Chapter 775: Rumors are funny
‘Ow…my cheeks still sting…’
=I’d imagine that’d still be the case, since Lady Alicia and Lady Bellona had been pinching your cheeks for the better of an hour.=
∆Oh it wasn’t that bad. I mean, they kissed it better afterwards…and so did Jinju Ren and Rianna…and Jin Fang gave you a lap pillow as she massages your cheeks…actually now that said I all this, fuck you and your romance filled life. Living the dream of harem manga readers everywhere and everywhen.∆
‘Not by choice here, not by choice. I have stated before that I wanted them to be able to find romantic happiness beyond my sorry ass. The idea of polyamory sounds nice, but it also sounds incredibly exhausting to me.
=Are you saying that because you were raised in a monogamous society in your previous life, because you have a tendency to overthink and imagine a future where you need to be able to provide not just for multiple wives but multiple children or because you honestly believe that you’re not the most suitable partner for these five women that have explicitly stated that they want you?=
‘Yes.’
∆Pfft! How can you get one hundred girlfriends if you have an attitude like that?∆
‘I don’t think I have the stamina for something like that.’
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“Huh…well I’ll be damned. This is arguably one of the smoothest roads we’ve ever traveled on,” Zhen Tai commented.
“To be fair, we haven’t actually traveled roads this large before,” Zhen Feng pointed out.
“Truth.”
“Groa!”
“Looks like Tiny appreciates it though.”
“I think she’s more excited to see Mini again.”
“Maybe.”
The Zhen Clan had left Emerald Eye City, almost as quickly as they had arrived.
The reason for this hasty departure wasn’t due to them disliking the city or having soured their relations with the allies in the Goldshire Family, rather, they left quickly simply because everything they needed to handle in the city had been resolved swiftly.
With the existence of the road connecting Emerald Eye to Stone Claw, the Zhen Clan didn’t need to find another caravan to cross the desert with, rather, they just needed to load up whatever wagons and carts they had with supplies and be on their merry way. After all, the main purpose of a caravan was to find safety in numbers while travelling, especially when the terrain actively deterred most vehicles. A road helped to eliminate such necessities.
The Zhen Clan had travelled much further than anticipated, allowing them to cut their travel time by at least half. By their estimations, they’d be back in Stone Claw City in about a day.
Which was just by fine them, since they were still wrapping their heads around everything that had changed while they were on another continent.
It was one thing to hear about a sudden change in one’s home estate, it was another when the change was directly related to you. That said, the Zhen Clan scions were actually looking forward to everything they had been hearing about.
At this point in time, the Zhen Clan scions had all decided to travel in one wagon so that they could talk with one another.
They didn’t do this as much in the past, due to conflicting egos, but after everything that had happened as of late… there’s a strange sort of camaraderie that is born when one goes through shared tribulations together.
That said, two of the scions, Zhen Tai and Zhen Liu, were not actively participating in conversation at this time.
The former was taking a nap at this time while the latter, well…was dealing with some cheeky related injuries. That all said, it didn’t stop the scions from speculating about what changes occured while they were away.
“A new wandering ruin in our territory, a newly captured fifth tiered aether beast and we’re now apparently the hosts of a ludicrously profitable arena event…damn, talk about a free pie from the sky,” Zhen Hai mused.
“I wouldn’t say it was all free,” Zhen Yue pointed out. “Need I remind you the feeding and healthcare costs for Tiny the Raijin Hippo? A fifth tier aether beasts is going to cost ten times as much or keep health, least.”
“To be fair, if that wandering ruin is still there by the time we get back, I think we can use that place to recoup our losses,” Zhen Xing pointed out. “Granted, I don’t think anyone in the family has any familiarity in the training and caring of primate aether beasts.”
“Nope, but there are plenty of people out there that would buy the materials harvested from them,”Zhen Feng pointed out. “I mean the stuff aside from the obvious, by the way.”
“Wait, there’s a market for primate leather? That feels…wrong.”
“I don’t question weirdos, they pay well.”
“Fair.”
“You think any of those weirdos are participating in those biweekly exhibition matches we apparently host?,” Zhen Guo asked.
“Undoubtedly.”
Speaking of weirdos, while the road to Stone Claw was significantly safer for travellers of all makes and legalities to use, it also made it rather easy for people to use the road as a means to spy on people.
Well, more like if someone knew they were heading a specific way, they knew where to look.
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“Okay, that looks like the Zhen Clan’s caravan alright,” Simos said with certainty. “Looks like our plan to just stakeout alongside the new road paid off. Now all we have to do is…big bro? Are you okay?”
“To be completely honest, no. No I am not,” Victor replied while looking a bit like a salted fish being left out to dry in the sun. “If anything, if I had remembered what this guy looked like in the first place. I’d have refused on the spot.”
“Is this guy really that dangerous?,” Graff asked while staring at the same caravan as Simos. “Other than the old guy at the front, they don’t seem that impressive…”
“You see this missing tooth?”
“Yeah…”
“This was caused by, presumably, that old man’s monster of grandson. Fucker punched it out of my face.”
“Wait, aren’t your teeth indestructible?”
“Yup.”
“Oh…”
Around the same time the Zhen Clan had initially left for Emerald Eye to go to Stone Claw, the trio of Victor, Simos and Graff had received a job offer that came in the form of a package, that was marked with the seal belonging to an underworld organization that they had tangential ties with at best.
That package consisted of several gold bullions, a bottle of fifth tier aether pills, an eerily familiar portrait and a letter that simply stated “Find this man, use this array when found. This is only the down payment, you get the rest when he is found.”
At the time, the trio was dazzled by the pay to the point where they blindly accepted the offer, not realizing who this young man actually was.
It wasn’t until they started investigating that they realized they were digging themselves not just a whole, but a whole damn gravesite.
The unmarked kind.
To be more specific though, Victor believed they were digging themselves a grave.
“Okay, so the guy we’re after is the young master of some immigrant clan, so what?,” Simos attempted to ask in a nonchalant manner in order to relieve the tension a bit.
This turned out to be a rather bad idea.
“So what? So what?!,” Victor repeated out of disbelief. “Have you not been paying attention to all we heard about the Zhen Clan since we started this job?”
“Vaguely…”
“Graff?”
Prompted by their senior, Graff pulled out a little notebook they had been using to record anything and everything they found out in regards to the man they identified as Zhen Liu and his clan.
Needless to say, there were a few exaggerations.
“The Zhen Clan was founded by a man named Zhen Shi, who most recently gained the moniker of ‘The Blizzard Serpent’ after freezing solid the leader of the Wolfe Family.”
“Wait, the Wolfes? I heard about them, weren’t they one of the hegemonic powers in Stone Claw?”
“Emphasis on ‘were’, they got kicked out by the Zhen Clan after they tried to get them to swear fealty.”
“Oh…well, whatever, that’s just the patriarch. Most clans have a single powerhouse pillar.”
“There’s more, don’t interrupt.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“As I was saying, while the patriarch is impressive in his own right, it’s the rest of his family that gets…weird. Especially in regards to that young master named Zhen Liu.”
“Like what? Did he come back from the dead?”
“Actually, yes.”
“Say what?”
“Apparently, the Wolfe Family had managed to plant a spy in the Zhen Clan for a little over a decade, whose sole purpose was to sabotage and sap resources from the Zhen Clan. He had attempted to assassinate Zhen Liu as his first act of initiating and internal civil war, but it failed when Zhen Liu came back from dead on the day of his own funeral. Popped out of the casket and choked him out during the whole ceremony.”
“Holy shit…”
“Crazy part though was that he was originally crippled before coming back from the dead.”
“What the fuck?”
After this expletive, the rumors got a significantly…weirder.
“I’m sorry, he rode a mammoth out of a wandering ruin? What the fuck is a mammoth?”
“Well…”
For the sake of everyone’s sanity, we’re just going to end it here and move on to the Zhen Clan arriving back home…and being shocked.
