The young man in silver replied easily, “This junior is Xuan Li, nineteenth son of the present Yan Emperor of the Great Yan Empire. My imperial father bestowed upon me the title Tianjin.”
The giant beast snorted. “I’ve never heard of you. But I have heard of a young fellow called Xuanyuan. How is he related to you?”
The smile on the young man’s face stiffened, and his gaze cooled. “Xuanyuan is my thirty-first younger brother. Does Senior Sovereign King know him?”
The beast glanced at him. “We have never met. Still, that mere youngster’s name has reached even our demon clans, so I’ve heard a little about him.”
Only then did the young man relax slightly.
The Great Yan imperial throne passed to a new emperor once every five thousand years. During each reign, the Yan Emperor took many talented female cultivators into his harem and fathered numerous imperial sons, nurturing them carefully to strengthen the royal clan.
Over time, many gifted princes arose. With dragon qi and inherited cultivation arts, they became far stronger than ordinary cultivators.
Yet imperial birth brought increasingly fierce struggles alongside access to greater resources.
According to royal rules, only a prince who reached Golden Core could receive the title of Commandery Prince, and even then he received no fief. A prince who reached Nascent Soul could be appointed a Prince of the First Rank, and one who rendered extraordinary service to the dynasty might be awarded a fief according to his accomplishments, receiving tribute from an area or even an entire commandery.
Any prince who never achieved Golden Core would remain an ordinary imperial prince for life. Apart from routine allocations, he would receive no further special cultivation support.
Such princes held noble status, yet their resources were often only comparable to those of direct disciples at the major sects of the Eastern Region, falling short even of the core disciples.
The cruelty of that system was difficult to put into words.
Xuan Li, the young man in silver, was one of those innumerable princes. His aptitude was merely average among his brothers, and numerous elder siblings had already overshadowed him when he was born.
One only had to look at his name: li was the name of a worm.
This revealed how little the Yan Emperor had expected of him. He truly began with few advantages.
Yet as Xuan Li grew older, he developed ambitions of his own. He learned how to ingratiate himself with all sides and enlisted many experts through the influence of his mother’s clan. He cultivated tirelessly and finally achieved Golden Core at over a hundred years old, earning the title of Commandery Prince from his father.
This gave him confidence. He believed that if he continued to endure and bide his time, he might yet accomplish something great.
Not long after he achieved Golden Core, however, the thirty-first imperial prince was born.
A dragon’s cry accompanied that child’s birth, and his aptitude surpassed all the other princes. Xuan Li had only just received some praise from the Yan Emperor when the newborn captured his father’s attention completely.
The emperor named the thirty-first prince “Xuanyuan,” the name of the most powerful emperor of ancient legend, displaying the tremendous hopes he placed upon him.
Xuanyuan did not disappoint. With imperial resources behind him, he formed his Golden Core within mere decades, spent some time strengthening his foundations, then made successive breakthroughs over the following twenty-odd years to reach the peak of late Golden Core!
He was barely in his eighties, yet his cultivation was so formidable that he ranked first on the Heavenly Dragon Ranking, which gathered the hundred most promising cultivators in the Qingyun Great World!
His strength was tyrannical, and with precious treasures belonging to the royal clan he could even contend with Nascent Soul cultivators!
Compared with Xuanyuan, Xuan Li was like a firefly beside the sun and moon, both in talent and in the emperor’s regard.
Other princes were also much stronger than Xuan Li, but Xuanyuan alone had become an obsession for him. Clearly, this stemmed from the loss of his father’s favor when Xuanyuan was born.
He could not share such feelings openly. But hearing the very Sovereign King he wished to win over mention Xuanyuan made him deeply unhappy.
Still, he did not dare show the slightest dissatisfaction before this ancient demon beast, whose power was comparable to Divinity Transformation. He said directly, “This junior has come with a proposal. I wish to invite Senior Sovereign King to participate.”
The giant beast flicked its tail and snorted. “Humans are treacherous. I have never dealt with your kind.”
Xuan Li was untroubled by the refusal and smiled. “I’ve heard that Senior Sovereign King captured the Fox King of Mount Lingtu, and that this Fox King happens to possess a map to the Tianlan Secret Trove… Is that true?”
A fierce light flashed through the beast’s pupils, but it declared, “Nonsense! Baseless rumors!”
With the exception of a few notably crafty species, demon beasts were generally poor at scheming. This eighth-rank demon beast was no exception. Its reaction immediately betrayed the truth to Xuan Li and his companions.
Seeing the beast on the verge of attacking, Xuan Li dared not delay. “What this junior means is that I, too, possess a fragment of the map, and would like to study it together with the Sovereign King!”
The giant beast paused. Its formidable aura solidified as it forcibly halted its pounce.
Xuan Li continued, “I hear the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox is extremely troublesome, with peculiar divine abilities that make him difficult to coerce. But I’ve brought someone who can resolve that problem for Senior Sovereign King.”
Only then did the beast truly become interested.
·
Xu Ziqing had heard those secrets, and just as expected, the Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox had deliberately let him hear them. Now the fox finally disclosed his purpose.
“If you two can take me away, I’m willing to share the map with you.”
As I thought, Xu Ziqing told himself.
He then voiced his earlier doubts and asked, “As the saying goes, those not of our kind cannot be trusted to share our intentions. You’re a man-eating demon beast, and your nature is what it is. I can’t trust you.”
Although tempted by the map, he preferred caution.
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox raised his brows. “If I cooperated with the Sovereign King, who knows how many treasures even that little map fragment might yield? Once divided among them, how much would be left for me? Working with you would be different. You human cultivators could take the treasures useful to humans, while anything useful to demons would be mine. That way I could keep every treasure I needed rather than let others claim a share. Besides…” He smiled coldly. “The Sovereign King has forced and humiliated me in this manner. I’m the king of my own clan. Even if my rank is slightly lower than his, why should I endure such treatment?”
Even if his nature was promiscuous, he indulged his desires voluntarily, according to his own whims, not under circumstances like these!
His fox clan was weak, too. Most cultivated through methods of desire and essence harvesting. Mount Lingtu held many sixth-rank or higher fox demons, but only one genuine seventh-rank fox: himself.
When the Sovereign King captured him, he had immediately sent a transmission ordering his clan not to venture deep into the Savage Beast Plains, lest they endanger the continuation of their species. If those fox demons, whose cultivation was mixed and whose ranks were modest, entered the plains, they would be no match for the many seventh-rank beasts at the Sovereign King’s lair, let alone the savage-beast herds!
Coming here would mean walking into death. The smallest mistake might even lead to the extermination of his entire clan. Better to stay away.
Besides, the Sovereign King would not secretly kill him in the near future, and that lazy snake Panshan still felt guilty toward him. The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox was born intelligent; he could surely devise his own escape.
Xu Ziqing listened and studied the fox’s expression. Nothing seemed obviously amiss.
But he remained wary and could not help looking toward Yun Lie.
“What do you think, Senior Brother?”
Yun Lie said plainly, “I do not agree.”
His refusal was utterly decisive.
Xu Ziqing understood and grew more distant when he turned back to the fox. “Since Senior Brother says so…”
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox suddenly cut him off. “Your senior brother cultivates the Ruthless Slaughter Sword Dao. A fox demon like me, who stirs the seven emotions and six desires, is naturally something he must kill. There is nothing strange about his refusing to associate with me. But given your deep affection for your senior brother, don’t you want to help him?”
Xu Ziqing paused. “…Help him?”
The Ninefold Profound Alluring Fox smiled radiantly. “If I’m not mistaken, your senior brother not only cultivates an extraordinarily unusual Sword Dao, he also studies the Dao of Geng Metal deeply and uses it as the foundation of his swordsmanship. What if I told you that the part of the map I possess points toward a piece of Geng Metal Essence? Wouldn’t that tempt you?”
Xu Ziqing could not deny that he was… somewhat tempted.
He himself had accidentally devoured Yi Wood Essence, and its pure Yi Wood qi still lay partly unrefined within his flesh and blood. He had broken through from Foundation Establishment into Essence Transformation in a little over a year thanks in part to the great world’s spiritual qi and his single spiritual root, but the benefits of Yi Wood qi had certainly not been small.
If Yi Wood Essence was the most precious, rarest treasure for Wood-attribute cultivators, Geng Metal Essence was the treasure most desperately coveted by Metal-attribute cultivators.
No one understood better than Xu Ziqing how greatly his senior brother might benefit from obtaining it.
For a while, Xu Ziqing hesitated.
The Fox King’s words had sounded sincere enough to be partly believable. Yet Xu Ziqing had never seen the fragment himself. What if the fox was lying?
But what if everything was true, and he allowed this chance to slip away? Geng Metal Essence was hardly something one encountered easily!
After considering the matter, Xu Ziqing looked again at Yun Lie. “Senior Brother, Geng Metal treasures are very hard to find.”
He had once promised his senior brother that he would find him a sword of unparalleled rarity. The emergence of the Tianlan Secret Trove was an excellent opportunity. If he did not search diligently, how would he ever fulfill his promise?
Moreover, such a treasure would be extraordinarily useful to Yun Lie. Even if there were only a thirty-percent chance, it was worth attempting.
Xu Ziqing also thought that since the secret trove dated back to antiquity, it might contain ancient spiritual grasses and plants. He had subdued very few subordinate woods so far, and not a single secondary wood. He ought to cultivate more kinds of wood to advance his practice. Otherwise, with Rongjin growing so powerful, the various Wood qi energies within his body would become unbalanced.
After weighing all these considerations, he concluded that for now they would have to trust the fox.
So Xu Ziqing made no effort to hide his words from the Fox King. “Once this matter is done and Senior Brother’s cultivation has advanced, killing the fox later would be easy enough. For now, why not make the bargain rather than miss this opportunity?” He paused. “Desperate circumstances call for flexibility, Senior Brother…”
He knew his senior brother was not rigid or unreasonable, yet he could not help looking at him with a trace of hope.
Yun Lie’s gaze shifted slightly. At last, he nodded. “Very well.”