Yan Zaizen, Tao, and Bai Lufeng were currently sitting at the table of the main hall within the Sky Heart Palace - the central hub of the Ya Family. They were sipping essence tea and relaxing in comfortable chairs. Bai Lufeng expression was filled with excitement, Tao was rather calm, and Yan Zaizen had a laid-back appearance as his legs were placed on the table and his body leaned back.
After the incident in the Sky Heart City streets, they were brought to Sky Heart Palace as a show of ’apology’ and ’respect.’ Yan Zaizen couldn’t care less about their attempts to appease him, his intentions were quite simple: Use the Spatial Platform, get to Zhu Que City, and go home.
Luckily, Yan Zaizen realized the severity of his power and status at the moment. Tao had informed him of it once before, but he never truly had it sink in. It was this very reason why he didn’t care about revealing his cultivation prowess or identity any longer. If anything, the Imperial Family might send people over to the Yan Family in an attempt to set up an alliance rather than attack them. As for all the others he offended, they were either dead or too scared of his retaliation.
This is how it felt to be truly powerful, feared, and respected.
"Young Lord Zai, shall we stay here for a while?" Bai Lufeng inquired, obviously desiring to stay in Sky Heart City whilst being treated like a highly-respected guest. The things he could do with Yan Zaizen’s identity backing him, the places he could go, and the people he could offend. In truth, he was a morally upright individual who valued loyalty, but he was a little bit nonsensical at times. A little girl crazy, incredibly arrogant, and easily excitable.
Yan Zaizen never would’ve guessed this before. A respected mid-Origin Core Realm cultivator having a personality like that. Truly, people let their true self come out around those they trust. After the Soul Oath was sworn, Bai Lufeng truly treated Yan Zaizen like his Young Lord. Not to mention, Yan Zaizen didn’t need to be protected, if anything, Bai Lufeng needed to be protected.
Yan Zaizen had a little headache over his antics, especially when he laughed in the faces of everyone because of their actions earlier. It made the entire situation awkward, but Yan Zaizen couldn’t just say, ’Stop being who you truly are around me!’ That wouldn’t feel right and make things more awkward. So, he’ll just let him be, for now.
"We’ll dine at Heavenly Heart, then take the spatial platform to Zhu Que City in Presba." With those words, he continued leisurely sipping his tea in relaxation. Bai Lufeng felt a little disappointed, but at least they could dine at the Heavenly Heart. In that case, this trip could be considered worth it.
The soft patter of footsteps resounded outside as Xinya entered the room with a slight smile and beautiful outfit that accentuated her beautiful features. Bai Lufeng’s eyes lit up, Tao remained calm, and Yan Zaizen yawned slightly at her appearance. This woman was married with children, so he didn’t feel any interest towards women already claimed by another.
Seeing his reaction, Xinya couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. It wasn’t that she wanted to use her looks to gain his forgiveness, but she hoped his reaction wouldn’t be so icy and disinterested. She could only bring out a spatial ring and place it on the table. Yan Zaizen didn’t even move, Tao immediately reached for it and scanned it with his sense. His eyes were still calm as he turned to Yan Zaizen and nodded softly.
The spatial ring had the average worth of three hundred million drops of low-grade liquid essence within. This was an extraordinary amount of wealth, but to a tourist attraction town controlled by three half-step True Essence Cultivators, this may be very little.
Xinya’s gaze flickered as she saw this interaction. She knew who these two people beside Yan Zaizen were. One was Grux Taohe, the former disciple of the Imperial Scholar, who was sentenced to the deep mines about two years ago. The other was Bai Lufeng, former protector of Diyi, the daughter of the now-deceased Imperial Commander. It was bewildering that they both were working for Yan Zaizen, no wonder they were capable of robbing the Imperial Palace blind while uprooting the Imperial Commander.
"Now, the issue is settled." Yan Zaizen declared, rising up from his seat, and smoothing out his attire. Tao and Bai Lufeng followed suit, preparing to leave. However, Xinya immediately interjected.
"Sir, now that that’s been settled. I hope we can discuss other business."
Yan Zaizen looked at her unsurprised and simply nodded in assent.
Xinya felt relieved that he wasn’t entirely unreasonable. It seems now that the previous event had been wiped clean, he was truly neutral in his opinions and actions. She couldn’t help but think that this young man was someone who knew how to handle grudges and favors despite his youth.
"On behalf of the Xiāo City Lord, I wish to exchange for the Xiāo Mountain." She said respectively, her words direct. Yan Zaizen’s eyes flickered slightly.
Interesting, so they wanted to reclaim the mountain he took?
After contemplating it for a bit, it truly made sense. The Sky Heart City and Xiāo City Lord had a close relationship, being mutual allies. Not to mention, Yan Zaizen had no use for a giant mountain which didn’t conform with his own laws. He already possessed Pinaka, what other armament did he require?
He looked towards Tao, and Tao answered promptly. "One point two billion."
Bai Lufeng eyes widened with shock and awe. Despite them obtaining about three billion of wealth from earlier, this typically related to alchemy and armaments. That’s not even mentioning it was every last thing those people owned, and yet it still only totaled to three billion!
However, despite Bai Lufeng’s reaction, Xinya nodded her head softly as if she expected that price. She removed a spatial ring from her person and laid it on the table. Tao’s eyes were filled with shock now, and he grabbed the ring. When he scanned it, it was truly hard to hold his disbelief. It truly contained resources that averaged out to his declared price.
Yan Zaizen was surprised there was no haggling involved and she was this direct. He was originally going to increase it by one hundred million for each haggle attempt to extort more wealth, but she was incredibly decisive and prepared. Tao nodded softly to indicate the wealth presented is correct.
Yan Zaizen felt helpless and couldn’t help but chuckle a little shamelessly in regret. He could only agree to the exchange due to her decisiveness.
Xinya felt like she could understand Yan Zaizen’s personality a bit from their previous interaction, which is why she made sure she had varying forms of wealth in different spatial rings to match whatever price he asked. Of course, if he desired a price that was too high, then she could only take her things and leave. As for the price of a sky-rank armament? The price was a bit excessive, but for a sky-rank armament that was a literal mountain? That was low-balling it.
Normally, a mountain couldn’t fit inside a spatial ring due to limited size capacity, but the Meteor Ring was different. It had sufficient space to hold hundreds of these mountains.
They took to the skies and reached an open field sufficient enough to land the mountain. With a wave of his hand, the mountain formulated instantly in mid-air as if it was always there. It settled just a few inches from the ground and when it fell, the world trembled and the earth quaked. The ground cracked continuously until the mountain was properly settled.
Seeing this, Yan Zaizen prepared to leave. After the celebration at the Heavenly Heart, he intended to immediately use the spatial platform. He was truly impatient. However, he was stopped once more.
"Sir, the Dilong Skyship. I hope you can sell it to me." She requested once more. Initially, Yan Zaizen was surprised and unwilling. However, after some contemplation, it made little sense to keep the skyship. Typically, every skyship needed a special qi-method to operate the myriad of formations. This was something he didn’t possess, nor did he believe that the Imperial Palace would give it to him. At most, they would probably trade for it.
That being said, it meant the skyship was essentially a hunk of metal.
To him it was useless, but perhaps to Xinya or others in Sky Heart City, it could be used.
Tao responded with his price declaration, "Five hundred million." This might actually be considered low-balling it, but the skyship was essentially useless without the proper method, and they didn’t have it. Tao was aware and thus didn’t try to place the price too high.
Gaining even a single drop would be better than letting it sit there pointlessly, not to mention it was far too hot to sell. It would be like placing a target on your back from the Imperial Palace.
Xinya displayed her readiness once more, throwing yet another spatial ring at Tao. The exchange was incredibly swift and smooth, and the skyship shifted hands.
Yan Zaizen was quite satisfied with all this. In just a single day, he gained two billion in wealth, not to mention his previous gains which were nearing three billion. He truly was so rich that he spat gold at this point.
Xinya left promptly, but not before Yan Zaizen informed her of his desire to use the spatial platform. Surprisingly, she easily agreed to this request, and for free no less. This made everything much easier. He truly liked how Xinya handled matters. If she wished to appease him, then this was a great way to do so.
Today, he celebrates. Tomorrow, he’s off.
"Sufficient power enables all things." Yan Zaizen softly muttered to himself in realization. Considering that he crippled a member of her city without mercy, humiliating her by undermining her authority and extorting a vast quantity of wealth, she still was attempting to form a relationship with him. It truly widens one’s horizons.
"Our gains are extraordinary this time," Tao commented at the side.
Yan Zaizen chuckled, "Not to mention, I only sold the things I took. No real effort on my part." Indeed. Yan Zaizen sold things that weren’t even his to begin with and extorted money for an offense.
"Alright, let’s go to the Heavenly Heart! Let’s celebrate! Haha!" He was in an exceptionally good mood at the moment. He made a ton of money, got free access to the spatial platform, and his cultivation base was higher than ever. Everything was looking up and home was in sight.
The next day, they celebrated to their heart’s content. Drinking, joking and eating delicious food. Tao revealed his drunken shamelessness, surprisingly he seemed to turn into quite the pervert after downing a few.
Some imperial scholar, huh?
What surprised them all was that Bai Lufeng was a crier and couldn’t hold his liquor despite his thousands of years of existence. He whiningly cried in exquisite detail of how his father would beat him for being such a playboy during his youth. He even mentioned that he probably had fathered a lot of children, but because of his old, unfaithful ways, he didn’t know where they were, how many there were, or even what they were doing.
To think Bai Lufeng was such a horndog and unfaithful father. Unfortunately, this happened quite often in the cultivation world, especially in Grux which is filled with ten times the population of Presba. At least Bai Lufeng wished he knew them and would love it if they found him. Even that was far better than many.
As for Yan Zaizen, he was astonished when he discovered that he couldn’t get drunk. His blood and body were that of a Herculean, let alone getting drunk, even getting poisoned would be difficult. Despite this, Yan Zaizen couldn’t help but joke around and engage with the others.
A laugh here, a pat on the back there, a whistle at a beauty here, and just enjoying the good food, wine, and company.
To Yan Zaizen and Tao who spent two years in the Deep Mines, this was a very much needed affair.
As the night ended and the sun was rising, Yan Zaizen was sitting calmly in his chair, staring at the ceiling as Bai Lufeng was unconscious, laying in a puddle of his own tears nearby. Tao had three women with barely anything covering their delicate bodies laying next to him on the floor. They looked comfortable and cozy, and he had the biggest smile imaginable.
"I miss you, Mother...Father...I promise, I’m coming home." He softly muttered, his eyes glistening.
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