The Attack of the Wastrel

The news of how the Third Prince took over Shixi County in a few hours with just a few hundred men from his Silver-Armored Troops quickly spread around the Continent. In less than three days, everyone knew about it.

Everyone who heard about it could not help but be astonished, their impression of Rong Yuan improving. Upon hearing how he had done so, the entire continent almost went crazy.

With just his mouth, he was able to conquer a city, Rong Yuan was definitely the best Martial Artist in the Tianyuan Continent. This made those that believed strength and power was everything, and how everything could only be solved with violence rethink their lives. Was the way they were living their lives wrong?

Contrary to the hustle and bustle of the rumours, Rong Yuan was a lot more mellow.

He did not expect to be able to conquer Shixi County. When Sangbo Town was surrounded by Dayin’s soldiers, he who had always preferred to attack instead of defend made the decision without thinking much about it. He left Hua Qingcheng to hold back the three Martial Sages and went ahead to lead the Silver-Armored troops to Shixi County.

When he said those words to mislead the guards, it was only because he felt like their expressions when they caught sight of him were too funny and the urge to make fun of them arose. Who knew that they would actually believe him? How could Rong Yuan who always knew how to seize opportunities leave out a chance like this? The rest was history.

As he was the one that seized Shixi County by himself, according to the rules, he could choose anyone he wanted to be the new Lord of the county.

After discussing with the captains of the Silver-Armored Troops, Rong Yuan decided to hand this honor over to Lan Yanqing. It was a joke that he hardly had any free time to spend together with Gu Lingzhi, why would he want to bother with Shixi County? It was better to hand it over to someone else and treat it as a gift instead.

Ever since he stepped into the county, he could tell that this guy truly cared about the welfare of the citizens. He took his responsibilities seriously and no one would be better than him to become the Lord of the city. As for the current lord Shi Yang, he would be demoted to Lan Yanqing’s assistant.

“Aren’t you afraid of them rebelling?” Gu Lingzhi could not help but ask as they returned to the room that Shi Yang had prepared for them.

“No,” Rong Yuan replied after contemplating, “They are smart people.”

Even if Lan Yanqing wanted to rebel, Shi Yang would not just sit by and do nothing. Although Shi Yang had seemed like a fat coward and only cared about himself when he ordered Lan Yanqing to open the city gates, when Ding Wei appeared he immediately demonstrated his brilliance. In such a short time, he was able to assess the benefits and losses that they would face if they were to betray their country and could even convince Lan Yanqing to give up. How could someone who was purely a coward think of this in such a short time?

As for Lan Yanqing, just seeing how much he cared about the citizens showed that he was a man that emphasized on relationships. After Rong Yuan took over Shixi County, he only changed the Lord and left everything else the same. Rong Yuan did not even force people in the Shixi County with Martial Skills to join the Xia Kingdom’s army. He basically left the entire Shixi County to Lan Yanqing. To Lan Yanqing, who had always thought of the county as his number one priority, it was an extremely big favour of Rong Yuan.

To begin with, he was not supportive of the decision made by the Dayin Kingdom, hence, why would he rebel now?

Things developed exactly how Rong Yuan imagined it would. With Lan Yanqing now as the Lord of Shixi County, he fulfilled his responsibilities to the best of his abilities. Together with Shi Yang, they gathered everyone in the city who possessed Spiritual Roots and formed a new army belonging solely to the county, forming a sturdy force of defense.

Of course this was all unimportant, now, Rong Yuan’s mind was filled with ways to reduce the time he had to spend apart from Gu Lingzhi.

In a few days, it would be time for the final examinations in the Royal School and as a student that was awaiting graduation, Gu Lingzhi had to participate in the examinations in order to receive her graduation certificate. If she were to not appear, she would be expelled by the Royal School. There was no leeway even if she was now the Princess Consort.

Thinking about how she needed at least half a month to complete her examinations, and this was not taking into account the journey back and forth from here to Chiyang City, Rong Yuan already started to yearn for her.

“The rules of the Royal School are too strict and heartless. With your abilities, you will definitely be able to graduate with flying colours, why can’t Uncle just overlook this?” Rong Yuan complained as he hugged Gu Lingzhi’s waist, burying his head in her chest.

They were about to be forced apart during their honeymoon period, he was extremely unwilling!

“Do you want me to go back with you? With Yuan Zheng here, there won’t be any problems.”

“Even if you go back with me, you will not be able to enter the examination venue and can only wait outside until I am done.” Gu Lingzhi breathed out. She looked at Rong Yuan’s head which was nestled in her chest and his lips were kissing the partition in her clothes. She felt like it would be good to be apart from Rong Yuan for a while.

Who knew where Rong Yuan got his energy from? In the day, he could fight a battle and at night he still had the energy to keep her up for almost half the night. If she still did not separate from him, her waist was about to break.

“Even if I don’t enter the examination grounds with you, I can still accompany you for a few days on the road.” Rong Yuan whispered as he took her nipple into his mouth and teased her.

Even if they took the fastest wildebeest, it would take at least half a day to reach Chiyang City. The journey back and forth would take at least three days and this was enough time for him to do more shameful things to Gu Lingzhi.

Gu Lingzhi’s body softened as she grabbed onto Rong Yuan’s head to prevent herself from falling off her stool. She breathed out lightly as she gritted her teeth, “Stop fooling around! I still have to ride the wildebeest tomorrow.”

If she allowed Rong Yuan to do what he wanted tonight, the real embarrassment would be when she was not able to ride the wildebeest tomorrow.

“Don’t worry. I am just kissing you, I won’t be able to see you for at least twenty days, I need to remember your scent,” Rong Yuan said as he carried Gu Lingzhi in his arms and placed her on the bed. As if he was an animal trying to mark his territory, he kissed every inch of Gu Lingzhi’s body from the top of her head to her feet. He covered every part of Gu Lingzhi’s body with his scent, while his own lips were filled with hers. The mixture of their two scents lingered charmingly.

Two days later, with Hua Qingcheng, Gu Lingzhi headed back to the Royal School.

After resting for a night, she was about to take the highest honour of final examinations in the Royal School - the graduating examinations.

The graduating final examination was in fact just another way to refine the students.

As there were not many students in the Royal School that were able to reach the Martial Teacher rank, there were naturally not many students participating in the examinations.

According to the instructions, they gathered at the teacher’s office. Standing at the entrance, Gu Lingzhi did a quick sweep of the room and recognised several familiar faces. The top ten students on the Golden List of the Royal School were all here. There were a few more Martial Teacher ranked students that Gu Lingzhi did not recognise. Seeing her enter, everyone’s gaze landed on her as if they had planned to do so together.

In less than three years, Gu Lingzhi had risen from a Martial Student to the peak of a Martial Teacher. This devilish speed made even the most talented of them sweat.

Their gazes made goosebumps appear on Gu Lingzhi as she clenched her fists, stopping herself from taking a step back. She forced herself to raise a hand and greet the more familiar few, such as Nie Sang, “How are you?”

“Pfft…” He was tickled by Gu Lingzhi’s way of greeting. An Ningxi, who was ranked five on the Golden List could not help but tease, “Why are you so nervous? It is not like we will eat you.”

As she said this, An Ningxi walked in front of Gu Lingzhi and looked her up and down openly. She clicked her tongue in astonishment, “I never thought that there would be anyone that could become a Peak Level Martial Teacher as quickly as this. Did you really only awaken your Spiritual Roots three years ago?”

To be able to enter the Royal School was enough proof of her talent. An Ningxi had always been proud of her speed of improvement, but Gu Lingzhi’s appearance showed her exactly what it meant by the proverb that ‘there will always be a higher mountain’. There could be people so talented that it made everyone else doubtful of them.

“Yes,” Gu Lingzhi stated blandly, seeming not to sense her questioning accusation.

Looking at Gu Lingzhi’s composure, An Ningxi smacked her lips, “I heard that you consumed Spiritual Medicine found in the Spirit Tribe’s relics. Is that how you are able to improve so quickly?”

Afraid that she would raise too many suspicions about how her cultivation was able to increase so quickly, Gu Lingzhi spread the rumour that she ate a Spiritual Medicine that she brought back from the Sacred Lands. Hearing An Ningxi’s question, she very automatically nodded, “That’s right, if not for the Spiritual Medicine that helped me increase my cultivation level, I would not have been able to become a Peak Level Martial Teacher so quickly.”

“Relying on medicine to increase your cultivation is still an external force after all. If you want to go further, you should be more practical and slowly work your way up.”

An Ningxi had a good impression of Gu Lingzhi and reminded her, worried that she would go down the wrong path.

“Thank you, Senior, for your reminder, I will be careful.” Seeing that An Ningxi did not mean her any harm, Gu Lingzhi happily formed a good relationship with the only other girl taking part in the final graduating examinations. After all, she was now considered part of the Royal Family. Although the An Family was not as powerful as the Four Great Clans in the Xia Kingdom, they were not small. Whenever possible, she would try her best to not make enemies and help Rong Yuan build connections.

Realising what she was thinking of, Gu Lingzhi’s face burned with embarrassment. It must be how Rong Yuan kept complaining that she did not think of him much and that was why she was now subconsciously thinking of him.

“I never would have thought that I would be taking the final examinations with you.” Nie Sang could not help but sigh.

He had originally thought that after the Inter-school Competition he would return back to rest for a month before participating in the final graduating examinations. Never in his imagination would he have thought that Gu Lingzhi would be taking it with him.

Thinking back on how Gu Lingzhi was merely a Martial Practitioner when they took part in the Inter-school Competition a month back, he felt a slight sense of defeat knowing that she was now taking the same examination as him as a Martial Teacher.

Gu Lingzhi’s speed of improvement was certainly a blow to many people’s confidence. Even if she took some medicine to help her, it was still extremely scary.

There were quite a few others who felt the same as he did and looked at Gu Lingzhi as if they were looking at a freak.