Chapter 963: March on Goldbough City

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Baili Jingwei’s brow shot up as thoughts raced through his mind.

[How did this happen? Prince Jing’s death is just too odd!]

Danqing Shen and Shangguan Feiyun were listening in silence with baffling looks as well. In all their years of doing and seeing killings, there had never been one as weird as this one.

This situation was downright bizarre, so much so none could come up with any logical explanation.

The servant bearing gifts slipped over and so the black corpse then looked down at the demon spirit stone in hand with a deep frown, “That’s strange, why is it the same as the demon spirit stone…”

“What did you say?”

Baili Jingwei’s sharp ears picked his muttering and shot his piercing gaze at him as he demanded.

Flinching in fright, the servant stammered, “P-Prime Minister, I-I mean, the body of Prince Jing is similar to the demon spirit stone City Lord has asked me to gift…”

“Give it here!”

Baili Jingwei’s eyes shone and yanked the stone out of his hand. He went by the corpse’s side and compared, “It’s identical! Prince Jing has turned into a demon spirit stone!”

Sss~

Everyone around him gasped in shock. 

[How does one even turn into something like that? This is absurd!]

Baili Jingwei’s brow shook, his fists clenched as he pondered. He turned his hard gaze on the women, “Prince Jing has been stuck at peak Soul Harmony Stage for three thousand years. How did he advance? Did he use something like this rock?”

“Yes, it was something similar.”

The women looked at each other before finally nodding, “He only had one hundred and twenty years left of his lifespan. If Prince Jing couldn’t advance in the next century, he would pass away. That’s why he’s been working hard on cultivating the past decades. It was around three days ago that someone had given him something to advance, but I never imagined that, that…”

The women burst out crying again.

Baili Jingwei had heard all he needed, setting his fierce eyes on the servant, “Tell me, have you been here, three days ago, to give Prince JIng such a stone?”

“Uh, yes…”

The servant then exclaimed and hesitated, “Per City Lord’s request all high class in the imperial capital have been given some…”

Baili Jingwei’s face was hard as ice, his eyes stony, “Then, all those manors from which the guards came to my house to report, have you been to those places as well?”

“Uhm, that does seem to be it…”

“Then how many more have you gone to?”

“Uhm, two thirds…”

Baili Jingwei gnashed his teeth as he roared, “Guard, take this guy and go to every house that hasn’t come to report. Take every one of those demon spirit stones and destroy them. The rest of you, come with me to the other manors.”

“Yes, sir!”

The guards bowed and split in two groups, one to collect the black rocks, the other to investigate the reports with Baili JIngwei.

Prince Yu, Master Lu, everyone actually that had been reported were turned into the same kind of weird black rocks as Prince Jing. All of them had been frantic in cultivating with the demon spirit stones these past three days.

The answer couldn’t be more obvious. Shangguan Feiyun mocked every single petrified corpse, “Morons, this is what greed gets you. What’s worse is, you’re all officials of the empire yet so gullible to believe in this fantasy. Greed is the root of all evil. You haven’t even reached the end of your days yet have destroyed yourself over it, ha-ha-ha…” 

“Yeah, these are all important officials of the empire, some in the court while others in the military. With dozens of empty seats now, it’ll be hard to find able replacements.”

Danqing Shen’s cold eyes watched everyone, “This is bound to reap the lives of a third of the empire’s officials. Prime Minister, you’re about to be a whole lot busier soon, with no one else to delegate work.” 

Shangguan Feiyun eyed him and both of them cracked up.

Not like they gave a damn about these poor gullible souls. 

[Good riddance. They asked for it.] 

The Prime Minister was the one who got the short end of the stick, with no one left to help him out, he was going to have many sleepless nights soon. He’d hardly have the energy to go visit any other Sword King.

Danqing Shen enjoyed his misfortune. Now those piercing eyes would no longer be on them.

It was getting restless having Baili Jingwei behind them every step of the way.

Only the prime minister was about to blow a gasket. A third of the imperial capital’s high class just died. It was bound to affect the empire’s stance. The longer this gross lack of manpower remained, the worse the decline.

This was a matter of utmost importance that had to have a guilty party. As for who, that was left to who did it. 

Baili Jingwei squinted and spat through gnashed teeth. “Guards, assemble the entire imperial guard and open the official line! We’re marching on Goldbough City! Humph, Baili Jingyu, you waste of a man, you wanted to bribe, is that it? I hope you’re happy, your bribes have brought me down on you like the king of hell to put you in your place!”

The two Sword Kings were laughing it up in the background…

Meanwhile, back to the city of gold, the clueless city lord and Serene Shores Trading were relishing in their sudden immense success.

“Sir, unlike the official line, the commercial line needs time to be set up. From the central area’s hinterlands there are thousands upon thousands of miles before we reach western lands. The amount of sacred stones needed is sizable. Now, after three days of work, the array is ready for sir to use. Please forgive us for the delay.” 

Behind Serene Shores Trading’s main manor, sacred stones were glittering like stars in their specific position. A quick look will easily tell there were millions upon millions. In the center of it there were also flashes of lightning and strong gales as a pitch-black tunnel warped the space. 

Eldest young master wore the same fake smile as always, standing before the portal and bowing to Zhuo Fan. Around him were many Genesis Stage elders, over a hundred, here to send Zhuo Fan off.

This went to show just how important this client was to Serene Shores Trading.

Zhuo Fan nodded and placed Gu Santong on his back with a smile, “Please, you’ve been looking after me these days and I can’t thank you enough. Moreover, this parting won’t be forever. We’ll be working together for years to come. I will have to trouble you then again.”

“Truly? That’s great, my company welcomes you with open arms, ha-ha-ha…” Wu Ranze laughed and bowed.

While still clueless as before pertaining to who Zhuo Fan was, he was happy knowing their dealings wouldn’t end soon. They didn’t really care about his identity anyway. And since he was tight-lipped about it, they had to drop it. 

They were content with just being his partner in all the deals and gaining so much from them. Merchants were inseparable from profits. They only had eyes on money and more money. Friendship was never part of the package, nor was one’s identity a necessity.

“Sir, how will we keep in touch?”

“I’ll contact you.”

Zhuo Fan gave a vague smile as he changed topics, “How come I don’t see the City Lord around? These days he has been quite close to this fellow brother.”

Wu Ranze showed his disdain as he whispered, “Sir, City Lord only thinks with his lower head and betrays anyone for money. It’s best if you don’t have high hopes for him. Just as sir’s about to leave, the prettiest flower of southern lands arrived in our city, Immortal Healer Murong Xue. He of course was happy to welcome her. To show off his power, he also had father go along. That’s the only reason father would not be seeing sir off.” 

“Southern lands’ Immortal Healer Murong Xue?”

Zhuo Fan got curious, “I remember now, she’s the sister of Murong Lie the Ardent Sun Sword God, the best in southern lands. She sure has a lot of guts to waltz into the central area with how tense the two lands’ relations are.” 

Wu Ranze nodded, “Sir, the people of the central area cherish their reputation. We aren’t about to use the best in southern lands’ sister to threaten them into submission. Moreover, Prime Minister Baili Jingwei is an expert in mind games. He had succeeded in pursuing Danqing Shen and Shangguan Feiyun to defect to the central area, the once best in western lands and eastern lands respectively. He would never lower himself to touch his sister. That would cut off any means of peace talks. This makes the central area the safest place for Murong Xue. No one will be attacking her, not when they’re actually protecting her. Sure, there are those lusting after her as well…”

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