This dangerous situation reduced all others to screaming with horror. Jiang Yu swiveled his head aside to look at it but lost his balance, staggered and then toppled towards the tip of the blade.

Ling Zhang's eyes went grim, flipped his wrist and hurled the saber in another direction. It went squarely into the room and with that an anguished screech was heard. Some unlucky guy in there was hit. Ling Zhang didn't bother to find out who the victim was, believing that all those people deserved it. Jiang Yu, however, instinctively grabbed Ling Zhang as he realized he was falling over to the floor. Ling Zhang also tottered at the pull and then toppled over.

"Young Master!" "Brother Zhang!"

"Jiang Yu!"

With a thud, Ling Zhang and Jiang Yu landed together, Jiang Yu on the floor, and Ling Zhang, accidentally, on Jiang Yu. To make things worse, because of the inertia, Ling Zhang abruptly bumped his chin on Jiang Yu's shoulder, and the sharp pain stupefied him for a moment.

Jiang Yu's shoulder also ached terribly due to the hit. He subconsciously looked aside but the moment he twisted his head, his lips brushed past something warm and soft, leaving him transfixed on the spot.

That bump was so painful that Ling Zhang failed to feel Jiang Yu accidentally kiss his ear lobe and cheek. He propped himself up on one hand in an effort to get to his feet.

Fortunately, the others had got over their shock at this moment and hurriedly helped Ling Zhang get off Jiang Yu.

Ling Zhang carefully held his lower jaw, gave a shake of his head and finally got his mind out of the stupefaction caused by the great pain.

Jiang Yu had also been heaved to his feet by his friends, a peculiar expression on his face. As it had happened in such a sudden manner, nobody had noticed that small detail. He flicked a glance at Ling Zhang who was shaking his head, he briefly tucked his lips in and with that something occurred to him and he hurriedly loosened them. Then he raised his hand with the intention to wipe them, but felt that it might have the opposite effect, so he stiffly put his hand down.

"Are you okay?" someone standing beside him asked.

Miao Shiba examined Ling Zhang and looked at his chin. "Did you hurt your mouth with your teeth just now?"

Ling Zhang shook his head. "No."

Miao Shiba said, "Then you'll be okay after the pain ebb away."

Yuwen Jin also checked Ling Zhang's hand. "Brother Zhang, did you get hurt by that saber?"

"No. It was the hilt that I grabbed."

"Which one of you threw that saber just now? You want to die?!" At this moment, two bands of men walked out of the room, all looking ferocious. One of them had a wound in his shoulder, which clearly had been caused by the saber that Ling Zhang had just thrown inside. These people were here to find the one responsible and settle the score.

Ling Zhang's eyes instantly went cold. These people had the nerve to come here and bluster?

The noises on this floor was so loud that soon people of the Taibai Tavern arrived. At the sight of Ling Zhang and the others, the taverner respectfully hastened over and said, "May I ask what happened here, childes?"

Yuwen Jin had been glaring at those men all along. "These people were fighting and yelling here. We almost got hurt by a saber of theirs when walking by. Inform the garrison patrol. These guys gathered a crowd, made disturbances and hurt Brother Zhang. On no account will we let them get away with it."

Those men didn't seem to be locals and had no idea who Ling Zhang and the others were. One of them said haughtily, "You want us arrested? I'll break your–"

Bang!

All people on the scene saw a flicker of a figure and with that the speaker was sent flying into the room by a kick, overturning the table and chairs as he landed. The man held his chest and abruptly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face going pale.

Everybody's countenance changed.

Miao Shiba withdrew his foot and stepped back to Ling Zhang's side, coldly eyeing those men. "Whoever utters another word ends up the way this man did."

The one who had just been knocked off his feet was the chief of these men. After seeing this, none of them dared make any other remarks.

Soon a garrison patrol came and escorted those men away. All these childes were from powerful families. None of those men stood a chance of getting out of prison in one piece.

As Ling Zhang had saved Jiang Yu once again, Yuwen Jin, seeing Jiang Yu walk away with his cronies, said unhappily on their way out of the tavern, "Something always happens whenever we meet Jiang Yu. Do you think there's a jinx on him?"

"Well, actually I feel that the Taibai Tavern is the bane of us. Let's never come to this place to dine again," said Tao Yi, having a lingering fear.

Thinking about the last incident and this one, every one of them, including Ling Zhang, couldn't help but flick a backward glance at the Taibai Tavern, a weird expression in their eyes.

"Next time let's go to the side yard of my family," suggested Ji Feng in a quiet voice.

"Anyway, let's change the location next time. I will never come to this tavern ever again," said Tao Yi.

"Alas, it's always Brother Zhang who suffers in the end. If the Taibai Tavern is really the bane of anybody, it's Brother Zhang," observed Yuwen Jin.

Everybody lapsed into silence, looking at Ling Zhang.

Ling Zhang's heart did a somersault, and the expression in his eyes grew even odder as he gazed at the Taibai Tavern. Even he himself could barely refrain from suspecting that the Taibai Tavern was the bane of him.

"Come on. Let's go home right away. I've actually sobered up after this incident," said Yuwen Jin.

Xun Huo, who was thoroughly drunk and fast asleep on his servant's back, was the only one totally unaware of what had just happened.

...

After returning home, Ling Zhang surprisedly found that Yuwen Tong had already come back. "Why are you back so early?"

Yuwen Tong didn't answer immediately. He looked at him with a frown, walked up and sniffed at him. "You drank wine?"

Ling Zhang smiled, "A few cups. With Yuwen Jin, Brother Tao and some others. That day the meal was called off, and we rescheduled it for today."

Yuwen Tong raised his hand and removed a splinter from Ling Zhang's sleeve, then looked at the dusty lower hem of his robes. "You fell over for drinking?"

Ling Zhang was sent into a fleeting amazed trance. How did Yuwen Tong come to know he'd fallen to the floor? He twisted his head around to look at Miao Shiba, who shook his head –he hadn't found the time to tell the Marshal anything yet.

"What happened?" On seeing his facial expression, Yuwen Tong knew he had indeed fallen over.

Ling Zhang gave an account of what had happened in the Taibai Tavern earlier this day, and then said with a smile, "The Taibai Tavern is the bane of us. We'll go there again. I think not only are we afraid of the tavern, the taverner is probably scared to see us as well."

After hearing this, Yuwen Tong looked at Miao Shiba. "Who were those people?"

"Out-of-towners. They seemed like contract deliverers," answered Miao Shiba.

Yuwen Tong bobbed his head and drew Ling Zhang inside to let him change clothes and bathe.

Watching their receding backs, Miao Shiba raised his head and thought for a while, feeling that Jiang Yu's bumping against Ling Zhang had merely been an accident and no big deal, that it was unnecessary for him to specially report it to the Marshal, so he also turned around and left.

Ling Zhang took a bath to rid himself of the smell of wine, changed into clean robes and asked Yuwen Tong, "Did anything happen at the King Duan's banquet?"

A couple of days ago Jiang Yu suddenly warned him against the King Duan, and then Yuwen Tong had happened to be invited to the King Duan's banquet. Both of them had speculated that something would happen at the banquet, but seeing that Yuwen Tong had come back so early, Ling Zhang was uncertain about it.

Yuwen Tong replied, "Nothing. He was just a clown."

"A clown?" Ling Zhang was bemused.

Yuwen Tong explained, "The King Duan curried favor with me, trying to draw me over to his side, but I didn't fall for it."

Ling Zhang said, "Back then, he'd tried to have me poisoned in order to make an in-law of you. He had no plan to do anything to that end on this occasion?"

This didn't make any sense. Jiang Yu wouldn't have given him that word of warning were it the case.

Yuwen Tong subtly paused and then said, "So many things happened these days. Anybody could tell that nothing can drive us apart."

Ling Zhang could have noticed Yuwen Tong's brief pause, if the latter half of Yuwen Tong's words hadn't given him a twinge of embarrassment.

Had Yuwen Tong known beforehand about those lame arrangements of the King Duan's, he would never have gone there. He had thought that the King Duan had some kind of elaborate scheme, but it'd turned out that that trip of his was merely a waste of time.

"Young Master, this is your Sobering Soup." A servant brought Ling Zhang some Sobering Soup.

Ling Zhang looked at Yuwen Tong, who said, "Drink some, though you're not really drunk."

Ling Zhang drank only half a bowl of it. It was not very tasty.

"Where's Whitie? It's been quite a while since my return. Why haven't I seen it?" asked Ling Zhang. Whitie the fox always stayed with him when he was at home –unless Yuwen Tong got annoyed and left it in someone else's charge.

Yuwen Tong inwardly snorted and then said, "It's with Xie Shi."

"Where are they?" inquired Ling Zhang.

"In a house in the front in the east. He's instructing Qiu Bing," replied Yuwen Tong.

After strict selection, Xie Shi had chosen Qiu Bing to be his apprentice. Qiu Bing had been having a tough time and complaining a lot. Those intimidating medicated baths alone made Ling Zhang's flesh creep. However, though the training Xie Shi had been giving him was harsh, it was also pretty fruitful. Originally Qiu Bing had been completely clueless about detoxification, but he was learning very quickly, making steady progress.

After drinking some Sobering Soup, Ling Zhang became sleepy.

While he was drifting off, Yuwen Tong took him in his arms, kissing him and fondling him. Ling Zhang on the verge of sleep was annoyed, chucked Yuwen Tong out, lay prostrate onto the bed and fell asleep.

Yuwen Tong waited until Ling Zhang was deep in sleep to walk inside and adjust his sleeping position. Then he had a servant bring a basin of ice into the room and put it under the window.

As this place was not as cool as the manor, Ling Zhang had slept badly for several consecutive days since his return, which was why he was sleepy during the day.

Gently stroking his face, Yuwen Tong felt that maybe they should go back to the manor and stay there. Ling Zhang's study in the Imperial College wasn't really something of urgency anyway.

"Marshal," Miao Shiba called from outside.

Yuwen Tong stood up, walked out with noiseless steps and closed the door. "Let's go to the study to talk."

As soon as he left, Ling Zhang turned over to lie prone on the bamboo sleeping mat, briefly rubbed his face against it and soon was sound asleep. In his dream, he reached the third layer of the mental cultivation method of internal energy, mastered the unique skills taught by his grandfather, acquired the ability to conjure storm and rain, and was almost capable of flying in the sky and traveling freely underground. It was a really sweet dream.

Jiang Yu threw a glance at him, uninterested in brothels. "I'm not going."

"Why are you being so shy? It's just a brothel. You still don't dare set foot in one till this day."

"I'm not interested."

"Oh, so you're not very struck on girls of that sort. Have you been hiding some kind of beauty in your house, by any chance?"

"You may go without me. I'm going back home."

After parting from his companions, Jiang Yu returned home with a cold face and immediately instructed servants to prepare bathwater for him. It was only when he washed himself clean in the bathroom that his face which had been stern all along slightly softened. Sitting in the bathtub, he involuntarily recalled that scene in the Taibai Tavern once again, tucking his lips in. Then he raised his hand to wipe them, but when his hand was halfway to the other corner of his mouth, he heavily smacked it onto the surface of the water, his face alternating between green and pink, looking very bizarre.

...

"Grandfather."

"I heard that yesterday when you were dining in the Taibai Tavern, another group of daredevils made trouble for you?"

In the morning, Ling Zhang arrived at the Imperial College and paid a visit to Ji Yin first. Naturally, all others in the college believed that Ling Zhang and Ji Yin were just on very good terms, and none of them was aware that they were family. The first thing Ji Yin did at the sight of Ling Zhang was ask about the incident in the Taibai Tavern, which made Ling Zhang go slightly red in the face. What happened the day before wasn't really a serious event, but the knowledge that his grandfather had been worrying about him made him feel somewhat guilty.

"Two groups of contract deliverers from out of town got drunk and started fighting. We happened to be walking past and narrowly avoided being hurt. It's nothing serious."

"I've heard of the Taibai Tavern before. It's said to be the best tavern in the capital city. The way I see it, its reputation is unearned. First one of their waiters was bought and tried to poison you, and then people carrying weapons brawled in it. It seems to be a terribly troubled place."

Ji Yin's voice grew unhappy as he talked. He felt that fame was the only thing the Taibai Tavern had – their management was not strict enough; they allowed all kinds of customers to get in, and his grandson's life had been threatened there. It'd taken him, an old man, so many years to find his grandson, and he hadn't found the opportunity to make up to him for these years' absence of love in his life, but these nasty incidents had happened one after another, in which his grandson had been faced with danger. Ji Yin was very disgruntled at the thought of this.

Seeing that Ji Yin was angry, Ling Zhang, worried that anger might compromise his health, said, "I'll never dine in the Taibai Tavern again. It turns out eating at home is the best choice."

"How about grandfather buys you a manor outside the city or a second residence in the city? So that you and your friends will have a place to stay in when it's not inconvenient for you to take them home, and it'll save you going to any of those taverns on the streets to dine, and spare you worries about safety."

After hearing Ling Zhang's words, Ji Yin suddenly offered to buy him a manor or another residence, sounding as casual and natural as if he were talking about buying two steamed buns.

"And about those twenty-four security guards of yours, don't just leave them at home as though they were some kind of decorations. You should take them with you when you go out. They've been practicing those martial formations for such a long time, and it's about time they made themselves useful. In a few days I'll talk to the principal and resign my professorship, so that I'll have time to help you reach the third layer of the mental cultivation method and teach those brats some discipline. Um, I think a manor will be a better choice. Grandfather will personally select one for you. When it's done, you and your security guards may move into it immediately."

Ling Zhang fell open-mouthed as he heard Ji Yin's decision. "Wait, Grandfather. There's no need to go to that much trouble. Buying a manor is too–"

"There won't be any trouble. It's just a manor. I'll buy a big one and have it revamped. There'll be a spacious drill ground, and a quiet chamber for you to cultivate internal energy. And you don't have to worry about the hiring of servants. I will handle it for you. If nothing else works, I'll drug them to keep them under control. You may rest assured that all of them will be absolutely loyal and obedient."

Hearing this, Ling Zhang came to realize that his grandfather had already had everything planned out, including even what kind of manor to buy, and how to revamp it. He hurriedly tried to talk him out of it. "Buying a manor is too big a move, Grandfather. What if someone notices and becomes suspicious of you?"

"Don't fuss. I'll be in disguise."

"But a manor costs a fortunate, Grandfather. I'll buy one myself after I earn enough money. You should keep your money in case you're in need some day."

"A manor doesn't really cost that much. I have more than enough money to buy a city, and I seldom find myself in need of any. Those silver ingots are getting moldy in there." After saying this, Ji Yin, as if something had just occurred to him, told Ling Zhang, "You're still young, and there'll be a lot of occasions when you need money. Besides, you're with Yuwen Tong and your identity is different now. That money will be of much more use to you than it is to me."

A hint of urgency appeared in his voice as he talked about this. Ji Yin felt that previously he'd been too careless. His grandson's status was different now, and maybe the reason why he'd encountered so much trouble from the beginning of his journey to the capital city till this day was because people believed he was weak and from a poor family.

'No. I've got to do something for my grandson right away,' thought Ji Yin.

"You have a lesson to attend, don't you? Hurry. Go back to the classroom. Grandfather's got some business to deal with."

Ling Zhang looked at Ji Yin's anxious face, dazed. He kept feeling that his grandfather would definitely create a sensation if he let him go out like this. "Grandfather, you really don't need to buy a manor for me. I've already got a residence. Also, Yuwen Tong owns a manor in the suburb..."

Ji Yin's eyes which were fixed on Ling Zhang went piercing as though he'd thought his grandson knew better than this. "You said it yourself – that manor belongs to Yuwen family, and it's different from a manor of your own. You're my grandson, which means you're of very noble blood. How can I let anybody look down upon you? It's true that members of the Millennium Pavilion live in seclusion, but you're not. In no circumstances should this matter be taken lightly."