Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This place still belonged under the jurisdiction of the Soul Seizing Palace. The Shangguan family happened to be situated nearby this region. Whether it was out of goodwill or principle, Su Yu had no reason to forsake his obligation.
Three days later, Su Yu crossed a long river. He had a deep impression about the river, which was named the Ice Sealed River.
Last time, he had broken through the fairy level right here and had been hunted by the Five Golden Light Guards. He was at the brink of death at the riverside, when he crossed paths with Zixuan, who rescued him from danger.
As he glanced at the river, Su Yu was emotional. Memories of the past rushed back to him as he looked at the scenery.
When he left the Red Blood Palace, Zixuan was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn’t even bid her farewell. Moreover, the chances of them meeting each other again in the future were slim.
Su Yu also hadn’t forgotten that there was another influence near this river, which he wasn’t unfamiliar with. This influence was the Situ family. It was third in the rankings, just behind the Shangguan family.
In the past, it was because of the opportunity that the Situ family had provided that Su Yu had a chance to enroll in the Red Blood Palace and be trained. While Su Yu was heading for the Shangguan family this time, he would pass by the Situ family’s air fortress along the way.
Three days later, Su Yu saw an island that was suspended in the sky from afar. There was an enormous waterfall that seemed like a silver river that was cascading down from the sky and pouring down to the desolate earth. It was a spectacular and magnificent sight.
In terms of breathtaking and awe-inspiring natural wonders, the Situ family’s territory had a well-renowned reputation for possessing many. Su Yu wasn’t planning to head toward the Situs.
This was because it had been half a year, and the mistress of the Situ family wouldn’t necessarily remember a junior like Su Yuxian. Also, there was a time constraint to consider, as Su Yu had no time to delay.
After making up his mind, Su Yu simply whisked past the air fortress. Right when he was about to completely pass it, a few figures came flying toward him.
“Eh, Junior Brother Su, why are you here?” The speaker had pale skin and looked feeble, as if he was deathly ill.
Su Yu was stunned. “Senior Brother Shanliang?”
The speaker was Bai Shanliang, and he was being closely followed by a bitter and aggrieved Gongsun Wuxie, as well as a few other students from the outside sanctum. However, Bai Shanliang wasn’t their leader, as the one leading them was Palace Master Kongchan!
“Greetings, Palace Master Kongchan!” Su Yu’s mind was racing slightly, but he appeared no different on the surface as he paid his respects.
Palace Master Kongchan was slightly surprised to see him, and he asked, “Why are you at the Situ’s house? Did you receive instruction from Palace Master Hua to come here?”
He then wondered… What’s happening, isn’t the Shangguan family the one that needs aid? Why has Palace Master Kongchan brought people to the Situ’s house?
Su Yu said, “I’m heading toward the Shangguan family, so I am just passing by the Situ’s house on my way there.”
Palace Master Kongchan nodded. “I see. In that case, you don’t need to go to the Shangguan family anymore. Just stay and help us guard the Situ family.”
Before Su Yu could even respond, Palace Master Kongchan had led the people and descended to land on the top of the air fortress. Their forceful momentum shook the whole island.
The people on the island flew out, all of them startled. Lady Situ looked cheerful as she flew out and politely offered her respects, “Greetings, Palace Master Kongchan.”
“Let’s talk inside,” Palace Master Kongchan said, while waving her hand. The group of ten people then made a beeline for the island amid the fearful and respectful looks of the Situ people.
“Junior Brother Su, we haven’t met for four months, and all of the groundbreaking things that you have done in that time have made me admire you quite a lot!” Bai Shanliang stepped forward and complimented Su Yu.
Su Yu raised his brows. “Are you kidding me, Senior Brother Shanliang? I only got lucky in Tianya City to have met a senior who could guide and support me, so what’s so groundbreaking about that?”
Bai Shanliang shook his head vigorously. “No. I’m talking about your attributing the achievement worth 3,000,000 merit points to Bing Wuxin! I hadn’t realized that Junior Brother Su was such a sentimental person! I can now see how deep your love for Bing Wuxin really is!”
So he’s talking about that! Initially, Su Yu had thought that he would move far away from the faction after giving his merit points to Bing Wuxin, and then he would have nothing to do with the Red Blood Palace anymore. Hence, he hadn’t pictured such a situation before.
“Ehem, Senior Brother Shanliang is overthinking matters. Senior sister is in urgent need of a million merit points, while I’ve no problem in that area so far. Therefore…” Su Yu started to explain.
“Ahh! Even more fascinating! To win the beauty’s heart, Junior Brother Su was even willing to give up a million merit points! Such boldness makes you a role model to all the men of the Red Blood Palace!” Bai Shanliang said in a raised voice, his eyes filled with admiration.
The other students present all gazed at Su Yu, clearly filled with admiration for him. Emperors, kings, generals and powerful leaders had always put beautiful women above their riches. That’s just the way it was.
Su Yu felt awkward and was speechless. He had given the merit points to Bing Wuxin only because they were of no use to him. After all, Bing Wuxin had an urgent need of a million merit points, so he was only doing her a simple favor. Such a misunderstanding was beyond his comprehension.
“Senior Brother, you really have misunderstood the situation. She and I, we really aren’t…” Su Yu tried to explain hurriedly.
But, Bai Shanliang did not wait for him to finish explaining as he flashed a knowing smile and patted Su Yu on the shoulder. He then laughed and said, “Haha, junior brother, why are you in such a hurry to clear it? Unless you’re about to abandon the faction and couldn’t care less about merit points, then simply give away the 3,000,000 merit points!”
He went on, “Otherwise, not even the Left and the Right Palace Masters could simply give such a massive amount of merit points away.”
Su Yu’s heart thumped and he was feeling kind of guilty. So far, apart from the brilliant woman Xuelian, no one had noticed that he was running away from the faction. Once this information was disclosed, Su Yu would be forced to return to the faction. By then, once he was under suspicion, many of his secrets would be revealed.
Su Yu opened his mouth, but didn’t know how to respond.
“Haha, junior brother, when we get back to the faction, I suggest that you officially propose the marriage to Bing Wuxin’s family and make her your fiancee. Only then can you sever the illusional desires of those inner sanctum geniuses,” Bai Shanliang said.
Su Yu laughed dryly and did not argue, but did not agree either.
“Humph, he can’t wait for that!” Gongsun Wuxie had appeared somewhere from the crowd all of a sudden. From her perspective, this was all Su Yu’s trickery, done it order to ingratiate himself to Bing Wuxin.
Su Yu shot her a look. He never understood the reason why Gongsun Wuxie’s attitude toward him kept growing nastier.
While slightly shaking his head, Su Yu asked, “Senior Brother Shanliang, didn’t the faction order the people nearby to head toward the Shangguan family? Why did Palace Master Kongchan bring you all to the Situ family’s house?”
Bai Shanliang touched his chin and said, “Because when we reached there, the influence that besieged the Shangguan family had retreated already!”
He went on, “We have limited manpower, so some have to stay at the Shangguan’s to safeguard them. Thus, we can’t divert our people to search for the whereabouts of this hidden influence.”
He then added, “Hence, Palace Master Kongchan came to the Situs to borrow some strong men and further investigate matters by using their power.”
When he heard that the crisis of the Shangguans had been resolved, Su Yu heaved a sigh of relief. The Situ family was more than happy to share soldiers with Palace Master Kongchan.
After all, no family wouldn’t look forward to lending a debt of gratitude to the Deputy Palace Master from the outside sanctum! In the future, if the Situ family needed help, Palace Master Kongchan would surely offer some. Hence, half an hour later, the Situ family lent 18 late-stage fairies and over 100 middle-stage fairies, which were equivalent to more than half of the Situ family’s power.
“Bai Shanliang, Gongsun Wuxie, and Su Yuxian, you three stay at the Situs’! The rest of you, follow me!” Palace Master Kongchan ordered.
The purpose of this was to reassure the Situ family. Any family would feel insecure after half of its power had been borrowed. Bai Shanliang and the other two were the most excellent students of the entire outside sanctum, so their presence at the Situs’ would ease the minds of their people.
The best students from the outside sanctum were staying behind to share the burden with the Situs, so there really didn’t seem to be anything to worry about. Hence, the members of the Situ family looked relieved, and they welcomed Su Yu and the others inside with warmth and hospitality.
“Haha, you two must be the Evil in the East and Poison in the West of the Demon Mountain. I’ve admired your well-known names for quite some time.” After seeing Palace Master Kongchan off, Lady Situ entertained the three of them in person.
As her gorgeous eyes swept across the three of them, she recognized Gongsun Wuxie and Bai Shanliang right away. They were both famous and honored students from the outside sanctum, and their reputations were widely renowned.
“I’m not sure about this one…” As Lady Situ looked over at Su Yu, a twinge of familiarity flashed across her eyes. It seemed as if she had seen him somewhere before.
But, just as expected, she had forgotten Su Yu. This was firstly because it had been half a year ago, and he was an insignificant figure back then, while she was the great Lady Situ! Hence, it wasn’t really expected that she would remember him.
Secondly, Su Yu had changed a lot since then. He was only a brat, who had just broken through the first-grade fairy level back then, but now, he was a sixth-grade fairy!
“I am Su Yuxian. Greetings, Lady Situ,” Su Yu said in an indifferent manner.
“Su Yuxian…” As Lady Situ mumbled his name, a figure gradually formed in her mind.
She then asked in surprise, “It’s you? The same Su Yuxian who enrolled in the outside sanctum through the recruitment assessment months ago?”
What she didn’t divulge openly was that Situ Yan got to enroll in the outside sanctum mostly because of Su Yu’s support and escort. This was a secret between her and Su Yu.
“It’s been a long time, Lady Situ,” Su Yu said with a smile.
Lady Situ looked at Su Yu again, her eyes full of disbelief. “Unbelievable! It’s only been half a year, yet your cultivation has reached the sixth-grade fairy level!”
She grew increasingly regretful. Su Yu’s performance during the recruitment assessment was outstanding, and now, he wasn’t just outstanding, but he was a rare prodigy! Back then, if she had taken early action to keep him with the Situ family, they would certainly be blessed with a strong helping hand now!
“My lady, you flatter me too much,” Su Yu said, not seeming to be affected at all by her flattery.
Lady Situ stared at Su Yu and sighed. She then waved a hand and said, “Come in everyone. We have to start activating the great defensive formation.”
Half of the Situ family’s power had been transferred, so they were weaker than before. Thus, activating the great protective formation was a purposeful and specific strategy.
Buzz…buzz…buzz…
All of a sudden, the spiritual energy of the heavens and the earth began trembling. Then, the spiritual energy within the surrounding ten thousand miles surged out in all directions, like boundless water bodies, heading straight toward the Situ family, where it then formed a round protective shield.
Under the impact of the formation, the spiritual energy that surged forward was burning and turning into fiery balls, enclosing the Situ family within them. With the heat that was emitted by the flames, not even an early-stage Almighty would dare to trespass.
Su Yu cast a measuring look at the flaming spiritual energy and asked curiously, “My Lady, the crystals spent on the great formation must be worth a huge sum, right?”
Lady Situ had a unique expectation toward Su Yu that was different than hers toward Bai Shanliang and Gongsun Wuxie. So, she flashed him a tender smile.
She then said, “Yes. In order to attract such a vast amount of spiritual energy, the crystals expended add up to an astronomical sum! Every hour, 100,000 crystals are used up. In a day, it will have consumed a year’s worth of the Situ family’s income!”
She then added, “Despite the huge sacrifice, activating it for a day is worth it in order to ensure the family’s safety, as the Blessed and Heavenly Lands haven’t been peaceful lately and many families are being threatened by unknown influences.”
Moreover, they were working for the Red Blood Palace, which was unlikely to place the Situ family at a disadvantage. Upon hearing this explanation, Su Yu nodded. But, somehow, he had a faint feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
As he stood before the formation and gazed at the burning fiery balls, Su Yu asked, “Senior Brother Shanliang, can you explain to me again what exactly happened to the Shangguan family? The jade pendant message only provided bits and pieces of information.”
Bai Shanliang felt strange, and he replied after coughing lightly, “According to Cabinet Master Kongchan, they received a letter asking for help from the Shangguan family. Apparently, the letter said that there was a gang of mysterious powerful people assaulting them!”
“Oh? How powerful were they, and how many of them were there?” Su Yu’s eyes shone as he inquired to learn more.
