Chapter 233 - 38: Status

Chapter 233: Chapter 38: Status

"You want me to leave? Impossible!"

Inside the Water Stockade, Huo Shen sneered at Zhu Danren. "Was it you badmouthing me to Grandfather again? Zhu Danren, you need to remember that I’m Grandfather’s only grandson, while you’re just one of his dogs."

Zhu Danren’s expression remained unchanged. "This was the Alliance Leader’s decision. Four water stockades were wiped out today. The Alliance Leader is worried something major will happen here at Broken Dragon Beach, so he wants you to leave and lie low for a while."

"Pah!"

Huo Shen spat a thick glob of phlegm. "It’s just some Blood Exchange Realm Martial Artist coming to avenge his family. This sort of thing has happened before. Perfect... I’ll just wait right here and see if that fellow dares to come for me."

In Huo Shen’s opinion, the identity of the person who’d taken out four stockades was simple.

It was a relative of someone they had killed, coming for revenge. This sort of thing had happened before, but most who came for revenge ended up as fish food in the river.

The only difference was that most of the previous avengers had been Skin Smoothing Martial Artists who snuck around Broken Dragon Beach. This time, it was a Blood Exchange Realm Martial Artist.

Although Zhao Heizi was a Blood Exchange First Transformation Martial Artist, his Qi Blood was too low. Right after achieving the Fourth-Time of Skin Smoothing, he had spent his entire fortune to impatiently obtain a Blood Exchange Realm Technique from the Alliance Leader. He was the most useless type among those in the Blood Exchange Realm.

Killing Zhao Heizi didn’t mean the opponent was particularly strong.

"Go back and tell Grandfather this: as long as he refuses to leave, how could I possibly abandon him and go alone!"

Hearing this, Zhu Danren said no more. The Alliance Leader wouldn’t force Huo Shen to leave.

Because the Alliance Leader had a real soft spot for this kind of filial piety from Huo Shen.

...

...

「The Riverside Courtyard.」

Lin Yan continued his daily Cultivation as usual, but unlike when he had first arrived, Zhou Chuan’s visits to the courtyard had become less frequent.

For the first few days, Zhou Chuan would come to the courtyard after his daily patrol to report on the situation, even if nothing had happened. But now... he hadn’t shown up for two days straight. Zhao Tong, however, still made a daily trip to the courtyard, his attitude toward Lin Yan remaining as respectful as ever.

「Noon.」

Zhao Tong frowned as he watched Zhou Chuan return from patrol. "Old Zhou, aren’t you going to report on today’s patrol to Young Master Yan?"

"What’s the point? Same as always. Nothing happened."

Zhou Chuan shook his head and walked straight toward his own courtyard. After a moment’s hesitation, Zhao Tong hurried after him and lowered his voice. "Old Zhou, don’t get out of line. No matter what, Young Master Yan is from the Lin Family’s main house, and he’s a Blood Exchange Realm Powerhouse."

"A Blood Exchange Realm Powerhouse, I’ll grant you that, but not all disciples from the main house are the same."

Zhou Chuan curled his lip and kept his voice low. "He’s obviously from a branch family but insists on acting like he’s got powerful backing. Now he’s been humiliated by a Water Bandit and can’t even save face. If you ask me, Old Zhao, you should be the angriest one. Weren’t you just looking out for him back then?"

At Lin Yan’s request, the fact that Zhao Tong had wiped away the rouge writing wasn’t kept secret, so of course Zhou Chuan knew about it.

"Old Zhou, you’re going too far."

"I’m just telling the truth. You have it easy patrolling toward Gourd Mouth, Old Zhao. I patrol toward Black Water Bay and ran into Yan Su of the Black Flood Dragon Society passing by on his boat. He brought this up just to mock me. The story of Huo Shen sending rotten fish and shrimp has already spread all over these waters."

The Black Flood Dragon Society were Water Bandits, sure, and Zhou Chuan’s job patrolling the river was to hunt down Water Bandits, that’s also true. But the problem was, this Yan Su was one of the Black Flood Dragon Society’s four Blood Exchange Realm Powerhouses. Even if Zhou Chuan had wanted to do something, he wasn’t strong enough.

In fact, the only reason Yan Su hadn’t attacked him and his men was out of fear of the Lin Family.

"Regardless, it costs you nothing to show your face at Young Master Yan’s place every day. We can’t afford to offend someone of his status."

"There’s no need. The way I see it, he’ll probably give up on the mission and leave on his own before long. Besides, he’s a disciple of the Lin Family’s main house, but so is my brother-in-law."

Compared to Zhao Tong, Zhou Chuan had a certain sense of superiority. His older sister had married a clansman of the Shou Generation from the Lin Family’s Second Branch, and it was only with his brother-in-law’s help that he had managed to break through to the Fourth-Time of Skin Smoothing.

True, his brother-in-law hadn’t reached the True Gang Realm, but his brother-in-law’s older brother was a genuine True Gang Realm Powerhouse. With a connection like that, he didn’t need to suck up to Lin Yan. As long as he didn’t do anything wrong himself, he wasn’t afraid of Lin Yan making his life difficult.

"Sigh... Old Zhou..."

"Don’t bother trying to persuade me. You know how stubborn I am."

Since Zhou Chuan had said that, Zhao Tong didn’t press the issue. He also thought Young Master Yan’s actions had been a bit naive, but it was undeniable that it at least proved the young master wasn’t a cold-blooded person.

Just as Zhao Tong was about to lead his team out on patrol, one of his men by the river suddenly shouted, "Ships are coming! They’re from the main house!"

On the river, three ships flying banners with the character "Lin" were fast approaching, now less than a hundred zhang from the bank.

"It’s Lord Shouzhi."

Zhao Tong strained his eyes and saw Lord Shouzhi on the deck. But then he made an even more shocking discovery: Lord Shouzhi was only in the third position on deck. Two other people stood in front of him.

Shipboard etiquette dictated that on deck, the person of the highest status stood at the very front.

On the decks of the other two ships stood many young men, all wearing identical white sashes.

’People from the main house’s Third Branch... Then does that mean the two at the front are True Gang Realm Powerhouses from the Third Branch? Has the Third Branch mobilized more than half of its clansmen? But what are people from the Third Branch doing here?’