Things with Yun Tianque hadn’t gone as smoothly as Tianming had hoped. Wanting people like him to serve under you with just one action was very difficult.
Tianming could have chosen to kill him and instead seized the other six cultivators of the Supracloud Sanctuary who were ranked grade-five in the hierarchy. However, control of the sect would have been less effective then. Hence, Tianming had given Yun Tianque a chance.
“We’ll take things step by step then.”
The hundred thousand swordpupils who had arrived at the Azuresoul Palace had brought a huge storm. With their status as the ‘main branch’, they had been overbearing and seized three Sword Branches. They all looked down on the swordpupils of the Azuresoul Palace. Conflict broke out daily, even resulting in deaths.
And for the Azuresoul Palace, they could only swallow their indignation.
It hadn’t taken long for the First, Second, and Third Sword Branches the Azuresoul Palace had maintained for years to become a huge mess. Despite being guests, the Empyrean Sword Sect had taken over their host. Their trash and items were strewn everywhere and some male swordpupils had even made inappropriate remarks to female swordpupils of the Azuresoul Palace, inciting huge anger from the rest. There was conflict everywhere!
“The sense of superiority from being a ‘first-rate sect’ and ‘main branch’ has made these swordpupils from the Empyrean Sword Sect use their numbers to act more and more unrestrained.”
The Wind and Rain Swordlords hadn’t stopped it, which was a form of tacit agreement. The two swordlords were from the top clans of the Empyrean Sword Sect. There was a reason they were famous for being unreasonable and Long Wanying had said they were famous for their idiocy. They were completely intolerable after a few days of contact.
Tianming was in slight disbelief that such weirdos could exist at the upper ends of powerhouses. The Violet, Green, and Saintdragon Emperor had all been upright. The Whitedragon Empress, Yang Ce, Gujian Qingshuang and Yun Tianque had all had their responsibilities and goals too. And they had all had their independent thoughts.
“It’s just proof that no matter where you go, people whose only aspect worth respecting is their age will exist.”
Unfortunately, the problem was that they had both high status and combat prowess. Tianming dared to claim that if they didn’t have the Empyrean Sword Sect behind them and hadn’t been born in a top clan, these ‘old trash’ would not have lived so long.
Why did he detest them so much? They had let the Empyrean Sword Sect swordpupils ruin the atmosphere at the Azuresoul Palace. Also, the swordpupils had overstepped their boundaries and joined in the herb picking. Herb picking didn’t really require much in the way of technical skills. It had always been the various cities and troops of the Azuresoul Palace in charge of their areas and transportation. The jobs involved had all been clearly delegated. Now that the Empyrean Sword Sect swordpupils had gotten involved, though, things had become a mess.
They would pick unripe fruit, wasting it. What divine herbs they did properly pick, they would simply take for themselves against the rules. There wasn’t much difference between them and bandits. And worst of all, if anyone spoke up or stopped them, they would throw a fit and never hold back. Many of the Azuresoul Palace’s people had died within a few days like that.
“Why so many complaints? If we weren’t here, you wouldn’t even be getting anything.”
“It’s your fortune we were willing to come help you! Why are you chattering so much?”
“Open your eyes wide and know who’s protecting you, ingrates!”
The Empyrean Sword Sect swordpupils had their excuses. They hadn’t been so unbridled when Shi Yan was around. But now that they had numbers, they were like a swarm of locusts.
Gujian Qingshuang had seen everything. He didn’t have a choice, but internally, he was already standing on Tianming’s side.
The situation was the same on the Supracloud Sanctuary’s side. As the Empyrean Sword Sect had sent reinforcements, the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean had sent some too. Although it wasn’t as many, there were still over fifty thousand.
Through Yin Chen’s eyes, Tianming saw everything that happened in the Supracloud Sanctuary. The wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean didn’t quite have respect for Yun Tianque or his sect. They had also taken the best locations and kicked their hosts out. Furthermore, Yun Tianque’s skycloud race was full of beautiful women. These beauties from above the clouds were full of exotic charm. The wargodeans were all tall and stalwart. They like beauties and had been frequently doing some very inappropriate things. The beauties of the skycloud race didn’t even have any dignity.
As the leader of his people, Yun Tianque could only stew in his anger without saying anything.
The Blueblood Starocean was just as bad. As with all totem cultivators on the sun, they looked down on beastmasters and thought themselves better. Of course, that wasn’t to say that all experts would bully and lord over others. However, there were historical and cultural reasons why this was happening so much. If they didn’t have the desire to lord over others, they wouldn’t have come to the Azurecloud Continent.
“Yun Tianque’s feelings must be very similar to ours. And most importantly of all, when Yun Tianque agreed to become the celestial orderians’ pet dog, ninety percent of the Supracloud Sanctuary was against it, including four of their grade-five cultivators.”
The Supracloud Sanctuary was an enemy of the Azuresoul Palace, but it didn’t mean they lacked a backbone. In fact, the cultivators who lived in the sky had always been famous for celebrating light, and thought of themselves as enlightened and pure immortal-like beings
Although they had been forced by circumstances, they now had the label of lapdogs. They also had to endure the oppression of the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean, and had to give away all of their painstakingly-picked divine herbs. The hearts of the Supracloud Sanctuary cultivators were at their limit.
Tianming saw all of it. That was why he firmly believed that Yun Tianque would join them sooner or later. Before, Yun Tianque had had no choice, as the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect was backing the Azuresoul Palace and their rank was going to rise. Only the celestial orderians behind the wargodeans could help balance out the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect. However, Tianming’s appearance had let him make a choice now.
“Think carefully. Why does first or second in the continent matter if you can get ten times what you get now?” There had been a deeper reason behind Gujian Qingshuang showing Yun Tianque he also had bonegnaw ants. It was to show that he was being controlled too. Hence, it wouldn’t be the Supracloud Sanctuary serving the Azuresoul Palace, but both serving under Li Tianming!
After going back, Yun Tianque hadn’t been able to shake Tianming off his mind. Nor was he able to ignore the countless metal lifeforms crawling around, or the ones crawling around inside his body.…
……
In front of the Soaring Palace in the Supracloud Sanctuary, millions of divine herbs were piled up like a mountain. Fragrance filled the air and the immortal aura was abundant there. This was the place the Supracloud Sanctuary had exclusively given to the prince to stay and cultivate.
Outside the palace, Long Youyou and Li Ruoshi were dumbly staring at the massive pile.
“Although the quality isn’t that high mostly, the quantity is just… wow,” Long Youyou sighed.
“Yes, this suits Big Brother Haochen. He needs a lot,” Li Ruoshi said.
“However, Big Brother Haochen wanted to leave after losing that time. He didn’t really want these. Unfortunately, Auntie Wushuang forced him to stay and makes his vastsun godbeasts gorge themselves every day. She obviously wants Big Brother Haochen to beat Li Tianming and get back our face,” Long Youyou said.
“That’s definitely it. Why else would she not let Big Brother Haochen go? She really cares about face, and people say she’s the kind of person who doesn’t like to lose even once in their life,” Li Ruoshi said.
“I see. Though, those wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean people really are attentive. They come and send divine herbs here everyday, making those Supracloud Sanctuary people very, very unhappy,” Long Youyou said.
“Unhappy? For what? Without us, they wouldn’t have anything,” Li Ruoshi replied as the two of them walked into the Soaring Palace together.
