Looking across the entire Lou family, no one was better suited to step forward at this moment than Lou Yanyue.
Having completed her term in the Security Bureau according to the tacit custom between the Federation and local authorities, Lou Yanyue was now freed of her shackles, entirely at liberty.
As the public face of this generation of the Lou family, when something like this arose, she was bound to stand forth to defend the family's interests and participate in this blood feud showdown.
It was her bounden duty.
And then?
Then there wouldn't be a "then."
Ji Jue didn't even need seven days to map out the ensuing plot—who could foresee that in this Blood Feud Trial witnessed by the Seven Cities, when facing the champion dispatched by the Sukarno family, she would just happen to die from a minor "accident" or "mistake"?
When that time came, everyone present would be a witness.
The entire Seven Cities would stamp Lou Yanyue's death certificate.
A Blood Feud Trial meant life or death at one's own risk; if you died, you had it coming!
You signed the life-and-death waiver, you stepped onto the arena ring, so what could you possibly say?
Beyond the Federation, even if the Lou family wanted to weigh their grievances on the scales, where could they go? Even if you wanted to throw your weight around, whom would you confront? The Sukarno family could seize the opportunity to escalate the conflict and blast the whole mud pit sky-high. If they threw all shame to the wind, would a Tyrant actually fear you?
By then, triggered by Lou Yanyue's death, the enraged Lou family would jump straight into this quagmire... Ah, one couldn't even bear to think about it—just imagining it, the Xu family would probably be laughing so hard they couldn't keep their legs together.
"Brilliant."
Ji Jue couldn't help applauding.
"No!" Lou Feng slammed the table in fury. "Aunt cannot come!"
It wasn't that he distrusted Ji Jue or Lou Yanyue; as family, he could never allow his aunt to bear even the slightest sliver of risk.
Unlike an "unorthodox" artisan like Lou Feng, Lou Yanyue was the most outstanding orthodox talent of this generation in the Lou family, the direct inheritor designated by Grandfather, the successor to the next generation of the Five Towers and Twelve Cities!
She could not be lost under any circumstances!
Just like his panicked reaction back in Quancheng when he learned Lou Yanyue had met with mishap.
This was the common affliction of clan scions, but also the bond of blood and familial affection. Lou Feng could die—as many times as needed—even Lou Guan could die, but Lou Yanyue absolutely could not!
"Then we'll just fall into the Xu family's pit all the same," Ji Jue said impassively. "If you don't cast the bait, you can't hook the fish. If Lou Yanyue doesn't come, the Xu family will certainly sniff out the anomaly. Even if she does come, the Xu family will constantly probe. You don't have the final say in this, Lou Feng. Call your grandfather and talk to him."
"No need."
Another voice rang out. Only after it spoke did a rolling crash of thunder swagger across the firmament.
Lightning galloped across ten thousand li.
Brazenly tearing through the night sky, it descended from the heavens!
"Dithering like an old hen—what kind of disgrace is this?"
Lou Yanyue kicked the door wide open, glaring at Lou Feng's petrified expression. "After all these years, how have you made not an ounce of progress, boy?"
Unlike the Chopra family's toxic brand of "filial devotion," a family like the Lous had always prioritized solidarity. So long as a clan junior possessed some promise or strength, they spared no effort in nurturing them. Even if someone turned out to be an utter good-for-nothing, they would spell out the realities early on and arrange a cushy sinecure for him to be a pampered parasite for the rest of his days.
After all, with the rat race in the Federation turning into such a hellscape, if they dared engage in internal strife and drag each other down, the family would be ruined within three generations.
The spiritus shaping of their inheritance operated the same way—heavily guarded against outsiders, but seldom deliberately defended against kin.
Even halfway along the journey, Lou Yanyue had overheard every word of the conversation through the spiritus crystal on Lou Feng. Furthermore, not just Lou Yanyue—the fact that Grandfather back in the Federation hadn't uttered a single word meant he had handed full authority over the matter to Lou Yanyue.
She said, "This matter is settled!"
"But..."
Lou Feng hesitated for an instant. Seeing his aunt looking as if she were about to bring out the family disciplinary rod, he gave up in resignation. After all, when Lou Yanyue said she would beat someone, she truly beat them, ruthlessly and without mercy; he had endured countless beatings from her growing up.
Moreover, once his senses caught up and he registered the aura radiating from her, he was utterly dumbfounded.
"Ex... Exaltation?"
Lou Feng stared blankly. "It hasn't even been half a month... How did you..."
"Oh, a few days ago in the east of the Thousand Islands, I picked a fight with an old guy from the Empire. Didn't die, blew up a few times, and then suddenly I had Exalted."
Lou Yanyue crossed her legs and flopped casually into the ornate armchair that looked far too oversized for her, answering nonchalantly, "Pretty simple, really. No big deal—anyone with two hands could do it. I'm already miles behind that Wen Wen girl anyway, so what's there to be surprised about?"
For a moment, everyone fell speechless.
Exaltation—Exaltation at sixteen!
In the entire Federation, how many such monsters could you even find?!
Ji Jue, accustomed to seeing anomalies, was relatively unfazed, but Lou Feng looked ready to burst into tears.
That's not how it works! That's not how it works! That's not how Celestial Chosen do things!
You're supposed to spend years gradually harmonizing and resonating with the Supreme Good, steadily chipping away at the sheer chasms between ranks like dripping water wearing through stone, grinding night and day against your peers and theories to produce results, until finally, through a stroke of serendipity, you suddenly attain enlightenment, breakthrough, and unlock a special cutscene...
How did you just skip straight to Exaltation right off the bat?
Doesn't this make me look like an absolute idiot?!
What brought Lou Feng even more agony was his aunt's subsequent, unintentional twist of the knife: "What about you, Little Ji? You should be close too, right?"
"Ah, still a bit away," Ji Jue replied calmly, having maintained a steady track record of blowing up a second-hand furnace every single day. "All Things Self-Transform is a bit more troublesome, but it shouldn't be long."
All right, stop talking...
Falling so far behind his aunt that he couldn't even see her dust was one thing, but now even Ji Jue was about to overtake him. Just thinking about it made Lou Feng want to engage in a hearty game of tug-of-war between his skull and the ceiling beam.
Why does Embers have to be so damn overpowered?!
Watching Lou Feng retreat into a corner to sulk and draw circles in despair, Lou Yanyue couldn't help shaking her head. Still hasn't taken enough severe beatings!
She had already turned back to chat with Ji Jue.
"Since I'm already here, want me to help tidy up some trouble for you while I'm at it?"
"No need, absolutely not," Ji Jue shook his head. "Having you here in person is enough. The quieter we keep things, the better."
"Fine, you make the arrangements. Just say the word when someone needs hacking."
Lou Yanyue waved her hand with complete familiarity, hopped down from the chair, grabbed her miserable nephew by the collar, and walked out.
Leaving Ji Jue and Minkler staring at each other.
The old ghost acting as the spirit-behind-the-back dared not make a peep.
"That's... that's it?" Minkler asked in disbelief.
"That's it? Far from it."
Ji Jue yawned and stood up. "Better get some sleep while you can, Lord Patriarch. Starting tomorrow, I doubt you'll get another full night's rest."
Putting oneself in their shoes, given the Sukarno family's lack of moral baseline, they would never just sit twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Blood Feud Trial to begin.
They would undoubtedly pull out every stop to throw little surprises, setbacks, and accidents their way.
Using those incidents, they would continually scout Xiangzhou's situation while forcing their opponents to run around putting out fires, leaving them frantic, exhausted, and incapable of calmly conserving their strength.
The Blood Feud Trial wasn't an endgame—it was an unconventional declaration of war!
Xiangzhou was headed for turbulent days.
In truth, they didn't even have to wait until tomorrow.
Before dawn, trouble had already begun brewing.
In fact, right around the time the notice for the Blood Feud Trial was delivered, the trouble was already cropping up. It was only due to Xiangzhou's slapdash governance and the lower tiers' bureaucratic delays and concealment that by the time Minkler received the news at daybreak, the fire was already nipping at their heels.
A riot!
A full-blown riot that had swept across the entirety of Xiangzhou!
It had started with an incident where a Xiangzhou police officer, in the course of enforcing the law, caused the death of an immigrant through negligence during an arrest. Then allegations emerged that police were using law enforcement as an excuse to extort immigrants, which unburied a mountain of dirty laundry, successfully igniting the antagonism between immigrants and locals.
In the end, it spiraled completely out of control.
The victim died that night, the unrest spread that night, marches began in the morning, and the riot riding that momentum had already engulfed all of Xiangzhou.
The long-simmering friction between immigrants and locals, the Chopra family's bloated corruption, and the venality of the Xiangzhou municipal police—every issue was a phlogiston explosive hurled onto an open flame. Pushed along by those with ulterior motives, it escalated rapidly, teetering on the brink of total collapse.
Masses of immigrants stormed into Xiangzhou's commercial district, smashing, burning, and going on looting sprees. Locals organized vigilante groups to protect themselves, which then burned down several immigrant households, killing even infants...
"They're a bunch of rioters, Patriarch!"
A Chopra family member formerly overseeing public security knelt before Minkler, weeping tears and snot. "A pack of stinking foreign beggars! Xiangzhou took them in out of charity, yet they don't have an ounce of gratitude! Hiding behind slogans like equal pay for equal work, stirring up chaos everywhere... It's all that bastard Fernan's fault! Pucheng must be deliberately trying to screw with us! I... I..."
"Enough. Shut up."
Minkler looked down at the report, flicking a casual finger. Instantly, the director crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath.
The situation was sheer chaos.
Looking down from the hill, thick smoke was already rising like colossal pillars.
A deafening boom echoed.
A phlogiston storage depot had been detonated.
And all of this had to happen on the third day of his accession as patriarch!
"Lord Patriarch, the pressing matter at hand demands swift and decisive action."
Before the words had even settled, another muffled roar erupted, and a plume of thick smoke billowed skyward.
From the direction of police headquarters...
A cracked and crumbling building was gradually swallowed by flames. And in the phone call that followed immediately after, someone reported that among the rioters at the scene, a substantial portion consisted of retired veterans from the police and military departments.
Unless the existing structure was completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch, the security apparatus was no longer trustworthy!
This was no ordinary riot; it was a full-scale insurrection, rapidly expanding with coordinated backing!
It was aimed directly at an unestablished new patriarch like Minkler!
Or rather, aimed at the Chopra family's centuries of rule!
Yet what could Minkler do?
Broadcast an emergency call to the Seven Cities Joint Defense to shell the urban district? Or deploy the Household God on an indiscriminate slaughter?
"Looks pretty troublesome."
Lou Yanyue, who had come along to watch the spectacle, smiled. Nibbling on fruit from the platter, she glanced at Ji Jue. "Really don't need my help?"
"No need. If a trump card like Miss Lou were thrown out so casually, wouldn't we become a laughingstock? For all we know, someone might be lying in wait behind the scenes."
Ji Jue waved his hand calmly. "Just sit back and watch the employees crush the enemy."
Since he intended to take dominion over Xiangzhou, how could he have come without any preparation?
Did they really think Haian Industry was made of clay?!
At last, picking up a walkie-talkie, Ji Jue looked at Minkler. "Any other requirements?"
"..."
Minkler pondered for a moment. The greenish pallor of his face gradually smoothed into calm, and he let out a soft sigh. In the end, he hadn't held the patriarch's seat long enough; he wasn't quite bastard enough yet: "The incorrigible bastards can die, for all I care. Just try not to involve too many innocent civilians."
"Understood."
Ji Jue nodded and spoke into the radio. "Hey, Old Liang, did you hear the client's specifications?"
"Loud and clear, Boss."
In the darkness on the other end, Liang Mo, armed to the teeth beneath his exoskeleton armor, grinned. Hanging up the radio, he called out, "We've got work, boys!"
In his hand, the tip of an electric baton crackled with brilliant sparks, illuminating the dense steel ranks within the dark and a sea of eager, thrilled faces.
"This is the Mid-Continent Security Force's first official overseas deployment. Every single one of you better keep your damn wits about you! If anyone fucks up, I'll be the first to haul him up and beat him half to death, understand?!"
"UNDERSTOOD!!!"
Inside the cargo hold, the unified roar was like thunder.
Liang Mo grinned.
"Move out!"
Boom!
At the Xiangzhou harbor, two colossal cargo vessels shuddered violently as massive ramp doors slowly raised. From the darkness of the holds, a cascade of metallic glint surged forth.
Before that, a shrill hum resembling a swarming hive had already taken to the air.
Countless drones rose into the sky like a torrential downpour flowing in reverse, forming a dense dark cloud that swiftly blanketed the city spreading with flames and smoke.
Amidst the shrill alarms, the grinding of steel rang out incessantly.
Exoskeletons towering like giants strode forward with heads held high, gripping electric stun batons, trailed by more than ten times their number of Riot Cats, charging brazenly through the streets of Xiangzhou without regard for anyone in their path.
The breach team at the vanguard had already swung their stun batons and charged into the chaotic crowds!
Beginning their generous distribution of benevolence to one and all!
And in the very rear, Liang Mo, acting as commander, deftly tapped his fingers across the tactical pad to allocate initial objectives and missions before handing over the reins to the automated command center.
Why stay stuck at a command post when the strike team was infinitely more fun?
Don't ask—if you asked, his hands were just itching for a fight!
After all, who wouldn't want to be the reigning King of the Streets?
He waved a hand behind him. "Let's go, Gouzi!"
Boom!
From the deepest recess of the cargo hold, the modified mechanical behemoth stomped its foot impatiently, stepped forward, and emerged from the darkness. Its gargantuan frame, even more imposing than a rhinoceros, reflected a chilling metallic sheen beneath the scorching sun.
As if a living beast, it opened its maw and let loose a thunderous roar.
Officially declaring to all the rioters:
The First Xiangzhou Unlimited Martial Arts Tournament begins now!
Chapter 720