Chapter 1636: Chapter 1638: A Bottle of Wine
"Who are you?" General Ji sat in the main seat, looking down at Lu Xiaobu as he asked.
He had indeed been a bit annoyed after hearing that his son had been scared out of his wits, but the moment he saw Lu Xiaobu in person, his curiosity instantly drowned out his anger.
"Lin Feng." Lu Xiaobu replied stiffly.
"You’ve got some nerve! Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?!"
General Ji was clearly very dissatisfied with this simple, icy answer. "Report your background!"
"My background isn’t important. What’s important is that General Ji’s position isn’t secure." Lu Xiaobu said coldly.
In an instant!
The entire hall fell dead silent, with only two sharp intakes of breath breaking the stillness.
They came from Zhou Shuai and Ding Leng.
They thought this Lu Xiaobu was just too audacious, actually daring to say something like that to General Ji?!
Wasn’t he just asking to die?!
Sure enough, General Ji’s expression grew incomparably gloomy, and no one dared to guarantee he wouldn’t kill someone in the very next second!
Zhou Shuai covertly tugged at Lu Xiaobu, telling him not to be so presumptuous.
At the same time, his heart was jittery as hell.
Hadn’t they already told him earlier to behave himself and keep a low profile!
How did he end up not calming down at all, but instead getting even more over the top?
"Isn’t that the case?" Lu Xiaobu said indifferently. "Although I don’t understand what’s going on here,功高震主 is an eternal topic."
Just because Cultivators live long doesn’t mean there’s no conflict.
With their long lifespans, their struggles are that much more vicious!
Especially when Cultivation has a huge luck factor in it, even more so.
Think about it, originally the two of you are all buddy‑buddy, everyone’s happy.
Then suddenly you have a breakthrough, or you get some kind of opportunity, your strength skyrockets. Are you really going to be willing to still listen to me?
That’s also why most places end up as City States.
For someone who can command the masses to appear, it’s not easy at all!
Nascent Soul Stage retreats are already relatively short, but if you go one step further, you’re in seclusion all day long. Even if you manage to unify everything, the moment you shut yourself away, it’ll definitely splinter into pieces.
Hearing these words, General Ji’s gaze grew even sharper, yet in his heart other thoughts were starting to form.
He was indeed being suspected a bit.
Before Hengqin City’s position was stabilized, it was fine; now that it already shakes the region with its might, his role as General naturally starts feeling a bit redundant.
The City Lord is running himself ragged dealing with affairs all day, while he’s idle with nothing to do but cultivate, and their cultivation levels have already started to diverge.
Sigh!
"Are you trying to sow discord with those words?"
What General Ji was thinking did not show on his face; instead, his expression grew even more enraged.
"Not at all. I just feel things have gotten a bit too peaceful." Lu Xiaobu finished speaking and started walking out, still muttering, "The wine today was pretty good, not bad."
Zhou Shuai stared, dumbfounded, at Lu Xiaobu leaving on his own.
Damn!
Is this guy seriously out of his mind?!
He looked toward General Ji, afraid the man would just crush Lu Xiaobu on the spot.
This... this... this...
He thought about Lu Xiaobu’s master, and his scalp instantly tingled.
If he really got killed, there was no way he could wash his hands of it. Yang Feng might even storm the General Residence in a rage!
No, not "might," but absolutely would!
Cold sweat soaked his forehead. He wanted to speak up, but had no idea what to say!
However.
Unexpectedly, even as Lu Xiaobu walked out, General Ji still didn’t move in the slightest, actually letting Lu Xiaobu walk out safe and sound!
Good grief!
Zhou Shuai was a bit stunned, not quite sure what had just happened.
Ding Leng, on the other hand, was also sweating, but seemed to have grasped a bit of insight.
"All of you, get out." General Ji didn’t say how this matter would be handled; he only snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve, and left.
Zhou Shuai and Ding Leng looked at each other, then could only walk out.
As soon as they stepped out the door, they saw Lu Xiaobu waiting for them.
"Brother Lin! That was way too impulsive!" Zhou Shuai started complaining as soon as he saw Lu Xiaobu.
"Come on, let’s go back." Ding Leng spoke up.
"Wait a bit." Lu Xiaobu shook his head.
"Wait for what?" Zhou Shuai froze. "Don’t tell me you’re rattled after the fact."
"It’s already a done deal. General Ji didn’t say he’d pursue it!" Ding Leng also tried to persuade him. "Let’s go back!"
"Waiting for the wine." Lu Xiaobu said as he took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.
...
"Too quiet? Should we liven things up?"
General Ji sat in the back hall, eyes on a map, muttering to himself.
That one line from Lu Xiaobu earlier had made everything clear to him.
Since it was because things were too stable that suspicion arose, then launching a war was obviously the best way to dispel that suspicion.
As long as he was useful, there would naturally be no reason to doubt him.
But against whom?
The small cities nearby?
No.
Too weak.
That so‑called ruler of the Four Cities?
No good either, still too weak!
General Ji shook his head. In his mind, what damn "ruler of the Four Cities"? It was nothing more than kids playing house!
In the end, he set his sights on another major city that shared the same gourd‑shaped basin as Hengqin City—Yu Chicheng!
His eyes gradually turned icy.
Yu Chicheng, huh?
Not a bad choice!
But he was missing a pretext.
If he wanted to fabricate a pretext, that would be easy enough, but he couldn’t be the one to move first.
The moment his people stepped out, they’d probably be noticed!
His gaze shifted.
He thought of that murderous brat from just now!
His eyes narrowed again, almost to slits!
"Someone!" General Ji called out.
"Master!" Someone immediately drifted in from the side.
"Go, bring a bottle of wine to that kid from earlier." General Ji said mildly.
"Yes!"
The steward was full of questions, but still nodded and accepted the order.
...
At this moment, at the gate.
"Move it! Or I’ll have you thrown out!"
The Gatekeeper saw the three of them lingering at the gate without leaving and got a bit pissed.
He’d taken a peek earlier and knew their master had shown a bad attitude toward these three. Now seeing them still daring to loiter here, he was instantly enraged.
An official under the Prime Minister’s roof is still seventh rank—he’d already seen their master’s attitude, so naturally nothing good was coming out of his mouth.
"What did you say?!" Zhou Shuai’s temper flared.
With all the chaos just now, he’d already built up a bellyful of pent‑up fire. Now seeing some little Gatekeeper daring to bark at them, his face turned as dark as could be.
He was a man who cared about face!
"I said get lost!"
The Gatekeeper wasn’t afraid of him at all. With a wave of his hand he called over a bunch of people, glaring at the three with menacing looks.
They knew full well they couldn’t win a fight, but this was the General Residence of General Ji; the other side absolutely wouldn’t dare make a move!
"A bunch of students dare act up here, seriously!" another Gatekeeper sneered.
"If you still won’t leave, we’ll really have people drag you out!"
The mocking voices came one after another.
This time, even Ding Leng couldn’t keep his expression from darkening. He stared coldly at them.
But the two of them still didn’t make a move; they only gnashed their teeth. If they laid hands on the people here, they’d really be in trouble!
However.
Right at that moment, the steward came out!
