Asura Sovereign VIII

by Shian Jeen

  Eric’s face scrunched up in anger.

  He did not hear a word of this matter from his father, but judging from the current situation, it was probably true. Even for the likes of Franz, he would not cook up such a blatant lie.

  Despite half guessing the genuineness of the claim, five thousand gold coins were no small sum, the wealth he had on him amounted to a little more than two hundred gold coins.

  “How much in total?” Huwang Xiao interjected at this point.

  His voice drew everyone’s attention to himself.

  “Brother Huwang, this…!” Just as Eric opened his mouth to object, Huwang Xiao waved his hand, assuring him: “It’s fine.” For him, coins were mere numbers.

  Disregarding other sources, just the gold coins found in over sixty spatial rings from Li Molin and the other Deities Templar experts from three years ago were enough to drown the entire Dwarven City when piled together.

  Franz’s eyes rolled over Huwang Xiao from top to bottom, laughing as he said, “Skinny human punk, I almost couldn’t tell that you’re someone loaded. That time, Eric’s old man borrowed five thousand from us, based on one-tenth monthly interest, counting to date, the sum is six thousand gold coins!”

  “What did you say?! One-tenth interest monthly!” Eric jumped to his feet in anger, “Franz, why don’t you just go rob?!” He had never heard of such ridiculously high interest rate.

  Franz flashed an evil smirk, “This was agreed upon when your old man put his name on the paper.”

  Eric wanted to argue further but was stopped by Huwang Xiao’s extended arm. A finger pointed to an empty space between them and gold coins drifted into a neat pile. Shimmering golden light filled Franz’s vision.

  The sudden pile of gold coins shocked everyone watching.

  Seconds ticked, and a short while later, Franz regained his senses, ordering one of his men to count the gold.

  “Boss, it’s exactly six thousand gold coins.” The man reported to Franz after he was done with counting.

  Franz turned to Huwang Xiao with a beaming smile, “My apologies, I was hasty and run off my mouth, it’s not one-tenth interest but one-fifth, a thousand gold monthly interest, so the total is seven thousand gold coins. There’s still one thousand more!”

  Eric was genuinely enraged this time, taking a step forward.

  “Is that so?” Huwang Xiao looked at the dwarf Franz with indifferent eyes. Clearly, this Franz took his generosity for granted, his little-crooked mind spun quickly, hiking the price up another thousand on the spot. For him to be able to give out illegal loans inside the Dwarven City, this Franz probably had quite the backing, otherwise he wouldn’t have the guts to do this.

  Franz laughed, “Yes, of course, if you do not have the remaining one thousand, you can pledge it against that ring on your finger,” pointing at the Asura Ring on Huwang Xiao’s left hand ring finger. Although he had no idea what kind of ring it was, his experienced eyes still determined that it was very valuable, definitely worth more than one thousand gold coins.

  Huwang Xiao found it ironic that a street thug actually dared to covet his Asura Ring.

  “Are you sure you want this ring?” Huwang Xiao smiled.

  Franz nodded confidently: “Sure.”

  Huwang Xiao raised his arm, his finger lightly tapping on the ten centimeters thick stone table surface. In everyone’s eyes, a clear finger-sized hole appeared through the hard stone table.

  Franz and his lackeys stared stupidly at that small finger-sized hole, unconsciously drawing in a cold breath. When their gazes focused on Huwang Xiao again, the shred of arrogance had vanished, replaced with fear.

  “How about this, if you can pierce a hole like I did on this table, I’ll give you this ring.” Huwang Xiao offered.

  “Misunderstanding, it’s a misunderstanding, I made a mistake, the interest is only one-tenth!” Franz frantically waved his hands with an awkward smile on his face. Not waiting for a reply, he signaled the men to collect the money on the floor. He couldn’t wait to flee the scene.

  “Not so fast!” Huwang Xiao drawled.

  Franz and his lackeys stiffened on the spot.

  “Brother, your intention…?” Franz asked cautiously.

  “Loan slip.” Huwang Xiao reminded.

  Only then did Franz remember. With swift movements, he took out the loan slip and placed it on the table courteously before turning around and fleeing the restaurant.

  Picking up the piece of paper, he passed it to Eric.

  Eric looked at Huwang Xiao, filled with gratitude, “Brother Huwang, I..!”

  “Don’t worry about it, save the words.” Huwang Xiao smiled, “Several thousand gold coins is nothing much for me.”

  Eric put away the slip, saying, “Brother Huwang, are you a high-level Xiantian realm expert?” In Eric’s eyes, only high-level Xiantian realm experts had the power to pierce a hole through the thick stone table.

  The tables in this Hero Restaurant were custom-made using the dwarf race’s highest quality mineral rock, they were so hard that average weapons couldn’t even leave scratch marks on their surface.

  Huwang Xiao merely smiled instead of answering.

  Eric, who has been observing Huwang Xiao’s reaction, thought that it was acquiescence in silence. He sighed, “With Brother’s strength, amongst the human, race you must have quite a high status, right?”

  On the Ten Directions Continent, a high-level Xiantian realm expert was sufficient to hold an Elder position in the bigger human race clans.

  Not knowing how to answer, Huwang Xiao continued to keep silent.

  “Cheers.” Huwang Xiao raised his wine bowl.

  Two bowls made a soft clink sound, wine flowed and words were exchanged. Huwang Xiao found out that Eric was obsessed with weapon forging and had a great talent for it. In fact, there were similarities between weapon forging and refining medicinal pellets. Certain techniques used in refining medicine were applicable to weapon forging as well. In the past few years, Huwang Xiao had been practicing the Gold Dragon Pill Refinement Tactic and know it well like the back of his hand.

  Hence, Huwang Xiao’s opinion on weapon forging greatly benefitted Eric.

  When both walked out of the restaurant, it was three hours later.

  Eric insisted to send Huwang Xiao off till the city gates, and when they parted, Huwang Xiao gifted Eric with ten thousand gold coins. During their talk, Huwang Xiao knew that Eric had a dream to open his own weapon forging shop. This sum of ten thousand gold coins was enough to open a big weapon forging shop.

  Eric refused to take it at first, but in the end, he kept it, promising Huwang Xiao that he would return this ten thousand gold coins and the previous six thousand once his business took off.

  Huwang Xiao smiled, not minding it.

  With Eric watching from the city gates, Huwang Xiao left the Dwarven City, heading off in the Elf Forest’s direction.

  It didn’t take Huwang Xiao long to leave the dwarf territory, arriving at the edge of the Elf Forest. Just as he entered the forest, his path was blocked by two exquisite female elves.

  “State your purpose!” Two pretty female elves sounded lofty and terse when questioning.

  Huwang Xiao then told them his purpose.

  The two pretty female elves gave Huwang Xiao a look over with slight contempt, one of them spoke, “Nowadays, all kinds of wild cats and stray dogs can use healing our Tree of Life as an excuse to enter the Elf Forest while harboring ill-intent in their hearts!”

  “Forget it, the Queen has ordered, anyone who comes to heal the Tree of Life must be treated with courtesy.” The other one said, turning to Huwang Xiao, “Follow us, don’t get lost.”

  The elf race had always carried a hostile attitude toward humans. Seeing that Huwang Xiao was of the human race, neither of them bothered to show basic courtesy.

  The truth was, there had been many who claimed to came to heal the Tree of Life, yet upon entering their holy land, countless attempts were ma
de to steal the life water from the fountain of life.

  Although life water couldn't compare to Life Crystals, it was still a priceless treasure nevertheless.

  A tiny frown etched on Huwang Xiao’s brows at both female elves’ attitude, however, he did not say anything.

  Half an hour later, the two female elves led Huwang Xiao to a cluster of bamboo huts. One of them pointed to one of the small bamboo huts saying, “You stay there. Tomorrow, someone will come guide you into the holy land. I hope you don’t run around when healing the Tree of Life. If anything unfortunate happened, don’t blame us!”

  Finishing their words, both elves turned their backs and left, no longer bothering themselves with the human.

  Huwang Xiao looked at the cluster of temporarily erected bamboo huts, the small bamboo hut assigned to him was about five to six square meters. This obvious biased treatment was proof that they took him as someone who came to Elf Forest to ‘play’ or someone harboring other intentions.

  If the person was someone of status and identity, their treatment would be different. At the very least, they wouldn't be living here!

  Ch.473

  “This Brother, what’s your name?” Just as the two female elves left, a voice sounded behind Huwang Xiao.

  Turning around, Huwang Xiao was surprised, for the person greeting him was a young man. He didn’t expect to meet another human here.

  “My surname is Huwang.” Huwang Xiao casually replied, then walked into his little bamboo hut.

  That young man followed Huwang Xiao into his bamboo hut, a grin on his face, “This one is Zhu Yu, from the Vermillion City, a disciple of the Zhu family.”

  On Ten Directions Continent, there were about a dozen human governed cities. And this Vermillion City was one of them, under the Zhu Family’s control. A human force that was capable of governing a city, it was proof of their strength.

  “Oh, do you have matters with me?” Huwang Xiao remained indifferent after Zhu Yu’s introduction.

  Instead, it was Zhu Yu who was taken aback, not expecting the other side to show indifference upon hearing of his background.

  “Hehe, nothing special, I merely wanted to befriend this brother. If you are free this evening, we could go take a look around outside together.” Zhu Yu added with a smile, “Apart from me, there’s the Sun Family’s Sun Hong and the Qiu Family’s Qiu Xinshi.”

  The Sun and Qiu Families were considered forces of equivalent status as Zhu Family.

  “Not interested,” came Huwang Xiao’s blunt reply. He understood the underlying meaning of the other side’s ‘look around.’

  His place was the Elf Forest, taking a look around was proof of hidden intentions. Not to mention, they were strangers, an ‘open invitation’ on a first meeting to join them should be treated warily. In such situations, these people most likely were just looking for a scapegoat, to carry the blackpot for them if anything happened.

  Zhu Yu’s face didn’t look that good at Huwang Xiao’s blunt refusal, “Since it’s like that, I shall not bother this brother. If brother visits Vermillion City in the future I definitely will show brother a host’s hospitality.” Throwing an ill-disguised threat, Zhu Yu flicked his sleeves and stormed out of the bamboo hut.

  “Wait!” Huwang Xiao suddenly said.

  Zhu Yu made an agile turn, a bright smile on his face, “Did brother have a change of mind? This is the right attitude, the wise know how the current flows.”

  Huwang Xiao ignored Zhu Yu, lifting his arm with a finger pointed at Zhu Yu’s shoulder, piercing a hole right through it. Zhu Yu screamed as his body made a beautiful arch in the air.

  “I won’t kill you this time, now scram!” Huwang Xiao warned coldly. Though he would rather not get entangled with these small characters, he wasn't someone any small characters could threaten as they wished.

  Zhu Yu scrambled to his feet from the ground, eyes filled with fear. He didn’t expect this person who just arrived today to be so strong, he himself was a Xiantian Second Order expert.

  Up on his feet, Zhu Yu didn’t utter a word, hurrying back to his own hut. When Huwang Xiao couldn’t see him anymore, viciousness flashed in his eyes, vowing inwardly, “Punk, pray you don’t ever show up in my Vermillion City!”

  Huwang Xiao threw the incident out of his mind, sitting cross-legged in the hut and entering meditation.

  Night gradually descended.

  The Elf Forest under the blanket of darkness exuded a mysterious aura of natural beauty. The mottled silvery moonlight reflected by the night canopy resembled the rippling water on a calm lake, blurring the lines between reality and illusion.

  Gazing at the soft moon hanging high in the night sky, Huwang Xiao thought of his family. It had been several years since he arrived on the Ten Directions Continent, the long absence made him long for them. When the things here were done, he planned to first make a trip back to the Asura’s Gate headquarters to reunite with his family.

  The Life Crystals from the fountain of life were, in fact, useless to Huwang Xiao. But that was not the case for his parents and siblings, it would bring abundant benefits to them. They were the main reason why he made this detour to the Elf Forest this time.

  If he could heal the Tree of Life, the ten pieces of Life Crystal would help extend his parents’ lifespans since they had yet to breakthrough to Xiantian realm. His main concern was to find ways that would extend his parent’s lives until he broke through to peak late-Tenth Order God Realm, forming the Godhead. Hopefully, at that time, he would have a way to help his parents breakthrough to Xiantian realm.

  Huwang Xiao spread out his spiritual sense, everything within ten thousand li radius was reflected clearly in his mind.

  After refining eight primordial divine dragons, his spiritual sense was enhanced by leaps and bounds as he broke through Ninth Order Saint realm. Now, his Soul Mandate and Ancient Puppetry Art had reached the eighth level.

  The night passed in peace; moonlight slowly faded with the rising sun.

  Brilliant morning sunlight shone down on the Elf Forest, exuding a vivid aura of vitality. The refreshing fresh air made one feel alive.

  Shortly after the sun rose, a group of elves arrived at the cluster of bamboo huts to lead Huwang Xiao and the others to the holy Land of Life.

  “It’s you!” An astonished voice exclaimed just as Huwang Xiao walked out from his bamboo hut.

  Looking over at the source, the leader of the group was none other than the female elf he met three years ago, named Lina. Although Huwang Xiao didn't know what status this Lina had within the ranks of the elves, he guessed that it wasn’t low, at least high enough for her to lead a thousand elves to encircle him last time.

  “Miss Lina, what’s the problem?” A male elf approached Lina’s side inquiring while shooting Huwang Xiao a suspicious glance with traces of hostility in his eyes.

  “It’s nothing.” Female elf Lina recovered from her shock, quickly covering her gaffe: “Let’s go.”

  Three years ago, even their Elder Julio wasn’t this young man’s opponent, forget the elves behind her right now.

  And the male elf beside her was one of Elder Julio’s disciples.

  Led by Lina, the twenty over people in the bamboo huts were escorted into the elf race’s holy land, waiting at the periphery area.

  “Everyone, kindly wait here while I inform our Elders,” Lina spoke politely while looking at Huwang Xiao before she turned and left.

  A trace of doubt flickered in that Elder Julio’s disciple’s eyes noticing Lina’s strange action. He shot a sideways glance at Huwang Xiao, wondering why their captain was so polite to this group of people. Was the reason related to this young human?

  Zhu Yu hung at the back of the group, staring at Huwang Xiao like a venomous snake locked on a prey. Beside Zhu Yu were two young men, probably Sun Hong and Qiu Xinshi that he spoke of yesterday. Both were also staring at Huwang Xiao’s back with similar hostility.

  On the other side, Lina entered a tall
tree tower inside the holy land, informing Elder Julio that she had brought the group of people over. After a slight hesitation, she added, “Elder, that young human from three years ago is also here.”

  “Young human from three years ago?” For a moment, Elder Julio was confused, wondering who Lina was referring to.

  Then, all of a sudden his face tensed, “You, you’re talking about that black-haired young man?!”

  Huwang Xiao naturally left a deep impression on Elder Julio. Three years ago, he was repelled by Huwang Xiao. ‘Sent flying’ would be more accurate.

  “Yes,” Lina confirmed.

  Something flickered in Elder Julio’s eyes before he calmed down, “I’m going to notify the Grand Elder.” He left the room in swift steps.

  When Elder Julio went to report the matter to Grand Elder Celine, the Elf Queen Kelly was present as well. Both of them were surprised, for Huwang Xiao also left a deep impression on them.

  “Celine, you go greet him.” Elf Queen Kelly said in a serious tone.

  “Yes, Your Majesty.” Grand Elder Celine complied, leaving with Elder Julio to receive Huwang Xiao together with Lina.

  Coming out with another group of elves in tow, the Grand Elder spotted Huwang Xiao amongst the waiting group and walked straight toward him.

  The surrounding elves were stunned seeing their Grand Elder present, each quickly kneeling down in salute.

  Zhu Yu and the others waiting were also shocked. Even if their families’ Patriarchs were here in person, the elves’ Grand Elder Celine wouldn’t come to welcome them unless it was the human kings, Thunder Human King and Ice Human King.

  Before everyone’s eyes, Grand Elder Celine stopped in front of Huwang Xiao, smiling as she said, “I didn’t imagine that Young Noble would visit the Elf Forest again, we were lacking in our hospitality, we hope that Young Noble won’t put it to heart.”