Left behind
Rows of well-equipped and uniformly dressed main house guards walked out, there were around twenty of them, assembled in twos, following behind three purple horned beast carriages, and headed out.
In the first carriage was Su Tai, Second Great Elder of the Su Family. The purple horned beast of the elders carriage was bigger than normal, with strong vigor and intrepid Profound Spirit Qi, and this beast, has attained the Fifth Level of Spirit Intermediate Disciple. The other two were just at the Third Level.
In the middle carriage was Su Shi Long, the administrator of Su Family, he drew up the curtains and turned to Su Yun, with a smug look in his narrow and long eyes.
And the last carriage was the prized carriage of genius Su Qing Er, who was meticulously groomed by the main house.
When Qing Er was brought into the main house, she was given the honorable title of Big Missy. Although she was born in the outer sect, she was gifted and hardworking, coupled with the accumulation of powers in the main house, she has now become extremely powerful, and even the ordinary main house disciples had to be respectful to her, not daring to step on her toes.
Just as the carriages were about to leave, the curtains were rapidly drawn up, and a lovable girl with exquisite appearance dressed in blademaster clothes hurriedly jumped down the carriage, strode open her tiny feet and trotted towards Su Yun, her pink little mouth calling, “Young Master!”
“Qing Er!”
Su Yun’s eyes lit up.
Qing Er was about to jump into Su Yun’s embrace, but halted when she was nearing Su Yun, for there were so many pairs of eyes surrounding them, if she jumped into Su Yun’s embrace now, not only will she get into trouble, but so will Su Yun.
She has so much to say, she took a deep breath, as she was about to speak, she heard Su Yun mumbling.
“Qing Er, you are now part of the main house, there are too many people here, tongues will waggle, let’s talk later if there’s anything important!”
Qing Er stunned for awhile, upon hearing that, nodded docilely.
She looked towards the side, when she saw the outer sect’s person-in-charge bringing a Spirit Stallion, she was furious.
“Lord Su Shi Long, what’s the meaning of this?”
Qing Er raged.
“What do you mean, what’s the meaning of this?” Su Shi Long jumped down from the purple horned beast carriage, and asked bewilderedly, “Miss Qing Er, what are you talking about?”
Qing Er was furious, and humphed, “Other contesting disciples are given Single Horned Bulls, why arrange a Spirit Stallion for my Young Master? What do you guys mean?”
“This?”
Su Shi Long was stunned momentarily, and suddenly gave an awkward laugh, “This time, there are a total of fifty contesting disciples from the Su Family, but their resources are limited, hence unable to supply that many Single Horned Bulls, only forty-nine, so…we’ll have to subject Su Yun to inconvenience, and temporarily use the Spirit Stallion instead.”
“How is this possible?”
Qing Er could not believe it, “Such a big Su Family, will they lack just one Single Horned Bull? This is impossible!”
“Miss Qing Er is high on top, you don’t know the hardships of the lowly people, if you have the ability, you can go find a Single Horned Bull yourself!” Su Shi Long laughed.
“You…” Qing Er gasped, her tiny body trembled, and with a wave of her hand, she snorted, “If that’s the case, it’s alright, Young Master, you can take the same carriage as me!”
When she finished her sentence, everyone was shocked.
Although Qing Er did not meant anything, she obviously did not understand the different status and identities between Su Yun and herself.
A man and a woman, if they were to be in the same carriage together, Qing Er’s chastity would be tainted.
Although Qing Er would not mind, the Su Family would definitely be against it.
“Su Qing Er, I dare you to!!”
Without waiting for others to speak, a loud holler came from the foremost carriage.
Qing Er was slightly stunned, upon looking up, she saw a skinny man with a small goatee, who looked like a monkey, alighted from the purple horned beast carriage.
This person donned luxurious clothing, with various kinds of jewellery and treasures on his wrists, fingers, neck and ears, except his teeth.
“Greetings to Second Elder!”
The surrounding crowd noticed a problem, and hurriedly bowed down.
“Greetings to Second Elder!”
Qing Er was no exception, and paid her respects.
“En!”
Second Elder walked over haughtily, hands behind his back, glanced at the sides, and lightly said, “You may all rise!”
“Thank you Elder!”
Everyone cried out.
Second Elder started to survey Su Yun and Qing Er, and an odd radiance flashed in his pair of monkey-like eyes.
“Su Qing Er!”
“Second Elder, Qing Er’s here!” Qing Er replied.
“Do you know your status now?” Second Elder frowned.
Qing Er did not reply.
“You, are now the Miss of Su Family, a part of the main house, someone that the patriarch painstakingly groomed, do you understand? And he!” Second Elder Su Tai pointed to Su Yun, shouting, “He’s just a disciple of the outer sect, the disparity in your statuses are too wide! How could you carelessly let him into your carriage? How could you address him as Young Master? Su Qing Er, don’t you have a bit of realisation, a bit of reservation?”
On hearing that, Su Yun’s eyes flashed coldly, as he was about to speak, Qing Er interrupted.
“Second Elder, what’s important now is not this matter, but the matter of us Su Family going for the Meeting of Heroes. Su Yun is the representative of the contesting disciples of our Su Family, if he rides the Spirit Stallion, he would definitely not be able to catch up with us, if this causes any delays to the contest, and affects our reputation, it will be a major issue! Compared to the reputation of the Su Family, what’s this bit of personal reputation to Qing Er? So the priority now, is to find a stronger Single Horned Bull for Su Yun! If everyone can’t get a Single Horned Bull for Su Yun, to protect the reputation of the Su Family, Qing Er will have to inconvenience myself!!”
Qing Er calmly said.
Upon the completion of her speech, everyone instantly understood.
So, inviting Su Yun into her carriage was just a trap that Qing Er set up.
This way, Qing Er has the upperhand, she even brought out the reputation of Su Family, what else can be done?
“You…”
Second Elder was stumped silent by Qing Er’s rebuttal.
He could not agree, but if he disagree, Qing Er would bring Su Yun into her carriage, which would make matters worse.
My Qing Er is indeed intelligent!
Su Yun felt as though he had drank honey, sweet and good.
Second Elder was stuck in a dilemma, after a long time, he flung his sleeves angrily, and snorted, “Su Qing Er, I don’t care, you are the main house Missy, you can’t ride a carriage with other men, as for the Single Horned Bull? Sorry, I don’t have it too, Su Yun, either you ride this Stallion to attend the Meeting of Heroes, or… I will take it as you defied the orders of Su Family, and punish you according to the Su Family house rules! Do as you deem fit!”
“You… Second Elder, this is not right of you! How can you do this?”
Qing Er was furious.
But she was still just a Miss of the main house, ranked lower than the Elders, and unable to speak reason to him.
Second Elder was insistent, and did not care how Su Yun and Qing Er felt, not even caring if Su Yun will take action, when he was absent, Su Yun dared to be haughty, now that there are so many main house guards here, he has nothing to be scared of? If Su Yun disobey, he can take action.
“Forget it!”
At this moment, Su Yun sucked in a deep breath resolutely, and lightly said, “Since this is what they insist, let’s accept it, I’ll just be half a day later than you guys, it’s alright!”
“But, Young Master… this…”
“It’s alright, Qing Er, we’ll just casually deal with this contest, we’ll be leaving the Su Family soon!”
He lowered his voice and directed it to the girl, turned around and walked towards the Spirit Stallion in the middle of the Single Horned Bulls.
Qing Er opened her mouth, looked at Su Yun’s breezy voice, sighed and did not speak eventually.
When everyone was accounted for, the three luxurious carriages pulled by the purple horned beasts went ahead of this fifty contesting disciples, and Second Elder Su Tai walked out of his carriage, looked at everyone, and began his assumingly fervent and rousing speech.
Su Yun was at the very last of the crowd, looking at the other disciples riding on the strong and big Single Horned Bulls, he felt doubtful.
The matter has been blown out of proportion, by right, Second Elder and the rest should not have insisted on their ways, wouldn’t changing a Single Horned Bull for him resolve everything? Why were they so insistent?
Given Su Family’s size, they would not lack a Single Horned Bull, this meant, they must have purposely arranged so.
Was it to embarrass him?
That was unnecessary? Su Shi Long and Second Elder Su Tai were such boring people?
Something must be wrong.
Su Yun pondered.
But after half a day, he still could not think of the reason behind their actions, on contrary, Second Elder Su Tai had blurted everything.
Soon, a low ringing voice rang out.
“Set off!!!!”
Woo!!!!!!
Drums and horns sounded outside the Su Family outer sect, the gigantic Su Family flag atop the carriage of Second Elder unfolded in the wind.
The procession started to move, the contesting disciples were led by Su Dong Fang this time, the procession bustling moved ahead, although they were slow, they were extremely neat, the three carriages were encircled by the contesting disciples, under the protection of the main house elite guards.
As for Su Yun, he was left far behind.
The Spirit Stallion was the most common mode of transport, purchase of it would not spend too much Spirit Coins as well, but compared to the Single Horned Bull, its speed and endurance was on a lower level, when everyone in the procession used Single Horned Bulls, the shortcoming of the Spirit Stallion would be exposed.
The Spirit Stallion that Su Yun was riding on, had been travelling at its fastest speed, but was still unable to catch up with the procession, not only that, when the other Single Horned Bulls were just warmed-up, the Spirit Stallion was already fatigued.
Things cannot continue like this!
Su Yun looked at the continuously progressing Su Family’s procession, sighed, and reduced the speed of the Spirit Stallion.
If this continued, the Spirit Stallion would die from exhaustion! The procession was in the middle of an empty grassland, with no villages or shops nearby, if the Spirit Stallion really died, he will have to travel by foot.
But, once the Spirit Stallion slowed down, Su Yun was left far behind by the procession.
But what made him suspicious was, the procession paid no heed to him and continued onwards, as though they did not realise that someone had fallen behind.
Whatever, so be it if I ran late! Since you gave me the Spirit Stallion, when they start blaming, I can push the blame to you.
Su Yun shook his head, flipped down from the Stallion and walked it, to let it take a breather.
Since he knew the final battle location of the Meeting of Heroes, going alone made no difference, the Su Family had set off five days in advance, when in actual fact it only takes four days to reach. If the Spirit Stallion is used, five days would be sufficient, there was still ample time.
The location of the Meeting of Heroes was the “Extreme Peak”, located along the central area of the Southern Regions.
According to Su Yun’s prediction, there should be areas of Mutual Destruction of Five Elements Grounds around the Extreme Peak, not far off, and these Grounds were bigger and stronger than the Entwining Secrets District, just that the Extreme Peak was surrounded by mountain ranges, what’s difficult about searching for the Mutual Destruction of Five Elements Grounds?
To reach Extreme Peak, one must pass Lang Ye City, he can search for a Single Horned Bull inside the City, if there is one, it would be wise to switch to it soon.
Su Yun was deep in thoughts as he walked the stallion.
But at this time, heavy hoofsteps were heard up front.
Su Yun was stunned, raising his head, he saw three armoured and well-equipped main house disciples coming his way, the Single Horned Bulls were at their fastest speed, the trio seemed aggressive, and mighty.
“Oh, you guys finally realised that I was left behind?”
Su Yun noticed something was off, and smiled, “But, it’s no use even if you guys found me, I’m riding a Spirit Stallion, its speed is limited, there’s no point in you guys coming, there’s no way you guys can raise its speed right?”
He walked towards the trio as he spoke.
But after a few steps, he stopped in his tracks, and his smile was rapidly gone.
These three, why are they not responding.
Besides… what was with their expression?
Su Yun’s heart became tense.