Chapter 388

Zhao Boan was born to a merchant’s family . His father was a small itinerant merchant . Now the family property was in his hands, but the business environment had become harder than ever .

Small merchants needed a stable society . To them, troubled times were like natural disasters were to peasants . They could hardly fight against them .

Now was the time for bandits and robbers to rise, because one could earn more by robbing than by doing business . If you had strong fighting skills, you could protect yourself and make a fortune, but if not, then you could only become a target for bandits .

The trade route between Jadeite Forest and the Avalon of Five Elements had not been formally recognized by the Elders Guild, which meant that it was still a smuggling route . Despite this, the caravans were secure as they all had aristocratic families backing them .

To small traders like Zhao Boan, however, participating in the smuggling business was like dancing on the edge of a blade . Any carelessness might send them down the road of destruction . As a result, Zhao Boan hadn’t dared involve himself in such practices, but nowadays, business was getting increasingly worse as trade in the Jadeite Forest was almost entirely monopolized by Deep Sea Enterprise . If he didn’t do anything, his family would go bankrupt by next year .

Overtaken by circumstances, Zhao Boan made his decision . He borrowed a considerable amount of money from his relatives and sold all his possessions to purchase a caravan of goods .

However, he didn’t expect the situation to be even worse than he’d imagined .

After the city expansion order was issued, elementalists from the Avalon of Five Elements all left for the Wilderness, leaving depressed and dilapidated cities and towns behind . The decline in population and the transfer of the enterprises’ power forced the guards to focus on the Wilderness .

This led directly to a state of lawlessness and havoc caused by bandits and robbers . They were almost everywhere in the cities, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain .

The caravans of the large enterprises were heavily guarded; no robbers dared to attack them . Instead, they focused on robbing small merchants like Zhao Boan .

Zhao Boan had been forced to spend heavily to hire guards for protection .

Although they did not have the qualifications to be caravan guards during peacetimes, Zhao Boan had no alternatives and was forced to hire them .

Unfortunately, he had been too unlucky and met the grass-lotus puppet, which was even worse than robbers . After the first round of confrontation, except for those who had been killed, the rest of the guards all fled for their lives .

Zhao Boan became desperate and thought he would be killed for sure, but unexpectedly, he met his new boss .

Yes, he had been hired by Ai Hui and was now his manager .

At the time, seeking refuge with his boss was the only choice he could make, but later he felt that his new boss was good . When his boss learned that he’d borrowed a lot of money from his relatives, he generously paid him an amount equal to half the goods and told him to repay the loan first .

This alone was enough to make Zhao Boan grateful . He was now willing to die for Ai Hui without saying a word .

Two years ago, morals had not been as terrible as they were today . Elders Guild was still influential and powerful then . This year, however, especially this half of the year, righteousness and justice no longer seemed to exist and the rules of society quickly collapsed . It was like an avalanche; once the layer of snow covering the mountain peak collapsed, it poured down with a roaring sound and an unstoppable momentum .

The strong overlooked those beneath them while the weak were as minor as mites . They were bullied more and more often, almost everyday . Bandits and robbers were everywhere, but no one stopped them .

Nowadays, a robber could be praised and called a righteous robber as long as he didn’t kill anyone during a robbery . It was perfectly justified for the strong to take your belongings without paying .

Anyone capable had already gone to the Wilderness .

Except for pivotal huge cities like Silver City, the Silver Mist Sea, and Palette Cloud Village, the rest of the cities were like dried up corpses . The Elders Guild didn’t bother to pay them any attention and just left them to rot and die .

The rotten atmosphere could not give birth to vigor; it would only attract vultures that were fond of carrion .

His boss had done more than he could .

Zhao Boan glanced at Qing Feng in fear . He knew that he’d better not provoke this monster, especially so after hearing from his boss that Qing Feng was a follower of Grandmaster Dai . He completely gave up the idea to revenge .

In the Jadeite Forest, no one dared to disobey Grandmaster Dai . He was the god of Jadeite Forest, and even his followers were beyond the reach of ordinary people .

It seemed that his boss was not afraid of Grandmaster Dai . He was a bit worried at first, but when it occurred to him that his boss was not a member of Jadeite Forest, he was more or less relieved .

His gaze focused on his bossr, who was training .

Zhao Boan marveled; he had never seen anyone more hardworking than his boss . No, the word “hardworking” was not enough to describe his boss’s training . It should be “crazy . “

His boss seemed to be extremely stubborn about power . When he was practicing, it was as if he was possessed by the devil .

This made Zhao Boan more relieved . In these troubled times, nothing could comfort one better than strength .

He stood reverently aside and waited for his boss’s training to end .

Ai Hui was more focused than ever and the Dragonspine moved so fast that naked eyes could hardly follow it . In front of him, grass cords flew like ghosts, making whistling sounds that could get on your nerves .

Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle!

Each collision between the Dragonspine and the grass cords would produce sparks .

After a while, Ai Hui was soaked with sweat and white fog slowly rose from his body, but as if he felt nothing, he simply moved his sword faster . Standing opposite him, Qing Feng’s mood was complicated and hard to describe .

This guy’s sword moves were a bit faster than yesterday . Although it was not readily apparent, Qing Feng was sensitive enough to feel it .

Qing Feng had always been described as a monster by others, but now he felt that those people had just never met this guy here . This guy was the real monster .

Since he’d agreed to be Ai Hui’s sparring partner, only one hour had passed before he was made to work .

Qing Feng was completely unprepared . Although they had made a deal, shouldn’t they start the next day?

An hour’s training had drained every bit of his energy and his mind was totally blank . Fortunately, his boss was generous enough to supply him with food . After devouring all the materials, he more or less recovered .

Coming back to his senses, Qing Feng realized that being a sparring partner was not an easy job .

Unfortunately, it was too late . After only two hours, he realized that he had still underestimated the difficulty of this business .

He was asked to spar with Ai Hui again .

When he heard the guy call, his face almost froze and he wondered if he’d heard wrong . He clearly remembered how that guy had been lying on the ground as tired as a dog just now . When he blankly turned his face and saw the energetic Ai Hui, he thought he might have a problem with his eyes .

Then Qing Feng finally learned what a nightmare was .

Basically, he could only rest for two to four hours before being asked to train . The frequency was abnormally high .

It went on like this for a consecutive three days . Qing Feng finally couldn’t bear it . The training was driving him crazy . Even when he’d been training before, he’d never been so crazy . He didn’t understand why his boss had so much energy and why he fought so hard .

To Qing Feng’s ears, Ai Hui’s voice was like that of a demon .

Moreover, he marveled at Ai Hui’s progress . He improved at a speed Qing Feng had never seen before . As a sparring partner, he could sense more clearly than anyone else how horrifying it was every day .

His pressure increased day by day .

He was becoming more and more proficient in using grass cords each day, from using one at a time, to five, six, and seven . . .

During the last fight, Ai Hui had been awkward when resisting Qing Feng’s attacks using ten grass cords, and was whipped several times . Now, however, Qing Feng knew he would no longer be able to whip Ai Hui at all, no matter how many grass cords he used .

Ai Hui’s sword moves became more and more simple, but his speed became increasingly fast and fluent .

Qing Feng was not stupid . He knew Ai Hui wanted to sharpen his swordsmanship, but what surprised Qing Feng was that Ai Hui thought of doing so at such a young age . Other people his age were all practicing inheritances or absolute arts .

Ai Hui was just a young man, but Qing Feng felt that he couldn’t see him through at all .

“Stop!”

Hearing Ai Hui’s shout, Qing Feng came back to his senses and immediately stopped .

Ai Hui sat on the ground and his sweat flowed in a stream beneath him . His breath was so heavy that he sounded like bellows . Qing Feng was extremely tired as well . He lay on the ground without caring about his image at all . He did not even want to move his fingers, no, grass cords .

Ai Hui’s heavy breathing finally died down and his blank eyes returned to normal .

He struggled to stand up with the Dragonspine in his hand, then began his unique Sword-style Breathing Technique .

Fizz, fizz, fizz .

The sound of inhalation could be heard around the sword, like a snake hissing, making people feel scared and nervous . The metal elemental energy around them converged from all directions and soon infused into the sword .

Ai Hui’s face became ruddy again and his breathing became stable, until it was finally soundless .

Time flew by quietly . When Ai Hui opened his eyes again, he looked mild .

He stretched his limbs and waved his sword . Seeing several sword rays flash in the air, Ai Hui looked complacent . Qing Feng was indeed a good sparring partner . His grass cords gave him huge pressure .

To block such intense attacks, Ai Hui had to continuously revise how he attacked and the flow of his elemental energy . Previously, he had taught himself sword moves according to the ancient swordplay manuals using trial and error, but had never wondered if there was room for improvement .

Some details were continuously adjusted and improved to make his moves faster and more accurate . That was why Qing Feng could feel Ai Hui’s progress every day .

This was because Ai Hui was indeed improving every day, which he himself could feel .

Having tasted the benefits, Ai Hui wondered if he could improve things other than swordsmanship in this way . He kept this idea in mind and decided to think about it further after the training for this period .

Faster moves meant you could gain advantages faster in a fight .

He glanced at Qing Feng, who was apparently too tired to stand up . He lay on the ground with his grass cords scattered around him, like he had just been ravaged .

Qing Feng’s elemental energy recovery was not as fast as Ai Hui’s . The Sword-style Breathing Technique was Ai Hui’s exclusive secret and the reason why he could bear highly-frequent practices like this . Although his sword breathing had not yet reached the efficiency level Ai Hui expected, the elemental energy it absorbed was stable and placid enough .

Seeing Zhao Boan standing aside, he walked to him and asked, “How is it going? Any progress?”

After days of interaction, Ai Hui believed Zhao Boan was a competent man, so he told him what he was thinking and asked him to look into it for him .

It seemed that he had brought back some news .