The Almighty Ring

“Hur hur hur. It doesn’t matter who’s taller. What’s important now is that you’re the shortest!” Bai Shien laughed louder. For someone who was already abnormally short, who else could Bai Shien direct his pain to? Thankfully, Lee Shi won the competition of “who’s the shortest”.

“Ugh! I’m taller now!” Lee Shi grunted and tried to puff his chest whilst standing on his toes. Unfortunately, even after trying his best to look taller, he was still inches away from actually being the same height as Bai Shien.

“Haha! Don’t bother trying. Too bad you skipped all the milk yo mama had been offering!” Bai Shien teased. The man was breathing slightly faster. He was actually nervous when Lee Shi claimed to be taller. But once he was sure that Lee Shi was still the shorter one, he calmed down and told one last joke before ceasing entirely. All that mattered to him then was that someone else carried the title of “shortest man”.

Xiaohou Shangyuan distanced himself away from Bai Shien when the other Level 5 grand masters arrived. He knew well that Bai Shien would tease Lee Shi and that would make a scene. If he could, he would put up a sign that said: I’m not with these idiots.

Since they were still teasing and throwing friendly jabs at each other, Xiaohou Shangyuan quickly took the baton and introduced the other Level 5 grand masters to Jiang Fei.

“This man here is Zhuge Qinlong’s good friend, Liu Yiyi.”

Jiang Fei was paying attention to every word he said. It was not only to be polite but to also observe, because while he was listening, when Xiaohou Shangyuan said “friend”, he noticed a sudden and slight dip in his intonation. To others, it might only not be anything but Jiang Fei knew better. Something was going on between Liu Yiyi and Xiaohou Shangyuan.

“Greetings, Senior Liu.” Jiang Fei bowed and greeted Liu Yiyi. The grand master of the Shushan Sect must be hundreds of years old but the woman looked extremely young, like someone in her late twenties. Her beauty had only reached its peak and time could not taint her appearance further. The one flaw that she had was her cold, distant look. A look that served as a warning to any interested parties that she was not someone to be trifled with.

Liu Yiyi responded to Jiang Fei’s polite bow with only a simple nod. The hair that draped down from her side moved ever so slightly and stayed stationary after. Unlike the others, she was not as sociable as she was the epitome of introverts.

“Oh ho! This one, you know. I shall skip the introduction and let you two get reacquainted,” said Bai Shien. While Xiaohou Shangyuan was introducing Liu Yiyi to Jiang Fei, Bai Shien was just done playing around with Lee Shi. He came back to Jiang Fei and continued his job of introducing the rest of the grand masters to him.

“We meet again, Senior Feng,” Jiang Fei bowed but only a little as he maintained eye contact with the man he once had an argument.

Even though Feng Tianqi and Jiang Fei had crossed paths, leaving a bad taste in each others’ mouths, neither side still bore any negativity toward one another. Feng Tianqi, like the other grand masters, was tempted by the dart tips. That temptation was so strong that Feng Tianqi almost forgot about how Jiang Fei killed the entrance guard of his sect and about the incident where he actually created a ruckus at his doorstep.

There was a separate incident where Ye Tianshun’s misdeeds were brought to light, and Jiang Fei had killed him openly. The man had betrayed the martial artists’ code by colluding with the Mutants and selling out his own people. Even if Jiang Fei had spared him, Feng Tianqi would have ended the man’s life nonetheless. Betrayal was something that had zero-tolerance in the martial artist community. Compared to Jiang Fei “throwing a tantrum”, the case of Ye Tianshun was far more severe. Moreover, Feng Tianqi had more reason to befriend Jiang Fei than to hate him because of his deeds. After the war in Tokyo, many surviving disciples of the Soaring Cloud Sect had been talking up Jiang Fei. He had saved all of their lives and was the sole reason why they had actually won the war. In a way, the only reason Soaring Cloud Sect was still standing that day was because of Jiang Fei. As such, even though Feng Tianqi still did not like Jiang Fei, he had no reason to hate him.

“Mhm. It’s been a while.” Feng Tianqi smiled and greeted back. There was no need for him to be hostile toward the young man. Even though he could not bring himself to be all chummy with him, he could still smile nicely and remain being acquaintances.

“Right, here’s another person who you should know,” said Bai Shien as he gestured Jiang Fei to an older woman. The smile on his face spoke of malice. Not the kind that could cause Jiang Fei suffering, but it was something else entirely.

“Thank you very much, little dwarf. I’ll take it over from here,” said the old woman as she pulled Jiang Fei’s hands and cupped them in her own.

Jiang Fei was mildly taken aback when the old woman did that. He had no idea who he had crossed paths with.

“This old one is from the Aquamoon Heavenly Palace. Yang Ruoxi is the name. Little Fei, you may address me as Granny Yang,” said the old woman. Judging from the way she scanned Jiang Fei, she had a rather satisfied smile on. It was as if Jiang Fei was a “fine” specimen.

“Greetings, Granny Yang,” Jiang Fei greeted politely. Sweat dripped from the side of his forehead as he sensed something bad was coming for him. Not the kind that would end his life, but the kind that would stir his life into a mess.

“I’d say, old Yang, what are you doing there?” Bai Shien snorted disgruntledly. The others kept quiet but they were obviously not happy with how Yang Rouxi was allowing Jiang Fei to address her as Granny. The rest of them had their sense of pride and in this case with Jiang Fei, they were only willing to stoop as low as being Jiang Fei’s senior, a friend rather than an acquaintance. Yang Rouxi was not the same. She was stooping much lower than that, going as far as allowing Jiang Fei to treat and address her as family!

“You have your own way in dealing with little Fei here. I’m but being a little more caring for him!” Yang Rouxi snorted back.

“Oh f*ck no! This old hag is not doing that!” Jiang Fei thought to himself. He was no longer that naive little boy that would allow himself to be toyed around. Based on what the old hag was trying to do, Jiang Fei understood that she was trying to “reel” Jiang Fei closer to her. God forbid if she were to mention the Yang twins!

“Ariel, please fetch Bella and Sylphy quickly,” Jiang Fei whispered to Ariel. Even though Ariel and Nina was literally next to Jiang Fei, the two composed girls could not be more than decorations in this situation. Asking them to help him would be the same as asking a baby to boot up a computer.

On the other hand, Bella and Sylphy, the hot-tempered troublemakers would not be as useless. With the two by his side, even if the old hag was a Level 5 grand master, surely she would feel threatened to make a move against the two.

“What’s wrong, hubby?”

Bella flashed herself in between Yang Rouxi and Jiang Fei. It was a desperate move since she heard from Ariel that Jiang Fei was about to be reeled in for other girls.

Teleporting next to a Level 5 Metahuman was circumstantial-dependent. It would be an impossible feat to teleport next to another Level 5 Metahuman as each Level 5 Metahuman had a unique energy field surrounding them. That same energy field would interfere with spacetime and would disrupt the teleportation process. Bella being able to teleport right next to Yang Rouxi had only proved that she had mastery in spacetime manipulation, not to mention showing that was a strong one.

“Who dares to court my darling!” Sylphy voice was so cold that Jiang Fei could swear that the air around Sylphy froze.

Compared to Isabella, Sylphy’s entrance spoke volumes of her powers. She did not teleport in like Isabella but appeared behind Yang Rouxi, like a shadow. Hardly any presence was given off before and her appearance behind Yang Rouxi, another Level 5 Metahuman, had startled all other grand masters.

The two that had a mini-heart attack were Bai Shien and Xiaohou Shangyuan. They were both wielding personalized Godblades that Jiang Fei had made for them yet they were helpless against people like Sylphy. How does one fight a silent killer like her? An assassin that was capable of hiding her presence in a room filled with Level 5 grand masters? She would be more than capable of crawling next to them and end their lives before they could even unsheathe their weapons.

“Interesting…” Jiang Fei hummed quietly. He would be lying if he was not surprised to see this new side of Level 5 grand masters. Sylphy and Isabella had asserted their dominance so admirably that he was able to establish a position that could not be swayed. For once, he was thankful that the two girls were the kind that got jealous easily!

Looking at the bigger picture, these Level 5 grand masters were only there because of two reasons. The first being the dart tips and the second was Bai Shien. All of them were Bai Shien’s closer friends. At the beginning, when they were asked to help Jiang Fei raid an enemy base, their pride as Level 5 Metahumans would only get them as far as being present in the battlefield. They were not willing to be ordered around by a young brat only as strong as a Level 4 disciple. However, that all changed with the appearance of Isabella and Sylphy. Now the mysterious background of Jiang Fei was shrouded in even more mystery.