Chapter 1190: The Challenge Letter, Cursed Out Ruthlessly, To the Warmongering One Surnamed Lu Named Ding

Lu Hai, the head of the Lu Family, sighed: "I was just saying it, I didn't actually go."

The head of the Fei Family shot back at him: "You can't even say it! Saying it is already wrong! What they do is their business. We can play the villain, we can play the good guy, but we cannot play the petty snitch!!!"

Lu Hai, catching flak from these two, one after the other, got a bit hot under the collar: "Alright, alright, I get it! Seriously! When we were kids, you lectured me, fine, I was the shortest! When we were young, you lectured me, fine, I was the skinniest!!!"

"And now you're still lecturing me!"

The heads of the Lei Family and the Lu Family exchanged a glance, burst out laughing, and said in unison: "Now we lecture you, and you should just take it too, because your cultivation is the lowest."

The head of the Fei Family slammed the table and stood up: "I'm going home!!! You two don't walk with me!!!! You two leave after a cup of tea! Walking with you two, I wouldn't even need to bother annoying anyone else!"

He was truly done with it.

His whole life, he'd been bowing to the tyranny of these two.

The heads of the Lei and Lu Families were speechless.

They were all grown adults now.

Still acting like little kids.

Back when they were children, going out to play together, he was the same way—when he got angry, he'd always storm off home alone, telling the other two to come back later.

Still, as much as they said that.

The heads of the Lei and Lu Families indeed didn't move. After a cup of tea, they left.

On the other side.

On the road back to the Shen Family residence.

Lu Ding and Secretary Qiu were taking in the night view of Wushuang City together.

Secretary Qiu gestured at the city districts as he spoke: "I think this area is pretty good. Good feng shui, good location, good positioning. When the time comes, we can build our embassy right here."

"And if anything happens, it can radiate to the whole city, easy access to anywhere."

Lu Ding hovered in mid-air with his arms crossed, listening: "Doesn't that mean it's the same distance to everywhere?"

Secretary Qiu turned around: "If you're going to put it that way, then you make the call."

Lu Ding: "Hahahaha, just kidding around! You decide, you decide. You know, my time is tight and my tasks are heavy. I probably won't be able to participate in the management on this side."

Secretary Qiu smiled: "That's exactly why the higher-ups sent me here. I know this business inside and out, but you'll have to help me clear the way."

"The way you handled things tonight, it was efficient, cutting through the Gordian knot, but the loose ends you left behind... those are going to be a pain."

Lu Ding bumped into him: "Aren't we lucky to have our Secretary Qiu for that? This kind of small stuff is child's play. Anyway, I've cleared the territory for you."

"Money, I'll get you."

"Resources, I'll get you."

"As for connections, if you want to use them, just say the word, and I'll get you those too. You just swing the big axe, and whenever you need someone to charge the front lines, you call me. I'm reliable."

His words piqued Secretary Qiu's curiosity.

"Money and resources, I can understand. But where are you getting the connections from?"

Lu Ding, anticipating what he was about to say, almost laughed at himself: "Isn't that simple? You tell me which faction's connections you need, and I'll go talk to them. If they won't cooperate, I'll beat them up. Non-violent non-cooperation, my foot."

"We're not in the Great Han anymore. Are you still going to define me by the 749 Bureau's staff regulations?"

Doing this in the Great Han would be a mistake.

But in Demon Province?

Well, let's just say it fits perfectly.

In this place with so few laws, the survival of the fittest is the basic law of nature.

Never mind the process, as long as the result is right.

Secretary Qiu listened, then asked: "Then tomorrow..."

The smile on Lu Ding's face slowly faded, killing intent beginning to show: "I already said all the nice things upfront. They chose to slap away the hand that fed them. Then I can only kill them and not bother with the burial."

As he said this.

Lu Ding's gaze toward the distance shifted between light and dark.

With the first hint of pale dawn rising on the horizon.

Lu Ding could kill demons, and he could kill men too!

Soon, the time arrived for Lu Ding's one-day appointment with the local magnates of Wushuang City.

That day.

Wushuang City was in chaos.

Nervous and jittery, every shadow looked like a threat. With fear gripping everyone's hearts, the streets were empty save for the wind stirring up dust. Not a soul in sight.

A family of magnates dispatched their disciples.

Delivering a challenge letter to the Shen Family residence. The messenger knelt and presented the letter with both hands to Lu Ding, who sat high upon the platform.

He opened it. The first line read:

[To the warmongering one who knows no justice, surnamed Lu, named Ding]

Calling him out by name. Even Lu Ding was taken aback. You people are really brave, huh? You even found someone educated to insult me. The words don't contain a single profanity, yet they're filthier than anyone's cursing!!!

If Lu Ding's education had been even slightly worse, he wouldn't have understood it, nor would he have felt the anger rising.

He read on.

[Heaven has its manifest law, and man has his constant ethics. Now you bully the weak with your strength, trampling our dignity as if it were nothing. Are we no different from fish and livestock? With arrogant words and aggressive intent, you seek to tear apart our ancestral lands, to shatter our family honor, to turn jade and silk to ash, and to plunge the living into misery. Truly detestable!!!!!!]

[This is not the ordinary conflict of war and enmity, but a decisive struggle between civilization and beastly conduct, a confrontation between heavenly justice and tyranny, a clash between resistance and oppression!!!]

[You use 'standing envoy' as a pretext and 'heaven's mandate' as a hollow banner. Yet looking at your words and deeds, you wish to destroy clans and extinguish bloodlines, to seize ancestral lands and drive people from their homes. Can you even call yourself human!?!]

[Your actions are neither conquest nor war, but a desecration of the very meaning of 'humanity.' Our families have stood for no less than a hundred years. What we rely upon is not the sharpness of metal, but the teaching that 'the benevolent are invincible' and the sincerity that 'the grieving army will surely triumph.']

At this point, Lu Ding was furious.

"Fuck your mother! They can really spin some bullshit, can't they? A scholar's pen is something else, huh? They can turn black into white."

The magnate's messenger.

Stood up straight: "Grand Duke Lu, there's more."

Lu Ding looked at him.

Before Lu Ding could even speak, the man acted on his own, taking his own life on the spot: "No need to trouble you with the effort!"

In that instant, he was dead.

Fuck!

The raw, uncultivated air hit him right in the face. They were burning the boats, committing fully. And yet people like this still talk about 'the benevolent are invincible.'

Bullshit!

But it was the messenger's act that made Lu Ding continue reading.

[Now I proclaim three matters to you.]

[First: 'Power cannot be relied upon.' Your arts are strong and your methods sharp, but they only allow you to run rampant for a time. My family's gates and ancestral lands harbor fury. Women, children, and the elderly all nurse their grudges. An army of tyranny grows stronger only to grow more brittle. A blade of injustice grows sharper only to break more easily.]

[Second: 'Reason cannot be deceived.' You claim 'divinely granted authority'—that Lü Mountain oversees Demon Province, protecting the world beneath it from demonic harm. In truth, you 'wash the classics in blood' and 'weave history from lies.' This is hegemony, and the rumors are not unfounded. We shall take the broken tablets and remnant inscriptions as evidence, and use so-called rebel collusion as our blade, to let the world know that though benevolence may be temporarily obscured, it will never be extinguished by the howling of jackals!!!!]

[Third: 'Time cannot be reversed.' Though spring snow is cold, it cannot stop the river's eastward surge. Though the night owl is raucous, how can it block the inevitable rise of the morning sun? You may burn our ancestral lands, but you cannot burn away the bones that would 'rather be shattered jade.' You may imprison our people, but you cannot imprison the cry of 'return, O souls'!!!]

[Therefore, I now use my blood as ink and my broken arrow as a brush. With this letter as the boundary, from this moment onward, every inch of land you take to the east is a forbidden zone. Every common man becomes a bulwark of jade. Even without Lü Mountain's divine abilities, we still possess our arts of death. Even without your jackal-like savagery, we still have the blood of our Wushuang heads to offer!]

[Heaven shines bright, and the ancestors stand witness in the court of the dead. Our family's sword shall drink the blood of the guilty. Our family's drum shall answer the judgment of heaven and earth. If you still possess a sliver of sense, you should sheathe your claws and retreat to the wild frontiers. If you remain obstinate, then witness this:

When we meet in the Yellow Spring one day, your records in history shall be nothing but ghostly whispers among the tombs, while my grieving monuments shall forever ring like thunder among the stars, on the path of resisting Lü Mountain's hegemony!!!!!]

[In the name of the Gan Family, the Xie Family, the Ji Family, the Tu Family... we proclaim to the world of Demon Province: from this day forth, we part ways with Lü Mountain. Kindness ends, enmity begins. Sun and moon bear witness. We fight to the death, without cease!!!!!!]

[The grieving army weeps blood. We solemnly swear!!]

[A hundred years in the cycle, thunder awaits its release!!!!!!]

BANG!!!!

Lu Ding slammed the challenge letter onto the table, shattering both the letter and the table beneath his palm.

"I've given you all way too much face!!!"

A stream of profanities poured out as black smoke erupted, shooting straight into the sky and changing the very color of the heavens in an instant. Lu Ding tore straight out of the Shen Family residence, black smoke swirling around him like frayed edges, and damn it, he was furious!!!!

He only hated that his education was too good. He understood every single word of it, and he'd been cursed out ruthlessly!!!

....

Busy schedule, can't do extra chapters every day, sorry folks.