The Attack of the Wastrel

The North Qiu Kingdom was very secretive about the countries that had sworn allegiance to them. It was coincidental for one to find out that the Nieyun and Minglan Kingdom were working with the North Qiu Kingdom.

Envoys that had come to the Xia Kingdom to exchange secretive information all stayed at the relay station. It was under coincidental circumstances that they had come across Pan Wen interacting with the envoy from the Nieyun Kingdom. Thus, the Nieyun Kingdom had sworn allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom even before Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi’s wedding had taken place. On their wedding day, they had worked together to undermine the Xia Kingdom. Now that the Minglan Kingdom and the Nieyun Kingdom were working in cahoots, Rong Yuan had to step up to remove such a threat from occurring.

“There’s no need to. The Minglan Kingdom’s defenses are alright for now, but if you send assistance to the Nieyun Kingdom then you may have difficulty defending your front. Why don’t the Sangna Kingdom provide assistance instead? The Xia Kingdom will send assistance to the other two smaller countries. What do you all think?”

Rong Yuan’s decision was exactly what the Sangna Kingdom had been hoping for; naturally, the Sangna Kingdom would not have any objections. They were eager to agree and smiled, “That’s a good plan. I’ve heard that there are a lot of pretty ladies in the Nieyun Kingdom, the men in my Sangna Kingdom are fortunate. We’ll probably have lots of weddings happening.”

Other than the envoy from the Nieyun Kingdom and Lu Xueqin, everyone else laughed at the joke.

Afterwards, Rong Yuan further disseminated some of his opinions and suggestions about how they should fight against the North Qiu Kingdom. He was articulate in his words and occasionally described the deployment plan, which made the audience feel like they were basking in his perfect wisdom.

Even when Rong Yuan had finished talking, some of the audience urged him to continue, “Your Highness, if you have any more suggestions, why don’t you go through it with us one by one? It will not be easy to gather everyone here together again.”

They would not have travelled such a great distance to the Xia Kingdom if it was not for the utmost importance of the information that Gu Lingzhi had. After they had fallen out with the North Qiu Kingdom, it would be hard for them to have full attendance at a meeting like this ever again.

“I’ve said everything that I’ve wanted to say. We’ll have to play by ear for whatever comes up in the future. We can only be sure of what to do when the North Qiu Kingdom shows their hand,” Rong Yuan replied.

The audience was disappointed that Rong Yuan no longer had anything to say and started to expand the discussion on the points that he had talked about earlier.

The discussion lasted for the entire day.

By the time the advisors had left the place, it was already midnight.

Upon seeing everyone’s tired expressions, Gu Lingzhi who had been silently sitting by the side the entire time took out a bunch of conches from her Storage Ring that were roughly the size of her fist. She asked Rong Yuan to give one out to everyone. When every single person had gotten a conch for themselves, Gu Lingzhi explained herself, “This is one of the spiritual treasures left behind by the Spirit Tribe. Even though it’s just a high grade Black-Level spiritual treasure, it is extremely useful. With this Communication Conch, it will enable you to speak to someone a long distance away. When the North Qiu Kingdom officially begins their attack, having this would make communication much easier. You can use it at the battle fronts to disseminate orders.”

The audience looked bewildered. Mei Ying could not help but examine the Communication Conch and asked, “It’s so small, are you sure it can allow us to communicate over long distances?”

“If it isn’t spoilt, it definitely works.” Then, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan proceeded to demonstrate the correct way of using the Communication Conch.

“In order to receive messages from others, first of all, you have to direct some of your spiritual energy to activate the conch. When the conch recognizes the unique nature of your energy, you only need to direct one blast of spiritual energy from the person that you wish to communicate with towards the conch.”

After explaining how to use it, she then explained certain conditions for the conch to work.

For example, the conch could only be used to communicate with one person at any time. Additionally, every use of the conch required a large amount of spirit stones to sustain its connection. The larger the distance between two people, the higher the amount of spirit stones needed.

The crowd then followed Gu Lingzhi’s instructions and activated their Communication Conches. When they tried using it, they realized that it was much more effective than they thought it would be. With this Communication Conch, the problem of slow communication over long distances could be eradicated. It also meant that they could take advantage of situations and gain the upper hand much earlier than the North Qiu Kingdom could.

“How many more of these Communication Conches do you have? The Sangna Kingdom would like to buy some more of these,” the envoy from the Sangna Kingdom directed the question at Gu Lingzhi.

The possession of such a spiritual treasure within the alliance was definitely a huge threat to the North Qiu Kingdom. If he could get his hands on more of these Communication Conches, then he could pass some of them to the North Qiu Kingdom. Who knew? Perhaps when the North Qiu Kingdom rose from the ashes again, the Sangna Kingdom would be able to benefit from it.

Gu Lingzhi took a glance at the envoy, and whilst she came up with a plan to deal with him in her heart, her face maintained a calm expression. “Oh? It wasn’t easy for me to obtain these Communication Conches. I almost lost my life to get these.”

“I…” the envoy from the Sangna Kingdom clenched his jaw, “I’m willing to purchase them for a hundred thousand spirit stones each, what do you think?”

“Hmm…a hundred thousand…” Gu Lingzhi pretended to take his offer into consideration. Just when the envoy from the Sangna Kingdom thought that she was going to accept his offer, she shook her head vehemently and said, “No. This is too valuable, it’s worth at least a million spirit stones.”

Everyone sucked in their breaths.

A million spirit stones? Only Earth-Level Spiritual Weapons were worth a million spirit stones, she must be really shameless to ask for a price like that.

“What? Do you think it’s an unreasonable price?” Gu Lingzhi looked at the crowd and said, “I risked my life to gather these from the Spirit Tribe’s historical relics. There’s only a few of these in the entire Tianyuan Continent and I’ve already made a huge loss after giving a portion of them to all of you. I’m selling it for a million spirit stones on the account that we are allies. Even if the North Qiu Kingdom wanted it for ten million spirit stones, I would not sell it to them!”

There was a long silence that followed.

Rong Han assessed Gu Lingzhi before looking at the crowd who was deep in thought. He had read through all the secret documents that Gu Lingzhi had brought back and was well aware of who had sworn allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom.

Now that Gu Lingzhi had brought out the Communication Conches, what other motive did she have other than for the ease of communication?

Rong Han smiled slightly as he looked at her. She was scheming but he was excited to know what she had planned.

At last, Gu Lingzhi sold a total of twelve conches for the price of a million spirit stones each.

The Sangna Kingdom bought eight of them, and under the suspicious gazes of the others, the envoy of the Sangna Kingdom tried to explain himself, “We have many large clans in the Sangna Kingdom, they would have a use for these.”

The crowd suddenly realized that they could buy these Communication Conches to sell to others from their countries as well, but Gu Lingzhi was no longer selling them.

“Alright, it’s getting late, all of you should go back and rest. Aren’t a few of you going to head back to your own countries tomorrow? Rest early so that you’ll have energy for such a long voyage,” Rong Yuan dispersed the crowd seeing that Gu Lingzhi had achieved her motive.

When everyone had left the Imperial Study Room, Rong Yuan stopped Xie Jianyu in his tracks.

“Prince Yi, I need to discuss some military matters with you, do you have the time?”

After an entire day, Xie Jianyu was exhausted. When the room was left with the three of them, Xie Jianyu then scrunched his forehead and asked, “Your Highness, the reason why you asked me to stay was not purely because of military matters, right?”

“You’re right,” Rong Yuan confirmed his suspicions, not intending to beat around the bush. He continued, “You’re returning back to the Fengyang Kingdom in two days, right? We should discuss how we are going to deal with the matters regarding your brother.”

Xie Jianyu’s eyes lit up before he sat back down at his original seat.

“Continue.”

Rong Yuan smiled in satisfaction when he saw that he had piqued Xie Jianyu’s interest. Undoubtedly, Xie Jianyu was a good person to work with.

Every man had his aspirations when it came to wielding power. Previously, due to his family, he was willing to give up his aspirations. Now that he was no longer restricted by kinship, the aspirations that he had set aside for so long would be his strongest weapon. No matter what, he would dispose of whoever was sitting on the throne!

Rong Yuan’s plan was simple. Xie Jianyu simply had to pretend that he was unaware of the schemes that the King of the Fengyang Kingdom had made, before finding the right opportunity to expose the deeds of the king to the people.

After all these years of being in the Fengyang Kingdom, Xie Jianyu had successfully gotten rid of many gangs of bandits and had also defended the country many times from invaders. He was thus very popular amongst the people. Otherwise, the King of the Fengyang Kingdom would not have left him alone all these years and could only think of underhanded means to kill him.

If Xie Jianyu could seize the perfect opportunity to reveal the deeds of the King, then Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi could lead some of their elite troops into the Fengyang Kingdom to assist Xie Jianyu in leading a revolt against the king and bring him down. The power dynamics of the Fengyang Kingdom could be entirely changed in a month.

Rong Yuan had the exact same thoughts as Xie Jianyu, except that Xie Jianyu never thought that Rong Yuan would personally make a trip down to the Fengyang Kingdom to assist him. “You’re not afraid that I may change my mind at the last minute and swear my allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom?”

“You won’t,” Rong Yuan replied affirmatively, “You’re not stupid.”

It was dangerous to swear allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom. Only people who were thirsty for power would be easily swayed by them.

Xie Jianyu pursed his lips, not knowing if he should thank Rong Yuan for his trust or to be upset at his straightforwardness. How could he so outrightly insult Xie Jianyu’s brother in front of him. 

When Xie Jianyu had finally left, Rong Han then spoke up, “Lingzhi, what other secrets does the Communication Conch have?”

Gu Lingzhi smiled briefly and replied, “I knew you would be able to find out even though I have not told you anything about it.”

“Alright, you don’t have to suck up to me, tell me,” Rong Han said as he waved his hand, his eyes full of approval for his daughter in-law.

“How is she sucking up to you when you truly do know everything?” Rong Yuan said as he ruffled Gu Lingzhi’s hair and complimented Rong Han.

“The Communication Conch is a communication tool for anyone that has it. However, with this, we can eavesdrop on all their conversations.”