Chapter 61: Encountering an Attack

“Jiang Han territory... Jiang Chen?” Madame Jade murmured, chewing over this name. Suddenly, a beam of startlingly bright light shot out of those alluring eyes. “Jiang Han Territory! Jiang Chen!”

Madame Jade slapped her thigh and sighed, “Qi’er, you’ve missed out on quite a bit of fortune that would've been the making of you. Could this Jiang Chen be the young duke of the Jiang Han territory?”

“Young duke?” The girls of the Star Argus Palace had all recovered their movement ability by now, and were in no hurry to put their clothes back on since there wasn’t anyone else in the cave.

Upon hearing the words, “young duke”, some of the girls displayed lovesick expressions.

Although they were the disciples of a sect, and even the geniuses of a sect, the Star Argus Palace was after all, just a sect in the Tianhu territory.

The Tianhu territory was ranked in the lower half of the 108 dukes of the kingdom.

Whereas Jiang Han was an upper second rank dukedom, garrisoning the southern border of the kingdom. Its position was high, and its power hefty. When this position was compared to them, the former was in the heavens, and the other was on the ground.

They had all personally seen that person’s methods just now, not mentioning anything else.

Even the Lotus Harvester, who no one on this earth could seem to beat, was as if a child that had just learned how to walk in front of him. One throwing dagger was enough to end the Lotus Harvester, who had rampaged through the Tianhu territory.

“Young duke, really a young duke?” A female disciple on the left rubbed her jade shoulders as her tone turned exceedingly lovesick. “Dammit, why didn’t he look at me a few more times? Honored master, would you say this young duke has heavy tastes? He seems to like looking at you, you old woman?”

Madame Jade’s face darkened, “Am I old?”

“Hehe, a bit older than us at least.” These disciples were obviously very spoiled as they showed no respect for their elder Madame Jade.

As for Wen Ziqi, she had been silent all along and didn’t display any particular lovesick appearance. Her easily embarrassed fair face seemed to be deep in thought.

Madame Jade cast a glance at Wen Ziqi and sighed, “Qi’er, a joke is a joke, you must be more carefree. Don’t sink into it. Some people are destined to be an existence that you and I cannot clamber up to.”

Wen Ziqi’s face flushed red again, “Honored master, what are you talking about! He and us met by chance, like patches of drifting duckweed. He came chasing the Lotus Harvester under orders, and only happened to also simultaneously save us. Your disciple only feels gratitude for him saving our lives, nothing else.

“Is that so?” Madame Jade sighed lightly. “You, the infatuated one, have always had a personality that would sink into infatuation since you were small. As your master, I am afraid that once something takes root in your heart, you will be unable to extricate yourself from it for the rest of your life.”

Wen Ziqi didn’t say another word, but in her mind, a lingering feeling hovered around the image of a dashing and handsome figure.

“Looks like this young duke Jiang is participating in the Hidden Dragon Trials, and has come here to execute one of the missions of the Trials.” Madame Jade was the master of a sect after all, and still had this bit of knowledge.

“Hidden Dragon Trials? What’s that?”

“That is held to determine if all the great dukes in the kingdom can retain their dukedoms. The youths who can participate in the Hidden Dragon Trials are all the cream of the crop. Take Qi’er, who, at six meridians true qi is a genius that appears only once in a hundred years for our sect - it’s said that she would be at the bottom of the ladder in the Hidden Dragon Trials.”

Madame Jade was also full of awe - as if she beheld a high mountain - when she spoke of the Hidden Dragon Trials.

The lovestruck disciple asked, “Honored master, what level is this young duke Jiang?”

“Your master cannot see clearly either. But someone who can kill the Lotus Harvester should be equal in influence and power... so his training must be at least eight or nine meridians. Taking it one step further, he may even be a true qi master!”

“What? True qi master?” The lovesick disciple was utterly dumbfounded, saying gloomily, “Honored master, I wish the young duke Jiang was a frivolous type. That way, I, Ouyang Fei’s, first time, could at least be given to a future true qi master.”

“Hehe, Fei’er, continue to be lovesick. Even if the young duke Jiang wished to grace someone with his presence, he would grace the honored master or junior sister Ziqi. You were completely naked just now and he didn’t even look twice at you.”

“Huh! Qiao’er you’re just jealous. Although I didn’t give my first time to the young duke Jiang, but I, Ouyang Fei can say proudly that the first man to see me naked was an exalted young duke Jiang, a future true qi master. But you? Your clothes were still on your body just now, weren’t they? Do you feel regret? Dejected? Hahaha….”

This Ouyang Fei was indeed a lovesick girl of the first class to actually use this matter to compare, as if having Jiang Chen look at your body was the greatest honor.

Madame Jade could only shake her head and smile wryly. She was the one who knew her own disciples the best.

Except, when the disciple named Qiao’er said that Jiang Chen would grace her, Madame Jade first, her ears grow hot without any cause and it felt as if countless numbers of small insects were crawling all over her body, creating a numbing and ticklish sensation. Several sensitive areas on her body also agitated with hot currents as they all turned as moist as a bog in the span of a moment.

A baffling hint of desire flashed through Madame Jade’s eyes as she thought of those scenes, and she even had the feeling of extreme expectation.

Some terribly embarrassing scenes flashed through her mind, like those of Jiang Chen being as depraved as the Lotus Harvester and taking advantage of their perilous state to take both her and her disciples.

If she hadn’t known of Jiang Chen’s identity, Madame Jade would have surely felt humiliated.

But now that she knew Jiang Chen’s identity, the mindset of worshipping and admiring the strong made her feel that even if she were to service this young genius along with her disciples, it didn’t seem to be an entirely outrageous and unacceptable thing.

When she thought of the moments of passion, her whole body shook lightly as if it had been electrocuted. Madame Jade shook her head forcefully and threw those ridiculous thoughts to the back of her mind.

“Jiang Han territory... Jiang Chen…” Wen Ziqi, on the other hand, was beyond innocent. She repeated this name in her mind many times.

She knew that her honored master had been right about her.

Some seeds were planted unknowingly, and could no longer be cast off once it’d taken root and germinated.

But, why extricate herself from it? Wasn’t this a type of happiness, to be able to sink into it? Strands of sweet emotions floated up in Wen Ziqi’s heart.

There was a dream of a young boyish hero in every young girl’s heart. Particularly when she met danger. This young boyish hero would appear in the nick of time, and make vigorous efforts to turn back the tide.

Wen Ziqi also had the same young girl’s dream.

Therefore, Jiang Chen’s dashing back profile when he left, was destined to become a brand in Wen Ziqi’s heart that would forever be difficult to obliterate.

After completing the first mission, Jiang Chen pushed on his return to the capital without stopping.

Jiang Chen did not relax his guard as he galloped at full speed. The closer he drew to the capital, the more wary he became. He knew that he could employ some methods to shake off his pursuers when he left the capital.

But this was the only portion that must be passed upon returning to the capital, and couldn’t be avoided.

“It’s most likely that an opponent will lay an ambush for me here, if he wishes to scheme against me.”

This was a mountain pass with a dark mass of trees and shrubbery on the sides, an exceedingly easy place to set up an ambush.

Jiang Chen highly deployed his Ear of the Zephyr as he galloped on the horse, partnering it with the mental strength of “Boulder’s Heart”. Although he was galloping swiftly on the back of a horse, he could fully take in all the potential dangers around him within a thousand meters.

Suddenly, Jiang Chen’s arms pressed down lightly on the saddle as he flipped himself like a hawk, his body suddenly shooting towards the sky from the saddle.

Under habitual urging, the steed actually didn’t stop and continued rushing forward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

More than ten sharp arrows shot out from the sides of the mountain pass, and they all landed on the steed, covering almost all possible angles.

The horse gave one long scream and fell down with a thud, meeting a violent death then and there.

The long whip in Jiang Chen’s hand shuddered as this specially made long whip was suddenly flung out. It was about ten feet long and coiled like a dragon.

The whip oscillated and gave rise to layers of true qi ripples, rippling out with Jiang Chen as the center. The oscillating true qi expanded through the long whip and caused strings of sonic booms to sound in thin air.

“What scoundrels are there, show yourself!”

Jiang Chen stood in the middle of the path with the long whip in his hand, with his aura growing steadily by itself.

With him as the center, the true qi given rise by the long whip had actually formed currents in a true qi vortex, protecting himself.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

Five black clad killers leapt out from the sides of the road.

“He’s the one, kill him!”

The five black clad killer were obviously well trained, as they didn’t waste time talking with Jiang Chen. They didn’t waste a single word as they locked onto their target, and rushed towards him without a care for their lives.

Jiang Chen’s long whip danced again as it gave rise to circles of true qi, blocking these five people and keeping them outside the circle.

“Don’t be afraid everyone! At most we’ll be hit once, the long whip can’t kill all of us!”

These people were indeed exceedingly fierce and brave. They actually ignored the damage brought upon by the long whip, and, whilst wielding the weapons in their hand and protecting their vitals, pounced on Jiang Chen with extreme speed.

Bang, bang!

The long whip simultaneously hit two black clad killers.

The two were exceedingly fierce and brave, and they actually entwined the long whip around their arms after being hit and thoroughly hampered the whip’s movement.

“Brothers, go, chop him to death with random blows!”

The two hit by the long whip were spewing out blood, but still grimaced in a smile as they waved their companions forward. They absolutely had the posture of pitting their lives against Jiang Chen’s.

“A bunch of crazies!”

Jiang Chen apparently hadn’t anticipated just how foolhardy the others would be.

However, Jiang Chen had actually already made his preparations before the five had started their attacks. He completed ignored the three’s attacks.

His body moved like lightning to evade the attacks from the three, the nameless saber in his hand never made it out of its scabbard, instead materializing its cutting edge out of true qi, flashing past the necks of the two injured killers.

First form of the “Vast Ocean Current Splitter” - Wave Slash!

Pfft, pfft!

Two excellent heads were harvested and repeated by Jiang Chen.

In the switch off between positions, Jiang Chen had executed two, and the remaining three had ended up behind Jiang Chen.

“Being able to activate the blade’s edge without drawing it from the scabbard, this kid is also of the advanced realm of true qi?” The other three killers were all startled.

“Kid, you killed my companions, you must die today!”

“Kill him!”

The three killers had already deployed vanishing body forms as they formed a 品 formation, attacking towards Jiang Chen.

“Huh.”

Jiang Chen laughed coldly as his body wavered, bounding ahead to the front. He darted on without looking back.

“Kid, where are you going?”

Jiang Chen’s body abruptly halted as he smiled faintly, “Do I need to tell someone who’s about to die where I’m going?”

“Someone who’s about to die? Kid, do you think with just you-”

“Oh no, I can’t bring up my true qi.”

“Poison? The kid had already laid down poison with the first true qi activation of the long whip?”

“Tell me, are you working to the death for the duke of Soaring Dragon?!” Jiang Chen said coldly. “If you answer straightforwardly, then I will also deal with you straightforwardly. Otherwise, you can wait to see each part of your body rot away and turn putrid, dying in slow agony when the poison activates.”