《》Chapter 91: Connected by Marriage
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In the large hall, a bright red invitation card quietly sat on the table. Lin Zhentian and the rest of the core Lin Family members were all seated around as they stared at the red invitation card.
"What is the Lei and Xie Families up to? Why would they send an invitation over now? Are they deliberately provoking us?" Lin Xiao furrowed his eyebrows as he solemnly asked.
Lin Dong took the invitation card from the table and flipped it over to look at it. This was a wedding invitation. On the card, it wrote that the Lei and Xie Family were planning a large wedding two days later. The two people getting married, were naturally Lei Li from Lei Family and Xie Yingying. With regards to this marriage, Lin Dong did not care much for it. However, what piqued his curiosity, was that the Xie and Lei Family still chose to invite their Lin Family?
Right now, both factions were at complete loggerheads. If they ever met each other, a conflict was bound to arise. Therefore, what would they purposely invite them?
"It seems like the Lei and Xie Family are planning to create a huge hoo-haa. Not only did our Lin Family received an invitation, but any major faction within 50 kilometres of Qingyang Town, also received an invitation." Lin Zhentian casually said.
"This is the first time in several years that they have willing splurged like this." Lin Ken softly sighed.
"The Lei and Xie Family are probably trying to announce to the world, that they will become full fledged partners in the future. Once they have allied themselves, several factions will probably succumb to them. At that time, within a 50 kilometre radius of Qingyang Town, the Lei and Xie Family would undoubtedly be crowned as the local overlord. "
As he sipped his tea, Lin Zhentian chuckled as he said: "What a devious plan."
"So what should we do? Should we go?" Lin Xiao asked.
Lin Zhentian's fingers lightly tapped on the table. With a dark expression in his eyes, momentarily, he said: "Go! At this time, there is no reason for us to hide anymore. If the stars align, this may even be a good opportunity for our Lin Family."
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Even though it was slightly risky to venture into Lei Family's territory, right now, Lin Zhentian had no reasons to fear them anymore. Furthermore, since they had secured the cooperation of the Raging Blade Dojo, they could match up against the Lei and Xie Family.
If they could display Lin Family's true prowess in front of all these factions, in the future, no one from Qingyang Town would ever dare to challenge their Lin Family again.
Furthermore, in this period of time, even if the Lei and Xie Families chose to remain silent, the Lin Family would seize the initiative to take action.
Since both factions were already loggerheads trying to destroy each other, it was only a matter of time before either one of them made a move.
"Instruct the rest. I want everyone to attend the marriage two days later. I am curious to find out what that old fart Lei Bao wants!" Lin Zhentian chuckled.
"Yes!"
After hearing these words, Lin Xiao and the rest solemnly nodded their heads, as a fiery glint arose in their eyes. After enduring for so many years, they were finally able to fight back now.
With regards to the marriage, this was definitely the most sensational news in Qingyang Town. As the most established families in Qingyang Town, the Lei and Xie Family had been here for generations, and they had laid down deep roots in the city. Now that both factions have allied themselves, their prowess would definitely skyrocket. In fact, they are probably no factions within a 50 kilometre radius of Qingyang Town, that can challenge their dominance.
Therefore, when they received the invitation, most factions did not dare to slight them. Immediately, Qingyang Town became extremely crowded.
Nonetheless, amidst this bustling atmosphere, some wise folks were able to detect a hidden undercurrent. It seems like the Lei and Xie Family wedding would not be a peaceful affair...
"Dong Dong!"
The clear and crisp joyous drum sound continuously echoed around Qingyang Town. In the courtyard of the Lei Family, several factions continuously entered as they exchanged pleasantries. Laughter and congratulations were constantly heard.
As the most well-established faction in Qingyang Town, the wedding organized by them was indeed very impressive.
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"Lin Family has arrived!"
Amidst the congratulations, suddenly a servant's voice sounded out. Immediately, the area outside the large door, turned silent. Then, as the crowd slowly turned back to look, they saw that in a distance away, sounds of horses galloping could be heard. Soon after, they saw hundreds of fine horses heading towards them. Finally, as the man in front waved his hand, they all stopped right outside the Lei Family's gate. The total amount of troops managed to fill up half of the entire road, and they looked extremely formidable.
"It's the Lin Family? They actually came..."
"I heard that the Lei Xie Family and the Lin Family are at complete loggerheads. I never expected the Lin Family to come. Hehe, now it seems like there will be a good show to watch."
"Haix, this Lin Family is practically committing suicide."
As several pair of eyes turned to glance at the Lin Family's troops, many of them were secretly talking to themselves. Right now, even the factions who were once close to the Lin Family, did not dare to go forward and greet them. After the Lei and Xie Families have allied themselves, their powers have grown. Therefore, it would be disastrous to oppose them.
When he saw those fickle-minded cowards, Lin Zhentian did not seem to mind. As he jumped off his horse, his expression remained calm.
"Haha, the patriarch of the Lin Family is indeed fit and strong. To be willing to spare the time to attend our Lei and Xie Families marriage, Lei Pi is truly grateful." When he saw the Lin Family troop arrive, in front of the Lei Family's door, a figure quickly walked out accompanied by a large swarm of people. When he saw the large amount of troops brought by the Lin Family, his facial expression remained the same, as he smiled and greeted them.
"I know that in your heart, you secretly wish that I was dead." Lin Zhentian did not give face to this bastard that once tried to assassinate Lin Dong, as he casually replied.
Lei Pi's eyelids twitched. Promptly, he turned to look at the large amount of troops and said: "Master Lin, there is no much room in our manor. Please ask these men to stay outside."
"Why? Are you afraid that we will stir trouble?" Standing aside, Lin Dong smiled as he said. Then, with a sincere expression on his face, he asked: "How are your injuries?"
After he heard Lin Dong's words, Lei Pi's facial expression turned dark involuntarily. With a cold glint in his eyes, he stared at Lin Dong. Right now, he almost looked like a savage wild beast thirsting to devour him.
Lin Zhentian took a step forward, and stood in front of Lin Dong. Even though the old man's body seemed frail, it was enough to cause Lei Pi to lose his breath, as he involuntarily retreated two steps.
After he pushed Lei Pi back, Lin Zhentian turned to glance at him, before he waved his hands. Immediately, the hundreds of people behind him dissipated.
For this trip, Lin Zhentian had brought nearly all the elite troops in their Lin Family. Even though he had advanced to Initial Yuan Dan Stage, it was always best to be cautious. Though these troops could not enter the Lei Family, they could station themselves outside the Lei Family. Therefore, should something arise, they could rush immediately into the Lei Family's manor in a blink of an eye.
"Please!"
When he saw the troops dissipated, Lei Pi then opened the door as he said.
After witnessing this situation, Lin Zhentian turned to look at Lin Xiao and the rest, before he nodded his head. Then, under the watchful glances of the crowd, he stepped into the Lei Family's manor. Standing behind him, Lin Dong and Lin Xiao quickly followed.
As he stared at Lin Zhentian and the rest's backs, Lei Pi licked his lips. A vicious and hideous glint surfaced in his eyes, as he muttered softly to himself: "After today, your whole Lin Family will kneel before our Lei Family!"
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- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
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