Battle Through the Heavens

BTTH Chapter 13 – Black Metal Piece

Seeing Xun Er nod at Xiao Yan’s words, Jia Lie Ao’s mouth started twitching. He curled his fists and stared coldly at the calm and impassive young man before him.

Jia Lie Ao’s underlings, seeing that their young master was quite angry, quickly walked forward and surrounded both, Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun. Their gazes revealing their bad intentions.

Even though it was deep within the market, there were still quite a few people around and they turned their questioning gazes towards the surrounded group. Xiao Yan and Jia Lie Ao had quite a reputation in Wu Tang City, Xiao Yan for his fall from genius to cripple and Jia Lie Ao for his less than honorable encounters with other women. Even though they were infamous, they were still well known within the city.

Looking Jia Lie Ao’s group’s movements, Xiao Yan’s brow jumped and on his young face, a hint of confidence creeped. Lightly turning his head, he whistled towards a spot within the market.

Seeing Xiao Yan’s actions, everyone turned their head to the direction in which Xiao Yan whistled and saw the market’s guards furiously coming over under the lead of Pei En.

With his fellow guards, Pei En rushed towards Xiao Yan and quickly, the market’s guards surrounded Jia Lie Ao’s underlings who were surrounding Xiao Yan and Xiao Xun.

“Third young master, anything wrong?” Walking up to Xiao Yan, Pei En swept his glance over Jia Lie Ao and then respectfully asked Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan lightly smiles and turned to face the green-faced Jia Lie Ao. He nonchalantly said: “Jia Lie Ao young master, this market is controlled by Xiao Clan, are you sure you want to fight here?”

Jia Lie Ao’s eyes revealed his fear for Pei En but he immediately sneered at Xiao Yan: “Do you only know to rely on your clan? If you are a man…”

“What you want to say is, if I am a man then I would fight you one on one. Right?” Xiao Yan waved his hand and cut Jia Lie Ao off.

Jia Lie Ao sneered again and with a hint of challenge, he said: “Yup, are you afraid?”

Looking at the arrogant face of Jia Lie Ao, Xiao Yan helplessly sighed and puts his hand up to feel his forehead. Moments later, he raised his head and shrugs his shoulder and with innocence and naivety, he asked: “Jia Lie Ao young master, I would like to ask, how old are you?”

The edge of Jia Lie Ao’s mouth twitched and he doesn’t respond.

“Big guy, you’re already twenty one. How old am I? Fifteen! You’re actually asking a kid that hasn’t performed his coming of age ritual to fight you? Don’t you feel that your request is over the top, don’t you feel embarrassed?” Xiao Yan’s innocent appearance was so realistic that Xun Er beside him couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

“Haha…”

Hearing the young man’s words, the mercenary and merchant stall owners also let out laughs. Xiao Yan was right, at his current age, Xiao Yan could only be considered a kid but Jia Lie Ao would be considered an adult. A challenge of this kind made everyone look down upon Jia Lie Ao.

The laughter of the crowd was like a bucket of cold water and helped Jia Lie Ao regain his calm. From Xiao Yan’s maturity and calmness to his impassive attitude, it was extremely easy for people to forget how old he really was. Therefore, after Xiao Yan said his age, Jia Lie Ao finally remembered that the young man standing in front of him was only fifteen.

Gnashing his teeth, Jia Lie Ao looked at the leering guards behind Xiao Yan and realized that he didn’t have any chance of retaliation today. He could only shake his head and coldly say: “One more year and you’ll be undergoing the coming of age ritual right? Hehe, I think that someone as crippled as you, once you finish the coming of age ritual, will only be sent to some remote and poor village. At that time, you won’t even have the power to enter Wu Tang City, pretty pitiful.”

Xiao Yan lightly smiles and nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders.

Jia Lie Ao’s eyelids flickered. He didn’t know why but whenever he saw the calm face of the young man in front of him, a mysterious rage boiled within him. You’re only a cripple and trying to act like you know everything…

Forcefully suppressing his anger, Jia Lie Ao let out a cold hmph and with a wave of his hand, commands his underlings to exit the crowd.

“Oh right….” His steps stopping, Jia Lie Ao seemed to have remembered something and turning back, he said: “ Xiao Yan young master, I heard that your Xiao Clan had their marriage with the Nalan Clan revoked. Hehe, actually, that isn’t unexpected. With your Qi talent, you just can’t match the Miss Nalan. Haha…” After saying that, Jia Lie Ao left laughing.

Xiao Yan’s gaze coldly followed the exit of Jia Lie Ao. Tightly holding Xun Er who was about to rush out, he quietly said: “He’s just a mad dog.If he bites you, why should you bite back?”

“But he.. went too far. We can’t just let him off like this?” Her eyebrows furrowing, Xun Er indignantly replied.

“There will always be an opportunity…” Xiao Yan smirked and the coldness coming from his voice made Pei En shuddered. A lion’s bite might not be that scary but a lion that knows patience is another story, a scary one…

“Uncle Pei En, sorry for troubling you.” Xiao Yan turned back and smiled gently toward Pei En’s group. The previously intense atmosphere all of a sudden changed into a lighthearted mood.

Impressed by the control over emotions that Xiao Yan exercised, Pei En’s smile was reinforced by a sense of respect. Even with Xiao Yan’s lack of talent, Xiao Yan’s future accomplishments probably wouldn’t be too shabby with his mental prowess.

“Haha, third young master’s joking. This is Xiao Clan’s territory, we wouldn’t allow Jia Lie Clan to do as they please here.” Pei Em smiled and seeing that Xiao Yan started to look around, he quickly took his leave along with his men.

Looking at the exiting Pei En and his group, Xiao Yan turned around and ruffled Xun Er’s hair and said slightly forcefully: “A level 1 monster core made you forget your morals? You know as well as I do what kind of person Jia Lie Ao is. The moment you take his stuff, he would definitely ask for favors.”

Straightening her hair, Xun Er flipped her hands upwards: “He wanted to give it me, it was free.”

Xiao Yan rolled his eyes and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “It isn’t like that’s something precious, did you really need to act like that? Don’t forget, you’re the young genius in Xiao Clan…”

Xun Er wrinkles her nose and raised the bracelet on her wrist. She taunted: “So Xiao Yan ge-ge has also been noticing Xun Er.”

Xiao Yan stayed silent and pulling on Xun Er’s hand, they walked towards some stalls deeper in the market…

After walking past quite a few stalls, Xiao Yan’s feet finally stopped. He bent down and stared at a green orb that still had a trace of blood on the stall and said: “I’ve finally found it.”

Moving his hand across the stall, Xiao Yan’s was about to grab the monster core when his hand stiffened. A strange foreboding struck his mind…

Licking his lips, Xiao Yan continued to pick up the monster core but his gaze, as if by accident, swept across the stall….

Moments later, his gaze landed on a piece of black metal that was displayed beside the monster core.

The Black Metal Piece seemed extremely old with many specks of rust and even a couple spots of dirt. It looked as if it had just been excavated.

“Hey, Yan Brat, buy the black metal piece, it’s something good…”

Right when Xiao Yan was confused about why he felt such a strong feeling towards the seemingly worthless metal, Yao Lao’s voice sounded in his mind.