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“If Reverend Carnage is dead, what makes Rose’s Allure think that this male attendant can turn the tables against Li Zhiyuan?!”

But those at the front of the mob heard his name being uttered. A name that if the others had heard, would immediately make them regret their doubt and skepticism.

“Yan Nanfei?! Gosh… Could this really be him?!”

“For decades he’s vanished off the face of this world… I’d never believe that the once-strongest young prodigy of the Northern Steppes would be here, serving as a lowly male attendant if I did not see it myself… Heavens…”

“What the hell is one of the Northern Steppe’s most acclaimed and most admired wunderkind doing here?!”

Peals of anxious whispers and gasps rose from the crowds as more and more people began to realize who he was. At the same time, the exact same question loomed in everyone’s minds: “If he’s been here for so many years, then how powerful is Yan Nanfei today? What rank is he in right now?”

Li Mu slowly rose up to his feet.

“Class IX?”

“Class IX.”

Li Mu broke into a grin. “Very well. At last, an opponent worth fighting against.”

“On guard, Mr. Li,” Yan Nanfei, the stolid and calm attendant of Rose’s Allure, said quietly.

“Nope,” Li Mu shook his head.

That earned him a weird look from Yan Nanfei although he would say nothing else. Then he lunged, his arm held outstretched with a finger aimed forward at Li Mu like a sword. At the tip of his fingers, a tiny but no less conspicuous flash of gold glowed, accompanied by the ringing of steel that mimicked a real sword’s, reverberating in the air that everyone could feel their very minds and hearts resonating to the call of steel.

Li Mu responded with the same stroke, thrusting his finger forward to meet his opponent.

In comparison, Li Mu’s response looked as simple and ordinary as a child with a toy sword. There was no glowing light nor was there any ringing of steel. No matter how everyone looked, Li Mu looked just like a common man with no eldritch powers.

The fingers met.

For one fleeting second, anyone witnessing the fight would have thought that Time had stood still.

Everything stopped in stasis, even the shrill cries of steel were gone.

Bang!

Yan Nanfei’s finger erupted into a huge burst of blood-red vapors. With a misshapen stub at where his finger used to be, one could almost make out the white of his bones amid the gorily sickening wound still oozing blood. The once-renowned swordsman tottered shakily, taking one erratic step backward that saw his feet plunging into the surface of the floorboard’s timber, leaving a pair of footprints that nearly bore right through the planks. Around them, silence prevailed. There was not a gasp nor even the creak of the wooden floor.

In contrast, Li Mu’s finger looked completely fine. He smiled and withdrew his hand as if nothing happened, standing proudly in front of Yan Nanfei with his hands crossed behind his back.

His opponent quietly studied his own grotesquely damaged finger — or rather, the lack of it — with an odd, contemplative look on his face.

In the meantime, Madam Gao and the rest of Rose’s Allure were aghast with horror.

The situation had just spiraled out of their control.

It would appear that Li Zhiyuan was every bit as unstoppable and invincible as he indicated himself to be.

“If only we had agreed to let Moonbliss go!” Thought Madam Gao. “Then we could have spared ourselves all this trouble!” At any rate, the loss of Reverend Carnage was too heavy a price for Rose’s Allure to bear.

Outside Pink Alley’s biggest pleasure house, all eyes stared at Li Mu with confused and puzzled looks. The fight had clearly transcended way beyond their abilities to comprehend. But by looking at how suave and calm Li Mu looked, standing just in front of an opponent who clearly has been wounded, no one could dispute that Li Mu had won again. The middle-aged male attendant, although powerful and formidable he might be and possibly the best out of Rose’s Allure’s four champions, was nevertheless the latest to the many notches in the Aspect of Vengeance’s proverbial belt.

Rose’s Allure could barely hope to resist Li Zhiyuan by now.

Yan Nanfei looked up suddenly. He looked at Li Mu and said, “You’re too humble, Mr. Li. I daresay that no one in Class IX is your match.”

Li Mu smiled at him and replied, “Manifestly so, it seems.”

Woah!

Everywhere around Rose’s Allure, waves and waves of blasting exclamation resounded like a tidal tsunami.

Whether it was Madam Gao or was it just the warriors and champions outside, everyone heard Yan Nanfei’s pronouncement clearly and none were not shocked by the very significance it carried.

No one in Class IX is his match.

The true meaning behind those eight words could have not been any more astonishing.

“Does that mean that the Aspect of Vengeance Li Zhiyuan has advanced past Class IX into Class X?”

Class X.

One could almost describe warriors who achieved Class X as living legends.

Every Class X champion was known to be powerful enough to find his or her own establishment. The respect and prestige could make him or her a leader amongst men and the establishment that he or she built could very well become one of the strongest militant sects in the lands.

But few in the Northern Steppes had ever achieved Class X and those who had enjoyed a long and illustrious life. Yet Li Zhiyuan was only just a young lad in his early twenties — a twenty-one-year-old Class X champion. As this very notion began to embed in the minds of every single warrior, champion, ordinary onlooker, and orderly of Rose’s Allure, each of them came to the same mind-blowing conclusion.

A conclusion that just thinking of it could turn anyone’s knees into marshmallows.

“Thank you for this, Mr. Li.”

Yan Nanfei saluted Li Mu with gratitude. From the look on his face, he looked like he just had a most satisfying release.

He turned to Madam Gao and said, “Please inform the Canoness Superior that I have fulfilled my part of the promise. From this day hence, I no longer have anything to do with the Convent. Our days are done.”

He immediately headed for the stairs and left.

All of a sudden, a deluge of petals showered down on Pink Alley. A soft fragrance instantly filled the whole walkway as the showers of flower petals gently engulfed all of Pink Alley in a picturesque snowfall of blossoms. A majestic and regal sixteen-man litter, lavishly festooned with carvings and reliefs of myriads of flowers, approached the narrow lane from the air. The sixteen men — each of them Class VI warriors — landed on top of one of the roofs outside Rose’s Allure where everyone could see her: the Canoness Superior of the Convent of the Pious Rose. A queen-like figure whose legendary beauty was masked behind a thin scarlet veil and her storied charms wrapped and concealed inside a long, striking red dress.

Everyone held their breaths with fear and respect.

The tightly-knit mob quickly retreated like they were avoiding a stampede of scorpions and snakes, leaving an empty space of almost a hundred meters just outside the entrance of Rose’s Allure.

Most of all, it was the men who could barely keep themselves composed. Many of their faces teemed with admiration, longing, and even apprehension — exactly the same as how one would imagine facing up against the Gorgon Medusa.

The Canoness Superior of the Convent herself had arrived.

No one expected this. First, the Aspect of Vengeance made an appearance here in Convent of the Pious Rose, followed by the ruckus he caused, and now the Canoness Superior herself had decided to come!

“Yan Nanfei, is that it? You’re leaving? Just like that?”

It was the Canoness herself whose voice boomed from inside her magnificent litter. A voice fraught with a mixture of innocence and pressing motivation that could make any man swoon, yet with the regal and majestic aloofness of a queen with power and authority over the life and death of her subjects.

“I’ve completed my part of our agreement. From this day onwards, I will no longer have anything to do with you and the Convent,” said Yan Nanfei, whose figure reappeared at the top of the roof, still clad in the garb of a male attendant of Rose’s Allure, but with an air of renewed vigor and sternness.

“After so many years, you still refuse to give in?” One could almost make out the forlorn disappointment in her voice that all who heard her voice felt their resolves crumbling in the face of a strange urging of wanting to protect her and eternally remain in her service.

“Hmph, even today, you think you can use that seduction magic of yours to keep me here?” Yan Nanfei hissed with frost, his voice shattering the enchanting song-like voice like a sledgehammer.

Li Mu patiently watched with interest.

“What now, leave? Forsake your son?” The Canoness’s voice turned suddenly stern and chilly.

But Yan Nanfei was gone with the wind, with only his voice echoing across the horizons in his wake. “I’ll deal with the problem myself. Be careful, Lianhua. For much you have sinned and much you’ll have to pay. Watch out.”

That was it. Yan Nanfei had left.

“YAN — NAN — FEI!”

Word after word, the Canoness howled his name. Her entire person shook with uncontrollable rage, but she did not give chase.

“What is this? Some romance soap drama went awry?”

Li Mu couldn’t help feeling curious and wanting to know more.

“Li Zhiyuan,” the Canoness Superior’s voice resounded again, calling him this time. “You slayed Reverend Carnage, our best retainer in Rose’s Allure. Why?”

Li Mu could almost break out with guffaws over what he assumed was a silly question.

“What? Is this a debate now?”

“He tried to kill me,” Li Mu answered placidly.

“As if he could,” the Canoness Superior countered sharply.

“There’s no point in bawling over spilled milk. By hook or crook, Shen Xiaoyue is leaving with me. Anyone who dares to stop me shall suffer my wrath. Is that understandable enough for you?”

“It’s true that I can do nothing to stop you, Aspect of Vengeance,” the Canoness Superior, scoffing in a self-deriding manner. “But bear in mind: take Moonbliss with you and you’ll invite trouble upon yourself, Class X or not.”

Li Mu was hardly perturbed. “Those that wished to kill me are all six feet under by now.”

The Canoness Superior smirked. “So be it then, this meeting has come to an end. Back to the Convent.”

The litter rose up into the sky, soaring in the same direction from whence it came and discorporated in the distance.

It would not be a stretch to say that she came with the airs of a conquering hero, only to leave like a routed dog.

But she could hardly be blamed.

But not even the Convent’s might could defy the powers of a Class X warrior and an all-out battle could do more harm than good. At any rate, the Convent did not want bad blood between them and they would rather concede for the moment.

On the other hand, the scores of warriors and champions that congregated outside were let down to see the Canoness leave. Many exchanged mournful glances like a bunch of wayward souls who had just lost their purpose to live.

It was said that the Canoness Superior was the fairest lady in all of the Northern Steppes and a female warrior who has won herself legions of admirers, many of whom had traveled far to come to ask her hand in marriage, but to no avail.

But the fairest lady in the Northern Steppes was not accustomed to leaving her quite abode. Few had ever witnessed her beauty and her appearance today. Short as it might be, it was nevertheless a treat to all who hankered for a glimpse of her.

Except for Li Mu, whose heart barely stirred.

He had seen beauty far beyond this before.

Even the fairies of the Celestial Palaces of the gods.

Beauty no longer held any sway over him.

He turned around and cleaved to the matter at hand. “So, Madam Gao, I guess my request had just been approved?”

“Ah? Of course, of course, sir,” Madam Gao stuttered as she had just woken up from a stupor. At any rate, the shrewd schemer in her could never allow her to say “no” right now.

Rose’s Allure has suffered enough shame today.

But not all was lost. Barely anyone could boast of having survived a Class X warrior and Rose’s Allure had just managed to do exactly just that. Besides, Moonbliss was formerly one of Rose’s Allure’s most prized courtesans. Her departure here today could send ripples across the Northern Steppes, causing Rose’s Allure to be more famous. Songs could be sung about how the establishment has only the best girls. Girls whose charms that even Class X warriors could hardly resist.

It did not take long to breeze past the formalities.

Li Mu left Rose’s Allure with Shen Xiaoyue and Shen Jia. They headed back to Cloud Nine Lodge.

In the meantime, news of what happened in Pink Alley blazed all over the city, taking Rydorburg by storm.

“From this day hence, no one is to slight the Aspect of Vengeance Li Zhiyuan.

“Formerly one of the ten best prodigies of the Northern Steppes? Nay. The Li Zhiyuan today could very well be one of the ten most powerful warriors of the Northern Steppes region.

“Relay my order. Everyone is to give Li Zhiyuan as wide a berth as able to.

“But what in Heaven’s name happened to him? Last I checked, he was just Class VI. But here he is now, larger than life, in Class X. Did he encounter something that turned his life all around?”

The names of Li Zhiyuan and his moniker the Aspect of Vengeance have become a household name that no one could stop talking about.

All militant sects and orders immediately shifted their stance, deciding that any businesses in the future that involved the Aspect of Vengeance must be handled with the utmost subtlety and extreme delicacy.

The following day, more news rocked Rydorburg.

“The Priory of the Four Seas shall cease to exist in three days.”

That was the pronouncement sent forth by the Aspect of Vengeance himself. An imperious declaration that few ever saw coming.

But only now did the declaration invoke memories. It was said that rumors began to simmer a year ago, saying how the young heir to the Priory’s leadership was the one who had masterminded the plot to cripple Li Zhiyuan before they despatched assassins and hired swords to hunt down the rest of the Creed of Divinity. That ended up with the deaths of many of the Creed’s acolytes, including the slaughter of the Creed’s Grand Master. What else could this be if not a blood feud?

That was what Li Zhiyuan was here for. To seek vengeance.