Chapter 20
The audience turned dead quiet as the referee's words lingered in the air, this silence didn't last for very long though, immediately broken by the loud drunken cheers of Li Hongi and Olivia.
"LET'S GO."
"WOOOHOOOO, WAY TO GO REEEEEN."
The two shouted at the top of their lungs, the audience seemed to follow their lead, bursting out into a loud applause that filled the hall.
Wu Feng stared at the stage with a bitter expression, he didn't expect things to turn out this way at all. Roxy didn't let him be distracted for too long though and gave him a light nudge.
"Time to pay up."
She said, flashing him a smug grin. Wu Feng sighed and fished out a corked crystal bottle, filled with a dark brown liquid and handed it over… somewhat reluctantly.
"Tsk, just take it, I'll send the rest over at some point."
Wu Feng said bitterly. Roxy's eyes lit up and she immediately grabbed the bottle, uncorking it and letting the fragrant aroma fill her nose.
"Mmm, I love a good whiskey."
She said, clearly happy with today's winnings, a bottle like this would cost enough to feed a village for a whole year but of course she had no intentions of selling it, or even saving it for that matter. Roxy poured out two glasses and pushed one towards Wu Feng.
"Let's have a toast to our disciples."
Wu Feng, who had been sulking since losing the wager, cheered up almost instantly.
"You sure are a great drinking partner, cheers."
"I know, cheers."
CLINK.
The two of them quickly drained their glasses just in time to see King Tang walk onto the stage, silencing the applause of the crowd.
"My dear guests, i think that fight was the perfect way to end todays matches, we'll hold the remainder of the fights tomorrow when the contestants are well rested, in the meantime please enjoy the demonstrations of the fine arts from our younger generation… after all, if all we know is fighting then how are we different from those savage demonic beasts."
The king spoke gracefully, after he was done with his duties as the host, he turned to the now child sized Yang Chen and Ren, who were still on stage.
"Splendid fight you two."
The King said with a warm smile on his face, Yang Chen who was pouting because of his loss, immediately kneeled, while Ren gave a deep bow, which was standard when addressing the ruler of a foreign nation.
The king gestured for them to drop the formalities and placed a firm hand on Yang Chen's shoulder.
"Young Chen, even though you may have lost today, you have truly proved yourself to both me and everyone in the hall. Your performance today has made me confident that our kingdom will soar to new heights in the future."
"Thanks, your majesty."
Yang Chen replied in earnest, now that he had settled down, he had grown convinced of his loss but that didn't mean he was happy about it. The King now turned to Ren, who was standing there with his usual plain expression.
"Young Ren, even though you weren't born in Tian, I have nothing but compliments after witnessing such a fierce fight. After the banquet, I would love to talk with the rest of your group and thank them properly for yesterday."
"Yes, your majesty."
Ren replied and bowed once more.
"Good, you two can return to your tables for now."
The king said, walking of the stage and returning upstairs, once he was out of sight yang Chen turned to Ren and stared him dead in the eyes.
"I want a rematch."
Yang Chen said seriously, his eyes seemed to say that he wouldn't take no for an answer but Ren had other ideas.
"I'm busy with training."
Ren refused flatly, he had already given up his precious training time to learn the violin and refused to lose any more but Yang Chen wouldn't give up that easily.
"Bro, haven't you heard of sparring before?"
Yang Chen said eagerly. Ren thought about it for a while, it was true that sparring with someone was more helpful than practicing alone, with just this match alone he felt himself improve by leaps and bounds.
"I'll have to ask my master first."
"No problem, lets head back then"
The two of them jumped of the stage and returned to the table were the others were waiting for them.
"As expected of my disciple"
Roxy welcomed Ren back with a firm slap on the back, Ren hopped into his chair and slumped back in his seat, the fight had left him both physically and mentally exhausted and he wanted nothing more then to rest but unfortunately a certain someone had other plans.
"REEEN"
Olivia ran over and latched onto him like a magnet, she began to thoroughly ruffle his hair while the weak Ren was helpless to resist.
"You were so awesome, I knew you would win."
Olivia said excitedly, her breath reeked of alcohol and her face was tinged pink, she quickly caught sight of Yang Chen who had a complicated look on his face and went to cheer him up.
"You were also really cool, that part where you were all like BOOM and blew all the dust away had me at the edge of my seat."
Yang Chen replied with a faint smile, before turning to Ren and giving him a suggestive look, Ren obviously knew what he was getting at so he tugged on Roxy's sleeve.
"Master, can I spar with Yang Chen while we stay here."
Roxy raised an eyebrow at Ren's request, this seemed like something her antisocial disciple would have never asked previously.
"Do as you wish Brat."
Roxy replied with a grin, she felt like Ren was finally changing for the better and saw no reason to refuse.
The group continued to chat long after the food had been served. They had no complaints about the quality of the food and music. A few hours later it was time for the final performance of the night.
A teenage girl elegantly walked on to the stage, her face was covered by a light purple veil and she wore a similarly coloured set of robes, she was carrying a beautifully crafted Pipa. Her presence alone made the audience fall silent.
"Princess Tang Lanhua, will be performing a piece on her Pipa."
The announcer spoke, causing the audience to burst into cheers. Once the commotion died out she raised her instrument and began playing.
Twang.
Beautiful sounds began to echo around the hall as her fingers danced gracefully around the strings, her body moved perfectly in sync with the music causing the spectators to be mesmerised by the sound, following every move she made with their eyes.
The song was short, only lasting a few minutes, but to the audience those few minutes were absolute bliss.
The hall remained silent long after she had stopped playing and left the stage, even Ren had forgotten himself and was entranced by the lingering sensation in his ears. He snapped out of it as the audience started to clap, it was a few people at first but more and more people joined in, turning it into a full-on standing ovation directed towards the empty stage.
What a perfect ending to the night. This thought ran threw the minds of the audience as they got up from their seats and slowly began to filter out of the hall.
"It seems that it is time for us to part ways, it was nice meeting such an interesting bunch of people and I doubt this will be our last encounter."
Wu Feng addressed Roxy and the others and outstretched his hand. Roxy shook his hand and smirked.
"I should hope not, you still owe me two bottles."
Wu Feng laughed and placed a hand on Yang Chen's shoulder.
"That's true, thanks for humouring me. Yang Chen it's time to leave."
"Yes, sect leader."
Yang Chen responded, as the two of them walked away. Just as Roxy's group were about do the same, they were approached by a young soldier.
"Dear guests, His majesty has invited you to his personal quarters, if you would please follow me, I will take you there."
The soldier said. Ren suddenly remembered what the king had told him on stage, due to the commotion afterwards he didn't have a chance to bring it up.
"Sure, seems interesting."
Roxy said, the group followed the soldier upstairs, where he led them to a plain looking door, after knocking twice a muffled voice came from the other side.
"You may enter."
This prompted the soldier to hold the door open for them and once the group had entered the room, the soldier closed the door from behind them and remained outside the room.
The room was quite small and simplistic, only containing a few bookshelves and a table where the king and princess were seated.
The princess was still wearing her veil but was now donning an elegant light pink robe with floral patterns. King Tang gestured for them to sit at the table and stopped them before they could bow their heads.
"No need for formalities I invited you here to thank you after all. For resolving the incident yesterday, you have my utmost gratitude, if there is anything, I can provide do not hesitate to ask."
The king lowered his head to show his sincerity, if Roxy hadn't stepped in when she did, the casualties would have been a lot higher and for that he was truly grateful.
"What we need right now is information, specifically information regarding those incidents."
Roxy said, on the surface, these incidents the beast attacks had nothing to do with them, unfortunately Roxy couldn't help but feel a sneaking suspicion that those attacks were linked to her friend's disappearance.
The king looked up at her with a bitter expression, remaining silent for a short while, after looking like he made his mind up about something he responded.
"At the moment we don't know that much, around a month ago these attacks started and have continued to happen every fifth day at random locations. Yesterdays incident was the first time there was an explosion of that scale, we told the public that the explosion was due to the demonic beast but…"
"But?"
"But… And it's purely speculation at this point, we think that these attacks can be linked to a demonic cult we drove out a few years back."
The king managed to finish his sentence with Roxy's encouragement, the new information made Roxy pause, if yesterday was the first time there had been an explosion, did that mean they were being targeted by that cult, or did it mean that cult was trying to move onto bigger things. If they were being targeted that begged the question, why?
There was always the possibility that the king's speculation was wrong but he wouldn't mention it without being somewhat confident. A lot of things just didn't add up, especially the fact that her friend going missing and the start of these attacks seemed to occur at the same time, she needed to spend some time investigating this matter.
"Thanks for the info, it was quite helpful. I've got some things to work on so we won't be able to attend tomorrow's banquet so if that is all we'll take our leave."
Roxy said standing up but the king raised his hand to stop her.
"One more thing before you leave, as I understand it, your group originally came here from the Umbra kingdom, is it correct to assume that you are natives of that kingdom."
"Yes, Ren and Olivia are."
Roxy replied, although she didn't know what he was alluding to she was still somewhat impressed by the king's ability to gather information.
"Since you have been in the kingdom for a few days and I only heard about this today, I'm sure this might come as a surprise. A man by the name of William Linheart overthrew the Night queen and took control of the Umbra Kingdom."
Ren who was following the conversation jumped out of his chair the instant he realised what the king had just said.
"What did you just say."
Ren said shakily, not believing the words that had just entered his ears. Roxy chuckled before patting Ren on the shoulder.
"Congratulations brat, or should I call you prince now."