Di and Sha agreed that Steward Huang should not have concealed the difficulty of the task whatever his reason was. Then they decided to end the cooperative relations.h.i.+p.

Steward Huang was anxious and hurriedly explained to them.

“I did not conceal it on purpose. It was because this has something to do with the skeleton in the cupboard of the Long Family. Moreover, I did not expect the fourth master to act so viciously by hiring so many a.s.sa.s.sins.”

“Grandpa Huang, what are you saying? You say that these bad people are a.s.signed by the fourth uncle? It can't be! The fourth uncle treats me so nicely at home. He is the first one to teach me weapon-making. I don't believe that he will hurt me.” Long Baobao shook his head and grabbed with force Steward Huang's sleeve. In no case could he believe Steward Huang's words.

“Young master, I am old and useless...” Steward Huang said in a choked voice when he looked at the chubby small face of Long Baobao.

Under such circ.u.mstances, Steward Huang knew that he could not conceal the fact anymore,

The Long Family in the Cang State was the oldest weapon-making family on the Qing Continent.

Generations of heads of the Long Family knew about the special weapon-making method called Five Elements Spiritual Melting. This method could be taught only to the heir of each head.

Long Baobao's father Long Sihai was the eldest son of the head in this generation. When he was young, Long Sihai was designated as the heir to the Five Elements Spiritual Melting.

Unfortunately, Long Sihai and his wife had a serious accident during weapon-making when he was 24 years old.

Long Sihai died in the explosion when trying to protect his pregnant wife. Then Long Baobao became a posthumous child.

Long Baobao's mother survived. Less than one month after Long Baobao's birth, however, she pa.s.sed away since she had been missing her late husband so much.

Long Baobao was raised by his grandfather Long Huai. When he was 3 years old, Long Baobao was found by the top master alchemist of the Cang State to be a Star Energy owner that was rare in the past 500 years.

After knowing about that, Long Huai designated Long Baobao as the future heir.

This had invited the resentment of a great many people in the Long Family, including Long Sixuan, the fourth uncle of Long Baobao.

Long Sixuan was quite sophisticated. Over the years, he had been keeping a low profile in the Long Family. Moreover, he treated Long Baobao quite well.

Once Steward Huang who was taking care of Long Baobao happened to find that Long Sixuan tempted Long Baobao to tell him about the pithy formula of the Five Elements Spiritual Melting. Steward Huang stopped Long Sixuan and reported it to the head Long Huai.

Long Huai flew into a rage. He placed Long Sixuan in confinement for 3 months and ordered Long Sixuan to stay away from Long Baobao.

Long Sixuan was apparently remorseful but secretly harbored a grudge against Long Baobao and Long Huai.

When Long Huai was aging and became much less energetic than before, Long Sixuan secretly collaborated with the distant relatives of the Long Family and got under control the family's weapon-selling business. Moreover, he bought over at a high price several weapon-making master alchemists in the family.

It was already too late when Long Huai found it out.

Right at this time, the World's Top Weapon-Maker was about to start. For the sake of Long Baobao's safety, Long Huai appointed a dozen of the most reliable guards managed by Steward Huang to secretly escort Long Baobao to the site of the compet.i.tion.

But their trace was eventually exposed to others. Soon after Long Baobao and Steward Huang left the Cang State, they were attacked many times.

The guards devoted their life to protecting the young master. Even so, the number of guards was on the decrease.

For fear that Long Baobao would be sad, Steward Huang made all kinds of excuses. He said that those guards had gone back to the Cang State.

When the two of them got near the City of Mercenaries, the last guard died when trying to protect Long Baobao. In this case, Steward Huang could only rely on all the savings in hand. The money was not enough to afford a large mercenary legion. That meant he could only hire two mercenary groups.

Steward Huang could not but conceal the fact.

After finished saying, Steward Huang was already in tears.

The members of Disha and Drinking Blood all turned silent.

Some of them were also from big families or sects. They knew well that the scramble for fame and fortune had led to too many tragedies in families and sects.

“Impossible. Grandpa Huang, you must be lying. Do you say that Uncle Qing and others are all dead? The fourth uncle could never intend to hurt me.”

Long Baobao's big eyes were full of tears.

His eyes were as red as those of a small rabbit.

“You are a bad man, a terribly bad man. You must be lying to me. I will go back to the Cang State and find my grandpa.”

Long Baobao clenched his little fists and pushed away Steward Huang, eager to rush out.

“Young master, you cannot go back. The head of our family must be also in danger now.”

With these words, Steward Huang knelt down before all.

“It is all my fault to conceal the fact earlier. Pleased help the young master since he is the only heir of the Long Family. As long as you escort him to Sifang City and help him take part in the World's Top Weapon-Maker, he can then gain fame and live on.”

As long as Long Baobao became famous in the compet.i.tion, his talent and age would surely attract the attention of many forces on the continent.

They would favor him and provide shelter for him before he became an adult.

Both the head of the family Long Huai and Steward Huang knew that Long Baobao could only take back the control of the Long Family by taking part in the World' Top Weapon-Maker.

Steward Huang hit his head on the ground heavily.

The hit sounded shocking.

But the members of the two groups all remained motionless.

They all knew that Steward Huang's honest words meant a completely new task was ahead for them. This task was undoubtedly a lot more difficult than before.

The backstage manipulator was the current person in charge of the Long Family.

No one wanted to offend a well-established weapon-making family if he or she did not have to.

Moreover, Long Baobao and Steward Huang were penniless now. Helping them would mean something that required great efforts but gave few benefits.

No rational mercenary soldier would accept such a money-losing deal.

The enemy attack last night showed that Drinking Blood was completely defeated in the escorting. They had already lost the initiative.

Unless Disha nodded first, Drinking Blood could not undertake the new task.

“Bang, bang, bang.”

Such a devoted old servant as Steward Huang did not give up at this time. His forehead was already bleeding due to the hard ground.

“Grandpa Huang, don't beg them. I can take care of myself and we don't need to beg anyone!”

Seeing that Steward Huang kept kowtowing, Long Baobao was embarra.s.sed and angry. He rushed out of the tent like a fierce little lion.