“A fight?!”
Bai Yunfei was surprised by Zheng Kai’s answer.
“Hehe, exactly. Brother Huang and the others will be there. How about it, interested?”
Bai Yunfei didn’t respond.
He didn’t understand it, what was so ‘interesting’ about that?
“Even Huang Bin is going to be fighting?” Bai Yunfei repeated, “Who are you fighting, exactly?”
“No idea.”
Again, Bai Yunfei said nothing.
“What I mean is that we don’t know who those people are. They’re new faces, but probably people with some semblance of status. They’re probably new to the Capital and are trying to make it their stomping grounds by disregarding us Four Lords of the Capital. They even challenged brother Chen so we’re going there as backup. They’ve picked today to be the day to fight.”
“Chen Qiantan? What happened to him?”
“Ah, he’s fine. It was just yesterday night we were at South Twelfth Street. You weren’t there, but there was a ‘drinking party’ that brother Chen wanted to go to, so we went with him. There was some trouble there, but with so many experts and such there, both parties decided to settle it in another place with less people today.”
He chuckled. “So? How do you feel about it now?” Zheng Kai asked.
“You all must be really bored.” Replied Bai Yunfei in earnest.
Was that not the case? The sons of wealthy families were all very strong soul cultivators in their own right. The fact that they were duking it out with a bunch of hedonist was surely a pain to everyone involved.
“Bored?” Zheng Kai cried out as if hurt by such an accusation.
“We are, actually. We’re always so bored, so we have to find some sort of fun thing to do.” Zheng Kai nodded. “There’s no fun in spending every day training!”
“....” Bai Yunfei was speechless, “Are you making fun of me?!”
“Haha! I can see that you’re doing pretty well now, so I decided to come seek you out. Don’t stay cooped up in your room all the time, taking in the sights isn’t all that bad.”
If Bai Yunfei had to think about it, he was startled when he realized just when the last time he went out and did something was.All of his time was practically spent recuperating and upgrading.
“So? Want to come?” Zheng Kai asked again.
“Fine.” Bai Yunfei relented. “I’ll come watch with you. I don’t have anything to do anyways.”
……
Together with Zheng Kai, Bai Yunfei walked down North Street to gather with Huang Bin and the others at the Hundred Aliments. It was there that Bai Yunfei heard the full story. The ‘agreed fight’ between the two parties was between the four of them and a few rather important guests of the ‘King of Troublemakers’ in the Capital. Many of these guests were outsiders of the Capital and people that usually ran amok in their own respective cities with unrelenting arrogance. This time, they didn’t even bother to take note of the ‘Four Lords of the Capital’ and challenged them to a fight at once.
And the one who was the ‘King of Troublemakers’ turned out to be the third son of the Minister of the Left, someone from the house of Cheng.
Bai Yunfei found himself rather speechless. He’d be meeting with the sons of both ministers today, and both of these sons were problem children. Did every single family in the Capital have a hedonist as a child?
“Won’t there…be any problems if you fight? What if an accident happens?”
Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but ask Zheng Kai as the five of them talked about the upcoming fight.
“An accident? What kind of accident?” Zheng Kai asked. “It’s just a fight, not a battle to the death, what kind of accident would even happen? We normally do stuff like this anyways. Relax. We’re all confident in our strengths, and neither are we going to cripple them.”
“……”
Bai Yunfei sweatdropped. Was a gang fight like this the secret technique of every young master in the Capital?? He simply couldn’t comprehend this.
Aside from Jin Manlou, the other three were all late-stage Soul Exalts. What kind of fight would it be then for them? From what Bai Yunfei later found out, fights like this weren’t at all rare in the circles of the young men of the Capital. There were a few guidelines on how these fights should be fought, such as no fatal strikes or relying on the strength of their family. A scuffle between the younger generation should stay as such. Everyone that fought in these fights had confidence in their strength and would rarely bother to have the elders of their family try to help them. In any case, the elders tended to turn a lazy eye towards what the younger generation did.
In a way, these fights tended to be a learning experience for most. As soul cultivators, the best way to learn was through experience, and experience could be easily had through an actual fight. And when they lived peaceful lives in the Capital, how could they get that experience in battles to the death? Thus, fights were established as a way to ‘gain experience’, and according to what Zheng Kai said, his strong and robust body was tempered as a result of fighting through so many years of fights.
“……”
Bai Yunfei was thoroughly defeated by Zheng Kai’s logic. He’d never understand the lifestyles of the young masters of the Capital.
“Who are the people you’re fighting then?”
“We’ll find out in a moment. They’re pretty strong I’m sure though. I saw a few of them were late-stage Soul Exalts.”
“Where’d you pick to fight at?”
“There’s a villa to the south that’s both big and has few people coming and going. Plenty of people choose there to fight.”
“When?”
“This afternoon at four. It’s a little early, so let’s eat first and slowly make our way afterwards.”
……
The five of them ate a nice afternoon meal before making their way over to the established battleground.
In the southern parts of the Capital stood a place many called the ‘Villa Park’. Bai Yunfei could see a mountain forest a little far away from the villa, and a large mountain standing behind the large villa.
The guards standing near the villa seemed to know Zheng Kai, as none of them seemed to stop him as he lead the group through the pathway on the right towards a small lake.
A small lake about five hundred meters in circumference met the gaze of the five with a decently large piece of land to the right. A bunch of people was already gathered there.
At a glance, there were over ten people gathered here, each one of them wearing rich robes and having auras of considerable strength. Their soulforce had also marked them all to be someone strong.
When they felt Zheng Kai and the others arrive, they all perked their heads up to look at them.
A thin-lipped and pointy-chinned young man took the initiative to speak to them when the group drew near. “Lord Huang, lord Zheng, your arrival is a little late.”
“What do you mean?” Zheng Kai’s lip curled upwards, “We came at the scheduled time, didn’t we? Eager for a beating? Cheng Xin, I heard that you made some new breakthroughs with your Thirty-six Flashes, care to try it out against me?”
“Er…” Cheng Xin forced a smile to his lips. “Surely you jest, lord Zheng. My Thirty-six Flashes is nothing compared to your teleportation. I was bedridden for an entire week the last time we fought. I couldn’t possibly want a rematch. My friends here have heard of the reputation of the Four Lords of the Capital and wish to compare notes with you. I am only the one that referred them to you, that’s all, haha…”
He was smiling, but Bai Yunfei was perceptive enough to see a very quick gleam of hatred flash across his face before he turned to the people behind him. “We didn’t seem to introduce everyone well enough yesterday. Allow me to introduce you all then, these four gentleman are the ‘famous’ Four Lords of the Capital. This is Huang Bin, this is Zheng Kai, this is…”
The third person he started to introduce was Bai Yunfei, someone he didn’t know. “Eh? And you are…?”
“A friend.” Zheng Kai spoke up. “He came to watch only. He’s not fighting.”
“Oh…” Cheng Xin nodded in disinterest. “Then let me introduce the others. These are the heroic figures from the Black River Province. They are…”
A tall-standing young man in purple strode forward to clasp his hands together and bow towards Zheng Kai and the others. “The Four Lords of the Capital is well known to us. It is our honor to meet you four today. This one is a student of the Wind Lightning School, Du Shaokong!”