Chapter 98: Father’s debt
——(POV third person, in front of the meeting's tent)——
Hu Anjing wasn't new to the game of the words, she was trained by Yuan Jia in this art so she could detect He Junli's intentions from a mile away. She didn't know what was He Junli's reason to be hostile to Li Huang but she wouldn't let her have her way like this.
Hu Anjing turned to face Li Huang and prompted him to speak.
Li Huang didn't want to get into any sort of conflict at this point in time but didn't reject Hu Anjing's offer to talk.
"Li Huang, the chief disciple of the heavenly sword sect." Li Huang said. He Junli didn't like it that her plan didn't work but Hu Anjing didn't give her time to do anything as she spoke right after Li Huang.
"You might not know as you are very young but junior uncle Li Huang is the only grandchild of your Grandmaster." Hu Anjing said. She reminded He Junli that she was being hostile with one of her grandmaster's family members and contributed her inability to see this fact to her young age. In reality, He Junli is older than Li Huang, and Hu Anjing was taunting her.
'You mess with Li Huang, you are messing with me…' Hu Anjing thought while she had a kind smile on her face. She then turned to face Ye Ling.
"Ye Ling, an inner disciple of the heavenly sword sect." Ye Ling said with a frown. He Junli who thought her plan would work didn't think it would backfire like this. Not only she couldn't put Li Huang out of the conversations, but she had also degraded her fellow disciples to mere followers with what she did.
Well, you can't say that she is to blame because it was her opponent, Hu Anjing, who is very superior in this field as she was trained by a matriarch when He Junli's master is only a chief disciple and doesn't have that much experience when it comes to scheming with words.
Li Huang could see that the situation is getting awkward so he decided to speak again.
"Let's enter the tent to discuss our thoughts on this matter." Li Huang said as he knew that they didn't really have the time to be doing this. The beast hordes are getting bigger and bigger by the second so anything other than working toward survival is a waste of time.
He Junli didn't say anything else and walked into the tent after the trio of Li Huang, Hu Anjing, and Ye Ling. Her vice-leaders also followed her.
…
"So, are you interested in the alliance?" Hu Anjing got to the point as soon as everyone was sitting on their chairs. They had many tasks to accomplish so the faster they finish this meeting, the faster the fort would be complete.
"We wouldn't be here if we were not, but we need to know your reasons for believing this is the same event of 300 years ago?" He Junli asked. She is determined in joining the heavenly sword sect's alliance but she has to make sure that they know what they are talking about.
Hu Anjing and Ye Ling turned to Li Huang.
"Well, as the holy lands know, last time that the massacre happened it was said that it was a punishment, and the one who announced it also finished his words with 'I hope you can overcome this challenge'. If you check the reports most of the things are similar to our situation but one thing. The announcer said that we will fight what our predecessors fought against. This can only mean one thing and that is the massacre of 300 years ago." Li Huang said. When they were resting before entering the trial, he asked grand elder Wan about the massacre and he told him about the punishment and such.
At that time no one saw the old man. It is probably because the team that had the 'guilty person' in their group couldn't come out alive so only the old man's sound was heard.
He Junli pondered a little. She didn't have such highly detailed pieces of information about the event itself but she couldn't deny that the things she knew were confirming Li Huang's claims. She looked at her friend Yuan Yunyu to hear her thoughts on the matter.
Seeing that He Junli was asking for her opinion, Yuan Yunyu didn't hesitate to talk about things she had doubts about.
"Forgive me for being blunt but although these assumptions could be true, why should we join your sect?" Yuan Yunyu asked. Her thoughts were the same on the matter but she wanted to see why the heavenly sword sect is doing this.
"That is really simple to answer, I want us to fight numbers with numbers. The problem with what they did 300 years ago is that every sect fought for themselves. How did that work for them? Only four survived from the one hundred participants." Li Huang explained.
"Our sects are allied for a long time so I don't think you should have any reason to doubt our intentions." Hu Anjing added after Li Huang.
He Junli was thinking for a few seconds and then gave them an answer.
"I agree, but with one condition. I want to fight Li Huang. The result of this fight doesn't matter, we will join you either way." She said resolutely.
Ye Ling and Hu Anjing were shocked by this and Ye Ling thought that there should be a history between them. Hu Anjing was closer to Li Huang and knew that this was impossible as they had no interactions.
Li Huang put a hand on his forehead and sighed.
"Why?" He asked after a few seconds.
"Because I want to fight you." He Junli answered back.
"…No, I mean why do you want to fight me?" Li Huang asked with a poker face.
"Your father was to marry my master but he not only didn't do so, but he also married someone else and shamed my master. Today I can avenge my master by defeating you." He Junli said with a straight face.
Li Huang's eyes almost popped out of his eye sockets because of her words.
'What kind of dumb-ass reasoning is this?' Li Huang couldn't really believe that He Junli herself believed in her words.
Ye Ling was really confused as she couldn't follow He Junli's words and Hu Anjing who now understood the reason for He Junli's hostility against Li Huang was trying her hardest to stop herself from burst out laughing.
"Let me ask you just to make sure. You want to fight me to avenge your master because my father didn't marry her and shamed her?" Li Huang could feel himself losing a few brain cells just repeating her logic.
"Yes." He Junli nodded.
"Can I be honest?" Li Huang asked.
"…Yes." He Junli didn't know why Li Huang asked this but she answered.
"This fight is not well thought at all and is not a good idea." Li Huang said while he tried to stop himself from calling it stupid. The reason that this was not the most stupid thing that Li Huang heard was that Jin Fen always had a better one…
"The reasoning aside, what kind of message would that send to our teams? How can the leaders be fighting each other and expect the ones under their leadership to work together?" Li Huang explained. If they were to fight, regardless of the result, the harmonious relationship between the disciples would suffer.
"I don't have any problem in fighting with you but I think it is selfish to do so when every minute that we are wasting time could cost us a life. I'm sure grand elder Su Zhi wouldn't be happy about this." Li Huang said. He even used the name of their grand elder to make He Junli think a little more about this.
He Junli was shocked by this as she didn't think of the implications that this fight would have in a time like this. She really wanted to do this, but she wasn't that stupid to not accept that she is in the wrong and she was wrong now.
"I understand, But I will ask for this fight at a later date." She nodded and added the last part to show she isn't backing away from the fight.
"Sure, I see no problem with that." Li Huang also nodded. He was glad that she wasn't stubborn and didn't insist on a fight that would only create a rift between the disciples.
"Now that you have joined the fort, let us distribute the works." Hu Anjing said and changed the subject of the talks back to the main point.
…
After that, they talked about the things that are in progress like collecting wood and stones and the tasks that need to start like building walls and towers.
After a 20 minutes discussion, they decided to add 4 disciples to the guard team and 6 to the builder team to increase their speed.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦