Yin Nian grinned and said, “Since every region’s tribute is equally unfair, and it makes it easy for them to trade privately, it is better to find out about the approximate reserves of sparrow spirits in these Lands, and then collect them according to proportion. Where there are a lot of sparrow spirits, collect more, and collect less in the Lands with lesser sparrow spirits. What do you think?”
Yan Tianhen nodded. “This is a good method.”
Yin Nian said happily, “Incredible, right?”
“Like hell it is. It’s wishful thinking.” Yan Tianhen almost couldn’t help rolling his eyes and said, “My father had already proposed this method a few years ago. But do you think those Lands with more sparrow spirits reserves were stupid and willing to share more of these sparrow spirits that should be shared by the other realms? There would be a war if we couldn’t do it well. Moreover, every year, some ministers would go to various Lands to collect sparrow spirits and they’re afraid some of them won’t be able to return. It’s not just fear, it’s inevitable.”
Even now, with the collection of sparrow spirits like this, every year, ministers died inexplicably on the road, and a portion of the sparrow spirits were lost.
Of course, under normal circumstances, not all of it would be lost. After all, they still had to give some face to the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital.
As long as the amount of sparrow spirits collected was within the acceptable range, most of the time, the Royal Heavenly Capital would also turn a blind eye. However, in recent years, there were fewer and fewer ministers willing to collect sparrow spirits. Yan Zizhang was originally in charge of the collection of sparrow spirits, but since Yan Zizhang entered closed-door cultivation when Yan Zhonghua returned to the eyes of the world eight years ago, the responsibility of collecting sparrow spirits every year fell into Yan Zhonghua’s hands.
Yan Tianhen even suspected that Yan Zizhang had deliberately chosen to go into secluded cultivation at this time. After all, the matter of collecting sparrow spirits was the easiest way to offend people in the Nine Lands.
Fortunately, Yan Zhonghua knew when to be appropriately lenient and strict, and he had many friends in the various Lands, so he had never caused any major disturbances.
Of course, minor disturbances would still occur no matter what, and this was hard to avoid. Yan Zhonghua had already mentioned in the early years that the proportion of sparrow spirits should be divided according to the actual situation within the eight Lands. However, the one above was afraid of big trouble, and none of the lower officials dared to be the villain, so the method had to be put on hold temporarily.
It was said that someone had leaked the news, which led to the constant assassination attempts on Yan Zhonghua during that period. Although King Ye’s Palace was heavily guarded and Yan Zhonghua was absolutely a strong person, so nothing had gone seriously wrong, but it was still very disturbing.
Once, after being extremely furious, You Ming hanged the assassin at the gate of the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital. Not only did You Ming cut him apart slice by slice with a knife, he also had some Corpse Gu devour that person’s soul bit by bit. Probably because the scene was too horrible, from then on, Yan Zhonghua’s palace was quiet again, and this round of disturbance was extinguished. All in all, if no one wanted to be the villain, then their goal couldn’t be reached, but how could it be easy to be the villain? They would lose their little lives if they were even slightly careless, arousing public anger and becoming a target of public criticism.
Yin Nian chuckled. “Since all of you can think of this kind of thing, so can my master.”
Yan Tianhen asked, “What does it have to do with your master?”
“Speaking of my master, he is the most extraordinary person in the earth and sky. There is nothing in this world that my master does not know; there is no countermeasure that my master cannot think of; there is no one my master can’t defeat…”
“Shut up, stop talking nonsense and get to the point.” Yan Tianhen was angry.
Yin Nian shrunk his neck, thinking, This little prince has a very bad attitude. So he no longer boasted about Demonic Spectre Venerable. With a serious face, he said, “Actually, my master has a solution. I just don’t know if you dare to listen.”
Yan Tianhen’s first reaction was that he felt that all the people in the Reincarnation Palace had lost their minds, to actually have ideas about their Yan family. His second reaction was that he could not help but gasp. Damn, they’re too bold and are so thick-skinned.
Yin Nian knew what he wanted to say just by looking at his eyes, so Yin Nian curled his lips and said, “I know what’s going on in your mind, but I’m afraid you can’t pick a more suitable candidate besides us.”
Yan Tianhen was angry and laughed. “Do you still remember that the Emperor issued a royal decree three years ago to execute all Reincarnation Palace members?”
Yin Nian said confidently, “My master said that there are no eternal friends nor eternal enemies, and all other love and hatred have to stand aside in the face of benefits. Only fools can hold on to bitter hatred.”
Yan Tianhen’s face sank down. He stared at Yin Nian for a moment. “Reincarnation Palace has killed so many people, and many people are in a panic because of you. They’re afraid that one day, they will lose their heads in their sleep. I don’t make deals with people like you who have done countless bad things.”
Yin Nian was not very happy when he heard the speech. “Although our Reincarnation Palace deals in the assassination business and takes money to kill people, that’s just a few cases out of our many businesses. Moreover, those who haven’t done bad things will not be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door at night. How do you know that the reason those people lost their heads isn’t because they’ve done too many bad things?”
Yan Tianhen sneered, “Are you telling me that you guys are subduing monsters and eliminating evil for the sake of the people?”
Yin Nian nodded and said, “In everything, making money is the primary task, and taking care of solving the world’s injustice is the second task.”
Yan Tianhen didn’t believe it at all in his heart, and his disgust was beyond words. “Then let me ask you. The former Marquis Qi was an upright person with fair judgement who rewarded and punished accordingly. He had a good reputation in the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital. Everyone admired and respected him. Why did your Reincarnation Palace accept the job of assassinating him?”
Yan Tianhen’s eyebrows were cold, and a bit of fierceness appeared on his extremely gorgeous face.
Yin Nian Tch’d. “I know, you just wanted to ask for your stupid friend about the cause of his father’s death.”
“I naturally want to know the reason. If you guys want to collect money in exchange for giving me the information, I will give you money.”
Yin Nian glanced at him. “I don’t care about your money. And we have regulations not to disclose any employer’s information, so who the employer is and why they bought Marquis Qi’s life, I will never tell you, unless the Palace Master himself speaks. However, I can tell you the truth — for that assignment, my master only accepted the price of a low-grade spirit stone from the employer.”
Yan Tianhen felt a shock, his scalp was numb.
When Reincarnation Palace did business, they could be said to seize any opportunity to profit, eager to empty the pockets of the buyer and their entire family. Since when had he ever heard about them only charging the price of a piece of low-grade spirit stone?
This was equivalent to doing the work for nothing.
But it was precisely because of this, it was all the more obvious that there were quite a few deeper problems within this matter, so much so that Yan Tianhen couldn’t help wondering what Marquis Qi had done to cause widespread indignation and discontent, which made Reincarnation Palace so easily accept such a job with such unimaginable consequences.
Yan Tianhen thought about it for a while and asked, “What did the former Marquis Qi do?”
Yin Nian put his hands behind his head, and said, “He has done too much. Although there are many private matters in this world, it’s only a matter of time before they’re exposed.”
Yan Tianhen felt like a cat’s paw was scratching in his heart. He wished to open Yin Nian’s mouth to get the truth. But Yan Tianhen thought about it again, why should he trust Yin Nian so much? It was obvious that Yin Nian was a dog of Reincarnation Palace, and he was even the number one dog. He shouldn’t have believed him so easily.
However.
When Yan Tianhen didn’t have time to think about it clearly, he was attracted by what Yin Nian was holding.
“What are you doing?” Yan Tianhen saw the above picture clearly, and he was shocked.
Yin Nian glanced at the patrol guard who was looking their way, and suddenly pulled Yan Tianhen away and pressed him down to squat in the grass.
“Hush, don’t say anything.” Yin Nian took out a round mirror the size of two palms, glared at Yan Tianhen, and said, “This is a magic treasure my master has specially crafted, which is used to inquire about information.”
Yan Tianhen felt it was extremely rare.
Although there were many magic treasures for inquiring about information, remote surveillance magic tools with such clear picture quality that even the sound could be heard were really rare.
In this mirror, from a bird’s eye perspective, the whole White Tiger Palace appeared.
Yin Nian fiddled with the mechanism on the magic tool, and he changed the viewpoint and size. The whole mirror only showed the face of Yue Tufeng.
Although Yue Tufeng was quite handsome, if you only saw his nostrils, it would be hilarious. Yan Tianhen couldn’t help but to laugh. “This thing is really interesting.”
Yin Nian was very proud and said, “Right? This centrifugal mirror is crafted with my master’s unique skill. Other craftsmen can’t refine it at all.”
Yan Tianhen thought of Yin Nian’s master, the man with black robes and white hair, and there was an indescribable feeling in his heart. Although it was light, it couldn’t be ignored.
He also couldn’t tell where this feeling came from and what caused it. He just felt strange.
Yan Tianhen pretended to ask unintentionally, “Your master is a craftsman as well?”
Yin Nian nodded and said, “Yeah, my master is amazing. I have never seen a craftsman more incredible than him.”
Yan Tianhen was unable to believe, and asked, “What about the Pavilion Master of Heaven and Earth Pavilion?”
Yin Nian didn’t even need to think before blurting out, “It must be my master who is better. Then That Pavilion Master or whatever has to stand aside.”
After hearing this, Yan Tianhen knew that the boy worshipped his master blindly. He frowned and didn’t go on talking to him about it.
Inside the centrifuge mirror, he saw Yue Tufeng’s nostrils moving. “Can you change the view? It’s too awkward to watch.”
Yin Nian brought the picture back to the bird’s eye view.
Yin Nian fiddled with it in the mirror again. Before long, there was a voice. “Why is this year’s sparrow spirit one-third less than last year’s?” This was the voice of the Beast Empress, and he could hear she was a little upset.
“Since ten years ago, the number of sparrow spirits has been decreasing every year. Last year it dropped to 50% of the original. This year, it has suddenly decreased so much. We simply cannot justify this to the Royal Heavenly Capital.”
“There are so many sparrow spirits in the West Lands; this small amount really shouldn’t matter to you, right?”
“You can’t say that.” Yue Tufeng made a helpless look and said, “We also want to do a good job in buying and selling this sparrow spirit with the Southwest Land. However, the mining of sparrow spirits has become more and more difficult in recent years, and there are fewer high-grade sparrow spirits. Let alone you, even we have to pay a lot less tribute in sparrow spirits to the Royal Heavenly Capital this year. This is also a helpless thing.”
Yin Nian snorted and said, “They’re really shameless. When they came, they obviously used the Luan chariot powered by sparrow spirits.”
Yan Tianhen frowned, as if full of thoughts.