Chapter 122 – Reunion
Yun Che sighed in admiration as he stood in front of Blue Wind Profound Palace’s main entrance: “It really deserves the title of Blue Wind Empire’s number one profound palace! Compared to New Moon Profound Palace, it has an air that’s at least ten times more dignified, and its imposing aura is on a completely different level.”
After ten days of trekking, Yun Che and Lan Xueruo finally reached Blue Wind Imperial City. It was Yun Che’s first time going to the capital of the place he was born in, and he experienced quite a bit of shock on the way there. Lan Xueruo was very familiar with Blue Wind Imperial City and introduced him to the locations of many key areas. After which, she brought him to the doorstep of the Blue Wind Profound Palace.
The first thing she wanted to do was settle Yun Che down at the Blue Wind Imperial Palace.
“That’s only natural. Blue Wind Profound Palace has a thousand eight hundred years of heritage and is directly supervised and supplied for by the royal family. With rich resources and a good environment to cultivate profound energy, it even has teachers who are renowned in the empire so naturally, the Profound Palace branches can’t even begin to compare.” Lan Xueruo said this while taking out a short-distance voice Sound Transmission Talisman she had bought on the way and placed it atop her own Sound Transmission Jade. The moment the Sound Transmission Talisman broke apart and disappeared, a small matrix appeared on her own Sound Transmitting stone.
“I’m already here, at the main entrance of the Profound Palace.” Lan Xueruo spoke into the Sound Transmission Jade. Just as her voice fell, the matrix on the Sound Transmitter Jade faded away.
Before long, a middle-aged man clad in purple who had a gentle appearance rushed out from within the Profound Palace. Upon seeing them, he shouted from afar, “Xueruo, Yun Che!? The two of you are fine? That’s wonderful!”
“Palace Chief Qin? Why are you here?”
The person in front of them was actually New Moon Profound Palace’s newly appointed chief, Qin Wuyou! This was simply out of Yun Che’s expectations. As New Moon Profound Palace’s newly appointed Palace Chief, why would he appear here instead of staying at New Moon City? He turned to face Lan Xueruo, and asked in a startled manner, “The one you just transmitted sound to just now, was Palace Chief Qin?”
Lan Xueruo slightly smiled and nodded.
“You’re still asking why I’m here?” Qin Wuyou looked at them, heaved a long sigh, and answered with a face full of fear, “At first, you had disappeared for several days and to find you, Xueruo went to Xiao Sect’s Branch Sect on her own. After that, I didn’t receive any more messages so I couldn’t help but make the trip myself to the branch sect, only to find out that their entire sect was already in a state of pandemonium. After I went and had a fight with Xiao Tiannan, Xiao Zaihe returned and said that you two had dropped to the center of the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range, and not even your bones and corpses were there to be found. Sigh, I almost lost my soul in shock. For more than a month, I’ve been living on tenterhooks and I could no longer continue waiting in New Moon City so I came here to search for any news of the two of you, because Xueruo did say that she would bring you here previously.”
The anxiety and relief that Qin Wuyou expressed were all completely without falsehood. This caused some doubts to arise in Yun Che’s heart. He definitely would not believe he would worry Qin Wuyou to such an extent, which meant that the cause for Qin Wuyou’s reaction was undoubtedly Lan Xueruo. To let a Profound Palace’s Palace Chief become so anxious that he would even make a trip to Blue Wind Imperial City…. The only explanation for this would be that Qin Wuyou and Lan Xueruo were already acquainted a long time ago and only had a distant relationship on the surface.
“Palace Chief Qin, have you…. told my father?” Lan Xueruo asked very carefully.
“Sigh, how would I dare. If I were to let your…. father know I didn’t protect you well, this head of mine…. Hehe, thank goodness you’re back safely. If not, even I, would not be able to handle that.” Qin Wuyou wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.
Yun Che: “….”
“Palace Chief Qin, you’re not planning on returning back to New Moon Profound Palace anymore, right?” Yun Che suddenly asked coldly.
Qin Wuyou was shocked, and then nodded his head: “That’s right, they’ve already assigned a new palace chief to New Moon Profound Palace. But how did you know of this?”
“I guessed.” Yun Che laughed and said flippantly. He silently thought: Indeed, the reason why Qin Wuyou had gone to New Moon Profound Palace was for Lan Xueruo. It seems that Lan Xueruo’s identity was really out of the ordinary. Now that Lan Xueruo is back in Blue Wind Imperial City, he no longer has any need to stay in New Moon Profound Palace.
“Yun Che, where have you disappeared off to during those few days? Why were you still being chased after by the Xiao Sect even when you and Xueruo were together? How did you escape the danger after falling into the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range that even I would not dare to enter? Could it be that Xiao Zaihe had fabricated a story after he was unable to catch you?” Qin Wuyou fired off a chain of questions.
“About that, I’ll explain them to you later. Palace Chief Qin, what was the situation at Xiao Sect’s Branch Sect when you left New Moon City?” Lan Xueruo asked.
“Heh heh, that branch sect.” Qin Wuyou started laughing, “I think they’re almost done for.”
“Almost…. done for?” Lan Xueruo asked in surprise.
“That’s right.” Qin Wuyou nodded and slowly answered: “I don’t know which unlucky star they encountered, but according to the news I’ve heard, they seem to have hired a quack who passed off as a genius doctor, who then completely disabled Xiao Luocheng, crippled all his meridians and destroyed all his Profound Veins. Forget about possessing profound energy, he won’t even be able to stand in this lifetime. He can only pass his life on that bed now. Not only that, I’ve also heard that the charlatan had neatly swept the entire treasury clean before he left through some unknown means. That literally ripped away a large half of that Sect’s foundation.”
“Then, have they found out who that ‘quack doctor’ was?” Lan Xueruo glanced at Yun Che as she asked in amusement.
Qin Wuyou shook his head, “No. I heard the quack doctor disguised himself, and there was simply no way to start searching.”
Yun Che smirked. He knew, that even if Xiao Tiannan clearly knew that everything was done by him, he still would never say it out loud. Because if he were to let outsiders know that such a big sect like theirs had completely played in the hands of a youth of merely sixteen and at the Nascent Profound Realm, let alone their branch sect, even their main sect would be too embarrassed to face anyone.
“But after all, that branch sect is quite large. If they clench their teeth, they should be able to tide it over with some difficulty. But what happened afterwards was even more interesting.” An expression of taking joy from others’ misery began to appear on Qin Wuyou’s face, “ I heard that to save his son, Xiao Luocheng, Xiao Tiannan personally went to the Black Moon Merchant Guild to buy an Emperor Profound Dragon Core! Yes, you didn’t hear wrongly, it’s an Emperor Profound Dragon Core! But on the second day, he barged into the Black Moon Merchant Guild again, insisting that the Emperor Profound Dragon Core was fake. This was originally a secret…. but what sort of existence is the Black Moon Merchant Guild? Would they sell things that are fake? But if it was fake, why couldn’t Xiao Tiannan and Xiao Baicao tell it apart when they went to purchase the Dragon Core initially? Facing Xiao Tiannan’s aggression, the Black Moon Merchant Guild’s Pu He spread the word that Xiao Tiannan had bought an Emperor Profound Dragon Core from them in a fit of fury.
Yun Che’s eyebrows twitched… Oi, oi! Originally, I thought that after being forced to leave New Moon City, other than to send Xiao Tiannan and Xiao Baicao away, there was no other method to put into action previously planned uses. Who would have thought that the Black Moon Merchant Guild would actually give them a shove…. And this push was better than having myself stay in the city to spread the word. If it was as Qin Wuyou had said, then what sort of existence was the Black Moon Merchant Guild? Fair trade and authoritative! The things they sold, once it was spread, how could it be fake?
“Once this news spread out, it naturally triggered monstrous waves. On the second day, New Moon City’s guest inns were filled to capacity; the streets were filled with strong people from the Spirit Profound Realm, Earth Profound Realm, and I even felt the presence of two scary Heavenly Profound Realm practitioners. Apparently, on the first night, the Xiao Sect was broken into a few dozen times or so. After that, the Chief Elder of the medicine branch of the Xiao sect, Xiao Wuji, personally came to ask the branch sect to hand over the Emperor Profound Dragon Core. It would be an amazing feat if they could hand it over and they would be heavily rewarded. However, if he couldn’t hand it over, the branch sect would be kicked out of the Xiao sect. Xiao Tiannan refused to bend. He first claimed that it was false, then said that someone had stolen it, and basically refused to hand it over….
Yun Che coldly laughed in secret… Bullshit! Even if he wanted to hand it over, how could he hand it over? That fake Emperor Profound Dragon Core was forged from the Profound Core that he had gotten from Lan Xueruo then, and could only last four days. On the fifth day, the air of the Emperor Profound Dragon Core that had permeated into it would completely disappear, the bright red color would become a dull grey, and was not even worth spare change! Would he really bring that low-grade Profound Core and tell Xiao Wuji that it was that Emperor Profound Dragon Core?
Were he to actually to do that, Xiao Wuji would definitely have him killed on the spot.
“After that, I left New Moon City and never heard about the situation afterwards. But I can confirm that the Branch Sect in New Moon City is completely done for.” Qin Wuyou finished speaking and even laughed blankly. After all, he had met Xiao Tiannan twice, and had ended up fighting the moment they met. Now that Xiao Tiannan was cornered, he would feel at least some sort of happiness.
“Oh, that’s right.” Qin Wuyou turned towards Yun Che, saying, “I’ve brought Yuanba here. Initially, I’d told him that since you were with Xueruo, there was a high chance she might bring you here. As I was preparing to leave New Moon City, he used all sorts of methods to beg me to bring him here, saying that he’d never be at peace for life if he didn’t see you, so I brought him here. You should go later… “
“Brother…. Brother-in-law!!”
Before Qin Wuyou’s words had sunk in, an agitated cry came from beside him. Yun Che’s gaze swept across Qin Wuyou and in a look, saw the teary-eyed Xiao Yuanba standing at the door of Blue Wind Profound Palace.
And beside Yuanba was a person he thought shouldn’t have come….
Murong Ye!
Why would he be here?
“Brother-in-law!!”
Xia Yuanba gave another cry and madly ran over with large steps as his large body lunged towards Yun Che in a flash. Thick, muscular arms locked around him and he started bawling, “Brother-in-law…. So you’re really fine…. This is great… Great… A month ago, I heard that you’d fallen into the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range, and I thought…. I thought…”
Xia Yuanba had the body of a giant but was now crying like a child. Yun Che felt the corners of his eyes moisten. Since a very young age, he knew that if he were to die one day, there would only be three people who would cry for him…. One was grandfather, one was little aunt, and the last was Xia Yuanba.
“Alright, stop crying, I’m fine.” Yun Che patted Xia Yuanba’s arm and soothingly said, “Also, I’ve already told you so many times to stop calling me brother-in-law.”
“Uuu… I got it, brother-in-law. I definitely won’t call you brother-in-law in the future… Uuu… it’s just too great that you’re alright, brother-in-law, or else I wouldn’t know what to do….”
Yun Che: “….”