Misty Rain of the Old Times

The old man's sudden disappearance was truly unexpected, just like a child letting go. It's unlikely that they ran far away, but if they deliberately hid, where would you find them in the vast sea of ​​people?

Of course, if one really wanted to find him, it wouldn't be impossible with Chen Xuan's abilities; it would just take some time. But then what? He clearly wanted to live a carefree life on his own and could just run away again, so it wouldn't be very meaningful.

With Grandpa Wang protecting him, and the old man being quite resourceful with his own means of self-defense, Chen Xuan quickly stopped worrying about safety and found the situation rather amusing.

The phrase "old child" perfectly describes him; why can't he ever be at ease?

As he remained silent, the burly man on the platform cupped his hands and said in a deep voice, "Young man, please come in. Be careful, though, as fists and feet have no eyes."

Chen Xuan had no intention of going on stage to bully anyone, but he'd been tricked by Lao Deng. He turned around, bowed, and said with a smile, "Greetings, brother. My skills are meager, and I acted impulsively. I think I'll pass now and not embarrass myself further."

His words drew a burst of laughter from the audience, though few of them were malicious. He said he didn't want to embarrass himself, but he backed down once he was on stage. That was just making a fool of himself.

However, the tall man guarding the arena seemed to have a sense of self-awareness, since Chen Xuan looked young and delicate, and his every move clearly did not seem like he had practiced martial arts.

However, as the saying goes, "Since you're already here," the big guy had already exhausted himself from the previous competition, and he wanted to stay on stage a little longer. Chen Xuan's appearance just happened to create this opportunity for him. He could treat it as entertainment, stay on stage a little longer, and let more people get to know him.

Before Chen Xuan could turn around, he stepped forward and stopped him, laughing, "Young brother, you are clearly an outstanding person. You are too modest. Since you are already on stage, please show us what you have learned. Let's exchange ideas, discuss and improve together. Don't worry, I will hold back and won't hurt you. If you don't trust me, there is a referee on the side. He is a master of the innate realm. With him protecting you, you should feel at ease, right?"

Upon hearing this, the audience joined in the jeering, probably because they wanted to see something entertaining.

"Yes, yes, young man, you clearly have great skills. Show us what you've got!"

"Don't be afraid, it's just a friendly spar, let's stop when we've made our point."

"If all else fails, just take action. We'll all be there to guide you on how to handle it..."

I must say, the atmosphere is pretty good. It's relaxed and entertaining, without so much bitterness and resentment, and without the need to fight to the death.

The big guy was also straightforward and simple-minded, without many hidden agendas. Even a fool could tell he was being provoked. His words and actions weren't annoying; on the contrary, they were quite honest.

However, Chen Xuan shook his head apologetically and said, "No, no, I'm naturally afraid of pain. I don't want to embarrass myself and waste everyone's time. Let's give the opportunity to others."

The big man's face immediately hardened, and he pretended to be displeased, saying, "Young man, this isn't very interesting. So many people are watching. Are you trying to make fun of us?"

Good grief, seeing that they were easy to bully, they didn't hesitate to put themselves on the opposite side of everyone in order to stay on stage a little longer. It's just that their method was too simplistic. But everyone was happy, so who would care about anything else?

Chen Xuan found it amusing. Since things had come to this point, he could only hesitantly reply, "I had absolutely no such intention. Since everyone is so enthusiastic, I can only bite the bullet and go ahead. I hope you'll be lenient and not laugh at me; just treat it as a joke."

"Haha, no problem, no problem, young brother, bring it on!" the big man said cheerfully, gesturing for Chen Xuan to come.

Amidst the laughter and chatter, Chen Xuan, looking serious as if facing a formidable enemy, took a deep breath and said, "Then I'm going to make my move, take this!"

As he spoke, he swung his fist and charged at the other person. He didn't look like someone who knew martial arts at all; he was just throwing wild punches, which was worse than a street thug's fight.

The big guy was both amused and exasperated. He thought to himself, "Where did this clown come from? He dares to come up on stage like this?" He had already decided that he would only block without attacking, and after a few rounds with Chen Xuan, he would gently push him off the stage when he got tired. In this way, everyone would be happy, and he could take the opportunity to recover his strength to deal with the next person who came up on stage.

Soon, Chen Xuan swung his fist and rushed in front of him. The big guy didn't even have to use his strength; he simply raised his hand to block.

However, the next moment, Chen Xuan threw a seemingly powerless straight punch. Neither of them touched the other, and they were only half a foot apart when Chen Xuan's serious expression suddenly changed, turning into panic. His entire body flew backward inexplicably, heading towards the edge of the arena. In mid-air, he frantically exclaimed, "Such superb skills, such terrifying cultivation, such profound internal strength! You actually sent me flying! I shouldn't have come up here!"

The words had barely left his mouth when he landed off the stage, feigning a few stumbles as if he almost lost his balance. He quickly regained his footing and looked at the stage with feigned shock, saying, "I admire you, I concede defeat."

With that, he turned and slunk away towards the little princess.

Now it was the turn of the people around to be dumbfounded. They looked at each other in astonishment. The big man on the platform was suspicious. Could it be that this person was hiding his true strength and had been concealing his abilities before? To be able to send someone flying several feet away from a distance, such internal strength is truly formidable!
Even the big guy on the stage was stunned. I hadn't even made a move yet, let alone exerted any force, so how did he fly backward? Could it be that my cultivation level has advanced by leaps and bounds to such an unbelievable level without my knowledge?
Filled with doubt, he subconsciously looked in the direction where Chen Xuan had flown backward, but where could he see him now?
The people around the arena were all preoccupied with their own thoughts as they sized up the big guy on the stage. No one paid any attention to Chen Xuan, who had been defeated in one move, and had already regarded the big guy on the stage as a formidable opponent.

However, there were still some discerning people present. For example, the innate master who acted as the referee seemed to be deep in thought. He looked around the crowd, trying to find Chen Xuan's figure. When he couldn't find him, he reluctantly withdrew his gaze, thinking to himself that the young man from before was definitely not simple. He probably came up on stage just to have fun. This Hidden Dragon County is truly a place where hidden talents abound.

Inside the pavilion, several experts who were giving their critiques exchanged glances and discussed in hushed tones.

"He flew backwards without needing to gather strength, looking incredibly natural, as if he had truly been thrown back by a powerful force. There was no fluctuation of internal energy or true qi; it was purely a physical movement. What superb skill!"

"Do you know each other? Can you tell what cultivation path they're taking?"

"I don't know. By the way, are you a top disciple of your sect? Don't hide it..."

Having been tricked onto the stage by Lao Deng, Chen Xuan found himself in a difficult position. He decided to stage his own defeat and leave the stage, then disappeared without a care for what would happen next.

As he walked up the stage, Old Deng must have used some trick to distract the little princess and the others. They didn't even realize that the old man had disappeared. The whole process took less than two minutes.

"Husband, are you alright? How could you be so careless? You always brag about how amazing you are," the little princess asked with concern and reproach upon his return. Not understanding martial arts, she naturally couldn't see the key point; her concern had clouded her judgment. Dujuan and the others, of course, understood perfectly well, assuming their master was just playing around, completely fooled by the big man on stage, having pulled off a fooling stunt with just one appearance.

"What time is it? Why are you still worrying about these things?" Chen Xuan looked at the little princess, both amused and exasperated, and asked, "Wife, where is our father?"

"Where is he?!" The little princess looked to the side, then stared blankly at the person, her gaze sweeping around aimlessly. How could such a big person disappear in the blink of an eye?

Xia Mei and the others realized what was happening and quickly started searching, but where was the old man? There wasn't a trace of him.

The little princess quickly asked anxiously, "Where is Daddy? What were you all doing? How could you not keep an eye on him?"

Chen Xuan shook his head and smiled, "Wife, don't look for them anymore, and don't blame them. My father-in-law sent me away so that it would be easier for him to leave. They insisted on leaving, and who could stop them?"

"Husband, didn't you notice when Father left? We finally found him. Are we just going to let him continue to suffer in the wind and rain? What should we do?" the little princess said anxiously, completely at a loss.

Taking her hand, Chen Xuan comforted her, "Unless we keep a constant eye on him, there's really nothing we can do if your father wants to leave. My wife, don't worry. He's not a child anymore; he'll be fine. Instead of worrying unnecessarily, why don't we check if he left any information behind?"

“Father, how could he do this to someone his age…” the little princess said, conflicted. She quickly pulled a note from her sleeve and said, speechless, “I don’t remember having this note in my sleeve. It must have been left by Father. We were just together, when did he write it? The ink isn’t even dry.”

"Let's see what they said," Chen Xuan said, having anticipated this. The old man couldn't just leave like that.

The note didn't contain much, and the little princess read it at a glance. She said helplessly, "Daddy said they went to play by themselves and told us not to worry or look for him, or he'd get angry. He'll come back when he's had enough."

"Since that's the case, there's nothing we can do about it," Chen Xuan said, spreading his hands with a wry smile.

Looking at Chen Xuan, the little princess pondered, "Husband, didn't you notice when Father left? With your abilities, can you still find him?"

"I really didn't notice. Didn't you see how he painstakingly tried to distract me and divert my attention? The initial chance encounter was fine, but now he must be on guard and deliberately hiding himself. There's nothing I can do. You know what our father did in the past. I don't even know what kind of methods he has. Where am I supposed to find him now?" Chen Xuan said with a sigh.

They looked at each other, and the little princess had no choice but to accept the fact. She sighed and said, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Let him be. What can anyone do when Father gets willful?"

That's true. Not to mention Chen Xuan and the others, even the current new emperor Zhou Chen can't do anything to him. Don't think that just because Zhou Chen is on the throne now, he can still be deposed if pushed too far. His throne wasn't taken away; he relinquished it voluntarily. Who knows if he had any backup plans?

At that moment, the little maid suddenly cried out urgently, "Master, something terrible has happened! Our money is gone!"

Upon hearing this, Yunlan's expression changed slightly. She touched her waist and found that the money pouch that had been there earlier had disappeared without a trace. It was filled with gold coins!

Seeing this, Chen Xuan waved his hand calmly and said, "Don't bother looking. My father-in-law and the others must have taken it. They just didn't give us any warning beforehand. They were planning this on us, so who would fall for it? Just consider it a gift to our elders."

The little girl patted her chest and said "Oh," immediately relieved. As long as she hadn't lost it, that was good. Besides, she only had some small change with her, and the majority of her travel expenses were still on the boat.

Xia Mei smiled and comforted her, "It seems that Eunuch Wang took the money on the old master's orders. We really can't guard against this except for the master. Although I haven't had much contact with Eunuch Wang, his abilities are unfathomable."

Chen Xuan nodded in deep agreement. Eunuch Wang was more than unfathomable. He had been the Grand Eunuch for decades. He was just playing around with you. There was no doubt that if he was prepared to take advantage of someone who was not, even some Grandmaster-level experts would be defeated by him. Even if he faced someone head-on, he would probably be able to escape unscathed. So with him by his side, the old man's safety was not a concern.

Although there is an insurmountable gap between the Innate and the Grandmaster, the Grandmaster is not invincible. There are many ways to bridge the gap. Guess what kind of terrifying things the former Grand Eunuch had.
The premise is that you don't encounter someone as unreasonable as Chen Xuan. However, looking around the world, how many people are like Chen Xuan? Even if you do encounter him, unless you have a life-or-death feud, you can't make things difficult for him after revealing your identity.

Now that things have come to this, and there's no way to bring the old man back, the little princess said dejectedly, "What do we do next?"

"Being able to run into him and see that he is safe and having a good time is enough to put your mind at ease. Don't think too much about it. Let's just do what we need to do. Aren't you curious about the martial arts competition? Look, it's going to be exciting up there," Chen Xuan said, squeezing her little hand.

The little princess nodded and stopped worrying about it, refocusing her attention on the ring, though she had lost the initial enthusiasm.

At this moment, Chen Xuan was thinking that the money he brought had been taken by Lao Deng and his men, and he didn't even have a place to stay for the day. He couldn't afford to eat anything in the afternoon. Should he go back to the ship?
Actually, making money is quite easy for him, but he disdains to seize it by force. He can't just concoct some magic pills and go back to his old ways.

Never mind, we'll talk about it later. I'm not in a hurry to use the money right now.

The old folks are something else. If they want money, they should just say so. How could I not give it to them? They don't even know how to keep some for themselves.

While they were exchanging words, the competition on the stage did not stop. The big guy who had 'shoved' Chen Xuan away was no longer on the stage, and the people had even changed twice. Now, a young swordsman was guarding the stage.

However, true masters disdain such a arena, as they cannot bear the humiliation. It would be better to conserve their energy and save it for tomorrow's martial arts tournament.

This was really not interesting for Chen Xuan, like two chickens pecking at each other, but the cheers from the surrounding crowd were constant, probably because most of the onlookers had never seen any real masters before.

Influenced by the surrounding atmosphere, the little princess, who had never experienced such a scene before, gradually became engrossed in watching it, and Chen Xuan could only accompany her listlessly.

As the sun rose high in the sky and Chen Xuan began to feel sleepy, someone disregarded the unfinished competition on the stage and stepped onto the platform, proclaiming loudly: "Heroes from all directions have gathered here, and I thought there would be a fierce battle. However, after watching from below the stage for a while, it was as boring as children playing house. I am not talented, but I started learning martial arts at the age of three, practicing swordsmanship at the age of five, and mastering the sword manuals of a hundred schools by the age of ten. I began traveling the martial world at the age of fifteen and have not been defeated for ten years. Today, I have come here to challenge you all with my sword, seeking only a defeat. I wonder if I can have my wish fulfilled here!"

Hearing this, Chen Xuan perked up. Finally, someone couldn't resist showing off.
...(End of chapter)