Chapter 296: Probe
Translator: Irene Editor: TYZ/CakeHermit
All the force within the sword ray collided with the vine-like cloud sword.
Poof!
The cloud sword swiftly turned into a ball of fog that was even more dazzling than a rainbow, but in the blink of an eye, the splendid fog was torn apart into thin sword rays.
Su Qingye and gang were stunned by this sight. They were the most beautiful sword rays ever.
The thin sword rays were as if they’d been ground into mica sheets, overflowing with light and brilliance like the world’s most beautiful colors. There were specks of golden sand on top that appeared to be moving about.
The sword produced a sweet-sounding sword chime, which spread across the whole city like surfacing ripples.
Upon hearing the sword chime, Ai Hui, who was meditating, lowered his gaze and spread open his azure wings. He flew up and saw the splendor from far away. Without hesitating, he dashed toward that light.
Not just him, but many elementalists could be seen flying in that direction.
Opposite the three students, the middle-aged man’s face had completely changed. He saw the overflowing aura of death emitted by the beautiful sword ray.
Beautiful things were usually fatal. He’d seen poisonous snakes and beautiful women, but in front of these sword rays they paled in comparison. Whether it was beautiful or fatal, how did these three brats command such a sword ray?
There was a second where his heart was filled with regret. He regretted offering his support and underestimating his enemies.
In a flash, the hesitation in his gaze was swept away and replaced with unwavering determination. His experience taught him that the more dangerous a situation was, the more he had to risk his life. Any hesitation or fear would lose him his chances of survival.
With a bellow, the elemental energy within his whole body started circulating and rich metal elemental energy crawled from the ground up his body.
Elemental externalization!
Another egg-sized clay figure appeared in the middle-aged man’s hand.
Concentrated earth elemental energy was channeled into the mini clay figure and it shattered with a clap, transforming into a ray of light before disappearing.
Rumble!
A huge rumbling sound emerged from underground as a huge sandstone arm surfaced aboveground.
It was over ten meters long and extremely thick and solid. Three people would be needed to surround it and still wrap their arms around each other.
While it seemed slow-moving, all this had happened in an instant.
The enormous palm spread its fingers wide like a big web and grabbed toward that splendid, yet fatal sword ray.
Boom!
The sword ray shot into the giant palm and the palm closed up.
The middle-aged man sighed a breath of relief, but the next moment, his face changed yet again.
Countless beams of light broke through the giant palm and shot out as fragmented rays, each of which were extremely dangerous.
The middle-aged man was unable to dodge and a blood streak appeared on his shoulder. He had actually felt no pain when the fragmented ray swept past, a sign that the shattered ray was beyond sharp.
The giant palm, at this point, looked badly damaged and only four fingers remained.
The middle-aged man looked terrible. He was dealing with three schooling brats with his Elemental Externalization realm, but was still forced into this pitiful state. His face was scorching red.
The giant sandstone palm wriggled about, and in a flash, another finger grew out and the palm was just as good as before.
The middle-aged man had a malevolent look on his face as he said viciously, "Good! Very good! Let’s see what other tricks you have up your sleeves!"
The three kids turned pale. They had already consumed their last bit of elemental energy and were on the verge of collapsing. Their faces were white as a sheet but no one pled for mercy.
"... This move is pretty formidable, but most importantly, it causes a big enough scene."
Su Qingye gasped roughly for breath as he muttered to himself non-stop. Teacher, you’d better be reliable…
It seemed that he could only reduce his fear by doing this.
"Tremendous elemental devil palm, how impressive!" The cold voice sounded from the sky.
Hearing this, Su Qingye’s tensed nerves loosened up immediately as he plopped to the ground.
A short-haired lady descended and landed in front of the kids. It was actually Huaijun.
Su Qingye was full of gratitude towards his aunt right now. He shouted obediently, "Aunt."
Huaijun ignored him and looked the middle-aged man right in the face, then said in all coldness, "Why? Sha Wuyuan, do you dare not reveal yourself? Or does the Sha family only dare to do such shady acts?"
The middle-aged man took the elemental energy mask off his face, revealing a meager, apathetic face. "I heard Sea Pacific Enterprise will be operating here for a long time to come. I’ve been so curious as to who would have such foresight to prepare the layout so early on. It’s a great honor to be able to meet you today."
Huaijun remained unmoved. "Sea Pacific Enterprise is not big, but we will not tolerate any humiliation. You’ve actually attacked the younger generation, so there’s no way around this, both families will have to settle all scores today no matter what."
There was a jade bamboo as thick as a thumb in her hand. It was a fresh, green jasper jade bamboo and there were even a few bamboo leaves hanging on top of it.
Sha Wuyuan’s pupils shrank. "Su Huaijun!"
He said slowly, "I was wondering which Su family it was. Turns out you are from the Sanmu Su family. My bad, my bad. We have been at peace and close like family. This misunderstanding was caused by my hastiness and I’d almost disrupted our harmony. I heard you’re an earth elementalist. This sand puppet, Shadow, is a little gift from me. Please accept it, Sir."
The Shadow was a precious treasure among the sand puppets produced by the Sha family. It was difficult to obtain even before Yellow Sand Corner was taken over. Unfortunately, it was unlikely that the current Sha family would be able to produce many of these Shadows anymore.
Huaijun’s face softened slightly as she said to Su Qingye, "It’s okay, stop now."
Su Qingye gave Sha Wuyuan a hateful look, but knew he had to listen. He could tell that while his father was the one managing the enterprise, his aunt held a more admirable position.
Sha Wuyuan heaved a sigh of relief.
Within the information gathered on Wang Han, Sea Pacific Enterprise was Sha family’s only doubt. Su Qingye was Wang Han’s student. What kind of relationship did Wang Han and Sea Pacific Enterprise have? Who was backing up Sea Pacific Enterprise?
The ways of the world were chaotic, enterprises without any backing wouldn’t be able to survive. For being able to live in Peace City for so long, Sea Pacific Enterprise must have its backing.
Sha Wuyuan had bribed the gangsters to target Su Qingye in order to scout out information about the Su family and to get a gauge of Wang Han’s standards.
Who knew the gangsters would be so useless, causing him to have to deal with the kids himself. Su Huaijun’s choice to end the fight made him feel rather embarrassed as well.
The good thing was that he’d already gotten the answer he wanted the most.
The whole Sha family knew that they simply couldn’t afford to lose this time. Once they lost, it was inevitable that they would be swallowed up. Sha family’s decline in the past three years had been observed by many, and Yu Wei had been the one bracing the family.
If they lost, their last semblance would be taken down and Sha family’s vulnerability would be completely exposed, revealing exactly how weak they were. The wolves in wait would pounce on them without hesitation and swallow them whole.
The Sha family simply couldn’t lose.
This put them under extreme pressure.
Sha Wuyuan’s gaze was shrewd and ruthless. He could feel the whole of the Su family’s attitude from Su Huaijun’s bearing. Su Huaijun did not mention Wang Han at all from start to finish.
The Su family did not want to get involved in the dispute between the Sha family and Wang Han!
This was the outcome he wanted, so he felt much more relaxed now. As long as the Su family did not chime in, what kind of storm could Wang Han raise alone?
Almost losing his life, Su Qingye wasn’t planning to let things go so easily, but his aunt had no intention of making a move. He rolled his eyes and shouted out loud, "There are three of us!"
Su Huaijun gave him a look, warning evident in her eyes.
Sha Wuyuan was taken by surprise, but he’d been around for a long time. Seeing that Su Huaijun glared but did not outright oppose Su Qingye, he said calmly, "The other two kiddos, five hundred elemental energy points each. A little gift from the bottom of my heart. What do you think, Miss Su?"
Su Qingye’s gaze fell upon a silhouette within the crowd and was stunned for a bit.
Su Huaijun nodded. "Okay."
Zhou Wen burst out, "Who wants your money!"
Surprise filled Su Qingye’s face. He knew how poor Zhou Wen was, yet this fellow actually had backbone despite his horrible personality. He quickly pulled Zhou Wen and winked at him vigorously. Zhou Wen did not really understand what Su Qingye was trying to do, so he just shut his mouth and said nothing.
Su Qingye winked at Hua Xiaoyun this time and she nodded subtlely.
It wasn’t the first time Sha Wuyuan had heard an angry rebuke like the one made by Zhou Wen. With a slight smile, he threw a bag of essence elemental beans toward Su Huaijun before turning around to leave.
Without opening it, Su Huaijun threw the bag to Su Qingye before leaving as well.
The sky was packed with observing elementalists. The resounding sword chim from earlier had alarmed all of them.
"Who would’ve thought that Sea Pacific Enterprise has the Su family backing it up!"
"Sanmu Su family is also a well-known family."
"Why didn’t they go to Jadeite Forest?"
"We have to say something good about Avalon of Five Elements. The Avalon’s never treated these families badly."
"Things are going to get lively in Peace City. The Sha family, Su family, and perhaps other families are also here."
...
Tongues were wagging in the sky as the Sanmu Su family suddenly emerged from beneath the water’s surface, causing a stir.
Fu Renxuan was moved. "I can’t believe the Su family is here too, but it makes sense. The earth elemental, fire elemental and wood elemental families are all waiting for the construction of the lesser Avalon of Five Elements."
The Fu family sister turned around suddenly to ask Fu Yonghao, "Was that move worth four essence elemental beans?"
Fu Yonghao’s face turned red and he kept silent.
The move from earlier was beyond breathtaking. Although people only saw the aftermath of the sword ray and heard the sword chime, they were all shaken by the swordplay. Thinking about it again, this impressive swordplay was executed by three immature and inexperienced babies. How deep were Wang Han’s sword mastery and achievements?
Upon noticing this, Fu Renxuan hurriedly smoothed things over. "Who knew Wang Han’s sword master would be this excellent. Wonder if it has anything to do with Karakorum?"
The Fu family big sister seemed lost in thought as she commented suddenly, "Sha family is likely going to have a difficult time."
No one was surprised and Fu Renxuan couldn’t help but add, "Perhaps Sister thinks Wang Han can win this battle?"
Fu Yonghao blurted, "Sister, you overestimate Wang Han! The Sha family is a big family after all. A skinny camel is still bigger than a horse. Can one person like Wang Han overturn the whole family? Unbelievable!"
The Fu family big sister did not answer. Instead, she gazed at Sha Wuyuan’s disappearing figure and said faintly, "Acting cowardly before the battle. Not a good omen."
No one noticed a figure left the crowd quietly and followed far behind Sha Wuyuan.