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Chapter 135 – Great Actor
A man wearing a black silk robe arrived at the scene. He was tall, elegant, and also a powerful imperial realm fighter.
This must be the master of the Youyun Stone market, Xuanyuan thought, as he saw the old man along with many people in the garden bowing politely to him.
The master of the stone market, Youyun Lung smiled, “I believe the young masters must be tired from betting. We’ll send people to guide the rest of you home. We’ll also send a hundred blocks of top class crystals to everyone who lost the bet, to show our gratitude for your support.”
Those young rich boys who just lost most of their savings were comforted. They grew even fonder towards the stone market.
The master of the market was good at handling the crisis. By giving them a few rewards, he sent them out of the market, while allowing them to retain their dignity and reducing the risk that their fraud would be exposed by Xuanyuan.
Xuanyuan was impressed. The master of the market was no ordinary man.
After this, there was only Xuanyuan, Shiguan, ten other imperial fighters and Youyun Lung.
“I am the master of Youyun Stone market, Youyun Lung. Young master Yin, you’re so young and yet so talented. I believe among the people here today, you are the best in gemmology. Princess Shiguan, you’ve seen uncountable treasures, please help check this piece of stone and tell me if this is a treasure.” Youyun Lung smiled. He took out a box made of jade and turned to the imperial fighters, “My friends, didn’t you all come here today to see this?”
When the box was revealed, Greed screamed in Xuanyuan’s head, “It’s my Origin of Memories! You must get it, boy! I’ve saved up a lot of Qi. With the help of the Origin of Memories, I’ll be able to enter the imperial realm and help you capture Shiguan and devour her fighting fire!”
Xuanyuan thought, this was the opportunity he was waiting for. He thought he wouldn’t be able to escape from Shiguan, but the Origin of Memories could help.
Xuanyuan narrowed his eyes and smiled, “Please open the box and let us see.”
The stone inside was ugly and shaped strangely. However, Xuanyuan’s devouring technique resonated with the stone. He knew that great power was hiding inside the stone.
“We were unable to cut it open, nor could we destroy it by fire or water. But it’s too ordinary for making instruments. I have no idea what it is.” Youyun Lung said.
“Perhaps I can try to burn it with my fighting fire?” Shiguan didn’t seem to recognize the stone either, but she still wanted to try.
“Please go ahead, your highness. Fighting fire is a rare natural treasure. It’s fortunate to be able to witness it.” Youyun Lung hesitated for a while, but agreed in the end.
“You think you can destroy my Origin of Memories using fighting fire?” Greed said disdainfully.
Shiguan grabbed the stone in her palm and summoned the Demonic Fire. A dangerous heat spread through the room, forcing the other people to take a step back, except Xuanyuan. Who remained unmoved. She continued to burn the stone for almost fifteen minutes before she gave up, but the stone was unharmed. It was still ink-black, without a hint of being affected by the fire.
“I haven’t seen anything like this.” Shiguan shook her head and returned the stone to Youyun Lung.
Apart from Xuanyuan and Shiguan, everyone was sweating. Xuanyuan felt as if he was blown by a cool breeze. He was completely unaffected by the Demonic Fire, which surprised Youyun Lung and the imperial fighters. Xuanyuan grinned at them and said, “I feel a strange connection with the stone. If I can sense anything from it, would you consider giving it to me?”
“Please try and see if you can sense it. But I can’t promise I’ll give you the stone. It is, after all, an unusual stone.” Youyun Lung was curious.
“I’ll give it a try.” Xuanyuan replied, while gesturing his hand to summon a spell. In his mind, he was screaming at Greed.
“Greedy old bugger, summon your Origin of Memories and devour it. My life depends on you!” At once, a black light shone from his body. The stone trembled and swiftly, it flew into Xuanyuan’s body and was absorbed.
Youyun Lung was shocked. It was too late to retrieve the stone. Everyone, including Shiguan was surprised.
“Young master Yin, what happened?” Youyun Lung cried.
“Boy, buy me some time. I need a bit of time to merge with the origin.” Greed said. A plan formed in Xuanyuan’s mind – he hurt his organ deliberately and coughed a great deal of blood, putting on an astonished expression.
“I have no idea what happened. I felt a mysterious connection to the stone before I was hit by something. I have no idea what happened.”
Youyun Lung suspected that Xuanyuan stole his stone, but Xuanyuan’s shocked face made him believe the story. He had never heard of a stone that could fly into anyone’s body.
“Young master Yin, how do you feel? Let me check your body!”
Xuanyuan looked both scared and angry, he screamed, “Master Lung, do you think I’d take away your stone? My clan is not small, we wouldn’t care about some little stone. I have learnt many secret techniques from the clan. Did you set up the stone to forcefully steal the Yin clan’s techniques? You’ve arranged the stone specifically for me. Didn’t you?”
Youyun Lung was angry. He didn’t expect that Xuanyuan would accuse him, but he was from the Yin clan, and they were surrounded by a dozen other witnesses, including Princess Shiguan, so he couldn’t kill him. He said slowly, “Young master Yin, you’ve misunderstood. I’m just worried that the stone has hurt you. Please let me check!”
“Master Lung, I didn’t take you for someone like this. You must have used a technique on the stone to steal the techniques from my Yin Clan!” Xuanyuan said as he coughed even more blood.
He took a few steps backwards and moved next to the old man. He grabbed a bunch of the shattered jade powder on the ground, “I was right. Youyun Lung, you devious man. This is the jade of communication. This old man informed you of my arrival and you set me up!”
Youyun Lung was surprised. Xuanyuan even noticed something as minor as this. But in fact, he didn’t have any thoughts to harm him. “Master Yin, you’ve misunderstood. Whenever an important guest arrived at the market, I’d come and greet them myself. This is our rule. Even if you’re not here, I would still come out to greet Princess Shiguan.”
“Don’t lie to me! I’ve guessed your little tricks, that’s why you want to kill me!” Xuanyuan screamed. He turned to the imperial fighters, “Let me tell you the evilness of the stone market. Youyun Lung used a technique to extract the crystals from some of the stones to scam you. However, with my gemmology knowledge, I caught onto their scam!” Xuanyuan used a small amount of his Qi to shatter eight stones like they were made of glass. Youyun Lung wanted to stop him, but Shiguan and the other people wanted to see what Xuanyuan was revealing, so Youyun Lung couldn’t do anything.
“You’ve all been studying gemmology for many years. Please take a look. The crystals were replaced with junk. Even though they tried to conceal the damage, but you can still see the difference, if you know where to look. Do you see now?”
One of the imperial fighters, an old man, observed and nodded. He was clearly angry and accused, “Master Yin is right. Youyun Lung, you must explain this in detail.”
“I can’t tell the difference, but it’s almost impossible to find no crystals after shattering eight stones in the seventh garden. It proves that Master Yin is onto something.” Another man also gritted his teeth angrily.
“I can’t believe you did this to us, ‘old friend’? What will be your explanation?”
Xuanyuan sighed. He bought himself some time. In order to fan the flames even more, he said, “You knew that I’d already learnt your trick which is why you sent the other people away, meaning there were less witnesses. You think I didn’t know? The stone was not a strange, unusual stone. It’s an assassination weapon! Wait until I return to the clan, I’ll be able to see exactly what method you used. Then we’ll have solid evidence!”
Youyun Lung knew he wouldn’t be able to silence these people, but luckily there weren’t many people here. He was calculating on how to murder all these witnesses. He glared at Xuanyuan.
“What? You want to kill me? After being exposed by me? You think that’s possible?”
Before Youyun Lung was able to answer, an announcement suddenly came from outside, “Everyone in Lishou City, attention! I am from the Yin Clan’s Heavenly Dragon Guard. We have come with an Order of Heavenly Dragon, instructing all fighters to aid the capture of a disciple from the Fighting Dragon’s sect who killed two of our Yin clan’s warriors. He is named Xuanyuan. Catch him alive, if possible.”
Xuanyuan thought this was the most inopportune timing.
Youyun Lung’s thought to kill him disappeared at once. He couldn’t do any of that when the Heavenly Dragon Guards were in the city. He smiled obligingly, “Master Yin, this is really a misunderstanding. I did make a few mistakes, but I want to come clean to all of you so I gathered you here. I’ve never thought of killing you. I don’t even know what happened to the stone!”
“How dare you attempt to kill someone from the Yin clan. You have to give me a better explanation! My clan is hunting down a disciple from the Fighting Dragon sect, I’ll deal with that first.” After his proclamation, Xuanyuan flew away.
“Don’t go! I have many things to ask you!” Shiguan followed.
After a while, Li Wu led the grandmaster from the Yin clan, the assassins and his father, General Li Gang, into the seventh garden.
“Where is he? I’ve sensed the aura of the pearl, but it’s getting further away.” The grandmaster asked.
“Master Lung, where’s the man who knows the secret technique of the Yin Clan? He’s the one we are chasing after. He stole the technique!” Li Wu asked Youyun Lung.
Youyun Lung almost fainted at Li Wu’s question. That boy tricked him!
“Follow me. He just ran away. I want to kill him personally!” He said.
All the assassins, Li Gang and Youyun Lung leapt forward and chased after Xuanyuan.
Li Wu knew very well he had no business joining the fight. But he remembered that Xuanyuan was very rich. Perhaps he left something of value in the wooden house by the stream. He led twenty peak king realm fighters to the little wooden house where Su Mei and Mochou lived.