That was basically the end of the conversation. The brown-haired man could see contempt in Lu Gang’s eyes, which made him upset. He thought he was rude.
“It doesn’t matter if I’ve misunderstood or not, as long as you’re not playing any tricks,” Lu Gang leaned back in his chair, looking lazily at the man with his arms around his chest. “How I feel about Qi Yan is my business, you don’t have to worry about it. You believe in divine power, so did your god tell you to play tricks behind someone’s back?”
“You can insult me, but don’t you dare insult our deity!” The brown-haired man’s face turned dark, “Master Lu, you are so rude!”
“Then take it out on Qi Yan, not my country,” Lu Gang stood up, looked down at the brown-haired man, and sneered, “what a joke.”
“Are you making a personal attack on me?!” The brown-haired man stood up and said angrily, “Mr. Lu, you must apologize!”
When the staff saw this, they were worried that that might cause conflict between countries, and exchanged glances, wondering if they should go forward to mediate. However, before they could act, several masters from Luo Shang went up, apparently trying to make things worse.
“What happened?” Mrs. Pei heard some noise coming from a corner and turned to look. Several foreigners were surrounding a table, saying something to the staff in an aggressive manner.
Cen Baihe remembered something and whispered to Qi Yan, “the master we met when we were walking last night was sitting there just now.”
Qi Yan nodded and said to Cen Baihe, “stay here, I’ll go take a look.”
Cen Baihe knew he shouldn’t intervene in this kind of thing, so he nodded to Qi Yan, “sure.”
“Mr. Cen, aren’t you worried that Master Qi might have offended people in the past?” Master Pei took a sip of milk, and frowned.
“This might sound like I’m bragging,” Without Qi Yan by his side, Cen Baihe became a lot more polite, “Qian Qian is skilled enough to deal with these small things, and more importantly, I am not afraid of him offending people. As long as I am alive, I will not let others harm him.”
Master Pei fell silent when he heard that. He knew how high the Cen family’s status was in the country. He knew that Cen Baihe wanted everyone to be aware of this.
He heard that Qi Yan had helped the Special Task Force with a dangerous mission and solved the matter perfectly, so when they were on the plane, the members of the Special Task Force were very enthusiastic about Qi Yan.
“You’re right,” Mrs. Pei nodded with a smile, “of course you’d protect your own family.”
“Is this how you treat your guests?” The brown-haired man angrily took out his staff and pointed at Lu Gang, “if Mr. Lu doesn’t want to apologize to me, I’ll make him do it.”
Then, he began to recite a spell, but before he could finish, his cane was grabbed by someone, and the spiritual energy around his body seemed to be scattered by something invisible.
“What is going on?” Qi Yan gave the staff a tug and took it into his hand. It was made of pure gold, with fine gems on it. It looked valuable.
Seeing that his staff was taken away, the man was even more furious. To them, the staff was like a part of their body. Their spiritual energy could be affected if someone simply touched it, so most people would not touch a master’s staff.
But this young man had taken it away, and what was even more terrifying was that he did not receive the backlash from the staff.
“It’s made of gold. I thought it was made of wood,” Qi Yan didn’t see their ugly faces and returned the staff to the man, “speak calmly, it’s not right to point this at others.”
“You are from the same country, of course you’d help him,” another man said. “He must apologize to us, otherwise he’s disrespecting our country.”
“Then aren’t you disrespecting us by being so aggressive?” Qi Yan turned to look at Lu Gang, and received a look of disgust, so he turned away.
“Also,” Qi Yan raised his chin, “you’re right, I’m helping him. What are you going to do?”
Xiang Qiang, who was not far away, was panicking in his heart. Was Master Qi there to mediate, or to cause trouble? He was about to go forward to help when he was stopped by Zhao Zhicheng.
“Don’t move, just watch them quietly.” Zhao Zhicheng turned to get two glasses of drinks and gave one to Xiang Qiang, “we shouldn’t get too involved, especially since they have very different personalities. You will only add fuel to the fire if you go.”
Xiang Qiang took a sip of his drink. After thinking about it carefully, he thought the captain was right. If they didn’t go forward, this matter would be a private conflict. If they did, it would become political. Since the representative of Luo Shang did not speak out, they needn’t worry too much. With Master Qi here, they would be fine.
“What a nice man,” Riles said in a mocking tone, “did you know that he was talking bad about you behind your back? He even mocked your lover, are you not angry at all?”
“That’s my business. Thank you for your concern.” Qi Yan glanced at the man, “may I know what happened just now?”
Lu Gang ignored him.
The brown-haired man looked uncomfortable. He glanced at Riles and didn’t speak.
Riles smiled gracefully, “David, tell Mr. Qi what happened. Mr. Qi seems like someone who can make the call.”
Seniority was important in China. Even if Qi Yan was very capable, he did not have the seniority to call the shots. If he agreed to the statement, he would offend other masters.
“You might not know much about us Chinese people,” Qi Yan lowered his eyes slightly with a smile on his face, “in our country, everyone is the future successor of the country, and everyone has a say.”
Riles: …
Lu Gang: …
In the past, Lu Gang thought that he was good with words, but since he met Qi Yan, he realized that he could not compete with him. It was quite satisfying to hear his retort.
“Hehe… It seems that I don’t know enough about your country.”
Qi Yan nodded. “It’s okay, just read more in the future.”
Masters from Luo Shang: He is really here to make trouble!
“Do you now like us? Why are you so cold towards us?” The smile on Riles’ face disappeared, “or does your country have something against our country?”
“You made it seem so serious. You and I are just ordinary people, how can our words represent the whole country?” Qi Yan shook his head, “maybe you have the courage and ability to speak for your country, but I don’t.”
Riles wanted to trick Qi Yan but Qi Yan cleverly dodged it.
In fact, Qi Yan and the others could say these things, but the members of the Special Task Force who were linked to the state department could not. Not only that, they could not even get upset, otherwise it would lead to international disputes. So their not showing and speaking up were the best support for Qi Yan.
More and more people came to have breakfast, and Riles knew that it would not do him any good if this continued.
He had dealt with Chinese people before. They were usually non-confrontational. As long as the other party did not make too much trouble, they would choose to be patient. At the moment, they could not stand the fact that there were suddenly two young masters who refused to give them face.
“No need to ask them what they want to do,” Lu Gang sneered. “They know that I don’t like you and want to provoke me to fight you.”
Then, Lu Gang said in a sullen voice, “although I don’t like you, I know why my master was injured so badly and died.”
Qi Yan paused and his impression of Lu Gang changed slightly. Lu Gang might not be very capable, but he was still able to distinguish right from wrong.
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. The foreigners’ plan to add fuel to fire was unsuccessful. Instead, their plan was exposed.
There were already quite a few people in the dining hall at the moment. Although the representatives of other countries didn’t intervene, they were secretly watching the drama in excitement, especially those from the countries that did not have a good relationship with Luo Shang. Their contempt was shown clearly on their faces.
Those from Luo Shang could not help but cause drama.
Riles didn’t expect Lu Gang to reveal what they were discussing. It’s a bad look on both parties.
Unfortunately they had failed to provoke them and even embarrassed themselves.
Qi Yan laughed coldly, “I see.”
Riles forced a smile, “what do you mean we are sowing discord? How would I know about your relationship with Mr. Qi?”
“Say whatever you want,” Lu Gang rolled his eyes. “Anyway, you can do whatever you want to Qi Yan, but don’t try to use me. I will not betray my master and my own country just for glory. That is all, enjoy your meal.”
“Mr. Riles, Mr. Qi,” Zhao Zhicheng appeared with a warm smile, “is breakfast not to everyone’s taste?”
“No, it’s delicious.” Riles was annoyed that they only appeared after they’d embarrassed themselves. It must be intentional. At this point, they couldn’t cause more trouble anymore and returned to their seats.
“Master Qi,” Zhao Zhicheng turned his head and whispered to Qi Yan when he saw that they were gone, “thanks for stepping up just now.”
“After all, he is still Master Qian’s apprentice. I might not like him, but others should not bully him.” Qi Yan recalled Lu Gang’s reaction just now, “besides, he probably didn’t need my help.”
Zhao Zhicheng smiled and put his hands together, “don’t worry, we all know what those from Luo Shang are trying to do behind our backs.”
They would not forget that. It was never too late for revenge. Their nation had overcome so much hardship, this was nothing to them.
“Is the matter resolved?” Cen Baihe saw Qi Yan coming back and put a steaming glass of milk in his hand, “the staff told me I could use the wifi here, so I’m going to hold a video conference later. Come back to the room once you’re done.”
“Okay,” Qi Yan realized that the temperature of the milk was just right, Baihe must have filled a new glass for him. “Someone from Luo Shang wanted to cause drama, but Lu Gang didn’t allow it, so they were embarrassed.”
Cen Baihe paused, then smiled and said, “he is Master Qian’s apprentice afterall.”
After breakfast, Qi Yan talked to the other masters about the exchange. Due to different cultures, the masters had different beliefs and techniques.
However, this did not stop them from learning from each other.
“Luo Shang has repeatedly targeted China, and they have been eyeing our country’s dragon veins,” Master Zhao put the information about Luo Shang in the middle of the table, “so, we must be more careful.”
“Songzhen, Yinxing and a few other countries have a close relationship with Luo Shang. They may join forces, so we can’t take these countries lightly,” Master Zhao put a few more documents on the table. He was most familiar with the masters from these countries, and had also participated in several exchanges, so everyone trusted his judgment.
“Remember, don’t simply touch the staff of those from Luo Shang, because they had spiritual energy attached to them. If someone other than the owner touched it, they might get hurt.” Master Zhao thought for a while, “however, they have one weakness. Does anyone here specialize in drawing talismans?”
Everyone turned their attention to the master who studied Taoism.
Qi Yan took a stack of papers and put it on the table. “These?”
The masters looked at the stack of papers exuding a strong spiritual energy, and they were dazed.
Are they seeing things?
There were so many exquisite and rare talismans with rich spiritual energy. They could not be drawn without decades of training. How old is this Master Qi?
“Paralysis spell…”
“Numbing spell…”
“Thunder and fortune-gathering spells?”
“Ha!” Master Pei picked one up with trembling hands, “Master Qi, this… is the divine talisman?!”
Everyone here recognized the name, but no one had ever seen one that actually worked. Most that were on the market were fake.
But this was different. They felt a mysterious aura around it.
