“Here is your guest room. It’s quite spacious, and should be just right for the two of you.”
Lin Xihe looked over Ye Zichen and Zuo Mo ambiguously. She was close friends with Zuo Mo, so naturally knew some of what went on behind the scenes.
In truth, the city lord’s manor actually had several empty guest rooms, but she’d still said this was the only one left.
She was intentionally creating opportunities for the two of them.
“This should be fine,” said Ye Zichen. One look at her smile and he knew that she was doing this on purpose, but he didn’t call her out on it. The room was indeed spacious enough for the two of them.
Besides, if he seemed overly eager to avoid suspicion, it might have the opposite effect and make people imagine more.
“If this is the only guest room left, we can only stay here.”
“I’m glad you don’t mind,” said Lin Xihe. “In that case, I won’t disturb you any longer.”
With that, Lin Xihe took her leave. As she left, she stealthily winked at Zuo Mo. Ye Zichen saw it all but nevertheless pretended to have seen nothing.
From the very start, Zuo Mo hadn’t said a single word. Even when Lin Xihe made eyes at her, she didn’t react at all.
After a long while, she finally frowned irritably and said, “What did you go and say all that for? You two were so confrontational, I was afraid you’d start fighting if I didn’t stop you. Before we got here, didn’t you agree not to argue with him?”
“Hey, don’t distort my words,” objected Ye Zichen, eyes wide. “What I said in the carriage was that, so long as he didn’t go too far over the line, I’d spare his life.”
“It’s just, I felt irritated the moment I saw him, and couldn’t help but provoke him. All I did was poke fun at him. Why are you so upset about it?”
“Then aren’t you afraid of rashly alerting the enemy?” asked Zuo Mo helplessly, “Your argument was so intense that he definitely picked up a good deal of information from your words. If he figures something out and gives up on his plans, then what?”
“Alerting the enemy?” sneered Ye Zichen. “I alerted him the moment I stepped foot in the city lord’s manor.”
Ye Zichen walked over to one of the courtyard’s stone chairs and sat down before continuing. “But If he’s so afraid of me that he cancels his plans, isn’t that a good thing for us? And for the whole Three Realms?”
“If that’s what you think, you’re mistaken,” said Zuo Mo, shaking her head. “If he works for the Demon Realm’s man, they’ll force him to do something even if he doesn’t want to. If he cancels his plans now, he’ll just be postponing them until later. When that happens, we won’t know anything about it and might be too late to stop him. Before, we had the advantage and he was in the dark, but you foolishly insisted on throwing away our edge; now we’re stuck in a stalemate. I really don’t know what the hell you were thinking.”
Even though she’d asked Ye Zichen to spare Zhao Zizhao’s life, it was obvious from her words and anxious expression that she was concerned on Ye Zichen’s behalf.
Ye Zichen’s heart warmed, and he smiled, “That won’t happen. I’ve got him entirely in the palm of my hand. What I did earlier was intended to make him suspect we’re on to him. That way, he might get nervous and let something slip. Even if stays calm, there’s no need to worry….”
Swoosh.
He waved his right hand, and suddenly the space before them rippled.
“This…..”
Zuo Mo stared blankly at the ripples. To her astonishment, the brothers Zhao Zizhao and Zhao Ziming were displayed on their surface.
The Great Dao of Heaven’s Birth.
This was one of the very first spiritual techniques Ye Zichen had learned, but he hadn’t used it much since arriving in the Three Realms.
If he always used this sort of overpowered spiritual technique, it would ruin the balance of the game.
But it was great so long as he only used it when it was really important.
“How can you see the two of them? Could it be…. Has your strength has already reached this step?”
After recovering from her inner astonishment, her expression flashed with understanding.
No wonder he’d been so calm and collected this whole time, as if he had some trick up his sleeves. And even so, she’d gone and interrogated him like that. Looking back on it now she’d really worried for nothing.
She rolled her eyes at him in rebuke, but deep in her heart, she felt an inexplicable wave of…. satisfaction.
He was strong!
He was strong, so she was happy.
“Shhhh, stop talking,” laughed Ye Zichen. “If we miss some important details, we’re screwed.”
Zuo Mo nodded, knowing full well that he was right, and focused on the image reflected in the spatial ripples.
“Then, Big Brother, you have to be careful,” said Zhao Ziming. “Cooperating with the Demon Realm is perilous.”
“No need to worry. I have the perfect plan.”
Fwump.
The rippled dissipated.
“Hey, hey, hey! We just reached the key moment, why did it suddenly stop?”
Zuo Mo had been utterly focused on analyzing the image, only for it to disappear just as it reached the most important part.
She was utterly frazzled, and hurriedly asked Ye Zichen what had happened.
“It’s because I dissipated it,” said Ye Zichen calmly.
“What on earth did you do that for? Let’s keep watching!”
“What good will that do?” he smiled helplessly, “If we keep watching, all we’ll see are the two brothers walk off together, swearing and spewing vile insults. If you really want to see that….. Then I suppose can let you watch?”
“What?” said Zuo Mo, not understanding. “They were obviously just about to reveal their secrets!”
“My dear Family Head Zuo, do you think Zhao Zizhao would reveal anything you’d consider truly secret?” Ye Zichen sighed. “That Zhao Zizhao is deeply calculating, and is absolutely capable of keeping secrets. When he told Zhao Ziming he had a perfect plan, he was just comforting him. As for what specifically his brilliant plan is, there’s no way he’d say it just like that. Put yourself in his shoes. If it were you…. would you really say your plans out loud?”
“I……” After some hesitation, she shook her head.
“Exactly,” said Ye Zichen, revealing the barest hint of a smile. “But what we did see is already extremely advantageous to us. I hadn’t realized that Zhao Zizhao was so ambitious as to try and proclaim himself emperor even outside of the Immortal Region. As for that Zhao Ziming, he’s doing well. He’s been in the Immortal Region for a while now, and has finally learned to analyze the big picture.”
“Hey, can you stop treating this like it’s some sort of interesting game? Zhao Zizhao is planning to use the wedding to take over the Immortal Region. Shouldn’t we make some advance preparations, just in case….”
“Just in case of what? Let’s just leave him to it,” smirked Ye Zichen, utterly unconcerned.
“You…. It’s better safe than sorry. Can you stop being so overconfident for once?
“Take it easy, don’t stress,” Ye Zichen, lips curling into a grin，”I also have the perfect plan!”
