Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 40 - The Banquet

The county town was situated at the center of the Tai Cang county. Although two of the influential families didn’t have their main clan located in the town, but at the same time, both had certain property and business in the county town.
From a spacious building in the southern region of the town, where lay a wide expanse of posh area, an astonished, questioning voice could be heard:
“What did you say? Defeated in a single exchange?”
In the room, heavily injured Xu Yucai rested on the bed. His face was exceedingly pale and breathing quite hurried.
Before the bed were three males. Apart from Xu Yude, one was precisely Xu Xiangci who He Yiming had met once before. As for the last person, he actually only seemed about thirty years old when his true age had already surpassed forty years.
His build was moderate, and his whole body was covered in black cotton robe which went as down as his feet. He had a square face and cheekbones a bit more bulging than normal. However, this abnormality instead made his face peculiarly charismatic. This moment, his eyes, which had unibrows above them, were calmly watching Xu Yucai, who was lying on the bed, as he pondered.
He was not tall. However, as he stood beside Xu Xiangci, who was a head taller than him, he emanated a strange feeling that he was actually taller than the latter.
Xu Xiangci suddenly turned his head and asked:
“Fourth brother, what do you make of it.”
Although this individual was the smallest among Xu family’s second generation, he was undoubtedly the pride of the entire Xu family, Xu Right. Beside the Xu Lord Master, he was the only expert in Xu family who had attained the ninth layer and also the most promising individual in Xu family who had a chance of attacking the tenth layer.
In his presence, his elder brothers never tried to put on airs.
Xu Right stepped forward and gently stroked Xu Yucai’s body a few times. Xu Yucai still did not wake up, but his taut body relaxed, and the painful expression on his face also relaxed before he ultimately entered a deep sleep.
“Quite formidable might,” Xu Right said in a deep voice, “Using a peak battle skill, and still ending up sustaining injuries….don’t tell me…that He Yiming used a Xiantian battle skill?” Immediately afterward, his brows slightly creased as he supplemented, “That’s not likely. He family and our Xu family are distinct. They couldn’t have a scripture such as Xiantian battle skill.”
Xu Xiangci heavily nodded before he coldly snorted and said:
“How could He family compare to our Xu family. Not to mention Xiantian battle skill, they couldn’t even possess a peak battle skill.”
Xu Right bitterly smiled before saying:
“That’s right. This is something I have a hard time understanding as well.”
Xu Xiangci’s expression suddenly turned sharp as he said:
“Yude, after you two were defeated by Hubin, eldest brother already made an exception and imparted a top grade battle skill to you two. Don’t tell me even after using a top grade battle skill you still couldn’t deal with other people’s ordinary battle skills?”
Xu Yude promptly bowed and said:
“Second uncle, He Yiming did not use any battle skill at all.”
Xu Xiangci and Xu Right’s countenance slightly changed before the former hurriedly asked:
“Did not use any battle skill? Then, how did he injure Yucai?”
“He Yiming relied purely on his Internal Energy cultivation to injure Yucai,” Xu Yude’s head slightly lowered while his eyes still had a faint aghast expression. He would never be able to forget that scene throughout his entire lifetime.
Xu Right’s countenance was exceedingly grave as he slowly said:
“Second brother, relying purely on Internal Energy, without using any battle skills, and being able to injure Xu Yucai to such an extent, that He family child’s cultivation has certainly reached the peak of the seventh layer.”
“Seventh layer,” He Xiangci was once again sour, “This year He Yiming is only fourteen. He has actually attained the peak of the seventh layer. Is he actually a human, or not?”
Xu Right was faintly started before he astoundedly glanced at his second brother and bitterly smiled, “Second brother, you are joking. He ought to be a genius seen once in a thousand years. That’s why he could accomplish such a feat.”
Xu Xiangci waved his hand and regretfully said:
“One year ago, I came across him while chasing Hubin. At that time, he was at the sixth layer. However, just one year later, not only he crossed the sixth layer’s bottleneck, he has even attained the peak of the seventh layer. If had known this before, I would have killed him on the spot even at the expense of being discovered.”
Xu Right’s face showed an unpleased expression as he said:
“Second brother, such a line of thinking won’t do. If this matter happened to be discovered by He family, our Xu family truly wouldn’t have a place remaining in the county for us.”
Xu Xiangci snorted before saying:
“He family is already flooding with talent. If He Yiming is also allowed to mature, sooner or later, the entire county would have a single family remaining, that is, He family.”
“That might not necessarily be true,” Xu Right smiled as if prepared in advance, “As long as the Ancestor is alive, no matter how strong He family becomes, they would not try to deal with us. If it comes to the worst, we would be suppressed by them for a few decades. I simply don’t believe that they would keep on flourishing like this forever, and our Xu family would be eternally unable to catch up to them.”
Xu Xiangci contemplated for a moment before forcing out a smile, “Fourth brother, your vision is quite broad,” He paused before suddenly saying in a lowered voice:
“Fourth, how about we seek the Ancestor?”
Xu Right angrily glanced at the former before he discontentedly said:
“Second brother, you must be joking. If we looked for the ancestor for such a matter, I’m afraid the old man will break our legs. Furthermore…” He let out a sigh, “Except for when the matter is of clan’s survival or perhaps someone breaking through into the Xiantian realm, perhaps even father wouldn’t be able to see him.”
Xu Xiangci’s turned gloomy as quickly as a pricked balloon.
Xu Right raised his head and looked towards the He family; his vision profound.
Tai Cang county couldn’t be regarded as big. Within a day, the fight between the Xu and He families at the streets had spread around the entire town.
In Tian Luo country, where the martial wind blew, this was precisely the sort of topic people loved to talk about the most. As if wind and rain through the town, everybody, without a single exception, became aware of it.
Especially, for He Yiming, who was inferior in terms of age, to strike Xu Yucai off the stage in a single fist was further talked about as a legend.
People made all kinds of guesses regarding him, and some people were even convinced that his cultivation was already not below that of the three influential family’s second generation.
Of course, the people who said as such were mostly those who didn’t have a good understanding of Internal Energy and only had a superficial knowledge; precisely the kind of people who see wind as a sign of rain.
Those people who genuinely had some accomplishments in Internal Energy did not believe in such talks at all.
They knew that on average, the cultivation of the second generation members of the influential families was the eighth layer. As such, even though He Yiming possessed seventh layer’s peak Internal Energy, he could not compare to the eighth-layer experts.
Of course, they made an error in their judgment as they were completely unaware of He Yiming’s true strength.
However, regardless of what people talked, He Yiming’s fame had spread far around. Not a single person in the county town didn’t know his name as of now. Furthermore, this moment, his name was quickly spreading around the adjacent regions as well and would spread around throughout the entire county soon.
Moreover, one thing had gained the approval of basically everybody. He Yiming’s strength was at the top among the third generation of all the three influential families combined. Even He Yitian, who had always been the first, had been surpassed by him.
The only surprise for the people was that while this matter was being passionately discussed by the people outside, the three influential families preserved silence and didn’t issue any comment or suggestion whatsoever.
Furthermore, He Yiming, under the instructions of his father, did not set a foot outside before following his elders for the Cheng family’s banquet.
Cheng family, without a doubt, was the clan that held the most authority in the Tai Cang county.
The Cheng family’s Lord Father was further an illustrious cultivator in the Tai Cang county. Although his cultivation was only at the ninth layer, this didn’t affect their overall influence in Tai Cang county at all.
Cheng clan had progressed through several hundreds of years. They had several people from the generation of the Lord Master, Cheng Zhusheng. Furthermore, their second generation had several tens of members. They were deep-rooted throughout the entire Tai Cang county like an ancient vine. They even had the control over the duty of the City Watch. No one could treat them lightly.
Of course, even though they were big in numbers, they were far incomparable to the other two families in terms of martial strength.
In the entire clan, the Lord Master Cheng Zhusheng was the sole individual who had attained the ninth layer, and all the other members of his generation and several tens of members of the second generation resided at the eighth layer at most. Furthermore, the majority of them had not even broken through the sixth layer.
However, despite all this, the amount of people who had come to congratulate the Cheng Lord Master on his eightieth birthday had caused Cheng family’s front yard to be as busy as a fish market. In front of Cheng Residence were endless rows of horses and carriages. People coming to congratulate seemed like an endless stream. It seemed as if the people in the whole county had decided to come here.
When Yiming arrived with his elders, the bustling scene almost jump scared him.
During yesterday’s battle at the streets, thousands of people crowded together, but compared to the scene in front of the Cheng residence today, the former seemed completely lackluster.
However, the members of Cheng family had evidently prepared for the situation beforehand. They were calm and were properly arranging the guests in accordance with the determined hierarchy. Although the rows of chariots in front of the residence had already covered three streets, not the slightest bit of disorder could be seen.
He Yiming inwardly sighed in praise. Worthy of being an influential family passed on through several hundreds of years. They had abundant experience in dealing with such sort of situations. Substituting their position with the He family, if such a huge amount of people showed up at their doorsteps, even if the Lord Master himself acted, perhaps he would become flustered as well and would not able to control the situation.
This moment, his mind only had a single thought. Martial Dao and the ways of the world are indeed two entirely different concepts.