The issue was settled cleanly thanks to Emperor Peerless. The Temple of Cleansing Fire had been a little too wishy-washy in their handling of this matter. This caused the emperor to temporarily explode with popularity. Jiang Chen’s impression of Emperor Peerless was even better than before. He could tell that the emperor was a straightforward person who truly knew how to carry his seniority in front of others.
When the emperor had seen how indecisive and wishy-washy the Temple was being, he immediately stepped in and tossed that young good-for-nothing out without wasting a single breath. His domineering yet effective way of handling the matter left a good impression in others.
“I’m grateful for your help, Senior Peerless.” Jiang Chen thanked the emperor with proper manners.
“Even If I hadn’t stepped in, that good-for-nothing will still surely suffer in your hands. However, it"s better to let me be the bad guy.” Emperor Peerless had very keen eyes and could tell that Nangong Ping was nothing to the youth before him. He knew that the youth wasn"t from Pillfire City and there would be strong backlash if he"d even touched a hair on Nangong Ping. Thus, he decided to step in and be the bad guy instead. After all, Nangong Ping and his clan were nothing but ants to him. Even great emperor factions were unwilling to antagonize a wandering great emperor like him, let alone Nangong Ping’s clan.
“Carry on your activities in peace. You have nothing to worry about as long as I’m here.” He exuded the a.s.sertiveness of the strong. His every word and action incited a great amount of confidence in others.
Pill King Blue Phoenix cast a meaningful glance at Jiang Chen without saying anything. There also seemed to be complication in w.a.n.g Xuetong’s eyes when he looked at Jiang Chen. He approached Jiang Chen after everyone had returned to their own respective arenas.
“Little junior, I’m truly sorry for causing you trouble. I would’ve chased Nangong Ping away if I’d known he was going to be such a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. His bounty was incredibly high so I thought it’d be a good deed to recommend him to you. I didn’t think that he’d… sigh… regardless, I just want to apologize for this inconvenience.” w.a.n.g Xuetong genuinely regretted his decision. He knew how much of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d Nangong Ping was, but he never imagined that the good-for-nothing would stir up trouble in a place as prestigious as the Bounty Arena.
He’d had good intentions. He wanted to give Jiang Chen a chance to earn some money and fame. Of course, he was also a bit curious about Jiang Chen and wanted to probe the depths of the latter’s knowledge. Unfortunately, things had ended in a mess. w.a.n.g Xuetong was a upright and all around nice person. His reputation was quite good in Pillfire City, and he felt somewhat responsible for causing the issue.
“Master w.a.n.g, it isn’t your fault. Trash like him are all the same. They always misuse their family’s influence to act willfully. Your good intention is appreciated.” Jiang Chen didn’t blame w.a.n.g Xueyong for what happened. The formation master had mostly good intentions.
“I’m glad you see it that way.” w.a.n.g Xuetong felt much better after hearing Jiang Chen’s reply. He paused for a second before he continued. “You should still be careful of Nan Gongping. He’s famous in Pillfire City for his vindictive streaks. You probably don’t need to worry about it too much since Emperor Peerless is backing you up, but you can never be too cautious.”
Jiang Chen responded with a faint smile. “Thank you for your advice.”
w.a.n.g Xuetong nodded. However, he suddenly approached Jiang Chen again when he suddenly recalled something. He quietly asked, “Little junior, come to think of it, what exactly was wrong with Nangong Ping’s Cloud Devouring Tiger? I looked all over and couldn’t notice anything wrong with it. It seemed as healthy as an ox.”
Jiang Chen’s brows quivered a little as he looked straight as the senior. “Master w.a.n.g, do you really think it was merely a Cloud Devouring Tiger?”
w.a.n.g Xuetong was puzzled by the question. “Are you saying that it isn’t a Cloud Devouring Tiger? Its stripes and head clearly indicate that it’s a Cloud Devouring Tiger.”
Jiang Chen was rendered speechless. He didn’t think that w.a.n.g Xuetong would really fail to notice the spirit beast’s true ident.i.ty. Upon further thought, he realized that Master w.a.n.g Xuetong’s true expertise was in formations. It was only natural that a layman of beast taming would fail to identify the spirit beast. Moreover, the beast indeed resembled a Cloud Devouring Tiger. The similarity was more than ninety percent strong.
“Little junior, do you have a different outlook to this matter?”
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. “It isn’t a Cloud Devouring Tiger. However, I didn’t get a detailed look at it, so I won’t be jumping to conclusions.”
Actually he’d already identified the spirit beast, but would rather keep its ident.i.ty to himself for the time being.
w.a.n.g Xuetong didn’t know what to respond after seeing the look on Jiang Chen’s face. After all, the person before him was from the Myriad Abyss Island. Although he himself was a respected elder in Pillfire City, but spirit beasts weren’t within his expertise. He didn’t have the courage to refute the claim.
He sighed gently and patted Jiang Chen in the shoulder. “That man would"ve received the answers that he seeked if he’d been a little less full of himself. Everyone could’ve gone home satisfied.”
Business was as usual after w.a.n.g Xuetong returned to his arena. Jiang Chen noticed Lin Yanyu’s concerned glance and sent him a silent message. “Yanyu, don’t lose focus.”
The young disciple was calmer after seeing how collected his master was.
The Bounty Arena remained as hectic as before after the small incident. Nangong Ping didn’t cause any more trouble. n.o.body knew if he was really afraid, or if it was just a temporary truce. No matter what it was, Jiang Chen didn’t let his guard down. He understood that the good-for-nothing wasn’t the kind to swallow his anger and grievances. Even if Nangong Ping wasn’t personally causing strife, he was definitely up to something in the shadows.
As expected, an issue really occurred at Jiang Chen’s arena on that very afternoon. Five rank nine bounties were posted at his arena at exactly the same time. Each bounty was worth ten million.
Lin Yanyu was extremely excited to see the large bounties. It was a big deal to receive so many rank nine bounties in such a short time. Unfortunately, Jiang Chen immediately noticed that the customers were up to no good.
“Arena Lord Shao, what do you think? I’m here to seek advice because I heard you were very capable. Surely you won’t let me down?”
“Yeah, Arena Lord Shao. You must be better than the others since you’re the lord of two arenas. My rank nine bounty must be of little difficulty to you.”
“Help solve my mission too, Arena Lord! Money isn’t an issue.”
“Arena Lord Shao…” These rank nine bounties almost seemed pre-planned.
Jiang Chen remained unperturbed. He swept their questions aside and looked at them coldly. “Is Nangong Ping behind all of this?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“How dare you insult us!”
“We came all the way here for business and all you do is spit on our face!”
“How dare you insult us just because you can’t solve our missions? Just admit that you’re worthless! Why pretend to be high and mighty?”
“You’d best give us an answer or we’ll give you more than just a hard time!”
These men were actually worried that they wouldn’t be able to find a reason to stir trouble, so they immediately grabbed the opportunity when Jiang Chen voluntarily insulted them. They raised their voices and acted very unreasonably.
Jiang Chen was extremely annoyed. It was clear that they were here to cause trouble because their bounties consisted of nothing but gibberish. Their pill recipes and formations were all made up. He didn’t to be courteous to them because he had no enemies here. Nangong Ping was definitely the perpetrator behind this.
He laughed sarcastically at them. “Go back and tell Nangong Ping that if he’s really a man, he’d settle this issue himself with his clan’s power. He’s a coward himself and so sends some mindless idiots to cause me trouble?! It’s an insult to his and your intelligence.”
These words enraged the five greatly.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How dare you insult us?!”
“Where are the representatives of Temple of Cleansing Fire? How did a person like him even become an arena lord?”
“I’m going to lodge a complaint! I stand my ground in protest!”
“This is strange. The Bounty Arena has always set a high standard. But this time, they hired someone worthless to fill the numbers!”
“He’s insulting everyone just because he’s unable to solve the bounty! He should be removed from the event!” These men kept acting as though they were victims.
Personnel from the Temple of Cleansing Fire rushed to the arena.
“a.s.sistant Temple Master Gao! Such opportune timing! We want to complaint about this brat!”
“Yes! This brat insulted us and insulted our intelligence!”
“Mm! We strongly suggest that the Temple remove this man from the Bounty Arena immediately!”
“Fraudsters don’t belong in the Bounty Arena!”
“Kick him out!” They went even more overboard when they saw personnel from the temple.
The a.s.sistant temple master and his personnel frowned when they caught a rough understanding of the situation. Why are you so good attracting attracting trouble?! The Bounty Arena was often held without much issues, but today, the problems seemed to have no end. The a.s.sistant temple master’s opinion of Jiang Chen was falling even though he understood that these people were likely sent by Nangong Ping. Unfortunately, there wasn’t no proof. He couldn’t help but think that Jiang Chen was the reason for all this mess. After all, his arenas were the only one with endless issues.
From the a.s.sistant temple master’s expressions, Jiang Chen could tell that he was being blamed for this incident.
“a.s.sistant Temple Master Gao, I will take full responsibility if I was the one at fault. They claimed that I’ve insulted their intelligence, but one question remains in my mind. Do they even possess such a thing?” He raised his hand to reveal their missions. “Pill King Blue Phoenix, have you ever seen such a nonsensical pill recipe? There are three conflicting ingredients in this recipe alone, and yet they shamelessly claim that it’s an ancient recipe and I’m supposed to complete it for them!
“Also, how is this a formation? Do you even know the basics of formations? Do you really think that a formation is made out of random scribblings? Master w.a.n.g Xuetong, just take a look at this nonsense. He doesn’t even know the basics of formations, and he claims that this is a long lost formation from the ancient age!”