"Long Shou Zhe! How dare you?!" Long Fan Xue yelled when she realized what her family elder was about to do. "Stop it at once!"
But she was too late. And none of the other participants present could reach me in time to help either. If anything, Long Shou Zhe was much faster than his late son. The dragon-like qi roared silently as it bore down on me, ready to annihilate me from existence.
A gigantic fist slammed down on the dragon-shaped blast, dispersing it instantly. Long Shou Zhe froze, his hand still outstretched and crackling with qi.
"What? What…just happened? That's…that's not a Guardian Golem's fist!"
There was a reason why I didn't summon a Guardian Golem or Da Hai to shield me from the attack. Long Shou Zhe was a beginner Earth ranked cultivator at least, which was expected given how this was the prestigious Long family. He wouldn't have become their elder without such a high cultivation realm.
That meant any of his attacks would simply obliterate Da Hai, who was only peak Yellow Rank, or deal severe injury to even a Guardian Golem with extremely high defense. And I wasn't the type who sacrificed my spirit beasts for my own wellbeing, not when I had other alternatives.
Speaking of the alternative, Long Shou Zhe's eyes slowly rose to stare up at the colossal figure that had cast a huge shadow over him. I turned to glare at him, my rage boiling within me.
"That's the second time the Long family has launched a sneak attack on me."
"What the hell is this?!" Long Shou Zhe roared when he stared up at the colossal figure, whose features were becoming visible once his eyes adjusted to the shadow it cast. His jaw dropped when he was greeted by the sight of the magnificent Asura statue, one of the four who stood sentinel over the Long family's manor. "Impossible…! The sacred Asura statue?! How…?!"
"How, indeed." I shrugged. "Perhaps the spirits of your ancestors could no longer tolerate the shame you are bringing upon the Long family?"
"Nonsense! What spirits of ancestors!? How are you doing this?!"
"Simple." I smirked, pushing my glasses up my nose with a finger. "These aren't Asura statues. They are actually a type of spirit beast that has been sealed by your ancestors and became dormant, bound to your Long family's manor as guardian beasts."
"Guardian beasts…?"
"Yeah. And in case you forgot…I'm a spirit beast tamer."
A few seconds ago, right before Long Shou Zhe attacked me from behind, I had received a new notification window from the system, telling me that I had completed the mission.
-Quest completed. The user has earned the acknowledgement of the four Asura Guardians of the Long family. –
Acknowledgement? I had wondered. What good would that do? It's not as if I can do anything with their acknowledgement…
A second later, I was proven wrong when one of the Asura Guardians moved to protect me. Oh, that was pretty cool. Thanks to the system, I could see that they were actually Earth ranked spirit beasts. Holy heavens, that was awesome.
Unfortunately, the system also told me the restrictions. They only acknowledged me, but they weren't contracted to me. In other words, I couldn't summon them or teleport them to my dungeon. That was disappointing.
-Not to worry, the user will be awarded other appropriate rewards for the completion of the quest. The rewards will be granted when the user returns to your dungeon. –
So it was a dungeon-related reward. Well, I was fine with that. For now, I returned to the present, focusing on Long Shou Zhe.
"Why are you trying to kill me, man?"
Long Shou Zhe was on his knees as he stared at the Asura statue. He wasn't the only one. All of the Long family members were kneeling, their heads bowed in submission.
"The sacred Asura statues have come alive!"
"This must be a sign from the heavens!"
"A miracle! We have been granted a miracle!"
The participants who weren't from the Long family were watching the moving Asura statue, awestruck. They were so dumbfounded by the developments that they were at a loss for words.
"Are you serious? Are those really spirit beasts?!"
"What else can they be? They are moving like living things!"
"They are even submitting to Song Jun Wen!"
"Hah! That Long Shou Zhe elder tried to kill him! And now his actions have backfired, and his own family's guardian beasts have turned on him!"
Long Shou Zhe could no longer stand the derision from the outsiders. With a vengeful howl, he lunged at me, his hands glowing with qi.
"I'll kill you, you bastard! You usurper! First, you killed my son! And now you stole the Asura statues from the Long family! And humiliated me like this! I WILL KILL YOU!"
I didn't move. I didn't need to. Before Long Shou Zhe could reach me, the Asura statue pulverized him to the ground with a single palm, reducing his body to nothing more than a bloody smear across broken rubble.
"The…the Asura statue killed the Long family elder!"
"Are we next?!"
"RUN!"
The Long family members were breaking and running for their lives. The other elders were frozen, too shocked by the turn of events to process what was going on. They stared blankly as the Asura statue rose to its feet and turned toward them.
"I'm sorry," Long Fan Xue whispered and fell to her knees, prostrating herself before me. "Please, Song Jun Wen. Don't annihilate my family. Elder Long Shou Zhe and guardian Long Shou Shi are aberrations who did not heed my instructions. We would have cast them out and sentenced them to prison for their crimes. But the rest of the Long family are innocent."
"T…that's right!" Another of the elders spluttered, plastering his forehead against the floor. "We have nothing to do with that bastard father and son pair!"
"Please spare us!"
"I'm not an unreasonable person," I replied coldly. "I don't go around murdering people for no reason. Those I kill, I do so out of self-defense."
"Yeah, we recognize that Long Shou Shi and elder Long Shou Zhe tried to kill you," Long Fan Xue said. "We would have expelled them from our family and seek justice for you."
"Well, you did try to stop them…" I wasn't able to finish my sentence when ice suddenly froze all over the stage, entombing the Asura statue that had protected me. A single figure descended from the heavens, landing on the Asura statue's frozen shoulder. Long Fan Xue's eyes widened when she spotted him.
"F…father?"
"Young master Song, please calm down." Long Fan Xue's father bowed his head. "This time, our Long family is at fault for allowing all this happen. So if you can return the Asura statue back to its dormant state, I'm more than willing to talk things over. We will definitely give you a satisfactory answer and compensate you for all the trouble."
"Um, I was about to do that, but…you freezing the poor Asura statue makes it difficult." I winced as I probed the ice with my qi sense. "I don't know what technique you used, but…damn, it's pretty powerful. Even the Asura statue can't break out of it. So I can't return it to its former position right now."
"…oh." Long Fan Xue's father realized his blunder and scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I was half-expecting you to send the Asura statue on a rampage, so I almost went all out."
"Hey, this is the modern period. Do you think we go around murdering people for offending us? The law forbids murder, though self-defense doesn't count as murder. You can't just go around killing people without suffering the consequences."
"Thank you for your understanding. We'll definitely compensate you for all this." Long Fan Xue's father hopped off the Asura statue, and with a gesture of his hand, he melted all the ice. I was impressed by his skill. A technique that could freeze an Earth ranked Asura statue to the point where it couldn't break out, and then to dismiss it so casually…the patriarch of the Long family was definitely not an ordinary Earth ranked cultivator. Was he on the verge of breaking through to Heaven realm eventually?
After returning the Asura statue to its position and allowing it to go back to sleep, I followed Long Fan Xue's father – Long Zhuo Fan – to the main hall. The participants had all followed, waiting outside in the courtyard and enjoying a reception. There was food and beverages provided, and everyone was enjoying themselves.
Everyone, except me.
"Once again, I apologize for what transpired in the Long family manor." Long Zhuo Fan bowed his head humbly. He tightened his fist. "It seems that while I was in seclusion, the elders were doing whatever they wanted. I should have put that father and son pair in their place long ago."
"Don't worry about it. They're dead. Let bygones be bygones. As long as you don't seek revenge on me…"
"How can I seek revenge? They are the ones at fault, not you. It's as you say, in this modern age of law and order, how can people go around murdering others for no reason? Even if they had a grudge against you because of so-called bloodlines or whatever, that's no reason to take your life." Long Zhuo Fan then scowled. "And I don't know what gave them this weird idea about noble bloodlines or major sects. Even without such things, it's clear that you're more than worthy of marrying my daughter. Not only have you passed all the trials, you even commanded the Asura statues standing sentinel in my family's manor for generations. If that isn't a sign of your right to inherit the Long family, I don't know what is."
"About that…" I raised a hand. "I'm afraid I can't marry your daughter."
"Oh?" Long Zhuo Fan raised an eyebrow. I sighed.
"I already have a fiancée. I'm engaged to another person."
"I know." To my surprise, it was Long Fan Xue herself who replied. Apparently, she had been seated at the side all this while, listening in to her father's conversation with me. She leaned in closer, her eyes burning in determination. "You just have to break off your engagement with her and get engaged to me instead."
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm dead serious."
"Then I will respond just as seriously. No."
"WHY?!" Long Fan Xue snapped. "It's obvious that I'm a much better girl than your current fiancée is! I'm from the Long family! But there's no information about your current fiancée. We don't know who she is or where she comes from. She seems a bit rich, but that's about all. In terms of appearance, I'm more beautiful than her too! No matter how you look at it, you should choose me over her!"
I had never heard of such shameless spiel before. Who the hell brags about herself while putting down others? And why was she so desperate to break off my engagement with Myria and force one with me? It wasn't as if I was some handsome or rich Casanova. My family was ordinary, we weren't rich at all, and I was pretty plain. In contrast, Long Fan Xue could marry whoever she wanted. Why bother with a guy who already have a fiancée? This was making no sense.
She wasn't behaving like a real person. This attitude seemed more akin to a fictional heroine from some wish fulfilment story with a self-insert protagonist where the author wanted all the heroines to fall in love with him for no reason while having no real life experience with actual women. Whether it was from one of those manga dub videos on YouTube or one of the many wish fulfilment manhuas and web novels online, I was pretty sure no sane lady would behave so desperately.
"That alone already proves how inferior you are to my fiancée in terms of personality. What are you, a narcissist?"
"What?!"
"Listen, young man." It was Long Zhuo Fan this time. "You really should choose my daughter. Your fiancée is not a local. She's from overseas, isn't she? Why are you, a native of Hua Xia, marrying a foreigner? If you are Chinese, you should marry a Chinese girl. Don't let outsiders into our country and mix bloodlines."
"I'm sorry, but unlike you, I'm not a racist. I don't care what race or ethnicity or nationality my fiancée is. As long as I love her, that's enough of a reason for me to choose to marry her."
"You'll regret this!" Long Fan Xue vowed. "Someone like her isn't worthy of you. I am!"
"That's enough." This time, it was someone else who broke in. Long Fan Xue, Long Zhuo Fan and I turned to the entrance of the hall, where a newcomer had shoved the sliding door open to glare at the princess of the Long family. "How dare you steal my fiancé."
"You…?!"
Myria Poseidon stood there, her eyes blazing furiously. Watery qi swirled around her, almost causing the furniture to splinter from the sheer pressure. Interposing herself between me and the father and daughter pair, she glared defiantly at Long Fan Xue.
"Get your filthy paws off my man, you thieving fox!"