Pitch-black, jet-black darkness.
This place was Fan Clan"s most secret training base. This place was more than dozens of times bigger than Xiao Xun"s training ground. In the middle of this s.p.a.ce stood 50 to 60 bronze metal puppets. At this very moment, the majority of these metal puppets were scattered and smashed. Although a small part could still be considered to have all four limbs intact, they were all lying down on the ground, full of cuts and bruises.
Above the puppets stood a tall and resolute silhouette.
Outside the border of the s.p.a.ce stood two respectful young servants. Because it was really too pitch-black, they simply couldn"t see that silhouette at the center of the s.p.a.ce, but this didn"t hinder them from worshipping it deep in their hearts.
"Little Six!" That silhouette opened its mouth and said.
"Young master Yanxing, please give instructions!" Little Six quivered in excitement, then deferentially kneeled down.
Yes, the one training in this secret base was the number one person in Fan Clan"s fourth generation——Fan Yanxing. Only he was qualified to enjoy the most of the clan"s training resources!
"I"ll be finishing here today." Fan Yanxing said: "Go inform Master Zhao that these puppets need to be completely fixed. Tell him to add more mithril and meteoric iron to the body surface and joints. Starting from tomorrow, I want to challenge double the difficulty."
"As you bid! I1 will go handle it!" Little Six accepted the order. He stood up, lit a torch, then quickly left running.
"Little Seven, are there any important clan matters?" Fan Yanxing said as he took the towel that the young servant proffered to wipe away his sweat.
"Yes. Indeed there"s a major event!" Little Seven lowered his voice and said.
"Ah? Say it." Fan Yanxing"s eyebrows jumped.
Little Seven thought about how to word it, then said: "Tian Clan, broke the engagement."
Tian Clan? Broke the engagement? Fan Yanxing knit his sword-like eyebrows. "Tian Clan"s eldest son and his family"s Fan Minyue had drawn up a marriage." This piece of news had been spread long ago, so many honored and prestigious big clans also knew about this matter. Now Tian Clan actually broke the engagement? Wasn"t this embarra.s.sing Fan Clan?
"It"s not only this," Little Seven continued speaking: "Tian Clan, Tian Clan decided to become related by marriage with Yin Clan!"
"What?!" Fan Yanxing angrily opened his eyes, a threatening cold light bursting forth from both his eyes. Fan Minyue"s summon beast dying in the great compet.i.tion, so her strength plummeted, therefore Tian Clan broke the engagement. If it was like that, although it wouldn"t make sense morally, at least it was excusable. However, they unexpectedly turned their heads to become related by marriage with Yin Clan! Who didn"t know that Yin Clan and Fan Clan were foes for generations. Tian Clan and Yin Clan becoming related by marriage was no different from the two of them collaborating to give Fan Clan a heavy slap to the face, then ruthlessly stab a knife into them!
"Young master, I heard……Yin Clan"s second young lady"s summon beast broke through to Intermediate Level Beastly General." Little Seven revealed everything he knew.
"I see." Fan Yanxing gently nodded with a cold gaze.
Tian Clan is truly a practical clan. It seems that they will do anything to make their next generation bloodline quality attain the best. But like this, Fan Clan will turn into the biggest laughingstock. Clan Head Fan Xun absolutely won"t let this kind of situation happen!
Fan Yanxing"s guess was correct. Just as this piece of news was about to spread, Fan Xun dispatched his second son Fan Tianhu to go negotiate with Tian Clan. Fan Tianhu is Fan Minyue"s grandfather, so him personally acting was appropriate. This time, the instruction that Fan Xun issued out was: The one whose manner stays unyielding, will definitely be the one who controls the situation the least!2
However, Tian Clan"s response was still hard for Fan Tianhu to guard against——it was different from Fan Clan, Tian Clan"s Clan Head replacement was much earlier. The current Tian Clan"s Clan Head was Tian Clan"s eldest son"s father, the current 59 year-old Tian Kui. According to superiority in the clan, he and Fan Zhishen were of the same generation, so he was Fan Tianhu"s younger generation. But when Fan Tianhu went to the Tian Clan this time, the person receiving him was someone ranked even lower than him3——this person was called Song Di, Tian Clan"s young master who was of the same generation with Fan Yanxing——Tian Kui and Tian Clan"s eldest son Tian Yun weren"t even present.
That young master said that Tian Kui and Tian Yun had gone to Yin Clan to discuss the wedding, and that the elders in the clan went out to manage some other matters. Then, he took out an secluded old ancestor"s decree from long ago, stating that this time"s relation by marriage with Yin Clan was the instruction that old ancestor left behind. And the engagement drawn up with Fan Clan last time was Clan Head Tian Kui"s decision, but because it contradicted the old ancestor"s decree, they couldn"t act upon it. At this point, he expressed his apologies to Fan Tianhu and advised that their Clan Head should personally pay a visit. Then, he finally said that if Fan Tianhu was anxious to meet Clan Head, then he could go to Yin Clan.
Go to Yin Clan? Fan Tianhu naturally wouldn"t go.
Tian Clan was clearly showing that they would stubbornly refuse to admit the truth by letting a younger generation receive him, but there was also a decree from an old ancestor on the same generation as Fan Xun. This made Fan Tianhu have a headache.
"Tian Yin?" Fan Tianhu inquired.
Tian Yin was Tian Kui"s father, the former Clan Head of Tian Clan.
"After maternal grandfather resigned from Clan Head, he secluded himself in the clan"s restricted area along with the old ancestor." Song Di smilingly replied, his face showing an expression seeming harmless to both humans and livestock.
"I must to take away the decree!" Fan Tianhu stated.
"Without the old ancestor"s permission, even if the decree is taken away, it will be reduced to ashes." Song Di continued to smilingly speak.
Ultimately, Fan Tianhu returned with a bellyful of ire. This time, Tian Clan didn"t make a person on the same status as him come to apologize, nor did they make public that decree. In the end, the one suffering would still be Fan Clan.
Bang! When Fan Tianhu returned to the clan, he angrily threw down a teacup.
Fan Zhishen stood underneath with an ashen face.
"Grandfather, father, don"t tell me that this matter will be let off like this?" Fan Minyue said with an unwilling heart.
"What is there to do?" Fan Tianhu was also angry, but had no place to vent it: "Tian Clan is originally more formidable than us. This time, they clearly showed that they didn"t want to give us a statement! Zhishen, you are also responsible for this matter!"
"Father, I……" Fan Zhishen opened his mouth in attempt to explain.
"Hmph!" Fan Tianhu ferociously glared at his eyes. Without giving him an opportunity to explain: "Originally, Tian Yun fancied Xiao Xun, but you stopped it, ultimately facilitating Minyue and his marriage. Don"t think I don"t know!"
"Father, with Xiao Xun"s current trash summon beast, Tian Clan would still break the engagement." Fan Zhishen compensated himself.
Trash? Hmph, Clan Head is currently in the middle of secretly training Xiao Xun. Fan Tianhu snorted in his heart, but he was unable to speak out these words.
After resting for a moment, Fan Tianhu stood up: "Regardless of how it is, the matter has a great influence on our Fan Clan. I still must go to Clan Head"s place to discuss a countermeasure. You two need to honestly stay at home for me!"
After Fan Tianhu finished speaking, he stormed off in a huff.
"Father!" Fan Minyue cried out in grievance.
"Ai, now that things have gotten to this point, I"m powerless to reverse the situation." Fan Zhishen sighed: "After Tian Clan becomes our enemy, my daughter, don"t harbor any fantasies."
Fan Minyue clenched her teeth and said: "It"s all Xiao Xun"s, that smelly girl, fault! If not for her killing my summon beast, would my engagement be broken off? I"m so furious, I definitely won"t let her off!"
Fan Zhishen shot a glance to her eyes and pretended to carelessly ask: "How is your investigation going?"
"From daughter"s secret investigation these past few days, it can basically be determined that Xiao Xun has been sent to a secret place."
"Sent to a secret place?" Fan Zhishen stroked his beard and wrinkled his brows: "What"s the point of sending her to a secret place?"
"Hmph, isn"t this clear?" Fan Minyue curled her lips and bitingly said: "Grandfather is being partial. He is worried that we will be harmful to her, so he"s protecting her."
"I don"t think that it"s so simple." Fan Zhishen looked into his daughter"s eyes: "Have you found out where she was sent off to?"
"I currently still haven"t found out where. But there will be some clues left behind anyhow. Give me a week and I will definitely be able to look up where she is!" A trace of ruthlessness pa.s.sed through Fan Minyue"s eyes.
Inside the secret training ground, Xiao Xun began Lin Wei"s special training.
Lin Wei stood perfectly straight in the center of the training ground, curiously looking at the archery targets that Xiao Xun was setting up on another side.
The target was approximately 40 meters away from Lin Wei, and there was a 10 meter s.p.a.cing between each target.
"Today, we will start practice on shooting arrows!" Xiao Xun finished placing down the archery targets, turned around and said to Lin Wei.
Lin Wei nodded and took the bow he was carrying off his back, then took out an arrow.
"Wait a moment." Xiao Xun smiled as she watched Lin Wei. Then she turned around and went to ask Little Shao: "Brother Shao, I will be troubling you to bring that bow over."
"Okay, young lady Xiao Xun." Little Shao responded. Roughly 3 to 5 minutes later, he came back running with a bow in his hand, then stopped in front of Lin Wei to hand it over.
Lin Wei extended his hand and grabbed the bow to put into his hand.
As Lin Wei began, he secretly called out in his heart: How heavy! Compared to my former bow, this new bow"s weight is much heavier. Moreover, the entire bow"s body has a bone-penetrating ice-coldness. With Lin Wei"s attentive sight, he could see a fluorescence from one end of the bow to the other.
What a good bow!
A goods" true value can only be determined through comparison. Now that there the situation where he could compare and contrast, Lin Wei instantaneously thought that his former bow was truly very trashy.
"Try drawing the string of the bow." Xiao Xun said with an expectation look in her eyes.
Lin Wei took a deep breath. His left hand held the bow while two fingers on his right hand held the bowstring. He used a slight amount of force, but immediately felt a powerful resistance——quite obviously, the bow was a great bow, but it required much higher strength compared to before!
Zi-ga-ga……
The bowstring made a trembling sound, then was pulled longer by Lin Wei.
Finally, Lin Wei managed to pull this bow ⅔ of the way. This was already the limit that the present him could attain. However, Lin Wei could sense that even though it was currently only at ⅔ of the maximum draw, once he released it, it would display a shooting force that far surpa.s.sed his former bow!
It seemed that if Lin Wei wanted to pull the bow to its limit, he would have to upgrade his strength a bit further.
Xiao Xun let out a sigh of relief. She was still quite satisfied with Lin Wei"s performance.
"Next, we"ll first practice on fixed targets 40 meters away." Xiao Xun smilingly said.