Chapter 30: Worthless, Crippled

"Good dog thief!"

Wei Quji's face was so gloomy it could almost drip water.

Practically right under his nose, that unknown enemy used the lives of Little Lin Town as sacrifices, and then consumed the unscattered souls of Maple Forest City over the generations, finally condensing a phantom of the Gate of Hell in one fell swoop. And in the end, they calmly escaped right in front of him.

And he, Wei Quji, a dignified Fifth-Rank great master, came with all his might, but didn't even get a sniff of the culprit!

As the city lord, he had failed in his duty. As a strongman, he had been slapped in the face.

When had he ever suffered such humiliation?

Therefore...

"Worthless!"

Wei Quji slapped Wei Yan, sending him flying several meters!

Dozens of people were present, but no one dared to make a sound, even though almost every one of them felt indignant.

Even Wei Yan himself just silently got up, without saying a word.

Of course, he had enough reasons to defend himself, enough reasons to be angry. He had bravely pressed forward before the mist. Facing the Nine Palaces Formation, he was the first to break through it. Seeing the Gate of Hell, he risked burning his only red signal at the first moment.

It could be said that from any point of view, he had done his best at this stage, and there was nothing to criticize.

But success is success, and failure is failure. The military doesn't care about those extraneous things.

Wei Quji gave him the authority to organize manpower from the Taoist Academy to investigate Little Lin Town, but he failed to prevent the incident from happening. This was dereliction of duty.

Wei Quji could even have killed him on the spot.

But what would be the point?

Wei Quji came in a rage and left in a greater rage.

The young people, some carrying the wounded, some supporting each other, and some carrying corpses, scattered in this way.

These young disciples of the Taoist Academy had just experienced a fierce battle with heavy casualties,

a very difficult battle that ultimately proved to be useless.

From beginning to end, they didn't even know who their opponent was, but the opponent had already achieved their goal and left triumphantly.

They were called—worthless.

...

"Damn it... I'm not convinced."

Du Yehut lay sprawled on his dormitory bed, like an iron tower toppled over.

He didn't have any serious injuries, and the damaged foundation had already been compensated by the Qi-Solidifying Pill sent by Zhao Rucheng. He just needed a period of recuperation.

The Qi-Solidifying Pill was certainly a precious thing, but there was nothing wrong with accepting it. It just so happened that Du Yehut needed it, and it just so happened that Zhao Rucheng had it, so that was that. They were the kind of people who could entrust their lives to each other, let alone anything else.

But the battle of Little Lin Town was, in all honesty, a blow to every Taoist Academy disciple who participated. For anyone aspiring to transcendence and longing for power, helplessness was probably the worst thing.

Or perhaps Zhao Rucheng was the exception. He had already gone to the Three Fragrances House to "recover from his injuries," supposedly wanting to seize the beauty's heart with the image of a brave warrior who narrowly escaped death.

Du Yehut was not someone who could lie still, but at this moment, he could only lie down. No one was willing to indulge him in drinking either. Therefore, he was unusually melancholic.

Ling He didn't speak; he was cultivating with his eyes closed.

As for Jiang Wang... he was eating with Jiang An'an.

Cai's Mutton Shop, a century-old brand.

Two bowls of fragrant mutton soup, ten pounds of neatly sliced boiled mutton.

Jiang An'an held a flatbread in her left hand and chopsticks in her right... the chopsticks held mutton. The reason for using the word "held" was because her posture for holding chopsticks was indeed different—probably because no one had ever corrected her—she simply wrapped all five fingers around them.

Having lived with Jiang Wang for a long time, she was no longer as introverted and shy as she had been at first.

She took a bite on the left and a bite on the right. As she ate, she would occasionally lower her head and take a satisfying sip of the mutton soup. Two shallow dimples were imprinted on her face, filled with contentment.

Cai's Mutton Shop wasn't cheap; Jiang Wang himself might not have been willing to come here to eat.

In the Little Lin Town mission, although Wei Yan himself took the blame, he still fulfilled his promise and secured twenty points of Taoist merit for each of them, as well as some silver coins as a subsidy. For cultivators, this was the least important thing. But for Jiang An'an, being able to eat good food was very important.

"Do you like it?" Jiang Wang asked with a smile.

"Mmm... yes!" Little An'an nodded vigorously.

"In the future, we can come here every month..." Jiang Wang silently calculated his savings, "no, every ten days, can we?"

Jiang An'an continued to nod.

She chatted with her brother now and then—mostly using nods or shakes of her head to answer. Her little hands weren't idle, and while nodding, she grabbed a piece of mutton, carefully rolled it in the dipping sauce, and then took a big bite.

"An'an, how are your studies lately?" Probably when chatting with children, all adults eventually focus on this point. Jiang Wang felt that he was an adult, so he said it naturally. Although he was only a seventeen-year-old boy.

Jiang An'an's eating movements paused slightly, her little mouth full, and she barely managed to squeeze out a sentence, "Still, okay."

Jiang Wang nodded in satisfaction.

He looked at his sister, and a slow, peaceful feeling flowed through his heart. The hardships of the battle, the sadness of seeing his fellow disciples injured or killed, the sense of powerlessness at failing to prevent the incident from happening... all seemed to fade away.

Some things were certainly very sad, but right now, the life before him, was so happy.

It made him want to keep it forever.

...

Walking through the Wang Clan's territory, nodding to the clan members who greeted him from time to time, Wang Changxiang was calm and peaceful, as he always was. Even the most picky clan member couldn't find a single fault with him.

The Zhang, Fang, and Wang clans of Maple Forest City were about the same in terms of strength, making it difficult to distinguish who was superior. But because Zhang Linchuan now ranked third on the Taoist merit list, the Zhang clan subtly surpassed the others. Wang Changxiang of the Wang clan was seventh on the Taoist merit list, so they weren't far behind.

Only the Fang clan was lagging. The previous generation's genius had died in a trial, and the most outstanding member of this generation, Fang Pengju, had been killed. Now, only Fang Heling was left, barely making it into the inner sect with a Meridian-Opening Pill obtained with a large sum of money. But in the eyes of discerning people, the Fang clan had already been left behind by the other two.

Leaving these matters aside, Wang Changxiang never wanted to get involved in worldly affairs. Although his wisdom was enough to see through the dirty greed behind the enthusiastic greetings, he always remained indifferent.

The road became increasingly remote.

He finally stopped in front of a semi-old small courtyard, which was in a remote corner of the Wang Clan's territory. Almost no one lived nearby, and the courtyard's owner was like a solitary bird living in seclusion.

Wang Changxiang reached out and pushed the door open, and the wooden door made a harsh creaking sound, disturbing the tranquility of the courtyard.

Unlike the mottled and semi-old outer walls, the courtyard was surprisingly tidy and exquisite. To the left was a grape trellis, high above, and on the trellis was a reclining chair that had been smoothed by rubbing. There was no one on the reclining chair, but there was a fat orange cat lying on it.

It wasn't surprised by the arrival of a person, only half-opening its sleepy eyes and glancing at him weakly.

"Little Orange," Wang Changxiang greeted.

The fat orange cat turned its head and squinted its eyes again, actually disdainful.

Wang Changxiang wasn't annoyed and continued to walk forward. To the right front was a large water tank with lotus leaves floating in it. Bubbles could be seen from time to time, indicating that fish were being raised.

At this time, his footsteps stopped because he smelled the aroma of food.

Almost at the same time, the orange cat suddenly got up and looked back with a speed that didn't match its size.

In front of the main hall, under the eaves, was a low table. At this moment, a young man was walking out from behind the door, the aroma coming from the food plate he was holding.

His face couldn't be called handsome, nor could it be called ugly. It just inexplicably gave people a feeling of "remoteness," perhaps because of his overly bland eyes.

The aloof young man squatted down and placed the dishes from the food plate one by one on the low table. There were two bowls of snow-white and full rice, two dishes of jade-green vegetables, and two dishes of stewed, soft pig trotters.

The man sat down on the threshold, took out chopsticks, tapped the table with the end of the chopsticks, and said, "Eat."

Wang Changxiang didn't move because he knew he wasn't being called, even though he really wanted to go over and eat this meal together.

With a "whoosh," the orange cat dashed to the low table with a speed that absolutely didn't match its size. It first lowered its head and sniffed the pig trotters, and then, seemingly satisfied, it rested its front paws on the low table and began to eat.

Wang Changxiang opened his mouth, "Brother."

Perhaps only a few people remembered it. Wang Changxiang, the current pride of the Wang clan, also had an older brother.

In fact, he was the eldest son of the Wang clan's direct line, the most legitimate heir to the position of clan leader in terms of patriarchal law.

But he was also a useless person who couldn't manifest his Taoist meridian despite wasting a precious Meridian-Opening Pill. This made the Wang clan suffer ridicule and was plainly inferior to the other two clans.

The Wang clan's shame, Wang Changji.