"I have no intention of using the Le family to pressure you, that would be bullying. As long as you can defeat me, you'll have the right to negotiate terms with me," Le Youran said indifferently.
She only said they would have the "right"
Not that defeating her would let them take Xiaoyao away. But as long as they defeated her, she would release him, because if her strength was inferior to theirs, what face would she have to continue being domineering?
Use the Le family's influence? Doing that would only be more embarrassing, she wouldn't do it!!
At this moment, it should have been Guxing who stepped forward, but unexpectedly someone had already come out first. This person was the Young Miss, who came before Le Youran, took a deep breath, as if preparing for something very important.
"..." Xiaoyao frowned. The Young Miss couldn't be...
"May I ask your surname, miss?" the Young Miss asked.
"..." Guxing and the others understood what the Young Miss's purpose was in stepping forward. They felt a wave of helplessness, what time was it, and she was still doing this!!
"My surname is Le. What about it?" Le Youran didn't know what the Young Miss meant and answered out of politeness.
...
...
"And your given name?"
"Le Youran!!" Le Youran frowned, feeling this conversation was somewhat strange.
"What a good name, leisurely and content! Youran, are you free? How about we go have a meal and chat?" the Young Miss continued.
"I'm not free! What exactly do you mean, please speak directly!!" Le Youran looked at the Young Miss with an inexplicable wariness in her heart.
"It's nothing much. I just want to be friends with you. How about I exchange hostages with you?" the Young Miss looked at Le Youran with a grinning smile.
"Who wants to be friends with you? Also, this guy isn't a hostage. I captured him because he shouldn't be using our surname!" Le Youran said coldly.
"You captured Xiaoyao just because of this?" Third Miss asked. Although they had learned some things, they still had some doubts about such a matter.
How many people would fight over a surname, especially someone else's surname? This was very rare!!
"Yes!" Le Youran didn't even think before directly nodding in acknowledgment. "The Le family doesn't want to be taken advantage of by others!"
"Xiaoyao's surname Le isn't because of you, and it's not to take advantage. He likes using the three characters 'Le Xiaoyao' as his name - he's used it since childhood. This is his freedom, and you have no right to make him change!" Guxing said coldly at this moment.
"I know about this now, but it makes me want him to change even more. He's just a little servant. Having him use the surname Le makes me very uncomfortable. If he wants to use a surname, there are many others, Nangong would work too!" Le Youran said disdainfully.
At this moment, Le Youran expected Nangong Suxin to explode, but unexpectedly, not only did Nangong Suxin not mind, she said happily—
"Using Nangong would indeed be quite good. How about it, Xiaoyao? Change to Nangong, that way you can escape this woman's clutches!"
"Not interested. I only like Le. Unless you can find a surname that has more artistic conception than Le Xiaoyao!" Xiaoyao directly refused. He would be completely unwavering on this matter.
"Hey, hey, what exactly are you all doing? What do you think this place is? Hurry up and get to the point. Whoever wants to fight, speak up quickly. This young miss doesn't have much time to waste here with you!!" Le Youran said irritably. You're all being too casual.
"I'll go!" Guxing directly stepped forward.
"Very good. I want to see what level the Dragon Gate Tournament champion really has!" Le Youran smiled and slowly walked forward.
At this moment, the Young Miss noticed that Le Youran hadn't assigned anyone to watch Xiaoyao. She seemed confident Xiaoyao wouldn't escape, so she approached Xiaoyao to discuss escaping, speaking very quietly—
"Xiaoyao, when Seventh Sister starts fighting with her, we'll leave. Just find a way to break your ankle chain!"
"We can't leave! If I leave, you'll be in trouble. You still need to study at First Academy Under Heaven - we can't offend the Le family now!" Xiaoyao shook his head. This was originally one of Xiaoyao's reasons for not leaving.
"..." The Young Miss was silent for a while. "At worst, we won't go to First Academy Under Heaven. We can just go home!!"
"No, such a good opportunity shouldn't be given up! Staying here isn't a problem for me. Aside from having an extra thing on my foot, it's the same as being a servant at the Mo family, and even..." When Xiaoyao reached this point, he paused, seeming embarrassed to continue.
The perceptive Nangong Suxin and Third Miss naturally realized what Xiaoyao wanted to say, and they knew why he couldn't continue, because continuing would definitely mean saying this place was better than the Mo family, which would be hard for the Young Miss to bear!
However, the Young Miss wasn't appreciative and pressed: "Even what?"
"..."
"Even a bit better!"
"..."
Xiaoyao slowly continued, "Staying here doesn't cause me any loss, and it gives me something to do. Otherwise, when you all enter First Academy Under Heaven, what would I do alone outside?"
"That makes sense. First Academy Under Heaven allows accompanying students to enter, but doesn't allow them to stay by your side! They can only designate a certain area for accompanying students to move around!" Third Miss nodded.
"Is there such a thing?" The Young Miss obviously didn't know this yet.
"Mm! Alright, let's end this matter here. I won't suffer any losses anyway!" Xiaoyao said. "If you're interested, come again next time. I'll arrange something so you won't just stand here with nothing to do, watching the boss fight!"
"Arrange what? Xiaoyao, somehow you don't look like someone who was captured, you seem more like the master of this place?" the Young Miss said very perceptively.
"Hehe, do I? Look at what's on my feet. This is a genuine Dragon Binding Chain. The Le family is really wealthy to give a little servant like me such treatment," Xiaoyao moved his feet, and the clinking sound reminded everyone that he had something on his feet.
"Dragon Binding Chain... the Le family is indeed wealthy. This thing costs over ten thousand silver per chain," Nangong Suxin frowned.
"Yes, thinking that I'm wearing something worth over ten thousand silver on my feet, I've had a taste of luxury too," Xiaoyao said with a smile.
"..."
"What exactly does the Le family want to do?" Nangong Suxin couldn't quite understand. This seemed like obvious overkill for someone like Xiaoyao.
"I don't know what the Le family wants to do. I only know this Le Youran is very interesting, a tsundere young lady, but the kind of tsundere that isn't annoying," Xiaoyao said with a smile. "Here's what happened..."
At this moment, Xiaoyao told Nangong Suxin and the other two everything exactly as it happened. He knew they were very curious about this matter, although they understood some of it, they weren't entirely clear.
"Really very tsundere, and very boring... but I like it!!" the Young Miss said after listening.
"..."
While Xiaoyao was talking here, Le Youran and Guxing had already begun fighting. From the start, there was no probing, both used their full strength directly!
Now Le Youran understood why Xiaoyao had limited her to relatively high strength. She had originally thought Guxing was still far behind, so such limitation wouldn't have the effect she wanted.
So at that time, Le Youran wasn't worried about Xiaoyao limiting too much, but felt he had limited too little.
However, Xiaoyao had said then that this was just right, if you think it's too high, just limit yourself a bit!
Le Youran hadn't cared much at the time, if she was a bit higher, so be it. She could just control it. But now she understood that Xiaoyao had calculated it all along, her current strength was exactly equal to Guxing's.
Guxing actually had cross-level combat ability, and could cross quite a few levels. At this moment, Le Youran felt that if Guxing were pushed to her limits, the strength she displayed might be even higher.
This Guxing was indeed extraordinary, but even more extraordinary was that little servant. His control was perfect, not to mention the technique of controlling strength, even this accuracy was somewhat inconceivable.
Was it coincidence?
Because their strengths were almost identical, the battle became extremely exciting. The commotion attracted more and more spectators, though these were all Le family members. Even though this was near the main gate, others couldn't enter.
"Who is this young lady? She can actually fight Youran to a draw?"
"It's a bit strange. Youran seems to be using her full strength, but I feel her power shouldn't be just this, it could be higher..."
Among the watching Le family members, those who understood Le Youran had already noticed something was off, but they didn't dare be certain. At the same time, Le Youran hadn't called for help and was focused entirely on the battle. The smile at the corner of her mouth let people know that even if there was a problem, she was enjoying it and didn't want to be disturbed.
At the same time, Guxing also surprised the Le family members. They hadn't expected there would be such a strong young lady, she looked much younger than Le Youran but had enormous potential.
This Eight-Sided Han Sword, plus this young lady's movement techniques and moves, combined with her age and strength, all seemed to match the genius young lady who won the Dragon Gate Tournament.
What was that genius young lady called? Right, Guxing!!
At this moment, the Le family members had basically guessed Guxing's identity. Now they were even more confused, why would Guxing come knocking, and why would she fight with Youran?
Youran seemed to have never had any interaction with Guxing.
What was going on?
(End of Chapter)