Chapter 131: Rampant Disciples of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace
Tang Long was actually also a bit hesitant. If it wasn’t for the fact that the border missions lately had been quite important, hence resulting in a sheer lack of time to make a trip back home, he absolutely wouldn’t have asked a group of strangers to courier some items for him.
However, his family was urgently waiting to use these items. If the most apt timing was missed, it’d be quite a regretful affair.
Tang Long had been debating over the past couple of days whether or not to make a trip home and suffer the punishment for doing so. But he knew that if he snuck home without receiving approval, it would count as leave without notice. The lightest punishment he would face would be a loss of this honorable position, and the heaviest was the death penalty!
Tang Long wasn’t afraid of death for his family, but he knew that if his family didn’t have him and his job, they wouldn’t be able to continue surviving at all.
Tang Long was the pillar of the family. If he fell, his family would be done for.
Thus, Tang Long had kept a firm grip on his impulse to abandon his station and go home these days. He’d thought of asking others to take the items back for him, but as a border Wyvern Knight, his status was low and he hadn’t netted any profits in the ten or so li of land that he patrolled.
Therefore, although this job looked flashy and glamorous, it was only a way to put food on the table and barely maintain the lives of the entire family. His position in society was still quite low.
As a result, he basically couldn’t find anyone he could entrust to take the items back home for him.
It was either people disdained running an errand for him, or he didn’t trust strangers.
But Jiang Chen’s group all looked kind and affable. Moreover, they were generous and the honored guest of the fourth prince Ye Rong.
Tang Long had gathered up his courage in making this request. The reason that he had explained so enthusiastically to Jiang Chen’s group before was partially to lay down the groundwork for this matter.
In addition, Tang Long was at least at ease because this group of people was quite generous. Although the items that he was entrusting to them were quite valuable to him, this wouldn’t be the case in these people’s eyes. The value of the items that he’d entrusted to them paled far beneath the bottle of qi replenis.h.i.+ng pills, the Vast Ocean Pill.
The only thing he was worried about was that this group’s equipment was too flashy and was likely to get them into trouble when they pa.s.sed through the territories of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace and the Qingyang Valley.
The items that he was entrusting had to be delivered within seven days. If delivered late, there was no point in sending them back at all.
All sorts of conflicting thoughts made Tang Long give repeated exhortations.
Jiang Chen patted Tang Long’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, I know how important these items are to your family. I promise not to tarry.”
Tang Long was a bit touched. He was an ordinary pract.i.tioner and had always been looked down upon for his profession.
The fourth prince’s honored guests were so easily approachable. Not only had they agreed to take things home for him, but had even clapped his shoulder with such familiarity.
“This young master is truly a kindhearted person. I, Old Tang, would like to inquire the young master’s honored name.”
“My surname is Jiang, I’m sure we will meet again someday. I’ll treat you to drinks whenever you return to the capital.” Jiang Chen laughed, waved his hand and the group left after saying their goodbyes.
According to the route that Tang Long had pointed out, their travel was indeed free and un.o.bstructed. Add that to the Goldwing Swordbirds’ speed, and they had flown out roughly one thousand li after two hours.
“Everyone decrease your speed. We should have already entered the boundaries of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace. According to Tang Long’s words, we must be careful here to not trespa.s.s into their territory.” Jiang Feng was experienced and steady.
He knew that his son Jiang Chen and his personal guards all had the temperament of youth. They would surely be enjoying themselves in this flight, and he was worried that they would be too high profile and attract trouble.
Jiang Chen actually didn’t possess a flamboyant personality as he restrained his troops to fly within the laid out path. He still rather enjoyed himself on a slow flight.
“Young master Chen, this Skylaurel Kingdom is quite vast and there’s such varied terrain.” It was Qiao Bais.h.i.+’s first visit to the Skylaurel Kingdom.
All sorts of new sights and sounds had greatly expanded his worldview.
“As expected, the Skylaurel Kingdom has a well deserved reputation in the outside world.” Even someone as proud as Gouyu couldn’t help but sigh with appreciation.
When the Eastern Kingdom was compared with the Skylaurel Kingdom, it truly did pale far in comparison.
Jiang Chen smiled but didn’t say much. In terms of breadth of vision, he hadn’t been to many places in this life, but he’d observed the heavens and seen all sorts of realms and levels of existence in his previous life.
This Skylaurel Kingdom was just a bit bigger than the Eastern Kingdom with a bit more resources. At the heart of it all, it was just an ordinary kingdom as well.
The differences came from the disparity between a large kingdom and a small kingdom.
Fortunately, Qiao Bais.h.i.+ and the others held high statuses in the Eastern Kingdom, and they didn’t lose their heads.
If Fatty Xuan was beside him, he surely would’ve shouted and yelled, wantonly venting his emotions.
However, Fatty Xuan hadn’t followed Jiang Chen. It wasn’t that he wasn’t willing; he was actually more than willing to.
But at the end of the day, Fatty Xuang was the son of the Duke of Jinshan and the heir to Jinshan. His old man would never have let him go.
The current Duke of Jinshan was one of the four great dukes of the Eastern Kingdom, and Fatty Xuan the future heir to one of the four great dukes. If he left, that would throw things into great disarray.
Therefore, even if Fatty Xuan was unwilling to, he had to stay docilely and remain the heir.
Hubing Yue was also the same, but his aspirations were much more resolute than Fatty Xuan’s. Although he greatly admired Jiang Chen, his personal ambitions had always been to rank first.
Of course, neither had Jiang Chen thought that he had to bring the two along. Ultimately, those two were just lingering remnants from the vulgar life of the previous Jiang Chen.
The group of people were flying leisurely along when Jiang Chen’s ears suddenly twitched. The Ear of the Zephyr had caught the sounds of pulses of true qi in the distance. It was currents that originated from flight and was moving at an extremely rapid pace, headed in their direction.
Jiang Chen’s lips moved as he commanded all the Goldwing Swordbirds to slow down and retreat midair to two sides.
He didn’t want the reckless people flying helter skelter to ram and collide into him.
Although Jiang Chen wasn’t afraid of taking care of matters, he also didn’t wish to deliberately create new troubles.
“The Dragonteeth Guard is handling a case. Everyone in front, move!”
A strong shout traveled to them from the fore as two light yellow streaks broke through the air. Two light yellow fowl were piercing through the clouds and shooting through the mists like sharp arrows with their wings outstretched, hurtling directly towards Jiang Chen’s group.
Jiang Chen commanded the Goldwing Swordbirds to make way.
The two beams of light flashed by and those on the back of the light yellow fowl barely caught a fleeting glance of the people to the side. They were both slightly surprised to see Jiang Chen’s group.
One of them went, “eh?” but didn’t stop, flying hurriedly past and didn’t linger at all.
The two beams of light had disappeared within a mountain of clouds and sea of mist in the time it took to exhale one breath of vapor, vanis.h.i.+ng without a trace.
“The Dragonteeth Guard?” Jiang Chen faintly recalled that Ye Rong had once said that the Dragonteeth Guard were the royal guards of the Skylaurel Kingdom, similar to the Tiandu army of the Eastern Kingdom.
Except, the duties and authority of the Dragonteeth Guard were much greater than that of the Tiandu army.
At least, within the Eastern Kingdom, the Tiandu army rarely left the capital to pursue a case, whereas the Dragonteeth Guard seemed to spread throughout the entire nation.
Whenever they went, the local authorities had to surrender certain power to them.
The Dragonteeth Guard represented the royal family of the Skylaurel Kingdom. To voice a blunt truth, they were answerable only to the king of Skylaurel Kingdom.
For all others, no matter if they were a mighty duke of the Skylaurel Kingdom, they all had to weigh the consequences before offending the Dragonteeth Guard.
“This Dragonteeth Guard is quite strong.” Gouyu also clucked her tongue privately. “Can it be that even the ordinary Dragonteeth Guard is equipped with flying spirit beasts within the Skylaurel Kingdom?”
There were a few traces of surprise within Princess Gouyu’s tone.
Even the royal family of the Eastern Kingdom didn’t possess flying spirit beasts. It wasn’t that the Eastern Kingdom didn’t have these sorts of spirit beasts, but that no one within the Eastern Kingdom had the ability to tame them.
Jiang Chen was an anomaly within the Eastern Kingdom. Gouyu didn’t know how Jiang Chen did it either. This was his personal secret and Gouyu didn’t ask about it.
“Forget it, let’s go.” Although Jiang Chen was a bit surprised, he didn’t pay too much attention to it.
The group set off on their way again, but hadn’t been traveling for fifteen minutes when another wave of true qi pulses came from the front. This time’s wave carried more than twice the power of the previous wave.
Seven or eight streams of light coalesced into a ball of bright haze and came tearing through the air.
Holding to their principle of not getting into trouble, Jiang Chen and the group gave way again, thinking that this group of people would also swiftly fly by.
However, they hadn’t thought that the seven or eight beams of light would suddenly halt.
There were eight grimacing, green wyverns that flexed their claws and flashed their fangs, appearing extremely ferocious. They made gruesome faces at the Goldwing Swordbirds, as though provoking them.
These wyverns seemed to be of higher quality than the one Tang Long rode.
“Eh? What are they riding?” A young man on the back of a wyvern asked when he saw the Goldwing Swordbirds that Jiang Chen’s group was riding.
Jiang Chen, Gouyu, and the others glanced at each other, full of resignation. It truly seemed that whatever they didn’t wish to meet would come knocking at their doorstep.
There were eight people in total in this group, and they all wore red robes with blue lines embroidered on the outside.
They were obviously people from the Azure Heaven Northern Palace, and the people that Tang Long had reminded them again and again to not trifle with.
Jiang Chen and his group were already keeping a low profile and giving way whenever they saw someone, trying very hard not to be embroiled in trouble. But when these eight people stopped, Jiang Chen knew that this would likely be truly unavoidable.
“All of you look unfamiliar. Where are you from and where are you going?” A tall, bulky, twenty year old young man within the group asked.
This person looked to be the leader of this crew. Judging from his style, he seemed to be used to lording over everyone with others looking up at him, and used to interrogating other people.
“The capital.” Jiang Chen responded with these two words.
“No s.h.i.+t. My senior brother is asking where you come from.”
Jiang Chen flicked a glance at the crowd. “Is that important?”
“What’s with your bulls.h.i.+t? Answer when someone asks you a question!” Another bulky man with slanted eyes yelled out loudly.
Gouyu’s beautiful face flickered slightly. Her personality wouldn’t allow others to heckle her to their hearts’ content. Even if the Azure Blue Northern Palace were people they shouldn’t offend, how could she be frightened with the fiery character that she had cultivated over twenty years?
She was about to erupt when Jiang Chen waved his hand and stopped her.
“Everyone, we’re all pa.s.sersby traveling past each other on the road. The great road travels to the heavens and everyone travels on their respective sides. Questions will delay the journey. Why don’t we take our leave here?”
Jiang Chen didn’t want to cause trouble, but he wouldn’t continue to humble himself because of this mindset or even give up the bottom line of being a person.
“Eh? This group of idiots doesn’t look citizens of our Skylaurel Kingdom!”
“Could they be spies from another country? Judging from their steeds, our Skylaurel Kingdom doesn’t have these. Who cares, let’s arrest them and then interrogate them closely.”
“I say, let’s chase after those two frauds instead. Those two guys dared forge the ident.i.ties of the Dragonteeth Guard and were audacious to the extreme. The most d.a.m.nable thing was that they dared cheat us out of two of our Yellow Feathered Divine Eagles.”
Not everyone in the Azure Heaven Northern Palace liked to create trouble. This person was of the opinion that their business was more important than picking a fight with pa.s.sersby.