The Patriarch angered shout reverberated through the whole mansion, startling all the maids and servants. Many went pale and some fell to their knees due to Sheng Hentian"s terrible killing intent. Sheng Henjian, who"s still lying in his bed, was scared out of his wits by his father"s scream for a moment, but quickly caught his compusture again and was rejoicing in his heart."Sheng Feilong, let"s see how long you can live with father that angry! That"s what you get from humiliating me!"
Just as he finished this thought, he saw his father, Sheng Hentian storm towards the door and out of the room. Sheng Hentian was running through the mansion, making a beeline towards the front door like a madman. He soon reached the main hall, but before he could go out through it to find Sheng Feilong, the figure of the Sheng Clan"s Grand Elder, Sheng Yuntian, stood in his way with a grave expression. Sheng Hentian stopped in his track and stared at the Grand Elder.
"Sheng Yuntian, get out of my way. I will slaughter that little rat!"
Sheng Yuntian looked at the Patriarch and spoke with a cold voice.
"Patrairch, calm down. I"ve heard what happened to Jian"er and we will get revenge for him. But not now, not like this. Going out and killing Sheng Feilong will only lead to more rumours. A few disciples of the Clan saw the match between Jian"er and Sheng Feilong. According to them, Sheng Feilong defeated Jian"er in just two moves without even using his Soul Power."
Sheng Hentian still stared at the Grand Elder and let out a low bellow at the mention of the duel"s outcome.
"That rat used Soul weapons against Jian"er. It"s impossible for him to defeat Jian"er!"
Sheng Yuntian nodded, still with a grave expression, and continued to speak, seeing that the Patriarch hasn"t lost his reason and was still willing to talk.
"Of course he can"t defeat Jian"er with his own strength. But if we kill him now, just like that and release the information that he used Soul Weapons afterwards, many people still won"t believe it. After all, only Jian"er who was in the arena could see them. We need to find a way to justifiably dispose of him. Isn"t the annual youth compet.i.tion at the end of the week? How about we use that against him?"
"The compet.i.tion? You want Sheng Feilong to take part in it?" Sheng Hentian narrowed his eyes, before continuing with a sneer.
"The compet.i.tion is only for members of the clan"s younger generation. A homeless rat like him doesn"t qualify to partic.i.p.ate."
Grand Elder Sheng Yuntian"s expression turned into a light smile.
"Naturally not, Patriarch. But we can still have him fight Jian"er there. After Jian"er won first place, we"ll inform the Clan about Sheng Feilong"s underhanded methods and will have Jian"er beat him to his hearts content." Sheng Yuntian"s smile changed to an ill-natured one and a malicious aura surged out from him.
"Afterwards, we"ll cripple him for injuring Jian"er. Knowing Sheng Lingtian, that punishment will be even worse than the death of his son and Sheng Feilong will have to live the rest of his life as a pitiful mortal."
Sheng Hentian was stunned for a second before showing a similar ill-natured smile and beginning to chuckle.
"Good, good. A fantastic idea, Grand Elder... We"ll do it like that. But we"ll have to make sure that they don"t leave the Clan before the compet.i.tion."
"No worries, Patriarch. According to my information, they plan to spent the whole week at Sheng Fengtian"s place. Sheng Fengtian"s daughter will also partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion, so I a.s.sume Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian will stay to watch. I"ll have a few guards inform us of their movements, just to make sure. You should stay with Jian"er, Patriarch. He needs to be in his best condition when the compet.i.tion starts."
---
The next few days flew by relatively peacefully. Sheng Feilong spend most of his time with his family, safe for an hour or two in the evening where he would cultivate. they toured the Sheng Clan estate together and bought a few things.
Although it"s called the Sheng Clan estate, it"s actually bigger than your average village and self sustainable to boot. The land surrounding the estate was used for farming or breeding of cattle. The Clan also frequently traded with neighbouring villages or even Heaven Dou City"s merchants, so there was no shortage of stuff to explore or buy for Sheng Feilong.
Sheng Lijing would go to the training fields in the morning, while Sheng Feilong spent his time with the others. Although he had already offered her to spar and train with her, Sheng Lijing declined, saying she would train with everyone else as it would be unfair to have the disciple of a t.i.tled Douluo as her training partner. Sheng Feilong didn"t know what to say to that, so he couldn"t stop Sheng Lijing from leaving. That girl was just too stubborn!
Thursday evening, after they all ate dinner, Sheng Fengtian and Sheng Lijing seemed more serious than usual, but Sheng Feilong thought that it couldn"t be helped as the compet.i.tion would be held the next day. To break the awkwardness, he decided to tease his cousin a bit. He faked a sigh before looking at Sheng Lijing with pity in his eyes.
"Say, Lijing, when do you think you"ll drop out tomorrow? You could have easily won if we had trained together, but alas, you didn"t want to!"
Sheng Lijing, who was a bit lost in thought, her him and instantly snapped.
"What do you mean, "when will you drop out"?! Since I"ll partic.i.p.ate, I"ll naturally plan to win! Who needs your training!"
Sheng Feilong smiled, but didn"t stop teasing her.
"Really~? You"ll win? No offence, but you"ll have to beat THE Sheng Henjian to win! The future Patriarch and strongest of his age group, you know! He"s super strong, isn"t he!"
Sheng Lijing crossed her arms in front of her chest and rolled her eyes at Sheng Feilong.
"What Sheng Henjian, if you can beat him in two moves, how good can he be. I"ll just do the same, hmpf!" She then stood up, not bothering with Sheng Feilong any more and left for her room.
"I"ll go cultivate in my room, so don"t disturb me!"
Sheng Fengtian chuckled and Luo Mei threw Sheng Feilong a gratified smile. She had be wondering how to get Sheng Lijing to lose her nervousness for the whole day and couldn"t come up with a good way, but a few words from Sheng Feilong actually did the job. The family, minus Sheng Lijing, talked for a while longer before they split up as well. Sheng Feilong returned to his room and began cultivating for a while before also going to bed.
---
The next morning, the Shang Clan estate was filled with a mult.i.tude of people. All of them flocked towards the Clan"s Main Plaza where the annual compet.i.tion of the younger generation would be held.
A big arena with the size of 25x25 meters was elevated from the ground in the middle of the Main Plaza. The Sheng Clan"s Twelfth Elder, Sheng Lutian, stood atop the platform, as he would act as the matches referee. The compet.i.tion was split into 3 parts, that would be held today and the coming two days. The first part will be the compet.i.tion of clan members aged 10 and below. The next day, the compet.i.tion of clan members aged 15 or below will be held and on the third day, clan members aged 20 or below would fight.
Sheng Feilong, Sheng Lingtian and Luo Wei stood in the first row beneath the platform, while Sheng Fengtian had ascended the rostrum where the other Elder of the Clan, as well as the Grand Elder and patriarch were seated. Sheng Lijing had taken her place amidst the other children, who had a.s.sembled on the platform.
After a opening speech from the Patriarch to encourage the children, they began drawing lots to decide who would be facing who. Although a K.O. Procedure may seem unfair, as even the weakest members had a chance of facing the strongest in the first round, it was still handled in that way since it was a tradition of the Clan. Moreover, only the first ranked would obtain rewards, as the Sheng Clan valued strength the most. After the drawing, the two strongest members of the age group 10 or below, Sheng Henjian and Sheng Lijing picked numbers 6 and 19, respectively. They would be facing each other only in the finals! The compet.i.tion soon started and the children who drew number 1 and 2 ascended the platform while the other children waited at the side.
After the compet.i.tion started, Sheng Feilong felt a killing intent directed at him. Looking into the direction he felt it from, he saw Patriarch Sheng Hentian stare at him. He notified Sheng Lingtian, who quickly shielded him from the Patriarch gaze. Sheng Hentian scoffed and ignored Sheng Feilong and Sheng Lingtian afterwards.
The compet.i.tion continued for the whole day, and soon it was already afternoon. The finals would start in a few minutes and, as expected, Sheng Henjian and Sheng Lijing would be facing each other!