Chapter 533 – Falling Sons
Shi Lei’s words sounded interesting to Xue Mu.
It sounded as if he was praising your woman for being beautiful, like a polite remark, but the problem was, what were the identities of the two parties?
You, Shi Lei, are Mo Xuexin’s senior nephew …… Evaluating your own senior uncle with this kind of attitude of evaluating your friend’s wife?
Mo Xuexin’s complexion was icy cold, and there was clearly a monstrous anger in her eyes, which she forced herself not to attack. She didn’t know if Shi Lei’s words were a test of his relationship with Xue Mu, or a pure expression of not recognizing her identity as Valley Master? After experiencing the humiliation of falling from the bottom of the valley and committing herself, she had learned to stop being reckless and leave the scene to Xue Mu to dominate.
Xue Mu, however, did not respond to this topic and just smiled without moving, “Brother Mu is already in the past, so why bring it up again.”
Shi Lei nodded and made a “please” gesture, “Chief Xue please, allow me to introduce you.”
“No need for introductions, I recognize them all.” Xue Mu entered the pavilion with large strides, arched his hand and smiled, “Patriarch Yun, how have you been?”
Yun Qianwu arched his hand, “Although I am hostile to Patriarch Xue, but wherever Patriarch Xue goes, he can make the situation change drastically and become the dominant one, this ability is admired by this seat.”
Xue Mu also did not say much, turned to a man wrapped in black robes whose face could not be seen, “Ten Thousand Poison Sect, Zhen Yuyue Zhen Sect Master?”
The black-robed man responded with an arch in his hoarse voice, “It is precisely Mister Zhen. Chief Xue is the pride of our poison cultivators, and Mister Zhen respects that.”
He didn’t even refer to himself as “this seat” and called himself “Mister Zhen”. It was obvious that no matter what their stance was, the importance these people attached to Xue Mu was self-evident.
Xue Mu also arched his hand at the middle-aged man on the main seat: “Grand Elder Shi Buyi of the Seven Xuan Valleys?”
The big man returned his bow, “Chief Xue had saved my nephew’s life, so I am here to thank him.”
Shi Lei is precisely Shi Buyi’s own nephew, also represents the family system formed within each clan due to the bloodline descendant association within the clan, which is a very widespread phenomenon, from which the second generation of martial arts templates arise. Such as Zheng Haoran Zheng Yichen brothers are also Zheng Yezhi’s son and nephew generation, Xue Mu recognized the natural door Leng Qingshi directly is the son of the patriarch, the real is commonplace.
“Not much of a life-saving favor.” Xue Mu looked at Shi Lei and smiled, “When Brother Shi gave up his life to save thousands of Jianghu people, and Mister Xue was among them, it can only be considered a mutual assistance. In fact, Brother Shi should really be grateful for the favor of someone else.”
Shi Lei was rather flabbergasted by Xue Mu’s words, “Could Chief Xue be referring to Mu Jian Li?”
“No.” Xue Mu shook his head, “Brother Shi knows that when Chief Constable Xiahou and I had just made plans for the New Show Spectrum, Valley Master Mo was still in the capital. When she saw the New Show Spectrum, the first thing she did was to go to Chief Constable Xiahou to make connections in the hopes of operating you into the second phase. This is an elder’s feeling of caring and lifting up their own disciple, shouldn’t you be grateful?”
Shi Lei looked at Mo Xuexin, who had a frosty face and did not respond.
Elder Shen exclaimed, “The Valley Master’s friendship to his disciples is not just one or two things like this, some people have a desire for profit and their conscience is just eaten by dogs.”
Shi Lei sighed, “All of you, please take your seats and drink a cup of water wine.”
Xue Mu unreservedly sat down, Qin Wuyi smiled and sat next to him, Ye Guying was hidden behind him. Mo Xuexin hesitated for a moment, and also sat next to Xue Mu on the other side, and the three elders stood behind her.
The small pavilion in the stone table, three to three, Shi Lei is responsible for pouring wine, do a junior should do.
Looking at Shi Lei’s silent pouring of wine, Xue Mu laughed: “Speaking of which, Xue Mou is curious, you only came to so many people, looking at the combat power is not enough ah, really not afraid of being taken down directly by us?”
Shi Buyi smiled, “Another person is in the Peach Forest, it’s just that that person is unwilling to sit here.”
Xue Mu directly said, “Leng Zhu?”
Shi Buyi didn’t say anything, not knowing whether it was or not.
“Whether it’s yes or no, since I said it’s a negotiation, Mister Xue won’t lift the table.” Xue Mu said and touched his ring, seemingly out of habit, he wanted to pull out his fan to make a feathery appearance, but as a result, he touched the air and remembered that the fan was long gone. He coughed dryly twice, pawed up the wine cup and took a sip to cover up the embarrassment, continued: “Directly talk about it, the two sides to exchange prisoners, do not engage in this kind of hostage threat of the name, how to fight in the future, the hall by the strength to come, Shi Elder can have an opinion?”
Shi Buyi sighed: “Honestly speaking, this condition is reasonable on the surface, in fact, our side is too disadvantaged. Because your captives are basically of the younger generation, while we captured several elders with strong combat power, once we let the tiger return to the mountain, the comparison of strength will create a tilt, not just a matter of whether there is a hostage threat at hand or not.”
Mo Xuexin couldn’t help but curse, “They are also your senior brothers who grew up together since childhood!”
Shi Buyi said indifferently, “At this point in time, there is no need to say this. Since we are negotiating, we are laying things out and striving to reach a result that is acceptable to both sides. You wish to free the captives, and so do we, this is the premise of sitting here tonight, saying anything else is false.”
Xue Mu waved his hand to stop Mo Xuexin’s anger and smiled, “In Elder Shi’s opinion, what kind of exchange should be reached?”
Shi Buyi said, “A reciprocal exchange of battle power. Everyone puts back the young sons and daughters, while the strongest of the Dao-entry must not be indulged, we can guarantee that if we fight, we will just not threaten them.”
Xue Mu leisurely said, “Not a single word of your guarantee can be trusted nowadays.”
Shi Buyi said, “What about Chief Xue’s intention?”
“I think it’s feasible for the young children to be exchanged on a reciprocal basis. And those few elders well …… how about we take other conditions in exchange?”
“Such as Chief Xue releasing the resource blockade?” Shi Buyi smiled, “This hand of General Manager Xue does make us passive. But the drawbacks of this hand won’t show up until a long time later, and we can find another way to crack it. If we thus indulge the tiger, we can be bitten back on the spot, this is something that I can still distinguish.”
“Tsk …… is worthy of being a great master who can plan a rebellion, thinking just as clearly.” Xue Mu leisurely said, “I wonder how many bottom line references Governor Cheng has given Your Excellency?”
Shi Buyi choked and shut up without answering.
“The support of the imperial court, this is your confidence in cracking my resource blockade, right …… After all, we can’t openly rebel and lock up the imperial court, right?” Xue Mu smiled, “But I think Elder Shi still doesn’t know, the court now has no way to openly recognize Your Excellency’s orthodoxy, even if there is assistance, it can only be sneaky. Even if there is some assistance, it can only be done secretly. This sneakiness, however, does not represent the imperial court, and our six paths will still intercept the same, without any pressure.”
Shi Buyi finally changed color: “Why did Chief Xue say that?”
“Because Ji Wuyou is not an emperor who monopolizes power.” Xue Mu smiled happily, “Any decision he makes is subject to great constraints, and Mister Xue happens to be the one who can impose the most constraints on him.”
Shi Buyi coldly grunted, “Isn’t Chief Xue overconfident? Thinking that he has cut off our emissaries to the capital to celebrate? I’m sure Chief Xue doesn’t know that two days ago, our valley’s steward in the capital had already attended His Majesty’s celebration on our behalf, with representatives from all the sects of the Righteous Path on the list. With the world’s tacit approval and His Majesty’s support, even the Empress Dowager and the Eldest Princess can’t forcefully define us as rebels, right?”
Mo Xuexin’s heart twitched and she couldn’t help but look at Xue Mu. In the past two days, this guy has been spending his tempering efforts on her, does he still have a son in the capital? If it was true that the whole world defaulted to the orthodoxy of Shi Buyi, the advantage brought to them was more than a broken blockade!
Xue Mu laughed: “Really pitiful, it’s been two days, you guys actually don’t know what happened at the celebration banquet?”
It was at this moment that someone came speeding in the distance. Shi Lei temporarily excused himself and greeted the visitor with a few questions.
In less than a moment, he returned to the pavilion with an iron face and looked at Xue Mu for a while before he sighed lowly and said, “General Manager Xue’s ability to plan and strategize is the key to victory, I’m impressed.”
Two days ago, the world’s clans entered the celebration banquet to congratulate the new emperor’s succession.
From the top clans to the representatives of the various sub-clans gathered together, basically representing the entire Great Zhou’s righteous martial artists. What’s interesting is that, when Ask Sword changed, the top clans congratulated all the patriarchs, even Ask Heavenly Taoist were there in person, while the celebration of the new emperor’s ascension to the throne, the top clans were all young representatives, Yu Lin ah Leng Qingshi ah, what, highlighting that in the top clans’ hearts, the emperor’s importance is not as good as Ask Sword’s patriarch.
Among them, the Asking Sword Sect simply had no one come.
Ji Wuyou was sitting on the throne presiding over the banquet guests, with a smile on his face, but in fact he didn’t know how much he was holding back inside. It was no wonder that his father had spent his entire life weakening and suppressing the righteous path, anyone else in this position wouldn’t be able to stand it!
His gaze fell on the Seven Xuan Valley representative, this one was even more miserable, the one who came was nothing more than a very low level steward in the capital. Because the regular representative was intercepted by Heng Xing Dao on the road, the Seven Xuan Valley was dealing with Xue Mu’s counterattack at this time, and didn’t dare to spare a strong combat force to break out and run to be a messenger, the one who came to participate in the celebration naturally could only be a small steward, shivering under the strange gaze of Yu Lin and the rest of the people.
But no matter what level this steward was at, his greatest benefit was that he could represent the top clan, Seven Xuan Valley, and show complete submission to the new emperor. This symbolism could be more important than anything else.
Ji Wuyou eyed this steward and signaled him to lead the way in kneeling down to celebrate.
The steward willfully left the crowd, kneeling and shouting, “Seven Xuan Valley congratulates my emperor on his ten thousand ……”
Before the words fell, a loud announcement from the inner guards came from outside the hall, “Sword Asking Sect Patriarch Mu congratulates my emperor!”
Along with the words, a white dress with biting sword intent strides into the hall, her cool voice is just like her face, “Questioning Sword Sect Mu Jian Li congratulates the new emperor.”
The representatives of the hundred clans couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. It was already very rare for the Questioning Sword Sect to unprecedentedly come to participate in this kind of imperial affairs, and the one who came was actually the Patriarch! Was this new emperor’s face so big?
But Ji Wuyou’s heart sank violently. Mu Jianli …… This can never be a good thing ……
He couldn’t show it in public, he could only smile and say, “The Marquis of the Questioning Sword has the heart, please take your seat.”
Mu Jianli stood straight in the doorway, her beautiful eyes like a sword staring at the Seven Xuan Valley steward kneeling in the temple, “Who is this person, who is even wearing Seven Xuan colorful clothes?”
Yulin in the seat said, “It is indeed the representative of the Seven Xuan Valley.”
“A rebel, a slave girl, how dare you represent the Thousand Years Seven Xuan? I, the Questioning Sword Sect, do not recognize it!”