The image of Zhao Qianhe repressing Xiao Hu was still fresh in everyone’s memory. If not for her appearance, there’s no way Xiao Hu would have left so anticlimactically.
Everyone instinctively made way for her. When he realized she was headed towards him, he immediately greeted her as a junior should. “Thank you for your assistance, Senior.”
Zhao Qianhe watched Ye Zichen greet her, but she said nothing. Her decision to appear here naturally wasn’t as simple as she’d told Xiao Hu.
She was a ruler! Even if Xiao Hu’s behavior really influenced the Northern Divine Mountain, she shouldn’t have been the one to discuss it with him.
She’d come here purely at someone else’s request.
Before coming here, she’d always been curious about Ye Zichen, the man who, in the eyes of a certain someone, was loftier than the heavens. She wanted to see him with her own eyes. What kind of person was he, really?
However, after actually meeting Ye Zichen, her impression of him wasn’t good at all.
Unreasonable.
Presumptuous.
Arrogant.
He obviously wasn’t even a supreme yet, but he nevertheless dared provoke the Lightning Emperor’s Xiao Family, a clan that had existed proudly for tens of thousands of years. He took no responsibility for his behavior and only acted as he pleased.
He felt neither fear nor respect.
He had eyes only for himself and disregarded all others.
Furthermore, he wasn’t shrewd or clever at all.
In short, in Zhao Qianhe’s eyes, he had no good points at all. On the contrary, she saw so many glaring flaws that she didn’t even like looking at him. It was hard to even imagine how this wildly arrogant youth would have survived had she not shown up to help him out.
She truly didn’t understand why “a certain someone” thought so highly of this sort of person.
She coldly shook her head and paid him no further attention. Instead, she turned to face Chen Chenghe and the other surviving representatives of the Divine Mountains.
“Longevity Blade Sect, Yellow Wind Sect, Beastrider Sect.”
“Senior.” All of them bowed in greeting.
“Xiao Hu has already returned to his clan, and will undoubtedly make trouble for your sects. How about this? Go back to your sects and tell your sect masters that, so long as they don’t object, our Northern Divine Mountain’s Sea of Innocence will accept you.”
The nine of them were currently shaking with terror at the thought of reporting back to their sects, but when they realized that Zhao Qianhe was extending them an olive branch, their despairing faces lit up with hope.
The Xiao Family were the descendents of the Lightning Emperor, and were a vast and powerful clan. For such a clan to bear a grudge against them meant that their sects would most likely never recover. Worse, in order to protect themselves, their sects would most likely turn them into sacrificial pawns and throw them away.
But if they could join the Northern Divine Mountain’s Sea of Innocence, that was a whole ‘nother story.
The Sea of Innocence was a faction capable of going toe-to-toe with the Xiao Family. With their protection, the Xiao Favmily would have no choice but to nurse their grudge in silence. They might make trouble for their sects, but they couldn’t destroy them.
Furthermore, the earth supreme representatives wouldn’t become their sects’ sacrificial pawns, but rather he loyal disciples who’d found their secs a mighty and reliable backer.
“We’ll return to our secst and speak with our sect masters right away.” Chen Chenghe and the others nodded one after the other.
“Hm.” She nodded calmly, then turned to leave. The Lower Lands were intended for people below the supreme level. Someone at her level couldn’t linger here for long.
However, just as she was about to head back to the Divine Mountain, Ye Zichen called out to her. “Senior, please wait a moment.”
Zhao Qianhe turned around coldly. Her pretty eyes looked at Ye Zichen in bewilderment.
“Can you please return those two spatial rings to me? They ought to belong to me.”
Zhao Qianhe opened her hands and looked at the rings, then back at Ye Zichen’s serious expression. After a brief pause, she spoke to Ye Zichen for the first time. “They belong to you?”
“That’s right,” said Ye Zichen carefully. “My two ‘friends’ gave them to me in exchange for their safety, so they belong to me.”
“If not for me, would you even be here to talk about safety? Besides, coming here wasted quite a bit of my time. If I don’t even take these rings, won’t I have come in vain?”
“You must be joking, Senior,” said Ye Zichen. “You profited from this far more than me.” When Zhao Qianhe looked at him inquisitively, Ye Zichen chuckled and said, “You obtained the Longevity Blade, Yellow Wind, and Beastrider sect’s allegiance. It sounds like they’re no small fries. WIth the three of them, your Sea of Innocence’s strength will increase significantly. Given all that, are you really going to say you didn’t get anything out of this?”
Everyone watching this was scared out of their wits. It was just two rings! The resources within were undoubtedly limited, yet they were enough to make Ye Zichen haggle with the woman who’d scared off even the Lightning Tiger? They really didn’t know whether to call him “superhumanly brave” or “brain-damaged.”
The Senior Apprentice Brother of the Yellow Wind Sect fought back the urge to tell Ye Zichen to shut up. Better to send him new rings than to antagonize Zhao Qianhe.
After all, if this mighty senior bore a grudge against the entire Yellow Wind Sect over a few mere spatial rings, it’d really be an awful pity. Many seniors’ moods were inscrutable, so this was really a possibility.
When she heard Ye Zichen’s contrived explanation, Zhao Qianhe coolly tossed him the rings. He caught them, then bowed to her, but she’d already turned away and disappeared from view.
However, as she left, her poor first impression of Ye Zichen worsened even further. She added yet more entries to his long list of perceived defects.
Greedy.
Fallacious and long-winded.
Ye Zichen naturally knew none of this, nor did he concern himself with her opinion of him.
Although he currently controlled vast quantities of resources, compared to the mightest powers of the God Race, it wasn’t even worth mentioning. A fly’s leg was still meat. Even if the Yellow Wind Sect members’ rings didn’t contain much, he couldn’t just pass it up.
Besides, given Zhao Qianhe’s status, resources on that level wouldn’t be of any use to her. Wasn’t it better to leave them to him, who could really use them?
Ye Zichen put the resources away for the manager, Jiao Qi, to put to use. At the same time, he looked over the corpse-strewn courtyard and called for some of Upheaval’s gang members to clean it up.
Next, he turned to the remaining representatives of the Divine Mountains. “I won’t hold you here any longer, then. Please feel free to return to wherever you came from.”
“Alright then, in that case, we won’t hold you any longer. If you have the chance, Brother Ye, we’d be honored to invite you to our Longevity Blade Sect as a guest.” Chen Chenghe cupped his fist, then led his sectmates away.
“Our Yellow Wind Sect, too.” They left as well. As for the Beastrider Sect, two of them wanted to say the same polite farewells, but they’d never spoken to Ye Zichen before. The cold youth who’d interacted with Ye Zichen before didn’t seem like the talkative type, though. He simply cupped his fist and disappeared.
Finally, it was all over. An inexplicable wave of exhaustion washed over Ye Zichen.
He might have looked unyielding and brazen, but all of this was part of his plan.
Now thoroughly exhausted, he delegated everyone to Wei Jie, then returned to his room at the gang’s headquarters to get some rest. However, the moment he opened the door, he heard…..
“Zichen, how’ve you been?”
