Chapter 277 The Conditions of the Deal

Yun Shimo and the rest stared at one another. Their faces were calm since they had long guessed something would be brewing during this evening banquet.

Otherwise, a conceited Crown Prince would not invite citizens of the Changjing Kingdom to the palace. After all, the relationship between the Yuewu Kingdom and the Changjing Kingdom was not that good.

“Please explain, Your Majesty!” Yun Shimo said quietly. He sipped a mouthful of scented tea. Wafts of its scent still lingered in his breath.

“Evil practitioners have arisen in our Yuewu Kingdom. They are overbearing, especially those from the Dark Sect and the Blood Sect. They’re absolutely lawless. And our kingdom… even I feel guilty over this. I’ve failed to rule my kingdom well and recruit virtuous people. I can’t do anything against those unruly heretical sects, even though I would like to.”

A haggard look appeared on the Emperor’s face and his eyes looked guilty. The Crown Prince quietly poured the Emperor tea. “My Royal Father, it’s not your fault. We can only blame the Dark Sect for its rampancy. But with Prince Nan and such an outstanding Princess with us, we can cooperate.”

Duanmu Changde gave a slight smile. The Third Prince stared at Yun Shimo reverentially.

He could still recall the scene that day vividly. Yun Shimo had struck Zhu Jian with a palm, throwing him out. He was such a powerful fighter. He was someone the royal house must guard against, yet they could not do anything to him. Yun Shimo had gotten rid of the man in only one move!

Therefore, even the conceited Third Prince now regarded Yun Shimo and his friends with special esteem.

“Our Yuewu Kingdom borders the Changjing Kingdom, but certain bandits have destroyed our friendly relations. Therein lies our problem. Your Highnesses and all you heroes, it’s not that the Yuewu Kingdom hasn’t sent Qi Artists to mediate… it’s just that our kingdom lacks manpower. If we send Qi Artists over to the borders, the evil sects will attack the palace…” Duanmu Changde gave a gentle sigh. His face showed the dispiritedness of a sovereign.

“I see. I thought that Your Majesty was deliberately trying to wreck your relationship with the Changjing Kingdom,” Yun Shimo said quietly.

Hua Qiyue was baffled. If they could not send Qi Artists out, surely they could have notified the Changlong Emperor of the Changjing Kingdom with a letter. Once they explained their predicament, their relationship would not have soured.

“The first time, I did send a group of Qi Artists to the border. But they were slain by the Dark Sect. So now, we cannot communicate with the Changjing Kingdom at all,” the Emperor explained. “This time, I beg everyone to destroy the Dark Sect and the Blood Sect. Our Yuewu Kingdom will surely send rich tributes every year and pledge amity for thousands of years!”

Every word Duanmu Changde uttered sounded sincere. The Crown Prince gave a slight smile. “Your Highnesses and all you heroes here, our Yuewu Kingdom has rich resources. Once we get rid of these cancerous cankers, we will become affluent quickly. So naturally, everyone would benefit. Of course… from what I understand, the Dark Sect has long been at loggerheads with the Prince and your men. Why don’t you cooperate with us and kill two birds with one stone?”

The Crown Prince’s words were very appealing. Ji Jing nodded and stared at Yun Shimo and Hua Qiyue.

Yun Shimo pondered silently for a while. Hua Qiyue, too, was silent. She felt that it would be convenient to cooperate with the royal house. At least they had deep and secure roots in the Yuewu Kingdom and understood the Dark Sect better.

For some time, Hua Qiyue had sent mercenaries secretly to spy on the Dark Sect. Yet they could not discover where their 11th Palace was.

If they depended on the mercenaries, no one would know how long it would take to receive information on the Dark Sect. It would be much easier depending on the help of the royal family.

Yun Shimo glanced at Hua Qiyue and saw the quiet look in her brows. Her eyes seemed to harbor certain expectancy. So he nodded. “Your Majesty is absolutely right. The Crown Prince has expressed our thoughts well. Both parties would benefit from cooperation. We understand too little about the Dark Sect. Have the Crown Prince’s men discovered the headquarters of the sect?”

The Emperor heard him and was overjoyed. He remarked repeatedly, “Yes, yes! We know where their headquarters are! We have spies with them. They have 12 palaces with a Palace Leader each, each more powerful than the one before. The Qi Artists from our royal palace aren’t very powerful. We’ve always kept ourselves immobilized, but with the Prince and Princess’s support, we can plan something at length!”

The company had reached a consensus. What followed would be carefree eating and drinking. When the banquet ended, the Crown Prince ordered a servant to carry a box up their carriage. It contained information on the Dark Sect.

After thanking the Crown Prince, Hua Qiyue and the rest went into their carriages and left. On the way, they encountered sporadic attacks from the Dark Sect by inferior underlings. They managed to kill them in one stroke.

Once they returned to the inn, Yun Shimo opened the big red box. It was full of information.

Hua Qiyue was the first to pick up a goat-skin parchment. She unfurled it and discovered the locations of the Dark Sect’s headquarters. There were 12 palaces, each explained in detail.

“The Crown Prince is really generous. He has handed us all the information on the Dark Sect. In other words, they’re leaving the matter completely in our hands. After all, the royal family has limited power,” Hua Qiyue surveyed the parchment and remarked quietly.

Bai Qianxue smiled like a blooming lotus. “The Crown Prince naturally puts his royal palace first. Of course, he won’t send Qi Artists to you. Even if he did, you would look down on them. So he might as well leave everything to you fellows.”

Yun Shimo squinted at Bai Qianxue. He was absolutely right. Even if the royal palace sent Qi Art experts to them, they would be at most at the realm of Round Sun. Not much was to be expected of them.

Following that, the Emperor ordered Eunuch Li to deliver 1,000,000 taels of gold in banknotes. They were for Hua Qiyue and her friends to spend. He also delivered them some extremely precious herbs—at least in the royals’ eyes.

Hua Qiyue nearly laughed out loud. If the Emperor had known that she was a seller of Ginsengs with Nine Souls, he would not have dared send them these quite worthless herbs.

But Yun Shimo still accepted everything. To him, it would be more convenient to possess these herbs. At least, he would not need to visit herbal stores to purchase some quite inexpensive but necessary herbs.

Ji Jing also helped to sort out some information. She came across an old, yellowing book and cried out, “Hey, this seems to be an introduction to the key Palace Leaders of the Dark Sect. It’ll help us a lot!”

Yun Shimo and the others were very excited.

Although they needed to fear no one once they joined forces, they knew nothing about the Dark Sect. They knew nothing about their key Palace Leaders too!

Ji Jing opened the small booklet and read on the 12th Palace Leader. “The 12th Palace Leader is Shao Fan, male, 43 years old, seven feet tall. But he died during an epidemic. Right now, the seat of the 12th Palace Leader is vacant. The 11th Palace Leader is Hua Mengshi… ”

Hua Qiyue’s entire body shook. She stared incredulously at the booklet and dashed forward to grab it.

Sure enough, the booklet recorded information on Hua Mengshi. It even recorded her provenance and birth clearly!

“So Hua Mengshi… has become a Palace Leader of the Dark Sect. I never imagined she would turn out like that…” Hua Qiyue mumbled and sighed quietly. Although she did not like Hua Mengshi, she was still her half-sister by the same father.

Yun Shimo took the booklet from her hands and glanced at it. “Hua Mengshi was probably brought here to the Yuewu Kingdom by Lin Qi. That must be the reason why she had come into contact with the Dark Sect,” Yun Shimo concluded.

Bai Qianxue stayed on one side, sampling his tea leisurely. Ji Jing glanced at him and inched over.

“Brother Bai, are you planning not to intervene? I heard that your family members prefer not to intervene in the royal court’s affairs.”

Ji Jing’s words made Bai Qianxue smile a little. “Heaven will decide if this is a disaster or a blessing. But… Brother Xuan had asked me to take care of Qiyue. So it’s alright to intervene.”

Ji Jing heard him and instantly cheered. “Yeah! Now we’re even more powerful. Sister Qiyue, Brother Bai has promised to help us destroy the Dark Sect!”

Hua Qiyue turned back her head in surprise. “Brother Bai, don’t force yourself. You mustn’t violate the centuries-old house rules of Bai Family for nothing!”

She knew that big clans usually had house rules.

The Bai Family had never intervened in the matters of the martial arts fraternity or the royal court. So she guessed that their family must have been constrained by their house rules.

Bai Qianxue’s eyes were profound as he stared intently at Hua Qiyue’s lovely countenance. He smiled lightly. “It’s alright. They are not house rules. Members of my family are lazybones. We don’t like to fight over things.”

But he had met with Hua Qiyue. Although he did not wish to fight over things, he had stayed on in spite of his own wishes, using Xuanji’s return as an excuse.

Actually, he knew that Xuanji would not encounter danger, no matter where he was.

After all, he was so powerful that he lacked opponents. But this gave him an excuse to remain by Hua Qiyue’s side.

“Then I must trouble Brother Bai.” Hua Qiyue smiled. If Bai Qianxue joined their team, they would have an even greater chance of winning.

Among the 12 Palace Leaders of the Dark Sect, the most powerful one was at the medium level of Holy God. And the Sect Leader of the Dark Sect was at the Great Completeness of Holy God!

Two were at the medium level of Holy God, and five at the first level of Holy God. The rest were at the Great Completeness of Round Sun.

All in all, the combat prowess of the Dark Sect was really strong. There would be about 500 Qi Artists in every Palace. Although their Qi Art levels were not high, they constituted a great force after taking into account their numbers.

“There are about 10,000 members in the Dark Sect. It’s hard to kill them all. But some minor underlings of the Palaces may have joined reluctantly. We can use psychology to talk them out. Then, we will concentrate and deal with the dozen-or-so more important personages of the sect,” Ji Feng took a glance at the booklet and suggested.

Hua Qiyue nodded. “Those underlings can’t do much. We can ignore them first. But the latest news claims that Hua Mengshi and Lan Luo are in cahoots. And there’s also Princess Mingzhu. She’s been in a retreat at the 11th Palace for a long time…”

“Princess Mingzhu? Is she also in league with Hua Mengshi? But then that woman has always disliked Sister Qiyue. Her heart isn’t all that kind.” Ji Jing still could remember Princess Mingzhu.

That woman had such an overweening personality. She would be eye-catching even among a great multitude of ladies. But Ji Jing had always hated arrogant, ignorant women.

Hua Qiyue could not help but lift up her brows. “I never expect things to change so much in a brief three years. Princess Mingzhu and Hua Mengshi are now members of the Dark Sect.”

“No matter what, we must locate and cross-examine them,” the hare said. “The Dark Sect isn’t as simple as it looks. The information may not be all correct. Some of the Palace Leaders are good at disguising their Qi auras and true strengths.”

The words of the hare made everyone ponder deeply and silently.

The Dark Sect was founded a century ago. They had encountered countless ordeals and remained standing.

“Of course, it can’t all be true, but most of it should be quite accurate. With our combined prowess, even if we can’t win, we will definitely not encounter any life-threatening dangers.” Yun Shimo’s words assured them all.

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