Chapter 219 - 122: Scion of the Medicine Shop, Wild Flood Dragon Monarch, 4 Grandmasters! The Prefecture City’s Curtain... Finally Rises

Chapter 219: Chapter 122: Scion of the Medicine Shop, Wild Flood Dragon Monarch, 4 Grandmasters! The Prefecture City’s Curtain... Finally Rises

Otherwise, it was all just a pipe dream.

Huang Chan’s heart had often simmered with resentment in the past. But what could he do? The man was simply born better.

Huang the Seventh Young Master had been born with a golden spoon in his mouth. The greatest hardship he’d ever faced was the bitterness of the Martial Dao.

’Hardship? What hardship?’ In the Prefecture City, was there anyone who, upon hearing the name of the Medicine Shop, didn’t have to step aside and make way for him? They’d all bow and scrape, smiling as they addressed him as ’Seventh Young Master Huang!’

That’s why, before this year, Huang Chan had never wished for Huang the Seventh Young Master to just drop dead so he could fight for the family’s "estate." He knew he didn’t stand a chance.

But...

Then came New Year’s Eve.

The whole extended family was gathered. He’d been wondering just where that prodigal rake had run off to stir up trouble this time when...

...a piece of news from Anning County arrived, and it ignited an ambition he’d never dared to entertain.

Huang the Seventh Young Master was dead!

It didn’t matter if he’d been killed for the bounty posted by the Chaotic Heaven Thieves or the Black Market Gold Cave.

Or if, during the festival lull, he’d been secretly assassinated by Zhao Jiu of the Wine Shop and Duan Chenzhou’s disciple, Ji Xiu. To Huang Chan, the right or wrong of it all no longer mattered.

When Old Master Huang learned that his own grandson was gone, he was so furious he didn’t sleep for a day and a night.

The first thing he did upon waking was to check the "dossier" on the matter. Once he had a clear picture of the entire situation in Anning County...

...even though it was the New Year festival, he swallowed his pride and, without a moment’s rest, went to call on the Prefecture Lord, with whom he had some dealings, and had him issue a decree!

As for Huang Chan, he had just been eating a meal.

But when he heard that Huang the Seventh Young Master was dead...

...the ambition he’d never dared to harbor burst into a raging fire. He immediately volunteered to shoulder the old master’s burdens.

Old Master Huang had said it himself.

Before his dear Seventh Young Master disappeared, he’d had numerous conflicts with County Magistrate Zhao Jiu and that disciple of Duan Chenzhou’s in Anning County.

He would settle the score with the Chaotic Heaven Thieves and the Black Market later.

But for now, he just wanted to skin alive the two who had crossed his precious grandson!

Zhao Jiu from the Wine Shop was the youngest son of the Wine Shop’s big boss, so they couldn’t just grab him and kill him.

So, Old Master Huang had the Prefecture Lord strip him of his title as County Magistrate for dereliction of duty and had him sent back to the Prefecture City.

Right now, he was in the County Yamen, being dealt with by Young Master Cai of the Jadeite Shop Cai Family, who served in the Prefecture Yamen.

As for Huang Chan himself,

he had brought one hundred Armored Warriors straight to the doorstep of this Ji Xiu fellow. He was to arrest him on the charge of "colluding with the Central Yellow" and drag him back to the Prefecture City!

This kid was Duan Chenzhou’s disciple and Wang Xuanyang’s grand-disciple. He was a scion of one of the five successor lineages to the Martial Saint’s mantle, formed after the Sword Dao Ancestral Court split. The boy was said to have many a Wonderful Technique!

The chances that he had refined the Divine Thought of that Dharma Guardian General were far higher than the chances of it achieving Possession or merely residing within him.

But none of that had anything to do with him, Huang Chan.

Old Master Huang’s direct-line grandson was gone. The heir of the primary branch had died young. The entire extended family was composed of children from side branches. Whoever won the old man’s favor would be the one to inherit.

’To win the old man’s appreciation...’

’...I risked offending my direct superior, Garrison Commander Luo Daocheng. Fearing he wouldn’t authorize me to deploy troops, I seized the initiative, taking the Armored Warriors myself to get here first!’

’Fortune favors the bold!’

Besides, he’d made inquiries before coming.

Tributors from the Grand Lineages of the Wood Element and the Fishing Trade, along with the two Daoist Schools that had snatched the Celestial Blade Style’s right to operate and teach in the Prefecture City...

...had all dispatched their own Grandmasters, who were now riding the wind and cleaving the waves to get here!

He’d heard that to ensure absolute certainty, the General Leader of the Fishing Trade—a man who held a grudge against Duan Chenzhou—had personally performed rites and made offerings to summon a Wild Flood Dragon Monarch, one that had been exiled by the Water Monarch’s Mansion!

That was a Dragon Species that, once mature, was practically at the Leakless realm!

Wang Xuanyang was dead. Chen Hex of the Celestial Blade Style had not achieved the Leakless realm and wasn’t even at the level of a Sect Leader.

Before the year’s end, he even dismissed his disciples and willingly sealed away the Daoist School’s Top Token—a prize his junior brother Duan Chenzhou had won by fighting eighteen consecutive bouts on Daoist School Street. It was clear he was a spent force with no cards left to play.

Otherwise, who would so casually discard their ancestral legacy?

It was safe to say that as long as Duan Chenzhou didn’t show his face, he was fine. But if he did...

...an inescapable net would be waiting to catch him!

As for this Ji Xiu, Huang Chan had investigated him before coming. The boy’s background was even more miserable than his own.

Being from a side branch of a Grand Lineage just meant you lost the opportunity to become a direct disciple of a School or pass the Prefecture Examination to become a Prefecture Official.

But you could still practice martial arts at a Daoist School, enlist as a soldier in the Prefecture City, or find work within your family’s trade. There were always other paths.

But to climb up from the bottom, to truly make a name for yourself... Huang Chan had seen from his comrades-in-arms just how hard that was.

It was like that in the Prefecture City, let alone a mere County.

He could state with conviction:

This kid was born wallowing in the county mud. If Duan Chenzhou hadn’t pulled him out, he’d still be feeding horses and chopping wood for someone!

Once he lost his backer, dealing with him would be child’s play, wouldn’t it?

WHINNY.

Huang Chan reined in his horse.

He watched as the gates of the residence swung open, and a youth walked out. The boy moved with the grace of a dragon and the stride of a tiger, his very frame so well-defined it was as if he wore his muscles and bones like a Treasure Robe.

The skin on the youth’s palms was peeling, as if freshly shed. He had clearly just finished a training session. Even standing still, the Qi and Blood and potent Force within him steamed off his body, forming a white mist over ten feet high that swirled and rose in the frigid winter air...

Huang Chan’s eyes narrowed:

’Golden Muscle and Jade Veins, Mercury Blood Silver Marrow... The nails have shed and regrown... Has he already reached the pinnacle of Skin Refining...?’

’Huang the Seventh Young Master... that whelp truly had no judgment. Even in this godforsaken backwater, to meet a talent of this caliber—a disciple of Duan Chenzhou, no less—and not try to win him over? Not even try to build a little rapport?’

’What an absolute idiot. No wonder he was unworthy of inheriting the Grand Lineage’s enterprise!’

Huang Chan could only call it a crying shame.

He had never imagined, before coming here, that he would find such a precious gem buried in this muddy wasteland!