The moment a person screamed that this was an imperial family carriage, all the commotion went down in an instant, no screams, no hands stretching, nothing at all, only stillness and everyone directly falling on the ground while bowing their heads down .
I saw this happen right before my eyes, but my mind was currently trying to find a reason for such a scene to occur just as I got of the Lu Family Mansion, thinking like that, a rough voice suddenly sounded in my ears, it was one of the guards walking around the carriage telling me to kneel down .
The second the order about kneeling down so forcefully came out, something inside me was triggered by this and just as I was awakened up by his shout and was ready to comply, I suddenly started to become torn between a mix of different feelings .
One part of me was already willing to go with the customs of this world, seeing that imperial vessel was akin to seeing the Emperor in person, which emperor would accept not bowing before him as revering him, so it shouldn't have been much an issue to just go ahead and get this over with .
Yet, I found complying with that guard's order as if I was being pulled into the gates of hell against my will, something extremely difficult for me to accept, I was feeling like the second I do something like this, then I might be forsaken every pit of pride I have in my heart as a Martial Arts Practitioner .
I didn't know where that much pride came from, all I know that me refusing to kneel might bring me a serious trouble, but even so, I felt as if defiance was already carved into my whole being and my bones started to crackle as if already anticipating the incoming of a battle .
All of the guards here were in the second Realm of Martial Arts, experts at the 7th to 9th layer of Organ Quenching Realm, I can't say for certain who would come out on top, but I have the confidence and strength to carve my way through them .
I told you to get down on your knees, didn't I ? .
The guard seem to have run out of patience and tried to force me into a kneeling position, by infusing Blood Qi into the hand he put on my shoulder, but the second he did, the Blood Qi he tried to infuse into my body to affect me was devoured by the Panel .
But that wasn't all .my own Blood Qi was triggered as a result and it directly spiked out of control and directly forced the guard to remove his hand and take a few steps backwards, forcing a few gasps sounds to escape the onlookers .
So, you are a Practitioner of Martial Arts, do you think this little abilities could allow you to go against the imperial guards, I will beat you until your mother can no longer recognize you .
Haven't you listened, I said keep your hand .
A voice came from inside the carriage, well how to put it, this time the voice was different, before it was a voice of a rough and nonchalant masculine voice, but now the voice was still trying to sound masculine but it was completely failing in doing so .
For some reason, I also felt as if I was familiar with that voice, it's as if I had heard somewhere, not willing to keep guessing randomly, I decided that it was better for me to see for myself who was inside that carriage, True Eyes was the ability that could make this quite possible .
Just as I activated it and tried to probe into the interior of the chariot in front of me, the place suddenly heard the booming voice from before roaring in a deafening way while saying :
Who dares ? .
The whole chariot suddenly was covered in what seem to be a bubble of air like energy and for the first time since I got True Eyes as one of my new moves, I actually stumbled into a something that I can't seem to probe, at least not with that weird energy covering it .
I was filled with numerous doubts regarding what was going on, but all of a sudden, the roaring voice continued to sound across the area and I had no doubt in me that it might have even reached the people all over the city, that was booming his voice was, he was saying :
This is a command supported by Imperial Decree, all the wanted posters of Chu Jian, Chu Ji Xi, their companions, Tian Long is to be removed instantly, those who would be reported pushing this nonsense, will be found guilty of going against the Emperor's wishes and will be punished severely, that's all .
Without waiting for anyone to say anything else, the carriage just continued to head into the Lu Family Mansion, probably wanting to investigate the incident with that descending beam of light, but unless they have sinister intentions, I shouldn't linger around enough to find out, burying my curiosity on who was the person with the familiar voice just now, I directly headed towards the Dojo .
As I reached the Dojo's Gate, I couldn't help but be startled at the fact that the guards that should be guarding the door being nowhere in sight, the door to the dojo was completely opened and we were still noon, there should be a lot of noises coming from the disciples undergoing training .
But no, the place was deathly quite, which shouldn't be possible, I saw that the courtyard didn't even seem to be cleaned up from the training equipment, it made the courtyard look like as if it was abandoned for more than a day or two .
I can't help but start to get a bad feeling about this, this surely can't be coincidental, a sudden urgent message calling me back to the dojo and now this, what in the world is going on .
Could the new about master's death already had been leaked by someone and as a result disciples panicked and left, I can see that this was one of the possibilities yes, but heck even though the courtyard look indeed abandoned like this, the whole Dojo looking like a ghost mansion, it didn't mean that disciples had left, maybe they are just taking a rest or taking some time off that's all .
Even though I kept telling myself that, the bad premonition in my heart grow strong with each step I took, the door to the Main Hall was open, so that was at least a relief, just as I went inside, I saw 3 of my Senior Brothers all with share a strange expression on their faces .
Bai Ming, Gu Chu, Ba Zi, seeing me entering the hall, they all came to surround me with questions about my whereabouts these last 3 or 4 days, each with his own thoughts, tone and concerns .
Only after I briefed them on what I had been up to these past few days, only then did they told me what happened in the Dojo these past few days and I was finally beginning to understand the reason behind the urgent message calling me back and all that seemed to have happened while I was in the Lu Family Mansion .
The first thing was related to the final farewell to master that I had missed, Master's secret funeral was held 2 days after he passed away, the one who called for it be held so urgently was due to Boa'er own insistence on carrying out the ceremony as quickly as possible for the sole reason of reuniting her father and mother together .
The ceremony was held and Master's will was for his body to be cremated and his ashes to be scattered in the air as an attribution to his late wife and that was carried out surprisingly fast .
Since then, the girl had confined herself to her room and only interacted with the 4th Senior Sister Liu Ru Yu, both had rarely cane out in the last two days, hearing about this I felt a little weird inside, emotional yes, but it seem that something inside me was still stuck in the stage of denial, refusing to accept that Master is gone .
My emotions were in turmoil these past few days, I can't even help but feel empty inside, my only response to this piece of news was only a single "hum", I felt angry at missing out on not being there, but my anger was submerged ًby thinking about my presence not being able to change the fact that he was already dead .
I didn't know if it was for better or for worse that I wasn't there, but weirdly enough I didn't felt any resentment towards Chen Boa'er, even though she completely disregarded of how much would it hurt my feelings to know about this, maybe it was because deep inside me I still carry the weight of losing my with me even in this life, perhaps .
So I felt more compassion than anger towards here, in the end all I did was just a slight shake of my head and then they informed me of the actual reason for recalling me back to the Dojo in such a hurry, it was meaningless at this point really .
They recalled me because the Dojo was at risk of being shut down and even completely demolished, by the order of the City Lord, an eviction order was issued, this was the reason behind the other Disciples fleeing from the Dojo, nothing as precious as life after all, the Dojo also returned the learning fee to those who just signed .
Then the City Lord ordered that the Dojo close its gates, but that would never happen, taking advantage of the refusal, the City Lord had made it official that he was going to bring the Dojo down himself after he stepped out of his practice retreat .
The Dojo recalled me as to ask about whether I'm willing to forsake my life and die with all of them, or I'm going to flee for my life, either way they want hold me responsible for whatever choice I made, but at this point everything was meaningless .
Just before I set foot in the Dojo by a half incense stick of time, an imperial chariot came and revoked the orders of the City Lord and pushed him to retreat without daring to even argue back, as for the reason they came here, I sensed that some details were given to Bai Ming, I sensed a few fluctuations from him as he spoke about the imperial family lending the Dojo a hand .
After the problem was solved, the consequences was all that is left for now to deal with, the situation had been temporarily resolved, but a few other issues also appeared in the Dojo Medicinal Garden, the Martial Scriptures room, even the Dining Hall had some problems, but Uncle Li was doing all his best to try and solve them .
After everything was cleared up, I couldn't help but wonder if that Uncle Li of ours could be truly trusted or not, but in the end I decided to trust Bai Ming and the other fellow Senior Brothers and Sisters on the issue with trusting him or not .
They have dealt with him longer than I did, not to mention that I kept feeling a bit shame of wrongly accusing him to be the one plotting for Master's death, even though there was not the slightest bit of clue on whether he actually did anything other than to try and set everything in order inside the Dojo, the Disciples would have panicked if they were to know that Master had died .
Recalling theCity Lord's actions made me pause slightly with my line of thoughts, wondering whether the City Lord know that Master had passed away or not, you won't just barge into your enemy territory like that unless you have absolute trust in victory, at leas that's what I would have, if I were in his shoes .
But again, the Dragon Slaying Poison that Master had been hit with was vicious to the extreme, so acting with that in mind as some sort of guarantee, his thoughts may have been that even if Master dared to make a move, he will still be unable to save the Dojo from getting wrecked by the City Lord, luckily the Imperial Family had intervened this time, but I don't think he will give up .
Even if he did, I won't let the matter of what he did to Master go, Martial Arts ethics or not, I will surely execute my revenge, just as this thought settled in my mind, a few steps sounded the direction of the Hall entrance, then Fu Liu appeared from there and looked to be completely worn out and his face was quite black like a pot and was frowning a lot .
Just as he saw me, his frowning face eased a bit and he came and patted me on the shoulder while making sure that I was fine, it seem that he was alarmed about the fact that since the message had been delivered there was no response from me, so the only possible outcome he thought of, was that something bad might have happened to me or something like that .
After chatting for a while with me asking about his health and he asking about mine and how things had been, I couldn't help but ask about the reason for his black face and frowns, he said :
That damn tree in the Medicinal Garden had completely gone mad, luckily no one was using the Enlightenment Hall at the moment, else they would have most likely lost their damn mind, its outbreak become more and more frequent, just now I got a report from Mu Lu that it had completely gone berserk and was starting to damage the other medicinal herbs .
We spent 3 hours before we finally managed to make it calm down forcefully, it was a troublesome situation but we finally managed to fix those wavering branches of it with robes and nails, but not without it letting us to have a taste of how powerful it was .
So that what was going on with the garden, I thought that they just lacked some manpower and that's all, from Senior Brother Fu's words, I could indeed feel that the Spiritual Qi around us had become increasingly abundant, the Force Sapling was now able to siphon the energy without even me intentionally trying to do so .
I looked at where the area where the most intense area was and couldn't help but point towards it and ask if that was where the garden was, which was confirmed by the nods of the 4 senior brothers, so that strange tree might indeed have something to do with the spiritual qi .
Oh right, about Han Jun, I managed to contact him and he actually agreed to meet you almost instantly, he was just unable to reach out to you no matter what, would you like for me to call him and let you two guys meet .
" Had the wanted posters been removed ? .
Those other wanted posters you mean, will I'm afraid not, but maybe they will be if you just met him and explained everything for him yourself .
" Then I will meet him, thank you for your hard work Senior Brother, be sure to notify me if there were any issue with that Moon-Whispering Willow, I might be of some help .
Bai Ming suddenly asked me :
How is your practice going on Junior Brother Tian, I believe that you have made a quite the rapid progress, but be aware that a shaky tower can never manage to reach the sky .
Understanding what he was trying to tell me, I nodded my head at his little piece of advice and knowing what he was asking me for, I told him that I had already started to Quench My heart, that was all I needed to say before everyone present widen his eyes at me and most of them was in a complete disbelief, only Bai Ming seemed a bit more composed as the only words he said were :
So that was the reason behind what happened the other day, I believe that you have a brilliant future ahead of you brother Tian, just don't forget what I told you .
" Senior Brother's advice and praises are very much going to be engraved in my heart, thank you for taking care of me .
Fu Liu, you also might need to busy yourself a bit more with practice, else you become left behind by your junior brothers .
Fu Liu :
Senior Brother Bai you are talking about it as if there is something wrong with this happening, but in fact I believe this is an actual good thing, if brother Tian did manage to become a big shot in the future, I will just shower under his brilliance as his first acquaintance .
Even though he said that jokingly, everyone present was very much clear about the brilliance and strong fighting spirit that was ignited in Senior Brother Fu's eyes .
After exchanging a few more words her and there, with some laughs being shared, sorrow seemed to be dispersing from the Hall, but each person here know that it was still there in each one of us, but everyone had his own thoughts about it .
I had reached the second Realm of practice in less than a month, but that wasn't enough, I need to hurry up and strive to make more and more progress, should a situation like what the City Lord had planned to do with the Dojo arise again in the future, I would hope to have enough strength to compete with him at least and force him back .