MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 5 - Season 5 Episode 12

“A reason? I can’t say it clearly, but Father, from when I was a child till now, when has my judgement ever disappointed you?”

Qiu Shou Cheng’s expression immediately became awkward, for what Qiu Yi Meng had said was true. His daughter had always excelled at seeing through others and her judgements had always been sound. Over the past few years, there were even sometimes when he would overlook something and she would be the one to remind him of it, even providing insight and advice which had been beneficial to him.

Qiu Yi Meng speaking so seriously forced Qiu Shou Cheng to re-examine his decision, slowly saying, “What does he have that is worth paying attention to?”

However, Qiu Yi Meng just slowly shook her head, “I really can’t say, but he is an amazing individual who can often do things which are seemingly impossible, giving people a sense that there is nothing he cannot accomplish.”

She wanted to tell me her father that the Beguiling Demon Queen from the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land had her heart captured by Yang Kai, but she obviously knew better than that.

The Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land was, after all, the place where demons gathered, and Shan Qing Luo was one of the six Great Evil Kings, a force the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families had always been incompatible with. For this time’s Inheritance War, Shan Qing Luo providing him any assistance was unlikely.

But aside from the Demon Queen, Qiu Yi Meng didn’t know if Yang Kai had any other powerful allies.

“You evaluate him so highly?” Qiu Shou Cheng’s eyes narrowed slightly, his implied meaning obvious.

Qiu Zi Ruo also raised his brow and grinned lightly, “It seems like Elder Sister has finally met a man she favours. I didn’t expect there to be any man in this world who could enter your eyes.”

Both father and son were clearly hinting that Qiu Yi Meng had been taken with Yang Kai.

“I indeed have a good impression of him,” but to their shock, Qiu Yi Meng openly acknowledged their suspicions, “However, emotionally, I still feel no sense of attachment to him. That is because whenever I am around him, he always leads me by the nose. Making me the passive one!”

Qiu Shou Cheng’s brow furrowed as he was secretly shocked, “Is that boy really that good?”

About his daughter, even amongst the Central Capital’s older generation, none could force her into the passive role; she was always the one leading others by the nose, so this evaluation from her was quite remarkable, but her statement also made Qiu Shou Cheng glimpse some even more important information.

“He’s indeed quite strong!” Qiu Yi Meng smiled bitterly, remembering about Yang Kai’s attitude and approach to her, she couldn’t help gnashing her teeth.

“Love really will make a person stupid,” Qiu Zi Ruo shook his head slowly, as if was an old man extolling the lessons of life.

“Father,” Qiu Yi Meng ignored her half-brother’s opinion of herself, neither confirming or denying his charge, simply smiling as he continued, “Let’s not talk about my opinion of him, but rather yours. You’ve judged that he will be the third one eliminated, but isn’t that because of the information you obtained yourself and because of the opinion Lu Liang gave in his letter?”

“Not bad.” Qiu Shou Cheng stroked his goatee calmly as he nodded, “Lu Liang didn’t make too many comments in his letter, instead just explaining about what happened during his stay at the Lu Family, but even so I can clearly feel Lu Liang’s contempt for him from his words.”

“And if all that was simply a disguise?”

Qiu Shou Cheng expression suddenly became serious, “If that’s the case then he hides his depths far too well, even fooling that old fox Lu Liang.”

Qiu Yi Meng smiled and stood up from her chair, after taking a few steps, she turned back and said, “In fact, I was still hesitating about whether to tie our Qiu Family to him, at least until today, but now I’ve made up my mind, and I feel even more so that my judgment is not wrong.”

“And why is that?”

“Precisely because of his inaction! When he visited the Lu Family, he took no action, after returning to the Central Capital he is still sitting back! In the Lu Family, he never tried to win over Lu Liang, and even after returning to the Central Capital he didn’t make any overtures to the other seven families, but I traveled with him for quite some time so one thing I know for certain is that he is not the kind of person who is content with mediocrity. He is a man of great ambitions and he either doesn’t do something, or does it to the very best of his abilities. He will never give an enemy an opportunity to breathe! His inaction now just goes to show that he is already convinced of his victory!”

As Qiu Yi Meng spoke her brow also furrowed slightly as she slowly shook her head, “I really don’t know where his confidence comes from, but he definitely has it!”

“Elder Sister, isn’t all this just your own guesses and feelings? You haven’t told us anything about what kind of help or means he has!”

Qiu Shou Cheng also frowned. “That’s right, Meng’er, you said before that you were hesitating about aligning yourself with him, do you have any other candidate in mind?”

Listening to this, Qiu Yi Meng suddenly realized that all her efforts had been in vain.

Her father was still not optimistic about Yang Kai! Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked her this question.

“Good, in addition to Yang Kai, I have two other candidates, one is the Eldest Brother Yang Wei, and the other is the Second Brother Yang Zhao. Yang Zhao doesn’t require any explanation; he himself is a talented and strong individual who is also the current Yang Family Patriarch’s son. His chance for success is high. As for Yang Wei, as the eldest of his brothers and the only Immortal Ascension Boundary of the Yang Family younger generation, he also has a decent chance at winning.” Speaking till her, Qiu Yi Meng suddenly smiled bitterly, “But now, both of them have already secured an ally amongst the seven families, if my Qiu Family were to support one of them, I’m afraid that wouldn’t do us much good.”

“En, if we did so, even if they were to win, it won’t result in much benefit for our Qiu Family,” Qiu Shou Cheng said sullenly, suddenly turning his head and looked at his son, “Zi Ruo, what do you think?”

Upon hearing this, Qiu Zi Ruo was secretly ecstatic, knowing that his opportunity had finally come.

This was the first time the Qiu Shou Cheng had taken the initiative to ask him for his own opinion and about such an important matter like the Inheritance War at that, the deeper meaning of this was something Qiu Zi Ruo naturally understood.

“Father, according to your son’s point of view, since we must participate in the Inheritance War, then we should find a Yang Family Young Lord who does not already have an ally amongst the seven families, so that after we achieve victory, our Qiu Family can be the only ones to reap the benefits!” Qiu Zi Ruo wasn’t a stupid person, listening to his elder half-sister talk about it for so long, naturally he had formulated some ideas of his own, “My thoughts are that we should ally ourselves with the Sixth Brother Yang Shen, with his brother, the Seventh Brother Yang Ying already allied with the Kang Family, plus our Qiu Family, such a team would at least be comparable to the Yang Zhao and Yang Kang brothers’ alliance.”

Qiu Shou Cheng smiled and nodded.

Knowing this was a sign of approval; Qiu Zi Ruo knew that what he had proposed was also what his father was thinking, allowing him to breathe a little easier, his excitement showing as a faint blush upon his face.

Witnessing this, Qiu Yi Meng shook her head and sighed.

Even if her performance was superior, in the end she was still a woman, incapable of inheriting the Qiu Family in the future. Her fate was only to be a chess piece used for marriage in order to bring more benefits to the Qiu Family.

The room suddenly fell quiet as Qiu Shou Cheng’s fingers tapped on his chair, wrinkling his brow in contemplation as he weighed the various gains and losses of his next decision.

After a while, his expression became firm, opening his mouth once more, “Good, for this Inheritance War…”

“Father!” Qiu Yi Meng quickly interrupted.

“Hmm?” Qiu Shou Cheng’s brow wrinkled, staring at his daughter with a slight look of disappointment.

“Father, for this Inheritance War, your daughter request permission to bring a team to support Yang Kai!” Qiu Yi Meng grits her teeth and spoke her mind. Although she knew this would make her father unhappy, Qiu Yi Meng still felt that her judgment was definitely not wrong.

Hearing what she said, Qiu Zi Ruo couldn’t help but chuckle.

Staring at his treasured daughter for a while, Qiu Shou Cheng faintly asked, “Do you insist on this?”

“Yes! Your daughter has never once asked you for anything, but this time I must insist on doing this; therefore, please grant your permission.”

“Good, I will transfer the family’s Autumn Rain Hall to you,” Qiu Shou Cheng offhandedly said.

“Many thanks…” Qiu Yi Meng smiled bitterly.

The Autumn Rain Hall wasn’t an important division of the Qiu Family, the number of members it had was small and their individual strengths also wasn’t great, so her father transferring control of it to her was obviously in preparation the Autumn Rain Hall to be completely sacrificed. In fact, Qiu Yi Meng felt that if she hadn’t spoken out so determinedly, she wouldn’t have received any help at all.

[If that’s how you feel, then I’ll let time prove who is right and who is wrong, and just who is more suitable to inherit the Qiu Family!]

Qiu Yi Meng’s eyes suddenly became firm, a hint of ruthlessness hidden with them.

“Draw back,” Qiu Shou Cheng waved, making Qiu Yi Meng retire.

As she left the study, a soft conversation between her father and younger brother took place, and though the voices still reached her ear, Qiu Yi Meng didn’t have any interest in listening.

That same night, the back courtyard of the Clear Sky Tavern, the Bamboo Knot Gang headquarters.

Yang Kai looked at a stack of silver coins in front of him dully.

Behind him stood two towering men. The two of them had stood there quietly for a long time, not saying a word since they had arrived, but their faces were both pale as paper as the veins on their foreheads would throb every now and then. Once in a while, a cold sweat would drip down their faces as they apparently endured tremendous pain, their clothes stained a light red in various places, just like a patchwork of embroidered flower buds.

At their feet was a small pool of blood.

The Bamboo Knot Gang Sect Master Pang Chi and deputy Sect Master Mu Nan Dou carefully stood side by side, measuring the two men who seemed to be on their dying breath, trying to determine why Yang Kai would bring such people around with him.

“Over the past few days, with the combined strength of our two factions we have already annexed two small forces, causing the strength of the Bamboo Knot Gang to soar. We have also collected a lot of materials and money. Young Master Kai, this is an inventory of our gains, everything is recorded within!” Pang Chi respectfully took out a book and placed it in front of Yang Kai.

“No need,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Exchange all these silvers for materials, but the quality must be higher now, everything should be Heaven Grade and above, the higher the grade the better, in addition, how many other forces in the North City District can be eaten?”

“If Brother Mu’s intelligence is accurate, there are still five that can be annexed.” Pang Chi replied.

“Good, each of you bring one of them and subdue those five forces as quickly as possible.” Yang Kai pointed to the two men standing behind him.

“Take… take them?” Pang Chi and Mu Nan Dou suddenly looked dumbfounded as the stared at the bloody figures behind Yang Kai.

What could these two men do? Pang Chi and Mu Nan Dou hadn’t dared speak too loudly before for fear that they may harm these two men, so listening to Yang Kai tell them to bring them out to subdue these small forces obviously perplexed them.

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