Necropolis Immortal

“Disrupting public order?” Lu Yun chuckled. “Got it, I won’t disrupt public order then. You guys can return to your posts.”

“Um…” The group looked carefully at the stoic Lu Xuan next to his master, set their jaws, and left.

“Smart people live longer,” Lu Yun laughed.

He let Yu Qianhua and his men have the run of the place after breaking the formations and restrictions on the fifth floor. Lu Yun himself returned to the fourth floor and leered at the grimacing Ouyang Shenghe.

“So we meet again, second young master Ouyang…” Lu Yun stalked over to his fallen opponent.

“What do you want?” Ouyang Shenghe scooted over to the stairs. He hadn’t thought that his men would be scared off with just a few words and quite hated them at the moment. If he could stall for a little bit of time, he would be able to take out Lu Yun once his family’s experts arrived.

“To beat you, of course!” Lu Yun tightened his fists.

“Let’s see who beats who!” Ouyang Shenghe didn’t think he was weaker than Lu Yun. He was just caught off guard earlier. His fingers flickered through a sword seal and sent a ray of sword light at Lu Yun’s head.

The Lu young master tilted his head, evaded the light, and flashed to Ouyang Shenghe. He kicked his opponent in the dantian, making Ouyang Shenghe curl up like cooked shrimp in the middle of the floor.

Lu Yun bent down with delight and patted the ashen face. “Second young master Ouyang, who did you say would be beating the other up?”

He took out a blood-red talisman from his storage ring and slapped it into the other’s forehead.

“What, what did you just do to me?!” Ouyang Shenghe struggled with fear.

“It’s a secret!”

……

Lu Yun barging into the Ouyang trading headquarters alarmed quite a few people, but many more—including the Ouyangs themselves—didn’t think much of it.

Their trading headquarters was heavily fortified. Once the formations were in operation, not even Lu Tianling would be able to break them, to say nothing of other nascent soul powerhouses.

The entire building was protected by yet another formation, its power one of the strongest among all of the third rank cultivation nations.

Lu Yun was just a mere qi refinement cultivator. Even if he had a golden core guard by his side, he might be stymied by one of the formations of illusion alone. He might even be trapped or suffer severe injuries.

Thus, Ouyang representatives didn’t arrive until an hour after Lu Yun left. A very bizarre sight greeted them.

“Eh? What’s that? It looks like sausage links.” Thirty were in the Ouyang contingent led by a golden core family steward. He rubbed his eyes and took another dumbfounded look at their trading headquarters.

Harmony reigned outside the building, as if nothing had taken place. The only sign of anything out of the ordinary was a crowd gathered in front of the doors. People pointed and laughed at the links of something up in the air.

“Let’s take a closer look at what Lu Yun has up his sleeve.” The steward sped up his pace.

“Um…” Astounded expressions appeared on the Ouyang representatives when they drew closer. Those weren’t sausage links—those were people stripped of their clothes and hung outside the building!

Their clothes were the rope stringing them together and they didn’t have an undergarment to their name!

“What… is… going… on?” The group froze, not knowing what to do.

“That’s… that’s general manager Ouyang Xuan!”

“Wait, that’s the second young master! It’s the second young master! Save him!”

Nonchalantly at ease seconds ago and ready to take Lu Yun into custody, the Ouyang contingent panicked and flew on their swords, frantically helping down the human sausages in the air.

Lu Yun had stripped everyone from the general manager to the errand boy naked, hanging them outside of the building. As for the maids and serving girls… he lived up to his reputation and took them all back to the Lu residence.

“Who did this?!” the golden core steward shrieked with outrage. Ouyang Shenghe’s meridians were fractured and his dantian heavily injured, but his cultivation remained. The young man hadn’t been crippled.

The twenty-three city guards cowering a few streets away looked fearfully in the direction of the Ouyang trading company, their hearts in their throats.

“Young master Lu is vicious! Taking revenge on Ouyang Shenghe like this is worse than killing him!”

“The struggles between the rich and powerful aren’t things that minor characters like us can be involved in.”

“But we ignored Ouyang Shenghe’s orders and left. His clan will take us to account for it, no?”

“Better that than dead,” the twenty-three guards conversed among themselves.

“Although Ouyang Shenghe is well known in the city, his righteous exterior hides a cruel heart. Yun Mo, all of you will certainly feel his wrath,” came another voice at this time.

“Captain?!” Vice captain Yun Mo trembled and he looked at the newcomer with shock.

“It’s been two months since I left, Yun Mo. How has your cultivation not progressed at all?” Yu Qianhua revealed his original appearance and smiled benignly.

Yun Mo looked at the outfit that his former captain wore and lowered his head in thought, understanding certain things.

“The young master wanted to eliminate all of you, but I begged for mercy since we’re brothers through life and death,” Yu Qianhua sighed.

Lu Yun had easily broken the formations within the building with his methods. This troop of city guards was the only witness apart from Ouyang Shenghe. The Lu young master naturally had his ways to ensure that Ouyang Shenghe kept his mouth closed.

“We don’t know anything,” one of the guards responded with difficulty. Although they faced only Yu Qianhua, their former captain represented Lu Yun and possibly even Lu Tianling. If Lu Yun wanted to silence them, he had a thousand ways to ensure that they disappeared forever.

The Ouyangs and Yuwens had suffered immense disaster and their patriarchs were dead. No one would pay attention to a few city guards that went missing at this time.

“You do know,” Yu Qianhua shook his head. “Take off your armor and change into what I’m wearing. You will be part of the Lu Clan from henceforth. Your families will receive their protection as well.”

Twenty-three identical outfits appeared in Yu Qianhua’s hands. These were all his men and they’d endured life and death on the battlefield together. He knew their backgrounds well.

“You can choose to accept with false pretenses, but the young master says that only smart people deserve to live long.” Yu Qianhua looked in another direction. There was a coolly detached man dressed in a black combat outfit, standing stiffly upright like a spear.

“Captain, we’re willing to follow you. I trust that you won’t harm us.” Yun Mo raised his head and looked at Yu Qianhua.

His captain sighed with immense relief. “My good brothers!”

……

In an exquisite private room on the third floor of Immortal Gathering.

Lu Yun sat primly in his seat, a rare expression of seriousness on his face. Across from him was a young man in white robes. He was calm with a pleasant smile.

“Brother Situ, Prince Situ, Your Highness the ninth prince. How long has it been since our last meeting?” Lu Yun subconsciously scooted his seat cushion closer to Situ Yun.

The prince smiled wryly.

“I say, old brother Lu. Why did you call upon me today? You’re being so mysterious.” Situ Yun looked to be a young man, but he was actually in his forties. He was a nascent soul cultivator and one of the three gentlemen of the capital. He was also the greatest genius of the imperial family.

The Darklake imperial family possessed an uncommon relationship with the Lus. If it wasn’t for their help, Lu Tianling wouldn’t have been able to establish the Lu Clan. He would’ve long been swallowed by the other six families.

Lu Yun and Situ Yun were on good terms, but they weren’t as close as he was with Zhao Chenguang and Yu Shuai. Prodigals of a feather flocked together; Situ Yun was too upright.

Ninth prince Situ Yun had trained with Lu Tianling from an early age. He could be considered the marshal’s disciple, even though they hadn’t formally cemented that relationship.

“Ahem…” Lu Yun coughed dryly. “It’s nothing major. You know how I have the Vermilion Bird command token, Brother Situ?”

“You want to rebuild it?” The prince assessed Lu Yun like he was meeting the Lu young master for the first time.

“You know as well as I do that things are a bit chaotic in the capital right now. I might die anytime I set foot outside my front door, so it’ll be a lot safer if I have some men around me,” Lu Yun tried to gloss things over with this excuse.

“Using an entire army troop as your bodyguard…” Situ Yun looked strangely at the other. “You only need to submit a report to the Ministry of Military Affairs if you want to rebuild the Vermilion Bird, but you’ve come to me…”

“I want to ask Brother Situ for a favor. Can you reassign the Vermilion Designation to my personal name?” Lu Yun finally revealed his true intentions.

“You want to build a private army?” Situ Yun immediately understood.

Lu Yun nodded.