Chapter 181: The Ebb and Flow of Jianghu: the Aftershock of the Bride Kidnapping
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
In the recent months, River Heart Island had been gradually bustling. A blanket of land had been opened up and many boats gathered at the port.There were all sorts of influences in Jiang City, including the influences of other places of zhonghe Prefecture. They all wanted the River Heart Island, a field of fortune, so that Broken Dragon Beach, where it was difficult to see a merchant ship for about half a month originally, was crowded with people.
Since the Navy of Jiang City captured River Heart Island and Broken Dragon Beach, and announced that the waters of Broken Dragon Beach were now open without any condition. There were incessant merchant ships passing through every day, but these days, the majority of merchant ships were jammed at Broken Dragon Beach. Looking at a long line of ships, it was helpless.
However, except felt helpless, there was nothing else they could do.They couldn’t even vent out their resentment. Previously when ships couldn’t sail here, they could blame it on the navy’s incompetence. But now, it was none of the navy’s business. It was because everything had been completely huddled together, including the materials, labor, and resources that were needed in building goods yards at River Heart Island, that the navy of River Heart Island opened up several temporary ports, in order to disperse these ships, but they failed to prevent people from all directions from coming here and alleviate the pressure of water transport. That was the reason why cargo ships of the whole Broken Dragon Beach stretched as far as three miles away. The number of ships was increasing, which looked spectacular, like a long dragon.
“How spectacular it is!” said Junior Leopard seated on a high cliff beside River Heart Island. Looking at that dragon-shaped line of ships and stroking soft silvery mane of Little Du groveling next to him, he laughed, “Little Du, if I set a fire now, can it equate to the legend of the Red Cliff?”
“Purr, whirr, whirr, whirr, chirp, chirp!” Little Du only concentrated on gnawing the bone in front of it, without any reaction to Junior Leopard’s words.
“Commercialization! That is Commercialization!” Junior Leopard narrowed his eyes, and an eccentric idea flashed in his heart. In that world, the military force had taken the priority, but what really dominated that world was authority and money rather than martial arts, which was the same as his previous world.
Military force could make people fearful, but super martial arts was only a deterrence, unlike influence and money which could master the whole world.
Therefore, many fighters with aptitude and talent, possessed an extremely high achievement in martial arts skills at such a young age, like Junior Leopard who ascended into Bone-Forging Realm when he was more than 20 years old. Junior Leopard was counted as an expert in the martial arts world, and he had a high status in his own family or school. After having influence and money, some people may gradually get lost and be deterred by the influence and money. Then, they would be no longer as hardworking as before, only to find it difficult to ascend into the phase of Level Seven in their life time.
Now Junior Leopard’s performance was similar to those people, but such a choice couldn’t be counted as a fault. When his cultivation ascended into Bone-Forging Realm, there was a long bottleneck. Even though he broke through Level Four and ascended into Level Five and Level Six, he would also face the same threshold before ascending to Level Seven. But to surmount this threshold he needed not only the aptitude and talent but also luck. Hence, after ascending into Bone-Forging Realm, some people knew that it was hopeless to ascend to Level Seven, so it was acceptable that they distract their attention.
Though Junior Leopard was young in age and had a high cultivation, people in the martial arts world for the better part believed that he was unable to reach Level Seven because his backer was the Wu Family. In the whole Wu Family, there was only one Level Seven expert. The next hopeful Level Seven expert was not Junior Leopard but the Second Young Master of the Wu Family, because he was the young master of the Wu Family, and more importantly, he was a disciple of Wang She, the Level Nine expert. It was said that his cultivation and strength had now also ascended into the Level Four phase, so he had the most potential in the Wu Family. As for Junior Leopard, he just appeared by accident. In the foreseeable future, it was possible for Junior Leopard to occupy a crucial position in the Wu Family and to gain enormous power. Considering his family background, it was obvious that the Wu Family wouldn’t focus on training him.
As for the relationship between him and Wang She, nineteen Spiritual Stones of Fire Attribute were enough to pay for the three days he had spent guarding outside the underground fire vein. Of course, if Wang She ascended into Level Nine in the underground fire vein at that time, it would be different.
Therefore, Junior Leopard was only a potential stock now, and was a platelet of potential stock rather than a large blue-chip. Although it was worth investing, it was unsuited to hold for long.
Junior Leopard naturally understood this point, therefore, he performed as a platelet of potential stock with a relevant value, in order to gain some merits.
Opening grain stores in Zhonghe City and Jiang City, purchasing estates and waterways in Jiang City manipulated by him and the water bandits, managing his own influence, all these could be regarded as a colossal fortune in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of the true aristocratic families, it was nothing, because the treatment they rendered to Level Four experts was just like that.
This was what helped Junior Leopard survive in that world for so many years.
He occasionally showed his outstanding points to draw other’s attention, but avoided arousing other’s suspicion and envy due to his excessively outstanding ability.
For example, he chose to remain dormant in River Heart Island. One important reason was that he was excessively outstanding in Jiang City some time back and had stirred up many things, thus some people needed time to completely digest it all. Therefore, it was advantageous for him to wait till it all subsided.
In the period when he remained dormant in River Heart Island, many sensational things happened in Jianghu, and there were waves of information. The most sensational one was Wang She.
In Qinlingjun City, there were two events: bride kidnapping and ascending into Level Nine. No matter how long the time had passed, they were always taken as hot topics in Jianghu.
Especially when a Level Nine expert was involved in stirring up disputes, with Jianghu’s gossip embedded in it, immediately it would become like snowflakes flying in the sky. No one would know where it came from, or how long it lasted and how many kinds of snowflakes existed.
On that matter, Mingyi School suffered great losses and lost face. Naturally, the School was unwilling to let it go. Be it falling out with Tian Long Taoism or pretending to do so, the fame must be reshaped.
And this time, sending only several Level Eight experts would not win them back their pride.
Fu Fengzi, a Level Nine expert of Mingyi School, declared a war with Wang She immediately when he exited training. At the same time, Golden Lights Cave, Lu Shaoyou’s master’s homegate, also suffered losses in this matter. The master of Golden Lights Cave, a Sword Master with Level Nine, declared a war with Wang She as well.
Meanwhile, all casinos of Jianghu made a bet whether these three Level Nine experts would fight or not. If they really started a fight, Wang She would choose who to fight with first. After the fight, what would be the result? Immediately, the business surged like tidal water and Junior Leopard couldn’t help betting on a hundred silver.
However, there would be no fire, because the two families were just pretending!
Especially Golden Lights Cave, it had an illustrious reputation, but there was only one Level Nine expert, Sword Master. If any unexpected misfortune befell Sword Master when fighting with Wang She, Golden Lights Cave wouldn’t have an expert to protect its domain. Then all the painstaking efforts that Sword Master had made for decades were in vain. So it was unrealistic for Sword Master to risk his life and seek justice for his disciples.
In Jianghu, Golden Lights Cave was a special school. It was not a traditional wealthy family. Though lacking in such powerful strength, it was also not a common small school with some historical deposition, and its strength was far stronger than that of middle and small well-known martial families. Because this emerging school was established by a Level Nine expert, it could even easily destroy a well-known martial family with a history of hundreds of years.
Schools in Jianghu were like ocean bubbles. There was a general tendency that new schools would appear as schools died out at every moment.
In assorted emerging schools, the most eccentric and promising school was Golden Lights Cave, which was built by a Level Nine expert.
There were very few Level Nine experts in the world, and less of them would establish a school independently. Such figures were located at the top of the pyramid of strength, so no matter what country or school they participated in, they would be extremely valued. It could be said that as long as you sincerely took part in the school, you would almost obtain an equal position and authority as the most influential Elders of the school immediately.
Most of such experts would choose to join a country or school, accept a price, and then choose a suitable successor to carry on their education.
But some Level Nine experts had different ideas. They would start a new school by themselves and widely receive disciples, who would form a new school. Although they did not have a sound foundation, such new schools could still attract more disciples to join them, merely because the leader was a Level Nine expert. Except for real prestigious sects and schools and millennium families, nowhere else did Level Nine experts exist.
Because of the fame of Level Nine experts, at the very beginning, plenty of people wanted to join them, and this developed a great influence, but this influence was relatively loose. Moreover, Level Nine experts were also unlikely to take all participants as disciples. Generally, they would select some people with good aptitude as their own disciples. Then according to the basic structure of the school in Jianghu, they took these disciples as the core to set up the structure of the school.
Like the present Golden Lights Cave.
In order to build a school with better development and a good environment, these experts also reached a compromise with those millennium families and prestigious sects and schools for mutual benefits. They assisted these schools to train a portion of experts and disciples, and even let their own disciples take part in these schools to tie the knot, like the White Blademaster Lu Shaoyou who became a deacon of Mingyi School. In this way, two sides kept the relationship like allies, so that they both could reap the benefits from it. With the support of these large schools, the school made remarkable development.
But how many people could really be Level Nine experts in the world?
Therefore, most of such schools would vanish in Jianghu, like a flash in the pan. When founders were alive, schools enjoyed great popularity and no one dared compete with them. But when founders with Level Nine passed away, schools that were operated well and had strong cohesion would continue to survive, but schools that lacked this, fell apart overnight.
Furthermore, the number of Level Nine experts was too low. And such a school was even unlikely to appear in one or two hundred years. Now, Golden Lights Cave was the only school with a Level Nine expert in Jianghu. Thanks to the Level Nine experts, Sword Master as well as Lu Shaoyou, the Level Eight expert, Golden Lights Cave could now enjoy an influential fame in Jianghu.
But now, Golden Lights Cave had just lost a Level Eight expert. As long as people were rational, they didn’t believe that their backbone would fight with Wang She.
Junior Leopard was sure that he knew a little about Wang She, who only cared about his own interests. If he lacked confidence, there was no way he could fight with other Level Nine experts. Though he was willing to, Tian Long Taoism was unlikely to say “yes”.
Moreover, a few days afterward, this case of the bride kidnapping distracted everyone’s attention from focusing on Wang She.