“How do you plan to do that?”

　　“Easy. He’s very good in martial arts, right? All we need to do is to gather all the protectors together and trap him!” one of the guys suggested proudly, chuckling all the while. “He can’t fight ten of them no matter how strong he is, can he?”

　　“Good idea!”

　　“But we must not say that it’s our idea. We can only say that the protectors can’t stand how arrogant he looks and wanted to teach him a lesson.”

　　“I don’t think anyone will think to blame us no matter what happens. Just leave it to the protectors to deal with him and see how he reacts. I want to see how impressive this Head Chief is!”

　　“That’s right! If you consider the positions we hold, we’ll actually be humoring him should we even care to challenge him!”

　　“Brother Feng, what do you think?”

　　They all looked at Leng Feng expectantly.

　　Leng Feng swept his eyes across his surroundings and sneered, “Stupid!”

　　Leng Tao tried to persuade him immediately. “Brother Feng, please don’t kill the mood here. It isn’t easy for us to find something fun to do!”

　　“That’s right.”

　　“Brother Feng, you don’t need to do anything. Let us send our people and that will be enough!”

　　“But we’ll need you to lend us your two protectors as well as Leng Tao’s Protector Chen.”

　　“Elder Chen? No way!” Leng Tao shook his head. “Elder Chen will not mess around with me. He will only ever listen to my father, and I am the one who is being controlled!”

　　“Look at you, such a failure!” someone said, words dripping with disdain. “You’re a prince, and yet you have to be babysat by your protector. You should be ashamed of yourself!”

　　“What can I do?” Leng Tao pursed his lips. “Blame the one who told my father to give him so much authority over me! But I believe that even without Elder Chen, your protectors are enough to make Chu Li suffer!”

　　“Yes!” Everyone nodded their approval.

　　They had been disliking Chu Li’s attitude for a long time and now was the chance for them to embarrass him.

　　The Head Chief of the Imperial Residence of King An had become a first class at such a young age. Although he climbed up the ranking from the High Duke’s Public House and not the imperial court, his position as the Head Chief of the Imperial Residence of King An on top of being a first class was powerful enough to make a couple of jaws dropped. One word from him was often worth more than ten from the princes.

　　His success was naturally not something that could be easily swallowed by those who were born out of nobility and were incredibly self-absorbed as a consequence.

　　“That’s enough! All of you are a bunch of useless losers!” Leng Feng jeered.

　　“Brother Feng, please don’t kill the buzz. Give us some ideas as well,” someone yelled. “All of us will listen to you!”

　　“That’s right Brother Feng, this guy is too conceited for his own good. We need to teach him a lesson, otherwise all our dignity will be lost! How are we supposed to walk on the streets next time?”

　　“Chu Li is a master of the Light-body Technique. It’s fruitless for you to trap him regardless of how many of you there are!”

　　“Then what’s the plan?” one of them asked. “If we can’t attack together, it’s even more impossible for us to challenge him to a one-on-one right?”

　　“There’s a way,” Leng Feng said faintly. “We can target Princess Xiao.”

　　“Princess Xiao…” Everyone began to hesitate.

　　Xiao Shi’s beautiful face with a pair of bright and profound eyes appeared in everyone’s minds. They turned towards the pavilion.

　　All the ladies were sitting in the pavilion, but Chu Li was standing outside of it.

　　His white robe fluttered in the wind as he stood rigidly and stared across the field into the distance. An aura of loneliness emitted from his isolated figure.

　　“What is that guy doing?”

　　“He’s so annoying,” one of them scoffed, “acting all serious and philosophical like that!”

　　“Princess Xiao is his weak point. We don’t actually need to attack Princess Xiao. All we need to do is rush towards her, then he will be forced to fight us.” Leng Feng said.

　　“This is a great idea. I will never be able to let it go until we teach him a lesson!”

　　“All right, then. Now go gather all the protectors. Get someone to hide on the way back as well so we can ambush him. We’ll teach him a lesson once and for all, and we’ll make him unable to face us directly in the future.”

　　“That will be our plan. Brother Feng, is it settled?”

　　“I didn’t hear anything. I don’t know anything,” Leng Feng said.

　　“Okay, okay. Brother Feng has nothing to do with this!” Everyone guffawed, but they were cursing him on the inside.

　　He was such a cunning fellow, shirking all the responsibilities in the matters that came his way. Worst of all, he still dared to regard himself as an upstanding man.

　　No matter how vehement they cursed him on the inside, no one had the guts to actually express the sentiment. All they could do was to continue laughing.

　　They can only accept the fact that his father was King Jing, and they had simply not been born to hold a status higher than him. They could only accept their fates forlornly.

　　—

　　Chu Li was looking at the lively scene unfolding before him when he realized all of a sudden how terribly he missed Xiao Qi.

　　He wondered if she was still practicing Isolated Cultivation.

　　It was not easy to achieve the Heaven God’s Boundary, even when she had mastered the Regal Sword Scripture.

　　He needed to train harder. She was about to step into the Heaven God’s Boundary, but he remained still on the ground. How could he break past her indifferent soul and reclaim her love like this?

　　He was starting to feel a sense of urgency thinking about this. He felt an urgent need to be on his way to become an Enlightened Master and to begin his journey of inquisition right away.

　　It was pointless to feel that way now.

　　Three horsemen sped in his direction and stopped their horses just in time.

　　Chu Li shifted to look at them.

　　One of them was a Purple Robe Elder while the other two were middle-aged men wearing armor that glimmered brilliantly in the sunlight.

　　The elder had white hair but looked to be young. He seemed to have the same cultivation level as those from the Outland. His eyes shone so brightly they looked like they could scorch through the deepest depths of hearts.

　　“Princes!” called the Purple Robe Elder in a deep voice.

　　All the princes gathered and gave the Purple Robe Elder a fist salute.

　　The women were unfazed and continued to chat.

　　Leng Qiu and Leng Qing came to Chu Li and the latter whispered, “He’s Prince Bao, the Emperor’s brother born from the same mother.”

　　Chu Li nodded.

　　Prince Bao’s cultivation level was very high. He probably was given the pills and taught the Mystical Arts in the imperial house. The way he conducted himself was formidable but reserved enough that people would struggle trying to read him. Chu Li would not be able to defeat the prince without using the Heavenly Demonic Power.

　　“Prince Bao will be personally hosting all twelve rounds of the Hunting Ceremony this year,” Leng Qing said. “He is fair and unbiased, so one will be able to cheat this time!”

　　Leng Qiu seemed quite happy about it. “Leng Tao and the bunch are going to have a hard time. Great!”

　　“Who were the winners throughout the history of the ceremony?” Chu Li asked.

　　“The winners were almost never a prince,” Leng Jing replied. “The point of the ceremony is to let them experience the hardships soldiers have to endure during a war. If they had really won, it will only throw the dignity of the soldiers away.”

　　“They did not win even for once?” Chu Li asked.

　　Leng Jing answered, “There was that one time when Leng Feng set a trap and won the match.”

　　Chu Li nodded lightly. “Looks like this Prince Feng does know a few things when it comes to war.”

　　“He was just lucky.” Leng Qing chuckled dryly. “He could win because those soldiers made a careless mistake by looking down on him and the others. The princes never won again after that, though. They were beaten thoroughly in every subsequent match.”

　　“Those soldiers really dare to do that?”

　　“No one cares who’s who on the battlefield!” Leng Feng said. “And everyone will be wearing a helmet with their faces completely blocked off. Besides, all the princes will be separated into different groups, so they will have to fight against each other as well.”

　　“How many teams will there be?”

　　“Normally five,” Leng Feng said, “sometimes there will be three. It all depends on what Prince Bao had in mind.”

　　Leng Qiu could not help but teased her sister, “Seems like you are very interested in these topics, elder sister.”

　　Chu Li raised an eyebrow. “Miss Qing is interested in reading about military strategies?”

　　“I was happened to read about it,” Leng Jing replied, pretending to be uninterested.

　　Chu Li never realized she had such hobbies. No wonder she came and talked to him out of nowhere.

　　“I am a girl. Having an interest in military strategies is just a way for me to kill time,” Leng Qing said.

　　Chu Li nodded.

　　The Ji Dynasty had quite a few female martial artists, but not a female general or even a female soldier. It was an unspoken convention in the Ji Dynasty that women do not belong on the battlefield.