Martial Arts Have Mastery - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Bandits’ Ambition

Translator: Tuiwen Editor: Tuiwen

The elder young master of the Shen family rode a tiger into the city!

A real tiger!

Alive!

As soon as Shen Ling arrived home, the news spread throughout the city like wildfire.

At this time, nobody remembered the tall and big horse which was cowering behind the tiger.

A tiger!

That was a fierce beast!

Whether they believed the rumor of Shen Ling fighting a tiger or not, they all wanted to have a look at the tiger right now.

It was the nature of humans to gossip.

When Shen Ling first heard this saying, he didn’t believe it. But when he saw the crowd close to his door, he felt it could be true after all. People did like to gossip after all.

But then, he didn’t want to be watched like a monkey any longer!

For this reason, he quickly locked the door as soon as he got home.

“Young Master.”

When Xiao Huan heard that Shen Ling had returned home, she walked in and saw the tiger standing beside his bed.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed.

For a moment, Xiao Huan covered her mouth in shock. Her body shook visibly as she retreated.

“What’s wrong?”

Shen Ling, who was walking into the room, asked. When he saw that Huan was about to fall, he quickly held her up before she injured herself.

“There… There’s a tiger in your room!”

She stuttered in fear. She felt relieved seeing him.

“Oh, I know.”

Shen Ling said calmly with a gentle nod. “This fellow isn’t willing to return to the mountain. Let’s keep it here for now.”

“What?!”

Xiao Huan exclaimed as she stared at him with her eyes wide in shock. She couldn’t believe her ears.

If not that he was higher than she was in status, Xiao Huan even wanted to check Shen Ling’s temperature to be sure he wasn’t running a fever.

Shen Ling smiled.

Truth be told, it was very dangerous to keep a tiger at home, but this particular tiger seemed to understand human language.

Simply put, he felt that the tiger was actually quite intelligent.

There was no problem keeping it at home.

He sat on a chair and looked at the tiger next to him and asked softly, “How about I give you a name?”

“Roar.”

The tiger growled in a low voice, which showed it agreed.

Looking at the tiger’s strong body, Shen Ling had an idea. “How about we call you Strong?”

“Roar-roar.”

The tiger growled twice in a row.

Shen Ling saw reluctance in its eyes.

It seemed like the tiger understood what he was saying.

He was not hallucinating.

“Alright then. Then how about… General?”

Shen Ling asked, but the tiger still growled twice.

He looked at it and frowned, “Really? You don’t like General either? How about King?”

“Roar-roar.”

The tiger growled twice again.

Shen Ling thought for a very long time and every time he said a name, the tiger would growl twice in disagreement.

Just then, Shen Ling voiced what he had in mind all this while, “Wait a minute. You’re a female, aren’t you?”

“Roar.”

This time, the tiger growled once.

Only then did he realize why the previous names had all been rejected.

“Oh, I see. Silly me!”

Shen Ling said as he patted his head. Then he said, “Since you’re a female, let’s call you Lily…”

“Roar.”

Tigress let out a low growl.

Shen Ling smiled when he saw that this name wasn’t rejected.

Although he knew that he could not come up with any good name, he was still glad that it was accepted.

The name was now official.

It would be called Lily.

After a while, Xiao Huan stood carefully by the door and said, “Young Master, Master Shen wants to see you.”

Shen Ling nodded. “Okay, I understand.”

“Alright then. Can I go back now, please?”

Xiao Huan asked as she looked at him pleadingly.

“Alright, go on.”

He waved his hand as he watched Xiao Huan rush out like a frightened rabbit.

With a smile, Shen Ling patted Lily’s big, fluffy head and said softly, “I’m going out for a while; don’t attack anyone. If you’re hungry, I’ll get someone to prepare some meat for you.”

“Roar.”

Lily let out a low growl and nodded.

After this response, Shen Ling stood up and headed towards the Shen family’s main hall.

“You’re here already?”

Master Shen said when he saw Shen Ling and greeted him casually.

“Yes.”

Shen Ling said with a nod as he sat beside him.

Master Shen looked at him and said slowly, “I heard you got a tiger.”

“Yeah,” Shen Ling replied.

“Well, I thought it was just a silly rumor.”

Master Shen looked at Shen Ling and said again, “Let’s get down to business. Many people in the city want to sell their land. I called you here to discuss whether we should take it or not.”

Shen Ling looked at Master Shen in confusion and asked, “They want to sell their land? But why?”

“Yes.”

Master Shen nodded and continued, “The war between the Great Jin Empire and the Great Qian Empire has caused many people to live in fear. The people of the Great Qian Empire are clear about what their country is like now. If they lose this time, the previous land ownership would naturally become null. They just want to sell the land deed before it becomes worthless.”

Shen Ling understood what he meant. He smiled and said, “Since they are selling their land, let’s buy it. As long as it’s cheap, we will buy as much as we can.”

“Why would you want to do so?”

Master Shen asked. He was quite interested in how Shen Ling would think of it.

Shen Ling began to explain slowly, “The Great Qian Empire might lose, but not this year. The Great Jin Empire sending troops to declare war in the autumn was a very hasty move if you ask me. Once it’s winter, the soldiers will have problems moving forward, let alone resupplying.”

“With this, even if the Great Qian Empire loses, it won’t happen before next year.”

“In addition, although the Great Jin Empire is strong, the Great Qian Empire is still capable of fighting back. I don’t think the situation is that bad.”

Master Shen nodded in understanding.

In all honesty, he was worried that the Great Qian Empire would be destroyed and had thoughts of putting other preparations in place.

However, Shen Ling’s words helped him think clearly.

“I understand all you’ve said.”

Master Shen nodded as he looked at Shen Ling.

Although Shen Ling didn’t intend to take over the matters of the Shen family, Master Shen had already heard so much about what he had done in the sharecropping village.

In all aspects, Shen Ling was the most suitable person to take over the position of the family head.

With a child as intelligent as Shen Ling was, what more could a man ask for?!

A few days later…

As soon as Master Shen spread the news, many people with land deeds started rushing into the Shen residence.

The money that the Shen family had was reducing quickly while the land deeds they had were increasing by the minute.

By the time no one came to the Shen family to sell their land, the land deeds in Master Shen’s hands, put together, had already covered more than 80% of the arable land area in Qi Hua City.

However, with such an exaggerated figure, the money that the Shen family had was not much.

Even Shen Ling’s main meal was affected by this.

Money was still very important!

While Shen Ling was free at home, spending more time cultivating and walking the tiger his leisure time, the Green Mountain Bandits that he had forgotten about finally made their move.

But this time, their target wasn’t the sharecroppers’ village.

Very early the next morning…

Shen Ling was surprised by the news he heard. The Green Mountain Bandits had gathered outside Qi Hua City and were about to launch an attack.

What was this all about?

This act surprised him greatly.

He thought that they would attack the sharecroppers’ village.

What they were doing right now superseded his expectation of them. They wanted to enter the city and loot.

Shen Ling analyzed the whole scenario calmly for a while.

When he compared the military strength and the number of people, the army of Qi Hua City wasn’t a match for the bandits.

However, were they not afraid of annoying the emperor by taking such a bold move?

Or did they think that the Great Qian Empire would lose for sure?