“W-Wu Long? He’s alive?”

The man called Wu Tiandu said with astonishment, and there were several more surprised faces and voices as they looked at the arriving three people.

“What is Butler Bang doing?”

The others wondered as Wu Tianshui gnashed his teeth, hatred raging in his eyes.

Wu Mengqi’s legs moved, first slowly, as if struggling but then gradually she started running toward Wu Long. The man behind Wu Tianshui concentrated and powerful waves of Soul Power stretched toward the running young maiden but to his astonishment she was shielded by a screen of even more powerful Soul Power. The man looked at Wu Long with disbelief and shock as he could not imagine someone a Major Realm below him with such a powerful Soul Sea. He was leagues above the man Wu Long met in the Tingren Kingdom in skill and quality of Soul Power, but he was still nowhere near a match for the Qi Manifestation Realm Wu Long.

“Stop her!!!”

Nie Changsheng shouted and his bodyguards were about to spring into action, but thin lines on the reflected sun started making sparks against their armor.

“Mengqi!!! Get back here!!”

Her father shouted in anger as the Wu family patriarch still looked in astonishment at Butler Bang and Wu Long alternatively.

“Wu Long!!!”

Wu Mengqi ran into Wu Long who welcomed her into his embrace with open hands and tightly hugged her as she wrapped her hands around him. Her hands trembled as she was still in disbelief.

‘If this is a dream I do not want to wake up!’

She thought to herself and tears ran down her cheeks while she clung to him. Wu Long warmly smiled as her familiar scent filled his lungs, making him truly feel at home.

“I am back for you, Mengqi” 𝙚𝙤𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒐𝙧𝙜

He whispered to her ear and she smiled as she burrowed her face into his chest.

“Get her back! Get her back here immediately and kill that bastard!!!”

Meanwhile, Nie Changsheng shouted in rage, his forehead bulging with veins and his neck becoming red from the strain of shouting at the top of his lungs.

Wu Tianhuo was also shouting for Mengqi to return as the others were making proclamations of surprise or indignation. There was also a crowd of people who appeared from the other side of the smoke cloud that followed Wu Long’s group here in desperate and futile attempts to stop them who were now also making noise as they finally recognized the intruders.

“Silence!!!”

Suddenly, a stern loud voice backed by Spiritual Qi broke the chaotic sounds and the struggle of the prince’s bodyguards also died down. The commanding tone in this voice made everyone but Wu Long and Butler Bang shudder, including Old Yen and Mengqi. Wu Family Patriarch finally calmed down from his astonishment and took the situation under his own control. The place turned silent finally and the chaotic movements stopped as well.

His stern gaze traveled through the crowd and everywhere it went the people lowered their gazes in shame at their chaotic behavior before. His eyes then shot toward Wu Long, and after looking at him with a probing gaze for a little, then went to his side, looking at Butler Bang.

“Old Bang… explain”

The Wu Family Patriarch demanded with a heavy tone of voice, not hiding his displeasure.

“My apologies, Partiarch, you can consider these actions as my resignation, since I now serve a different master. I express my gratitude for the years I have spent in the care of this household, and hope you do not consider this a betrayal, as my service to this house has been loyal until the death of the previous patriarch, who wished for me to follow my heart with his last words”

Butler Bang did not falter under this gaze, speaking calmly and with dignity. The Patriarch of the Wu Family furrowed his eyebrows.

“Resignation?! Are you joking with me right now? What the hell is going on?”

“Unfortunately, that is as far as the courtesy to my former employer gets, the rest you will have to discuss with the man in charge”

Butler Bang shook his head as his previous answer was the final courtesy he intended to extend, fully becoming subordinate to Wu Long at this point since he made his final greetings to the house he formerly served.

“Have you gone senile already? Are you going to explain why have you not finished the orders I gave you or not?”

The Wu Family Patriarch refused to acknowledge Wu Long’s presence and still looked at Butler Bang, while Wu Tianshui looked both scared and surprised as a slow realization came to him.

“Father…”

“Silence! I am not asking you, you imbecile! Did you really think I wouldn’t know?”

As Wu Tianshui tried to speak up the Patriarch shut him up with a stern shout, as annoyance was brimming in his voice. Wu Tianshui shuddered with every word the Patriarch spoke as the other brothers looked with suspicion at the third eldest of them.

Despite the question, Butler Bang turned a statue, silently standing to the side and slightly behind Wu Long, with no signs of answering or even acknowledging the Patriarch’s words. The latter, seething with rage in his eyes but still maintaining composure was still stubbornly staring at the old man, but to no avail. Finally, after some time of awkward silence, the Patriarch was forced to look at Wu Long.

“Haa~ I was resigned to keep you in the family, in keeping with my father’s dying wish. I even ignored your relationship with Mengqi for some time when it was not an issue. But… are you going to repay all of that by humiliating our noble house? I will not let this house be reduced to a farce and laughingstock of the dirt that fills the streets!

I don’t care about marriage with the Imperial Family, our house has as long, if not more illustrious history than the Nie Family. But I will not be presiding over the time when a lowly beggar who was picked from who knows where by my father who was already weakening in mind, turns this house into a circus!”

The Patriarch started with a low voice that eventually turned into a thunderous shout at the end, as Mengqi shuddered in Wu Long’s embrace.

“G-Grandfa-…”

“Shut up!!! You disobedient silly girl! I am not talking to you!!! Immed-…”

The Patriarch shouted but a cold sensation of extreme danger shrouded him and he was forced to shut his mouth.

“Mind your tone, no one talks to my woman in this manner”

Wu Long’s cold voice, although he said it in a relatively low and calm tone was heard clearly by everyone.

“Y-You are speaking to the Patriarch!!!”

The Wu Family members started to speak up in indignation, as they were filled with a strange dissonance since they were covered with cold sweat in front of a Qi Manifestation Realm boy.

“Silence!”

The Patriarch was forced to calm the scene down again, as he too was looking at Wu Long in bewilderment. The sensation of danger, as if a cold blade was pressed against his neck was still vivid in his mind.

“Hmm, it seems you do have something different about you…”

The Patriarch said ponderingly as he was not sure if the man before him was truly Wu Long. It was long established that Wu Long’s talent was too poor and that he would never reach Qi Gathering Realm, let alone Qi Manifestation.

“Let us speak clearly, you do not have anything against my relationship with Mengqi, but since the whole situation was turning into a farce, you wanted to clean it up, the most efficient method being to remove the only knot this situation had, me”

Wu Long said, as he was not fond of stretching out the conspiracies.

“That is correct, while I did not mind you as long as you were not a problem, once you became a burden to the house I did not have to hesitate, what of it?”

The Patriarch said with a chuckle, not intending to hide his stance as he looked at Wu Long with a stern look. Wu Long nodded in return.

“That is one head, next…”

He said and a light tremor went through the crowd as Wu Mengqi looked up at Wu Long in astonishment. Wu Long’s gaze turned to Wu Tianshui.

“You are the one who mainly wanted to have Mengqi be married off since you were offered benefits-…”

“Liar! There is no such-…”

“Tianshui, stop behaving like a little bitch and own up to your own damn actions!”

The Wu Family Patriarch shouted in annoyance as his third son’s behavior was making him more and more annoyed in recent years.

“F-Father…eeigh! Damn! Yes! Yes, I did want her to be married off so what?! Eldest brother was not against the idea so who cares?!”

“So hiring a Soul Cultivator to dupe that old brick and Mengqi’s father was also not a problem?”

Wu Long asked, paying close attention to the face of the most troublesome man, Mengqi’s father as he did hesitate to kill him in front of her. The Patriarch and Wu Tianhuo expressed first surprise, and then anger flashed in their eyes, as well as the other two brothers.

“Tianshui! You-…!!!”