area51novel Page 382
Page 382
"My enemy is Yan Song, the current Grand Secretary, known as the 'treacherous minister'..."
Li Gexiao slowly recounted what happened back then.
Hearing only half of it, Yan Nantian clenched his fists, his eyes bloodshot as if they were about to spit fire.
Jiang Feng was equally furious.
After Li Gexiao finished speaking, Yan Nantian turned around and smashed the earthen wall in the courtyard with a palm strike, roaring, "Such a treacherous person, how could His Majesty still appoint him? He is truly a foolish ruler!"
Jiang Feng shook his head and smiled bitterly, "It can only be said that Yan Song was indeed good at being an official. Although he did evil, the root of the problem lies with the emperor. The emperor can't punish the officials who work for him, can he?"
Yan Nantian sneered, "The founding emperor once said that the emperor is subject to the same laws as commoners. So what if he is the emperor? Does that mean he can deny his mistakes?"
Li Gexiao lowered his head, his expression indifferent; no one knew what he was thinking after hearing those words.
Jiang Feng said, "Brother, he's the emperor after all. What can you do if he's wrong?"
Yan Nantian was instantly furious, feeling as if ants were crawling all over his body, but he couldn't scratch them, making him extremely uncomfortable.
"Lord Li, pack your bags. We're heading to the capital. If we can't do anything to the Emperor, then we'll take down Yan Song. We'll settle this score as much as we can, and I, Yan, will lend a hand!"
Yan Nantian is a man of his word; if he says something, he will definitely do it. However, Li Gexiao did not want to involve him and shook her head, saying, "Hero Yan, this is my family matter. I do not want to trouble others. One day, I will settle accounts with that old scoundrel Yan Song."
Yan Nantian thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Since Lord Li was able to defeat the Twelve Constellations and the Palace Master of Yihua Palace, his martial arts cultivation must have reached an extremely high level. He really doesn't need my help."
Li Gexiao paused for a moment, then slapped his thigh and laughed loudly, "Hero Yan is mistaken. In my prime, I could indeed destroy the Twelve Constellations, but I am far inferior to the Palace Master of Yihua Palace. Even if I practiced for another twenty years, I still wouldn't be able to do it."
Jiang Feng also laughed awkwardly, "Brother, I wasn't talking about Lord Li, but someone else."
Yan Nantian scratched his head, puzzled.
Li Gexiao explained, "It was my young master who dealt with the Twelve Constellations, and he also defeated the Palace Master of Yihua Palace. To be honest, as a guard, I failed to fulfill my duty as a guard."
"Young Master?!" Yan Nantian frowned. He put aside the question of who defeated the Palace Master of Yihua Palace for a moment, and then said in a dissatisfied tone, "Why should a hero like Lord Li be a slave to someone?"
"I'd like to see which hero has such great courage?"
In his mind, Li Gexiao, a good official who cared about the people, should be treated well for condescending to visit a wealthy family. Giving him a bodyguard was an insult.
"Letting him be my bodyguard is already giving him a lot of face. This drunkard owes me a huge debt for alcohol. If you really want to settle it, he'll have to sell his ass to pay it off!"
Chu Yang yawned and lazily walked out of the thatched hut, looking at Yan Nantian with an unfriendly expression.
So what if he's the greatest swordsman in the world?
If you keep talking, I'll beat you up.
"Hey, our butts are worth so much!" Li Ge grinned and moved closer to Chu Yang. "If all else fails, we can just sell them! We're practically family."
"Get lost!" Chu Yang waved impatiently, telling him to leave.
"So you're the young master Lord Li mentioned!" Yan Nantian stared at Chu Yang with displeasure and said in a deep voice, "Lord Li served the people for many years during his time in office. How could you, a brat with such a loose tongue, easily insult him?"
"The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the two secret police are known as the imperial court's lackeys. The common people avoid them like the plague. What kind of benefit do they bring? It's good enough if they don't harm the people!" Chu Yang said with a look of disdain.
During the time he and Li Gexiao were practically useless in the capital, they would get drunk and bicker with each other every day. They would insult each other, basically saying all the things that hit the nail on the head. What was there to mind?
Li Gexiao didn't care at all and nodded as if it were a matter of course, saying, "There is indeed such a saying. The Embroidered Uniform Guard is the hawk, and the two secret police are the dogs. However, after my master took over the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the saying of hawk and dog gradually faded away. Of course, the two secret police are still dogs, which is an indisputable fact."
Seeing Li Gexiao fawning over Chu Yang, Yan Nantian felt disappointed from the bottom of his heart. Was this still the same Li Gexiao who spoke up for the people and was upright and incorruptible?
He didn't hide his disappointment, and Li Gexiao knew what he was thinking when he saw this, so he smiled and said, "Hero Yan, the greatest fortune of my life is to be able to protect you, young master. If you think my servile appearance is unsightly, then you don't have to look at it!"
“Li Gexiao is still the same Li Gexiao. Even if he hasn’t taken off that flying fish robe, I will still have to bow and scrape before you, young master. There will be no change, including you all.”
Yan Nantian sneered, "We've known each other for many years, but Lord Li still underestimates my backbone."
Li Gexiao burst into laughter, "Hahaha, Master Yan, this has nothing to do with how hard your bones are, but it has a lot to do with your entire family."
Yan Nantian looked at Li Gexiao, completely bewildered.
Jiang Feng seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly his body trembled.
Li Gexiao turned to look at Chu Yang, who smiled knowingly and nodded.
Li Ge smiled and dusted off his sleeves, then said solemnly, "Standing before you is His Majesty the Emperor's younger brother, the Prince Xian, bestowed the title by the late Emperor."
"Master Yan, failing to kneel before the king is a capital offense in our dynasty!"
Before the words were even finished, Jiang Feng had already knelt down on the ground, his forehead pressed firmly against the ground, and shouted, "This humble subject Jiang Feng kowtows to Your Highness! Long live Your Highness! This humble subject was unaware of Your Highness's identity and has offended you along the way. I beg Your Highness's forgiveness!"
Yan Nantian looked at Chu Yang in disbelief. Although he was known as the number one swordsman in the world, he was essentially just an ordinary person, and offending a prince was a capital offense.
So what if you're a master of the martial arts world? A million wolves on horseback will conquer the world. No matter how powerful you are, you'll still die!
Li Ge shook his head and chuckled, "Great Hero Yan, now you know whether I, Li Ge, am tough or not?"
Yan Nantian sighed bitterly, then knelt down with his head bowed in resignation.
"This humble subject, Yan Nantian, pays his respects to Your Highness!"
This mild and ineffective warning was a small price Yan Nantian paid for his insolent remarks.
The moment his head was lowered, Yan Nantian finally understood the teasing in Li Gexiao's words.
"Throughout history, there have been many who have used martial arts to break the law. If you really violate the laws of the court in the future, the title of the greatest swordsman in the world will not be of any use. You'd better watch yourself!"
Chu Yang looked down at Yan Nantian kneeling on the ground, his tone casual as if he hadn't woken up yet.
However, Yan Nantian sensed killing intent in those words, and his heart skipped a beat. He instinctively reached out and pressed his hand against the heavy black iron sword on his back.
If the prince persists in his folly, he will fight back, even if it means falling out with Li Ge.
Yan Nantian would not surrender simply because the other party was a high-ranking prince.
"I told you not to have any crazy ideas."
Chu Yang flashed and suddenly appeared beside Yan Nantian, pressing down heavily on his Xuan Tie heavy sword.
Yan Nantian suddenly felt an immense weight on his back.
Just as he was about to resist, a terrifying force pressed him down so hard that he couldn't lift his head.
Rumble!
The ground beneath their feet collapsed, forming a deep pit ten feet deep.
Yan Nantian knelt in the pit, his face flushed, his eyes bloodshot, and veins bulging on his neck and temples.
He was like Sun Wukong under the Five Elements Mountain, suffocating under the pressure of the Buddha.
"This person was able to defeat the Palace Mistress of Yihua Palace, Yaoyue. It was no accident. Such terrifying strength is rare in the world. Even a general with superhuman strength could not compare to him."
Yan Nantian activated the Wedding Dress Divine Skill with all his might, and his true essence flowed continuously to his limbs and bones. Otherwise, he probably would have been crushed into minced meat long ago.
However, he had not yet grasped the true essence of the Wedding Dress Divine Skill, and his power had not yet been destroyed and rebuilt. The more intensely the divine skill was activated, the more the domineering true essence rampaged through his body, bringing him inhuman pain.
In just a few breaths, Yan Nantian was drenched in cold sweat, his expression one of extreme pain.
Chu Yang, however, had already withdrawn his power and stood aside observing Yan Nantian's current state.
"Brother! What's wrong with you?"
Jiang Feng anxiously hugged Yan Nantian, feeling the domineering power within him, and couldn't help but marvel at it.
My elder brother's wedding dress technique is so powerful, I wonder how to calm it down.
"Your Highness, has Master Yan gone mad with qi deviation?"
Li Gexiao was unaware that Yan Nantian was practicing the Wedding Dress Divine Skill, and thought that the other party had made a mistake in resisting Chu Yang's forced circulation of his power.
"No, the martial arts he cultivates are inherently extremely domineering. He needs to transfer all his power to someone else and start over to blunt their sharpness and eliminate the harshness in his true essence. Only then can he control it freely and operate it at will."
Yan Nantian, who was suffering, suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had been stimulated, and stared straight at Chu Yang with his tiger eyes.
"Why are you looking at me? I don't need your true energy." Chu Yang said irritably, "The Wedding Dress Divine Skill is known as the martial arts Zen. You need to have an epiphany and understand your own nature before you can let go of everything. It's only natural that you're reluctant to give up the power you've painstakingly cultivated for decades. Whether you can understand it or not is entirely up to you."
"The skill of making wedding dresses for others" means making wedding dresses for others.
Yan Nantian was in so much pain that his face was ashen, as if he might faint at any moment. He kept repeating Chu Yang's words, "To do someone else's work for their benefit..."
Li Gexiao and Jiang Feng were shocked after hearing this. They couldn't believe that such a skill existed in the world. How could a normal person have imagined it?
For a martial artist, martial arts are something that is related to their life and death. To destroy years of skill in an instant is even more painful than killing themselves!
Yan Nantian was also a man of great perseverance. He made his decision in an instant regarding whether to give up his martial arts skills.
The situation was critical, and he was willing to believe that Chu Yang, whom he had only met once, would not collude with such a villain, given Li Gexiao's character. Besides, Chu Yang had saved Jiang Feng.
A myriad of thoughts flashed through Yan Nantian's mind in an instant. He grabbed Jiang Feng's clothes, his eyes gradually hardening.
Jiang Feng understood Yan Nantian's idea and nodded, saying, "If you are willing, elder brother, you can transfer your power to me. We brothers are of one mind and share the same goal, without distinction between you and me."
Yan Nantian smiled with satisfaction, straightened his body, and prepared to transfer the power of the Wedding Dress Divine Skill to Jiang Feng.
Chu Yang's voice rang out again, still in a lazy tone, "Jiang Feng's Dragon-Shocking Manual is getting weaker and weaker the more he practices it. He needs to have no martial arts left to achieve the Dragon-Shocking Realm of returning to the origin. By transferring your power to him, you are turning his martial arts backwards."
"Even if he survives the ordeal, he'll be crippled and bedridden for the rest of his life."
Yan Nantian hurriedly pushed Jiang Feng away. His true energy was in disarray, causing his blood to rush to his head and blood to spill from the corner of his mouth.
"Brother, hang in there! If I can't handle it, there are others who can!" Jiang Feng looked at Li Gexiao with a panicked expression. "Lord Li, only you can withstand my brother's power here. Please help my brother!"
Li Ge smiled but hesitated. He rejected this kind of behavior of having his power transferred to others from the bottom of his heart. Martial arts cultivation should be based on solid foundation.
Chu Yang kicked Li Gexiao in the butt and said coldly, "Hurry up! If he doesn't pass on his skills soon, he'll be burned to death by his true energy!"
The matter was urgent, and Li Gexiao disregarded her own fastidiousness and quickly sat down in front of Yan Nantian.