In addition to disciples of civilian backgrounds like Jiang Beiran who were brought in, descendants of major Houses were also among those who were able to join to Sect of Returning Hearts for cultivation.
Jiang Beiran's luck was extremely good, winning three jackpots in a row. In a small team of just five people, there was the son of a government official, the son of a rich family, and the son of a hero and all three of them hated him.
"I'll be d*mned!"
Jiang Beiran, who was investigating the three junior Brothers' lives, felt like he was going to break down, and at the same time, he felt enlightened!
The world was targeting him, targeting him very, very specifically!
But since the incident had already happened, he could only face it. Jiang Beiran felt that he was no longer the ignorant person he was back then. As a year had passed, he had already saved up a considerable number of attribute points and skill points, so he felt that he had a fighting chance even in the face of a quest with a Yellow Grade Middle Tier reward!
...
The son of the hero was named Wu Qingce. His father was the hero Wu Fengmian, titled Hand of Flying Leaves, famous in the Zhandong region. He was a master of concealed weapons, which made it difficult for people to defend themselves.
He was the first to seek Jiang Beiran out after returning to the Sect of Returning Hearts, but he did so in a straightforward and proper manner. That was, he directly delivered a letter of challenge to Jiang Beiran's doorstep, and the winner would be able to pursue the junior Sister.
Although Jiang Beiran had explained countless times that he really was not interested in the junior Sister, Wu Qingce had a one-tracked mind and insisted upon a fight. Jiang Beiran could either accept the letter of challenge and commit to showing up three days later in the grove at the foot of Mount Qingtian or have Wu Qingce fight him directly on the spot.
Faced with this kind of a hothead, what else could Jiang Beiran say? Other than swearing in a bunch of vulgar words in his heart, he could only accept the letter of challenge with a smile on his face.
But in the three-day gap, Jiang Beiran did not wait idly, either. He felt that instead of waiting for the other two to challenge him at his doorstep or take action against him in secret, he might as well take the initiative and find a way to deal with them first.
So, he first approached the disciple from the rich family.
The disciple from the rich family was named Lin Jiuge, and he was the son of Lin Jingxiang, the richest man in Ningyong County. He could be said to have grown up pampered with the finest clothes and food, and he had seen enough of the prosperity in the world. He came to the Sect of Returning Hearts to practice cultivation purely on a whim. Besides, he also wanted to give his father something to be proud of, so that he could be more confident when asking for pocket money in the future.
When he found Lin Jiuge, the latter had just finished practice. The disciple from the rich family was quite courteous, and on the surface, he still politely bowed at Jiang Beiran and shouted, "Greetings, Brother Jiang." It's just that his voice sounded a bit strange.
And Jiang Beiran replied with a sentence that he hadn't expected.
"Do you want to discuss about a possible collaboration with me, Brother Lin?" Jiang Beiran asked.
Jiang Beiran found out that Lin Jiuge's family was mainly involved in the transportation business when he was asking around about the latter back then, so he shared the epoch-transcending idea of a newspaper with him during the conversation.
Lin Jiuge immediately applauded the idea after listening to it. He said that he would immediately go home and discuss it with his father and that if his father thought it would work, he would definitely give Jiang Beiran a generous payout. Of course, he would also be alright with following the idea of collaboration via allotment of shares, or whatever it was that Jiang Beiran had said.
Jiang Beiran's reasoning was very simple. Since Lin Jiuge's father could become the richest man in the county, he must naturally be a smart man. If he was smart enough, then he would want to collaborate with the man who could come up with such brilliant ideas in the long run. If he wasn't so smart, then Jiang Beiran would just consider it as an investment to complete this Yellow Grade Middle Tier quest.
After the matter of collaboration was settled, Lin Jiuge's attitude obviously became respectful, and he continuously expressed his admiration for Jiang Beiran as if it was a gushing torrent of river water. When addressing the latter as "Brother Jiang," it no longer sounded sarcastic like before.
So, Jiang Beiran took the opportunity to ask him about news regarding the last of the three, the son of a government official, Wang Yu'an.
But Lin Jiuge told him that they had just happened to arrive together to take up a trial quest and were then grouped together by the Flower Crown in charge of arranging the trial. He did not know Wang Yu'an before the trial and only knew that he was the son of Wang Bingquan, the county lieutenant of Chuanan County. However, he had heard of this Wang Bingquan, because his efficiency of solving cases was very high, and so he was loved very much by the local people.
Upon arrival in an unfamiliar region, the most important thing was of course to make out who was in charge of the place, so Jiang Beiran had carefully studied the names and positions of the officials for a while.
A person with the position of county lieutenant would be in charge of security, and his status would be just below the county magistrate. In modern times, the position would be equivalent to that of the Director General of the Public Security Bureau, which could be considered a very powerful role.
After saying thanks to Lin Jiuge, Jiang Beiran was just thinking of what to say to Wang Yu'an when seeking him out, when the young man showed up at his doorstep.
"Greetings, Brother Jiang."
Wang Yu'an could definitely be considered a modest gentleman in terms of image, and generally, people would probably have a good impression of him just from seeing his polite smile.
"What brings you here to see me, Brother Wang?" Jiang Beiran inquired, joining his hands in a salute.
"It's rather embarrassing to say, I..." Wang Yu'an scratched his head, then said, "I came to ask you something, Brother Jiang. Do you really not like Sister Lin at all?"
"Of course it's true. Didn't you all see it that day?" he replied.
"Then... Can, can I ask you, Brother, why is Sister Lin attracted to you? Can... can you teach me?" Wang Yu'an asked.
Looking at Wang Yu'an's flushed cheeks, Jiang Beiran knew that he must have worked up the courage to find him and ask about it. He also understood that teaching the junior Brother to pick up girls seemed to be the only way to dispel this junior Brother's hostility towards him.
Worried that refusing him would lead to more trouble, Jiang Beiran agreed and began to use his vast experience gained from observing other people in romantic relationships.
Back in junior high school, he liked to browse through blogs everywhere, so he could be said to have seen all kinds of lover's prattle.
For example, "If I have no sword, I cannot protect you. If I hold a sword, I cannot hug you.
"No weapon inflicts greater pain than a torn wound.
"If you break her wings, I will destroy your entire heaven for sure," and so on. He had read a lot of them.
These words had wowed an entire generation, even in their internet age, let alone the people in ancient times where even sending a letter was a huge hassle.
Wang Yu'an's eyes simply lit up after hearing about it, and he almost directly bowed to honor Jiang Beiran as his mentor.
"I'll teach you these first. If they don't work, I'll think of another way," Jiang Beiran said.
Wang Yu'an thanked him repeatedly and said that if he could get together with Sister Lin, he would definitely give Jiang Beiran a big red packet filled with money. After saying that, he left with great enthusiasm.
...
Soon, the third day came. A fully prepared Jiang Beiran arrived at the grove according to the address written on the letter of challenge. He was ready to use Wu Qingce as a touchstone of his capabilities after a year of various additions to his attribute and skill points.
However, the other party was indeed the son of a hero. On the surface, he was a new disciple of the Sect of Returning Hearts, but actually, he had long been well-trained in the art of concealed weapons. His flying needles made Jiang Beiran scream worse than Ziwei [1] did.
But Jiang Beiran also showed capabilities far stronger than what Wu Qingce had perceived. Back when they descended the mountain for the trial, Wu Qingce had found out that Jiang Beiran had only cultivated the Rhymed Formula of Returning Hearts to the second level, which meant that he was only at Level Two of the Qi Refining Period.
However, in the actual battle, Jiang Beiran's strength and resistance to beatings were far beyond the capabilities of someone at Level Two of the Qi Refining Period, causing Wu Qingce's rhythm of attack to be completely disrupted.
Also, Jiang Beiran was using poisonous magic and consumed enhancement drugs. Eventually, he managed to win with a series of disorganized attacks, knocking Wu Qingce to the ground.
[1]: A female character in a famous Chinese drama series, My Fair Princess, which had a scene where she was poked with needles.