Chapter Thirty-Two: Extortion Among Our Own!
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That meant the matter would be settled if Chen Tian paid him five thousand taels of gold.
“Five thousand taels? Do you take me for a beggar?”
However, when Sima Xiba heard the figure Chen Tian had offered, he flew into a rage. The teacup in his hand slammed heavily onto the table, and he glared furiously at Chen Tian.
Chen Tian was startled by his reaction, but his heart darkened.
If you were not the son of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, I would not even give you five thousand taels!
I am offering you money solely out of respect for your father, Vice Minister Sima. And you actually think it is too little?
If not for your father, who would take you seriously?
“Eleven thousand taels. Not a single coin less!”
Sima Xiba gave a cold snort, leaving no room for negotiation.
A vicious glint flashed in his eyes. “I want to see the money tomorrow. If it is not delivered, then the secret of you hiring assassins to kill someone, Chen Tian, will reach the ears of your Chen family patriarch tomorrow!”
At those words, Chen Tian was both shocked and enraged.
The fury burning within him was so intense that he even felt the urge to strangle Sima Xiba to death.
But he did not dare.
After all, Sima Xiba was the biological son of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
Chen Tian, on the other hand, was merely a descendant of a collateral branch of the Chen family.
In terms of status and prestige, although he was a member of the Chen family, he could not compare with Sima Xiba at all.
So even though Sima was threatening him outright, Chen Tian had no way to fight back.
“Sima, please calm down. Let us discuss this properly. I will give you those eleven thousand taels of gold.”
Though he was grinding his back teeth nearly to pieces, Chen Tian still did not dare lose his temper. Instead, he put on a fawning smile and tried to placate Sima Xiba.
“Hmph. I still do not know how I am supposed to explain the destruction of Golden Peak Stronghold to my father. Do you really think eleven thousand taels of gold is too much?”
Sima Xiba snorted coldly. “Even if you gave me another twenty thousand taels, it would not make up for my losses!”
“We have nothing more to say to each other. Take care of yourself!”
With that, Sima Xiba flung his sleeve and turned to leave, not giving Chen Tian another chance to speak.
As for the eleven thousand taels of gold, he did not believe Chen Tian would dare refuse. The money would obediently be delivered to his residence the next day.
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
Only after Sima Xiba had walked completely out of the gate and vanished from sight did Chen Tian dare clutch his chest and curse furiously.
“That hoodlum! That scoundrel! What a bastard! He is nothing but a bandit!”
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“When other people fail to complete a job, they do not charge a single coin and return everything in full. Yet this bastard actually wants me to compensate him with eleven thousand taels! This is simply outrageous!”
The worst part was that Sima really was bullying him, and Chen Tian could do nothing about it.
“Damn Chen Xuan! This is all your fault, you damned brat!”
Suddenly, he shifted all his hatred onto Chen Xuan.
If Chen Xuan had died outright, none of this would have happened!
“You think surviving the ambush by Golden Peak Stronghold means you can live safely on the frontier? Let me tell you, you are dreaming!”
“You made me spend so much money. You will pay the price!”
“Someone!”
At Chen Tian’s roar, several household servants immediately rushed in and knelt before him.
They were all trembling, not daring to raise their heads and look at Chen Tian. Everyone knew how terrible his mood was and feared that he would vent his anger on them.
“Prepare the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. I am going to write a letter. Even if Chen Xuan manages to cross Bandit Mountain and reach the frontier, I want to make sure he cannot survive there!”
Chen Tian issued the order through clenched teeth.
At the same time—
The sun had set, and a full moon was slowly rising. Moonlight flowed like water, spilling across the earth.
Within Bandit Mountain, Chen Xuan’s convoy was moving forward.
As before, Li Xiuning and the others were riding in a single carriage.
Chen Xuan was riding one horse, while Yang Ying’er rode another. Their arrangement was much the same as when they had set out from the capital. The only difference was that all the men from the Peace Escort Agency had died, leaving Yang Ying’er as the sole survivor—and the only woman remaining among them.
“Liu Peak is just ahead. There is a stronghold on the summit called Liu Peak Stronghold.”
Chen Xuan knew that Yang Ying’er was in poor spirits. Though she did not show it, he could tell that the shadow of her father’s death still hung over her.
Thus, along the way, Chen Xuan kept looking for topics of conversation to distract her.
Fortunately, Yang Ying’er was not the taciturn type. Whatever Chen Xuan said, she would respond.
“Do you think the bandits of Liu Peak Stronghold will resent you? After all, you defeated their chief by catching him off guard. Do you think they might ambush us the way the bandits of Golden Peak Stronghold did?”
Yang Ying’er glanced at the Liu Peak summit towering into the clouds and could not help voicing her concern.
Chen Xuan immediately said irritably, “What do you mean, I only won because I ambushed their chief? I defeated him fair and square, all right?”
Yang Ying’er curled her lips. “He was careless and underestimated you. Think about it. If he had not wielded that enormous heavy saber, which made his movements so clumsy, would you have been able to seize him by the throat so easily?”
Her words were not without reason.
After all, when someone was carrying a heavy weapon, it would inevitably slow them down.
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It had to be admitted that Liu Jinyu had indeed been hampered by the heavy saber at the time.
But Chen Xuan’s Dragon Claw Technique was a high-grade Profound-Rank martial art, and he was no pushover. Even if Liu Jinyu had not been carrying that heavy saber, Chen Xuan could still have defeated him. It simply would have been a little more troublesome.
Suddenly, the curtain of the carriage window was lifted, revealing An Ruxue’s fair face.
“Miss An, is something wrong?”
Chen Xuan smiled at her.
She was practically an ancestor in his eyes. He would rather offend anyone else than offend her, especially since her favorability toward him could plummet by dozens of points in an instant.
Even now, her favorability rating toward Chen Xuan was still negative.
The system had already warned him that if her favorability reached negative two hundred, it would erase his consciousness immediately.
Therefore, whenever Chen Xuan faced her, he had to force a smile onto his face.
An Ruxue glanced at Chen Xuan. For some reason, his smile seemed rather fake to her.
But she did not dwell on that. Instead, she frowned and said, “There are people ahead.”
“Hm?”
Chen Xuan froze and immediately looked forward.
Although it was night, moonlight illuminated the ground, so the road was not completely dark and could still be seen clearly.
Yet from Chen Xuan’s vantage point, the road ahead appeared empty. There was nothing but trees and rocks. He saw no one.
“There is nobody,” Yang Ying’er said doubtfully.
Although she said this aloud, she had already grown wary in her heart.
After all, when they had first entered Bandit Mountain and been ambushed by One-Eyed Dragon and the others, they had not seen anyone then either.
An Ruxue said solemnly, “I can sense a group of people ahead. There are quite a lot of them, and they are completely motionless.”
At those words, Chen Xuan’s heart sank, and he immediately took the matter seriously.
An Ruxue was a disciple of the Snow Sword Sect, and a core disciple at that. Chen Xuan did not know how powerful she had been before sustaining her injuries, but she was certainly stronger than he was now.
What was more, An Ruxue had no reason to deceive them.
So there were definitely people ahead, exactly as she had said.
But who were they?