Martial King's Retired Life

Tianhu sat down on a stone step at the front of the tavern, formed a fist with the hand he held his fan in and rested his cheek on it. “Your reaction tells me you didn’t expect me.”

Tianhu’s appearance was troublesome for Jiang Chen in multiple ways. The Ultimate Three weren’t just the imperial court’s mightiest force, but they were all unparalleled in the martial world alone. The name “Tianhu” itself was a weapon, and this generation’s Tianhu particularly excelled in the art of leaving people bewildered.

This generation’s Tianhu’s whereabouts were always a mystery just as his predecessors. However, he didn’t stir the pot or monitor the martial world from the shadows as his predecessors did. Instead, he went around getting rid of potential threats to the imperial court, whether that was through subjugation, destruction… whatever manner he chose, you’d have to add “alone” to the end of the description. The solo modus operandi of his resembled Baima’s penchant to act alone. Thanks to Tianhu, Baima could focus solely on guarding the border from the ambitious Beijiang. Nobody knew the reason for Tianhu’s modus operandi changing, and he never bothered explaining himself. The previous Tianhus controlled the martial world from outside of public view, while this Tianhu… nobody could accurately describe what he was doing. In fact, no one knew what sect he came from, where he was born or even his real name; no one included even Emperor Yuansheng.

The first time Emperor Yuansheng met the current Tianhu was only a few years ago, when the previous Tianhu introduced him and vouched for him with his life. There was never any stipulation that Tianhu had to be someone that the previous one knew from childhood. That being said, it was the first time there was a Tianhu shrouded in so much mystery. Nevertheless, Emperor Yuansheng provided the man he knew nothing about with the title, financial support, honours, trust and everything else that came with the role as he understood the role of Emperor’s Entourage. Everyone in Emperor’s Entourage was his to command.

Tianhu sighed. “To tell the truth, I can’t get motivated to deal with these issues. Let me make it clear: I don’t care about anything in the world or feel one way or another about any part of it. I wouldn’t confront you if you didn’t bug me. Having said that, I draw clear lines. Dealing with you goons isn’t easy. Can you just surrender to have me some energy? It’ll save you energy, too.”

Mountain Monster said, “Ol’ Shen, what does he mean? Translate for me.”

Shen Yiren stopped to think prior to opining, “If I’m not mistaken, he means that everyone here is garbage.”

“Thanks, Miss Shen.” Tianhu yawned and then mumbled, “I like to fight, but fighting you lot is as interesting as watching paint dry.”

As assassins, their sole thoughts were how to take out their target. The target’s words and mannerisms were but only tools to take advantage of. They didn’t choose to strike now because of Tianhu’s bold words; they timed their attack based on the fact that his posture and flow of true qi left him most vulnerable now.

Although Jiang Chen had trust issues with the executioners that the “group” provided him, it wasn’t an issue for them. He never trusted anyone, let alone expected anyone to be loyal to him. The only basis he used to pick them to be his hidden ace was competence. They were all first-rate adepts in the pugilistic world, and he still had another insurance policy hidden among them.

Tianhu’s appearance was unaccounted for. Nonetheless, Jiang Chen had put in place preparations for when he had to face the imperial court’s most dangerous forces. Jiang Chen discarded his scholar’s sword, took out several metal parts from his book basket and combined them into a weapon, a blade that was dark purple – Punished.

While not even Jiang Chen could maximise the potential of Punished, he was still a menace through imitating Gu Wuzhu’s discipline.

It may have seemed as though the seven assassins were standing in random spots, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. By the time they had closed in on Tianhu, they had formed a specific formation to secure the kill. The initiator aimed his dual short swords straight at the side of Tianhu’s neck. Another assassin behind Tianhu swung his bronze whip over. At the same time, a sword wielder and broadsword wielder closed in on his sides. Tianhu also had to fend off a sickle heading towards his stomach and a claw coming down from above, all whilst having to worry about the airborne explosives and blades.

“This is painfully boring.”

Still sitting, Tianhu snatched the two short swords, then plunged them through the head of the assassin behind him. He subsequently took the bronze whip to twist the owner’s body until he was dead. He used the spear to kill the sword wielder, stole the broadsword and sword to kill another two, shoved the bombs into the mouth of the flying daggers assassin and easily caught the blades. After all of that, he threw away the flying daggers lazily.

Jiang Chen disintegrated all the flying daggers with Punished, only to almost lose his grip on his weapon all of a sudden. Upon realising Tianhu had disarmed him before he realised it, Jiang Chen used every ounce of internal energy to launch himself away whilst doing everything he could to prevent Punished from slipping out.

Tianhu placed his hand on Jiang Chen’s chest and casually pushed, sending Jiang Chen and his blood reeling for metres before he could catch himself.

“This is painfully boring.”

Even after all of that, Tianhu still looked genuinely bored out of his skin. Throughout the entire sequence, his expression didn’t change once. Nonetheless, nobody could argue he was pretending because he was still sitting on the same step in the same posture.

Tianhu wasn’t a sophisticated fighter. To the contrary, he fought in a simplistic manner. He was just too fast for any of them to defend against.

The brief exchange provided enough evidence for Jiang Chen to know that he couldn’t hold back.

“Shitou.”