Chapter 584: When sabotage backfires
A couple moments later after the simultaneous break-throughs (and the report of a certain spectral zako…)
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“Hi there! Any particular reason why you guys are hanging around here like a bunch of creepy stalker ex-spouses?”
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“Oh, I was HOPING you’d say that!”
*CRACK!*
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*WHAM!*
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*BAM!*
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‘Well, that takes care of that…huh. No suicide methods one their persons, so I guess they weren’t expecting to get their asses handed to them so easily or captured like this…damn, I think I actually owe that Zhen Li guy even more than before…’
[Puta madre, is it too much to ask we get a fight that’s actually worth a damn?]
[To be fair, we’re probably gonna have that chance tomorrow.]
[Too long!]
‘Will letting you be the one to drop off these two, make you feel better?’
[…yes.]
‘Okay then.’
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*Bing-Bong*
Everything pass here is in Tide Tongue
*Bing-Bong*
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“Hurry mama, hurry! Otherwise all of the good seats will get taken!”
“Alright sweetie, alright.”
“A disciple of a wandering swordmaster, a princess from a foreign kingdom… scales, the contestants are a varied bunch this time around!”
“Maybe, but I don’t think the Zhen Clan’s streak of internal victories are going to end this year either.”
“Nah man, I think they’re gonna be in trouble now.”
For the past two days or so, Willow Scale City had been buzzing with activity as the Sapling Festival attracted all manner of tourists, merchants and mercenaries, all looking to participate in the festivities.
However, this particular day found the city to be especially active due to one simple reason: The Zhen Clan Competition.
Originally starting as an internal tournament for the youth of the Zhen Clan, it has since ballooned into an international competition that attracted the attention of all sorts of young warriors looking to win one of the many attractive prizes offered by this competition.
For outsiders of the clan, it was a chance to win either ludicrous amounts of money, a high tier aether art, pill or treasure or even become a straight up disciple of the Zhen Clan.
The former stuff was if one were to place high enough in the tournament rankings, while the latter was based more on whether teachers and seniors of the clan found the outsider particularly noteworthy.
That being said, some of the participants who wanted to become part of the clan, did so because they saw it as an opportunity to make an alliance with them in order to leverage their power to help them with their…political aspirations.
It was policy for the Zhen Clan to assist their members with their struggles, after all.
Speaking of insiders though, many internal members of the clan found this competition to be the best way to raise their standing within the clan.
Outer disciples could be come inner disciples while inner disciples could become direct disciples of either the Four High Elders or even the Clan Matriarch herself.
Of course, this entailed being able to defeat both their peers and vaunted geniuses and talents from abroad, a not-so-easy feat.
“Bring it on, outsiders! I got a brand new aether art I’ve been wanting to use on someone all month!”
“You guys hear the news? Apparently some of the contestants participating this year are gonna be royalty!”
“Pfft! That’s not new, princes and princesses from outside of the empire show up every time we host this thing! They always want to recruit some of our fellow disciples for some cause or another…not that anyone seems to mind because of the rewards that they entail…”
“Nah, not that kind of royalty even though they are showing up, I mean like…our royalty. The imperial kind.”
“Whoa! Seriously?”
“Yeah, apparently they heard how crazy these contests can get and wanted to see for themselves. Last I heard though, they were faking an identity so that nobody knows that it’s them. Want somebody that can go all out against them, ya know.”
“Damn…hope I ain’t the one who will have to face them.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Like every competition though, some of the participants wanted to win it by any means necessary, either by cheating during or before the tournament even began.
It was actually under this particular train of thought, that a certain young mistress of the main clan sent out a pair of warriors that just so happened to specialize in such affairs.
Granted, she didn’t know she was actually sending lambs to the slaughter…
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‘Should I wear the pearl earrings or the jade earrings for the starting round today?,’ Zhen Ren Fa thought to herself as she compared accessories in her quarter’s personal mirror.
Zhen Ren Fa was in a particularly good mood today, not just because today was the Zhen Clan competition in which she could finally prove herself in front of her teachers and peers, but because she also manage to resolve an issue that had been bugging her since the day before yesterday.
‘I’ll go with pearl. They’re classics,’ Zhen Ren Fa decided.
Hours ago, she had learned where in the city the brackborn branch members who had humiliated her and friends were staying in and had sent out the Shi siblings, a brother sister duo who just so happened to be two of the Zhen Clan’s most reputable hatchet men, to dole out some well-deserved revenge on them.
Well, what she thought was well-deserved revenge at least.
After a few more moments of preparation, namely the application of various lotions that were good for the skin, Zhen Ren Fa had a satisfied look on her face.
‘Alright! Time to go and prove my superiority!’
With almost a skip to her step, Zhen Ren Fa prepared to leave the room and go attend the opening ceremony to the Zhen Clan competition…until…
*Knock-knock* “Delivery!”
“Huh?”
*POW!*
“WHOA!”
Before Zhen Ren Fa could question how the fuck someone that clearly didn’t sound like a servant or clansmen could enter the clan estate and knock at her door, a large sack containing something clearly heavy was suddenly thrown through her door.
Luckily it didn’t break her door, just slammed it open like someone had just kicked it.
*BAM!*
*Clatter.*
“What?!”
The moment the sack hit the floor, the bounded forms of the Shi siblings came spilling out alongside what appeared to be a black jade scroll case. The aforementioned siblings however were also found to be beaten rather badly, complete with bruising, black eyes, a swollen bottom lip and someone was definitely missing a tooth.
Nothing a trip to the healers wouldn’t fix, but definitely something that would cause one to live with shame.
“H-how? How?!”
A part of Zhen Ren Fa was shocked to see the Shi siblings back in such a state, then again, she was also shocked that whomever did this to them didn’t send them back in a body bag…or as just heads.
“How did you two end up like-?! Huh?”
She was just about to yell at them, asking how they could’ve ended up in such a state when their targets were just a bunch of Acolytes and some recently minted Masters, before she noticed that the scroll case that had spilled out with them had rolled towards her and ever so slightly bump her foot.
Not sensing any aether coming off of it, she quickly picked the scroll case off of the floor, opening it to find that inside of the case wasn’t a scroll, but a letter that was rolled into a tube.
Figuring that whatever happened to her hatchet men was probably related to this note. She quickly took it out of the case in order to read it over.
As she did though, her expression became more and more bitter by the second.
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Dear Spiteful Bitch,
The next time you try to send goons to sabotage someone, make sure to do proper reconnaissance so you understand what kind of threat you are dealing with.
Otherwise, the consequences could be deadlier.
Sincerely,
The guy who beat the shit out of your goons.
P.S. Good luck trying to explain this shit to your elders and/or parents.
P.P.S. Fuck you.
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“…”
Zhen Ren Fa’s positive mood had turned incredibly sour after reading this note, but she wasn’t going to lash out in anger against her subordinates…not yet anyways.
Instead, she calmly flipped over the paper and wrote a new note aimed at the Shi siblings, admonishing them for their failure, before placing it on top of the unconscious elder sibling.
She then proceeded to undo their bindings and leave the room.
Zhen Ren Fa had more important matters to attend to after all.
‘Fine then, if I can’t sabotage you assholes, then I’ll just brutalize you in the competition! Don’t lose before I have a chance to get at you…’
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“ACHOO!”
“Bless you! You okay?”
“Yeah…think someone’s talking shit about me though…”
“Huh…like something out of an anime…”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
