Visiting Old Man Xia
Xue Feng and Li Huo weren't immediately allowed entry into the city. However, after sending about a dozen Law Engraving realm guards to the ground, groaning in pain, they were able to fly toward their destination unimpeded.
Even a dog would move out of the way after a slap or two, let alone a few underpaid and underappreciated guards. All Xue Feng needed to do was beat obedience into them.
Thankfully, they were only guards that manned the city walls and not members of the Xia Clan. If they were, it wouldn't be as simple as a smack.
However, even though they had no one to stop them and had a clear path toward the City Lord's mansion, they didn't directly fly toward it but instead started to fly around the city, scouring the grounds below.
Xue Feng and Li Huo were Domain Lord realm cultivators, and because of this, their vision was greater than a hawk's. They were more than capable of seeing everything below them. This included the Martial Vein ranks of the citizens below.
As a general, Xue Feng was always on the lookout for hidden talents, no matter where he was. And in a place like Yuan City, where the weak stayed weak while the strong grew stronger, hidden gems were extremely common.
Demonic sects were extremely selfish and would hoard every resource, even if it had no value to them. As long as it could stop the growth of others, it was just as useful as a cultivation pill.
This mentality made sure that no foreign powers could grow and contest them, which would make their reign last for a much longer time.
The Wang Clan, the Xia Clan, and all the other noble clans corrupted by the Blood Saber Sect were the hegemony of Yuan City. And anyone who didn't side with them was against them; their identity didn't matter either, as whether it was a commoner or the emperor, enemies were enemies, a piece of trash waiting to be killed.
Xue Feng knew this well and would often come to Yuan City and other wastelands and try to scout for hidden games. After all, even if there were someone born with a set of Heaven-grade Martial Veins, if they weren't born into a noble clan, they would die a dog's death without a single accomplishment to their name.
Through this method, he found many great talents, like Zhou Beizhan and almost all of his commanders. This method would also give the recruit strong loyalty toward Xue Feng. He was the person who pulled them out of a hellhole and gave them everything; they would be heartless demons not to be extremely grateful toward him.
In order to see through someone's Martial Vein rank without a proper testing machine, a few conditions needed to be met; first, they needed to be as strong as how much potential the Martial Vein possessed.
So, for example, if it were a middle Yellow-grade Martial Vein, in order to see through it, one needed to be in the Qi Sea realm at the minimum. Other than that, the person inspecting needed to have a Spiritual Sense much stronger than the person they were inspecting, and finally, the person needed to not resist the inspection.
As long as these three conditions were met, one could see through the Martial Vein rank of someone. However, most people would choose to resist the feeling, as it is both extremely rude and disrespectful for someone to peep through your secrets. It was liking looking at someone naked. How could any normal person allow that to happen without consent?
So, to avoid the outcome of offending some random person, Xue Feng mainly chose to inspect the Martial Veins of young children who just underwent their awakening because even if he recruited a heaven-sent genius if they were too old, there was no point.
Even divine wood could rot if it became old enough.
Sadly, it seemed that his luck wasn't with him today, as even after he and Li Huo circled Yuan City three times, neither could find a single person with a Martial Vein above the middle Yellow-grade. Such a Martial Vein was indeed pretty talented, but Xue Feng had such people flocking toward him in groves daily.
It wasn't worth the trouble to take one from here when he could simply let out an order back at home and recruit a hundred.
Shaking his head slightly saddened, Xue Feng motioned toward his sword brother.
"Let's just go get Old Man Xia. This trip was a bust." Xue Feng said to Li Huo.
Li Huo shrugged in response, not really caring about Xue Feng's sadness. He was a sword cultivator who loved being alone. Being a general and being forced to constantly foster and raise subordinates wasn't his style.
The only thing he trusted was the sword in his hands. Staying back and ordering around a bunch of weaker people like chess pieces was something he looked down on.
He and Xue Feng had gotten into an argument about which lifestyle was better hundreds of times, so rather than get into another argument, he simply turned around, flying in the direction of the City Lord's mansion, leading Xue Feng along with him.
The city guards were still obedient from their last beating and didn't continue to pester the two Domain Lord realm cultivators. Their peers, who still hadn't woken up yet, were the greatest lesson they could have learned.
Undisturbed, Xue Feng and Li Huo only took a few minutes of casual flying to reach their destination.
The City Lord's mansion was about the same size as Li Huo's own back in Snowy Wind City, but it didn't house much of the Xia Clan. Other than the Xia Clan's patriarch's own direct lineage, the rest of the Xia Clan lived in an estate just outside the city.
However, those people had nothing to do with Xue Feng. All he wanted was Old Man Xia, the patriarch.
—
The patriarch of the Xia Clan was an old fossil, even older than Yan Zhenyu, the patriarch of the Yan Clan. This year the Xia Clan patriarch would be turning 490 years old, an outstanding achievement in its own right, especially when considering he didn't even have a peak Yellow-grade Martial Vein.
Old Man Xia only had a high Yellow-grade Martial Vein, which meant that he could only cultivate to the Law Manifestation realm. This meant that he could only have a lifespan of at most 250 years.
However, during his youth, he managed to find an Earth Essence Fruit, a peak Yellow-grade of the earth element, which also correlated to his earth element Martial Veins.
Through this lucky find, Old Man Xia managed to break past his innate limit and advance to the Domain Lord realm, doubling his lifespan from 250 to 500 years, but that was if everything went perfectly in his life.
It was rare for someone to truly reach the limit of their lifespan. Most would reach only about 400 years of age before finally kicking the bucket.
Things like hidden, untreated injuries, poison, a poor foundation, and many others were all reasonable and common reasons why someone would die early.
Old Man Xia was just an anomaly who managed to defy the common trends.
Time slowly passed, and afraid of death more than anything else, Old Man Xia refused to fight anymore. Secluding himself in the City Lord's mansion and using the lion's skin known as the Wang Clan and his kin as pawns, Old Man Xia turned into a chess master that sent shivers through the souls of the Great Xuan Empire's citizens.
He was also one of the main culprits who were slowly tying a noose around the necks of the Huo Clan and ensuring their demise. His intelligence, cowardice, and scheming abilities were all top-notch.
Sadly, none of that really mattered in the face of overwhelming power.
Though he had managed to break through to the Domain Lord realm, he was barely even in the first stage of the realm. It could be called a quasi-Domain Lord realm at most. The only thing he gained was a half-assed domain capable of suppressing weaker opponents and a lifespan increase. Other than that, he could be called just another Law Manifestation realm powerhouse.
But now that Xue Feng and Li Huo, two known peak-stage Domain Lord realm powerhouses, were standing above his home, his scheming ability meant nothing.
"Old Man Xia! Get the hell out now!" Xue Feng yelled out angrily, even going so far as to amplify his volume using Spiritual Qi, uncaring for the face of the Xia Clan patriarch.
Since Old Man was a subordinate of the Wang Clan, Xue Feng cared little about their prestige and, if anything, wanted to dismantle it.
Old Man Xia had ordered the assassination of one of his most important subordinates. Turning this encounter into a peaceful resolution was on his mind.
Following Xue Feng's shout, the walls of the City Lord's mansion shuddered not only from the sheer volume of his shout but also from the Spiritual Qi Xue Feng infused into the shout. In fact, his shout was so powerful that some of the less reinforced buildings even started showing signs of collapse after it.
The Duke didn't hold back much of his power. Though a lot of time had passed since Huo Chen's assassination attempt, and he had been relatively calm leading up to this, it absolutely did not mean that Xue Feng wasn't enraged.
How could he not be enraged at such a thing happening under his nose?
Huo Chen wasn't his most important subordinate, nor was he his favorite, but the second that Huo Chen put on the commander's armor, he belonged to Xue Feng's dukedom. And as a person belonging to his dukedom, Huo Chen's safety was his responsibility, especially during a moment of peace.
Yet this old fart with one foot in the grave who ate the guts of a bear dared to send four people to kill Huo Chen. Xue Feng was radiating anger.
On the other hand, while Li Huo didn't have many dealings with Xue Feng's commanders, Huo Chen included, he wasn't as angry as his brother. But he cared much about his prestige in the empire.
Not wanting to appear weak to so many people, Li Huo feigned an equally angry appearance. Unleashing his domain, he summoned a fierce gale of swords that hovered behind him, waiting to be set loose.
Li Huo had a wind element Martial Vein, and it went without question that the first law he comprehended was the Law of Wind. But as a sword fanatic, Li Huo eventually managed to comprehend a second law, the Sword Law.
Of course, it wasn't as deeply understood as his Law of Wind. However, when the two laws were combined inside his domain, their might could not be underestimated in the slightest.
With two laws combined and almost 20 years more of combat experience, perhaps he was even stronger than Xue Feng. Sadly, the two were sworn brothers, so no one would truly know the answer.
"The Gale Sword Marquis looks serious! What the hell did Old Man Xia do to anger these forces of nature?"
"Hmph! Maybe he is finally experiencing his heavenly punishment, and the heavens are avenging the poor women his clan humiliated and the talents he killed."
Old Man Xia wasn't like Wang Yin, who never left behind a trace. Most of his crimes were done blatantly. Even without thinking of the Wang Clan that served as their backing, he still had the power of a Domain Lord realm cultivation base himself. Coupled with a few Law Manifestation realm cultivators in his clan, he and the Xia Clan were a force to be reckoned with.
And even if they provoked a powerhouse stronger than themselves, Wang Yichen would almost always come out and forcibly make the two sides "reconcile." This reconciliation was, of course, almost always done through coercion, but as a peak-stage Domain Lord realm cultivator himself, Wang Yichen had the right to do it.
Basically, Old Man Xia was a scheming coward with the guts of a dragon. There was very little he didn't dare do. His descendants inherited this trait well.
Serving as Yuan City's City Lord, he allowed the Xia Clan under him to do what they pleased in the city. Whether it was abducting any beauty in sight or killing a potential genius that they deemed threatening, the Xia Clan had no bottom line in Yuan City.
Knowing all of this and seeing two infuriated powerhouses on the level of Wang Yichen, the Yuan City citizens managed to correlate the two things very easily.
Happy to see the demonic overlords of Yuan City finally meet their retribution, the Yuan City citizens started cheering, yelling righteous words, and clamoring for Xue Feng and Li Huo to kill Old Man Xia.
Eventually, with more and more buildings falling under the pressure Xue Feng was emitting and the cheers becoming loud enough to encase the entire city, the door of the mansion opened, and a frail figure stumbled out, holding onto a cane.
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