Chapter 249
Chapter 249: The most beautiful women in Jianghu Twenty Years Ago; Ruins Appears
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Fate was a thing that mankind could not see and touch. To some extent, it was related to luck.
When he was in the Immortal Palace, Junior Leopard once heard of relevant issues from his teacher of ancient Chinese characters.
A man had fate. A family and a school had fate. So it was with a nation.
Fate, in a way, meant fortune or destiny. It sounded abstruse and indeed was somewhat mysterious and beyond comprehension for Junior Leopard in his current phase.
He only knew that a treasure capable of guarding fate could increase the fortune or destiny of a person, an organization, and even a country.
Different nations, organizations, and persons had various fates. Thus treasures used to guard fate should be different. It must be compatible with the actual strength of the person, organization, or country. Otherwise, it would drive away all the fate rather than increase or maintain it.
For example, a common well-known family, such as the Wu family, could suppress fate once it owned a psychic celestial device like Junior Leopard’s Demon Devil Needles. But if the device was much more high-end, like one at the mysterious level, Wu family would not dare keep it. They knew the valuable would finally bring misfortune to them even though they were innocent.
It was enough for Jin, a rich nation, to use a Pure Yang Celestial Device, namely Heavenly Crown of Peace, to guard its fate. In fact, the most powerful device used by dynasties before Jin was only a celestial device at the mysterious level that was close to Extreme Yang Level.
According to his teacher, if the emperors of Jin governed the country in a proper way, it could exist for thousands of years with the guarding of Pure Yang Celestial Device, the Heavenly Crown of Peace.
As for those well-known families, they all had their own celestial devices to guard fate. Tribes of Northern Yuan also owned similar things.
For instance, the ruby pendant that Junior Leopard transformed into a ruby ring was a celestial device of Blackwolf tribe to guard fate.
The device, at best, was only a psychic celestial device, but owing to its rare spatial attribute, Blackwolf tribe succeeded in staging a comeback for times after suffering from disasters. But now it belonged to Junior Leopard. The tribe would thus lose its fate.
As to the Clear Glass Jade Bottle, it was a fairy weapon far more powerful than a celestial device. It should never be used to deal with fate for one had no right unless one ruled the whole world. Nevertheless, dominating all life was only a thing pursued by some famous lunatics in history.
Though the present Jin Emperor was ambitious, he was not that crazy. Thus he did not need to guard fate with the Clear Glass Jade Bottle.
“Renzhen Cuo, why did Wang Hua know that you had the halidom of Blackwolf tribe and insist that it belonged to Wang family?” Junior Leopard asked.
After interactions with the princess of Blackwolf tribe for a few days, Junior Leopard had known her name, Renzhen Cuo. She seemed to have a clear mind of her current situation and began to carefully serve Junior Leopard with an obedient attitude. Awkward as she was, her service could be ranked as not bad, given her previous status.
Hearing this, Renzhen Cuo replied with a sad expression, “Shortly after you had conquered the Blackwolf town, I escaped with the halidom under my father’s demand and hid it in a safe place. Later, I was captured by your soldiers on the run and was brought to Yunzhou. I used to think that I would never have the opportunity to return to the prairie in my life. But unexpectedly, Wang Hua bought me to Yunzhou!”
“After that, you went back to the prairie with them?” Junior Leopard asked.
“That’s right. All the slaves they bought are sinners, and we all worked as guides. I didn’t expect that a bastard should recognize me!” Renzhen Cuo said, grinding her teeth in extreme anger. “I thought he was a kind man. I never expected that he would inform Wang family of me after gaining the halidom. It was just a futile effort to believe that he was bent on helping me reinvigorate Blackwolf tribe!”
“What a fool!” Junior Leopard snickered and murmured. It appears that the guy swindled the little girl out of her halidom and love.
Junior Leopard now figured out what had happened. The guy who recognized Renzhen Cuo was named Timur, a warrior of Blackwolf tribe. When he met her, he pretended to be excited as if he was loyal to Blackwolf tribe. However, he soon betrayed her and secretly monitored her under the order of Wang family. Besides, he wanted to rob her when Renzhen Cuo retrieved the pendant. But he did not expect that the girl would perceive his intention and cut off his pendant. She escaped and entered Junior Leopard’s territory by coincidence.
“Well, I think I have known the whole story. You can stay in my territory at ease. I can promise you that no one will hurt you, but you’d better give up the idea of reviving Blackwolf tribe. Now that Northern Yuan has collapsed, it is impossible for you to reinvigorate the tribe!”
“Of course. In the past years, I have accepted the fact. Your Central Plains people have a thriving fate while we have only been abandoned by Grassland God. Besides, you, the powerful people, have controlled the prairie. We have no chance to achieve the goal!”
“It’s good for you to be realistic!” Junior Leopard said, nodding and smiling, after seeing the disappointed expression of Renzhen Cuo.
At this moment, out of the camp came Jiang Xiao’s voice, “Your Excellency, here again comes the Wang family!”
“What endless trouble!” Junior Leopard sneered and complained. When he talked with Renzhen Cuo, he felt the spirits of dozens of masters of martial arts approach. However, he did not care because those spirits did not move stealthily but instead drew near to his camp at the speed of common walking. Besides, he also felt the familiar spirit of Jiang Xiao in front of those masters.
“Let them in!”
“Yes, Your Excellency,”Jiang Xiao responded. He turned around and said to those masters behind him, “Please!”
……
…
This time Wang family dispatched a fair number of people headed by a woman.
“My honor to meet you, Your Excellency. I’m Wang Yue-er from Wang family in Cenzhou,” Wang Yue-er stepped forward in front of Junior Leopard and said with her hands folded.
“Wang Yue-er!” Junior Leopard’s eyes lit up because she was famous. “Haha, here is Miss Wang. If I was told of your arrival ahead of time, I would have welcomed you at the door!”
He rose to his feet from the seat and moved forward with an apologetic expression to Wang Yue-er.
“It’s very nice of you, Your Excellency. Please forgive Yue-er for coming here without an invitation.”
Junior Leopard gave two hollow laughs and said, “Miss Wang, sit down, please. Jiang Xiao, let a servant girl quickly offer tea!”
“Yes, Your Excellency!” Jiang Xiao replied, nodding his head and naturally leading Renzhen Cuo out of the camp.
After everyone sat down, Junior Leopard smiled and asked, ” Miss Wang, could you tell me what do you come here for?”
“I come here, first, to apologize to Your Excellency for the offense of my cousin several days ago, and second, to capture the fugitive slave. Would you mind my taking away the slave? We will subject her to discipline.”
“You are too serious, Miss Wang!” Junior Leopard replied and gave a hollow laugh feeling uncomfortable for what she said, thinking to himself, “Sh*t. I am only 17, while you b*tch are 37. You are old enough to be my mother. Why do you call yourself Yue-er? No f*cking shame!”
Even though she was 37, honestly speaking, she was beautiful. After catching sight of Miss Wang, Junior Leopard, with a memory of a previous life, where he had decades of experience exposed to the computer Photoshop technology, had to admit that she was a beauty.
Because of her attractiveness and eminent status, she was known as the most beautiful women in Jianghu over two decades ago and pursued by countless teens and persons with exceptional ability. It was said that duels for her were more than one hundred. All participants were juveniles or outstanding figures with names in Jianghu at that time just like Junior Leopard.
Moreover, though Miss Wang was nearly forty, she appeared to be a maiden in her twenties, attractive and gorgeous, more charming than younger, immature women.
However, the most beautiful women in Jianghu two decades ago was not mere eye candy. As a matter of fact, she was a well-known martial artist.
Wang Yue-er was born with great talent and strong savvy. When she was 17, she made cultivation reach Level Four and became one of the most renowned masters of martial arts among the young generation in Jianghu at that time.
All these attributes, young, beautiful, noble, and highly skilled in martial arts, had formed the most striking landscape in Jianghu. You could say that people of the whole Jianghu had been crazy for this woman at that time.
“What a pity that she was already 37 years old!” Junior Leopard thought.
Though she looked like a twenty-something woman, Junior Leopard was not interested in her.
“About Wang Hua, I have already taught him a lesson. No need to mention. As for the so-called fugitive slave, honestly, I knew nothing about her. You know, my territory, covering 282,600 square kilometers, contains mountains and rivers. If someone flees here and hides in a corner at random, no one knows whether the person is frozen to death, drowned, or eaten by wolves. Is that right?”
“What you say adds up. I shouldn’t have troubled you for this matter, but someone happened to see the slave in your territory and was taken in by Your Excellency. For this reason, I come to you!”
Zhou Bao laughed and asked, “Really? I want to see which son of a bitch has eyes on his buttock. Miss Wang, words alone are no proof. Do you have any direct evidence?”
“No problem,” Wang Yue-er said confidently. She turned half around and nodded toward a family servant in greenish-blue standing nearby. The servant stood.
“He is a family servant named Timur. It is he that first found the fugitive slave!” Wang Yue-er pointed out the pale man and said, “The maidservant who had stood beside you just now is exactly the slave of our Wang family. Her name is Renzhen Cuo, originally a princess of Blackwolf tribe. If you have any other question, you can ask her!”
“The story is funny. You randomly let a family servant testify that our maidservant is a fugitive slave of your Wang family,” Junior Leopard replied. “Likewise, I can ask some random person to prove that this so-called Timur guy is the dog that we lost twenty years ago, can’t I?”
“Your Excellency, please do not draw a hasty conclusion. He is only the first witness, and I have another to verify that on the day our Wang family chased fugitive slaves, that maidservant fled to your territory and got caught by your soldiers. Two days later, she unexpectedly became your maidservant to provide service for you!”
Junior Leopard raised his eyebrows and asked, “Really? Then I would like to see who the witness is!”
“He is one of your men, Your Excellency!” Miss Wang said and clapped her hands. Then a man lifted the curtain and entered.
“Your Excellency, don’t you know him?”
The guy was in his thirties with only one arm. Junior Leopard remembered he was one of the first nomadic herdsmen entering his territory.
“My man? To be honest, I actually don’t know him. Miss Wang, you know, since I came here, I have always stayed in the camp all day long and hardly gone out. It is Jiang Xiao that takes charge of those specific matters. Jiang Xiao, come in and tell me whether you know this guy?”
“I don’t know him!” The voice of Jiang Xiao came out before he lifted the curtain.
The curtain was lifted again, and Jiang Xiao came in and said to Renzhen Cuo who came with him, “Offer some tea to our guests!”
Renzhen Cuo responded in a low voice. Looking down, she at first poured Junior Leopard a cup of tea. Then she walked carefully to the front of Wang family and served them the hot drink.
“Zhou Bao, she is here. How dare you deny the fact!” A man shouted.
He suddenly gripped her wrist when Renzhen Cuo served tea. He is a member of the Wang family.
Renzhen Cuo screamed and tea in her hands spilled all over the floor.
After that was a long silence in the camp.
Junior Leopard squinted and slightly raised his head showing a cold smile.
“Miss Wang, I think Wang family had better replace the head of the fief next to mine”.
“What does that mean?” Wang Yue-er’s countenance fell, and her tone became cold.
“Wang Hua rubs me the wrong way. If he is my neighbor, I will become irritable. If I am irascible, I will kill people. In order to save Miss Wang’s face, I give up killing him today. However, I cannot promise you that I won’t slay him in the future. Therefore, you’d better replace him for the sake of profits of Wang family.”
“It is a threat?”
“I’m just giving you a piece of advice!”
“Your Excellency, you should not forget that the fief doesn’t belong to our Wang family and that his Majesty distributes it to us. So we have no authority to take the place of the head!” Wang Yue-er said. “You also have no right to replace him, or you want to tell us that you will kill the meritorious statesman who contributed a lot in the battle of overthrowing Northern Yuan?”
“A meritorious statesman, so what? He acted indecently against my maidservant in my camp. Even if I have to argue in front of the emperor, I will not be afraid.” Junior Leopard shouted and suddenly pointed at Wang Hua, “Let her go, or I will kill you immediately!”
A crisp sound was heard, “Bang!” It was Wang Yue-er who slapped one arm of the chair into small pieces. Then she turned around and said, “Wang Hua, put down your hand!”
“Yes, madam!” Wang Hua behaved like a cat with good manners in front of Wang Yue-er, loosening his grip on Renzhen Cuo’s hand.
“Your Excellency, you see, this woman is the fugitive slave of our Wang family who stole our treasure. For the sake of your face, I won’t take her away, but she must hand out that highly valued object!”
Junior Leopard laughed grimly and said, “She is not your fugitive slave. She is my maidservant. She came with me from Yunzhou. Miss Wang, I think you’d better look for your slave in other places!”
“Zhou Bao, it seems that you want to stand opposite to our Wang family!” Wang Yue-er said in a deep voice.
“If you determine to menace me with Wang family, that’s a great accusation!” Junior Leopard replied, sneering. Then he gently took up a cup for a sip and continued, “I’m sorry. Miss Wang, my place is too small to accommodate members of your Wang family. All of you, leave, please. Jiang Xiao, see them out!”
“Zhou Bao…!”
“What? Miss Wang wants to discuss with me more?” Junior Leopard added, raising his eyebrows with a sneer. “You have 12 people excluding that waste of space: seven at Level Four, three at Level Five, and two at Level Six including you. Believe it or not, I can smash you all with one stroke of the hammer.”
“Good, very good!” Wang Yue-er said in anger. Taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet and forced herself to calm down. She thought to herself that for nearly 40 years since she was born, no one, even her parents, had talked to her with such an attitude, let alone a 17-year-old boy.”
“Now that you give an order to evict us, I am not a shameless person and will certainly leave. But I hope that you won’t forget what has happened today!”
“I don’t have a good memory, but Miss Wang can remind me in time!” Junior Leopard said and laughed scornfully, putting the cup on the desk. “Have a safe trip home. I don’t bother to see you out!”
“Let’s go!” Wang Yue-er flung her sleeve and turned around to walk away.
“Wait a minute!”
“Well, Your Excellency wants us to stay?”
“It is none of your business!” Junior Leopard grinned with dissatisfaction and looked at the witness with one arm who had already turned around. “You want to go? You can’t. I have decided to hang you. If you leave, I will have nobody to hang!”
“What? You… Miss Wang, please save me. You said that you would take me away. Miss Wang, you said…”
Wang Yue-er glanced at him and then turned to look at Junior Leopard.
“Miss Wang, you don’t want to go now? Do you want to see how I hang this guy?”
“Humph!” Wang Yue-er flung her sleeve again and left with the other members of Wang family.
“Your Excellency, spare my life. Your Excellency, spare my life. Your Excellency, spare my life. I just temporarily get confused. I…” The one-arm witness suddenly knelt down.
“Jiang Xiao, fix a wooden post at the side of Wang family’s territory and hang him at the top of the post!” Junior Leopard waved his hand and said.
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
…
…
“He is too much! He is honestly too much! This guy, Zhou Bao, is confident of his own martial arts and obviously looks down on our Wang family. Cousin Yue-er, why don’t you fight with him? Though he is an expert at Level Seven, we have 12 people…”
“Shut up!” Wang Yue-er scolded her in a cold voice and mercilessly stared at Wang Hua. “You are just a waste of space and failed to watch a little woman. How can you have the face to make irresponsible remarks? Fight? How dare you! He is an expert at Level Seven. He alone destroyed the whole Cool Breeze Gang. It is a piece of cake for him to kill all of us. I will report this matter to the Family Head. Shut your mouth and come back to Central Plains with me three days later. Wang Fu will handle all affairs here.”
“Ah? Why? This is my fief!”
“Your fief? It is useless to own any large fief if you lose your life!”
“I don’t believe that he dares to kill me.”
“Of course he dares. With his strength, he can kill you without a trace. It’s easy for him. His intention to kill you is obvious. If you insist on staying here, you will doubtlessly die!”
“But…”
“It’s settled. No more words!” Wang Yue-er said in a deep voice.
……
…
“Your Excellency, he is dead”, Jiang Xiao said.
“Good, just let him hang there!” Junior Leopard said, “Ask all the people to see the consequence of betraying me!”
“Yes!” Jiang Xiao replied, “but, Your Excellency, do you think it’s appropriate? Wang Yue-er is not a simple person. It is said that in those years…”
“Her gossip in those days was widely known in Jianghu and was even written into a book. Of course, I know!” Junior Leopard said.
“But you still…”
“I what? Let me tell you. This woman lives a comfortable and luxurious life for a long time and is accustomed to commanding others in a proud manner. Those people extolled her for twenty or thirty years. That’s too much! Now, she has an exaggerated opinion of her own abilities. For this kind of women, do not spoil them, or they will be more and more arrogant. Pay no more attention to her. She is a nobody.”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Jiang Xiao responded. Though he disagreed with what Junior Leopard said, he did not dare to argue as before. Junior Leopard today was not the man several years ago. His cultivation has reached Level Seven. Despite the fact that he treated his followers in a gentle manner, people like Jiang Xiao, with a cultivation of Level Three, dared not think to rebel against him threatened by his expert spirit shown unintentionally or on purpose. When Junior Leopard made a decision, he did not have the courage to rebuke it though he had different opinions.
“I know what you are worried about. If Wang Yue-er were 20 years younger, I would also worry that her pursuers might pick on me. However, she now is nearly 40. Do you think those pursuers, young men of exceptional abilities at that time, who left numerous stories of flirting with girls, will fight for her? Mr. Jiang, if you were one of them, would you?”
“Er, if so…” Thinking of the beautiful face of Wang Yue-er, Jiang Xiao blushed and said shyly, “Your Excellency, actually I’m not sure about that!”
“Hum, you’re a spoony!” Junior Leopard derided and then walked away.
……
…
The prairie at midnight was particularly quiet. On the cloudless sky was a full moon spreading its water-like light to the ground. The entire prairie was thus in frosty white.
Suddenly, the sky became overcast for an unexpected dark cloud blocked the bright moon. The prairie was immediately in the dark. Later, dark clouds in the sky gathered and formed larger and larger clouds.
“Boom boom…”
There was a crash of dull thunder, and the bright lightning suddenly lit up the earth.
“Boom, boom, boom…”
After the first thunder, the second one came soon, ensuing the third, the fourth…
The rumbling thunders came one by one. The rumbles resounded through the prairie.
“What happened?” Junior Leopard abruptly opened his eyes as if he got scared, and his face blanched.
“Why is my heart pumping so fast? Why do I feel that something will happen? I only reach Level Seven. Why do I have such a strong feeling? Why do I…?”
He stood up from the bed and lifted the curtain of the camp. Bean-like raindrops were falling from the sky. He did not care about that. When he raised his head, he was suddenly dumbfounded. “What is that? A mirage?” Junior Leopard thought.
Moonlight originally spreading on the prairie had been completely blocked by unexpected dark clouds. There was no light here. It was so dark that you could not see your hand in front of you. Everyone had hidden in the camp. If they were awake, they would not walk out of the camp like he. Even if they walked outside, they could see nothing.
However, Junior Leopard saw that. He saw clearly that in the remote eastern sky, there were huge city ruins.
“No light, so that is not a mirage.” Junior Leopard squinted and said, “What is that?”