In principle, only the sons of nobles attending the banquet will be considered for this martial arts competition.

However, perhaps in order to show his people-friendly side, Bruno specially gave several places to the Extraordinary Knight Academies in Jinyu City and Niujiao Bay. At the same time, professional knights in the Knights Templar who met the requirements were also specially allowed to participate.

A tournament is always an opportunity for knights to show off their prowess.

The higher the level of the martial arts competition, the more possible opportunities there are.

For a knight who is of ordinary origin but extraordinary strength, if he can gain the favor of a great man in a tournament, it may be an opportunity to change his destiny.

Therefore, many people are preparing for this martial arts competition.

Early in the morning, Cross Vera returned to his family's manor in Golden Feather City early with a lot of resentment.

At this moment, Hamand had just finished his breakfast and had dressed to go into the palace, but he did not expect that his nephew was being helped back by someone.

"Oh, Cross, what happened to you?" he asked in horror. "How did you get injured in the palace?"

Cross was injured and did not sleep well last night. Even as a Silver Knight, he did not look very good.

The first thing he asked for was money: "Uncle Hamand, I need gold coins!"

Hamand's face changed.

As the eldest grandson of the Duke, Cross had quite a lot of gold coins on him, so it was no problem for him to take out thousands or tens of thousands of gold coins casually.

But now that the other party was asking him for money, it was obvious that what he needed was not a small sum of money.

"What's going on?"

Next, Cross recounted the entire incident.

Hamand frowned after hearing this, and finally couldn't help cursing, "That kid from Screaming Island is such a coward. He just needs to hold on and refuse to admit his guilt. Will His Majesty really put him in jail? Even if there is a public trial later, with you so seriously injured, not only will we not have to pay a single gold coin, we may even have a chance to cause trouble for Ronin!"

Cross looked a little annoyed. When he came to his senses, he felt more and more unhappy and felt that he had suffered a loss.

But now that things have come to this, they have all pleaded guilty, and it is unlikely that they can overturn last night's decision.

He said angrily, "It's only 30,000 gold coins. Just think of it as buying medicine for Luo Ning."

After the discussion last night, the 80,000 gold coins were to be contributed by Cross and Facundo with 30,000 each, and by Gregor and his sister and Sally with 10,000 each.

"Thirty thousand gold coins is a small matter."

The four of them are old aristocratic families that have been established for many years, and this little money is nothing to them.

"However, if we want to spread negative news about Ronin and affect the marriage between Bruno and the Wushan family, the possibility of success will be small."

After all the commotion last night, news will definitely spread today, and it may be beneficial to Roning.

The actual situation was exactly as Hamand had expected.

What is widely rumored now is that the four major families are sponsoring the martial arts competition.

Although the four big families' request for money was described as sponsorship, the nobles who witnessed their conflict with Ronin yesterday all had vague guesses.

After all, the martial arts competition was arranged at short notice, and the people who paid for it were the troublemakers, so who wouldn't have some associations? As for Roning, once there were more things to discuss about him, people's focus would be diverted.

Although some people are still talking about his negative information, many people are praising his feat of taking on a group of people alone without losing.

Some people even speculated whether Roning would be the champion of this competition.

In this situation, it would be of little use for Hamand and others to continue making a fuss about Ronin's past romantic deeds and the fact that he forced Selena to death.

Like Cross, Facundo and others returned to their family's estates in Golden Feather City.

After hearing his son's report, Myron snorted coldly: "What a fool! This is Bruno's little trick. Can't you understand it?"

Facundo lowered his head and weakly defended himself: "I was afraid that His Majesty would sentence all the crimes to me, which would bring more trouble, so when I heard about the fine, I agreed."

"You think a lot!"

Myron smiled, and when he thought that the people from the other three families were as stupid as his son, he suddenly felt better.

"Forget it, it's just 30,000 gold coins, I'll pay it."

He didn't care about the money either. He cared more about Bruno's abnormal behavior.

"It seems that our King is determined to support the Wushan family this time. But can this family, which has been silent for thirty years, still be supported?"

He looked at the map of the kingdom hanging on the wall.

Today, many of the islands in the Howling Sea belong to the Fleming family.

Even though the remaining small part was under the jurisdiction of the kingdom, his family had influence there.

Even on the Rapids Island where prisoners are imprisoned, they are now going to establish their own power there.

But there are only so many large islands in the Howling Sea, and after occupying them all, we will eventually have to return to the larger land.

But now the kingdom's land structure is basically fixed. In the absence of large-scale wars and the inability to establish sufficient merits, there is no other good way to obtain new land except to find ways to invade.

Wushan territory is vast and sparsely populated, its owner is weak, and the younger generations of the family have potential but have not grown up. It is obviously a good choice.

Wushan Fort.

"Master, Baron Melonica is here." Most said respectfully.

A tall and burly figure walked quickly into the study, "Sir, you are looking for me."

Lu Lansi smiled and motioned for the other party to sit down, "Congratulations, Melonica, after years of hard training, you finally broke through!"

Hearing this, Melonica also laughed. It has always been his dream to break through and become a Meteor Knight.

However, in front of Lu Lansi, he still maintained a humble attitude.

"I'm almost fifty years old and I'm so far behind you, sir."

He didn't mean to exaggerate.

Thirty years ago, at the age of forty-five, Lulans was already a well-known Meteor Knight, and he had created his own secret skills.

Compared like this, the gap between the two is indeed quite large.

Lu Lans then asked about the other party's situation after the breakthrough, and then slowly explained the purpose of the summons.

"There are two main reasons why I called you here this time."

He took out a heavy bound book from the drawer and handed it over: "The first thing is to give you a gift."

Melonica was stunned for a moment, looking at the book, he had a guess in his mind, and his heart skipped a beat.

He took the book and opened the cover. The title page contained Lu Lans' original secret technique "Fire Dance and Lightning Slash".

"Is this for me?" Melonica asked excitedly.

Lu Lan Si nodded, "You have the same attributes as me, and you have shown a good talent in learning fighting skills. You should be able to master this secret skill."

Melonica closed the secret technique and bowed respectfully: "Thank you for your gift!"

He actually didn't take the title very seriously.

On the contrary, he values ​​things that can enhance his strength.

Not everyone can create secret skills on their own, and such resources are often monopolized by great nobles and powerful forces. If you want to learn them, you need to pay a lot.

Even a lord who has followed for a long time cannot give it away at will.

He was rescued by Lu Lans when he was young, and he has received many gifts along the way, and his heart is full of gratitude.

"The cultivation of secret skills cannot be accomplished in one day. It requires a test of your patience and perseverance. You must grasp every detail to succeed. When practicing, you must also prevent your fighting spirit from running wild and hurting yourself."

"I see!"

Melonica really wanted to go down and try it right now.

"The second thing is that I need you to go to Golden Feather City."

Perhaps it was because he had been away from the fighting for too long, or perhaps it was because Lulans knew that Roning had a dragon, so he was not worried that the latter would encounter any danger at sea.

But he didn't expect that Luo Ning would be assassinated on the way to Jinyu City.

"Ronin was assassinated at sea. The gold-level assassin who led him was the one who assassinated Blanche in the Colosseum."

Melonica was shocked: "How is Ronin now?"

"He's fine now, in the Golden Feather Palace. But just in case, I need you to protect him."

"no problem!"

Melonica said without hesitation, knowing how important Ronin was to the old man.

"Um!"

Lu Lan Si nodded: "I have asked Vitorino's ship to wait for you, you can set off early tomorrow morning."

"No need to wait until tomorrow."

Melonica smiled and said, "My flame horse can still move as fast as the wind at night."

Lu Lansi nodded, "It's up to you to decide."

Melonica came quickly and left even faster.

Lu Lans thought of Jinyu City. He had not set foot there for a long time. Even the contact station of Wushanbao in Jinyu City was abandoned.

In fact, as great nobles of the kingdom, they basically all have liaison stations in Jinyu City.

On the one hand, he is responsible for liaison with the royal family, and on the other hand, he also needs to interact with other ministers and nobles, build relationships, and obtain intelligence.

However, with the decline of Wushan Castle in recent years, Wiggins doesn't care much about the affairs in the royal capital. In addition, a huge amount of money is needed every year to purchase magic potions to suppress the soul-eating, so Lulans is powerless.

Now that Wushanbao has a rising star, we can indeed consider rebuilding the liaison station.

"Forget it, let Luo Ning do this."

Rulans sighed.

He probably won't need the communication station in his lifetime, and his son Wiggins doesn't need it even more.

It would be better to let Ronin think about how to build it and decide how to use it. (End of this chapter)