The Villain's Counterattack

Chapter 514: The one I look down upon is obviously the man of your Dugu clan

"Are you the bastard General Zuo Wuhou, Yang Xuyan, who relies on the fact that he has the strength of a master just after reaching adulthood and looks down on the women of my Dugu family?" As the darling of the Dugu family, Dugu Feng has an extraordinary degree of recognition for the Dugu family. The aristocratic families have been high and mighty for a long time. Living in such an environment, Dugu Feng was inevitably influenced by what she heard and saw and thought highly of herself.

She has shown an extraordinary talent for martial arts since she was young, and was brought up by the Dugu clan's old lady, the senior master and powerful You Chuhong. She is the strongest of the new generation of the Dugu clan. Although she is slightly younger than Yang Xuyan, she is already a congenitally strong person. Her Bi Luo Hong Chen sword technique is rarely matched in the clan. She even traveled across Luoyang and beat up all her peers, which made her famous as Dugu Feng.

The influence of people around you is huge. Dugu Feng, who has been practicing with You Chuhong since childhood, has set his ambition to pursue martial arts early on, but others often cannot see it. Being in a wealthy family, you often have no choice, and you can only have the best of both worlds if you become a truly strong person.

There is a reason why the Dugu clan is among the four major clans of the Sui Dynasty. The Dugu family is a little special. They are rich in extraordinary women, and there is a serious imbalance between yin and yang. It is precisely because the overall strength of the men in the Dugu clan is relatively low among the four major clans that they have the opportunity to gather young talents with potential from all over the world and marry them into other families to enhance their overall influence.

It's hard to say whether this method is good or not, but it's very realistic. Dugu Feng was born in the Dugu family and has seen too many things like this. But she never thought that one day, she, who was only seventeen years old, would be destined to be one of them.

Yang Xuyan, the eighteen-year-old Grandmaster of the Left, held the title of Marquis of Liaodong and the title of Grand General of the Left Guard. A high-ranking official, he excelled at military chess and performed exceptionally well in three major expeditions against Goguryeo. Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty recognized him as a rising star, promoting him to higher positions and granting him important responsibilities. A student of the great doctor Pei Ju, he was a dashing figure, both civil and military, and even his appearance was quite appealing.

Such a task had aroused Dugu Feng's interest early on. He wanted to have a fair fight with him and at the same time measure how big the gap was between himself and the master.

Their fathers and brothers had accompanied the emperor on the expedition. They had the impression that Yang Xuyan seemed to be gentle and refined, but in fact he had a kind of arrogance of a scholar. Yang Guang had granted seven or eight cities in the original Liaodong region, but their Dugu family directly gave them up to show their loyalty to the Sui Emperor. The other families of Yuwen, Li, Cui, and Wang accepted it after much hesitation.

But the result?

In the winter of the first year, they held on with the help of Yang Xuyan and the cold winter weather conditions. However, in the second year, a rebellion led by Yang Xuangan allowed Goguryeo to launch a counterattack in the summer and autumn. Except for Liaodong City, the other four cities were all lost. The Yuwen, Li, Cui and Wang families saw the strength and madness of Goguryeo, and they retreated and gave up the cities in Liaodong.

However, Liaodong Marquis Yang Xuyan not only did not give up, but instead took back other cities one after another. Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty even appointed him as the Governor of Liaodong. The entire Liaodong County was under his command, making him a well-deserved frontier official. He was only eighteen years old, only one year older than Yang Guang.

There were many who sought to win over such a talented young man, including the major clans. However, he was neither a commoner nor from a humble background; he was a genuine aristocratic branch of the Yang family, and a close relative of the royal family. He also saw clearly that this former status could be put to good use, establishing himself as a royalist, which was precisely in line with the interests of the Dugu clan.

Why?

Haha, the empress of Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian was from the Dugu clan, and the current Emperor Sui Yang Guang also has half Dugu clan blood. They, the Dugu clan, are naturally royalists and have no other options.

Because of this, the other aristocratic families' attempts to win him over mostly came to nothing, relegating him to limited business partnerships. The Dugu Clan, however, proposed a marriage alliance, only to be met with scorn and ridicule, implicitly expressing dissatisfaction with the Dugu Clan's offering a concubine's daughter to win them over. While his origins might be somewhat inferior due to his status as a side branch of the Yang Clan, he was nonetheless a true aristocrat. Now, news has arrived that the Hongnong Yang Clan is considering making him a separate branch, adding him to the core lineage.

If so, his background is not much worse than that of the Dugu clan. He has the combat power of a master at a young age, is proficient in both civil and military affairs, and is a high-ranking official in a certain area. However, the Dugu clan wanted to win him over by using a concubine's daughter of the family, and even wanted him to marry into the family, but he slammed him down.

His brother was in a state of extreme distress at the time, but fortunately, a family elder secretly followed him and, despite the high-ranking official's imposing manner, struck a bet with him, paying with a legitimate daughter of the family to avoid a falling out. However, legitimate daughters of the Dugu clan were extremely rare and in short supply. Furthermore, due to Yang Xuyan's dominance and strength, an ordinary legitimate daughter would be out of his control, so Dugu Feng was sent instead.

You said they were planning to arrange marriage between Dugu Feng and Yang Xuyan?

Haha, you think too much. They just want to create such an illusion to fool Yang Xuyan. At the same time, they also want to use this young master to stimulate and train Dugu Feng.

Dugu Feng was not a fool. She did not believe her brother's words at all. Instead, she learned the truth from the elders. However, this did not affect her from taking advantage of the situation after meeting Yang Xuyan for the first time.

"Are you the hot-tempered villain Dugu Xiaofenghuang, who is famous in Luoyang?" Yang Xuyan was processing official documents. Although someone passed the message and he agreed, it did not mean that he valued Dugu Feng very much. This woman was most likely not either Lingmeng or Lingyue, but as long as there was a possibility, he would give it a try.

It was natural that he had handled the affairs of a county easily for several generations, but Liaodong was different from other places. People's livelihood was secondary. The biggest problem was war, the war with Goguryeo!

He sent out spies to collect various intelligence, preparing to scare Goguryeo in one fell swoop, letting them know that even without the hundreds of thousands of troops of the imperial court, Liaodong County alone was not something that the small country of Goguryeo could contend with. If they just stood there and were bullied, it would be fine, but otherwise they would be beaten.

Liaodong has become Yang's territory. Even if a dragon comes, he has to coil around it, and even if a tiger comes, he can only lie down.

It was naturally impossible for him to stop when he was almost halfway through the work, so he left Dugu Feng aside for a full hour. Only after the plan was completed did he ask someone to serve Dugu Feng tea. Dugu Feng just stared at him for an hour and even tried to provoke him with his sword energy, but was ignored by the other party, as if his innate aura of oppression did not exist at all.

Yang Xuyan took the tea offered by his brother Yang Gai and casually threw the plan to him. Yang Gai took the plan and smiled, gave him a look that said you know, and left with a smile. Yang Xuyan took a sip of tea, and then looked carefully at the daughter of a prominent family in front of him, who was proud but able to stand on her own feet and was calm and composed.

Dugu Feng saw through the interaction between the two men and cursed the man in his heart, but he was more curious about Yang Gai's identity. The relationship between him and Liaodong Hou was too natural, and it didn't seem like a superior-subordinate relationship at all. Moreover, this man gave her a strong sense of threat. If he wanted to kill her, she was afraid she would not be able to escape.

The aura of this person was too special, and it made him feel uncomfortable.

"This man's name is Yun Gai, he is thirty years old, a half-step master, and specializes in swordsmanship. You can't beat him." Seeing Dugu Feng paying attention to Yang Gai, Yang Xuyache casually interrupted her wild thoughts. The identities of the brothers of the Yang family were very sensitive. Except for himself, the other brothers had to wear human skin masks when going out. If their identities were exposed, the consequences would be disastrous.

Although Yang Xuyan was not afraid of any master at this time, and could even fight with the incomplete grandmaster Fu Cailin for nearly a thousand rounds, he did not have the ability to disobey the Sui Emperor Yang Guang. If the identities of his brothers were exposed, Buzhou Trading Company would probably face a devastating disaster, and his brothers would be worried about being hunted down.

"How can you know you can't beat me if you haven't fought me before? Wait, I think you just said something very unkind to me, didn't you?" Dugu Feng suddenly realized and hurried to settle the score with Yang Xuyan, "You really do look down on the women of the Dugu family."

"Nonsense! I admire the women of the Dugu clan from the bottom of my heart. Whether it's Emperor Wen's empress, Dugu Jialuo, or your grandmother, You Chuhong, I can only give them a thumbs up and say I admire them. It's obviously the men of your Dugu clan that I look down upon."

Dugu Feng: Isn’t this even more excessive?

"I challenge you to take back what you said. All of us, men and women, are heroes!"

"Haha, this joke is great. It made me laugh. Little Phoenix, you have a real talent for comedy. You're suitable for telling stories and entertaining children. The men of the Dugu clan are all heroes. Hahahaha, I can't help it. I'm dying of laughter. As a high-ranking official, I usually don't laugh unless I really can't help it."

"Qiang~"

"Marquis Liaodong, don't go too far, watch the sword!"