Martial King's Retired Life

While Hong Jiu fended off Drought Demon, Master Qi and Guan Ning went off to search for Fang Xiaoyu without Hong Jiu needing to instruct them.

In Hong Jiu’s opinion, in spite of Vivianite’s challenging discipline, there was an opportunity to catch him out of position unlike Drought Demon. Contrary to his appearance that suggested he was in his thirties, Drought Demon exhibited knowledge and sharpness of a veteran who honed them in dangerous situations. Fighting Drought Demon was dancing with death itself. Drought Demon hit fast and heavy. Whenever he touched something, it’d shrink and wrinkle as though it had been left under the sun for over a week.

“Sinister Drought”, the unorthodox discipline that Drought Demon, also known as Tian Hangui, practiced was classified as an unorthodox discipline due to it teaching the practitioner differently to orthodox methods. Furthermore, as a consequence of practicing it, practitioners would become infertile, suffer dry skin due to the heat, feel hot winds more pronounced than the average person and shorten their lifespan. For those reasons, it was a discipline that only someone at the end of their tether would pick up.

Constantly feeling burnt wasn’t fun, but assuaging the discomfort with yin qi would be the same as neutralising one’s own skill. Moreover, some people couldn’t see the fruits of their efforts even after sixty years of training it because it took excruciatingly long to master.

Even if the Seven Stars died and the rankings were refreshed, the fifty-seven year old battle monger wouldn’t be the second strongest after his elder brother. During Fiends’ Genesis hiatus, Drought Demon gave his undivided attention to mastering the discipline. Fortunately, he eventually reached the level where the heat no longer bothered him, reduced his risk of injury and prolonged his youth.

Even with Hong Jiu’s knowledge and experience, defusing Drought Demon’s attacks wasn’t simple. Nevertheless, the opportunity to fight someone of Drought Demon’s calibre thrilled Hong Jiu’s competitive spirit.

Neither of them could win unanimously after a hundred exchanges.

“Haha, you’re good, pretty much on my level, though, which means that you’ll have no hope once my men arrive.”

Hong Jiu responded, “Yeah, yeah.”

“Oh, you knew I was bluffing?”

“You’d even have to give a kid candy to trick him. I ploughed through all the buildings to arrive here. The evil lass slashed and gashed your minions. Are you saying you wouldn’t make a sound or run after all that? If I’m correct, besides the dead people here, you, at max, only have forty people left, and I would assume a dozen of them are following the cat around. Go on: call for reinforcements.”

“He’s as right as can be!” someone outside yelled.

Hundreds of troops attired in blue garments and military boots stormed in to the area they were duking it out. Their spear-wielding leader shouted, “You cretins can consider yourselves unlucky, but you can consider yourself honoured to fall to my spear!”

The military officer thrust his spear at Drought Demon, forcing Drought Demon to back off three steps. “I admire your courage!”

Drought Demon took the strike on his chest without spilling a single drop of blood or batting an eye. To the contrary, he grinned.

Hong Jiu: “Hero, who are you?”

The officer answered, “Hangzhou’s best spear wielder – He Lan!” then stalked down Drought Demon again.

***

Master Qi never expected it’d be so effortless to locate Fang Xiaoyu. Anyhow, she chopped the lock to his room to free him,

“You’re here!”

“Xiaoyu, come with me. We’re still in danger!”

“All right, wait a second.” Fang Xiaoyu raced back to the desk to collect the papers he had been writing on.

Seeing Fang Xiaoyu collect the papers he had been writing on reminded Master Qi of something. Therefore, she raced back to the secret room she found the seal. Regardless of why Fiends’ Genesis departed in such a rush that they didn’t have time to clean up the corpses, the seal was still there, thankfully. Unfortunately for her, she had taken long enough for pursuers to be on her tail.

Strangely, Master Qi spent a while in the secret room, yet nobody entered after her. Following the sound of footsteps coming closer from outside, she saw a face pop through, compelling her to thrust at it.

“Wait! Wait! We’re on the same side!”

Master Qi stopped her advance since the person didn’t show signs of resistance. “Who are you?! What do you mean we’re on the same side?”

“This one is a retainer of Northern Wondrous Warrior Estate. He is here to assist you.”

“You’re from Northern Wondrous Warrior Estate? Can you prove it?”

“Some of this one’s brothers outside are imperial soldiers from Hangzhou, and about a dozen men are this one’s personal men, some of which are long-time employees at home. You will believe him once you see them. We are currently fighting with the criminals. This one is here on His Highness’ directives to find you. He shall take his leave first.”

Master Qi tuned in to what was occurring outside to confirm the claim that they were fighting. Indeed, she could hear weapons clanging. “Muye sent you to help me?”

“Please come out to continue talking. This one also received orders to eradicate these fiends. May he ask if there is anything important here?”

“Yes, th-”

As soon as he saw Master Qi reach for the seal, Fang Xiaoyu cried, “Wait! Don’t trust him!”