"What sort of sh*t are you spewing from your mouth?"The green-robed man shouted at the Royal Prince with a bright-red face, clearly angered to the point that he had used his qi without realising it. The Prince of the Stormy Sea staggered back immediately, with blood spurting from his mouth as he took the full brunt of the qi-augmented shout in the face.
"Get lost! And don"t ever show your face in front of me again! A penniless beggar trying to get his hands on my medicinal herbs? What a useless piece of sh*t!"
The surprise that Hall Manager Zheng Zhanqi felt was far greater than the petty injury that he suffered, from that same shout that had shaken all of the Royal Prince"s innards. To think that the fellow was so bold that he was continuing to insult the King"s only son after injuring him! It seemed Luo Junyuan did not lie about the way this fellow did things after all!
Although ... calling the Prince of the Stormy Sea a penniless beggar was a little ... out of the ordinary, Zheng Zhanqi said to himself, as he turned his head to look at the pair of old men behind the Royal Prince.
This was certainly going to be a lot more trouble than he had expected, back when he realised that the two n.o.ble cousins were cross paths in the middle of his Medicine Hall. And all at once, he regretted not sending his serving girls away with the medicines at once, before things got out of hand. It would be a terrible shame, if any of those precious herbs got damaged.
Zheng Zhanqi had been Hall Manager of this highly respected, and terribly profitable, Medicine Hall for almost twenty years. Which meant that he had seen just about everything that anyone could mention, there in Changqing City. He had even hosted the Old Marquis and New Marquis before, when they were seeking out new medicines, close to five and three years back.
But he had never come across anyone who dared to smack a Royal Prince in the face like that! Even if it was only with a burst of qi!
And judging from the strength of the cultivation that he had just displayed, the man was at least at the peak of the Initial Realm!
All at once, Hall Manager Zheng was glad that he had not made a move against the unnamed guest in the green robe, earlier when he so openly trod on the prestige of the Medicine Hall. And his status as the Hall Manager. He certainly could not afford to offend such a man!
No! He quickly corrected himself. This green-robed fellow was not a man, but a monster!
He did notice at first, because he had been too distracted by the fact that the stranger would dare insult the Prince of the Stormy Seas so openly. But that shout of his was not simple at all! The level of qi that had been imbued into that little outburst was easily at the peak of the Initiate level! That was already far beyond anything that Zheng Zhanqi himself was capable of!
Unfortunately, it seemed it was still not sufficient to make the pair accompanying the Royal Prince hold themselves back:
The brawny fellow with the smooth complexion and the scarred knuckles stepped behind the Royal Prince at once with an almost disdainful huffing sound. And he stopped the Prince of the Stormy Sea"s unsteady retreat with a simple hand on his shoulder. The blood seemed to return to the young Royal"s face as soon as he did that. Which was enough to indicate that this eunuch was no ordinary pract.i.tioner of the Secret Royal Palace Martial Arts.
As for the other companion that had accompanied the Royal Prince to Fu Lai Medicine Hall, he took a step forward instead, unleashing a storm of powerful qi that washed over everyone like a veritable tidal wave, as though seeking to smash everyone present to their knees at once.
Hall Manager Zheng barely had time to mutter a curse in his heart before he began to raise his own internal strength to shield himself from the hammer-like blow. As did the others that were present there, in the meeting chamber. The pair of uniformed soldiers behind the Second Ducal Prince were the most badly affected by the waves of qi, and had already fallen on the hardwood floor.
And if it had not been for Hall Manager Zheng"s intervention, the maids from the Medicine Hall would have suffered the same fate!
As it stood, all six of them had taken mild internal injuries, and were bleeding from the corners of their mouths!
The Royal Prince"s grey-haired companion, however, ignored all of that, as he continued to advance on the green-robed stranger, unleashing his qi as he did so.
"You dare to injure the Royal Prince? You deserve death!"
But the green-robed fellow merely flicked his sleeves in front of himself, as he sneered at the grey-haired, grey-bearded person who had been advancing from his original position behind the Royal Prince. He had stepped forward at once, while his beardless companion was tending to the Prince"s injuries. And he did not disguise the fact that he was calling up his power, about to unleash the same on the middle-aged man in the green-robe.
That is, until the green-robed man"s flick of a sleeve sent a wave of qi his way.
Then, all at once, Hall Manager Zheng felt the pressure on his body alleviate. As though some peak Completion grade Martial Artist had just unveiled his aura! An aura that was far beyond the first! So far that it completely wiped away any force that the Royal Prince"s Protector had been wreaking on everyone else on the third floor!
The same force had flashed out to smash directly into the grey-haired Protector"s body like a hammer, causing his head to jerk back in surprise. Then the part of his robe. just in front of his chest, tore into shreds between the two opposing waves of qi, even as he forced back!
And the look in his eyes were wild with panic, as a stream of blood began to pour from his mouth, which was already slack-jawed in abject terror as he stared at the green-robed stranger.
"What? Some stupid punk with a barely acceptable level of cultivation dares to show off in front of me? How would you like it if I tore off both your arms right now? And stick your own fists up your a**hole? And I mean both of them!"
* * *