Chapter 38 Broken Sword
Just as the five long swords were less than one meter away from Lin Qi, Enzo pulled out his sword as well. As the constantly trembling tip of the sharp sword was about to reach those men"s bodies, the decorative metal front gate behind them was suddenly flung open, and an enormous figure, like that of a huge bear from the northernmost Ice Origin, sprang out.
"Hahaha, young master, you"ve returned?" The thunderous roar was accompanied by a shock wave that was almost visible to the naked eye. A thick iron chain flew out from his sleeve. Following an ear-piercing and resounding whistle, a black, round iron mace the size of a small child tore through the air.
The five men"s long swords shattered into pieces inch by inch. The iron chain that was like a monstrous python heavily whipped their waists and stomachs, tearing their skins and nearly breaking their spines. The men howled miserably as they vomited blood, their bodies flying very far away before landing heavily on the thick snow, writhing.
The enormous figure landed with a thump behind Arthur, who"d been continuously retreating with varied emotions playing across his face. His body b.u.mped against that extremely robust body behind him, and it was like b.u.mping against a small mountain. No matter how he pushed, the heavy figure would not budge. Taking advantage of the split second when Arthur was unable to move, Lin Qi"s fist unrestrainedly and strongly smashed upward, landing on Arthur"s face. Arthur gave a m.u.f.fled groan through his firmly gritted teeth as he flew from the force of Lin Qi"s punch.
The instant Lin Qi"s fist hit his face, Arthur"s body flashed with a thin layer of pale golden light. The golden light shone with a holy and majestic power before fading away. Lin Qi"s punch that contained enough power to smash a bull"s head into pieces was completely absorbed by the golden light. Arthur received virtually no injury.
As ashes fell from the gaps between his fingers, Lin Qi pulled his fist back with a sneer on his gloomy face. He said, "Protective talisman? My, an Apollo Protective Talisman no less. Oh, and also drawn by a high-leveled clergyman—way more powerful compared to that First Glimmer of Dawn Protective Talisman I used last time!"
Faint golden light could occasionally be seen under Arthur"s skin, proving that the power of this protective talisman was truly not weak. Compared to the defective protective talisman that Lin Qi used before, this protective talisman of Arthur"s was of genuinely good quality, produced by a high-level clergyman of the Church.
Arthur indifferently smiled. Although he had been punched flying by Lin Qi, he had flipped his body in the air before landing steadily on the ground. He smiled towards Lin Qi while nodding his head, then calmly asked, "Lin Qi, why did you take action against me as soon as you returned? The matter from that year has already pa.s.sed. Have you forgotten Father"s words?"
Lin Qi coldly snorted. Tie Chui who had just rushed out from the front gate and nearly killed Arthur"s five subordinates also followed suit. He firmly stared at Arthur and gloomily said, "Young master Arthur, if I once again see your subordinates dare to take action against the young master, don"t blame be for being impolite."
The thick and long iron chain and the enormous iron hammer were leisurely withdrawn into Tie Chui"s sleeve. Tie Chui wore a hint of a hideous grin as he observed those men who were ceaselessly wailing on the snow. He coldly snorted and said, "I remember where all your families live! All of you have to remember the young master"s face! Next time you dare to show even the slightest bit of disrespect, I swear your families will be eaten by wild sharks!"
The five men looked at Arthur in alarm and desperation. Arthur, whose expression was similarly not good, obediently gave a slight bow towards Tie Chui and said with a smile, "Uncle Tie Chui misunderstood. This is merely a little misunderstanding. The matter this time is actually not what you thought."
Tie Chui waved his hand dismissively, then gloomily said, "I don"t want an explanation. I never listen to explanations anyway! In short, young master Arthur, if the young master hit you, it"s okay! But if your men dare to take action against the young master again, this time I merely injured them, but next time!"
Tie Chui didn"t conceal his malice towards Arthur at all. He looked at Arthur, smiled sinisterly, then raised his hand to to make a threatening throat-slas.h.i.+ng gesture.
Arthur"s expression changed again. He lowered his head and dejectedly complied. The several men who were lashed by the iron chain struggled for a while on the ground before they propped up their bodies and pathetically staggered away, supporting the middle-aged man who had been stabbed by Enzo.
Another shadow emerged from the front gate. Different from Tie Chui"s enormous, bear-like figure, this man was short and shriveled like a monkey that had been dried in the sun. Tie Chui"s body emitted a blazing aura like that of magma, yet what followed this man"s appearance was a burst of cold that a.s.saulted the senses, chilling everybody at the scene from head to foot.
"Young master, you"ve returned?" That shadow loudly shouted with incomparable happiness, circling at full speed around Lin Qi several times like a gale.
Lin Qi also joyfully and loudly shouted, "Uncle Tu Dao, I haven"t seen you in three years!"
With a peculiar chuckle, Tu Dao halted his dazzling movements. He was a middle-aged man with a small stature, his height only reaching 1.6 meters at most. His skin was pa.s.sably fair, but he had triangular eyes, drooping eyebrows, and rotting yellow teeth filling his mouth. His rank truly made people fearful in approaching him. On his head was a cl.u.s.ter of short, withered, and mottled yellow hair, and on parts of his scalp were burn scars.
Lin Qi and Tu Dao warmly embraced. With Lin Qi"s robust body, it was almost as if he was hugging a child.
Tu Dao quickly discovered the strange visual impact made by the tremendous difference in their statures. He struggled out of Lin Qi"s arms while swearing, then ruthlessly kicked Lin Qi"s b.u.t.t and said, "Young master, what have you eaten in Borali for the past three years? How could your height soon catch up to the Lord"s?"
After letting out his peculiar laughter, Tu Dao"s gloomy gaze suddenly fell on Arthur, whose body immediately shook. He sketched a slight bow towards Tu Dao and didn"t dare to even say a word before he hastily descended Black Beech Hill with his five subordinates and the severely injured middle-aged man propped between them.
Tu Dao sinisterly smiled and suddenly said, "Young master Arthur!"
Arthur turned his head and respectfully replied, "Uncle Tu Dao!"
Tu Dao chuckled several times, then beckoned towards the middle-aged man"s broadsword that had been lost and left on the snow-covered ground several paces from the road. An extremely thin black silk was shot out from his sleeve, grasping that broadsword and carrying it to his hand. Tu Dao waved his right hand and several extremely thin but dazzling gleams flashed. Following a screeching sound, the broadsword made of refined steel was suddenly broken into dozens of sections.
Enzo"s forehead was drenched in cold sweat—Lin Qi"s Uncle Tu Dao was also a freak!
Tu Dao said in a gloomy voice, "Next time I see your men being disrespectful towards the young master, it won"t end so easily!"
Arthur didn"t dare utter a word. He deeply bowed towards Tu Dao in salute, then with a smile plastered across his face, brought his men to promptly leave following the main road.
Lin Qi showed a brilliant smile. Tie Chui and Tu Dao grabbed Lin Qi"s hand and very joyfully pulled him through the courtyard"s front gate. Tie Chui walked several steps, then turned his head to look at Enzo. He waved his big hand, an iron chain rolled out, and Enzo was pulled in by Tie Chui like a scarecrow.
Chapter 39 Ancestral House
Tie Chui and Tu Dao!
Enzo followed behind the three people, entering Lin Qi"s family"s ancestral house. For the three years he"d known him, Enzo has always been curious about Lin Qi"s background. What kind of family could actually nurture such an outstanding person?
Enzo couldn"t help but recall the scene when they first met three years ago. Four members of the Knights of the Round Table had jointly attacked Enzo, threatening him to join them. Knowing well that the leader of the Knights of the Round Table, Dark Horse Hao Si, had a solid background, Enzo had been unwilling to fall out with them. Instead, he steadily retreated from their attacks, even though their actual strength was inferior to his,. Because of that, he was stabbed dozens of times.
When Enzo was almost unable to resist anymore, Lin Qi, along with several stalwart men with ferocious facial features, suddenly appeared. They used the bricks extracted from the alley"s wall behind them to smash the four swordsmen until they were covered with b.u.mps and bruises. Then they beat them with oaken clubs wrapped in iron until they fainted. Finally, using wooden clubs, they swung at their wrist and elbow joints until they suffered internal injuries.
From then on, those four people were unable to use swords. They could still cope with ordinary manual labor with difficulty, but if they used swords, the internal injuries of their wrists and elbows would certainly mess with their swords" power. As Army Academy students, the inability to wield a sword meant that once they entered the army after graduation, they would also become trash.
The decisiveness, ruthlessness, and mercilessness of Lin Qi"s subordinates remained fresh in Enzo"s memory.
Today, he finally came to Lin Qi"s house. He was very curious. In the end, what kind of family—what kind of parents—could nurture a person like Lin Qi? As a 15-year-old juvenile, he had formed a student faction like the Ironfist Brotherhood in Borali University City, expanding it until it had more than 300 hired thugs as its outer members. Was this something an ordinary person could do?
If the family was an ordinary one that observed the rules, how could their child do something like this?
Lin Qi"s family"s ancestral house gave people a kind of deep, serene, and steady feeling. The front part of the house was an enormous courtyard the size of almost three hectares. If Enzo wasn"t mistaken, the floor of the courtyard was paved with the extremely st.u.r.dy Black Volcanic Steel Rock that was formed from solidified lava.
Black Volcanic Steel Rock referred to volcanic rocks found in lava that contained more than seven kinds of metal. It was extremely hard, and it also possessed the most powerful defensive capability against all kinds of magic except for lightning magic. Mining it was extremely difficult. Ordinary workers would have to risk their lives, only to mine at most two to three cubic metres of this Black Volcanic Steel Rock in a year.
The extremely tough Black Volcanic Steel Rock had been refined into thick and heavy, one meter square tiles to pave the ground. On the tiles and in between them were complicated tenons that linked with one another, blending the courtyard"s surface well together. What shocked Enzo even more was that these cracks in between the tiles showed a faint, metallic l.u.s.ter, meaning metallic solutions had also been poured in between the tiles to make the floor even st.u.r.dier.
The cost of the courtyard floor was already extremely astonis.h.i.+ng, but the surrounding walls were also extremely frightening.
From an ordinary person"s perspective, the surrounding walls of this residence were merely ordinary gables that were three meters taller than most. Yet from the perspective of an outstanding Army Academy student like Enzo, under the cover of the thick ivy vines, the gables of this courtyard were perhaps a miniature city wall. From the outside, it appeared to be ordinary, but its width should be enough to hold four people walking side-by-side. Furthermore, there were arrow-openings, lookout-openings, defense towers, and other defensive measures inside the brick walls.
But these defensive structures were all covered by thick ivy vines, making these murderous military installations appear thoroughly harmless.
The walls were even made from the same material as the courtyard floor. Constructed with the Black Volcanic Steel Rock with metallic solution poured in between the bricks, the surrounding walls were a lump of indestructible metal. Unless the main imperial army gathered together heavy weapons to attack this place, even an army of ten thousand soldiers wouldn"t be able to breach the walls.
Recalling what he saw outside the house just now, there was something weird with the thickness of the snow at the foot of the wall outside the house. Enzo suddenly thought of a common defensive structure called a "moat". There must be a moat outside Lin Qi"s ancestral house. Moreover, its width would not be small, at least five meters wide.
Far away from the ancestral house, to the left and right, were two rows of subsidiary buildings that served as the servants" housing. Just a quick glance at the pitch-black buildings showed that they were built using the same Black Volcanic Steel Rock materials. The buildings were crooked, as if they were built hastily. But the architecture style gave it a long strip of countless protrusions. If some enemy invaders broke into the courtyard, these two rows of buildings that extended for nearly a hundred meters became like two fortresses.
Looking at the buildings" narrow windows with fixed steel bars as thick as a child"s arms, they were obviously made as openings for crossbow shooters to position themselves.
What made Enzo even more speechless was that in the vicinity of the two subsidiary buildings were stables, a granary, a small mill, and various kinds of living facilities that a large family should have. But these facilities were built using the Black Volcanic Steel Rock without exception, and were all built according to the rules of a military fortress.
On the grounds was also a circle of walls, inside which stood Lin Qi"s family"s main fortress. The tallest lookout tower was nearly a hundred meters in height, and around it were dozens of "decorative" minarets that during a battle could absolutely serve as the main fortress" arrow tower.
This main fortress occupied a vast area. Judging merely from the outside, the six-storey main structure was sufficient to hold two to three thousand people inside. In case of an upheaval, this fortress would certainly be enough to support two to three thousand people for a battle of attrition.
An enduring battle was definitely possible, because encircling this fortress were actually twenty-four deep wells!
Enzo looked until his fingers grew numb. Even in the drill regulations of the imperial army, a frontline defensive fortress only required three deep wells to provide enough water for the army. Lin Qi"s ancestors had indeed taken a lot of precautions, to actually make twenty-four deep wells, which was eightfold the requirements of the imperial army.
Enzo subconsciously glanced at Lin Qi, but Lin Qi was talking in a low voice with Tie Chui and Tu Dao, narrating his wonderful experiences from the past three years. Tie Chui and Tu Dao had nearly "pure" smiles while listening attentively to Lin Qi"s anecdotes. The smiles on their faces were actually filled with a kind of "affection" and "care"?
Two thugs like them were actually so "affectionate" and "caring"? Enzo"s scalp couldn"t help but tingle.
People were constantly milling around Lin Qi"s family"s main fortress. A lot of people who were already up were all robust men with puffing noses, wide eyes, and arms as wide as an ordinary person"s thigh. Several men who were feeding the horses had faces that were distorted and filled with knife scars. Each and every one of their appearances was ferocious and ugly to the extreme.
Even the older female servants who were walking away from the cowshed, carrying a bucket of milk, wore only short gowns in this great winter, their bare arms rippling with muscles! Looking at the calluses on their hands and arms, it was obvious that they were also masters of sword and gun.
Enzo suddenly realized; only this kind of family was capable of nurturing an outstanding person like Lin Qi!