The change in the Wandering Palace’s situation was that Yun Tianlan had become a True Immortal.
The advent of a True Immortal had far-reaching and profound effects on the entire Rosecloud Domain.
The most direct effect was that the Rosecloud Domain was basically united, the power structure moving away from six sects to one overlord and three major sects.
Indirectly, the Basking Moon Sect’s attitude toward its subordinate sects became very different.
In the past, the Basking Moon Sect’s strategy for small sects was to unite them to resist the other sects. As for the large and medium sects, it used a combination of kindness and intimidation.
After Rosecloud was united, this strategy was immediately adjusted. The Basking Moon Sect no longer sought unity, for from a certain perspective, all small sects had to obey its orders. In these circumstances, there was no point in uniting the sects against an external enemy, for there were no external enemies to unite against.
Thus, their mindset gradually shifted from uniters to sovereigns, seeking balance and encouraging internal conflict so that all the factions would weaken each other.
The various internal conflicts between the sects of all sizes swiftly expanded as they began to struggle over all manner of things.
This was how the conflict between the Wandering Palace, the Fire Lotus Gate, and the Three Blossoms Church had erupted. For cultivators, one or two hundred years wasn’t a long time, so that hatred was far from fading. Under these two sects, the Wandering Palace’s days gradually worsened. Fortunately, while the Basking Moon Sect encouraged internal conflict, it didn’t permit annexation, so as to prevent any one faction from growing too powerful. Thus, while the Wandering Palace lost ground, it was able to survive.
It was then that the Green Bamboo Gate had appeared, allying with the Wandering Palace.
“At the time, my mother was under immense pressure from the two sects. The Green Bamboo Gate could only provide limited support, so she decided to cultivate the Heaven Wandering Cloud Divine Connection. This Divine Connection is a supreme art of my Wandering Palace, possessing astonishing power, but cultivating it is not easy. My Wandering Palace emptied its reserve to achieve success, even borrowing ten thousand spirit jades from Tuoba Hong in order to buy more resources.”
Shen Qingdan softly recounted the tale in her pleasant voice.
“Then did she succeed?” Tang Jie asked.
“She did,” Shen Qingdan replied. “Mother took on a big risk and succeeded in cultivating this Divine Connection, after which she arranged with Tuoba Hong to have a battle against the Fire Lotus Gate and Three Blossoms Church by the sea. But on the day of the battle, the Green Bamboo Gate went back on its word and didn’t show up. Alone against the two sects, my Wandering Palace ultimately lost, losing countless experts…”
Her voice softened, tears running down her cheeks.
She hadn’t participated in this battle, but she had seen that few of the elders who set off to that battle had returned alive, and her father had even died on the field. Besides that, her mother had sustained heavy injuries and ultimately died not long after her return. Thus, she answered the call of duty and became the Palace Lord, and her first task was dealing with the awful situation of the sect as the two sects began to devour anything they could.
Not long afterward, Tuoba Hong appeared and declared that he had not intentionally broken their promise. Instead, the two sects had invited experts to intercept him. Even so, he was willing to uphold their alliance and protect the Wandering Palace. At the same time, he began to ardently pursue Shen Qingdan’s hand in marriage.
For a time, she had really believed him.
“He treated me so gently back then that I almost fell for it,” Shen Qingdan said.
“‘Almost’?”
Shen Qingdan nodded. “‘Almost’.”
Just when Shen Qingdan was about to completely trust Tuoba Hong, she received a message: the Fire Lotus Gate and Three Blossoms Church had never sent anyone to impede the Green Bamboo Gate.
She was dumbfounded.
Completely confused, she could only question Tuoba Hong. Tuoba Hong naturally denied it, but despite his earnest arguments, Shen Qingdan couldn’t bring herself to trust him and gradually distanced herself from him.
As time went on, Tuoba Hong realized that Shen Qingdan no longer trusted him and started to visit less frequently.
Without the protection of the Green Bamboo Gate, the two sects attacked even more fiercely, seizing spirit veins, destroying spirit fields, blocking trade routes, intercepting tributes… The Wandering Palace started to experience every trouble a sect could experience. The disciples that were out training were ambushed, the treasures they obtained were stolen, and Shen Qingdan was constantly dealing with attacks both open and secretive.
“That was the most difficult period of my life,” Shen Qingdan softly said. “While there were a few times where I reached my breaking point, I managed to hold out…”
Tang Jie understood, and when he looked at Tuoba Hong again, his eyes contained an entirely different emotion.
Tuoba Hong shouted, “Immortal Sovereign, this is all the fault of the Fire Lotus Gate and the Three Blossoms Church, sowing discord between us! They really did send a large number of experts to intercept my Green Bamboo Gate. In that battle, many members of my sect were injured! The heavens can verify the truth of my words!”
After some thought, Tang Jie asked, “What sort of people did they send to intercept you?”
“One Violet Palace, three Soul Transformation, and a group of Celestial Heart Realm experts. The strength of my Green Bamboo Gate wasn’t enough to break through.”
“Where did they intercept you?”
“Flying Deer Mountain.”
“What did they look like?”
“They all used illusions to cover their faces, so we couldn’t tell.”
“What spell arts did they use?”
“They used too many to list.”
“Then tell me the flow of the battle, step by step, based on what you saw.”
“It’s been one hundred years, so I’ve forgotten much.”
“Then tell me as much as you can,” Tang Jie requested.
He didn’t know which of Tuoba Hong’s words were true and which were lies, but he was confident that if Tuoba Hong was lying, it wouldn’t be a lie he had put too much thought into—because Shen Qingdan didn’t have the right to interrogate him like this.
Moreover, after a hundred years, any lies would have been long forgotten.
Thus, Tang Jie constantly peppered him with questions, giving Tuoba Hong no time to think. If he was really lying, then the more answers he gave, the more he would expose a flaw.
According to Tuoba Hong, those interceptors had suddenly appeared, hiding their true appearances. They had come especially to stop them, and in order to conceal their identity, they used the spell arts of all kinds of sects, making it difficult to determine their origin. In the end, the Green Bamboo Gate was delayed so long that they missed the battle.
After hearing this recount, Tang Jie continued his questioning.
“Did you suffer any losses?”
Tuoba Hong shook his head. “Those people were recruited by the two sects only to intercept us, not fight to the death, so nobody died. Even so, the elders were all rather badly wounded.”
“Since they didn’t want to fight to the death, why didn’t you try and force your way through?”
Tuoba Hong clearly hadn’t expected this question. After a brief pause, he replied, “The other side had already made arrangements to stop us from doing that.”
“And what method did they use?”
“This…” After some thought, Tuoba Hong answered, “The Sea Sky Curtain.”
Tang Jie immediately said, “The Sea Sky Curtain has powerful defensive properties, but it does not cover all directions, so you can circle around it.”
Tuoba Hong frantically added, “They also used the Heavenly Silk Web to wall us in.”
“You’re lying!” Tang Jie suddenly roared.
Stunned, Tuoba Hong instinctively replied, “I’m not!”
Tang Jie bellowed, “The Heavenly Silk Web is the secret art of the Jade Feather Gate, akin to the Heavenbane Lightning Pearls of the Heavenly Extinction Sect, practically a symbol of their sect. You said earlier that they were hiding their identities and using the spell arts of various sects, so why would they use the Heavenly Silk Web?”
Tuoba Hong froze for a moment. “They might have been trying to frame the Jade Feather Gate!”
“If they were trying to frame them, then did you ever ask the Jade Feather Gate? You had best think carefully before answering this question, because the Jade Feather Gate isn’t far from here.”
Tuoba Hong paled.
Tang Jie knew the answer from his reaction. “You never did go, right? Because that never happened, because you made it all up!”
Tuoba Hong started to sweat.
He hadn’t expected Tang Jie to use such a simple method to see through his lies and had been caught completely unprepared, so he began to tremble all over.
A few moments later, Tuoba Hong dropped to his knees. “O wise Immortal Sovereign, this lowly one does not dare to deceive you. My Green Bamboo Gate truly did break our promise in that battle.”
“As expected, you were the one who harmed my Wandering Palace.” Shen Qingdan angrily glared at Tuoba Hong.
Tuoba Hong shouted, “Palace Lord, you go too far! Although my Green Bamboo Gate broke its promise, we have never harmed the Wandering Palace! Immortal Sovereign, please pass judgment on this!”
Shen Qingdan fell silent.
Yes, so what if they had proved that the promise had been broken?
Tuoba Hong had only broken the promise, but he hadn’t joined the enemy. It was just that if Tuoba Hong had never made the promise in the first place, her parents might still be alive. Besides that, Tuoba Hong was still shamelessly demanding those ten thousand spirit jades in an attempt to marry her. She loathed this person but could do nothing to him, and in her rage, sorrow, and helplessness, she began to cry.
She had endured countless trials after becoming Palace Lord, and never once had she cried, but she did now. Tang Jie’s appearance had instantly broken down all her walls.
Tang Jie patted her on the shoulder and soothed, “It’s true that he’s never harmed your Wandering Palace, but not necessarily true that he had no intent to harm.”
Tuoba Hong was aghast. “Immortal Sovereign, this lowly one does not understand what you mean.”
Tang Jie casually explained, “If Qingdan married you, it probably wouldn’t be long before the Wandering Palace ceased to exist, yes? At that point, not even the Basking Moon Sect could stop the merger of the Green Bamboo Gate and the Wandering Palace.”
Tuoba Hong was even more alarmed.
He was actually a very ambitious individual. Alas, he found it difficult to do anything with the small sect he had come from, and he had racked his mind for ways to make his sect grow stronger.
In the Wandering Palace’s conflict, he saw an opportunity.
As the Basking Moon Sect only permitted internal conflict but not annexation, the Fire Lotus Gate and Three Blossoms Church could beat back the Wandering Palace but never exterminate it.
Tuoba Hong sought to get on good terms with the Wandering Palace so that he might conspire against it later.
First, he would bait the Wandering Palace into going to battle against the two sects, and then he would loan money to the Wandering Palace. Finally, he would get the two sects to kill the palace lord and then seek the hand of the new palace lord. In this way, not only could he get a beauty as his wife, he could swallow up the Wandering Palace without staining his hands.
Just as Tang Jie had said, the Basking Moon Sect could not object to this form of annexation.
In this way, the Green Bamboo Gate would naturally swell in strength.
It should have been the perfect plan.
But a flaw had appeared in the execution: the Fire Lotus Gate and Three Blossoms Church weren’t idiots.
When they learned that Tuoba Hong was ingratiating himself to Shen Qingdan, they guessed at his motives. Thus, they sent people to inform Shen Qingdan that they had never attempted to stop the Green Bamboo Gate.
Although Tuoba Hong used the excuse of enemies sowing discord to muddle his way past this trial, this information managed to successfully plant the seed of suspicion in Shen Qingdan’s heart, and the matter of marriage was shelved.
After one hundred years, Tuoba Hong believed that any evidence that could prove his conspiracy had disappeared.
He hadn’t expected that he would be practically transparent in front of Tang Jie.
Tang Jie had managed to see through everything from just a single conversation.