Chapter 235: The New Vice City Lord
city of light chasing, city proper.
late at night, the bright full moon hung high in the sky, and the moonlight quietly spilled over the courtyard of the bolan main family villa.
on the training ground in the courtyard, built entirely from energy ore, estina, dressed in a spotless white training uniform and wearing a metal mask, gripped an a6-grade practice greatsword with both hands. with just a single step, her entire figure appeared more than ten meters away, behind the metal dummy forged from a6-grade alloy.
as estina sheathed her greatsword, several cracks suddenly appeared on the more-than-two-meters-tall metal dummy. the next moment, it shattered and scattered across the ground, leaving the boran family disciples who were training around the field all staring wide-eyed in shock.
“the advanced martial skill wind sever, miss tina actually became proficient in it?”
“my god! our family is going to rise. with this talent and strength, she will definitely rank in the top ten of the genius training camp this time!”
“those two geniuses ranked top three in the family, being in the same era as her is really unlucky. they will probably live in her shadow for their entire lives.”
the hundreds of boran family disciples in the courtyard, regardless of gender, looked at estina, who alone dominated the entire training ground. besides envy and amazement, each of them felt a trace of sorrow in their hearts.
as children of the bolan main family, their lives since childhood were nothing like what ordinary people in the city proper or suburbs imagined. they had basically been training since they were young, training in the day, training at night, almost no time of their own, all spent on training, just to enter the genius training camp and become senior officials of the family.
it was one thing when there were only two high-and-mighty geniuses in the family. they still had some hope to compete, since those family geniuses had only first cultivated an advanced martial artist cultivation method and stepped into the martial artist realm.
but estina had cultivated the advanced secret skill treasured by the boran family for hundreds of years, instantly surpassing those two geniuses.
now it was even more terrifying. she had directly trained the advanced martial skill wind sever to proficient level, and combined with a physical fitness already close to that of an intermediate martial artist, she would be dazzling even in any year’s genius training camp. if she kept this up, there would be no problem at all for her to become a top ten graduate.
while the boran family disciples were quietly discussing, an old man, about two meters thirty or forty tall with one artificial eye, walked over.
the moment the old man appeared, all the disciples fell completely silent, not daring to even lift their heads.
“why has the family head come over?”
“could he have some new arrangement for miss tina?”
the disciples were all filled with surprise and curiosity at the sudden midnight appearance of the family head.
the current head of the boran family, lutode, was the legend who had brought the boran family to its peak. he had not only been a top ten graduate of the genius training camp in his early years, but was now also the leader of the eleventh regiment of the garrison, holding considerable influence among the three-eyed tribe.
originally, with family head lutode, the boran family had room to advance further, but for decades the boran family had produced no powerful martial artists. coupled with lutode already being over ninety, the boran family had gradually declined.
and the family head had always been very busy. even when geniuses appeared in the family in recent years, he only met them once when they were promoted to martial artists. seeing him a second time was extremely difficult.
now that the family head had personally come here, such a thing had never happened before.
“family head.” when estina saw lutode, she could not help stepping forward.
“not bad. you managed to train wind sever to proficient level so quickly. even i was not as good as you in terms of talent.” lutode glanced at the shards of the metal dummy scattered across the training ground and praised her. “now it seems you are indeed the most suitable candidate.”
“may I ask what instructions you have, family head?” estina looked at lutode, also curious about what he wanted from her.
she had only met him once before, when she became a martial artist. at that time, lutode had told her to focus on cultivation, and that the family head would provide full support. this had caused her status in the boran family to soar, second only to another intermediate bone forging realm senior member of the family.
“get ready. tomorrow you will go take the obsidian martial arts hall assessment and join the obsidian martial arts hall.” lutode stroked his graying beard and spoke in a tone that allowed no refusal.
“join the obsidian martial arts hall?” estina was stunned when she heard this, momentarily unable to process it.
not only estina, but all the boran family disciples below the training ground were dumbfounded. they all raised their heads in disbelief to look at lutode, suspecting that the man before them was an impostor.
the name of the obsidian martial arts hall was now known to many in the city of light chasing. it had been founded by a beginner level bone forging realm martial artist. although it had gained a foothold in the city proper, it was still a fledgling force among the many factions there, hardly worth mentioning.
now the family head wanted the pride of the family to take the obsidian martial arts hall assessment and join the obsidian martial arts hall. unless the family head had gone mad or this man was a fake, there was no other explanation.
“yes.” lutode nodded, glanced at the restless crowd, and suddenly unleashed the decayed but still terrifying qi and blood in his body.
the disciples who had suspected an impostor were all forced to their knees, unable to move at all, while those who had said nothing, along with estina, remained completely unaffected. his control of qi and blood was clearly at a transcendent level.
in that moment, none of the family disciples had any doubts left about whether the family head was genuine.
this level of control over qi and blood was not something an intermediate or even advanced bone forging realm martial artist could achieve. only someone like lutode, who had remained at the extreme advanced level bone forging realm for decades, could possess such mastery.
“family head, what about the genius training camp?” estina, though puzzled, did not refuse.
she knew a bit about the obsidian martial arts hall. for those who joined it, although the hall did not forbid its disciples from entering the genius training camp, the martial arts hall guard corps created by the hall would clearly conflict with the genius training camp’s training. and since the guard corps was one of the core components of the obsidian martial arts hall, anyone wishing to enter the core circle of the hall would essentially be unable to go to the genius training camp.
but if she merely joined the obsidian martial arts hall, it would not affect her eligibility for the genius training camp.
between these two possibilities, she did not know which one family head lutode intended.
“the cultivation in the genius training camp is important, but joining the obsidian martial arts hall will not necessarily be worse for you.” lutode said, “the obsidian martial arts hall today is no longer the one you think you know, and hall master lin is about to become the fifth vice city lord of our city of light chasing, and the youngest vice city lord as well. our boran family has had little interaction with hall master lin, and you are the one with the greatest chance to enter the core circle of the obsidian martial arts hall, so this task can only be entrusted to you. as for your resources, the family will not reduce them.”
“vice city lord? lin qi?” estina felt her mind was no longer keeping up. “there is no mistake?”
some time ago, when she met lin qi, he was not even a bone forging realm expert. that he later became one was acceptable, but now she was being told that lin qi was already a vice city lord of the city of light chasing.
if these words had not come from family head lutode, she would have suspected someone was making up nonsense.
“by tomorrow morning, the entire city will know.” lutode looked at estina with some helplessness. “I know you want to enter the genius training camp. if things go well, you would have a chance not just to reach the bone forging realm, but even to enter a domain city. but our family can no longer afford to wait. do you understand?”
“family head, I understand. tomorrow I will go join the obsidian martial arts hall.” estina looked at lutode, whose qi and blood were withering to an alarming degree, and knew he probably did not have many years left to live.
in theory, a bone forging realm martial artist could live to one hundred and fifty, but in this age, what martial artist did not experience battles? the long-term heavy consumption of qi and blood and all kinds of injuries, even with medicinal recovery, could not replenish life force. so few bone forging realm martial artists lived to a hundred.
in comparison to those ordinary people who could live safely into their eighties or nineties, bone forging realm experts were not much better, and because of battles in the wilderness, they often lived shorter lives than ordinary people.
for family head lutode to live to over ninety was already rare in the city of light chasing.
the boran family owed its current prosperity to lutode’s existence. if lutode died, even members of the same clan would show no mercy. a more than forty-year-old intermediate bone forging realm martial artist alone could never support the boran family as it now stood.
but if she could become a senior figure of a major power in the city, that would be completely different. even without personal strength, the major powers in the city would still show her some respect, something that the status of a genius training camp student could not compare to.
“good child, from today on you are the first heir of our boran family, and all the boran family’s resources will be fully open to you.” lutode nodded in satisfaction, then left the courtyard.
with lutode’s departure, the boran family disciples immediately exploded into an uproar.
none of them had expected that estina, the family’s number one genius, who surpassed the other two geniuses by a wide margin, would ultimately be unable to enter the genius training camp and would only join the obsidian martial arts hall. everyone could not help but feel regretful.
as for the two geniuses of the boran family, when they received the news, they were stunned at first, then ecstatic.
“haha, tina, so what if you’re a genius? in the end you still cannot enter the genius training camp.”
“so what if you are the first heir, so what if all the family resources are open to you? once I enter the genius training camp and graduate from it, the head of the boran family will still be me!”
the two geniuses of the boran family had originally been despairing about their situation. even if both they and estina entered the genius training camp, they would be left far behind by her.
but now they had an opportunity. as long as they could get into the genius training camp, with its cultivation and resources, they could completely catch up to estina or even surpass her. at that time, once the family head passed, the position of family head would depend on strength.
dawn. the morning sun had just risen.
under the personal lead of family head lutode, estina arrived at the abandoned area of the city of light chasing, a place where not just martial artists, but even official residents of the city would never come.
but when their flying car stopped on the dilapidated street outside the obsidian martial arts hall and estina stepped out, she was stunned.
the entire run-down street was packed with flying cars and bustling with people. there were no vagrants in sight. almost everyone visible to the naked eye was a disciple from the great families of the city proper and suburbs, and many were already martial artists.
these people were lining up with their families’ decision-makers, waiting for the disciple assessment of the obsidian martial arts hall.
it was as if the assessment before them was not that of some martial arts hall in the abandoned area, but that of the city’s genius training camp. those vagrants who had originally been able to line up for assessment no longer even had the chance. anyone who approached was crushed by the pressure of powerful qi and blood.
this shocking scene left not only outsiders like estina astonished, but even meng wei, qin mu, xia ling and the others organizing the assessment were dumbfounded.
“with this assessment lineup, I’m afraid half the family disciples in the whole city have come.” meng wei looked at the ever-growing line and the flying cars descending from the sky one after another. aside from amazement, he felt like he was dreaming.
when he first joined the obsidian martial arts hall, it was simply because he believed that with lin qi’s leadership, the hall might one day become a dominant force in the suburbs.
he had never imagined that today half the family disciples in the entire city of light chasing would come to take the obsidian martial arts hall assessment. in terms of scale, only the triennial genius training camp assessment could compare.
“fortunately I joined early. otherwise, getting into the hall’s guard corps now would be nearly impossible.” xia ling looked at the martial artist disciples in the line and felt grateful for her earlier choice. if she had come any later, with her talent, even joining the current guard corps would have been a problem.
as more and more flying cars landed outside the hall, a flying transport convoy slowly pulled up along the street in front of the hall, immediately drawing everyone’s attention.
from the ten flying transport vehicles stepped out two to three hundred young men and women of the human race. some were martial artists, some quasi-martial artists, but whether martial artist or quasi-martial artist, each one had quite extraordinary qi and blood. it was clear they had cultivated good methods.
leading them were wu zhuoqun and lin yan, two well-known captains of the guard corps among the human race.
“has that old man xiang gone mad? to strengthen the obsidian martial arts hall, he actually brought all the preparatory geniuses from yunxia town. is he planning to bet everything on that hall master lin?” lutode looked at the line of human youths and was full of shock.
although the human race had already weakened in the city of light chasing, yunxia town was a key transport hub that produced many talents each year. few of them could enter the genius training camp, but after joining the city guard, quite a number became vice captains and captains, giving the human race significant influence among the captains.
now sending all of yunxia town’s preparatory geniuses into the obsidian martial arts hall meant the human race would face a generational gap in the city guard. in the future, they would not be able to compete for many wilderness resources.
even with the city lord’s decree this morning confirming that lin qi was a vice city lord of the city of light chasing, it would still be difficult for the human race to compete, because the ones doing the work were the members and captains of the guard corps. lin qi could not personally handle everything.
while the various factions thought the human race had gone mad, wu zhuoqun and lin yan, after arranging the human geniuses, entered the obsidian martial arts hall to meet lin qi directly.
“hello, hall master lin. I am wu zhuoqun, the one who contacted you last night.” wu zhuoqun looked respectfully at lin qi, who was in the lounge extracting the players’ memory inheritance. “the matter you commissioned us to investigate already has results.”
“as expected of people from the city guard. your investigation is really fast.” lin qi opened his eyes to look at wu zhuoqun and asked curiously, “which major power was so willing to hire the red moon merchant guild to assassinate me?”
wu zhuoqun shook his head, hesitated a moment, and said, “what we found is not some major power, but isaac, the gang leader of the white feather gang.”
