Chapter 297: Order

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“Finally! You sure took your time getting here!”

Bei Hong’s loud voice greets Liu Jin upon entering the room reserved for the delegation of the Eternal Flame Clan within their Imperial Cloud City Branch. The floor is covered in thick red carpet, and there are multiple amenities for them to entertain themselves with. Bei Hong and Huang Shing are arm-wrestling in the center of the room. Huang Shing glances up and waves at him, but his attention is quickly forced back to the contest when Bei Hong starts getting an edge.

“You will have to forgive me,” Liu Jin says, embracing Lu Mei as she walks over to his side and kisses him on the cheek. “The past few weeks have been busy.”

“One dares not imagine what being busy means for someone like you,” Feng Zhi says. He is sharing a sofa with Yi Jiao. Both of them have playing cards in their hands.

“Jealousy suits you a little too well, cousin. You should do something about that,” Lu Mei teases him. “It is well-known that important men have too little time for their own good.”

Yi Jiao glares at her for that but knows better than to get into an argument with Lu Mei. Off to the side, Fan Bingbing is adjusting her instrument. She looks up at Liu Jin and gives him a slight, barely perceptible nod before returning to her task.

“You could have relied on us more,” Ten Zichun says. The disciple of the Armory almost looks like he is fighting the urge to bow. “We’d have gladly helped.”

“Can you even be called a member of the Eternal Flame Clan anymore?” wonders Gan Nanfeng, looking not at Liu Jin but at Ten Zichun. She is a disciple from the Apothecary who helped Liu Jin in the Dead Plains. That she has been chosen to represent the Eternal Flame Clan speaks well of her successes since they last met. “Your loyalty is clearly elsewhere.”

“I have no idea what you could possibly mean,” Ten Zichun says, avoiding her gaze. Liu Jin chuckles. His eyes seek the last member of the delegation.

He stares.

“You?” Liu Jin asks, unable to hide his surprise. Obviously, Feng Hao was never going to be exposed to the tournament at such a young age, and Senior Brother Khong Hu is too old.

However…

“Shut up!” Pan Qiu says, trying to hide his face behind a cushion. “Don’t look at me! Ignore me! Do you think I want to be here?!”

“After the incident in the Dead Plains, he went back to hiding in the Apothecary like the coward he is,” Gan Nanfeng says, explaining the obvious anomaly in the room for his benefit. “It somehow ended up working as isolation training for him.”

One that apparently made him strong enough to be chosen to represent the Eternal Flame Clan. Unbelievable. Liu Jin can almost imagine Elder Xue dragging the cowardly disciple out of his hiding spot. She probably enjoyed it.

“If only I was a year older,” Pan Qiu says, biting his thumb.

“You could surrender in the first rounds if you’re so scared,” Ten Zichun points out, crossing his heavily muscled arms.

“Why would I pass on a chance to bully weaklings?” Pan Qiu asks, looking at Ten Zichun as though he had said something very stupid. “Besides, shaming the Eternal Flame Clan by losing on purpose is way too dangerous! You have no concept of proper cowardice!”

“Don’t say that like it’s a defect!”

Putting the arguing Pan Qiu and Ten Zichun behind them, Liu Jin and Lu Mei walk to Huang Shing and Bei Hong. The two are still locked in their arm-wrestling match, sweat shining on their faces and veins bulging on their biceps.

“How long has this been going on?” Liu Jin asks Lu Mei.

“Probably an hour,” she says. “They’re dreadfully stubborn.”

“Determined,” Huang Shing says. “We’re very determined!”

“I rather like how dreadful sounds,” Bei Hong adds, face red. “Can we be dreadfully determined?”

“You’re not using much Qi,” Liu Jin notes, mentally agreeing with Bei Hong that dreadfully determined did sound rather nice.

“We’re saving it for the tournament,” Huang Shing says. “No need to tire ourselves out before the big events.”

“Yeah, besides, you promised something good. You better not disappoint,” Bei Hong warns him.

“I wish I could,” Liu Jin says, “Unfortunately, it will be impossible with how things are going.”

“Excellent!”

“I really do not like the sound of any of what you are saying,” Feng Zhi says, glowering at him from his sofa. Lu Mei smiles at him.

“Cousin, if you do not like it, you only need but to keep your nose out of it. Bad things happen when you don’t. Have you forgotten what happened when you went to the Third Storage and–”

“How could you possibly know that?” Feng Zhi yells as he stands up, his playing cards scattering to the floor. His face is as red as Liu Jin has ever seen it.

“Brother tells me things,” Lu Mei replies, smirking. “He has no embarrassing memories of himself to share, so he shares those of others.”

“Damn him!”

Liu Jin clears his throat. “Elder Xue is busy attending to other matters with the tournament committee and will take a while to join us. She said that we should organize ourselves without her. Young Master Feng Zhi, I take it you will be in charge of the delegation once the tournament begins?”

“Are you stupid?”

Liu Jin blinks. Feng Zhi looks at him with complete seriousness.

“Nearly everyone in this room is yours or favors you enough that they might as well be,” Feng Zhi says, gesturing at the others with a wave of his arm. “Do you really expect me to stand up and say I am in charge? I will not take part in such foolish theater.”

Liu Jin frowns and turns to Lu Mei. Unfortunately, he finds no support there.

“He is right,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.

“People will talk if the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire is in charge of the delegation over the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan,” Liu Jin tries to argue with Feng Zhi.

“You mean people will make up rumors about you, which they already do, and talk about how disappointing I am compared to my brother, cousin, father, and uncle, which they also already do,” Feng Zhi crosses his arms. “You will find I have no issues with this.”

“Shh!” Yi Jiao says, lightly hitting his shoulder. “I told you not to put yourself down.”

“I am undeniably superlative. That is not the issue,” Feng Zhi says. “Besides, it’ll annoy him.”

Once again, Feng Zhi is right. Liu Jin should be happy that the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan is more at ease with himself, but he can’t help but think he has grown in a very annoying direction.

“I suppose I could take charge for the duration of the tournament,” Liu Jin looks around. In a hopeful voice, he adds, “Unless anyone has a problem with it…?”

“How could anyone have a problem?!”

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“I don’t really care since I’m bad at following orders.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Brother Jin!”

“Based on our respective abilities, I believe you are the most qualified.”

They do not even need to think about it. Some hold their voices, but no one in the room even thinks to object. Liu Jin cannot quite hide his annoyance, which makes the smile on Feng Zhi’s face grow.

“Very well,” Liu Jin says, resigned. “In that case, we should discuss the tournament first. Huang Shing, Bei Hong, stop doing that and pay attention.”

“Just a minute,” Bei Hong says.

“A second, really,” Huang Shing adds. His and Bei Hong’s arms are vibrating from the strain. The table under their elbows is dangerously close to cracking in half. “Maybe five.”

“Confident, are you?”

“Should you be speaking? You look a little pale, Brother Hong.”

“Your vision must be failing, Brother Shing. My skin is refreshingly golden.”

Liu Jin looks at them for five seconds, sighs, and has his snakes bite their ankles, infusing a no-more-than-friendly amount of poison into them.

“What the…!” Bei Hong barely has time to shout as he and Huang Shing fall over to the floor, paralyzed from their necks down.

“Brother Jin!”

“He’s become a tyrant. It must be all the time he’s spent around Lu Mei.”