Chapter 244: Palace Head Ning Wavers
Not to mention that even a mortal rank Nine Magnificence Dew Wine had by now, already become the current “it beverage” in the capital, thanks to the Myriad Treasures Palace’s packaging and marketing.
Everyone thought that this wine had been crafted by the Palace. No one could imagine that the person behind all this was actually Jiang Chen!
And judging from Shi Xiaoyao’s demeanor, not only did he not refute this, but he looked on the scene with a slight smile. The gaze he used to look at Jiang Chen was filled with admiration and even some traces of hero worship!
Yes, hero worship.
If one was to say that Shi Xiaoyao had a slight bearing of an elder when he first interacted with Jiang Chen, then by this time, he had already completely accepted Jiang Chen.
A foreign young man had completely upended the situation within the Skylaurel Kingdom in less than a year.
He’d carved out an avenue of light in the chaotic mess of the capital.
Everyone knew that the achievements of Ye Rong in becoming Crown Prince and triumphing over the strong were mostly to be attributed to Jiang Chen.
Shi Xiaoyao no longer dared to have any sort of the attitude of an elder towards Jiang Chen now. It had been replaced with the friendship between equals, even with him on a bit of a lower footing than Jiang Chen.
How much profit had the wine brought to the Palace, to say nothing of anything else? How much glory had that wine brought to him, Shi Xiaoyao?
Jiang Chen was the god of fortune for the Palace; how could Shi Xiaoyao not fawn over him?
Palace Head Ning’s heart was a bit in a disarray right now. She had to admit that at that moment, her heart was wavering.
Prior to today, she had never even really looked at Qiao Baishi, and hadn’t seriously considered him for the position of son-in-law at all.
But now, she could no longer overlook this mysterious foreigner.
Before saying anything else, so many old fellows had come to propose marriage on his behalf, this at least demonstrated that they all greatly valued Qiao Baishi.
This Qiao Baishi truly did have it in him for others to give him face!
Looking at the entourage that had accompanied him, Palace Head Ning knew that there was no way she could refuse him. If she did, her Southern Palace would be besieged on all sides.
She’d be thoroughly offending the Qingyan Valley and Myriad Treasures Palace.
As for Ye Rong, he represented the royal family.
Miss Dan Fei represented honored tutor Ye Chonglou.
Zhou Kai and Tian Shao represented the Dragonteeth Guard. After a round of assessment, she knew that if she forcibly allied the Southern and Northern Palace, her Southern Palace would be completely isolated!
If the Southern Palace ditched the Northern Palace here, the former would still be the Southern Palace without suffering much loss. After all, the relationship between the two hadn’t been the best to begin with.
But if the Southern Palace offended these other powers, then its future would be dim and its development severely curtailed.
She also had to consider another factor, one of the most important —
Jiang Chen!
Indeed, the fact that Qiao Baishi was Jiang Chen’s disciple had shocked Palace Head Ning the most.
Who was Jiang Chen? Although this was the first time she was seeing him, she had long since heard of his name.
She even wished that her daughter was ten years younger so that she could marry Jiang Chen.
A young genius whom Tutor Ye hadn’t minded offending the Iron father and son for — this genius had a boundless future!
With Palace Head Ning’s level of intelligence, it was impossible for her not to see this.
Elder Iron Can had lost so much face with Jiang Chen, and for what? There was no sign of retaliation even after he’d returned to the sect.
It wasn’t necessarily that Iron Can was afraid of Jiang Chen, so this could at least prove one point that Iron Can’s father, the esteemed elder Iron Long, didn’t want to erupt in open hostilities with Ye Chonglou!
This was the only explanation.
Palace Head Ning couldn’t find any reason to offend a young man like this.
Take Yang Zhao for example — his authority had been great enough, to say nothing of anything else? But so what if the vice director of the Dragonteeth Guard held absolute power? He’d been destroyed by Jiang Chen in the end!
Apart from Jiang Chen’s strength, old man Fei’s words had also deeply touched Palace Head Ning.
The Four Seasons Eternal Spring Pill, Nine Magnificence Dew Wine, Heavenly Karma Pill… all of these names thoroughly tugged on Palace Head Ning’s heart strings.
What did the Southern Palace rely on in its development?
People and resources!
There was no way that the Southern Palace would be able to recruit such a talent like Jiang Chen, but Qiao Baishi was Jiang Chen’s disciple and he was knocking and begging at their front door right now. If she still rejected him, she’d essentially be self satisfied with being a stick-in-the-mud. She’s be picking up a rock to smash her own foot!
If any of these items were developed in house, they would bring untold fortune to the Southern Palace if they’d been developed in house.
The Nine Magnificence Dew Wine belonged to the Myriad Treasures Palace and so she couldn’t take that.
But if the Four Seasons Eternal Spring Pill could be mass produced, the effect it would have on the market wouldn’t be any less than the wine!
Men were besotted with the Nine Magnificence Dew Wine, but women coveted the Four Seasons Eternal Spring Pill!
Women were often even more of a ruthless entity than men when it came to spending money and consumption. What wouldn’t they do for beauty? Not to mention just spending a bit of money to buy pill medicine?
She was most certainly the head of a palace. As these notions flashed through her mind, the equilibrium of her heart had already subconsciously started to tilt one way.
In comparison, although Xiao Yu was quite a good man, he only desired her daughter’s beauty and didn’t have much of any feelings for her.
That person’s potential was indeed uncommon within the Skylaurel Kingdom, but he was destined to just be a mere grunt for the Precious Tree Sect and couldn’t become a highly ranked sect disciple.
Previously, she’d wanted to shove her daughter at Xiao Yu because she felt that the two were of the same social status. But considering this from the basic principles of a marriage, she knew that her daughter didn’t like this Xiao Yu at all!
And Qiao Baishi had now revealed his backer, who in terms of social status, wasn’t the least bit worse off than Xiao Yu. There were even signs of the former’s resources being superior to Xiao Yu’s.
If she had to nitpick something that Qiao Baishi was inferior in, that would be in his level of martial dao training.
However, the Southern Palace didn’t lack highly trained practitioners at all!
They lacked talent, resources, and all sorts of channels to earn money!
Qiao Baishi and his honored master just so happened to be able to supply these resources and channels.
In the span of a moment, Palace Head Ning looked at Xiao Yu and felt that this urbane martial dao genius didn’t seem that attractive after all.
Whether she looked at him up and down, sideways, or from the back, he no longer seemed as perfect as before.
In contrast, the Qiao Baishi she’d never approved of until now seemed reliable and reserved, neither proud nor fussy. He’d never given up even in the face of adverse circumstances.
And now that there were so many backing him up, he didn’t puff himself up with arrogance or consider himself a world above others.
“Mm, Qingyan’s eye is indeed a bit unique. This Qiao Baishi is neither proud nor fussy and continued on even in difficult circumstances. He stayed true to himself. Very good! He is someone who can achieve great things.” Palace Head Ning suddenly had many good things to say about this son-in-law candidate whom she’d never favored before.
Liu Chengfeng had been continuously observing Palace Head Ning and grew a bit anxious when he saw that she was looking at Qiao Baishi oddly.
Thanks to the machinations of this group of people, it looked like the alliance was about to fall through.
Liu Chengfeng had plotted and schemed to bring about this marriage because he’d wanted to repair relations with the Southern Palace and break the partnership of the other three sites.
If this marriage failed, then the path of their Northern Palace would become more and more difficult in the future.
There would be a decreasing amount of space for them in the Skylaurel Kingdom and they’d find it tough to survive.
“Palace Head Ning, old man Fei has always liked talking nonsense. The credibility of his words isn’t high. Besides, Qiao Baishi is the one proposing this marriage. That doesn’t seem like there’s much to do with his background or whose disciple he is, is there now?”
Palace Head Ning didn’t say much and just chuckled. She couldn’t say much now.
“Liu Chengfeng, are you slapping your own face? If proposing marriage has nothing to do with background, then what is your Northern Palace doing by sending out such a large party? Don’t tell me your great fanfare and line up has nothing to do with helping Xiao Yu!”
“Tsk tsk, your Northern Palace disciples can talk about background and mention your masters to intimidate, but others can’t do the same?”
Old man Fei tsked and jeered, calling out, “This old man is going to lay everything out on the table today. I’m going to be Qiao Baishi’s backer no matter what! I’ll go at it with whoever wants to steal his girl!”
Liu Chengfeng was quite put out to see old man Fei fool around. “Old man Fei, I won’t stop you from jesting here, but a marriage proposal is a matter between our young folk so they should settle things between them. Everyone should go through fair competition. In my view, the world of martial dao should settle things through the rules of martial dao. Let Qiao Baishi and Xiao Yu fight it out. Whoever wins will win the bride!”
Old man Fei spat. “Shameless! Qiao Baishi’s area of focus is in pills. You want a disciple who trains in martial dao to fight one who trains in the dao of pills. Liu Chengfeng, don’t tell me that this is your definition of fair play? Why don’t you compete on basis of potential for the dao of pills or skill in pill refinement?”
Liu Chengfeng smiled faintly, “In the end, it all comes down to fighting strength in a world of martial dao. If your fighting strength isn’t enough, how will you guarantee that no one will rob you of your bride even if you take her home?”
Qiao Baishi’s level of martial dao training was still at the true qia master realm. This was likely the one area in which he was inferior to Xiao Yu.
This was also the only opening for the Northern Palace.
Dan Fei, who’d been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, “Martial dao and the dao of pills are all great daos. It is hard to identify which is superior. Since both have their good points, why not ask Sister Qingyan for her opinion? A marriage comes down to the inclinations of both sides. Palace Head Ning, what do you think?”
Palace Head Ning smiled faintly as she looked at Liu Chengfeng and then at Jiang Chen.
Old man Fei slapped his thigh, “Wonderful, wonderful! Miss Dan Fei is honored tutor Ye’s disciple alright. Your insights are truly different. In my view, this suggestion is wondrous. They would each take home one victory a piece between martial dao and the dao of pills so there is no point in such competitions. We can only determine the victor with a third way.”
Liu Chengfeng’s expression had turned ugly. This suggestion seemed reasonable so he really couldn’t find a reason to refuse. He turned and looked back as though he was groping for a lifeline.
He had one final trump card, and that was the Precious Tree Sect disciples he had brought with him.
With how things had developed, it remained up to the sect disciples to see if they could win the day for him. Sect disciples had never been a reasonable sort, and may be just the thing to counter these people with!
