When Jiang Chen brought Tang Long and his wife to the Qingyang Valley's liaison office in the Royal Capital, Tang Long's face turned green the moment he saw the three characters "Qingyang Palace" on the signboard.
"Q... Qingyang Palace?" Tang Long stammered, his legs rooted to the ground as if nailed down, refusing to take another step. He eyed the three characters on the signboard with a fearful expression, as though those words themselves could devour people.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Chen found his reaction a little strange.
Tang Long's face was bitter. "Brother, who exactly are you? Your connections are way too wild! This is a Qingyang Palace outpost. You bring me here — aren't you afraid they'll grab me and make me a Medicine Servant?"
"A Medicine Servant?" Jiang Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The current top leader of Qingyang Palace, old man Fei, was already his — Jiang Chen's — legitimate Medicine Servant.
And even that arrangement hadn't been Jiang Chen's idea. It was old man Fei who had thick-skinnedly begged for it.
Capture him, Jiang Chen, to serve as a Medicine Servant? Old man Fei would need to have the guts to even try that.
"Don't worry, it's not like I'd sell you off," Jiang Chen said with a smile. "Let's go."
"No way. I'm scared." Tang Long shook his head firmly.
"Really not going? Then I'm washing my hands of your affairs."
Tang Long hesitated, glancing up again at the three characters on the signboard, as though locked in some agonizing internal debate.
"I'll go in on one condition — tell me who you first," Tang Long suddenly said, a flash of inspiration striking him. A surprisingly sharp question, that. Figure out who you are first, then decide whether to follow you in.
Just as Jiang Chen was caught between amusement and exasperation, a voice called out from behind: "Jiang Chen."
Jiang Chen turned in surprise and saw a figure draped entirely in a black robe and hood, standing awkwardly at one side of the intersection.
"It's you?" Jiang Chen never would have guessed that the person who'd called out to him was Han Xianke, the disciple of the Treasure Tree Sect! The very same genius who had clashed bitterly with him before, trading sharp words and even declaring that if he lost to Jiang Chen, he'd be Jiang Chen's dog.
Han Xianke looked rather awkward and hesitant. He seemed to want to come over and speak with Jiang Chen, yet also seemed too embarrassed to do so.
Jiang Chen, for his part, didn't particularly care. He'd never taken Han Xianke's angry outburst seriously. Most sect disciples were like that — looking down on everyone from on high.
Jiang Chen had no life-or-death grudge against him, so there was no need to push things to the extreme.
"It's me," Han Xianke said after a long hesitation, then finally walked over.
"You still haven't gone back to the Treasure Tree Sect? Wasting your youth hanging around with a brain-dead fool like Ye Dai — it's not just a pity, I feel sorry for you," Jiang Chen shook his head. When had sect disciples become so idle?
Han Xianke's face flushed a deep crimson. "I... I actually have nothing to do with Ye Dai. He offered a high price to hire me."
"You don't need to explain yourself. I never took that day's events seriously." Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised that Han Xianke had actually greeted him on his own initiative.
Normally, with the temperament of a sect disciple, Han Xianke should have hated him to the bone, vowing to crush him completely — that was the typical style.
Yet here was Han Xianke, actively reaching out to him. That was unexpected.
"Alas..." Han Xianke let out a sigh. "I never went back to the sect, but I haven't been hanging around with Ye Dai either."
"Then what have you been doing? Don't tell me you're thinking of leaving the sect?"
"I... I don't know what I've been doing either. I wanted to come find you, but my pride wouldn't let me. So I've just been wandering the streets aimlessly. Who would've thought I'd actually run into you."
"What do you want with me? Don't tell me you still want to compete?" Jiang Chen found Han Xianke utterly baffling.
At least act like a proper sect disciple — show some backbone and spite.
Han Xianke behaving this way actually made Jiang Chen uncomfortable. In his eyes, sect disciples should all be fierce and vengeful, the type to hold a grudge over the smallest slight.
"Jiang Chen, after I left that day, I thought about it carefully. I realized I don't hate you at all. A person must humiliate themselves before others can humiliate them. That day, the shame I suffered at your hands was something I brought upon myself. Besides, your words — when I reflected on them in earnest, they actually made a lot of sense. Sect disciples shouldn't use their sect's name to bully others. They should rely on genuine ability to earn people's respect."
Han Xianke's tone grew agitated. "I considered myself superior to that Qingyang Palace elder and humiliated him mercilessly, leaving him no way out. So when you, who are stronger than me, humiliated me — isn't that only natural? If that's the case, what right do I have to resent you? Putting myself in your shoes, I was clearly in the wrong first."
If Han Xianke had met him and immediately launched into a deathmatch, Jiang Chen wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.
But having this stream of self-reflection dumped on him instead was genuinely startling.
He was almost wondering whether Ye Dai had sent this guy to pull some kind of bitter flesh stratagem. But after careful observation, this was clearly no act. Han Xianke was a genuine genius of his sect — definitely not the kind of person Ye Dai could manipulate.