other day!” she said this, but her face was filled with jubilance as she stared at the young man by the wall being carried up by his companions.
Yuan Zeyu smiled bitterly. He had also noticed that the person whom Qianye took out was Ye Mulan’s cousin. Thank goodness Ye Mulan had walked off furiously due to Qiqi, or another conflict would most certainly arise and make the situation difficult to mop up.
A moment later, Qiqi left the feast along with Qianye ahead of time. After they sat into the silver car, Qiqi immediately asked about the cause and effect with great cheer.
In reality, the situation was very simple. Ye Mulan’s cousin brother had suddenly appeared when the crowd were unable to inquire any substantive information from Qianye. He had asked Qianye immediately if he was a commoner, obviously having obtained this information from a certain channel.
To Qianye, he could choose not to reveal his personal information, but he did not plan to lie for it either. Therefore, he had admitted this honestly.
Then, Ye Mulan’s cousin immediately taunted Qianye and said that he was just a poor man born in the slums, capable of relying on his face to earn a living and nothing else. He said that god knows how many medicines he ate under Qiqi’s expenses to have grown to rank four.
Qianye felt no need to waste words with such a person. He simply asked coldly, “You think you’re very strong, don’t you?”
The young man, a rank five Fighter answered with a cold smile, “Of course! What, you want to fight?”
“Okay.”
Then, Qianye breathed, gathered his strength, punched out as heavy as a mountain and as fast as lightning. He knocked out the young man with a single punch. If Qianye hadn’t withdrawn his strength at a suitable time, if Qianye had aimed at a vital spot, this one punch could’ve beaten his victim into a near death state.
Qianye’s explanation was very simple, but Qiqi obviously hadn’t heard enough yet, “Is that all? That can’t be all! You’ve fought in a dinner feast! What else did he say?”
Qianye smiled bitterly, “He said… that I am a bastard of the slums.”
“This is…” Qiqi was a little puzzled. It was just a common swear phrase, so why had Qianye reacted so strongly towards it?
After a moment of silence, Qianye said, “I grew up in the landfill. I never knew who my parents were.”
Qiqi’s smile was immediately withdrawn. Then, it slowly spread out once more like a blooming spring flower as she said with a smile that was not like a smile, “Never mind. You have made me very happy tonight, so you will have a reward. Close your eyes!”
Qianye closed his eyes in puzzlement. A whiff of fragrance entered his nose, and he felt a soft and wet touch on his left cheek. He was given a kiss!
This little interlude during their return journey was quickly put at the back of Qianye’s mind. He was no longer surprised by this Miss of extraordinary behavior, hobby, and even sexual orientation no matter what she did.
A Miss of her status had obtained everything too easily, so people like her often had strange eccentricities in the pursuit of excitement. However, Qianye did not think that her private hobbies have anything to do with him. What he needed to do was to complete his mission well and be worthy of the generous reward he received.
Qianye spent four days to complete the basic training of etiquette in advance. Since Qiqi had not given him any new orders, he then split his everyday time table into two major categories, cultivation and battlefield analysis.
During the later days, Qianye spent all of the medicines, but found himself still a distance away from officially breaking through to rank five. During this time, Qianye had only seen Qiqi once. She had suddenly asked him whether he needed more medicine, either because she noticed that he had not ignited a new origin node despite using a sufficient amount of medicine or randomly bringing up a topic. However, Qianye turned her down because he did not wish to receive too many things that he should not have received.
During the time beyond cultivation, Qianye continuously read up on a bunch of intel and quickly formed a rough understanding of the surrounding area of Xichang City.