Jack's Sad Story

On the way to lunch, Lee met three muscle men who stared at him directly.

Lee could feel their hostility, but he just ignored. Tang attempted to question them and was secretly stopped by Lee.

It was better for them to avoid trouble since they were in another country's territory.

However, the three men seemed unwilling to let him go easily. They quickly blocked Lee and Tang's way.

"Are you from the True Kingdom?" one of the men asked.

"Who are you?" Lee didn't answer but asked in return.

"We are envoys of Alucs," the man said seriously. "Answer my question!"

"Yes," Lee replied.

Lee knew the trouble had found them.

There were two forces between the True Kingdom and the Frost Empire. To the west was Danno, a union of nomadic tribes. To the east was Alucs, a militant nation always attempted to invade the True Kingdom since the Flood Dynasty. Kyle sent troops several time to make this nation behave itself. Then they had a relatively peaceful period.

In recent years, the people of Alucs were suffering. The crops failed to harvest because natural disasters occurred frequently. Many starved to death.

In this situation, the leader of Alucs, Raymond, could do nothing but propagate hatred towards the True Kingdom to divert domestic grievances. Raymond claimed that the True Kingdom had stolen the most fertile land of Alucs and pushed them to plant crops in their current, less fertile land. Raymond started several small wars with the True Kingdom, turning to failure each time. Thus, the hatred between the two sides accumulated higher and higher.

Lee heard from Windyce that every time Raymond would write a letter to Young before starting a war. In the letter, Raymond told Young that he would ordered his generals to retreat after sending the old and weak soldiers to the battlefield. Raymond asked Young to not pursue his main force, and Young agreed.

"Why?" Lee once doubted.

Windyce smiled, but did not answer his question.

Obviously this time, Raymond's efforts paid off.

"What are you doing here? Which country do you want to invade this time?!" another Alucs man Jack said.

"Not your concern." Lee replied.

"You're all butchers. The True Kingdom will disappear!" Jack said fiercely.

Tang could not help but punch him in the face. Jack lost his balance, and another man held him up. Jack spat out a mouthful of blood foam, and discovered a tooth had been knocked out by Tang. 

The three envoys wanted to fight back but were stopped by the guards at the Guesthouse.

"No fighting here!" the guards shouted.

"He punched me! Don't you care?" Jack shouted angrily.

"We didn't see anything." the guard leader said.

"You're covering him up! Look at my tooth on the ground, are you blind?!" Jack felt humiliated. Clearly, the guards favored the two from the True Kingdom.

"It fell out by itself," Tang said.

"Enough. This is over," the guard leader said. He was afraid that Tang continued saying something to provoke Jack.

"Very well. We've seen your hospitality today! We'll see!" Jack said, then left after making his threats.

Lee expressed his gratitude to the guard: "Thanks for your help."

"We just handle it impartially," the guard leader said.

"Indeed." Lee and Tang said in unison.

After lunch, they decided to wander around in Cactus, a city with more than a thousand years of history.

Cactus was not as grand or bustling as the City of Victory. Where Lee lived was close to the center of Cactus. So there were many shops and street vendors.

Looking at the scene in Cactus, Lee was reminded of the Falling-Moon city, appearing and disappearing in the Big Desert. That city could not compare with Cactus, but Lee was more impressed by it. After all, that was the first time Lee had seen the power of immortals.

After walking a few streets, they reached the center of Cactus, where a giant statue of the black-scaled snake stood. There were many locals kneeling down and praying to the statue.

"Much bigger." Tang remarked.

Lee nodded.

They stood aside, looking very awkward. And they seemed to have no respect to the black-scaled snake.

Soon Lee realized the surrounding atmosphere was weird. He saw that these local angrily stared at them.

No time to comment on the statue, they left in disgrace.

After going a long distance, Lee felt something was wrong.

"We're being shadowed," Tang said lightly. "It seems to be the envoys of Alucs."

"How dare they?" Lee said. He didn't look back, and pretended to be unaware of anything.

"More than three," Tang explained.

"No wonder. According to Derek, they should be classified as the lowest robbers." Lee was still in the mood to joke.

Lee and Tang turned into a quiet blind alley, and there were tall walls on two sides. They turned around, seeing the exit blocked by Jack and his group.

"There are eight," Lee said.

"Well, well, well," Jack said viciously. "Now who can help you?"

"Can you let us go?" Lee suddenly started performing.

Jack could see Lee's fear on his face. This was exactly what he wanted.

They approached closer and closer, while Lee and Tang stepped back, retreating.

"Forgive us, forgive us, please," Lee pleaded.

Tang could hardly stand Lee's performance. But it seemed that Jack was really enjoying it.

"Too late!" Jack smiled grimly. Then the eight started attacking.

...

The fight lasted a short time.

Lee looked at Jack, who was lying on the ground with his broken right arm, and said, "Forgive me, I didn't want to break your arm, but it is too fragile. I think you need to practice more."

In fact, if it weren't for the rule that killing people was not allowed in Cactus. Lee would kill them all to avoid more troubles.

Jack was upset, and he regretted to causing trouble. He thought he could kick Lee and Tang's ass with the strength of numbers. However, all of them were knocked down easily.

"You are not envoys! It is not fair!" Jack said, gasping for breath. He remained unyielding

"Fair? Eight against two is fair?" Lee sneered.

Jack kept silence.

Seeing Lee and Tang leaving, he shouted, "Leave your name, I will get revenge!"

"Lee, the Brigadier General of the True Kingdom." Lee left without a glance at Jack.

Jack felt humiliated again.

"Lee...my brother, Warry, will get revenge for me," Jack muttered and then started yelling for help. This place was sparsely populated and it was hard for anyone to come and save them.

After beating Jack, Lee felt refreshed. In the Big Desert, he was either assassinated or attacked by whited-robed men. In front of Rissan, he had no way to fight back, which was a big hit to his confidence.

"Rissan is a freak, he is abnormal," Lee thought.

It was already dusk. Time to come back the Guesthouse.

He must get a good sleep to face the Regent the next day.