Amiable smile

(A/N: Nice! Now the ranking is 270ish so push HARDER!)

——(POV third person)——

"Thank you, big brother, we will definitely repay this favor." Ren Tai said and Ren Ru nodded in confirmation of his brother's words.

"Sure, sure. I can take a portion of your loot in the trial." Li Huang told them.

Li Huang was internally laughing, the only way that some of their loot would be of use to him is in the scenario that they draw SSR from the formations, so even he knows that this was only a joke, mostly.

As they were having fun talking and laughing, a group of disciples got closer to them. They were coming from behind Li Huang.

"Ren Tai, didn't you tell me that you will give us anything you have? So what is this portion talks about?" the one who was walking in front said arrogantly. They were walking around trashing others and they suddenly located this twin brother and sister. At first, they wanted to humiliate them for a while and then leave them to their own devices.

That was the plan, but they overheard their conversation with someone and it seems that someone is going to get a portion of their loot. This was unacceptable to them. If anyone had the right to extort these twins, it is them and no one else!

With a blinding sense of self-righteousness, they walked to Ren Tai and Ren Ru to right this wrong and the leading one spoke those words.

Li Huang who was unaware of the intricate inner working of these disciples minds was really shocked. But he didn't have enough time to remain shocked, because the leader of the bunch started speaking again.

"Doesn't one have to own something first to be able to portion it?" the leading disciple turned to face his friends and asked them. He meant to say that whatever that loot was, the twins didn't own it.

"True."

"Young master Huo is right!"

"As expected, young master has a bottomless wisdom!"

They naturally nodded and concurred with his words while praising him for being able to form a sentence.

'Oh! It seems that this dude is called Hou and is a young master of some sort…' Li Huang now understood the situation a little better.

On the other hand, Ren Tai was getting paler by the second. For the first time in his life, he wasn't afraid for himself and his sister when Hou Liangjun was in front of him. No, this time he was afraid for Hou Liangjun because he might provoke someone that he can't even dream of handling.

The problem is that as Hou Liangjun is a disciple of the green lake sect, if he were to provoke Li Huang, their sect would also face the consequences.

He didn't think that a day would come that he would try to save Hou Liangjun's ass but here we are.

"Senior brother Hou, let us talk another time." He tried to give some hints with his eyes to make Hou Liangjun aware of Li Huang's identity.

To his disappointment, all Hou Liangjun understood from this was the fact that Ren Tai was looking down at him just because an outsider was here.

'You think I won't teach you a lesson just because an outsider is here?' Hou Liangjun sneered.

Hou Liangjun walked closer and sat beside Li Huang and spoke without looking at Li Huang's face.

"Why another time? Don't we have plenty of time n—" Hou Liangjun was going to give a good lecture to Ren Tai but as he looked at Li Huang, he figured out who he was and for a moment he couldn't say a word more.

Seeing this, Li Huang couldn't help but smile. This development was too funny for him.

Opposite to him, for Hou Liangjun this development was nothing short of horrifying.

He is the second son of the city lord of Green city. As he is the second son, he decided to join a sect to further his chances in life. When he joined the green lake sect, he realized that he can use his position to force others to do his bidding and really enjoyed this feeling.

Today wasn't anything different from the rest of his days. He was playing around as he would do and was ready for the selection.

When he found the Ren twins, he didn't think it would be anything different than what would happen every time. But as luck would have it, he played his cards badly and probably offended one of the most powerful individuals here, Li Huang.

As he knows he fucked up he decided to flee as soon as possible.

"Now that I think about it, I have things to do so I will talk to you later junior brother and junior sister." He gave an amiable smile. If one only heard these words and saw this expression without knowing the history, they couldn't be seeing him as anything other than a caring senior martial brother.

Li Huang was amused by this young master Hou's performance.

'I have to give it to him, he is good at controlling his facial expressions.' Li Huang thought.

Hou Liangjun was happy internally that none of the Ren twins or The Li Huang stopped him and his lackeys were also starting to move, but his happiness didn't last long.

To take credit for 'staying strong' where he was, one of the lackeys started speaking.

"Young master must be jesting, why are you moving?" he snarled at other lackeys who didn't know that the young master was only 'acting'.

Well, to his credit, the young master was acting, but for a different reason than what he thought.

Hou Liangjun got so angry that he couldn't control himself. He turned back and kicked the lackey who spoke just now.

"I jest with your mother! When have I ever jest?" He shouted at his lackey. The lackey felt wronged but didn't say anything to minimize the possibility of getting beaten again.

Some of the others who thought this was a good chance to flatter their young master started speaking again.

"Young master Hou is speaking the truth."

"Yes."

"How dare you."

Li Huang could hardly suppress his laughter, this is why you don't accept everyone as your followers and should at least set a minimum required IQ.

"SHUT UP!" Hou Liangjun shouted to others.

He was red with anger and shame. Anger because these idiots are destroying his plan to get out of Li Huang's vicinity, and shame because they are making him look like a fool.

He then turned to leave as fast as he could.

Just as he was speeding up, a voice stopped him.

"Wait!" Li Huang said softly but to Hou Liangjun, it was like a soul-piercing shout.

He slowly turned in the hope that he heard wrong and it was his mind playing with him, but alas it wasn't. When he turned, he saw Li Huang looking directly at his face.

"…What can I do for you young master?" he cupped his fist and spoke politely.

The twins and the lackey were both shocked, but for different reasons.

The twins were shocked because they have never seen this side of Hou Liangjun and it was new to them. The lackeys were shocked because they now know they fucked up, now they know why their young master was so determined to flee from here.

"Let us drink some tea together in the future." Li Huang said with the same amiable smile that Hou Liangjun showed a minute ago.

The lackeys were more or less at ease and thought that this young master didn't take offense and everything is okay, but to Hou Liangjun this smile held other meanings.

He knows that he has to lay low for the duration of this trial if he wants to get out of this situation intact.

"It would be my pleasure, young master Li." For the first time, Hou Liangjun said Li Huang's surname and his lackeys now understood the depth of the situation.

Li Huang didn't want to waste any more time on them and only nodded.

As Hou Liangjun and his lackeys were on their way, Li Huang was sure that with his words just now, Ren Tai and Ren Ru won't have any more problems while they are in this selection.