Conflict with the 'Protagonist'

Chapter 5: Conflict with the 'Protagonist'

"Brother Yuguo, here's what I found from those scum." Guan Yunfan returned with bloodied coin pouch.

Li Yuguo nodded at that and just said.

"Brother Yunfan, you keep it. You have more use of it than me."

"Brother Yuguo, this ..."

"What are you hesitating for, aren't we brothers? Don't be distant like that with me."

"I'll definitely won't forget for your kindness, brother Yuguo."

"Well, you've saved me too ... oh right, this is Kuki Shinobu. Shinobu meet Guan Yunfan."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kuki Shinobu."

"Guan Yunfan, your movement technique is quite solid."

"Then, if there's nothing else ... I still have some business in the market."

"Ah, wait brother Yunfan. Can I come with you, I'm afraid that these people won't stop and they will attack you again."

'I don't actually need anyone protection, but oh well, it's good for bonding relationship with him. I guess.' Li Yuguo weighted out his offer in his mind.

"Alright, suit yourself ... by the way, how was your wife? Is her condition getting better?"

"After taking the prescription yesterday, her complexion turned better. I can only hope that she'll recover to full health."

"Don't worry, she will definitely cured."

They then walked to Shi Dacheng stall and was greeted excitedly by the fat merchant. He was shocked seeing the petite green-haired lady wearing strange but sexy attire but then he connected the dots and reached a conclusion. 

"I see now, so that lady is your subordinate, Master Lingga ... or should I say, Li Yuguo."

"It's not like I'm planning to hide my identity. But Lingga is a nickname from my deceased father."

"Hahaha ..., if that's the case, I'm really honored to know your nickname."

"Shi Dacheng, I've come to trade. Here, check some of these and decided how will you pay for it. I still have 9 boxes of that wine, if you still want it?"

"Huh, wait ... this is? Brother Li Yuguo, is this salt?"

Li Yuguo still remembered the unreasonable plot point the author of the manhua has inserted. It is a cultivation world, however, the king and government still worried about salt circulation. But maybe it's a profitable business for the royalty if the kingdom monopoly this sector. But it's just too idiotic, who in the world of cultivation would think of smuggling salt after all. 

"No, it's not salt ..., it's sugar. Taste it."

"Sweet! Heavens, it's sweeter than honey or those exotic fruits from southern islands." Shi Dacheng eyes glistened after he tasted the sugar.

Shi Dachen took out an abacus and then calculate the price of all the thing that Li Yuguo brought out. 

"The price of the wine would be two hundred fifteen thousand silver ..., add that with the rest, hmmm. That will be two hundred and sixty thousand silver. Ah, brother Li Yuguo, I'm short of 20 thousand silver at the moment. If that's alright with you, you can take something in my stalls of that value."

"There's no need, I trust you Shi Dacheng. You can give the rest to me whenever you have it."

"Hahaha, well thank you ... here's all the money then." he passed a storage bracelet.

Li Yuguo took one hundred thousand of coin from the storage bracelet and deposit it into his system. He also stored a piece of paper filled with instruction for Ningguang that he has prepared this morning inside the bracelet. After that, he passed the bracelet to Shinobu. 

"Hmmm?"

"Shinobu. You can go and bring that to Ningguang."

"Boss, but I'm here to protect you in case something happened like before."

"You don't need to worry about my safety. I have brother Yunfan with me, and I'm not that harmless. Just go, it's better if you help Ningguang right now." 

"I understand, but Boss ... a while ago, I sensed someone has been following us. Should I deal with them?"

"No need, it's probably my adopted brother's lackey. Don't worry, I know what to do."

"Then, please be safe Boss."

After Shinobu retreated and disappeared from the vicinity, Li Yuguo turned to Shi Dacheng and asked about the slave market. With a knowing smile as a fellow cultured man, Shi Dacheng rubbed his hand and said.

"I see, so Brother Yuguo also interested in buying demon race slaves. I know a merchant from there, let me lead you to him."

The slave market was owned by Zhou family, and from this place the original Li Yuguo bought Jun Xue, the girl who had the bloodline of Frost Demon. He entered the slave market and was greeted by horrible sight of people from various races inside a cage as if they were no different than animal. 

'I should propose slavery abolishment to Nalan Meng. If I can't change the world, I will change this city.'

Shi Dachen let him explore the slave market while guiding Guan Yunfan out. Afterward, he was approached by a skinny middle-aged man with balding hair.

"Hello there, Lord Li! Is there anything that you're interested in?"

"Un ..., what's wrong with her?" Li Yuguo pointed at the sleeping girl who had a painful expression on her face.

"I picked her up from some wasteland. It has been a few days but she's going to die soon."

"Since you don't want her, how about you give her to me."

"Oh well, she's worthless anyway. You can have her, Lord Li."

"Thank you, please don't let anyone know about this."

"Haha, don't worry. There's no reason for me to tell others."

Zhao Laoba opened the cage and uncuffed her hand. After that, the girl sluggishly followed Li Yuguo away from the slave market. He then bought a rejuvenation pills from the Alimama and then brought it to her.

"Here, eat this."

The girl tearfully looked at him as her mind raced, 'So you want me to be your guinea pig ...' without any other choice, she took the pill and then swallow it. It might be better to die like this rather than getting defiled by this guy.

But contrary to her expectation, the pill that she just swallowed is not a poison. It's actually a pill that healed all of her ailments. The cold that she's been suffering magically disappeared, and the wounds and sore that has been accumulated suddenly gone. Even her fatigue seemed to be alleviated after eating that pill. It's such a magical pill that she didn't believe she just eat it like that. 

The effect was instantaneous and magical. It was like those pill that the exalted cultivator uses. And to think that this man gave it to her willingly.

With surprised eyes, she looked up at the man to see better of his visage. The handsome man bend down to match her gaze and smiled, it should be a smirk as only his left portion of the mouth that is lifted. He said.

"Let's go home."

'Home ... someone like me has a home?' the girl asked to herself in her mind.

"Bastard!"

At that moment, a loud voice was shouted from the side. A young man with wearing a white cultivator robes came. He has a brown hair tied in high ponytail and he has a sideburn who make his looks remind those who saw him with an ape. 

The young man valiantly unsheathed his sword and then righteously said.

"Leave that girl alone you villain scum!"

"I'm afraid there's a misunderstanding. Who are you anyway? And why you want me to leave this girl?" Li Yuguo calmly asked. 

"Hah? Me? I'm Ye Qiong, the world's most handsome Martial Master and the future Martial Sovereign!" 

'Ah right, here he comes. The so-called 'righteous hero of justice' protagonist to save the day.' with tired dead eyes, he looked at him. Wondering on how he should proceed with this matter.

His and the protagonist's golden finger is actually similar of type. His system, Alimama can purchase an item from Earth of his past live and from this world. But Ye Qiong's system, Alibaba is a cheat that only came and bring him the item that he currently needed. 

His Alimama can display a percentage of plot armor the protagonist compared to him. At first, it was only 1% vs 99% with him being the one percent. But after the first gacha roll of Intertwined Fate, he received additional 14,5% making the plot armor balance 15,5% vs 84,5%.

"I happened to pass by here, and it seems like a kept-man like you is messing around so I'm here to bring justice!"

"Bring justice? To who?"

"Of course to that girl!"

"Hey, girlie ... are you in danger? Do you need that man's help?" Li Yuguo turned to the cyan-haired girl and asked.

"Master is not a bad guy!" the girl shook her head to him, before then turned to Ye Qiong. "I don't need your help! He's a good guy, not only he save me he even healed me!"

"You ... you even brainwashed her! If I don't eradicate you, then I'm not a human!" Ye Qiong shouted after reaching his own conclusion.

He had had enough of this farce, how can a kept-man like this Li Yuguo did a good thing in his life. Maybe if the sun started to rise from the west he might doing a good thing. But now? No chance. He launched forward and thrust his sword toward him. 

"Get back!" Li Yuguo gently pushed the girl away and took out his Staff of Homa.

He parried the sword strike but it was then followed by another flurry of attack. Li Yuguo who was a complete noob with a spear could only evade. Facing another noob like those bandit from before might be possible because of his superior cultivation and the passive effect of Staff of Homa. But against an experienced fighter like Ye Qiong, he find it was quite difficult.

'I need to learn how to fight.' he had a moment of late realization.

He then looked at Ye Qiong who still glared at him as if he just fucked her mom right in front of his very eyes. He really didn't like this kind of self-righteous hypocrite protagonist. If he's evil, don't hide your evilness with the mask of hypocrite! At some point in the story, he remembered that this ape of a man even went too far and betrayed his current sect, joined ..., or rather used another sect by seducing their heiress. All of that for what, just to mess up with Li Yuguo's life.

Lingga really didn't know what was the author thinking when writing such scum of a character. Even the worst of the worst of cultivation protagonist like Yun Che, Chu Feng, or Nie Li had a good point within him at some point. But this person, he had none. He just a bloody damn protagonist because the author Liu Mang said it so. And he was packed with lotsa plot armor.

"Ye Qiong, was it? Even if it's true that I brainwashed her. Why does it matter to you anyway?"

'Let's just stall for some time until Xi Men arrived.'

"So you finally revealed your true color by admitting that you really brainwashed her?" Ye Qiong smirked as the villain finally showed his real fang.

"Well, think about it for a second with that brain that you might or might not have. I'm the kept-man. Do you think I have the mean or the ability to brainwash a girl? Why would I spent that much of trouble just to get a girl?"

"You're the kept-man, and it's quite obvious you would do such thing like that because ... because ...," Ye Qiong lost his own words. He then shook his head and with conviction he said. "Anyway, you're evil and bad person! I'll have to get rid of you."

'His brain must've stopped developing, ain't it?' Li Yuguo thought in his head.

"You already know my identity ... so why go against me? Don't you realize that by attacking me, it would make you the enemy of the entire Nalan City?"

"I'm the genius, born once in every hundred years ... my Zheng Yuan Sect would definitely back me up even if I killed a worthless kept-man like you. You're nothing but trash that even your family don't want you."

"Sigh ..." Li Yuguo sighed and think for a bit. "Hey, how about I pay you money and you let all of this go?"

"Heh, how typical of a villain you are. You want to bribe me to let this matter go?! I said no! Justice won't bend for mere money. Justice will be served!" 

Ye Qiong rushed out and used his sect exclusive swordmanship, shouting the name of his move as if announcing it to the world.

"Zhen Yuan Sword's Fighting Style!"

It was the same thrust attack like before. But before it was connected. A garnet the size of an adult fist was thrown and hit the sword, bouncing it off from it's designated trajectory. After that condensed air blasted Ye Qiong from where he stood. 

In the next moment, three figures stood up beside him. They were Ningguang, Faruzan and Shinobu. That garnet who blocked Ye Qiong's attack was from Ningguang's charged [Sparkling Scatter]. And the air current from before was Faruzan's [Wind Realm of Nasamjnin]. When they reached him, Ningguang immediately summoned the [Jade Screen] to protect him. While the other two also put on battle stance.

"Never expect it would be three of you. Hey, how are you?"

"If Young Master can say silly thing like that, then I may presume that our help is not needed?" Ningguang asked as sparkling gemstones floated around her.

"Oh no, I'm thankful really, you save me right there. Thanks Ningguang."

"Well, your very welcome, Young Master."

'But what about the whole anonymity thing ..., didn't I tell you to not associate yourself with me? Ahhh, damn it Ningguang, you've ruined my whole plan!' Li Yuguo want to complain but couldn't voiced it out. 

 "Why ... why ... why ..." Ye Qiong muttered as he grabbed his injured chest. "I'm genius of Zhen Yuan Sect who only appeared once in every hundred years. There's no way I got defeated by some trash like you!"

Li Yuguo frowned her brows hearing the protagonist monologue. A faint blue ghastly aura surrounded Ye Qiong as he tried to stand up.

"I'm more handsome than you, more talented than you! Why is it you who got surrounded by beauties while I have no one beside me!? Heaven, it's so unfair. You're not even that strong ... so why!?" Ye Qiong pointed his hand toward him. 

"So that's what you're complaining?!" Li Yuguo facepalmed hearing it.