Along the way, all the people in the house greeted Yang Kai with somewhat awkward smiles. Especially the four girls from Ten Thousand Flower Palace, each of them looked at Yang Kai with a certain unspoken criticism in their eyes.
Even Lan Chu Die smiled ambiguously towards him.
Yang Kai, however, maintained his appearance, too lazy to explain anything. In any case, the more he tried to explain the worse things would get.
“Young Lord Kai, these past few days you’ve worked hard, are you sure you don’t need to rest for a while?” Huo Xing Chen appeared from somewhere and said with a big fat grin on his face, “So, how was it?”
“What do you mean?” Yang Kai replied blankly.
“Heh heh, you don’t need to pretend with me.” Young Lord Huo said as he licked his lips, a loose smile appearing on his face, “A single man and woman sharing a room for five days straight. Don’t tell me nothing happened?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yang Kai shook his head and pretended to be stupid.
“Forget it, I understand, but I have to say, this Young Lord really admires you now. Although I’ve encountered countless women, I’ve never gone at it for five days straight; it seems in such respects you’re better than me! One day, you must tell me your secret.” Huo Xing Chen said with full sincerity.
“Enough nonsense!” Yang Kai spat disdainfully.
“Oh, what are you talking about?” Qiu Yi Meng said as she walked over. After seeing Yang Kai, she couldn’t help letting out a bitter sigh, lightly chastising, “As one of the Young Lords who is participating in the Inheritance War, Yang Kai, I hope that you can pay attention to the overall situation. Gentle homes are the tombs of heroes, on this point you should be clearer than me.”
Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled as he shot back, “I naturally understand, no need to remind me.”
Qiu Yi Meng opened her mouth to continue but eventually swallowed the next sentence. She had already figured out Yang Kai’s temper and naturally would not blame him for refuting her here. This time, he had at least acknowledged her concerns. If she were to persist, this stinky man would likely get angry and become objectionable instead.
(Silavin: Wow. She really understands him.)
“Greetings Young Lord Kai!” From beside Qiu Yi Meng a delicate looking young man with handsome features suddenly called out. After offering such a polite greeting, he also stepped forward and cupped his fists formally, his performance quite modest and respectful.
“This is…” Yang Kai looked at him suspiciously, this young man who had just greeted didn’t seem familiar.
“This is Young Master Liu Fei Sheng, the Young City Lord of Tian Yuan City I mentioned to you previously.” Qiu Yi Meng explained.
Liu Fei Sheng smiled mildly and displayed a modest attitude as he said, “To be given an opportunity to serve Young Lord Kai, Tian Yuan City is extremely grateful.”
Yang Kai looked at him and nodded faintly, “Is there any relationship between you and the Central Capital’s Liu Family?”
“We don’t dare to claim so.” Liu Fei Sheng smiled wryly.
Qiu Yi Meng quickly followed up, “It’s correct to say that there isn’t much relationship between them, but they are still related. For hundreds of years the Eight Great Families have more or less interacted with innumerable external forces, and Young Lord Liu’s family should be one of the Liu Family’s branches; however, for some reason they were expelled by the Liu Family a few hundred years ago. If one was being particular, Liu Qing Yao should be his cousin.”
Liu Fei Sheng’s expression immediately became depressed as his posture slumped slightly, “My clan doesn’t dare claim kinship with the Liu Family. These past few hundred years we have been struggling hard with the ultimate goal of returning to the family. But even now, after my father had become a City Lord, we have yet to be accepted.”
Huo Xing Chen stroked his chin and nodded with a smile, “If you follow Young Lord Kai here, you’ll have a chance. If you can help him win this Inheritance War, I think the Liu Family would be willing to take you back.”
Hearing this, Liu Fei Sheng’s face couldn’t help showing a touch of excitement, cupping his fists as he said, “Then I’ll be taking advantage of Young Lord Huo’s auspicious words. My Tian Yuan City will definitely spare no effort in supporting Young Lord Kai!”
Yang Kai nodded slightly, not saying anything more on the subject, just turning to Qiu Yi Meng and asking, “Has my Eighth Brother been eliminated yet?”
Qiu Yi Meng looked back at him with admiration and giggled, “You already knew?”
“Naturally, if the people from Medicine King’s Valley hadn’t appeared, maybe my brother could continue struggling for a while longer, but the arrival of this group of Alchemists has definitely made my brothers feel a sense of crisis. At this time, if they don’t achieve some victories, I’m afraid that no one would dare support them openly.”
“En, it’s as you said, Yang Quan is out.”
“When did it happen?”
“The night before!”
Qiu Yi Meng proceeded to explain the details.
The emergence of more than thirty Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley really had made the other Yang Family Young Lords panic. They urgently needed to score a victory in order to boost their reputations. On the other hand, they also wanted to curb the propaganda these Medicine King’s Valley people would bring to Yang Kai.
The night before, Yang Zhao, Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying all invariably pointed their attention to Yang Quan.
Yang Quan only had one Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage Blood Warrior protecting him; in addition, Yang Quan’s mother’s family, his only real ally, was just a second-class force.
In such an absolute inferior position, obviously he couldn’t endure.
After the fight, Yang Zhao obtained the flag while Yang Shen managed to capture Yang Quan. So now, two of the Yang Family Young Lords had been eliminated from the Inheritance War.
“The fight that night was quite interesting,” Qiu Yi Meng grinned, “It wasn’t so much about your brothers attacking Yang Quan as it was about them fighting each other. All of your Eighth Brother’s defenses were swept away in the first wave of attacks with the exception of the Blood Warrior who was protecting Yang Quan himself. Everyone else had basically lost any ability to resist, the situation could almost be described as a rout.”
“After that, your four brothers divided into two camps to attack one another and all of them suffered some losses. Yang Zhao and Yang Kang are blood related brothers while Yang Shen and Yang Ying are also blood related, needless to say they divided along family lines.” Pausing here, Qiu Yi Meng stared at Yang Kai meaningfully before continuing, “However, can you guess who benefited the most from this battle?”
(Silavin: Do note that they are cousins. Although they call each other brothers, it is something common amongst the Chinese.)
Huo Xing Chen also had a sly grin on his face as he waited for Yang Kai’s reply, it seemed like he thought there was no way he could answer this to this question correctly.
To his disappointment though, Yang Kai simply sneered and casually replied, “My Second Brother harvested the flag while my Sixth Brother grabbed the person, but these gains can only be equal to the losses they suffered in the battle. What they really harvested was only the prestige brought about by gaining a victory. If you want to know who actually gained the most, besides me… who else could it be?”
The sly smiles on Qiu Yi Meng and Huo Xing Chen’s faces gradually converged as they stared at Yang Kai in shock and awe, obviously he had long ago been aware of what had transpired.
Liu Fei Sheng who was standing nearby was also shocked, suddenly feeling a bit of fear in his heart. Although he had already done his best to overestimate Yang Kai’s abilities, it seemed reality had still exceeded his expectations.
“Did you already know?” Qiu Yi Meng asked hesitantly, “How did you know?”
“You tell me.” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
Qiu Yi Meng suddenly understood, remembering back to a few days ago when Yang Kai had rejected her suggestion to attack Yang Quan. He had certainly said he had another reason for his decision other than not wanting to stand out. At the time, he didn’t want to say because it would make him sound too arrogant and simply told them that after a few days they would understand.
It turns out that even back then he had already predicted this outcome.
“If I didn’t know that you had stayed inside the house for five days, I would swear someone had told you this in advance.” Qiu Yi Meng took a deep breath and smiled bitterly, “You… you really make people exhausted. You’re right, the one with the biggest gains from this incident is still you. Although you didn’t get the flag, didn’t get the person, and even though you didn’t even participate in the battle, you still gained a Blood Warrior!”
“The Blood Warrior who was protecting Yang Quan came here to offer his services immediately after Yang Quan’s exit!” Qiu Yi Meng quickly said, “The strength of this Blood Warrior is not worse than Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian.”
“Are they injured? Where is he now?” Yang Kai asked quickly.
The Blood Warriors were a group of incomparably loyal guardians. Yang Quan had already just been eliminated, so the Blood Warrior who was sworn to protect him couldn’t possibly be uninjured. Right now, he was probably incapable of fighting at all.
“He has severe injuries and is currently recuperating. There’s no way for him to display his full power within a month or two, but with your magical means of curing people that shouldn’t matter, right?” Qiu Yi Meng snorted, although she didn’t know just what kind of precious elixir Yang Kai had given Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu, it was still a fact that it had allowed them to fully recover in only one day.
Even after Qu Gao Yi was seriously injured on the first night of the Inheritance War, the next day he had once again emerged from his room as strong and lively as a dragon.
The only thing that confused her was even if Yang Kai had such miraculous recovery medicines, shouldn’t they be extremely precious? How could he seemingly use them so unscrupulously?
“Good, I’ll go see him now.” Yang Kai nodded gently.
“Can you tell me why?”
“Why what?”
“Why that Blood Warrior didn’t choose to serve your brothers but instead came straight to you? Why you judged ten days ago that after Yang Quan lost, that Blood Warrior would offer his services only to you? It’s impossible there’s no reason at all, so why?” Qiu Yi Meng asked one question after another; obviously she had many doubts in her heart.
The events that had transpired between Yang Kai and the Blood Warrior Hall had only spread amongst the leadership of the Yang Family and the various Young Lords. Outsiders, including Qiu Yi Meng, were certainly not aware of the situation.
How could she have known that because Yang Kai had taken the great risk of choosing to use the heavily wounded Qu Gao Yi and Ying Jiu, he had gained the respect of the entire Blood Warrior Hall?
Every member of the Blood Warrior Hall placed loyalty and respect above all else, so after the Young Lords they followed were eliminated, who else would they choose to serve other than Yang Kai?
“No comment,” Yang Kai grinned, “But I can tell you that from now on, all the Blood Warriors who are released from their charge will come to me.”
The confidence in his tone bordered on arrogance.
Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t help imagining the scene where after the defeated Young Lords left, one Blood Warrior after another gathered in Yang Kai House, bolstering her confidence even further.
This was something that had never happened before. None of the previous generations of Yang Family children had ever garnered such reverence from the Blood Warriors.
If things really developed like Yang Kai said, it would be akin to a miracle. In time to come, with so many Blood Warriors siding with him, how could Yang Kai possibly lose? Such a situation would be no different from being invincible; any remaining enemies would only be able to pray that Yang Kai wouldn’t attack them.
“I suddenly have some sympathy for your brothers, this isn’t even a fair fight anymore.” Qiu Yi Meng smiled wryly.
“The Inheritance War was never fair! If this was a fair competition, how could Yang Tie and Yang Quan be forced to exit so early?”
Silavin: (All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. – George Orwell)