I Can See Your Combat Power

With his clothes on and a gloomy expression etched on his face. Mi Shen pushed the door open to step out.

Zhang Xinghe waited respectfully at the door. Seeing Mi Shen’s displeasure, he glanced into the bedroom and saw the young girl who had turned into a jade statue.

Dragging his feet heavily with lethargy,Mi Shen coldly said, “Dispose of it,” before moving towards the strategy room.

Zhang Xinghe nodded in agreement, escorting Mi Shen to the room before returning to the bedroom.

Looking at the jade girl, Zhang Xinghe felt a twinge of anger too.

As Mi Shen’s principal servant, Zhang Xinghe held immense power at the mansion, from recruiting martial servants to overseeing expenditures, there was nothing he couldn’t interfere with.

One of his most relevant duties was choosing Mi Shen’s ‘pillow companion’. Initially, Mi Shen found courtesans for this role, but when his peculiar habit became known, many young ladies eagerly came forward.

Everyone thought they were unique, each believing that given a chance to get close to Mi Shen, they could make him fall head over heels for them.

Many ladies went through great lengths to approach Zhang Xinghe, willing to spend a huge amount of money to be Mi Shen’s ‘pillow companion’. As far as Zhang was concerned, as long as their conditions were right, it didn’t matter who the ‘pillow companion’ was, especially if there was money to be made.

Every month he arranged for many ladies to be ‘pillow companions’, but they all seemed to disregard the rules he emphasized.

This was the fourth crystallized body this month, and he had already figured out an efficient method to dispose of them.

He pulled out a white silk cloth from the cupboard, wrapped the jade statue up and carried it out,

Into the depths of the flower grove, where he smashed the statue to pieces, scattering them onto the soil.

For the next three days, the flower bed next to the bedroom would glow with a beautiful green light at night.

After dealing with the body, Zhang Xinghe returned to the strategy room to find several advisors peering at him with strange expressions.

“Master, it has been disposed of.” Zhang Xinghe walked over to Mi Shen’s table and respectfully announced.

“Look at this,” Mi Shen said in a blank expression, handing over a letter to Zhang Xinghe.

Zhang Xinghe took the letter with both hands, noticing the name Tang Luo.

His eyebrows knitted together as he opened the letter and took out the piece of paper inside.

With each line he read, his heart pounded—he had stirred up huge trouble. The martial artist he offended was actually there to redeem a courtesan, and the bag of gold he took was Tang Luo’s property.

Though he knew Mi Shen would never hand him over, that bag of gold was definitely gone now. Zhang Xinghe felt a pang of loss.

“Finished reading?” Mi Shen asked casually.

Zhang Xinghe folded the paper and nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you think this kid’s lost his mind?” Mi Shen sneered in disdain, “He thinks he can make me give up my principal servant and half a million gold for just a piece of paper. Is he seriously buying into the flattery of these ignorant people?”

Ordinarily, Mi Shen, with his personality, wouldn’t have bothered with such a provocative act, but he was still in a bad mood from being awoken, causing his temper to flare.

He assumed without a doubt that Tang Luo was trying to extort him. Doesn’t everyone know that Tianxiang Building is a Tang Clan enterprise? Even the heir has to pay for using a courtesan delivered to his mansion. Does he think I’m a fool?

Zhang Xinghe, seeing Mi Shen’s conclusion, was relieved but still put on a worried expression, asking, “So, master, how should we handle this?”

“Why bother with a fourteen-year-old kid, just burn the letter.” Mi Shen waved his hand in irritation and closed his eyes to massage his temples.

Being woke from his nap had left him feeling cranky and slightly headachy.

April 20th

Star Pavilion

“Young master, the other party still hasn’t replied.”

“Hmm, good”. Had Mi Shen complied and given in both the man and money, Tang Luo wouldn’t have known how to justify causing more trouble.

Steel Bone Tower

Tang Luo and Hua Ji, carrying a box of gold, appeared in the guild hall on the second floor.

“I want to post a quest.”

“Young Master, what could be so important that it requires your personal presence, sir? Couldn’t you just have sent a message?”

April 25th

Tang Luo’s second letter reached Mi Shen’s mansion.

If Mi Shen thought Tang Luo was trying to extort him with the first letter, this second one would seem like a desperate move.

“Ten miles outside the city at Jianglin on April 29th.” Mi Shen frowned as he read the letter, feeling a bit troubled.

Because this was no longer a threat or a warning, but a formal challenge to a duel.

For the Mi and Tang clans, centuries of peace and development in Xiling was the greatest achievement of their mutual compromise and concession. As the true lawmakers of Xiling City, the two clans created the Xiling Covenant based on their experiences. The most crucial stipulation was:

Private grievances of the Mi and Tang clan members must not escalate into a citywide conflict.

In other words, the clan members of the Mi and Tang clans were not allowed to fight to the death over personal matters within the city; such confrontations must be resolved outside the city.

Jianglin was the place where the two clans had resolved their disputes over the past centuries. As representatives of prominent families with a propensity to produce spoiled and pampered young heirs,

A squabble over a drink or a girl was quite common. Thus, when there were quarrels among the clan members, going out to Jianglin to have a fight had become their verbal agreement.

Being the prized son of the Mi clan, Mi Shen had always felt that such a duel would never involve him.

“Such childishness!” Mi Shen slammed the letter on the table, startling all the advisors in the strategy room.

“Master, we can choose to ignore such trivialities,” Zhang Xinghe suggested, thinking he was helping.

“Idiotic!” Mi Shen reprimanded emotionlessly.

If it were a challenge from someone else, Mi Shen could have easily brushed it off, but Tang Luo’s status was not the same as others’.

As the once-talked-about legend of Xiling, the name Tang Luo represented not only himself, but also all the exceptional youths of Xiling.

The elites of Xiling included Tang Luo from this generation, Mi Chu and Mi Shen from the previous generation, and Tang Sen and Tang Zuo from the generation before that.

The current-generation prodigy was challenging the previous-generation prodigy. Mi Shen had no reason to refuse, especially with the duel being justified.

Ten days ago, a letter of responsibility was already on the table, even though he had burnt it without hesitation.

He initially thought that the kid was simply overconfident. But now, it seemed that he had reached the point of acting without any restraints.

Merely because one of his subordinates who had reached the Mortal Transcending Level was killed in a duel, he acted like a rabid dog, refusing to let go.

No doubt, this sort of temperament was similar to Mi Chu’s. However, while Mi Shen prided himself on being a tactician, he felt nothing but extreme distaste for Tang Luo’s actions.

If you choose to strike first, you have to bear the consequences of failure or death. Otherwise, if you persist after every death, there’s no room for peace. Should they just continue the killing till only one man is left standing?

Thus, prodigies like Tang Luo and Mi Chu, with their simplistic thinking, could at best be compared to mere martial artists.

But he had the potential to become a king who ruled the world.

Setting the letter aside, Mi Shen started to deal with the day’s affairs with great spirit.

A duel challenge from a young prodigy hardly occupied his thoughts..