Being struck so suddenly, the eunuch's face turned deathly pale and he quickly kowtowed again and again, begging for mercy, "This servant be damned, this servant be damned!"
Not long after that, the news of King Lu Zhe conferring Huang Peng with the title of Grand Duke spread throughout the Royal City, and the entire city boiled into commotion.
"Huang Peng? Huang Xiaolong's father? Even if Huang Xiaolong represented our Luo Tong Kingdom and won first place in Duanren Empire's Imperial City Battle, King Lu Zhe can't just confer such a high noble title as Grand Duke to Huang Peng, right?!"
"That's right. Moreover, that Huang Xiaolong has yet to win first place! Huang Xiaolong hasn't even broken through to the Xiantian realm, who's to say he will even stay alive until the end in the competition!"
"Did King Lu Zhe lose his marbles after being kicked in the head by a donkey?"
From the top of the social ladder to the very bottom, frenzied discussions took place between all of the large and small scale forces.
Even the commoners residing within the Royal City walls felt their King had gone crazy.
In the palace's main hall.
Both civil and military ministers filled the huge hall.
Marshal Haotian stood at the leading position on the military side, and standing at the same position opposite Marshal Haotian was a tall, robust old man with a full head of white hair who appeared to be in his eighties. This eighty-something year old fellow was the leader of the civilian faction, Prime Minister Wu Feng.
"Your Highness, conferring Huang Peng with the title of a Grand Duke is highly inappropriate."
Highly inappropriate!
Perhaps amongst the many numerous ministers of the kingdom, only Prime Minister Wu Feng and Marshal Haotian would dare to speak in such manner with King Lu Zhe.
"That's correct, Your Highness. Since the founding of our kingdom, only three people had the honor of being conferred with the title of a Grand Duke and each one of them performed great meritorious deeds towards the founding of the kingdom!" A civil minister stood out and said.
Following his example, more and more ministers spoke, which eventually led to most of them voicing their objections.
"Enough!" Just as another minister objected, Lu Zhe, who had been quiet the entire time suddenly stood up from his throne. One finger pointed at Wu Feng and the ministers behind him, snapping loudly in frustration, "All of you are blabbing dogfarts! Dogfarts in every word! I-am-Luo-Tong-Kingdom's King, I get to say who gets conferred as Luo Tong Kingdom's Grand Duke!"
All the ministers were struck speechless.
The palace's main hall seemed crushed by a thick silence.
Dogfart?!
The perpetually dignified and calm King Lu Zhe actually behaved like a commoner thug on the streets, cursing at them and calling their words dogfarts?
While the Luo Tong Kingdom's King was arguing about Huang Peng's Grand Duke title, Huang Xiaolong's small group of four had cut through Big Dawn County and arrived at one of Luo Tong Kingdom's borders.
On the way, Huang Xiaolong also received news that Lu Zhe wanted to confer his father, Huang Peng, with the title of a Grand Duke, but he couldn't be bothered with it. For him, whether his father had the title of Luo Tong Kingdom's Grand Duke or not was moot.
When he settled down in Duanren Empire, he planned to move the Huang Family over to the Imperial City.
Half a month later, they arrived at Luo Tong Kingdom's most southern border, Southern Cliffs City.
Arriving in Southern Cliffs City, Huang Xiaolong suddenly thought about the scene of the last Castellan of Southern Cliffs City, Wei Yang, and his concubine's death. After Wei Yang died, the new Castellan who replaced him was named Sun Qing.
Before being promoted to this post, Sun Qing was a general guarding one of the kingdom's borders. A subordinate of Marshal Haotian's subordinate's subordinate.
By the time Huang Xiaolong's group entered Southern Cliffs City, it was already late. Thus, Huang Xiaolong decided to stay in the city for one night and continue his journey the next day.
Huang Xiaolong did not bother Sun Qing with his stay in Southern Cliffs City.
The four of them simply chose a passable inn close to the Castellan Manor called Warm Fragrance and rented four rooms for the night.
The night gradually deepened.
The surrounding was quiet with most of the people asleep.
Clear moonlight shone down like rippling water.
Huang Xiaolong was meditating in his room when suddenly, a light footstep sounded from the rooftop.
Huang Xiaolong was alerted and stepped out of his room. Searching for the source of the disturbance, he detected two black-clothed men with masked faces jumping over rooftops. And with agile leaps over the walls, the two black shadows snuck into the Castellan's Manor.
When Huang Xiaolong came out of his room, Zhao Shu, Yu Ming, and Fei Hou also came out from their rooms.
"Sovereign, do we…?" Zhao Shu took a step forward and asked.
Huang Xiaolong's voice sounded solemn, "First wait and see what's going on."
At this point, the two black-clothed men that snuck into the Castellan Manor came to a stop at a certain courtyard building. Standing there, one of the men quickly removed something from the clothing overlapping his chest that looked like a tube. Positioning the tube, the man blew into it. After some time, the other man jumped into the room and exited while carrying a sack over his shoulder.
Cautiously giving the surrounding a glance, the two men bypassed the Castellan Manor's patrolling guards and leaped over the walls, carrying the sack away from the manor.
Huang Xiaolong and the rest saw the two men's actions clearly. Judging from their actions, these two men rendered the person in that room unconscious using some drug and abducted them.
"Zhao Shu, Yu Ming, the two of you wait here; Fei Hou and I are going to have a look." Huang Xiaolong said.
"But!" Zhao Shu and Yu Ming were reluctant.
"Don't worry, it's just a few small shrimps, they won't be any problem." Huang Xiaolong reassured them.
"Yes, Sovereign!" Both of them relented.
Thus, Huang Xiaolong and Fei Hou leaped out, following the two men quietly from behind.
Originally, Huang Xiaolong had no interest in meddling in these affairs.
However, since these people dared to trespass into the Castellan Manor to abduct a victim, Huang Xiaolong's curiosity was piqued, wanting to see what these people were up to.
Huang Xiaolong vaguely guessed that this event wasn't as simple as it seemed on the surface.
Huang Xiaolong and Fei Hou followed the two black-clothed men the entire time, and an hour later, the two men entered an abandoned, dilapidated courtyard on the northern side of Southern Cliffs City.
Inside the courtyard, six people stood waiting. Seeing these people, Huang Xiaolong immediately took notice of their sect uniform: it belonged to Big Sword Sect.
Big Sword Sect!
"Senior Brother Wei!" At this time, the two black-clothed men called out towards one of the young men, putting the sack down on the ground.
That young man asked, "Where is the person, did you bring them?" His eyes swept over the sack on the ground as he said this.
"Senior Brother Wei, don't worry, Sun Qing's daughter is right inside here." One of the black-clothed men grinned and pointed at the sack, "She will probably wake up in an hour's time."
Hearing this, the young man laughed, "Not bad." He walked towards the sack and untied the knot, revealing the pretty face of a seventeen to eighteen year old girl.
"After my father was killed, I didn't expect they would give Sun Qing, that old fellow, the chance to seize the Castellan's position. Since he doesn't know what's good for him, refusing to cooperate with our Big Sword Sect… Sun Qing, your youngest daughter is quite the beauty! Tonight, I will enjoy myself, and have a taste of your daughter." That young man laughed wretchedly, "If you refuse again, then next will be your eldest daughter!"
The other disciples were looking enviously at that young man.
Huang Xiaolong was surprised as he observed this young man some distance away. He was the son of the previous Southern Cliffs City Castellan that he killed? The son that joined Big Sword Sect, Wei Xiaodong?
On the other side, Wei Xiaodong turned towards the several Big Sword Sect disciples with him saying, "All of you leave, keep an eye out." Evidently, he was anxious to 'deal' with Sun Qing's daughter in this dilapidated courtyard.
"Yes, Senior Brother Wei!" The disciples answered.
Just as their voices ended, another voice sounded suddenly. It came about too suddenly, and Wei Xiaodong's body shuddered from being startled. Turning around, he saw a young man around seventeen to eighteen walking in their direction with a middle-aged man behind him.
Wei Xiaodong stood up quickly, and his eyes glared furiously at the two black-clothed men, "Can't you do something right for once!" The two 'guests' surely tailed these two.
The two black-clothed men cast down their heads, not daring to utter any sounds.