Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“Now you’ve fully offended your baby girl. Don’t you fear that she will resent you for a lifetime?”
At this moment, only Zhou Bao, Wang She, and the Child-endowing Buddha were sitting in the pavilion. Seeing how Zhou Bao had chosen to handle this matter, Wang She and the Child-endowing Buddha were both dazed.
“I said that people would rather suffer acute pain for a short while than mild pain for a long time. My daughter will not hate me for a whole lifetime, perhaps a few hundred years at most. Even if she does, so what? Time flies, several hundred years will pass in an instant. Anyway, this is better than letting her live a whole life with a jerk!” Zhou Bao said, waving his hands casually. After all, his little girl was just 13 years old, what could she possibly know about marriage? Zhou Bao was determined to break this couple up.
“If that boy refuses to leave your daughter, what will you do?”
“That would be better, I really hope he will behave in that way!” Zhou Bao said, raising his eyebrows. “If that happens, I’ll draw his soul out in front of everyone; make every bit of his life since he was born visualized; and dig out his true purpose for approaching my daughter. Hee hee, that would be quite pleasant!”
The Child-endowing Buddha and Wang She gazed at each other but failed to say anything. They both made up their mind in secret that they would never let their acquaintances pursue the King’s daughter. It simply equated to courting death—whenever things went wrong, Zhou Bao would be blustering about drawing someone’s soul out.
“Well, you two, the show is over. You can tell me your real agenda now. You’ve traveled from such a distant place, it can’t be that you’re just here for the show?”
“Not just for that. We’re here to express our awe and respect to you!”
“Express awe and respect to me?” Zhou Bao was nonplussed. “What do you mean?”
“Your assumption was right. There is something fishy about the Ancient Divine Palace. It turns out that not acting rashly was the correct choice, so we’re here to express our gratitude to you!”
“Well, it’s nothing at all!”
“That is the first issue. And there is a second one.”
“Judging by your behavior, you must be embarrassed about the second issue.”
“Guys from other macro worlds are already contacting the influences in our Heaven Realm World!” Wang She said with a flustered expression. “Some small and medium well-known families have ganged up with them for extra benefits. They are building up their power in secret. Undercurrents of trouble are surging!”
“That’s not strange. If I were them, I would adopt the same method to make my influence permeate the Heaven Realm World. After all, though the strength of the Heaven Realm World is extremely powerful, combatants at the level of the Human Immortal are unable to leave their own macro world at will. Thus, the strongest combatants they can send out are merely Lords of Heaven. Indeed, Lords of Heaven are hard to deal with, but they must be joking if they expect to take over the Heaven Realm World solely with Lords of Heaven. Adopting this slow permeating method to foster their own influences in the Heaven Realm is undoubtedly the best measure.”
“This can’t be kept from the public. Well, do the great sects having any plans regarding this matter?”
“Right. No matter which school or well-known family they are helping or contacting, what they are doing is something that will shake the foundation of the Heaven Realm. We definitely can’t let things drift.”
“So?”
“So, regardless of identity, family or school, if anyone secretly contacts influences in other macro worlds, we will just wipe them out!”
“That won’t work. If we can’t fight them openly, we will fight in the dark. Right now, they are all in the dark. And I believe a major part of powerful and ambitious small and medium schools and well-known families have already found their respective partners. If we truly wipe them out, hee hee, we may already be severely injured before someone else tries to take us on!”
“That’s why we need to punish someone as a warning to others!”
“Who is this unlucky guy we should punish?”
“Five in total. Three are in the Penglai Region, they are all medium-sized schools. One is in the Yingzhou Region, a family. And there is one in our Central Mainland Region as well—the Li Family of Pingzhou!”
“The Li Family of Pingzhou?” The families in the Central Mainland Region did not arouse Zhou Bao’s interest, but hearing the Li Family name, Zhou Bao involuntarily raised his eyebrows. “The Li Family of Pingzhou? Who made this suggestion?”
“This information was disclosed from the Divine Wind Palace. As you know, the Human Emperor Palace is located inside the Divine Wind Palace. Nowadays, the influence of the Divine Wind Palace is declining while the power of the Human Emperor is growing. Therefore, all the important news in the Four Eastern Regions comes from the Human Emperor Palace!”
“Really? Then, that means this is my father-in-law’s suggestion, isn’t it?”
“That I could not know. But it’s possible. As his power grows, his practice of the Way of the Emperor becomes more and more profound. Plus, the location of the Human Emperor Palace is covered in rising purple Qi, which is the place where the emperor destiny will descend. Adding the fate of the Jade Emperor from antiquity times, the speed of his Way of the Emperor practice is extremely fast. Perhaps now his cultivation has already broken through the Individual Immortal Realm and reached the Genuine Immortal or the Venerable Realm. So, he probably has become a Genuine Immortal in the Lord of Heaven Realm, right?”
“Even if he becomes a Human Immortal, so what? Could he possibly be ignorant of the relationship between me and the Li Family of Pingzhou?” Zhou Bao’s face darkened completely. “Fu*k! Dying to show off his authority at a time like this, how stupid!”
“Then, what are you going to do?”
“Me? I will do nothing. I will see who dares to challenge the Li Family!” Zhou Bao said with a sneer. “If the Li Family has contacted other macro worlds, there is no reason that the Wang clan in Cenzhou hasn’t made connections with the influences!”
“The Wang Family in Cenzhou did offend you in the past. But now, given that so many years have passed, and they have not messed with you recently, you’re truly heartless to think about massacring the whole family!”
“I’m just making a proposal. As one of the Four Signs of the Immortal Palace, I think I still have the right to make proposals!”
“You’d better go to the Human Emperor Palace and visit your father-in-law to figure out what is going on. Although Wang She and I have both undergone the Void Thunder Tribulation, since I did it in secret, I am still not a top-ranked member of the Bigwheel Temple despite my prestigious position. Thus, a lot of secrets are not open to me. As for Wang She, he went through the Void Thunder Tribulation and everybody knows that. But as you know, the requirement of being a high-level member in the Immortal Palace is quite demanding. Though his strength is qualified, his experience is not, so, just like you, he doesn’t know the deepest secrets either. Therefore…”
“Therefore, I’d better go and visit my father-in-law to find out his status quo, right?” Zhou Bao asked with a sardonic grin.
“I know you are contemptuous of the Human Emperor’s position and the so-called Way of the Emperor, but I want to remind you that the Way of the Emperor is the one of the 3,000 Great Ways. It enjoys the most exceptional advantages and possesses the richest fate. The Way of Heaven also acquiesces in the fact that this way is the orthodox way. Accordingly, even though its strength is not so strong, once you violate it, you will become the enemy of the entire Way of Heaven. This kind of consequence is not something you can afford!”
“Hmm, maybe you do have a point. But the Way of Heaven in the Heaven Realm World has long been on the wane, I don’t need to pay much attention to it. As for my father-in-law, just let him do whatever he wants. As long as he leaves the Li Family alone!”
“If you merely say so to your father-in-law, he won’t accept it!” The Child-endowing Buddha shook his head and laughed. “The fact that he has obtained his present position is partially attributed to your contribution. But if you do so, it’ll be evident that you are claiming credit for yourself and growing so arrogant that you reserve no respect even for your father-in-law. How could he not feel disgraced?”
“So which does he want to save—his face or his power?” Zhou Bao started getting impatient. Was Yan Yuntian out of his mind? Provoking him now, what was he up to? Did he really believe that since he had obtained the fate of Human Emperor he was able to command anyone in the world?
“Well, you can decide how to deal with this matter. We’re just delivering the news to you. The specifics are for you to manage!”
“Fine, I will pay a visit to Pingzhou and figure out which macro world has stretched its arms into our world!” As he was speaking, Zhou Bao straightened up from his chair. Then, in a flash, he vanished from their sight.
“Alas, this kid is still so short tempered. Always does what he wants immediately. Well, let’s go and have a look, in case he kills everyone dispatched by the Human Emperor Palace and makes the Human Emperor lose all his face!”
“Wang She, you just like manipulating others, don’t you? Why should the Human Emperor’s dignity have anything to do with me? I won’t go. If you want, you go. I will not step into this trouble!” The Child-endowing Buddha shook his head consecutively, stating his unwillingness to get involved in this mess.
“Fine, fine. Then I will go by myself!” Wang She knew that the Child-endowing Buddha did not want to expose his relationship with Zhou Bao. He put on a forced smile, gave a shudder, and disappeared as well.
Pingzhou!
This was an extremely busy city in Jin. When the young master Li Xiu gained control of the Li Family, both Pingzhou and the Li Family had achieved great development. The Li Family of Pingzhou had even become the most well-known family, second only to the Royal Yan Family. However, the development was not attributed solely to Li Xiu’s own talent but the fact that Li Xiu had made an important friend, Zhou Bao.
Zhou Bao did not have many friends. Those known to the public were even fewer. Actually there were only two. One was Wang She from the Tian Long Taoism, the other one was Li Xiu in Pingzhou.
As Zhou Bao’s influence and reputation grew, Li Xiu’s status also rose in Jianghu. In addition, Li Xiu was already one of the four teenage experts in Jin as Zhou Bao had been since the beginning. So after experiencing the martial world for over a decade, he had also stepped into the Individual Immortal Realm.
Nowadays, Individual Immortals were not as precious as they had been decades ago, when they were as rare as pandas, but they were not so abundant as cabbages, either.
Although Zhou Bao had publicized the recipes for the elixirs he acquired, the formulas merely increased the chances for men in the Seven-deity Regions to become experts and the base number of men qualified to try the Individual Immortal Realm. With the enlarged base number, it was natural that the number of Individual Immortals had gone up. However, it was not easy to enter the Mysterious Realm as an expert. Only one or two out of 10,000 experts could successfully cross that barrier. Therefore, the number did not rise sharply.
Over the past 10 years, each school and well-known family in Jin had fostered one or two experts who entered the Mysterious Realm in succession, which was already great news for them. Hence, in light of the total number of Individual Immortals, it did increase, but the rise was not too extraordinary.
And Li Xiu was one of the new Individual Immortals.
