4 Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The City Lord.

As Li Jun sat daydreaming he heard a cough behind him waking him from his ongoing thoughts. "Oh, Elder Zhou. I didn't realise you were stood there." He said before quickly getting to his feet. Elder Zhou looked at him for a second and then seemed to realise something. "You returned to origin, right?" He said as he stroked his beard. Li Jun was stunned by his question. "Uh, Yeah?" He asked quickly trying to cover up his confusion. Elder Zhou reached into his pocket before pulling out a silver coloured token reading Inner Disciple. "Congratulations on your promotion. Here take this too." He pulled out a storage pouch. Inside the storage pouch was two sets of clothes. Both the exact same sect uniform grey and red in colour to show he had now become an inner disciple. It also contained two bottles of Qi refining pills.

"Are you serious? I thought I would have to take part in one of the fighting tournaments to become an inner disciple?" Li Jun said before taking them both before Elder Zhou could change his mind. Elder Zhou laughed at Li Jun greedily taking the things before him. "I get some perks for being an Elder. I can promote three disciples every year. So, don't let me down by causing trouble. Anyway, I have things to do. You can find your way home, can't you?" Elder Zhou asked before walking away into the distance. Li Jun was confused at what he saw. Elder Zhou seemed to slowly disappear as he walked further away. What kind of technique is that he thought before putting on the clothes and making his way out of the forest.

Li Jun reached the centre of the town which seemed to be a lot busier than it usually was. What is going on? He thought before making his way through a crowd of people. As he pushed his way through, he saw signs and all sorts of different high-class families lined up facing the city lord's mansion. The seemed to be a party going on. He walked past the line of people and was met by a guard at the main gate. "Oh, you're an inner disciple? Is there anything you need sir?" The guard bowed his head towards Li Jun. "I was just wondering what is with the people lining up? I just came from cultivating so I'm not sure what is happening." Li Jun said before looking past the gate into the mansion. The line carried on all the way inside. "Oh, it is the young miss's sixteenth birthday today. Everybody has come to bring presents and to join the banquet." The guard said. Li Jun looked around once again and then his stomach began to rumble.

"Banquet huh? Do you mind if I come in? I just so happened to have a gift for your young miss." Li Jun said before looking for something inside his storage ring. He pulled out the sword that Elder Zhou had given to him for rescuing the young fox spirit. The guard gasped. "T-That is a relic!? Of course, sir please go ahead." He bowed again and then signalled to the other guards to let Li Jun through. An older looking man came down from the top of the steps and waved towards Li Jun. "Hello, I'm Bu Chen I am the steward of the Chen family. I would like to ask for your name young man." The older man said to Li Jun who was now putting away the sword. "Ah, Nice to meet you. I'm Li Jun. There is no need to pay so much attention to me. I'm just a little hungry so I wanted to stop by for some food and leave a present for the birthday girl." Li Jun said whilst walking towards the banquet hall with the old steward. The steward frowned for a moment before speaking up. "Oh, Really? The young Miss warned us about an inner disciple coming to cause trouble today. I thought it must have been you. Do you know of someone by the name of Luo Tang? I believe that was his name." The steward said. Li Jun smiled once he heard the name. "Luo Tang huh? I don't think he will be coming. I heard someone injured him quite badly earlier today." Li Jun said through a grin. The steward seemed surprised but his face shifted to one of someone feeling relief. "Thank goodness for that. It's about time someone taught that brat a lesson. He has been chasing after the young Miss for years now. It's laughable that he thinks the young Miss will marry someone like him. I hope he doesn't show up here for a long time." The steward said. Before they knew it they had already made their way to the banquet hall.

The steward opened the door for Li Jun "Have a fantastic evening sir." He then walked away back toward the front gate. Li Jun stepped inside the banquet hall. It brought back a lot of great memories. But he thought of a certain time that he met a certain woman at a gathering like this. He felt disappointed but oddly satisfied as he crossed the threshold. "Is that the Luo Tang we were warned of?" A servant girl whispered to another. Another girl walked over to the group of servant girls. "No! That is the boy who beat Luo Tang into a pulp earlier today. You should have seen it. He looked so handsome as he emerged from a cloud of smoke after destroying the stone floor." Li Jun smiled slightly as he heard the little commotion being made by the group of girls. He looked around for a second and felt a slight blood lust coming from the room. That is when he realised it was jealousy coming from a lot of the young masters of the noble families who were all staring at him wishing he would drop dead. What is up with these people he thought before he spotted the hundreds if not thousands of silver platters filled with food. "FOOD!!!" He shouted aloud before he ran over to the banquet table.

Li Jun picked up a whole tray of chicken and then covered them in some fried rice noodles and the took it over to an empty table and sat down. He began to fill his face with a chicken leg in each hand and began to eat them. He didn't pay attention to the crowd slowly gathering around him watching him eat like it was an eating competition. He managed to demolish the whole tray of food in less than five minutes. As he finished, he sat back in his chair with his stomach now full. Li Jun opened his eyes as the sound of applause rang out through the hall. Did something happen? He thought before he realised the people were clapping for him. Did they just watch me eating as a form of entertainment? He thought before standing up and bowing to the crowd of people cheering and clapping. "I have never seen someone eat like that before. Was the food that good?" A man who looked to be in his mid-forties made his way through the crowd. His hair was pitch black and was neatly put into a ponytail behind his head. He looked well-dressed but had a patch of stubble on his chin. Li Jun looked at him for a moment and noticed the amount of Qi in the man's body was spreading around the room suppressing all the other people's Qi. This man was at the peak stage of the manifestation stage and was clearly a respected warrior as the people instantly became silent whilst standing in his presence.

"Yes. The food was delicious!" Li Jun said before a large cup of beer was shoved towards him. "Is that so? I will have to pass your kind words on to my head chef. Here, come drink with me." He put his arm around Li Jun's should as they both began to drink the beer. The man made eye contact with Li Jun as they were both drinking and winked. "Oh? Game on!" Li Jun shouted before finishing the beer in one gulp. He took the cup away from his mouth just as the man finished his last sip. "Whoa. I didn't think you could drink like you can eat too. Impressive. What's your name?" The man said whilst holding his hand up in the air towards one of the servants. Signalling them to bring more alcohol. Li Jun smiled slightly. "I'm Li Jun. What about you? What's your name?" He said just as the servant brought over two cups of beer.

The man took the beers from the servant and handed one to Li Jun. "I'm Yao Chen." He said before tilting his head backward and forcing the beer down his throat. Li Jun did the same finishing his beer before Yao Chen finished once again. Yao Chen? Isn't that the name of the city lord?