"..."
Everyone fell silent, feeling Xiaoyao was truly shameless, shirking all responsibility. However, thinking about it, what he said seemed to be all facts.
"That's right! If you want revenge, come find this young lady!!" The Mo family's Young Miss said with great responsibility, proudly pointing at herself with her thumb. Her exquisitely beautiful face was slightly raised upward.
"..."
"Don't worry, we'll meet again—at this year's Dragon Gate Tournament!" Miss Nangong left these words, then turned and departed, taking her unwilling fourth brother with her.
The Dragon Gate Tournament that the Nangong Young Miss mentioned was an important selection competition held every three years in the Heavenly Wind Kingdom. Its purpose was to select the nation's elite talents—simply put, it was a martial arts imperial examination.
This martial arts imperial examination didn't simply select who would be the martial champion, but also determined who could pursue higher-level cultivation, because winners could gain an opportunity—a chance to enter the continent's top sects and academies.
For many people, this was a dream.
The realization of dreams, or the beginning of dreams...
For martial families like the Nangong family, this was equally alluring, not just because their family wasn't the most elite martial family, but more because they wanted to learn new things.
The experience of predecessors is always the foundation for reaching the ultimate peak.
Because of this, many families who were already no weaker than those sects or academies in martial arts would still want this opportunity, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of winning this martial imperial examination.
This was also one of the important ways for many families to accumulate martial heritage. For weapon-forging families like the Mo family, the Dragon Gate Tournament was even more important, because a large part of their techniques and martial arts came from the Dragon Gate Tournament.
In this world, you could lack absolute martial power, but you couldn't be completely without martial power—that would mean you could be slaughtered at will.
The Dragon Gate Tournament was something that could give you higher martial power! Whether for individuals or families, this was a must-compete tournament.
Fish leaping over the dragon gate—those who pass become dragons, their worth increasing a hundredfold.
Fish are as numerous as those crossing a river, countless, but dragons are only a small portion...
Even so, many people still wanted to be that fish, cross and become a dragon, but it wasn't easy.
However, in the Mo family, two people had absolutely no thoughts about the Dragon Gate Tournament. Even if others weren't qualified, they would still fantasize, but these two never had.
One of them was the Young Miss right before them—
"Dragon Gate Tournament? I'm not participating in that..." The Mo family's Young Miss waved her hand dismissively, completely uncaring.
However, the Nangong Young Miss didn't see this, otherwise she definitely wouldn't be so quiet before the Dragon Gate Tournament.
The Mo family's Young Miss's wish was just to muddle through in the Mo family's small territory until death. She had never thought about going out, nor wanted to become a dragon.
Her reason for cultivation was merely to make rampaging more convenient.
Speaking of this Mo family Young Miss's personality, it's hard to say much now, but she was the type who was very bored yet also very unambitious...
At this moment, the Mo family's Young Miss didn't care whether the Nangong Young Miss heard or not, and prepared to grab Xiaoyao for some praise. But she discovered that Xiaoyao had already retreated successfully, without her "permission," Xiaoyao had already slipped away.
About this, the Mo family's Young Miss was very displeased and planned to settle accounts with Xiaoyao later. But now, of course, she would continue drinking at the Golden Jade Hall. She wouldn't let anyone disturb her drinking mood.
Several days later, the Mo family's Young Miss finally remembered about Xiaoyao. When she questioned him about the reason, Xiaoyao's answer was: I had to go back to tend the fire—how could I have time to waste there.
Tend the fire? What fire? A steel-smelting furnace?
At that time, Xiaoyao was already helping at the ore-refining place...
"Eh, where's that kid Xiaoyao?"
"Reporting to Young Miss, Xiaoyao isn't here today. You should look elsewhere."
"Got it! That kid has run off somewhere again. Really, I asked him to be my attendant, but he won't agree!"
The Mo family's Young Miss came to the Mo family's Weapon Forging Workshop looking for Xiaoyao, but it seemed he was working somewhere else again. During this period, the Young Miss had also gotten used to searching various places when looking for Xiaoyao.
Originally, she could have servants do these things, but the Young Miss felt searching like this was more interesting and could kill more time, which suited her bored personality.
Of course, sometimes the Young Miss would find it annoying and want to make Xiaoyao her attendant, promoting his servant rank so he'd no longer be a low-ranking servant.
However, Xiaoyao seemed uninterested in this and actually refused the proposal to promote his servant rank—something absolutely longed for by the Mo family's servants.
Promoting servant rank meant promotion and salary increase, something absolutely no one would refuse.
If this wasn't because Xiaoyao didn't care or wanted to keep a low profile, then there was definitely something fishy about it.
The Young Miss didn't pay attention to this—she was just speaking casually anyway.
After all, Xiaoyao was still young, and raising his rank would make some people dissatisfied.
Generally, minors were all low-ranking servants and couldn't be promoted, unless they were special cases, like personal pages or personal maids.
Well, Xiaoyao was still a minor—he had one or two years before reaching the age standard.
"So boring. I'll go find a book to read and cultivate a bit. Become the overlord of Qingyun City someday!!" The bored Young Miss said while yawning with her small hand.
"..."
Becoming the overlord of Qingyun City was the Young Miss's most ambitious goal at present.
Watching the Young Miss leave, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, because they all feared the Young Miss might suddenly get interested and find tasks for them to do. Most terrifying was that these tasks were often very troublesome.
They didn't think the Young Miss looking for Xiaoyao was a benefit to him, something that could elevate Xiaoyao's status in the Mo family, or that Xiaoyao was boarding the Young Miss's ship.
First, the Young Miss only thought of Xiaoyao when she was bored. Second, the tasks the Young Miss gave Xiaoyao all seemed unimportant, as if she didn't value Xiaoyao much.
Whether this was due to both their personalities making it seem unimportant, or if it really wasn't very important, was unclear.
For Xiaoyao, the Young Miss looking for him was troublesome, because it meant he'd have to do two jobs. This made him somewhat want to avoid the Young Miss, but his awareness as a low-ranking servant generally made it impossible to refuse or avoid.
Everyone basically knew where the Young Miss would go, because there was only one type of book the Young Miss could read, and in the Mo family, there was only one place with such books—the Mo family's Library Tower.
Though the Mo family was a weapon-forging clan, their book collection wasn't limited to weapon-forging. It included books covering almost all aspects of this world. After all, their family had been passed down for so many years—collecting these was quite easy.
Of course, these books basically didn't include top-tier materials, except for a small portion. But generally, they could maintain high-level quality, which was within their capabilities.
Because of this, certain people benefited greatly.
Also, the Library Tower's restrictions weren't very strict, but not just anyone could enter—at least all servant-level people couldn't enter.
"Oh, Third Brother, you're here reading today? Study hard and work diligently!!"
Upon entering the Library Tower, the Young Miss saw her third brother whom she hadn't seen in a long time—the Third Young Master who had been struck by lightning and was once slow-witted.
"Big Sister, I will work hard." The Third Young Master nodded and answered very seriously. He only glanced at the Young Miss to greet her, then returned to concentrating fully on the book in his hands.
"Very good. I'll find a book to read and then leave. You don't need to mind me! Third Brother, don't force yourself with some things, or else things will only backfire." The Young Miss looked at the Third Young Master and said directly.
From the Young Miss's words, it seemed the Third Young Master was doing something that forced himself. What could this be?
Actually, the situation was like this—
After being struck by lightning, the Third Young Master, who survived the disaster, did become smarter, but only relatively speaking. His aptitude wasn't very genius-level, not even outstanding. Combined with falling so far behind everyone else, it became even harder for him to catch up.
Don't think that after being struck by lightning, he'd become some kind of monstrous existence. Some people remain the same. The Third Young Master was already very lucky—at least he was no longer slow-witted.
However, this luck didn't seem to satisfy the Third Young Master's parents. They had expectations for their son and set very high goals for him, which put great pressure on the Third Young Master. All he could do was work hard, work hard, and work harder.
During this period, the reason the Third Young Master had been so silent—so silent that people had forgotten the sensation he caused before—was because he was desperately cultivating. To not disappoint his parents' expectations, he was overloading himself with cultivation.
In someone's words, if this kind of overloaded cultivation continued, this Third Young Master might revert back in the future, and it might be even more serious.
"Thank you for your concern, Big Sister. I know my limits," The Third Young Master replied and continued reading the manual in his hands—books on techniques and martial arts.
"Know your limits, my ass! Don't think I don't know your situation! Listen to your sister—don't force yourself so much!! Second Uncle and Second Aunt are truly crazy. Knowing your condition, they still want you to participate in the Dragon Gate Tournament, and this session too. With your situation, even the next session would be difficult, let alone now!" The Young Miss said very directly, not feeling these words needed to be more tactful, especially her evaluation of her second uncle and aunt.
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