Chapter 139: Refusing
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The news which Li Xiu brought shocked Junior Leopard. It was not because someone was going to mess up Lu Shaoyou’s wedding, but because the troublemaker was not the one that Junior Leopard knew.
“Who is Chen Ning?”
“The nephew of the oldest tortoise in Jin!” When it came to Chen Ning’s background, Li Xiu’s face became a bit graver, “his cultivation is not high. He’s only a master of the Bone-Forging Realm of Level Five, but he is delicate and scheming, an annoying guy!”
“Delicate and scheming?” Junior Leopard raised an eyebrow gently, “I don’t think so. Everybody knows what he is going to do when it hasn’t even started. I don’t think he is scheming!”
“Except for Uncle Yuan, only I know it!” Li Xiu said, “Chen Ning sent someone to tell Uncle Yuan about it and I overheard their conversation outside!”
“Overheard their conversation?”
Junior Leopard looked up and looked strangely at Li Xiu, “Little Li, you think I’m a fool? I’ve also been to the Admiral’s study room. I stood there for several days, right at the door, but I never heard the voices of the people inside. Could it be that your cultivation has improved dramatically these past few days?”
“Well, no, I really overheard it!” Li Xiu was really embarra.s.sed by what he said, “I know that guy, so I followed him secretly, trying to see what he was up to. I didn’t expect to hear such a thing!”
Knowing that Li Xiu did not want to talk about this, Junior Leopard naturally would not entangle himself too much in it.
“Then what does that have to do with you? Are you familiar with Lu Shaoyou?”
“I’m not familiar with him. But he is the expert that I hope to challenge the most!”
Li Xiu showed the expression of a martial mania again when he mentioned Lu Shaoyou. But actually he was very similar to Lu Shaoyou in temperament, tone, even in acting style.
No, it should be said that Lu Shaoyou was very similar to him.
Junior Leopard had not seen it before he met Li Xiu. After getting familiar with Li Xiu, he felt that Lu Shaoyou’s temperament of aloof and unworldly was somewhat hypocritical. Maybe Li Xiu’s momentum was not as strong as Lu Shaoyou’s now, but Junior Leopard believed that once Li Xiu broke through the Bone-Forging Realm and entered the Tendon-Changing Realm, he could absolutely suppress Lu Shaoyou’s temperament.
“Even if you want to challenge him, it has nothing to do with this stuff!” Junior Leopard said, “do you want to take advantage of this opportunity to go with Chen Ning and challenge Lu Shaoyou?”
“Of course not! I’m not a fool! Lu Shaoyou’s cultivation is Level Eight, and mine hasn’t even reached the Bone-Forging Realm. How do I challenge him?
“What about Chen Ning?”
Junior Leopard asked in confusion, “do you have a grudge against him?”
“No, but I despise people like him who likes to resort to dirty tricks and nasty plans!”
Watching Li Xiu’s somewhat twisted face, Junior Leopard could not help laughing, “given your expression, do you expect me to believe it?”
“No… Really!” Li Xiu’s face flushed with his eyes wandering. He dared not look at Junior Leopard, but his mouth was very tough.
“Enough. I don’t want to ask about your relations.h.i.+p. You just said you wanted me to deal with Chen Ning, but how?”
“He sent someone to Uncle Yuan because he was afraid of trouble and wanted to keep his options open in case he fails. He knew that Uncle Yuan didn’t like being used, so he told Uncle Yuan about it beforehand!”
“This is even more troubling. He asked the General to find alternatives for him and told the General about such a big deal. That means their relations.h.i.+p is special. If I help you to deal with Chen Ning, and the General learns of it, it will be terrible!”
“Their relations.h.i.+p is not so good. It’s just that Uncle Yuan owed him a favor from long ago and hasn’t paid it back yet. So even if his request is too much, Uncle Yuan can’t put it off. But he just came here to find an alternative, and there was no other thing. Therefore, even if Uncle Yuan know we’re going to bother him, he won’t mind!”
“I still don’t understand why you want to cause him trouble. And even if you’re going to cause him trouble, it’s none of my business. I don’t want to get involved in it!”
“Just by myself, I don’t have the confidence!”
Seeing Junior Leopard was unwilling to do it, Li Xiu was anxious, “he is a Level Five master of martial arts. I have some difficulties dealing with him!”
“But I can’t just muddle around and go with you to ambush a Level Five master of martial arts. Besides, I don’t even know the master. Little Li, I’m different from you. You’re the young master of Li Family, the General Political Department in the future. Even if you do get into trouble, you can go back to Pingzhou, and then no one can do anything to you. But I’m not you, I have parents, nephews, and no foundation. If I get into trouble, it’s not just about me!”
“This…” Hearing Junior Leopard’s words, Li Xiu fell silent as if he was thinking about something. After a while, he scratched his head and embarra.s.sedly said, “I didn’t think about all of this!”
“It’s not that you didn’t think about it, but you never have to think of it!” Junior Leopard said with a wry smile, “Your family has determined that you won’t have too many scruples. No matter how much trouble you get into, your family will help you solve it, so you can be unscrupulous and do whatever you want. But there are only a few people like you in this world. I’m just a wild boy from a mountain village. I can’t be like you!”
“I was wrong!” Li Xiu seemed to realize something. He nodded and said, “sorry, it’s my thoughtlessness that caused you to be put in a difficult position!”
“It’s not about who is wrong or what. It’s just that we are in different positions, so we see things differently,” Junior Leopard said, “but I’m still curious as to why do you have to deal with Chen Ning? And who is the old tortoise in Jin that you just mentioned?”
“It’s Chen Yifu, the present Prime Minister, the absolute Chen Zhulao!” Li Xiu said, “as for Chen Ning, I dislike him and I want to give him a lesson!”
“If you really want to give him a lesson, you don’t have to use martial arts. Just let everyone know what he’s going to do, and let his plan fail.”
“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think it’s aboveboard. And it may bring trouble to Uncle Yuan!” Li Xiu said in a dilemma.
“Then I have no idea, but I think you’d better not cause him trouble!”
“Why?”
“It’s not worth it!” Junior Leopard began slowly ticking off points on his fingers and said, “firstly, you don’t have a grudge against him and you merely dislike him, so it’s an optional thing for you. But he dares to destroy Lu Shaoyou’s wedding, so apparently it’s very important to him. If you destroy his plan, you will have a real feud. Secondly, he is a Level Five master of martial arts, and your cultivation has only reached Level Three. You have cleared your sword intent and your sword skill is wonderful, so you are qualified to challenge bypa.s.sing ranks, but it does not mean that you can win. What if you fail? And even if you win, I think it’s just a bad win. Moreover, what would be the benefit of destroying his plan for you? Obviously, it’s good to Lu Shaoyou but worse for you. Thirdly, Chen Ning may not just represent himself. You just said he is scheming, so he won’t destroy Lu Shaoyou’s wedding just because he dislikes him, which is not like you. The hatred of a wife being wrestled away is similar to the murder of a father. Even if he has a grudge against Lu Shaoyou, he would not retaliate in this way. He may have been instructed by someone like the old tortoise, the present Prime Minister you just mentioned. If you cause him trouble, you might get into trouble with a bunch of people who are hard to deal with, just like poking a hornet’s nest. So I think you have to think about whether you can do it or not!”
After hearing the words, lying at Junior Leopard’s window, Li Xiu paused for a while before coming to his senses. He took a long breath and looked at Junior Leopard with an eccentric look, “what you said is quite right. Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Because you never thought about it, so you can never think of it!” Junior Leopard patted him on the shoulder and looked very earnest, “well, Little Li, it’s getting late. Go home and have a rest. I can’t help you, and I advise you not to go!”
“Alright, I’ll go back and think about it!”
…
…
“What a troublesome young master!”
Li Xiu left, but Junior Leopard was bothered. It was not because of the stuff Li Xiu wanted to do, but the news that Li Xiu told him.
“Chen Ning, the nephew of the present Prime Minister, a Level Five master of martial arts, is going to destroy Lu Shaoyou’s wedding!” Junior Leopard did not know the stakes, so he did not know the reason, “Is Miss Ma extremely beautiful? No, I have met her. She is beautiful, but not to the point of disaster. Is the moral standing of Lu Shaoyou bad, has he offended too many people? No, even if Lu Shaoyou really is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, his wedding is related to the Mingyi School and the Governor Mansion of Yunzhou, which are hard to cope with. Then there is only one reason!”
Interests, naked interests.
About interests, it could make someone happy and make someone upset. If one side got it, naturally the other side would lose it.
Just like the Wu Family in Yunzhou, Tian Long Taoism had nothing to do with the matter on the surface. In fact, they were the side that lost the interests. Therefore, secretly, Tian Long Taoism had games with Mingyi School several times and had taken a lot of benefits from Mingyi School to compensate. That was why things looked harmonious on the surface right now.
However, how much interest is hidden behind harmony?
Junior Leopard did not know. What he knew was the Wu Family and Tian Long Taoism. But the Wu Family and Tian Long Taoism were just a corner of the vast network of interests. There were more interest ent.i.ties to be influenced by the wedding. Some of them were looking forward to the wedding, but some of them were not.
The complexity of it was certainly not what Junior Leopard could speculate now.
…