Chapter 802: Emperor Shura’s Interference?
A group of well equipped soldiers stood at the entrance of Taiyuan Tower, looking like fearsome wolves. The main entrance of the door was tightly shut, and seals coldly plastered all over the door. Thankfully, Taiyuan Lodge hadn’t been marked as Taiyuan Tower’s property yet, so it hadn’t been sealed along with Taiyuan Tower. Everyone in Taiyuan Tower had been chased into Taiyuan Lodge.
Fury rose up in Jiang Chen’s heart when he saw this scene from afar. However, Captain Mo’s sharp eyes quickly discerned the soldiers’ ident.i.ty, and immediately restrained Jiang Chen before he could unleash his wrath. The captain said in a soft tone, “Control yourself, Pill King Zhen. These soldiers are under the direct command of a great emperor.”
A great emperor? Jiang Chen’s mind shook. Why was a great emperor attracted by a pill force that had barely established itself not long ago? Also, didn’t the seven great emperors normally keep their hands out of Veluriyam Capital’s worldly affairs? Distress battered Jiang Chen, but was quickly surmounted by his growing anger. So what if they work for a great emperor? How can a great emperor seal my store without good reason? Jiang Chen was absolutely certain that Taiyuan Tower had obeyed and executed every procedure to the letter of the law. With how cautious Wei Tianxiao was, there was no way he would make a mistake either.
There was no doubt that today’s incident wasn’t Taiyuan Tower’s fault. Jiang Chen didn’t even need to think to know that this was a malicious scheme against his store Someone was attacking him on purpose! It didn’t matter if it was an attack by a great emperor or a great clan.“Let’s head over and take a look,” Jiang Chen had calmed down after learning that those soldiers belonged to a great emperor. He understood that he couldn’t clash head on against a great emperor’s force with his current strength. That would be rather unwise. However, that didn’t mean he could just ignore this affront and do nothing. Jiang Chen wouldn’t submit even to an empyrean expert without good reason, much less one of the great emperors!
Captain Mo was afraid that something might befall Jiang Chen. Therefore, he forced himself to follow behind Jiang Chen even though he didn’t wish to clash against a great emperor’s men. On the other hand, Captain Zhang hadn’t thought that far ahead. He could only feel the blood rus.h.i.+ng to his head when he saw Jiang Chen being bullied. He thought that this world was truly unfair if even someone as good as Pill King Zhen was oppressed like this! Right now, Captain Zhang only had one thought in his mind, and that was to give his utmost, even his life, to take down those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds if Pill King Zhen were to give the order.
“These are sealed grounds. All unrelated personnel are to leave immediately!” A soldier immediately yelled at Jiang Chen the second the latter walked close to his property. The soldier never even bothered to look at him, and his tone sounded as disdainful as someone who was chasing away a group of flies.
Jiang Chen stared darkly at the group of soldiers. Captain Mo hastily pulled him to the side. It was at that moment a person ran out of Taiyuan Lodge and grabbed Jiang Chen, “Come this way and talk, brother.” This person was actually young master Ji San.
He was currently looking completely serious, without a hint of his usual confidence and ease. With hushed words in a heavy tone, he immediately dragged Jiang Chen into Taiyuan Lodge regardless of the latter’s will. The moment he went through the door, young master Ji San waved his hands and ordered, “Close the door!”
Captain Mo himself hastily went over to shut the door.
The group of emperor soldiers standing at the entrance of Taiyuan Tower laughed disdainfully upon seeing the closely shut door on the opposite side of the street. Their noses rose even higher at the outcome. “Everyone says that young master Ji San of the Coiling Dragon Clan is a great person, but I guess he’s really just a cowardly boy.”
“How dare a mere great clan call themselves king of the world? There’s no room for their arrogance before an emperor’s soldiers!”
“Speaking of which, who was that group of people just now?”
“Who knows? I think I heard Ji San calling him ‘brother’ just now, right?”
“Could he be that Pill King Zhen?”
“You mean Taiyuan Tower’s Pill King Zhen? We have orders to arrest him and bring him back for interrogation immediately if we see him!”
“Is he really that Pill King Zhen?”
“We’ll know that if we charge inside and catch him, won’t we?”
“We better not. Our orders are only to seal Taiyuan Tower, and that store hasn’t broken any rules. We’d be crossing a line if we force our way in, not to mention that the Coiling Dragon Clan’s men are there too. If they escalate this up to Emperor Peafowl, our great emperor would be inconvenienced too.”
“Yeah, we shouldn’t force our way in. He’ll come out eventually, and when he does, we’ll question his ident.i.ty. If he really is Pill King Zhen, we’ll just capture him then. We’re just following orders, and I doubt that young master Ji San would dare stop us.”
“Mm, that’s settled then. Look sharp and watch them closely.” These warriors belonged to Emperor Shura, one of the seven great emperors of Veluriyam Capital. Ranking wise, Emperor Shura sat in third place among all seven great emperors. However, he was firmly in second place in terms of strength and closing in on the number one great emperor, Emperor Peafowl. Moreover, Emperor Shura was a man of swift and decisive conduct. In the past few years, Emperor Shura had invaded and won many territories for Veluriyam Capital. He had strong support inside Veluriyam Capital, and was a new and rising power. The Majestic Clan and Murong Clan were all great clans serving directly under Emperor Shura. Together, they represented a powerful faction inside Veluriyam Capital.
Jiang Chen met his brother with a dark face after he was pulled into the store by young master Ji San, “Why the haste, Brother Ji?”
Jiang Chen was obviously still angry. He couldn’t stand seeing his territory violated and these soldiers arrogantly ridiculing him with their master’s authority. He might be good tempered, but even he couldn’t stand this nonsense.
“It’s a long and complicated story, brother. This had happened a few days ago, and the reason I hadn’t told you about this was to ensure that you didn’t worry during your breakthrough!” Young master Ji San said solemnly.
Jiang Chen understood that the situation was not as simple as it seemed after seeing how serious young master Ji San looked. He looked around and frowned, “Where are the Wei father and son?”
“They were captured,” Young master Ji San sighed softly, “They and a Pill Master Yan of Taiyuan Tower were all captured.”
“What?” Jiang Chen was shocked when he heard this. Pill Master Yan [1] was in fact his peer from the Regal Pill Palace, Shen Trifire. Jiang Chen paid great attention to his growth because Shen Trifire absolutely possessed the qualities to become an initial level pill king, even if he hadn’t taken the examination yet. Jiang Chen had intended for Shen Trifire to be capable of holding down the fort himself, but hadn’t thought that he would be captured as well.
“It all happened very suddenly. These soldiers suddenly barged into Taiyuan Tower one fine day and asked for the person in charge to step forward immediately. Since you weren’t around, Pill Master Yan stepped up and claimed responsibility. He was shackled on the spot and hauled away. Since young master Wei Jie was present at the time, he too was taken away. At the same time, they also sealed off House Wei’s residence and took away the house lord.”
The person who said this was Wei Qixia—Wei Jie’s trusted aide. He had been watching over Taiyuan Tower all this time. The more Jiang Chen heard, the angrier he grew. “Did they state any reason as to why they took them away?”
Wei Qixia said angrily, “None. They just flashed Emperor Shura’s warrant, took our people away and sealed the store. They didn’t care to talk at all.”
“They’re capturing people without giving a reason? Are they bandits? Is this the conduct of a so-called force of a great emperor? Is this what they call non-interference of all worldly affairs?” Jiang Chen was furious when he heard this. He could just barely swallow this if the fault really lay on Taiyuan Tower’s side. But wasn’t it pure nonsense to seal off his store for no reason at all?
Young master Ji San was also smiling bitterly at this whole predicament as he tried to comfort Jiang Chen. “Calm down, brother. This entire matter is very strange. I suspect that they have some crucial information that can be used against us, but are withholding it for now due to certain reasons. I’m guessing that this isn’t the end of the whole matter, and that more trouble is heading our way.”
“Information, you say?” Jiang Chen sneered, “I may not know about the rest, but I’m absolutely sure that Taiyuan Tower possesses no such skeleton in our closet!”
Young master Ji San sighed, “Maybe there isn’t one, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to frame us. After all, there are at least hundreds of ways for a great emperor’s force to seal off a store.”
Jiang Chen smiled and nodded , his anger fully stoked. He actually stopped trying to argue with Ji San. He would be a fool if he hadn’t figured out what was going on at this point. There was no point arguing with them; they were all in the same boat. Jiang Chen looked around once before asking, “Everyone else is fine, right?”
“They took away only the Wei father and son and Pill Master Yan. Everyone else is safe. There’s no way a great emperor’s force would act disgracefully enough to capture everyone. It also wouldn’t be easy to deal with the aftermath if they caused too big of a commotion.” Ji San sighed resignedly.
“Emperor Shura…” Jiang Chen breathed the words softly between his teeth as a hint of killing intent flashed in his eyes. All he wanted to do was to establish a firm footing in Veluriyam Capital and slowly build his power base. There was nothing he’d done that would possibly affect the emperor in any way. The emperor hadn’t given him any reason either. They’d captured his people and sealed his store as they liked, with no room for negotiation. This code of conduct soured Jiang Chen’s impression of Emperor Shura immediately. Did he think that an emperor was unrivalled in this world? Did he think that he could do whatever he wanted to? Even the Celestial Emperor, the ruler of a realm, hadn’t been so tyrannical that he would screw over someone just because he felt like it.
“The situation is complicated, brother, and you are not safe. I heard that your name is on their list of targets, so I suggest that you head to the clan manor and lay low for a time. This matter is most certainly going to turn into an extended battle that won’t be settled in just a day or two.” Ji San had stayed at Taiyuan Lodge for the past few days because he was afraid that Jiang Chen would stumble head first into Emperor Shura’s trap. If even Jiang Chen was captured by Emperor Shura’s men, then they would have an utter field day. Not even the Coiling Dragon Clan dared claim for sure that they could rescue Jiang Chen from Emperor Shura.
Captain Mo also advised, “Pill King Zhen, you can’t win against them as you are now, and these people are not good people. There is always hope as long as you aren’t captured.”
Jiang Chen understood the sense in their words. He might not even be able to duel the Majestic Clan without external help in his current condition, much less Emperor Shura. Unless he was willing to sacrifice the final charge of the empyrean level restriction inside his palace, he wouldn’t be able to kill a great emperor.
However, it was obviously an unworthy trade. Not only was it Jiang Chen’s most powerful trump card to date, it was one-time use strike. Even if he did decide to use up his final trump card, he’d have to first set a trap for Emperor Shura himself!