The rooms the busboy refers to are all decorated with luxury almost comparable to Li Ying’s Lingxiao Building, with furniture made out of valuable red wood and utensils of rare ruby.
Li Xing is brought to Room No. Nine which is located on the second floor and quite s.p.a.cious.
After getting seated in a chair, Li Xing bangs on the table with his palm, “Bring me food and the most beautiful women right now!”
Even the busboy starts to despise him, but instead of saying anything, he follows Li Xing’s command and gets out of the room.
“Who does he think he is? There are just all kinds of garbage these days!”
All of a sudden, a voice comes to Li Xing’s ears from the next door, mixing with women’s laughter. In fact, his room is sound-proofed, but since he almost reached level four blood power, he has much better hearing now. Besides, that man is talking loudly, so he manages to hear every word.
Li Xing had originally planned to come to Heaven Fragrance House to dine and dash, so that he would enrage the owner and get beaten up. However, as he listens to the curses from next door, he smirks and has a change of plan.
Apparently, the man next door is annoyed by Li Xing’s rude behavior, so he starts insults him verbally.
Li Xing pounds on the desk and jumps to his feet, yelling angrily, “Which b.a.s.t.a.r.d is there calling me names?” He storms out of his room, comes to Room No. Eight, and kicks the door open.
A fragrant smell of rouge and power hits his nose immediately. A young man is sitting there with each of his arms cuddling a pretty woman. Both of the women have a red hue on their faces and are in a delirious state, aroused by the man’s teasing hands.
The man is about twenty-four or twenty-five years old and is wearing a blue robe with his belt inlaid with a white jade and a childe’s hat on his head, an ensemble befitting someone from a wealthy family.
“How dare you!” Seeing Li Xing barging in, the young man is infuriated. Without another word, he throws his wine cup from his hand at Li Xing.
The man has level four blood power, so the cup is sent flying with great force and targets right at Li Xing’s face.
Li Xing is also in the middle of reaching level four blood power, although he is yet to get there. Seeing the cup coming, he reacts quickly, raising his right arm and intercepting it with his hand.
Bang!
The ruby cup is smashed into pieces and Li Xing feels a twinge in his palm. He says to himself, “This man must be more powerful than me.”
Seeing Li Xing’s extraordinary defense, the young man jeers at him, “You b.a.s.t.a.r.d is asking for trouble by ruining my pleasure. I’m going to kill you today and show you what the Third Childe Zhao in Qingyun City is capable of!”
Before the man gives his order, two strong men rush in from next door. The two both have extremely forceful blood power, which makes Li Xing feel overwhelmed.
“The two men have at least level five blood power. Who exactly is this young man to have such powerful bodyguards?” Li Xing can’t help but feel astonished. But he seems not frightened at all, instead lets out a loud sneer and points at Zhao’s face, “You son of a b.i.t.c.h can’t beat me, so you ask for backup?”
Third Childe Zhao, burning with rage, kicks the table away in front of him and pushes the women aside. With his eyes shooting daggers at Li Xing, he yells, “Kill him! Kill him now!”
The two strong men come right at Li Xing from each side. Li Xing was right: both are warriors with level five blood power with at least twice the power of Li Xing and they are much faster and quicker in reaction.
All Li Xing can see is a blur and the next moment, two fists land right on his ribs from both sides. Apparently, the two men have been fighting as a duo in perfect coordination.
Nearing the completion of level four blood power, Li Xing could have been able to escape their strikes. However, he came here determined to get beaten up, so he stays there deciding to take the punches.
Bang!
The two fists. .h.i.t right on Li Xing’s body. A sharp pain follows, and he finds his ribs have been broken!
The snapped ribs cut right into his lungs and lead to internal bleeding.
The pain makes Li Xing bend his body as a shrimp and his face keeps convulsing in anguish. However, he keeps staring at Third Childe Zhao provocatively.
With a fiendish look and his teeth clenched, the man keeps yelling, “Beat him to death!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A person with level five blood power has a physical strength of over five thousand kilos, and his punch can wound an elephant, let alone a human. So even though Li Xing is on the course to reach the fourth level and has much stronger skin, muscles and sinews, he is still injured severely from the beating.
The two men keep thrashing at Li Xing with their punches and kicks until he is reduced to a lump and can barely breathe, but the men show no sign of stopping until they break all of Li Xing’s limbs.
In the end, one of them kicks Li Xing and after seeing him motionless, says, “He is as good as dead.”
Third Childe Zhao, finally satisfied, waves his hand, “Throw him out.”
One of men picks Li Xing up with one hand and strides out.
Bang!
Li Xing is tossed out of the front door of the brothel and crashes to the ground from over ten meters mid-air with a loud thump.
The man doesn’t bother to take another look, turns around and walks back to the second floor. He believes Li Xing is a dead person and is no longer worth any attention.
Third Childe Zhao enjoys a rather high place in Qingyun city, so even though he has a person killed, it won’t be much of a big deal to him. Privilege exists and counts in any world.
As it happens, a horse comes galloping by the second Li Xing’s near-dead body drops in the middle of the street.
And the animal’s hooves lands right on Li Xing’s chest.
Li Xing’s mind is still clear at the time, so he is able to hear the horse coming. He can’t help but laugh at his bad luck. As expected, more agonizing pain follows with a fresh round of injury. The horse is a fine breed and has powerful hooves with the strength of nearly five thousand kilos.
Then a girl’s scream comes, which sounds a little familiar to Li Xing.
Neigh!
The woman tightens her reins and the horse stops, then a red shadow jumps down from the back of the horse. It is a girl, the girl named Chen Shuang from the Chen family in Three Chivalries Garden.
Chen Shang is taken aback the moment she sees the unconscious man. But she doesn’t know it is Li Xing because he has changed his face.
“Hey, are you all right?” Chen Shuang asks loudly, trying to get the man to respond by touching him with her tip of her feet.
Li Xing thinks had he been someone else, he would be dead by now. Is the girl stupid to ask such a question?
Seeing Li Xing unresponsive, Chen Shuang starts to panic. She looks up to Heaven Fragrance House, from where she clearly saw just now someone throw a man out right in the path of her horse.
Chen Shuang is filled with rage and eager to find out why that man did this. She realizes the man in front of her is not dead yet and is in urgent need of treatment. Her horse, which she calls by the name of Red, just tramples on his body, which makes her afraid that he may not survive.
“Red hurt him, so I had better take him back and try to save his life. Dead or alive, that will be his fate.” After making up her mind, Chen Shuang carries Li Xing to the back of her horse and rushes him back to Three Chivalries Garden.
The Chen family holds a secondary position in Three Chivalries Garden with less power than the Li family but is above the Bai family. Chen Shuang is the second daughter of this family and is well respected. The moment she gives her order, all the servants get busy and the doctor is the first to be called in.
Li Xing lies in a large bed, motionless like a dead person. After examining his body, the doctor strokes his beard and shakes his head at Chen Shuang with a grave look, “Miss Chen, I’ve tried everything but I’m really at my wit’s end. This man suffers serious wounds in his organs. There are at least a hundred injuries all over his body. I’m afraid he can’t make it.”
Chen Shuang has already expected that the chance of the man surviving is slim, so she waves her hand and says, “Fine. You can all leave.”
After everyone is gone, Chen Shuang gazes at Li Xing with a frowned face, muttering “Was it Red that killed him, or was he already untreatable?”
Although Chen Shuang is a little obstinate, she is kind in nature. Seeing Li Xing clinging to his life, the girl cannot help but feels guilty.
With a sigh, she walks out of the room, planning that after Li Xing takes his last breath, she will have a coffin made and have him buried.
With the girl out, Li Xing is the only one in the room. The bead has already started healing his wounds once again with its magical energy. Slowly, his fractured bones are restored to their original places.
Like an incredibly skilled doctor, the bead is working again on bringing Li Xing back to life.
One minute pa.s.ses; then two minutes… Three hours later, Li Xing opens his eyes. He sits up from the bed, moves his body a little and finds his injuries are all gone, thinking, “It was actually really dangerous this time. If those two men had cut my head off, I would be dead even with the bead.”
In hindsight, he feels a panic fear for having made this plan in the first place without thinking it through. So he makes up his mind to plan thoroughly the next time he “asks to get beaten up”.
“I didn’t expect Chen Shuang would be so kind to bring me to her home and have a doctor sent in to treat me.” With that thought, Li Xing prepares to break through his skeletal meridians.
Right at that moment, someone dressed in red enters the room. Chen Shuang stares at Li Xing, completely aghast, as if she has seen a ghost. She points at Li Xing, stuttering, “You… you are all right?”
Li Xing hasn’t changed back to his original face. Now with his injuries all gone, he looks quite handsome with delicate features. He fakes a few coughs, and says in a low voice, “Thank you very much for your help. My injuries weren’t that serious.”
With her mouth half opened, Chen Shuang still cannot believe what has happened. How come a dying man is suddenly all right?
Li Xing also figures that it is unbelievable for a person to resurrect like he did, so he quickly comes up with an explanation, “I’m a brave warrior with level four blood power, so I was able to protect my vital organs from the horse’s hooves and didn’t get injured that much.”
Chen Shuang repeats his words in disbelief, “You are a brave warrior with level four blood power!” Out of curiosity, she takes a few steps forward and looks Li Xing up and down. Then a smile comes to her face, and she asks, “What is your name?”
“Zhao Yun,” Li Xing answers, with someone else’s name, thinking, “Zhao Yun must not exist in this world.” Among all the generals in history, Li Xing admires Zhao Yun the most, who, in his imagination, was an extraordinary man with great martial art accomplishments.
Indeed, what Zhao Yun was really like in history doesn’t matter to him at all.
In the meantime, Chen Shuang has never taken her eyes off Li Xing, all the while contemplating, “Father said our Chen family should have more talents. This man has level four blood power and nice bearing, besides he can also survive after being injured by a horse. He must be special.”
With an idea coming to mind, Chen Shuang smiles kindly, “Warrior Zhao, where are you from? Are you from Qingyun city as well?”
Only able to tell he is from the Earth, Li Xing blurts out, “I’m from the countryside.”
Chen Shuang seems delighted by his answer, thinking, “A man from the countryside is much easier to be bought. As long as we offer whatever he wants, he is definitely willing to stay.” As she calculates, she says smilingly, “Did Warrior Zhao come to Qingyun city to find a patron?”
It is known that any blood cultivator will find himself a master to rely on. For instance, some find protection in Three Chivalries Garden, such as the governor of Qingyun city. Only by securing support from a powerful family can the cultivator continue to improve his level of blood power.
Li Xing is aware of that as well, so he starts weighing his options, “Chen Shuang wants me to stay here. It won’t be a bad thing for me to have an extra ident.i.ty in Three Chivalries Garden.” At that moment, an idea comes across his mind. He stands up immediately and replies with a smile, “Thank you for your appreciation. I, Zhao Yun, will be of service at your disposal!”
Chen Shuang didn’t expect Li Xing would agree so quickly, so she is very pleased, adding, “From now on, you will remain by my side for a monthly pay of one blood crystal. Is that okay with you?”
The offer is a pleasant surprise to Li Xing, because the blood crystal is very rare and is of great help to a blood cultivator who usually uses it to rapidly regroup or enhance his blood essence. The value of a blood crystal equals no less than ten thousand coppers.
In addition to blood crystal, the energy crystal and fantasy crystal are of even greater value and they are used during the practicing of breath power and spirit power respectively.
“Yes!” Li Xing concurs at once. He has never seen a blood crystal before and is eager to find out.