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Chapter 24: You Are My Faith (V) Shang Ke"s gaze followed Tylor until he disappeared from sight. He was the one that had caused the original Osari to taste utter defeat, until Osari finally fell onto the devil"s path and became a calamity.
According to the original development, even after Osari become a King level apostle, he still did not dare to confront Tylor directly. Therefore, he secretly persuaded his friend to kill Tylor during the second attempt at sealing the Devil"s Tree.
If it wasn"t for that, with Tylor"s strength and willpower, he would have been one of the final warriors sealing the tree.
Shang Ke could not arbitrarily determine that this man was Ravel just because of a mole. However, if he really was Ravel, then his additional mission very likely would have something to do with him. Of course, this was with the premise that he survives the main mission.
Shang Ke retracted his gaze and did not desire to meet this "old acquaintance" of him. Anyway, so long as he followed Kaiser, people would come and go like bubbles. His purpose was to dispose of the dark-hearted, and leave behind the kind ones.
"Shang Ke, I made you wait," Kaiser called out to Shang Ke to go home together after emerging spiritedly from the school.
Shang Ke finished weaving the flowery rope in his hands, placing it on Pupu"s wrist before getting up.
The three had just walked to the school"s entrance when they noticed a group of people, where there seemed to be two students fighting. This kind of situation was a common occurrence at martial arts schools, and it would happen at least once every couple days. As long as they didn"t beat each other to death, the school would turn a blind eye.
But who knew that the two students would be careless and drag in other people, and so the fight quickly evolved into a group brawl. The heated ones, the sinister ones, the battle junkies, and those who were just b.u.t.ting in for fun…they all partic.i.p.ated in the battle.
Shang Ke couldn"t help but secretly sigh and think, Those youths are truly pa.s.sionate.
He had just finished sighing when this "pa.s.sion" was thrown at him. A sword from who knows where suddenly soared toward him.
Shang Ke subconsciously protected Pupu, while Kaiser"s arm stretched out and accurately gripped the sword hilt as it flew past Shang Ke"s hood. The sound of cloth tearing immediately sounded out.
A few strands of black hair lightly blew with the sword qi as his hood slid off, and Shang Ke"s appearance was completely revealed.
Luckily, his appearance did not raise the attention of too many people, since everyone was paying attention to the chaotic student brawl. Only a few people looked at Shang Ke, including Tylor, who had just walked out from the corridor.
"Shang Ke, are you okay?" Kaiser threw aside the sword from his hand and spoke with displeasure, "This group of people is becoming more and more outrageous. They actually decided to fight at the school entrance, aren"t they worried about harming innocent people?"
"I"m fine," Shang Ke said with a smile, totally unbothered by what happened.
"Then let"s go." Kaiser placed a hand on Shang Ke"s shoulder, smiling widely.
Tylor watched their retreating figures, his eyes dark.
Wasn"t that Osari? After five years, he had returned? He looked like he had changed a lot, plus…Tylor frowned, he had actually been unable to evade that sword that had flown towards him?
Forget it, none of that had anything to do with him. Tylor paid him no mind. Although Osari had been as famous as him back then, he did not have a good impression of him. He only had talent and was arrogant, while being overly attached to winning and losing. What Tylor looked at wasn"t one"s strength, but their moral quality.
"We"re here." Kaiser pushed open the doors and made an "after you" gesture.
They were in an independent courtyard. It was clear from the overgrown weeds that no one had taken care of this place in a while.
As this world"s main character, Kaiser had lived a little poorly. However, he later took Tylor"s younger sister as his wife, the little princess of the Holy Empire.
"You guys can live in this room," Kaiser said as he led Shang Ke and Pupu to the guest room. The furniture inside was still in pretty good shape, but the dust was piled high and there were spiders all over.
Shang Ke looked around and said, "I think I need a couple of cleaning rags, and a bucket of water."
Kaiser rubbed his nose, feeling a bit embarra.s.sed. He had specially invited a person to his home, yet it was such a shabby house.
Shang Ke wrapped cloths over his and Pupu"s mouths and noses, and then the father and daughter began to tidy up the room.
Shang Ke was in charge of the widespread dust clearing, while Pupu was in charge of dealing with the spider webs in the corners with a small stick.
"Pupu, if you are scared of any spiders you see, call for me," Shang Ke warned her.
Pupu nodded her head, and then waved her small stick around, looking for the small "enemies" in every corner.
The father and daughter joined forces and spent three hours before finally turning the shabby room into a clean one.
Shang Ke and Pupu both felt very satisfied, and put their hands on their hips.
"Let"s go and clean ourselves," Shang Ke said, picking up Pupu and heading to the bathroom.
"Hahaha," Pupu laughed in delight.
Kaiser had came back from buying a bunch of ingredients outside. When he heard their laughter, gentleness emanated from his eyes as his lips quirked up.
After they washed up, Shang Ke saw Kaiser bustling around the kitchen, and went to help.
When Kaiser saw Shang Ke skillfully preparing the ingredients, he asked casually, "You can cook?"
"Hm, yeah, why don"t I make dinner tonight? It can also serve as my thanks for your generosity."
"Alright, I can"t wait." Kaiser immediately had a great mood.
After he tasted Shang Ke"s food, Kaiser never cooked again…
During his three days of holiday, Kaiser led Shang Ke and Pupu around. During that time, Vadula, Youri, Fred, and Amy had all stopped by. Stopping by turned into mooching for food, and then their mooching turned into ordering for food. It unintentionally allowed Shang Ke to generate income for their living expenses-selling lunch boxes.
Shang Ke"s master cooking skills quickly conquered the teachers and students. In not even a month, he obtained the elegant monicker "Lunch Box Prince".
Shang Ke could only be speechless toward it.
"Who"s that?" Tylor saw that there was a group of people, and within that group was a familiar figure.
Quincy took a look over and smiled, saying, "You don"t know? Recently, there"s been a very delicious and popular lunch box, and the one selling them has been nicknamed the "Lunch Box Prince"." It should be him."
""Lunch Box Prince"? Him?" Astonishment flashed through Tylor"s eyes. He once again turned his head, to make sure he wasn"t seeing the wrong person.
The former genius Osari, one of the school"s twin stars, was actually selling lunch boxes? Tylor simply could not believe his eyes.
"What"s wrong?" Quincy looked at him strangely, then asked offhandedly, "Come to speak of it, doesn"t that "Lunch Box Prince" look kind of familiar? Have we seen him somewhere before?"
Tylor: "……"
The previous students had all graduated, so nowadays, the only ones who could recognize Osari, besides some of the senior teachers, were the schoolmates who had once attended school with him.
Returning to the imperial capital after five years, just what was Osari up to? It couldn"t be that he planned on selling lunch boxes forever, right?
Although Tylor somewhat disliked him, he felt some pity at seeing such a former genius fall so far.
After Shang Ke sold all of his lunch boxes, he tidied up his stuff and prepared to go home. He only made one hundred each day, and set the price high. This way, not only would he remain energized, but he would also make a small profit.
"Osari."
He suddenly heard someone call out this name and paused, turning his head to see who had addressed him. It was a curly-haired youth from behind him, with a surprised expression.
After searching through the original"s memories for a bit, Shang Ke still did not have much of an impression of the man.
"I really didn"t expect it, it was really you?" The curly-haired youth"s face was full of exaggerated disbelief as he pointed at his cart and asked, "When did you come back? Why are you selling lunch boxes here?"
With Osari"s strength, he could have entered the heroes palace and become an imperial officer with a t.i.tle and fixed income. If he didn"t want to, then being a n.o.ble"s guard, or even a mercenary would be easy. Any of those were better than selling lunch boxes.
Shang Ke glanced at him and thought, What"s wrong with selling lunch boxes? Do you know how nutritious this lord"s lunch box is, and how gorgeous and delicious it is? After this lord becomes stronger in the future, all the people who have eaten this lord"s lunch box will regard it as an honor, alright? The name of Lunch Box Prince may even be immortalized, alright?
The curly-haired youth saw how Shang Ke did not say anything and became even more spirited, continuing. "I reckon that you don"t remember me. My name is "Max." I was once defeated by you, and I"m now a small captain of the royal guards.
Max? It sounds a bit familiar.
Hold it, Max? Wasn"t Max one of the seven warriors that partic.i.p.ated in the sealing of the Devil"s Tree? Although he didn"t return alive in the end, was this the kind of person capable of breaking through the wall of devil qi? Didn"t they say that only the warriors with firm willpower, a pure nature, and strong faith can break through?
Just where does this peac.o.c.k in front of him look like a warrior? He was simply destroying his hopes, alright?
The curly-haired youth seemed to have noticed the minute changes in Shang Ke"s expression, and immediately felt like he wanted to raise his eyebrows and puff out his chest. He smiled as he asked, "Seeing as we have known each other for a while, should I find you more dignifying work?"
"No need, thank you," Shang Ke faintly replied. Since the other was one of the seven warriors, he"ll endure it.
"Don"t be so polite." Max walked closer and sized him up, commenting, "Your appearance is much better compared to before, but this strength…"
Shang Ke"s steps were unstable and there were holes in his defenses all over his body. They couldn"t feel even one bit of faith from him.
"Tsk tsk, after His Highness Tylor defeated you, did you lose all your faith?" If a person didn"t have any faith, then their power of faith would be weak, and they could only sink down to being a n.o.body. Some people were mediocre by nature, and some stumble down after being shaken too many times.
Osari"s strength had been out of the ordinary during those days, and he could be said to have been the school"s strongest student. Besides Tylor, no one was his equal, but now, there wasn"t even a bit of power of faith coming from him. This was not just a stumble, but a thorough abandonment of his faith.
"No, I have not lost my faith," Shang Ke spoke as he quietly looked at Max.
"Really?" Max drew a short sword from his waist and raised an eyebrow, challenging, "Then why don"t we have a spar? I want to see the kind of strength that the genius who defeated me back in the day has now."
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