Wu Long did not want to let Sui Luxiao’s husband live much longer, but as strong and uncaring as he was, he currently did not have the capital to go against the imperial family, and killing him would certainly unnerve them in this situation where there was chaos brewing in the dark.
He could also kill him silently, without anyone noticing, but while he could leave that as a last resort, he wanted him to feel fear and pain, preferably even humiliation before his death, something not exactly consistent with an execution in the dark. It may not be very logical, but there seemed to be a deviation from logic in Wu Long’s recent behavior, and he was not exactly always logical in his actions in the first place.
Not to mention that he still thinks Sui Family will make the trouble go away and he is officially divorced at the moment, so he is highly unlikely to make a move in the near time. So he still had some time.
He quickly made some calculations and then turned back to Sui Luxiao.
“Hmm, then let’s do this, as I understand from the conversation you had before, you have some connections with the Imperial Family, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t have strong enough influence to shield you”
“I am not talking about that, I just need you to arrange a meeting for me with someone from the Imperial Family, the higher the better”
Wu Long said reassuring her that he only wanted to ask her to bridge the connection, not bear the consequences of him killing her husband and undermining the authority of the Emperor.
“A meeting?”
She asked, raising her eyes.
“Yes, if that meeting was with the Emperor, that would be perfect, but that is unlikely, so as high up as you can” he replied.
“Hmm, if I really try my best, I can get you a meeting with Emperor Song himself, but I have to know what you will be talking about, since if you anger the emperor, not only you, but I and all of my business will be in jeopardy”
She replied.
‘Song?’
He remembered Song Lingfei, who was traveling incognito before, and who he helped to fend off attackers.
“Is the name Song Lingfei related to the Imperial Family?”
He asked, causing Sui Luxiao to raise her eyebrow.
“She is the granddaughter of the current Emperor Song, and the daughter of the prime candidate for the throne, Crown Prince Song Minfu, and of course one of the many descendants of the Imperial Ancestor along with the rest of the imperial family”
Sui Luxiao replied a bit surprised that he knew her name as she was not the most famous among the young generation of imperial descendants. Sui Luxiao herself only knew her name because she was dealing with the Imperial Family long enough, and her name was among the only things she knew about Song Lingfei, who was a rather isolated figure.
The Imperial Family itself was feeling the sundown of the Imperial Ancestor, and the always peaceful transfer of the throne started to become a bit heated in this generation, so the imperial descendants started to be seen outside less and less. It has been 8 years since Song Lingfei last appeared in public when she was only a little girl, and has since completely disappeared both from sight and minds of people.
“Oh! Great, then let me meet her father, the Crown Prince, I don’t need to see the Emperor now it seems” he replied in a joyful tone as his problem was basically gone now.
“Hmm, I can probably do that quite easily, and will also not suffer much consequences since I can introduce you a bit more naturally. Do you know that there is a celebration going on at the Ye Family Manor, one of the four great families of the empire?” she had a pondering look and asked him.
A smile appeared on Wu Long’s face as he already anticipated his meeting to go even smoother, as he nodded.
“So you know, then it is easy to explain, on the last night of the celebration a bit less than a week from now will be a grand banquet with the most important guests. The Crown Prince will be there representing the Imperial Family, I can probably slip you in with me and casually introduce you to him, though I will have to distance myself lest there are consequences from your conversation for me” she said as she saw him nod.
Wu Long nodded, though he could get to the banquet himself by asking Ye Ling, he had a fun idea to appear as Sui Luxiao’s partner for the banquet, which would certainly unnerve one man who recently got divorced.
“By the way, I have a favor to ask of you, do you mind giving me one more Qi Manipulation Ring, as thin one as possible like this one”, he asked pointing to the Qi Manipulation Ring he received from her the last time.
The reason he always took off his spatial ring before engaging in dual cultivation or giving treatment to Sui Luxiao was because it was bulky and had sharp and pointy parts. Part of Zhao Wuji’s taste probably. The Qi Manipulation Ring, on the other hand, was thin, smooth, and basically harmless.
She raised her eyebrows in surprise but nodded, and gave orders through the communication jade. She was surprised but it was a trivial request, and she was willing to fulfill a lot more demanding ones if he asked.
As they talked some more, an attendant came with a Qi Manipulation Ring identical to the one Wu Long had, and a storage ring that was a bit thicker but also completely smooth.
Wu Long smiled at her consideration of giving him such a storage ring on top of his request, not being humble and transferring all of his items to it and replacing the ring.
But then, under the dumbfounded eyes of Sui Luxiao, he wore the additional Qi Manipulation Ring on his other hand, which went completely against common sense since it was usually hard enough to control one ring, let alone two at the same time. So having two Qi Manipulation Rings on two hands was basically redundant as one would be enough, and the second one would be unusable unless they could control both at the same time, and just because the ring was on one hand it did not limit Qi manipulation to that hand, so switching between was completely unnecessary.
The reason Wu Long did this was because he would now have greater reserves of Spiritual Qi, and thus use a lot more variety of his skills. As for the control, he had previous experience using eight Qi Manipulation Rings at the same time in his past life, so using two was completely trivial to him. It looked a bit tacky to have eight rings on both hands but at the time he did not have much choice.
He will probably have to find a master who could craft higher quality rings so he does not have to wear so many until he reaches the Qi Manifestation Realm since he would be increasing his reserves of Spiritual Qi quite sharply and thus the two rings will not be able to handle the output required for more of his skills.
High-quality Qi Manipulation Rings were a rarity since there was actually little if any demand for them. They were only used by low-realm cultivators to do menial tasks that did not require much Spiritual Qi output.
So if he did not want to go around with fingers full of rings but use a bit more variety of skills, he would need to find a Forging Dao master or contract one as he did with Yu Huan.
He gave Zhao Wuji’s spatial ring to the attendant in exchange for the new one.
He left Sui Luxiao’s office and went through the trading company. As he was passing one of the trading halls, he stopped in front of one of the stalls there and purchased some materials from the attendant. These were inscription materials for making arrays, formations, and talismans.
Wu Long now had abundant Spiritual Qi to make his own talismans, so he planned to make some preparations. The new level of alertness caused him to prepare for various possibilities. Previously, the only talisman he made was the one he left in Sui Luxiao’s office as a precaution. But it was quite a low-level alarm talisman, that only had inferior functions.
Though it was not like he was going to be panicked and paranoid now that he had an increased sense of danger, it was just that he started to make more immediate preparations. But not much changed in his overall plan, since there was only so much he could do, there really was no meaning in running around panicking, as it would not resolve the problem. ．𝚌ｏ𝚖
He also purchased some medicines for his injuries, as well as some medicinal ingredients. At this point, the money Zhao Wuji so generously provided to him finally started to run low, and he would need to find other means to get them, though he knew a rather wealthy recently divorced man who could potentially be as generous or even more so.