The ruckus outside of the military barracks went on for the whole night. However, from beginning to end, no orders to kill were heard. Things only calmed down after dawn.
Soon after that, Yan Liqiang saw a squad commander in the room. That officer first had him stay here for the night. He told him that it wasn’t safe for him to go out right now and that someone from the martial arts academy would come to pick him up tomorrow.
It wasn’t safe for him to go out right now? What did he mean?
Just when Yan Liqiang was still wondering about it, Xu Chun came in and secretly informed Yan Liqiang of some news.
"The people from the Shatu caravan have been released. When they were leaving, a few of them looked like they had some ulterior motives. I actually understand Shatu language, and a few of them were gathering information on you and said that they want to get even with you!"
"Those Shatu people beat someone up at the city entrance, brandished their weapons, and barged through the city gate. These alone were considered offenses. How could they be released this easily?" Yan Liqiang looked at Xu Chun in disbelief.
Xu Chun also had an indignant expression on his face. "I heard that the Prefectural Governor gave a direct order to prevent the Shatu people from causing trouble! The crowd of Shatu people who surrounded the outside only dispersed with the release of those people!"
Upon hearing this, Yan Liqiang wanted to curse out loud. Beating someone up at the city gate was the first crime that those Shatu people had committed. Brandishing their weapons and barging through city gate was their second crime. How could they actually let such serious offenses slide this easily? No wonder those Shatu people were this arrogant in Pingxi’s prefectural city.
After confirming that there was no one on either side, Xu Chun suddenly lowered his voice. "Brother, let me tell you something. Can you guess what we found among the goods of those Shatu people?"
"What did you guys discover?"
"They had actually hidden many weapons among their goods, and there were over ten thousand arrows…"
Yan Liqiang’s eyes widened immediately as he drew a sharp breath. Although transporting weapons such as bows and arrows were not illegal, the Shatu people were sneaky enough to hide them with their goods. They had to be up to no good since they were afraid to be discovered, and they probably had some sort of secret agenda behind this. "Even so, you all still released them?"
"It’s an order from higher-ups. We have to release them even if we don’t want to!"
"What about the weapons and arrows then?"
"We have returned them to the Shatu people too!" When Xu Chun saw Yan Liqiang’s countenance change once again when he was speaking, he gave him further explanation. "All these orders were from the Prefectural Governor. We have no choice either. However, before Commandant Su returned those goods to the Shatu people, he had our brothers in the barrack break all those arrows and also chip all the blades and swords..."
Yan Liqiang took a deep breath and slowly calmed down. "Thank you for telling me all this, Brother Xu…"
"No need to thank me. All our brothers in the barrack admire you quite a bit. If you hadn’t served them justice today at the city entrance, we would have had no idea just how ruthless these Shatu people can be. If Brother Liqiang is still going to stay at the Pingxi Prefecture martial arts academy after today, please be cautious of the Shatu people in Pingxi City. There are more than ten thousand of them here. They are rude, unreasonable, overbearing, cunning and ruthless people who are capable of doing just anything. You have really given those few Shatu people a beating today and two of them might be left handicapped. Maybe those Shatu people might really try to get even with you…"
"Alright, I will be mindful!"
"Alright, rest earlier today, Brother Liqiang. You can just lock the door from the inside when you sleep at night. There are toiletries in the room, use anything you need. I’ll be sleeping next door. You can call me if you need anything."
"Sure!"
After Xu Chun left, Yan Liqiang paced around the room alone. Although his face was cool like steel, anger was brewing in his heart. However, his heart was colder than ice.
Yan Liqiang was fully aware that he had gotten himself into big trouble. Even if he was given another chance to reconsider his choices at this point in time, he would still choose to run up to those few Shatu people and teach them a lesson.
In his previous life, he had never practiced any martial arts. Even so, he had never been terrified of anything. There was one time when he was on his way home from work when he saw a few hoodlums ganging up on a lady on the roadside. After calling the police, he picked up a brick and went up against them. The price he paid for his first courageous act was a gash by a dagger on his left arm. Despite getting twenty-seven stitches, he had no regrets.
In this life, if he didn’t dare to go up against those Shatu people back then after practicing so many years of martial arts and instead was terrified instead of getting into trouble, then wouldn’t the martial arts he practiced turn out to be a joke?
The reason behind Yan Liqiang’s anger and disappointment wasn’t the plotted revenge from the Shatu. He just didn’t expect that they would be able to escape their punishment so easily after violating the offenses of beating someone and barging through the city gate, causing panic in Pingxi City. Other than taking a beating from him and the arrow that the commandant had released, those Shatu people didn’t really seem to bear any other consequences.
Just what the hell happened? Were the Shatu people were actually a cut above the rest? The Chinese had actually become third-rate citizens instead and were being bullied on their own land?
Perhaps it was because of this that the Shatu people had become fearless and were confident enough to be hooting about getting even with him. If he was an ordinary person without any real skills, he would probably have to reconsider living in Pingxi City in the future.
It would be a complete lie if Yan Liqiang could still remain cool-headed and calm at a time like this. At this moment, he felt as if he was on a grassy plain with countless alpacas jumping over his head.
After pacing a few rounds in the room, Yan Liqiang stood still and lifted his head, staring at the ceiling. The expression on his face became determined. A cold light flashed across his eyes as he muttered to himself. "Bring it on. Let’s see who can put an end to this. F*ckers..."
...
The rest of the night passed by uneventfully. The next morning, Yan Liqiang got up on time as usual before the sun was even up. After washing up, he practiced a round of Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing. Just when he finished the first round and was about to open the door, there was a series of knocks on the door to his room.
Yan Liqiang opened the door but was instantly in for a great shock. That was because the person standing on the other side of the door was someone he had least expected — Shi Changfeng.
"Lord Shi, what brings you here?"
"So it really is you!" Shi Changfeng was fully dressed in white, looking graceful and casual. When he saw Yan Liqiang, he carefully looked at him from top to bottom. Upon seeing Yan Liqiang with no injuries or any damage on his body, and his face radiating with vigor on top of that, Shi Changfeng let out a breath of relief. He then turned his head to the side and spoke to that black-faced commandant who had accompanied him here. "There’s no mistake about it. This person is indeed the newly recruited student of our martial arts academy this year from Qinghe County, Yan Liqiang…"
Commandant Su nodded and replied with his deep and gruff voice. "If there’s no mistake, then I shall hand him over to you. There’s still a few Shatu dogs loitering around outside the military barracks who are unwilling to give up. This young man is not bad, he is worthy to be nurtured. There will be no problems if you are the one to bring him out. Blast it, if it weren’t for this uniform I am wearing, I would really love to strangle those few Shatu dogs to their deaths!"
"Don’t worry about it!" Shi Changfeng nodded then turned to Yan Liqiang. "Pack up your belongings and follow me!"
Yan Liqiang didn’t say too much either. He immediately returned to his room and carried his bag on his back. Then climbed up a horse carriage along with Shi Changfeng, leaving the military barracks...
By this time, the sky had just only slightly brightened...