Chapter 150. The Eldest Miss
The next day, in an old-fashioned little courtyard in the Level Four zone,
The yard itself was not large, yet it had been arranged with great elegance.
A bluestone path ran through it, with several stalks of slender bamboo planted along the way. In one corner of the wall stood an old plum tree. It had not yet come into bloom, but its twisted branches already carried a rugged, powerful grace of their own.
Qin Chuan led Xu Yuan along the path and stopped in front of a tea room.
“Resident Retainer Gan is inside.”
Lowering his voice, Qin Chuan added, “He is the stabilizing pillar of our Level Four zone. Wang Lu of the Bai Family has more schemes than anyone can count. The only reason we have been able to maintain the balance on our side all this time is largely thanks to Resident Retainer Gan.”
Xu Yuan nodded, straightened his robe, and followed Qin Chuan into the tea room.
The furnishings inside were simple. There was a low table, two cups of clear tea, a few scrolls and books, and by the window sat a middle-aged man in a purple robe, gazing absentmindedly outside.
This man was none other than Gan Ze.
“Resident Retainer Gan.” Qin Chuan bowed. “Battle Overseer Xu has arrived.”
Gan Ze turned his head and let his gaze fall on Xu Yuan. After looking him up and down for a moment, he suddenly smiled.
“Good lad. I watched last night’s battle from start to finish. You fought very well.”
His tone was casual, like an elder praising a junior, without the slightest trace of hauteur.
Xu Yuan stepped forward and cupped his hands. “Greetings, Resident Retainer Gan.”
“No need for formalities. Sit.”
Gan Ze pointed to the prayer cushion across from him.
Xu Yuan sat down as instructed, though inwardly he was still observing this Extraordinary Meridians resident retainer.
This man’s aura was entirely restrained. On the surface, he looked no different from an ordinary person, yet every now and then, when his gaze shifted, he gave off a sense of unfathomable depth. He was clearly no mundane figure.
Gan Ze lifted his teacup and took a sip before suddenly asking, “How old is Battle Overseer Xu this year?”
“Nineteen,” Xu Yuan answered.
“Nineteen years old, and already at the eight-meridian level...” Gan Ze rolled the words over in his mouth, and a trace of recollection flashed through his eyes. “At your age, I was still struggling in the seven-meridian level.”
Xu Yuan modestly replied, “Resident Retainer Gan flatters me. I have merely been fortunate.”
“Fortunate?”
Gan Ze let out a laugh, then shrugged. “Where in this world is there such a thing as fortune? In the end, it is all supported by strength.”
He gestured for Xu Yuan to remain seated, and Qin Chuan sat down beside them as well, personally pouring the tea.
Xu Yuan had originally thought the other man would question his astonishing rate of advancement. After all, going from the seven-meridian level to the eight-meridian level in just over a month truly was enough to shock anyone who heard of it.
Yet Gan Ze only mentioned it in passing and did not probe further.
‘This resident retainer is rather broad-minded,’ Xu Yuan thought to himself.
What he did not know was that Gan Ze had traveled extensively in his younger years and understood just how vast the world truly was. The Great Chu Dynasty had endured for nearly five hundred years. Who knew how many astonishing geniuses had appeared in all that time?
There were those whose accumulation had reached the right point and who broke through a bottleneck in a single instant. There were even rumors of special martial constitutions, people for whom breaking through realms was as easy as drinking water or eating a meal...
Compared with those freakish talents of legend, the kind that only appeared once in decades and were chosen one in hundreds of millions, Xu Yuan’s cultivation speed was indeed shocking at first glance, but not so outrageous by comparison.
After chatting for a while, Gan Ze took another sip of tea and suddenly smiled. “Now that Battle Overseer Xu has reached the eight-meridian level, it is about time for you to return to the Residence and register it, is it not?”
Xu Yuan nodded. “I was planning to set out this afternoon and return to the Residence.”
Gan Ze inclined his head, then added a reminder. “If possible, Battle Overseer Xu would do best to break through to the Extraordinary Meridians within these next two months.”
Xu Yuan’s brows lifted slightly at those words, and he looked at him. “What does Resident Retainer Gan mean by that?”
Beside him, Qin Chuan’s eyes flickered slightly, as though he already knew what the other man was about to say.
Gan Ze glanced at him, then suddenly said with a sigh,
“Among the young masters and young ladies of our Shangyang Residence, the Second Young Master has been calm and steady since childhood and handles matters with excellent judgment. He is a very good candidate to take the lead. Then there is the Third Young Master, who is naturally gifted and possesses extraordinary comprehension. On top of that, he has the support of his mother’s clan behind him, so he and the Second Young Master are more or less evenly matched.”
Xu Yuan listened quietly, knowing the conversation was finally getting to the heart of things.
“Both of them carry the ambition to succeed Family Head Chengzhi, but...”
Gan Ze paused, then lowered his voice. “The only one who can press both of them down so hard they can barely breathe is the Eldest Miss.”
The Eldest Miss?
Xu Yuan’s heart stirred. He had heard that title more than once before, yet each time the people around him seemed to know very little. Now that Gan Ze had brought her up on his own, Xu Yuan naturally became interested.
At that moment, Qin Chuan suddenly spoke. His expression was complicated as he said, “Speaking of the Eldest Miss, her martial talent is the greatest I have ever seen in my life. She may even surpass you slightly, Battle Overseer Xu.”
Slightly better than me?
Xu Yuan frowned faintly and waited for him to continue.
Seeing that Xu Yuan did not believe him, Qin Chuan did not mind. His voice turned low and solemn, as though he were recounting a sealed chapter of the past.
“In the four hundred seventy-fourth year of the Great Chu calendar, she had just turned eight. She had practiced martial arts for only a single year, yet she entered the martial arts tournament held in Prefecture City that year and won first place in the youth division in one stroke.”
“The very next year, she defeated Lei Long, the Heavy Gunner and an Extraordinary Meridian martial artist. Then, for the next three consecutive years, she defeated every first-stage Viscera-Nourishing Grandmaster who came here on their travels. She earned the nickname Blood-Hand Butcher.”
Xu Yuan sucked in a cold breath. Eight years old?
Gan Ze clasped his hands behind his back and continued on his own,
“Later, the Eldest Miss caught the eye of a fifth-stage Grandmaster who was traveling abroad, and he took her back to his sect. Right now, your qi and blood are at their peak. If you want to keep moving upward, it would be best if you could win her favor.”
Xu Yuan’s heart stirred, and he could not help asking, “But... does the family not also have its own method for entering the Viscera-Nourishing realm?”
“The family?”
Gan Ze gave a soft laugh when he heard that. The smile carried a somewhat complicated meaning. “Setting aside the fact that this is the very method on which the Shangyang Residence built its foundation and will not pass on to outsiders, even if it were passed on, you still would not be able to learn it.”
“Because that method works in concert with another cultivation art, and both are things learned from childhood in the inner courtyard... they are beyond our reach.”
Understanding dawned on Xu Yuan, though he could not help feeling a faint trace of sorrow.
The Shangyang Residence had given ordinary people the chance to practice martial arts, but it had also essentially fixed their upper limit in place.
After all, what they wanted were loyal family guards, not dazzling prodigies.
Unless the family line truly began to fail for lack of worthy heirs, their approach likely would not change.
But as things stood now, the Third Young Master’s talent was already excellent, not to mention that there was an even more outstanding Eldest Miss above him.
‘That is the mindset of a landlord through and through.’
Xu Yuan shook his head inwardly, then asked the crucial question, “But the word favor is rather vague, is it not?”
It was a joke, really. He did not even know who she was, what she looked like, or what kind of temper she had. How exactly was he supposed to win her favor?
Gan Ze turned back at that point and snapped irritably, “Boy, if I knew that, why would I still be telling you all this?”
Xu Yuan was left speechless by that answer.
Seeing his expression, Gan Ze smiled again and added,
“Still, I have heard that this time may be different. Since she is returning now, she may need some people under her command. As for the exact details, I truly do not know.”
After listening quietly to everything, Xu Yuan rose to his feet and sincerely cupped his hands toward Gan Ze.
Whether those words would prove useful or not, the man had at least been trying to guide a junior along.
‘Still, if there truly is no path forward to be found on the Shangyang Residence side, then I will have to make other plans...’
He calculated silently in his heart, but his face revealed nothing at all.
After exchanging a few more words, Xu Yuan took his leave.
The carriage wheels rattled as it rolled out of the Level Four zone and headed in the direction of the Shangyang Residence.
By now, the situation in the Level Four zone had essentially been decided.
On the Bai Family’s side, only Zhao Wuji and a few seven-meridian martial artists remained. They no longer had the ability to stir up any real waves.
As for how the interests behind the two families would be divided, that was likely already being worked out in silence.
But the ripples stirred by this battle in the Level Four zone were still far from over.