Chapter 465: Huang’er Makes Her Move
Jiang Chen was in complete readiness as he stood in front of the door. The aura of a lone spear holding back the entirety of the enemy forces radiated from him alone. He would be just as calm and reserved as usual even if the wind howled like horde of hungry beasts, rain lashed down in an unending storm, or ten thousand troops thundered towards him..
Suddenly, his God’s Eye flickered as he shouted, “Be open and righteous if you’ve come to make trouble! A vaunted Regal Pill Palace core disciple like you shouldn’t act like a petty ruffian in a marketplace, stirring up an ignorant mob to cause a ruckus! I feel disgusted for you even if you don’t!” By the time he was done speaking, his God’s Eye had completed a sweep of the surroundings, up to five miles in every direction.
Silhouettes flickered in the distance from all directions, shooting towards him. Clearly, Yan Hongtu had quite a bit of charisma. Whether these people were here of their own accord or not, the influence he commanded in the Soaring Clouds area was obvious.
“Any more of you? Come on out!” Jiang Chen snorted coldly.
All the core disciples parted to the sides, leaving a path down the center. in the middle. Standing at the end of the path was a young man in a silver robe. His eyes were as sharp as daggers, and the combination of his aquiline nose and sharp eyes gave him a sinister inclination. He took long strides down the path as several core disciples formed an escort for him.
“Senior brother Yan.”
“Greetings to senior brother Yan.”
“Welcome, senior brother Yan! Jiang Chen, how dare you not quickly welcome the senior brother?”
Jiang Chen flicked a faint glance at this overweening senior brother. He was thoroughly enjoying lording it over this scene, taking it for granted. It was apparent that he was used to being feted and quite enjoyed the treatment of ten thousand people fawning on him.
This person’s cultivation level should be at fifth or sixth level origin realm. Although he hadn’t reached the sky origin realm, this was more than enough to hold an absolute advantage in the Soaring Clouds area. The heart gives birth to the appearance, and judging from the looks of this person, he was the sort to seek revenge for the slightest grievance, an exceedingly ruthless and vicious man. He was the kind to thoroughly exhaust all the methods to achieve his goals. Whoever dared cross him or offend him would undoubtedly face his unscrupulous revenge.
He must have purposefully planned this gathering today to suppress Jiang Chen. But a hint of a smile tugged at the latter’s lips. He obviously wasn’t going to play along.
When Yan Hongtu saw that Jiang Chen was so haughty as to not express anything at the sight of him, he was even more incensed, feeling as though his throne had just been severely challenged.
“You’re that Jiang Chen?” Yan Hongtu walked up and looked at Jiang Chen with a supercilious smile, an arrogant look in his eyes.
“Yan Hongtu, is it? I have no interest in wasting words with you. Bring out your weapons if you want to really make a fuss. Who are you trying to disgust by compelling these ignorant folk to come make trouble?” Jiang Chen was completely exasperated by these paltry tricks. He didn’t even have the interest in breathing the same air as characters like these.
What a stereotypically petty villain.
“How dare you, Jiang Chen, call senior brother Yan by his name!
“You dare disrespect senior brother Yan in the Soaring Clouds area, do you wish to die??”
“Senior brother Yan is the master of the Soaring Clouds area and is showing you face in coming to your residence! Do you understand the rules at all, crude little bumpkin?!”
Yan Hongtu didn’t need to say anything. His underlings spoke all that needed to be said, denouncing Jiang Chen loudly in an unbridled attempt to kiss up to Yan Hongtu.
Jiang Chen laughed coldly. Toadies like these could found everywhere. At this point, he was used to the sight of them. Jiang Chen’s eyes flicked up to rest on Yan Hongtu’s face, a mocking tone to his voice as he said, “I, Jiang Chen, only respect true talent and those with a laudable spirit. Are any of you worthy of my respect?”
Yan Hongtu smiled through his anger, “Jiang Chen, I’ve heard of your name and your arrogance, so don’t say I’m bullying you. These followers are also disciples of the Regal Pill Palace, each with their own dignity. Bringing in any random stray cat or dog off the streets into the Regal Pill Palace is an affront to all of us, a blatant disregard for the rules!”
“Rules? What rules? Does the sect have such a rule?” Jiang Chen snorted derisively.
“The sect doesn’t, but the Soaring Clouds area does. Even if this area doesn’t, then it exists because I say it does!”
Yan Hongtu’s tone was tyrannical, leaving no room for argument, “Even the errand boys in the Soaring Clouds are of the sky spirit realm. Although you don’t think it’s humiliating to bring in riffraff from the street, this is our dignity on the line!”
“Right! Jiang Chen, you’re throwing away face for our area!”
“We can’t let this kid wreck the rules!”
“Jiang Chen, there are plenty of inner disciples available if you want to search for followers. Bringing in these starys is blasphemy towards this sacred land!”
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“The Soaring Clouds area will never allow such trash to exist here!”
These core disciples were obviously colluding with each other. Their heckling rose and fell, a tide of verbal haranguing landing on Jiang Chen.
As if he’d heard nothing, Jiang Chen’s brow arched, and he barked, “Shut up!” His voice tolled like a bell, stunning the raucous crowd into silence.
Jiang Chen smiled indifferently, “What the hell do any of my followers have to do with you lot? I only know the sect’s rules and don’t know what kind of bullshit rules this area has. If such a rule truly exists, change it immediately. If it doesn’t, go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. Run away as hard as you’re scheming about me, now!”
Yan Hongtu spread out his hands and leered, “Jiang Chen, are you truly going to go against the tides and offend the entire Soaring Clouds area?” He was quite devious with his words, deliberating setting the situation up as Jiang Chen against the entire area.
Jiang Chen was about to speak when light, peaceful footsteps sounded. He only needed the briefest of moments to know that those agile footsteps belonged to Miss Huang’er.
She’d already walked up next to him whilst Jiang Chen was still being surprised. “Yan Hongtu, is it? You target the followers with every word you say. How about this, since all your followers are here, I’ll play one song. If any of them can remain standing here at the end of my song, then we’ll leave. If on the contrary, then don’t make an issue out of us again in the future.” Huang’er’s voice was ethereal and otherworldly, as if a valley of orchids or a clear spring.
Everyone was surprised by this voice. When they saw that the speaker was an exceedingly ugly young girl, this made them feel even more strange.
Huang’er ignored all of their reactions and hesitation to flip her hand over. An ancient zither hovered in midair, and her slender, flawless fingers began to play. Strong notes started to reverberate through the air in short order, violently thrashing to form a melody that raged with violence. Shining spears and armored horses appeared, along with the crashing of thunder, avalanches from the highest mountains, and a tsunami that surged high enough to blot out the sky.
These killing notes seemed to embody a certain type of magic to them, cutting straight through a person’s soul. A thought struck Jiang Chen as he looked at Miss Huang’er’s fingers fly. He was incredibly astonished to discover a terrifying attack on the soul held within the melody.
This formless attack instantly destroyed the mental defenses of the cultivators with a mediocre strength of heart. Caught up in their enormous fear, the illusions trampled roughshod over them.
In addition, this kind of attack wasn’t just an illusionary one, but a tangible one using the sound waves themselves. A dual attack on the soul and the body, indeed, some of the followers with low cultivations began to scream, covering their ears as agonized wails tore themselves free of their throats.
However, this kind of attack wouldn’t be evaded just because one covered their ears. This kind of attacking melody seeped into every pore, every inch of their skin was fair game.
As the howls of misery grew louder, some of the followers began to flee in disarray. More and more followers escaped when they couldn’t contend against the notes.
The courtyard was deserted in little less than half an hour. Not a single follower could be seen, and that was when Huang’er’s white jade-like fingers lightly pressed down on the zither, abuptly muting the notes that rang through the air.
As the music stopped, some of the core disciples with lower levels of training felt their chests lighten, as a mountain’s worth of pressure had suddenly disappeared. The blue sky that’d seemed ready to collapse in on them regained its clear sunniness.
All of them secretly wiped away sweat, their hearts still palpitating in fear and the drums of retreat starting to beat in their minds. They’d hadn’t necessarily been of one mind with Yan Hongtu previously, and had come because they were quite afraid of Yan Hongtu. They feared not showing him face.
But now, who was willing to lead the charge for him in the face of such a strong, domineering power? If that ugly girl had kept playing just now, even their mental defenses may not have held on. Once their strength of heart was damaged, progress would be quite difficult in the origin realm.
The desire to leave rapidly grew in most of them. They were unwilling to become embroiled in this conflict. The more astute ones even observed that Yan Hongtu’s position as the local tyrant might be severely impacted by Jiang Chen, or perhaps even utterly destroyed!
Huang’er clasped her hands together, and the ancient zither vanished as if she’d turned a trick. She smiled softly at Jiang Chen and quietly retreated to the side.
When Jiang Chen saw that Huang’er’s music had scared off a thousand sky spirit realm cultivators, he too applauded with hearty laughter. He looked at Yan Hongtu, feeling even more lighthearted than he had before. “What do you say to that, Yan Hongtu?”
Yan Hongtu would’ve never thought that Jiang Chen would have such a strong follower by his side. This had suddenly placed him in an extremely passive position. “Hmph! Even if this follower is strong, the others are weak. That is the truth.” He snorted coldly, obviously not about to let the matter rest.
Jiang Chen burst out in laughter, “If we’re talking in terms of strength, then doesn’t this mean all of the followers in the Rosy Valley can get the hell out in front of mine?”
Yan Hongtu had no comeback to that.
Jiang Chen’s follower could indeed sweep all the others away in terms of strength. Their banner and protest was completely ineffectual in that manner. “Jiang Chen, I can let the matter of the followers go. However, you’re creating quite a storm in just a few hours of your arrival in the Rosy Valley. As the master of the area, I will not allow you to publicly flaunt our rules and customs!”
Jiang Chen was quite ticked off by this bringing up of nebulous rules over and over again. “Yan Hongtu, think of some new tricks if you want to make trouble. What rules, what customs? Who the hell are you? Who said you make the rules here? My rule is simple, I do not attack unless I am attacked. If you attack, I’ll return it to you tenfold! So tell me, do you want to enter a contest of civil subjects or martial dao? Hurry up and throw down the gauntlet, I don’t have time to waste on you.”
He truly didn’t think much of a character like Yan Hongtu. The others in the area may fear him like they did a tiger, but he was nothing more than a capering clown in Jiang Chen’s eyes!