Chapter 89: Yin Winds in the Air

Chapter 89: Yin Winds in the Air

Picking up where the last chapter left off: Feng Du and I had talked about Future World, and sure enough, he knew a fair amount about it. He’d probably been there himself. What he’d told me would prove useful for my next move.

I took my leave of Feng Du and made my way first to Dusk Bar. There, I spent most of the day talking with Fatty Huang, Du Xiaoran’s code-body.

Since the two of us had just discussed Future World in the real world already, our meeting mostly turned into a meal together and an exchange of the latest gossip making the rounds in the virtual worlds.

Among other things, he told me Yuan Lingliang had gone looking for me in Ghostdark City, and had even stormed into the City Lord’s estate and made a scene there. Feng Du had ended up chasing her out. Fatty Huang kept insisting, over and over, that I shouldn’t let a beautiful woman’s heart go to waste.

There was also the matter of the Jianghai Gang. No one knew what teaching they’d gotten hold of, but their sect master’s strength had surged, and these past few days they’d been going out of their way to make trouble for Ziyun Sect.

None of it much concerned me. I hadn’t spent long enough at Ziyun Sect to feel any real attachment to it, and as for Yuan Lingliang, that was her longing, not mine. I’d never meant to encourage her.

After the meal, once I’d gotten clear directions on how to reach Future World, I stepped out of Ghostdark City.

The moment I emerged from the passage, I saw the Jianghai Gang and Ziyun Sect locked in a full-scale battle in the sky nearby.

I remembered Liu Tanzhuang telling me the Jianghai Gang wasn’t far from the Ghostdark City entrance, and I’d certainly run into plenty of their disciples inside the city itself.

I hadn’t expected the two factions to pick a battlefield so close to the Jianghai Gang’s own turf. It had only been a few months since the contest for the Heavenly Palace—now here they were at each other’s throats again. What were they even fighting over this time?

Not that it mattered to me. As long as they stayed out of my way, the two gangs could do as they pleased. If anything, this sort of skirmishing was good for both sides. It kept their people sharp.

This time, though, the Jianghai Gang clearly had the upper hand.

Off to one side, a Jianghai Gang grandmaster had just put down a Ziyun Sect grandmaster. Closer in, the Jianghai Gang’s sect master had Ziyun Sect’s own sect master pinned and was pounding him without mercy.

Yuan Jiangyi, Ziyun Sect’s sect master, had beaten the Jianghai Gang’s sect master handily the last time they’d met. Now he was crushed beneath a thick, roiling rain cloud, gasping for breath, being driven back nearly to the very mouth of Ghostdark City.

In truth, the disciples’ skirmishes barely mattered. The real contest was always between the grandmasters and sect masters. Last time, because the prize had been the Heavenly Palace, they’d fought it out through a tiered scoring system. I imagined the Jianghai Gang still hadn’t forgiven having their whole plan wrecked by a nobody like me.

When I appeared right in the middle of the two sect masters’ battlefield, the crowd of disciples and onlookers from both sides gasped and scrambled to their feet, murmuring in astonishment.

A duel between sect masters generated an aura so fierce that nothing could stand within a kilometer of it. No one had expected me to just stroll out of the Ghostdark City passage, squat down beneath that rain cloud, and take a good look at Yuan Jiangyi pinned to the ground.

When Yuan Jiangyi caught me looking at him, his face flushed scarlet with shame.

Talk about humiliating.

Losing wasn’t the embarrassing part. Getting ground into the dirt while a former subordinate crouched there watching—that was what made it unbearable. Where was the man supposed to put his pride after that?

The Jianghai Gang’s sect master looked just as rattled, clearly worried I’d step in to help Yuan Jiangyi…