Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 43
Chapter 43: Longdu Noble
“Young master, we’ll be reaching Great Xia in half a day’s time. Are we heading straight for the capital?” Tie Ma surveyed their surroundings before asking.
“We’ll head straight back to the capital,” Fang Chen’s voice sounded from the carriage.
Tie Ma nodded.
Just as he was about to crack the whip, he felt light tremors from the ground and frowned. These tremors felt familiar to him. Cavalrymen, and there’s a lot of them. At least a hundred.
Old Huang had arrived at the same conclusion too, and his face turned severe. “Why would cavalrymen appear by the borders?”
“We’re living in tumultuous times. It could be bandits,” Tie Ma said. “Let’s not get involved since the young master is here with us today. Let’s rush back to the capital.”
Old Huang thought those words made sense, so they cracked their whips and made haste.
To their dismay, the tremors were drawing closer to them. Soon, a huge bunch of flustered figures appeared in their line of sight. Tie Ma and Old Huang exchanged looks before stopping their carriage to watch the situation.
The one fleeing appeared to be a merchant caravan. A platoon of guards were hurriedly escaping with carriages filled with goods.
Just then, the pursuers appeared. An excited voice echoed, “Bring me my bow! I shall achieve my hundredth kill today!”
An arrow was fired, and it nearly shot one of the escaping guards.
“Longdu’s cavalrymen.” Tie Ma’s face darkened. Why would there be Longdu’s cavalrymen by Great Xia’s boundary?
“Judging from their direction of travel, they came from Longdu’s hunting plains. It looks like a Longdu noble is hunting down our Great Xia’s merchant,” Old Huang said with a frosty voice.
“Young master?” Tie Ma asked.
“You settle it,” Fang Chen replied.
Tie Ma and Old Huang leaped off the carriage and charged ahead. They were not worried about Fang Chen’s safety at all.
Fang Chen drew out his soul and impassively watched the situation from above.
The pursuer comprised at least a hundred Longdu cavalrymen, with an extravagant chariot at the center. A Longdu youth, who looked around eighteen years of age, stood on the chariot with a bow in hand, as he excitedly aimed his shot at the Great Xia merchant caravan.
This youth had to be a Longdu noble, as only their nobles were allowed to rear cavalrymen.
These cavalrymen were decently strong, with even the weakest of them being at mid first stage Ki Condensation. At the scale of a hundred men, they could be considered as an elite unit.
In comparison, the Great Xia merchant caravan was much weaker. It only had fifteen guards, and their strongest martial artist was only at late first stage Ki Condensation.
Old Huang and Tie Ma arrived at the battlefield at this point, and they didn’t hesitate to charge at the incoming Longdu cavalrymen.
“Wait!” a voice echoed from the merchant caravan.
The fleeing crowd halted. They turned around to look at Old Huang and Tie Ma, and their eyes widened in shock.
“Let’s run, young miss. We’ll be reaching Great Xia soon.”
“Two Great Xia experts have stepped forward to protect us. We don’t need to run anymore.”
A woman walked out from the carriage with a composed demeanor. There was not the slightest fluster to be seen on her face, as she looked at Old Huang and Tie Ma.
“Young miss, there’s only two of them! There’s no way…”
Before the woman’s maid could finish her words, Old Huang flexed his arm and suplexed two cavalrymen onto the floor.
At the same time, Tie Ma’s sword flashed like a bolt of lightning. To conserve his stamina and inner ki, his attacks were aimed at the vitals. In the blink of an eye, he had already pierced the foreheads of six Longdu cavalrymen.
“Strong!” the woman’s maid exclaimed with an agape mouth.
The guard leader of the merchant caravan galloped over to the woman’s side and remarked in delight, “Good news, young miss! Those two martial artists are at least at Ki Explosion!”
There was a common saying that Ki Explosion martial artists could fend off a hundred soldiers, and this was not just empty words!
“Do you recognize the two of them?” the woman asked.
The guard leader shook his head. “There aren’t many Ki Explosion martial artists left in Great Xia, but I’m afraid I don’t recognize them.”
Reaching Ki Explosion was a hurdle. Those who overcame this hurdle gained significant prestige within Great Xia, and this elevated their circles. It was not easy for those from a lower circle to become acquainted with them.
“Don’t worry. I’ll personally thank them after this,” the woman said.
On the other side, the Longdu youth was enraged when he saw Old Huang and Tie Ma killing his cavalrymen. He roared in anger, “Kill them! Kill them all! How dare they spoil my fun? Today, I’ll use their heads as my night urn!”
Several figures suddenly leaped forth from the cavalrymen and attacked Old Huang and Tie Ma. They were shrouded by a layer of inner ki, indicating that they were Ki Explosion martial artists.
The woman and the guard leader’s faces stiffened up.
“Ki Explosion martial artists?!” the guard leader exclaimed.
“What is the background of this Longdu cavalrymen unit? Why do they have Ki Explosion martial artists?” the woman asked in shock.
“Young miss, that youth must be a Longdu high noble to have Ki Explosion martial artists serving him… It’s likely that he’s a viscount,” the guard leader grimly replied.
Viscounts were considered high-ranking nobles in Longdu in view of the country’s background.
Longdu’s highest decision-maker was still the emperor, but it was a country consisting of many noble-owned fiefs. Nobles from baron onward had their own fiefs, and they wielded the power to autonomously govern their region. In other words, Longdu’s nobles were practically emperors in their own fiefs!
“Young miss, let’s escape.” The face of the woman’s maid turned pale in fright.
“How can we run away after implicating those two martial artists?” The woman shook her head. She turned to the guard leader and ordered, “Escort the others to safety. I’ll stay here.”
“That won’t do. I accepted your money; I’m obliged to safely escort all of you to Great Xia. I can’t abandon you,” the guard leader rejected the order.
However, the other guards weren’t as brave. They exchanged looks with one another before galloping off together, abandoning the merchant caravan.
“You bastards!” the guard leader furiously roared.
Just then, in his peripheral vision, he saw Old Huang and Tie Ma slaying the Longdu Ki Explosion martial artists. One of them was even sent flying over a hundred meters before crashing lifelessly into the ground.
“This…” Both the woman and the guard leader were astounded.
The remaining members of the merchant caravan stood in disbelief for a few seconds before their faces lit up in joy. We’re saved!
“Damn it! Kill them! Don’t let them get close to me!” the Longdu noble roared in a panic.
The cavalrymen charged at Old Huang and Tie Ma, only to be helplessly massacred. It was almost like a bunch of children were trying to go against two war veterans. Half of them died within moments. The surviving ones huddled up around the Longdu youth with anxious faces.
The abrupt transition from the hunters to the hunted had left them at a loss.
“What’s your nobility in Longdu?” Tie Ma coldly asked.
— — — — —
Little trivia from Starve
In ancient China, you don’t have to go to the latrine if you are of sufficiently high standing. Instead, you have an urn that you can pee and poo into, and your servants will dispose of the content on your behalf… That’s the night urn that the Longdu youth was talking about.
