Chapter Eighty-Four: The Young Lord

News of Lin Her’s death quickly reached the Lin royal city, while at that very time Ye Pei and the others were already racing back toward the Xiao territory.

On the Feng clan’s side, after Ye Pei and the others had departed, Feng Chu had explained the pros and cons to his younger brother, Feng Ze, the lord of the Feng clan. Three thousand men had already been dispatched to the Lin territory, led by Yang Tianrui and another general, Liu Ziwen. These three thousand were handpicked by Yang Tianrui himself; their strength was extraordinary, and they would be of immense support to Dongfang Boyi.

The territories of the Xiao clan and the Yin clan lay along the eastern border of Lin territory, making it especially convenient for Yang Tianrui’s forces to enter. By the time the army arrived, Ye Pei and the others had also returned to Xiao territory.

And Ye Pei’s timing, one might say, was almost uncanny.

“Miss Zi, let me teach you swordsmanship!” It was already late afternoon when Xiao Huiyuan came looking for Zi Qingrong again.

By now, Zi Qingrong no longer bothered to hide her disgust at all. “Young Lord Xiao, I have told you many times: call me Lady Ye!”

Xiao Huiyuan leaned in with a broad smile. “Miss Zi, look, your husband has been gone so long and still hasn’t returned. Let me teach you instead; I’m quite skilled myself.”

“Please leave at once!” Zi Qingrong had already pointed the wooden sword in her hand at him.

Seeing this, Xiao Huiyuan laughed. “Miss Zi, what fun is a wooden sword? If you want to play, use an iron one.” As he spoke, he drew his own sword with one hand and neatly sliced the wooden blade in Zi Qingrong’s hand into two.

“You... what are you doing!” Zi Qingrong’s face flushed bright red with anger.

“Didn’t I say so?” Xiao Huiyuan moved closer, his hand reaching for her shoulder. “I’m teaching you martial arts.”

A whistling sound cut through the air, and a roof tile shot straight toward Xiao Huiyuan’s head. The tile shattered, and blood began to stream down from his scalp.

The next instant, Ye Pei and Jiang Zhongqing descended lightly from the roof. Zi Qingrong hurried to seize Ye Pei’s arm and hide behind him.

Just as the group had returned, Ye Pei and Jiang Zhongqing had heard the commotion inside. Unable to be bothered finding the door, they had simply leaped in from above.

“All right, all right, I’m back.” Ye Pei rubbed Zi Qingrong’s hair, soothing her for a while before letting her go. He then looked at Xiao Huiyuan, who was clutching his head in dazed fury. “Young Lord Xiao, did you think I was dead?”

Xiao Huiyuan wiped at the blood and shouted, “A sneak attack? What kind of skill is that!” With that, he thrust his sword at Ye Pei.

“Heh...” Ye Pei shook his head with a smile. “A frog at the bottom of a well.”

To Ye Pei, Xiao Huiyuan’s charge with his sword looked unbearably slow and full of openings. Ye Pei did not move from where he stood, merely watching the blade come down toward his head. Then, like a flash of lightning, he thrust out his left hand. The next moment, Xiao Huiyuan’s sword edge was trapped between Ye Pei’s index and middle fingers.

“What...” Xiao Huiyuan’s eyes widened. He tried to wrench his sword free, only to find that in those long, slender fingers it might as well have been wedged in stone. It did not budge at all.

“A mere young lord of some thousand-man tribe, and you dare flirt with my fiancee. I come back and you still dare to refuse to kneel and apologize, and even continue provoking me.” Ye Pei pressed his two fingers with force. With a crisp crack, Xiao Huiyuan’s sword snapped cleanly in two.

“Ever since my teens, my reputation has improved quite a bit. Many people even forget that I am the son of a marshal and think I’m easy to deal with,” Ye Pei said with a faint smile as he approached. “But I have never been a good young man. The reason I stopped bullying the young masters of other noble houses after my teens was not because I became kinder. It was only because I had turned my attention to the underworld.”

“You know, someone of your caliber,” Ye Pei said as he drew nearer and nearer, “if it were the old days, I wouldn’t even need to lift a finger. My household servants could have dealt with you, and no one would have dared say a word.”

This was no lie. The Ye family had served loyally for generations and enjoyed great prestige at court; no official household dared cross them. When Ye Pei was young, he did not go around bullying common folk like many other idle rich scions, but he had beaten up quite a number of wealthy young masters. And Ye Linhui had shown not the slightest objection to it; he even had Meng Huaicheng follow Ye Pei the entire time.

“My son isn’t bullying common people. As for those young lords, if they’re unhappy, let them hit back. If they manage to beat Ye Pei, I, Ye Linhui, won’t interfere.”

Only, back then, none of the young generation could beat Ye Pei.

Terrified as well as shocked, Xiao Huiyuan seemed to have forgotten that this was his own clan’s territory, his own city. Seeing Ye Pei draw closer and closer, he raised the broken sword in desperation and stabbed viciously at him.

Ye Pei’s smile did not change. With a flick of his right foot, he sent the broken blade in Xiao Huiyuan’s hand flying up into the air. Then he raised his right leg even higher. When his legs formed a horizontal line, he brought it crashing down in a slash that struck Xiao Huiyuan square in the chest, giving him no chance to evade. The whole man coughed up blood and flew backward.

“So it really does feel better to fight with bare strength and no internal power,” Ye Pei said as he walked forward, reaching out toward Jiang Zhongqing. The latter instantly understood what he wanted, drew his sword, and handed it to him. “After the Burnt Season, it’s been a long time since I last had the pleasure of crushing someone...”

Zi Qingrong’s anger had also faded by then. Seeing Ye Pei dressed so thoroughly in the airs of a wastrel, she found him unbelievably amusing.

“Well then,” Ye Pei said with a teasing smile as he came to stand before the prostrate Xiao Huiyuan, “how would you like to die?”

At those words, the smile on Zi Qingrong’s face faltered. Her sympathy had just begun to rise when she suddenly remembered that this man had been flirting with her a moment ago, and it vanished without a trace.

Jiang Zhongqing, however, thought of the fact that they were still cooperating with the Xiao clan and could not help but remind him, “Brother Pei, he...”

Ye Pei glanced back and nodded to show he understood. Seeing that, Jiang Zhongqing said no more.

And just as Ye Pei continued terrifying Xiao Huiyuan, Xiao Huai and Dongfang Boyi arrived together. Earlier, Dongfang Boyi had been chatting with Xiao Huai in the city lord’s residence. Since Xiao Huiyuan had felt that Dongfang Boyi was not present and that the opportunity was rare, he had come here again—only to run straight into Ye Pei’s return at this very moment.

“Brother Ye, spare his life!” Dongfang Boyi’s voice rang out before he himself had even arrived.

At the sound, Ye Pei turned and saw Dongfang Boyi and Xiao Huai rushing over in haste, but the long sword in his hand still pointed at Xiao Huiyuan, with no intention of lowering it.

At this point, Xiao Huai was practically itching to strike his own son dead. According to Dongfang Boyi’s account, Ye Pei was someone who had fought Yang Tianrui to a standstill. In a tribe with only one city to its name, a man like that could run amok killing at will. Even putting that aside, Zi Qingrong was the eldest daughter of the Zi clan. Would the Zi clan simply stand by now that she was married?

If Ye Pei knew of this assessment, he would likely shake his head with a wry smile. No one else knew, but he himself knew that the reason he had been able to fight Yang Tianrui for so long was entirely because his control over internal power had improved considerably. If the battle had gone on longer, he would most likely still have lost. The people of the Burnt Lands, for reasons unknown, did not see much advancement in internal power, but their physical combat was truly terrifying.

“Sir Ye, I beg you to spare my son’s life. In the coming war, my Xiao troops are willing to place themselves entirely under Sir Ye’s command.” Xiao Huai clasped his hands toward Ye Pei.

Ye Pei smiled. “Lord Xiao, may I ask: if you were in my place, could you swallow this insult?”

Xiao Huai frowned and thought for a moment, then turned to Zi Qingrong. “Princess Zi, would you consider letting my son go? You yourself have not suffered any real injury.”

Zi Qingrong replied with a smile, “Lord Xiao should ask my husband. I will follow his lead in all things.”

At that, Xiao Huai inwardly groaned. He truly did not know what he should do if Ye Pei insisted on killing Xiao Huiyuan. The Feng army had already been stationed here; and according to Dongfang Boyi, Yang Tianrui’s personal arrival had been solely because of Ye Pei’s influence. Even if he were to stake the whole city and tear his face from Ye Pei, it would most likely bring him no good end.

Unexpectedly, Ye Pei sheathed his sword and smiled. “Forget it. We still have to cooperate.”

This made Xiao Huai overjoyed. He hurriedly said, “Thank you, Sir Ye! In the coming war, my Xiao clan’s fifteen hundred troops will all be commanded by Sir Ye!”

Xiao Huai was not acting on a whim. He knew Ye Pei was someone who had clawed his way out of a battlefield with hundreds of thousands of men. Leading these troops would be no challenge for him. As for Ye Pei using military authority to have them turn on the Xiao clan... that was even less likely.

By the time Xiao Huiyuan was helped up by his father, he still looked somewhat dazed. Once he regained his footing and saw his father beside him, his courage rose again. He shouted, “You surnamed Ye! My father is right here! You—”

But before he could finish, Xiao Huai slapped the rest of his fierce words back down with a single blow.

“Sir Ye is magnanimous, so...”

Ye Pei waved a hand. “It’s nothing. Take him away.”

After the others had left, Dongfang Boyi asked, “Brother Ye, the assassination...”

Ye Pei smiled. “Of course it succeeded. You can ask Aiqi and the others about the details. I never expected I’d be able to bring all four of them back intact this time.”

Dongfang Boyi nodded happily and also took his leave. Then Jiang Zhongqing, taking back his sword, asked, “Brother Pei, that Xiao clan young lord...”

“Hmph... I, Ye Pei, have never been anything like a good man,” Ye Pei said, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in his eyes. “A major matter is at hand. I don’t want to cause any more trouble, so I had planned to let him off today anyway. Once the overall situation is settled, even if I let him live one more day, I won’t deserve the surname Ye.”