The palace was deep and had a magnificent number of structures. The shade of the trees was thick, the summer cicadas sang.
The long-closed doors of the palace were opened, all of the featherman girls along the way fell to their knees to greet the master of the palace, Xia Cha.
Xia Cha’s expression was unsightly, she was filled with gloominess.
She had tried all sorts of methods in her closed cultivation, but none of them could allow her to advance from a rank five Gu Master to a rank six.
All methods had been exhausted, leaving only one path in front of her – to purchase the rank six level second aperture Immortal Gu from Fang Yuan.
As the first supreme elder of Xia clan, Xia Cha originally had rank eight cultivation, but in the ambush battle of the River of Time, she was captured by Fang Yuan. Although she was lucky to survive, her rank eight immortal aperture had already been taken away by Fang Yuan.
After releasing Xia Cha, Fang Yuan took the opportunity to sell his second aperture Gu and extort the Southern Border super forces in another way.
As a result, Xia Cha was given the opportunity to cultivate again, she grasped it like a drowning man who was surviving by hanging onto a wooden plank.
Xia Cha had now regained rank five cultivation, but she was stuck at the most crucial step.
Advancing to Gu Immortal!
Her countless attempts to ascend to immortal had failed.
“Ugh.” Xia Cha sighed, coming to terms with reality once and for all.
“Prepare fresh water for me to clean up, additionally, spread news that I have come out, ask second supreme elder and third supreme elder to come here.” Xia Cha instructed the featherman maids beside her.
However, after waiting for an hour, Xia Cha did not see the arrival of second supreme elder or third supreme elder, but rather they transmitted that they had important matters to handle, they were unable to come.
“These two old scoundrels!” Xia Cha cursed in her heart, a chilly feeling assaulted her heart.
Although she was also clear that sooner or later there would be such a day, when it actually came, she still felt a chill in her heart.
To think that she had once been the center of authority, she made all sorts of sacrifices for Xia clan, she was the decision maker of all political affairs, but now she was just a rank five cripple who had to endure other people’s disrespect.
In the past, Xia clan’s second supreme elder and third supreme elder had to look up to her as their leader. In fact, their rise to their current status was all because of Xia Cha’s help of nurturing.
“It looks like… these old scoundrels are trying to gain independence.” Xia Cha looked at the empty hall as she sighed in her heart.
There was not much anger in her, but more of a sense of helplessness and sadness.
Could she say that they were ungrateful? Not entirely. In fact, Xia Cha understood the choice that these Xia clan Gu Immortals made.
Because of her, Xia clan had already been extorted too harshly by Fang Yuan, their inventory was greatly depleted, even though they had painstakingly accumulated so many years of foundation, it was like them looking after Fang Yuan’s assets now.
Even if Xia Cha could regain her cultivation, she would have to start all over again, the resources expended in the long run would certainly be a huge amount.
Should they give the resources to Xia Cha or keep it for themselves?
After the initial panic and uncertainty, Xia clan’s Gu Immortals began to have an unsaid agreement with each other.
Xia Cha’s first supreme elder title was now just a hollow status. Her rank five cultivation level could not allow her to intervene in Gu Immortal level situations.
Xia Cha pondered for a long while before she took out an information path mortal Gu and gave it to a featherman maid for her to bring to the second supreme elder.
But in the evening, the reply from second supreme elder infuriated Xia Cha once again.
“Even the title of the first supreme elder has no value anymore.” Xia Cha gritted her teeth.
It turned out that she had proposed a deal with the second supreme elder in the information path mortal Gu, Xia Cha was willing to hand over her own first supreme elder title to the second supreme elder. He would be able to rightfully sit on the throne of Xia clan’s highest position of authority, while only having to pay an amount of cultivation resources.
But Xia clan’s second supreme elder did not accept it, he politely rejected her offer.
Evidently, he had reached an agreement with the third supreme elder, they were going to make Xia Cha their figurehead and still let her continue to be the first supreme elder.
Xia clan’s situation was not the same as Ba clan.
Ba clan’s Ba Shi Ba encountered the same situation as Xia Cha, but he was already kicked off his position as the first supreme elder, the newly advanced rank eight Gu Immortal Ba De had taken the role instead.
Meanwhile, Xia clan’s Xia Zhao and Xia Chen Yuan were only rank seven in cultivation level, they both cultivated earth path.
Years ago, when Xia Cha first came to power, she was not a rank eight Gu Immortal yet, in order to take control of Xia clan, she had nurtured Xia Chen Yuan and Xia Zhao, to use them to contest against Xia clan’s existing factions.
Now that Xia Cha’s cultivation level had fallen to rank five, while Xia Chen Yuan and Xia Zhao still had their authority, they started having different ideas.
But as far as the righteous path was concerned, they did not dare to make a move on Xia Cha, who had shown great kindness to the two of them. They would rather let Xia Cha have the position of first supreme elder than to lose their own reputation.
Xia Cha knew that her influence over Xia clan had slipped to a dangerous point, and it was slipping faster and faster!
She had to become an immortal as soon as possible, otherwise, she would be completely pushed out of the circle of Xia clan’s higher-ups.
However, there was no way for her to break free from this predicament, as she did not have any capital to negotiate or transact.
Xia Cha’s situation was not an exception, but the norm.
The attitudes among the Southern Border righteous path forces had started to change.
The most important person causing this change was naturally Wu clan’s Wu Yong.
He had been relying on Heavenly Court and his own political skills to elevate his own reputation and influence in Southern Border’s righteous path.
The downfall of Xia Cha and Ba Shi Ba, these experienced rank eights, gave him an incredibly rare opportunity.
Despite the appearance of Lu Wei Yin, the Virtue Paradise behind him included a large number of mushroommen and not just humans. This gave them a natural political shortcoming in Southern Border’s righteous path, which Wu Yong grasped firmly and took full advantage of.
Lu Wei Yin did not pose an obstacle to Wu Yong, so his influence in the Southern Alliance was growing by the day.
There was already a faction within the Southern Alliance, its voice was becoming louder and louder, with Wu Yong being the main advocate. He advocated that the Southern Alliance should actively confront Fang Yuan and stop accepting his blackmail and extortion. Compromising with a demon like Fang Yuan would only fuel his arrogance.
The Southern Border righteous path forces had almost gotten back most of their hostages, they had also been hurt by Fang Yuan’s blackmail and extortion. Thus, more and more Southern Border Gu Immortals responded to Wu Yong’s call with an increasingly supportive attitude.
What Wu Yong exploited was precisely the hatred that the righteous path Gu Immortals felt towards Fang Yuan.
Under the moonlit night, Fang Yuan’s Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body traveled alongside Chi Qu You.
A secret transaction involving dream realms had just ended.
“Lord Chi, we should part here.” Fang Yuan’s dream path clone smiled.
He was a temporary clone made from the dream realm, he had Gu Immortal cultivation and would self-detonate into a dream realm after reaching the time limit.
Chi Qu You cupped his fists and sighed: “Fang Yuan, it’s not that I am making things difficult, it’s just that the risk of this business has become bigger. Now that the situation is so tense, if we get exposed, my Chi clan’s reputation will be completely ruined.”
The Pure Dream clone snorted coldly in his mind, Chi Qu You proposed to increase the price, no longer satisfied by the previous price. The given reason was that Southern Border’s righteous path was becoming more and more aggressive in dealing with Fang Yuan, Wu Yong gathering a huge force in Southern Border’s righteous path.
This reason was of course bullshit, the real reason was that Chi Qu You used this excuse to raise the price because he wanted to get even more dream path research results.
Fang Yuan wanted more dream realms, but now that it was getting harder and harder to extort Southern Border’s righteous path, the secret deal between Chi clan and Fang Yuan had become his main source again.
Chi clan controlled the dream realm formation, one of its kind in Southern Border, Fang Yuan could only steal a portion of the dream realms by working with Chi clan.
“I will explain this matter to my main body.” The dream path clone left this sentence and directly flew away.
Chi Qu You stayed where he was and watched Fang Yuan’s dream path clone disappear into the sky, his face turning cold as he left with a soft snort.
It was not like he did not think of attacking the dream path clone.
But he lacked dream path methods to deal with a dream path Gu Immortal. Furthermore, he was also worried that Fang Yuan’s main body was likely to be around here waiting in ambush.
Fang Yuan himself was far away in Eastern Sea, but for this transaction, Wu Shuai had already arrived nearby with his Dragon Palace.
If Chi Qu You were to make a move, he would certainly not gain anything.
The Pure Dream clone soon returned to Dragon Palace.
This was a temporary clone with immortal-level cultivation, but after reaching the time limit, it would fall apart and turn into a dream realm.
“We cannot continue with Chi clan’s business anymore, unless we allow him to raise the price.” The dream path clone said coldly, he opened his immortal aperture and let out a few dream realm bodies: “This batch of dream realms is likely the last batch we can get.”
It could not be helped.
Fang Yuan and Chi Qu You did not make any kind of binding agreement.
Chi Qu You purposely raised the price by using the excuse of Southern Border’s attitude.
“The main enemy is in front of us, after this hurdle, this trivial Chi clan is nothing to worry about.” Wu Shuai opened his mouth.
Right now, he could not make a move yet.
The more times he made a move, the more likely Heavenly Court would notice the true relationship between the Wu Shuai clone and Fang Yuan’s main body.
The killer move dreamy light smoke had to be used on Heavenly Court, exposing it on Chi Qu You was truly a huge waste, it would be like killing a chicken with a bull’s knife.
Rather than dealing with Chi clan, it would be more efficient to attack the formation directly.
In fact, with Fang Yuan’s main body staying in Eastern Sea, it would be possible to deal with Chi clan with just the strength of Wu Shuai’s forces.
But if he revealed these trump cards in advance, Heavenly Court would likely be so happy they might laugh in their dreams.
Small greed ruins big plans.
Moreover, by allowing Southern Border to preserve its strength, it could also cause more trouble for Heavenly Court in the future.
Directly destroying the enemy, although straightforward and easy, sometimes does not reap the greatest benefits. For example, Fang Yuan had released Xia Cha and Ba Shi Ba, they had already started feeling ostracized and neglected in their respective clans.
Fang Yuan would secretly sponsor them in the future.
Their current situation could be said to be caused by Fang Yuan. But besides Fang Yuan, they had nobody else to rely on.
Fang Yuan, on the other hand, needed these people to act as his eyes and ears, planting them in the righteous path forces of Southern Border, so that he would always maintain a certain amount of influence over Southern Border.
It was just that at the moment, Fang Yuan still lacked some means to restrict them.
Regarding this, the time path clone was already working night and day to make deductions.
Boom boom boom.
With a series of muffled sounds, the temporary Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique bodies exploded one by one, turning into lumps of dream realms that fused with each other.
These were all earth path dream realms.
Wu Shuai sat on his dragon throne in the palace, his soul left his body and entered the dream.
