Taking the Eight Generals as Masters?

Tap, tap, tap! A flurry of hurried footsteps drew near, and Li Guanqi could not help but frown. Outside the door was a man with sinister eyes, clad in a beast-hide robe—whether fashioned from fox fur or the pelt of some demonic beast was hard to tell. The glossy black fur collar was matted with dried blood. His features were rugged, his hair gathered into braids, and a gold-ring broadsword hung at his waist. Around his neck hung a necklace of beast teeth. Three gruesome, twisted scars ran across his gaunt, dark-skinned face, and his gaze was sharp. After ascending the stairs, the man headed straight for Heaven Suite Two. A suppressed aura gradually radiated outward. Without a single word, primal energy surged through him as he kicked hard at the door! Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed. Meng Wanshu was still bathing, yet this man dared to kick the door without even uttering a word? "Hmph!" Whoosh! Li Guanqi teleported outside the room. Seeing a handsome youth who resembled a scholar suddenly standing before him, the man did not check his force in the slightest. The patrons bustling about the restaurant had already been drawn by the commotion. Seeing this, cries of alarm broke out from the onlookers. "Oh no, that youth is going to suffer." "If that kick lands, even if he doesn't die, he'll likely be bedridden for the rest of his life." A sudden flash of cold light flared in the depths of Li Guanqi's eyes! He brought the fingers of his right hand together like a sword and slashed across the air before him! Squelch! Screech! Thunder shrieked. Before many could even register what had occurred, one of the man's legs was severed clean off! The man's expression changed drastically. Intense agony washed over him, and terror flooded his heart! Boom! An inexplicable aura descended, bearing down on him alone. Before he could even cry out in pain, he crashed heavily to his knees. Thud! His head struck the bluestone floor so violently that the tiles shattered beneath it, leaving his forehead a mangled, bloody mess. Li Guanqi clasped his hands behind his back and looked down at the man, saying softly, "Do not provoke me." With that, Li Guanqi dispersed his aura and vanished back into the room. The man's face was deathly pale. His pupils, constricted like needles, trembled wildly. With his head buried in the broken bluestone, he did not dare move a muscle. Even after Li Guanqi returned to the room and his presence faded, the man merely held his breath, trembling all over as he stammered in a low voice: "Th-thank you, Senior, for sparing my life..." "I will get lost... I'll get lost right away..." As he spoke, keeping his face pressed against the floor, he dragged himself backward inch by inch. Just as he reached out a hand to retrieve his severed leg—whoosh! A fierce streak of thunder sword light flashed and vanished! His entire hand was severed at the wrist, and a massive gouge was carved into the gallery floor. Li Guanqi's cold voice drifted out: "Did I give you permission to take it?" The man was paralyzed with terror. Gritting his teeth against the sheer agony of his severed limb and hand, he retreated down the stairs step by step. Blood marked the staircase all the way from the sixth floor down to the first, yet the man never dared to stand up. Only after the man had departed did people throughout the restaurant begin to murmur in hushed voices about what had just transpired. Without exception, everyone was immensely curious about the identity of the guest in Heaven Suite Two. The woman managing the counter was shaken to her core, yet she dared not disturb them in the least, nor did she dare mention switching rooms. Inside the room, Meng Wanshu chuckled and said, "Why such a temper?" Li Guanqi curled his lip. "He irritated me. You were taking a bath, yet he had the audacity to kick the door!" Meng Wanshu smiled. Thinking about it, it was true. For Li Guanqi not to have killed the man outright was already remarkably restrained. The matter with Ye Feng had kept him on edge all this time; with someone coming to pick a fight under such circumstances, Li Guanqi's restraint in sparing him was indeed showing mercy. Li Guanqi did not take the incident to heart. If the other party sought revenge... Li Guanqi cast a brief glance toward the window. The man was already departing in an imposing convoy with his entourage. Even as he left, the man never dared look up toward the upper floor once. Li Guanqi let out a soft cold scoff. If they wanted revenge, he would not mind venting a bit more. Pan Yi's expression was grim to the extreme. He had never expected that a tiny place like Qixia City would harbor such a formidable expert! This time, he had truly kicked an iron plate. "Boss, what happened to you?" Pan Yi had merely gone upstairs for a brief moment, only to come crawling out on his knees, missing a hand and a leg. Anyone would be stunned. The man replied in a chilled, sullen tone, "There is an expert up there. I failed to open my eyes." Yet he also remarked with a sigh, "He was very restrained. I was fortunate to keep my life." With an unsightly expression, Pan Yi said, "Find any inn to stay at, and you go to the city lord's estate in person. Tell them something urgent came up and I will go see him in an hour." He had no choice. In his current state, missing a hand and a leg, there was no way he could present himself before the City Lord of Qixia City. After the entourage departed, Li Guanqi sat before the table in a slight daze. Then he took out an ancient jade slip and whispered, "Grandpa, I am planning to have the brothers by my side apprentice under the Eight Generals. What do you think?" Soon, the jade slip glowed faintly, and Su Xuan's voice drifted through. Behind the folding screen where she was bathing, Meng Wanshu held her breath and listened closely. "You may. You can contact Long Hou privately." "However... whether they will accept them, I cannot guarantee." Li Guanqi froze. He had not expected his old man to say such a thing. He had already bragged to them: "Grandpa, my dear grandfather... I already told them the Eight Generals would take them in." Sitting in his chair, Su Xuan curled his lips into a faint smile, smacking his lips and tapping his pipe against the edge of the table. "Taking an apprentice is no trivial matter. The Eight Generals will have their own thoughts." "It will depend on whether those brothers of yours have the talent. I will pass the word along." Hearing this, Li Guanqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been absurd if there were no hope at all. Just as he was about to put the jade slip away, Su Xuan's voice rang out once more! Only this time, the old man's tone grew somewhat solemn. "Guanqi, for a long time to come, the Eight Generals likely will not appear in the outside world." "This also means that the means Grandpa has to protect you will become fewer and fewer. Everything will depend on yourself!" Li Guanqi frowned, ripples stirring in his heart as though a massive boulder had been dropped into a lake. He did not care that the Eight Generals would no longer be shielding him; rather, he worried that something had occurred on his grandfather's end requiring the Eight Generals to return and help. "Has something happened?" Su Xuan chuckled nonchalantly, speaking with dismissive ease, "With me around, what could possibly happen?" "It is nothing more than a bit of extra trouble." "That is why I must recall them all. As for the matter of apprenticing, you will just have to contact Long Hou and see." Li Guanqi took a deep breath and murmured, "All right, I understand." Setting down the jade slip, Meng Wanshu frowned and asked, "Is the situation on Grandpa Su's end very troublesome?" Li Guanqi shook his head and offered a wry smile. "As long as the old man says it's fine, then it is definitely fine." "At least... it hasn't reached the point where even he finds it troublesome." Rising to his feet, Li Guanqi said softly, "It seems their path to apprenticeship will have a few twists and turns." Once the words left his mouth, he could not help but chuckle. "Then again, they are the Eight Generals... Taking one as a master was never going to be that simple." Thoughts raced rapidly through Li Guanqi's mind as he murmured under his breath, "If I remember correctly, there are a few others like Qin Wushang who are reserve candidates for the Eight Generals, aren't there?" Qin Wushang was precisely the candidate successor for Nangong Xuandu, the Sword Head! And he was immensely curious about just how powerful that old man named Dugu Lingxiao truly was.