Chapter 38 - Fire and Water
Long Chen addressed the audience, his fingers still wrapped around Bai Shiji’s neck and squeezing hard. Bai Shiji was already severely injured and with his breathing blocked, his eyes widened. When he saw Long Chen through blurry eyes, he was startled and black blood splattered out of his mouth. Fear gripped his entire body as he trembled.
The Bai family was terrified and retracted their attacks when they saw Bai Shiji’s state and Long Chen’s icy glare.
Bai Zhanxiong’s eyes were almost ablaze when he saw his son in such a pitiful state. His eyes were fixed on Long Chen as he cried, “Stop that right now! If Shiji dies, the entire Yang family will die pitiful deaths! You will also die a pitiful death! I will torture you until your last breath!”
Long Chen remained calm despite Bai Zhanxiong’s furious glare and did not loosen his grip. “It’s still death either way for me. In fact, I’m afraid you might not do the job well. I can just kill myself if it really comes to that. What will you do about it? But looking at your son’s injuries, I don’t think you should wait any longer. He’s probably going to die in less than an hour ...”
Long Chen spoke nonchalantly. The Bai family panicked. The two greatest hopes of the Bai family were in Long Chen’s hands. Even the Bai patriarch had to give in.
Long Chen was right. If all four of the children died, the pride of Bai family line would be extinguished even if they killed the Yang family. The younger generation was only at the Fourth Draconic Stage and definitely would not fill the shoes of Bai Zhanxiong’s generation.
When Long Chen saw that the Bai family was finally afraid, he smirked. He dragged Bai Shiji and Bai Zhanxiong towards the Bai patriarch.
Bai Zhanxiong blocked his way but Long Chen looked up at him coldly. “Move!”
Bai Zhanxiong wouldn’t, of course. As he watched Long Chen holding Bai Shiji and Shichen hostage, he wanted to do the same thing to the Yang family. But when he turned, the Yang family knew exactly what he wanted to do!
After being poisoned by the Nightmare Flower, the Yang family members would die if they used huge amounts of Qi. Yet, they could still do one last attack! The Yang patriarch suddenly burst into laughter and regarded Long Chen with respect. “Good one, kid! We won’t be burdens to you either. If the Bai family dares touch us, I will give them a taste of the Ninth Draconic Stage Primordial Dragon Seal! I’m curious to see how many people of the Bai family can withstand that!”
The Yang patriarch had finally woken up from his dream of brotherhood and was now seething with hatred as he glared at the Bai patriarch. “Bai Sheng! I’ll admit that I, Yang Cangqiong, have been useless. I finally learned how vicious a man can be today and it is all thanks to you. I know you want to kill the Yang family but let me tell you this: it won’t be without a huge loss to you too!”
Bai Zhanxiong couldn’t hold the Yang family hostage but Bai Shiji was still in Long Chen’s hands. He was stuck in an awkward situation.
He looked at Long Chen’s hand and saw that a deep mark had formed on Bai Shiji’s neck. Bai Shiji was already starting to foam in the mouth. He glared at Long Chen with killing intent and moved aside.
Long Chen finally reunited with the Yang family, and the Bai family with their own. The Bai patriarch stood at the very front, together with the other master of the Bai family, Bai Zhanlong, who was the eldest son. Their eyes were fixed on Long Chen.
Bai Shichen was Bai Zhanlong’s son and his pride and joy. When he saw his son in such a pitiful state and suffering from injuries that might not be curable, he fully intended to kill Long Chen!
A stalemate was forming between the Bai and Yang family. Long Chen held the two males of the Bai family in his hand and stood in front. The Yang family felt like they were in a dream. The person who had been nothing to them was now their hero.
Yang Xueqing was speechless from emotion, and she stared at Long Chen’s back in a daze. She wanted desperately to apologize and beg for his forgiveness but the situation would not allow it.
Long Chen turned to look at her.
Long Chen hated Yang Xueqing. Everything he did was just to prove himself. Now he had defeated Bai Shiji and cornered Bai Zhanxiong. Everything he did was a show for this woman!
When he turned to look at her, it was to gloat and make Yang Xueqing realize who the true trash was. But when he saw the tears in her eyes, he froze and the gloating disappeared. He turned back woodenly.
He suddenly sensed how weak and fragile she was. Long Chen always wanted to present himself as a stone-hearted person but he realized his heart ached for her.
As if because of her gaze, a fighting spirit burned within him once more. With a bone-chilling expression, he looked at the Bai family again.
Yang Yuntian stood next to Yang Xueqing and watched Long Chen in a daze. Long Chen had killed his son, but he had saved the Yang family! A furious battle between these two contradictory emotions burned within his heart.
The Yang patriarch stood next to Long Chen, looking at the Bai patriarch. “Bai Sheng, you’re smart. The Bai family should’ve killed my entire family easily today. But it’s too bad your children were weak. You’ll never get a chance like this again unless you want to give up on the Bai family’s future and watch the youth die!
“I have nothing else to say. Give us the antidote and we’ll release these four. As for this matter between us, remember that we are both based in Baiyang Town. If you still want to fight, I, Yang Cangqiong, will happily oblige! All I have is time!”
Despite being poisoned, the Yang family still had the power to unleash a final last attack. If Yang Cangqiong decided to use the Primordial Dragon Seal on the Bai family progeny, there would be many casualties. Four important youths were also in enemy hands. If the Bai family intended to fight to the death, very few of them would survive even if all of the Yang family died.
Although the Bai family was reluctant to accept it, a stalemate was the only reasonable outcome. They had to bear it.
Long Chen warned sternly, “If you’re smart, you’ll give us the antidote. The Yang family has time but I don’t think Bai Shiji can wait any longer. Let me see ... Looking at him, I don’t think he’ll last fifteen minutes ...”
Bai Shiji was on the brink of death. If they didn’t save him now, they wouldn’t get the chance again.
Bai Zhanxiong was the most reluctant. Long Chen’s behavior reminded him of the incident years ago, which frustrated him even more. But even he could see that his son was going to die and he advised nervously, “Father, we have failed today ...”
The Bai patriarch looked at the Yang patriarch coldly, also filled with reluctance.
They had taken so long to plan this day, yet it had been for nothing because of Long Chen, an unimportant figure no one had heard of. How could he be satisfied with this loss?
Bai Zhanxiong knew that the unexpected outcome was completely due to Long Chen. He regretted it greatly. “I knew when I sent the assassins after him that the kid was going to be an inconvenience and he might affect Yang Xueqing’s feelings towards me. But I can’t believe that he destroyed everything in the end!”
He leaned to whisper into the Bai patriarch’s ear, “Father, when the matter is over, Second Uncle will be available. We can ask his friends from the Blood Saints to come help us out. We can still destroy the Yang family! We only need to wait ten more days despite today’s losses. And we’ll still get our victory, won’t we? But we must save Shiji now!”
Ling Xi repeated the whispers between Bai Zhanxiong and the patriarch to Long Chen.
Long Chen furrowed his brows because he didn’t know what that meant. However, he knew that even if the Yang family survived today, they would not live in peace. He didn’t know how powerful this Blood Saints organization Bai Zhanxiong spoke of was.
The Bai patriarch was finally convinced.
He too knew that they had failed. So he waved and said to the Yang patriarch in a glum tone. “I can give you the antidote but don’t pull any tricks. If any one of my grandchildren dies, we will fight till the end!”
The Yang family were the victims, yet they were unscathed. The only result they wanted was to leave safely. They would return and regroup in preparation for future battles. The Yang patriarch didn’t want the situation to escalate either and said, “Give me the antidote, they’ll be fine. You have my word.”
The Bai patriarch fished out a bottle from his sleeve. It contained the Nightmare Flower’s antidote distilled from the flower’s roots.
The Bai family wasn’t poisoned because they had consumed the antidote before the event.
The Nightmare Flower was also considered a type of spiritual medicine. If both its roots and petals were consumed together, it could help improve one’s cultivation. “How about this: give us the antidote and I’ll let two go. If we recover, we’ll release the other two,” the Yang patriarch suggested flatly.
The Bai patriarch scoffed at the Yang patriarch’s caution. He placed the antidote in the other man’s hand and laughed coldly, “Yang Cangqiong, you’ve never been courageous all these years. I’ve lost today and I’m not here to play mind games. However, you’ve got to be careful the moment you step out of here. From now on, we are like fire and water.”
The Yang patriarch instructed Yang Wu and Lingyue to let Bai Shidong and Bai Zhixing go. Both of them sobbed and ran towards their father.
The Yang patriarch opened the bottle of antidote and took a sniff, confirming it was the fragrance of the Nightmare Flower roots.
“Father, let me try first,” said Yang Xueqing suddenly, “They’re devious and scheming and cannot be trusted. You’re the most powerful one on our side. If anything happens to you, we’re done for.”
The Yang patriarch smiled and said, “It’s fine. Qing’er, I made a grave mistake today and have embarrassed you.”
Then, he poured out a bit of the medicinal powder and ate it. He passed the bottle to Yang Qingxuan and sat down to recover his breath. In less than ten minutes, power erupted from his body and his hawk-like eyes sprang open. Even Long Chen felt a chill. “The antidote is real. Hurry, take it.”
After the patriarch’s confirmation, the Yang family members quickly took the antidote and their powers returned in less than ten minutes. The scales slowly balanced as the Yang family recovered their abilities.
The Yang patriarch nodded at Long Chen. “Release them. We’ll get them again in the future. From today onwards, I know that you’re much better than them.”
Long Chen had wanted to kill Bai Shiji to prove himself to Yang Xueqing but after this unexpected twist, there was nothing else to prove.
Bai Shiji was no longer a match for him. Not now, not ever. Long Chen was not interested in whether he lived or died.
Long Chen tossed them away casually and the two flew towards the Bai family.
The Bai family caught them. When they saw how weak their two prodigies were, the Bai family looked at Long Chen like Long Chen was a dead man.
Bai Zhanxiong passed his dying son to someone behind him, then glared at Long Chen with full killing intent. “You ... You have only ten days left to live. Enjoy the rest of your short life.”
“I don’t think your son will even survive today,” shrugged Long Chen.
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