Chapter 1372 Flawed Person!
After achieving such accomplishments, Xia Qingyi was awarded the position of the governor of the 18th district. When such arrangements were made, there was originally going to be a newcomer replacing him in dealing with the business in the Chaotic Lands.
However, how could Xia Qingyi give someone else the business that would dictate his own future? So, he immediately arranged for the Frost Monarch's side to refuse any discussions with the newcomer and proclaim Xia Qingyi as the only person they were willing to do business with. No matter how the Soul Society tried to make this change, the Frost Monarch's side wouldn't budge and would always ask for Xia Qingyi and no one else.
How could the Soul Society let their arrangements in the Chaotic Lands become messed up after putting so much effort there? On the surface, Xia Qingyi had already accepted the new arrangements, but he refused it after hearing the Frost Monarch was not too happy with the newcomer. He was willing to take up the role for the sake of the Soul Society, even if it meant double the work, which thus made a good impression with the higher-ups of the Soul Society. In the end, other than being the governor of a district, he was also the manager of the business in the Chaotic Lands.
After a few years, Xia Qingyi had organized the Chaotic Lands like a bunker. Oh right, wasn't there still a Hermit?
Indeed, the Hermit was still that Hermit, but he wasn't the one from before. As for why, Xia Qingyi knew very well that his master and two guardians from the Soul Society had made a move.
The Hermit was still governing his own territory and would ally with other factions to go against the faction of Hades controlled by the Soul Society, as Ling Lan didn't want the Soul Society and the Hermit to have a close relationship. Them fighting amongst themselves made it easy for an absent Frost Monarch like her to sit quietly on the throne.
The Hermit was simultaneously very afraid and admired the Frost Monarch. The attitude the Frost Monarch showed was that he didn't want to come in between them and the Soul Society's quarrels, which made the Hermit respect the Frost Monarch even more to the point of regarding him as a master and himself as a disciple.
It was because of such complicated relationships that the Chaotic Lands was stable. If other powers wanted to enter the Chaotic Lands, they wouldn't be able to do anything and could only ask the three kings for a business cooperation.
Even though the Frost Monarch, who had a closed door policy for years, didn't come out in the eyes of the public, no one would dare to make any moves on the Frost Monarch's faction. It was because both the Hermit and the Hades factions controlled by the Soul Society were respectful towards the Frost Monarch. These foreign powers were afraid that if they weren't careful, they might cause trouble for themselves, causing the three kings to gather together and eradicate them.
Li Lanfeng arrived at Chaotic Lands and instantly went into Hades' territory. Actually, it was fine no matter which one he went to. It was just that Hades was the most appropriate. As long as a person knew what was actually happening in Hades, they would know that it was under the Soul Society's control.
With a token, Li Lanfeng quickly met up with the two guardians. Xia Qingyi was no longer the poor and drab-looking Xia Qingyi. At that moment, he held a high-ranking position with great power. Unless there was anything important, he wouldn't be in the Chaotic Lands normally.
The two guardians were also Ling Lan's underlings. After hearing it was their master sending Li Lanfeng here, the two of them didn't say anything and contacted Xia Qingyi, telling him to come as quickly as possible.
After less than two days, Xia Qingyi arrived. This was already the result of Xia Qingyi using the fastest starship available in the Soul Society.
Xia Qingyi went straight to the room Li Lanfeng was resting in. When Li Lanfeng saw him, he didn't waste any time and instantly told him everything Ling Lan had ordered Xia Qingyi to do. Xia Qingyi then knew that his master was actually preparing to make a foothold in the Lawless Lands, the place where even the Soul Society had sacrificed countless strong individuals but in the end still had to retreat from it.
The Lawless Lands was the place where the Soul Emperor wanted to take revenge against. Unfortunately, he never had the courage to make any moves on it after that one time.
Of course, the Soul Society had probed the Lawless Lands under the guise of some other organization. Despite failing countless times, they hadn't actually exposed their real identity. This was why when Ling Lan used the Soul Society's name, the 13 Lords didn't suspect anything.
What shocked Xia Qingyi even more was that it seemed his master had succeeded. He instantly got rid of one of the lords and took his place. He even made a temporary promise with the other lords. As long as the promise was kept, he would officially become a lord of the Lawless Lands.
Something that even the Soul Society couldn't do… His master had done. If someday, his master could take over the Lawless Lands, and in addition to the Chaotic Lands… After thinking to this point, Xia Qingyi excitedly shuddered. He seemed to have followed an incredible individual, and he himself was actually one the participants working under that individual.
Xia Qingyi knew very well that on the surface, the Chaotic Lands was ruled over by the three kings. However, in reality, there was only one king. As long as his master came here personally and hinted towards the Hermit, the Hermit would definitely bow down and work as his master's underling.
Despite almost exploding from his excitement, Xia Qingyi was after all still Xia Qingyi. After a few seconds, he controlled his emotions and asked, "What do you need me to do?"
"I need the Soul Society's name and for you to write up a contract of collaboration to send the needed supplies to the Lawless Lands," Li Lanfeng said calmly. "Make it a long-term periodic thing."
"Master used the Soul Society's name?" Xia Qingyi frowned. He knew very well the Soul Emperor abhorred anyone who used his name. If the Soul Emperor knew about this, it would be a big problem for his master.
"That's why you need to say it's business collaboration," replied Li Lanfeng. "Of course, the responsibility will be on you. As for how you would resolve Soul Emperor's anger, that'll be up to you."
Li Lanfeng's words were somewhat heartless. Despite Xia Qingyi's expression not changing, his eyes still turned somewhat cold.
"What? Feeling a bit uncomfortable?" Li Lanfeng smiled slightly. "As the governor of the 18th district, you are already considered in the top ranks after eliminating those pseudo ranks of those elder guardians. It's quite normal for you to have an attitude after being treated so coldly by our master.��
"No, not really," Xia Qingyi smiled. The coldness in his eyes instantly vanished and returned to how it was before.
"It's better if you don't. If you want to catch up to our master, you have to improve your own abilities." Li Lanfeng cheekily smiled. "Our master doesn't care for people working for him, especially those who fall behind."
After saying that, Li Lanfeng's smile got even wider. However, the more he smiled, the more Xia Qingyi felt it was cold as ice, "Master thinks of those people as flawed, and such flawed objects don't need to exist."
Xia Qingyi smiled coldly. "Are you threatening me?"
'Motherf*cker. Isn't he just with master a few years earlier than me. Plus, he got to stay by master's side all this time, shamelessly taking all the benefits that came. He actually dares to think he is superior than me just because of our circumstances? So f*cking shameless.'
"It's not a threat, just a reminder," Li Lanfeng said lightly. "Everyone's smart. I'm just afraid you might be too smart for your own good…"
"Moreover, the type of people that our master lacks the least are smart people."
"The list!" Although Xia Qingyi was smiling, those two words were said as though they were squeezed out through his teeth.
Li Lanfeng took out a list of supplies from his pocket and handed it to him, "These are the important ones. You can add some standard supplies if you want."
"If I want? Just this list needs three transport starships…" After seeing the amount of supplies on the list, Xia Qingyi felt his gums itch. There was already that much and he wanted him to add some if he wanted? Transporting this many supplies was still going to take some effort even if it was him. Plus, he couldn't sneak it past the Soul Society even if he wanted to.
Chapter 1373 The Pre-arranged Time
"That's your problem," Li Lanfeng replied without any sympathy in his voice.
"Okay, I will prepare the supplies, but I need to return to the Soul Society," said Xia Qingyi as he frowned. He must receive the Soul Emperor's approval first before moving this much supplies. If he didn't have a good reason, he probably wouldn't be able to convince the Soul Emperor. Xia Qingyi was worried because this wasn't an easy issue to go about resolving.
"Just say you have made contact with Lord Gen of the 13 Lords. Lord Gen's cooperation will depend on these supplies. That's the condition he gave. If the supplies are successfully delivered, Lord Gen will agree with the Soul Society entering into the other areas to develop their influence." Li Lanfeng spoke out the reason Ling Lan had prepared for Xia Qingyi.
Xia Qingyi's eyes brightened. "That's a good reason." This was actually an empty promise. If anyone else dared to negotiate like this, the Soul Emperor would definitely look the other way and not even roll his eyes. However, when it came to the Lawless Lands… It had been the Soul Emperor's biggest regret. This promise was like sweet poison, where he clearly knew it was bad but still would rather die trying.
"Good luck." Li Lanfeng waved towards Xia Qingyi to show that their conversation was over and he could now leave.
Xia Qingyi was quite annoyed. This was his territory. Unfortunately, this person in front of him didn't have the thought of behaving like a guest one bit. Doing things like he was the boss of this place, and doing it proudly too without any bit of shame.
There weren't any stops in between as Xia Qingyi rushed back to the Soul Society. He immediately reported this situation to the Soul Emperor. Li Lanfeng could only wait patiently for Xia Qingyi's good news.
Time passed by quickly and soon, it reached the deadline Ling Lan had promised with the 13 Lords.
Ling Lan was holding Little White while sitting on the icy throne in the main hall of the rainbow palace. She was calm and unnerved. It was as though she didn't what this day would entail.
Ji Ming, who stood below, couldn't hold the worry in his mind. He couldn't help but raise his head and look at Ling Lan.
Ling Lan didn't react to him as she just continued rubbing Little White's soft hairs rhythmically and calmly.
Seeing that, Ji Ming didn't know why, but he calmed down. It was as though everything was going to be okay.
Yu Shangfei felt it was odd. When did Ji Ming care so much for Lord Gen? When he knew Ji Ming's plan had failed and almost died along with the three faction lords, Yu Shangfei had been hiding outside, not daring to return. He was afraid that Lord Gen would know that he was working with Ji Ming on that plan. Although Yu Shangfei knew for certain that Lord Gen knew about it, he still chose to hide himself. As long as Lord Gen didn't ask for him, he would just hide away and pretend to not know anything.
Right at that moment, the main hall suddenly had strong ripples of domain concept energies.
Ling Lan raised her head and flicked her right sleeve. Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei suddenly blacked out and in the next second, they appeared behind Lord Gen with a thin layer of domain concept energy wrapped around them.
At the center of the main hall, five people appeared out of nowhere. It was indeed the five lords who had made the promise with Lord Gen two months ago.
Lord Holy spoke up, "Time is up. Can you tell me where the promised supplies are?"
Hearing him, Ling Lan just continued to calmly rub Little White's soft hairs. She indifferently replied, "We haven't reached the final hour yet. Lord Holy, don't be so impatient."
Killing intent rushed through Lord Holy's eyes. At that moment, Lord Zhen who was standing on the other side, smiled. "Our little friend is right. It hasn't reached the promised time yet. How about we have a conversation with him and drink some tea. We can wait for our little friend's good news together. You guys should know that Lords Qian and Lord Kun are very interested in the items our little friend has promised. We can't disappoint them, can we?"
Ling Lan raised her head and half-smiled at Lord Zhen. She looked confident as ever as she said, "If you five lords want to do that, then as the master of this place, I of course would happily welcome all of you."
Afterwards she spoke to Ji Ming, "Ji Ming, call someone to get us some tea."
"Yes, Lord Gen," Ji Ming accepted the order respectfully and left the main hall in the blink of an eye.
Soon, Ji Ming brought tea with him. With six imperial realm masters in the main hall, the standard servants definitely didn't have the capabilities or guts to walk in. Even Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei felt suffocated under the force of presence of all six imperial realm masters. Luckily, Ling Lan wrapped her concept energy around them, saving them from the embarrassment it would be if they kneeled down under the pressure.
The six of them silently drank their tea. Ling Lan was silent the entire time, while the other five lords didn't want to speak with Ling Lan either. Perhaps they were waiting for the promised time to arrive before deciding whether they should kill Ling Lan or not.
Finally, time still merciless reached the last second of the promised time.
Lord Holy laughed coldly, "It's already the first day of the third month. We still don't see supplies right now… According to the rules, you must pay for your crimes of killing the original Lord Gen."
Ling Lan smirked. "So… you want to fight?"
Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei jumped away from Ling Lan instinctively. Their movements made it seem as though they were not associated with Ling Lan.
Lord Holy looked towards them with a satisfied gaze. "Very good. As for the mistakes you two have made, we will deal with that at our own discretion."
Yu Shangfei had a look of joy on his face, while Ji Ming on the other hand had his head down respectfully. No one saw the complicated look in his eyes.
"Haha, look, even though you were Lord Gen for two months, you're still just by yourself with no one to depend on." Lord Holy sneered.
"Are you sure?" Ling Lan smiled as she asked.
At that moment, Ling Lan had already spoken with Little White. If the five lords attacked all at once, they would push with their spiritual power together, making them temporarily lose their focus to make it easier for Ling Lan to escape.
Ling Lan wasn't so confident to believe that she could fight against five imperial realm masters at once. If she couldn't escape in that time window, she would definitely be dead.
Seeing Ling Lan still have an expression of indifference even after reaching this point, Lord Holy's killing intent got even stronger. As a lord who could control the life and death of the citizens of Lawless Lands, he hated people like Ling Lan, who he couldn't control, appearing in the Lawless Lands. From the beginning, his suggestion was to kill Ling Lan. Unfortunately, the other lords were thoroughly convinced by the supplies Ling Lan had promised and the amazing future she had painted in front of them. That was why they gave her two months of time. In the past two months, he had already endured to his limit.
"Kill!" Lord Holy shouted angrily.
The five lords all activated their domains simultaneously and covered Ling Lan from all directions.
Seeing this, Ling Lan pinched Little White's round body. Right as the two spiritual powers were about to explode…
Ling Lan sensed something. She pinched Little White again and forcefully pushed back the rush of spiritual power back into Little White's throat.
"Ugh!" Little White put all its effort in swallowing the terrifying spiritual power shockwave back into its stomach.
Luckily, its stomach was a multi-layered space that could store spiritual power. Otherwise, just the backlash from the shockwave was enough to cause it to sleep for a few days.
Chapter 1374 Up For Discussion
Sensing the immediate danger, Ling Lan instantly activated both of her domains to resist against the pressure created by the domains of the five lords.
Boom!
Suddenly, a white flash of light blinded everyone's vision. When they regained their vision, they only saw a wide snowy landscape densely covered with fog. Water molecules in the air could be seen clumping together to form exquisite snowflakes. The main hall had turned into an icy image of itself.
Without warning, the entire foundation of the rainbow palace shook as if a massive earthquake was to ravage the Lawless Lands. If Ling Lan hadn't ordered everyone to temporarily retreat out of the rainbow palace earlier, just this force alone was enough to shock them to their core, instantaneously killing them.
Even Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei, who were an inch away from the front door of the main hall, were also severely injured by the large shockwave. They each spat out a mouthful of blood.
The two of them pitifully fell to the ground. Their eyes dilated and their face drained of blood out of fear. Even so, curiosity took the better of them, as they turned to look directly at the source of fear behind them with apprehension.
The current Ji Ming was very worried for the well-being of the new Lord Gen. Lord Gen was facing five lords by himself. Could he escape out of their clutches with his life?
Ji Ming didn't dare to think of the other likely possibility. Lord Gen already shocked the whole Lawless Lands by killing the previous Lord Gen, and if he were to fend off five Lords simultaneously, none could ever match his prestige.
Ever since he knew the new Lord Gen was related to his nation, the Huaxia Federation, he felt a feeling of kinship with Lord Gen. As a sort of distant kin, he didn't want anything happening to him.
After Ling Lan endured the combined efforts of the five Lords, she swallowed the blood that was about to rush past her throat with an unchanging expression on her face. She calmly scanned at the five lords who had surrounded her, looking as though what they were doing were of no threat to her.
In reality, if Ling Lan had only used her ice element, the only consequence wouldn't be just blood rushing up the throat. Luckily, her Profound Insight innate talent was a concept that was somewhat heaven-defying. Tying the Profound Insight concept with the ice element concept created a monstrosity, being sub-zero ice that could disintegrate everything it touched.
The main advantage of the disintegrate concept was that it could disintegrate foreign concept energies that were coming from all sides as fast as possible.
However, the more pressure Ling Lan was under, the more energy the disintegrate concept had used. Her fully filled tank of Profound Insight concept energy only held on for less than 20 seconds before it was completely depleted. Even with just 20 seconds, it was still enough to disintegrate more than 70% of the incoming concept energies, leaving the leftover energy for the ice element Domain's strong defensive strength to handle.
Even so, Ling Lan was still severely injured by that exchange. It was just that Ling Lan was used to tolerating any internal pain from her body, which disallowed any of the five lords to discover that she was indeed injured, not like how she seemed on the surface.
Not seeing the results they had expected, the five lords were frozen in shock.
Right as they were about to attack again, they heard Ling Lan said, "Although they got here late by a few minutes, they still arrived. Really, do think about whether you really want to continue this farce?"
Lord Holy's eye's glimmered, looking as though he was calculating something. Suddenly, a decisive gleam showed in his eyes. He instantaneously disappeared and reappeared in front of Ling Lan with a fist aiming directly towards Ling Lan's solar plexus.
That one fist had all of Lord Holy's domain concept condensed into one giant amalgamation of glowing energy. He was hoping to kill Ling Lan before she could uphold the end of her deal.
Already sensing what Lord Holy was going to do, Ling Lan's eyes flickered and a cold smirk appeared on her face. She preemptively flew up from her throne and a large spatial tear suddenly appeared in front of the throne. The lighting angles shone on the tear made it seem as though it had sharp white canines that were ready to swallow everything coming its way.
Lord Holy could clearly feel the limitless suction force from the spatial tear in front of him. Alarms soon blared his mind with the warning of danger.
In that moment, Lord Holy made a swift decision to retreat. He flickered in the air before appearing beside his allies.
The five lords carefully watched the fearsome spatial tear before them. Twice they fought with Ling Lan, she had always shown a different concept. The first encounter was the ice element. This time, it was even more exaggerated than the already crazy powerful ice element, she revealed to them the most legendary and heaven-defying concept in the known universe, space concept.
The space concept was too applicable in every situation. It could be used defensively. It also had incredibly strong killing potential. At the same time, it was also the best concept for escaping. In layman's terms, it was called the concept of undying. No matter if it was used for attacking, defending or protecting one's life, it didn't have any weaknesses. It was even considered the strongest in all of those aspects. How could such a concept not be heaven-defying and not be feared by others?
The killing intent in Lord Holy's mind slowly dissipated as calmness quickly took over his brain.
"You are truly someone from the Soul Society. I have nothing but respect for you." Lord Holy's attitude did a 180 to appear nothing but humble. It was as though the person who had just attempted to take out Ling Lan wasn't him, but someone else.
Ling Lan spoke calmly, "You're too kind." Her expression was unwavering, looking as though the scene about Lord Holy trying to kill her never happened.
The five lords looked at each other, and in the end Lord Zhen smiled. "Young friend, since you can keep your side of the deal, then I can't heartlessly refuse such a cooperative business partner just because the shipment was late by a few minutes, right?"
After saying that, Lord Zhen looked towards the other four lords and said, "Let's vote on it."
Before the others could speak, Lord Zhen casted his vote out loud, "I vote to continue our business with our little friend here."
Seeing his shameless attitude, Lord Card just rolled his eyes towards Lord Zhen. Now, with no grounds to reject Ling Lan's deal, Lord Card instantly said, "I don't have any problems with that."
When Lord Demon saw the two of them make their choice, he cheekily covered his mouth as he snickered. That snicker caused the assets on his chest to shake, creating a sight that was mesmerizing to the less informed, but to the informed, it would only incite looks of disgust..
"Our little friend here is so pretty and tender. I really like him a lot. I finally don't have to look at these old bags of skin around me anymore. After so many years, I've already got sick of it." When Lord Demon looked at the other four wrinkly old lords, he also had a look of disgust. However, when his gaze landed on Ling Lan, he looked lovestruck as though he wanted to gobble up Ling Lan. He then smiled sweetly. "I'm very pleased that you can join us."
Ling Lan could feel goosebumps all over her body. The veins on the sides of her forehead also popped out. She suddenly had the urge to immediately punch someone in the face.
Lord Yu on the other hand, seemed to be used to Lord Demon's antics as he wasn't affected in the slightest. He still calmly spoke out his opinion, "It can be discussed."
Seeing the other for lords all settling for peace, Lord Holy could only reply unwillingly under his breath, "I also don't have any problems with it."
Ling Lan glanced at Lord Holy before looking away indifferently. She waved her right sleeve and five ice thrones appeared out of thin air on both sides of the main hall.
"Have a seat!" Ling Lan raised her hand as she gestured for the five lords to sit down.
The five lords chose the ice thrones closest to them and sat down without speaking a single word of thanks to Ling Lan. Instead, they turned their gaze towards the entrance of the main hall in unplanned unison.
Similarly, Ling Lan didn't speak as she also set her gaze at the door.
Everyone was waiting. They were waiting to feel the energy fluctuations of a landing starship.
These energy fluctuations were usually very weak because of how far they were from the source. Standard domain realm masters might not be able to sense it, but for imperial realm masters like them, it was definitely something they could sense.
1375 Let"s Wait and See
They didn't wait for long. After tea in the hands simmered down to room temperature, a few silhouettes appeared at the entrance of the main hall.
The person leading them was indeed that same beautiful and charming young man, Luo Tianhua. At that moment, there were also three other similar aged individuals beside him. They were all unique in their demeanors, but from their auras, they were not less capable than each other.
Beholden with such a sight, the five lords were flabbergasted. An inexplicable 'Lan Xiao' had already shocked them to their core. Now, suddenly appeared a few more monstrous geniuses who were only slightly weaker than 'Lan Xiao'. Such powerful geniuses, other than those major nations, could only be nurtured by an organization like the Soul Society that had been around for millennia.
The five lords suddenly sensed a deep-seated frustration in their hearts. As natives, they had always been proud of the Lawless Lands' monstrous physical constitutions, believing that in terms of physical skills and mecha operating, those from the Lawless Lands were far more talented than anyone in the galaxy. However, these young men who stood before them shattered that perception into pieces. Even monstrously talented citizens of the Lawless Lands might not even be able to reach their current realm at their age, and there was no need to compare them with the monstrous demon 'Lan Xiao'. He was an impossible existence…
The four of them entered the main hall despite noticing the unrecognizable faces. Noticing their lack of respect towards them, the five lords intentionally put forth their pressure to take them down a notch.
Among the four people who arrived, Luo Tianhua, who the lords have met once before, along with a barbarian like young man seemed to not react to their pressure. They both looked on calmly. The other two, one with a devilish look while the other has a sharp and cold presence, only frowned slightly before returning to their normal expression in the blink of an eye. The pressure the five lords gave off didn't affect them too much.
The four of them walked towards Ling Lan's ice throne uniformly until they were three meters away. Then, they knelt on one leg and placed their left hands on their right breast, performing a standard bow for underlings when greeting their superiors. They were showing their respect to the Soul Society.
"Master Lord Gen!" shouted the four of them respectfully and in unison.
"You're five minutes late. Wait to receive your punishment later." Seeing two unexpected faces, Ling Lan was somewhat surprised. However, even so, she still calmly made the decision to punish the four of them all together.
Ling Lan knew that they had gone through many hardships and had tried their best to arrive on time. However, they were still late. Luckily, Ling Lan had some trump cards to withstand the combined attack of the five lords. If she was just somewhat weaker, not only would she die, they who arrived late would also definitely die with her.
Only when people die, information would not be leaked. Only when they die, could the Lawless Lands paint themselves as innocent for killing them. Despite no one believing them to be innocent, there wouldn't be anyone or anything to disprove of their claims. Even if the Soul Society knew it was the lords who killed them, the Soul Society still needed to think carefully about whether the war would be worth it or not.
After all, dead people were worthless. Even if they were monstrously talented when they were alive, talent was useless when it came to a corpse.
"Understood," Luo Lang and the others bowed and responded respectfully.
This was Ling Lan's usual way of dealing with things. Luo Lang and Zhao Jun had already gotten used to it, and did it naturally and smoothly. Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran on the other hand did it subconsciously because Zhao Jun had helped them to acclimatize to the customs of Lingtian. Zhao Jun told them they must accept anything Boss told them to do. If they couldn't do just that, then they should just not see Boss.
After being told that continuously for more than 20 days, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were successfully brainwashed. After Ling Lan's order, they subconsciously reacted like Zhao Jun had told them, kneeling down and accepting the order given to them obediently.
"This is the first shipment of supplies the Soul Emperor has made me bring." Luo Lang respectfully pulled out a list of supplies and held it above his head.
Ling Lan used her mind to contact Little White and a white tentacle rushed towards Luo Lang. It grabbed the list on Luo Lang's hands and then handed it to its master.
Ling Lan took it and carefully scanned it. A slight smirk appeared on her face. She raised her head and looked towards Lord Zhen. "Lord Zhen, because of the time crunch, the Soul Emperor will send full shipment in batches as they are still gathering the rest of the list. Following this shipment, there will be a second and a third one."
After saying that, Ling Lan flickered her finger lightly. The list in her hands floated towards Lord Zhen and then slowly landed in his hands.
Lord Zhen could sense that there was no residual domain concept energy left on the list that landed on his hand. Just this perfect control of power was enough for him to acknowledge Ling Lan.
Lord Zhen knew very well that moving objects like this through the air, no matter what the object was, the slower the speed, the more difficult it was to control. The way Ling Lan passed the object through the air was definitely more than difficult… Despite 'Lan Xiao' being so young, the insights he had of his domain concepts didn't seem to be weaker than any of them. His degree of control over his energy was even greater than them. This was perhaps why he was able to endure a combined attack from the five of them.
Lord Zhen pushed the random thought to the back of his mind and opened the list. After reading through it, his expression warped into one of joy. Of the things on the list, most of them were rare weapons and equipment they had always wanted but couldn't get their hands on them. There were also a portion of needed supplies of daily necessities for the citizens. Although they were already cooperating with the mercenary world to obtain such necessities, the mercenary world would sometimes not be able to get their hands on the necessary amount. The nations in the central region were too guarded against the Lawless Lands. They definitely wouldn't let the mercenary world get their hands on too much of the stuff and let the Lawless Lands have the possibility to develop faster.
Lord Zhen's look of joy drew in the attention of the other lords. Soon after, they all looked through the list Ling Lan had given them. Like Lord Zhen, they all had looks of surprise and joy on their faces. They didn't expect the Soul Society to be so courteous when they had just barely cooperated.
"This is how our Soul Society is presenting itself. Now, we want to see how the 13 Lords present themselves," said Ling Lan indifferently as she put her head down and rubbed Little White.
Although she sounded indifferent, her tone of voice suggested that if they sincerely cooperated with them, everyone would win. If not, everyone would lose out on this deal.
The five lords met each others' gazes as they discussed in hushed tones. After they finished discussing with one another, Lord Zhen stood up and smiled. "My little friend, we have seen the Soul Emperor's good faith. However, we will go back to Lord Qian and Lord Kun to further discuss how we can compensate you for this grand gesture. How about we give you an answer tomorrow?"
Ling Lan gave a half-smile towards Lord Zhen. After a minute of full silence, just as Lord Zhen's smile was about to crack, Ling Lan suddenly let out a huge smile.
All the ice and snow in the palace a few seconds ago suddenly melted. Lord Zhen was someone who had seen the beauties of the world. However, after seeing Ling Lan's smile, he was dumbfounded for a full second. When he fully realized what he had done, the expression on his face turned unfriendly.
Ling Lan still smiled brightly as she said, "That's fine too. I will wait for your good news."
The five lords then said their goodbyes and disappeared from the main hall. They only left behind five empty ice thrones in their place.
Ling Lan's smile slowly disappeared and her expression finally turned as cold as ice.
"Boss, what do they mean?" Luo Lang seemed to sense something was off and immediately asked.
"Heh, what do they mean? Well, that is for them to decide." Ling Lan laughed coldly. The fingers on her right hand softly rubbed together before flicking outwards. The five ice thrones instantly shattered into dust.
Chapter 1376 Let Bygones Be Bygones!
"We already showed them our goodwill, but they're actually still not satisfied yet?" Zhao Jun took in a deep breath. In order to help Boss increase the amount of bargaining chips he had, Lin Zhong-qing packaged all of the good stuff from Lingtian��s warehouse. Of course, even if he hadn't done that, Qi Long and Han Jijyun would have made the decision to do so. If they thought it was not enough, they would have asked the military headquarters for more. Even if the military headquarters didn't give it to them, Qi Long could still ask his father for them…
This shameless way of doing things… was completely inherited from Boss. It could be considered a tradition within Lingtian.
"If you can swallow more, then why not do so? In the end, it's just a game between us," Ling Lan said calmly.
"Troublesome." Luo Lang rubbed the back of his head annoyingly. Without the calm personality by his side, his brain was really useless in everything except for motor skills.
However, it seemed Little Leng hadn't come out in a long while. Luo Lang was somewhat worried about him. He didn't know if something had happened to him and whether everything was alright.
"Heh, at least he still has the conscience to think of you." After sensing the thought of the primary personality, the evil personality smiled devilishly towards the calm personality.
"He's always been good," said the calm personality.
Recently, the evil personality had been restricting him from leaving his side. He had already expected this to happen when he called upon the evil personality, which was why he wasn't furious about his current situation. Plus, the primary personality wasn't in any danger, so the calm personality just let him do as he pleased.
"What you said is so annoying." The evil personality's gaze turned ice cold. The two of them were always on the opposite side, constantly suppressing each other. The evil personality always thought the calm personality was the most important person in his life. He was his opponent, but also brother. However, the person who entered his heart, put someone else in his heart. Although the said person was their master on paper, in the eyes of the evil personality, that primary personality was too weak in his eyes. Just what qualifications did he have for the evil personality to think of him as his master?
"When will you understand?" The calm personality drew a long sigh. The primary personality's truthfulness and honesty did indeed draw the calm personality towards him. In the time he stood by Luo Lang's side as he grew up, Luo Lang had respected each of his personalities as an actual person who had the right to make their own decisions. He treated them like his own flesh and blood. How could the calm personality not sense the sincerity he showed them. In the end, he wholeheartedly and willingly wanted to help Luo Lang until he climbed to the top.
However, before all that, what made him willing accept being a servant wasn't the primary personality's sincerity but instead, it was Boss Ling Lan. That person, once angered, might be able to kill them even if all the personalities went against him all at once.
"I don't need to understand. I just know that he isn��t qualified," said the evil personality in an annoyed tone.
"Whatever you want." The calm personality didn't want to speak any further. Some things could only be known after someone experienced it. The evil personality wouldn't believe anything he said right now anyways.
The two personalities became silent once again. On the outside world, Ling Lan turned towards Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran. She raised her eyebrows slightly, "Also, why are you two here?"
Tang Ningyu snorted coldly. "What? We're not welcomed?"
Mu Chaoran was smiling slightly. "We've missed you. After all, we were friends once."
Ling Lan smirked and said, "It's probably because you received a mission to come find me, but didn't have any leads, so you could only shamelessly stay around Lingtian to hitch a ride."
Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran blushed after hearing Ling Lan blatantly exposing them. Mu Chaoran then got even more shameless and said, "Oh man, if you knew, why did you have to make it so obvious? At least save some face for us."
"Just tell me, who gave the order for you to track me?" Ling Lan wasn't going to fall for that. She just wanted to know what she wanted to know.
Ling Lan's attitude forced Mu Chaoran's smiling face back. He quickly got stern. "Flying Dragon Special Forces highest commanding officer, General Ren."
Ling Lan was surprised. She only heard about his person once from her father. When her father mentioned their relationship with each other, it didn't seem that good.
Now a person, who had an average relationship with her father, suddenly ordered Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran to find her? What was he planning? Was he an enemy or ally? Or perhaps he had some evil plot in mind?
Ling Lan knew very well that he must have discovered that the two of them had worked with her before, so he sent them to her. These two had some relationship with her, making it easier for them to locate her. Her father's planned assasination forced Ling Lan to be very guarded against everyone from the Federation's military headquarters. That was why she couldn't help but doubt their intentions after seeing Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran arrive.
Seeing Ling Lan's surprise, Zhao Jun quickly walked up and told her about how the chief of the Flying Dragon Special Forces, General Ren, helped Qi Long to acquire the commander position of the Lingtian Independant Army. Along with the fact that he spoke out to support Lan Luofeng to be the 23rd division's stand-in general.
After hearing all that, it seemed that this chief of the Flying Dragon Special Forces should be her father's friend, or perhaps someone who was really friendly with him. If so, then it might just be as Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu had said. That person was only worried about her so he sent them solely to protect her?
There was too little information for Ling Lan to rely on to have an accurate idea of what General Ren was planning to do. She could only put a large question mark on General Ren's face for now.
Ling Lan would never lower her guard against someone just because he had helped her in some way. When she didn't have any evidence to confirm it, Ling Lan would be guarded against anyone, including Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran.
"All of you should return to Jialan Ship now. There might be people probing us out tonight." After deciding it was not worth her time to think about such matters right now, Ling Lan promptly gave the four of them orders.
"Yes, and you two will follow as well." Ling Lan suddenly pointed to the side where Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei had been wallflowers for a long time.
"Yes, Lord Gen!" The two of them immediately accepted the order.
Just then, the two of them were carefully studying the three new underlings their master had gained. Luo Tianhua they had already seen before, was a titled domain realm master just like them. They had thought someone with monstrous talent like Luo Tianhua was only an outlier. So, they were quite shocked to see that they were actually three more individuals who were not any weaker than Luo Lang. They were at most only just a tiny bit weaker.
Compared to Ji Ming's mild shock, Yu Shangfei was more unsettled. After all, he did something similar to betrayal when Lord Gen was in danger. He was afraid Lord Gen would remember that and deal with him afterwards.
So, he really didn't expect Lord Gen to not punish them but instead, sending them on a mission. Yu Shangfei breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for Lord Gen's attitude of letting bygones be bygones.
Chapter 1377 Oath!
The clock struck midnight in the rainbow palace, signalling for those weary that it was time for bed. Even when multiple homes turned off their lights to prepare for their slumber, the rainbow palace was still lit up as bright as day.
Often, patrol would be seen doing their duties around the palace. However, today was an exception. Halls, rooms, corridors, all empty with no one in sight.
Although such a scene would usually be indicative of misfortune befalling, today was a celebratory day, as everyone in the palace was relieved from their duties for the night. Family members who usually worked during graveyard shifts were able to spend some quality time with their families and create everlasting memories together. For those with no family, it was still a glorious day as sleep would be their number one priority for the night. These times of happiness were ordered by one person, Lord Gen, who was in a great mood for the whole day.
Although no one understood why Lord Gen made such a decision, no one would be mad about not working, and thus after being notified of their leave, the servants and guards all happily packed their bags and went home. The only exceptions were the leaders of the patrol and guardians who were taken by Ji Ming and Yu Shangfei to defend Jialan Ship.
Ling Lan sat on the ice throne in the main hall with her right hand holding her forehead as she closed her eyes slightly. This whole scene created a picturesque image of a lonely king racking his brain to think of ways to improve the environment his subjects were living in.
On her crossed leg, Little White was there flopping on its belly while sleeping with its tentacles pointed in different directions. A drop of morning dew was hanging on for dear life near the corner of its lips. When the liquid was about to drop, Little White instinctively sucked in forcefully to get it back into its mouth.
Right at that moment, at the certain area of the main hall, a green plant suddenly emerged from the marble flooring. In the blink of an eye, it grew to the height of a man and then slowly changed into the figure of silhouette.
There stood a man with a pristine green cape with vines interwoven between each thread. His pitch black hair naturally flowed down from his head to the back of his neck. The man stood there quietly before lifting his head, parting the hair that was covering his face to reveal a strong chiseled jaw with sharp eyebrows complementing his already cat-like eyes. He didn't look any older than someone in his early 30s. He had a slight smirk on the corner of his lips. He exuded a warm and fresh aura to anything and everything around him. With just his presence alone, the cold hall got a few degrees warmer.
Sensing a gaze on her, Ling Lan slowly parted her closed eyelids. After seeing the relatively middle-aged man in front of her, Ling Lan wasn't surprised as she spoke out calmly, "I've been waiting for you. What should I be calling you? Lord Qian? Or Lord Kun?"
"You knew I was coming?" The middle-aged man said with a surprise in their voice. "You may address me as Lord Kun."
"With such a massive undertaking by the Lawless Land, it is obvious that one of you will come and meet me." Ling Lan pushed against the handles of her throne as she slowly sat up straight.
"I see why you gave your people a day off." Lord Kun showed a contemplative look on his face.
"Isn't that what you want too? I'm only just fully cooperating with you." Ling Lan laughed lightly.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Lord Kun also laughed with her and slowly clapped his hands. "To think Soul Society actually developed someone like you. They are really making me look at them in a different light."
"To be one of the lords of the Lawless Lands while being so young is quite impressive as well. In terms of influencing the Lawless Lands, the 13 Lords are doing a much better job than the Soul Society." Ling Lan seemed to be suggesting something.
"It's nothing really. I was just lucky enough to be nurtured and developed in the Lawless Lands," said Lord Kun plainly.
Suddenly, Lord Kun's tone turned cold. "With us here, no other faction or organization can have a piece of the Lawless Lands. If the Soul Society has that kind of thought, I would suggest you turn around and leave"
"Lord Kun, you don't need to worry about that. The Soul Society's goal was never the Lawless Land. We only want to keep a lifeline on the Lawless Lands, that's all," Ling Lan said without any fear in her tone.
"Is that Soul Society's promise?" Elder Kun's eyes shined with a bright green light for a moment. A sliver of his domain concept silently activated.
This was the domain technique from the branch of the language concept called 'Oath'. Under that concept, a conversation could be made into an oath bound by heaven and earth. Once the oath was broken, heaven and earth would dictate the punishment.
How could Ling Lan not have detected it? However, she still gave Lord Kun the oath without hesitation, "That's right. This is the Soul Society's promise. The Soul Society doesn't want to become the ruler of the Lawless Lands. The Soul Society only wants territory that it could hold in the Lawless Lands."
"Is Lord Gen's territory enough?" Lord Kun kept pressing for the oath to be more binding.
"Yes, the Soul Society only wants Lord Gen's territory. It is enough." Ling Lan looked straight at him and didn't hesitate one bit.
"Alright! The oath has been created." Lord Kun's eyes shined green for a moment once again. Then, on both his and Ling Lan's foreheads, the letters spelling out 'oath' appeared. Then, it slowly sank into their heads, symbolizing that their promise was acknowledged by heaven and earth.
Lord Kun was very satisfied with how the oath ended up. It was because this oath wasn't not restrictive to them, but only Ling Lan.
Ling Lan was nonchalant about it because her oath was made to the 13 Lords with the Soul Society's name, not her own.
"Tomorrow, the 13 Lords will officially announce to the Lawless Lands for you to take up the position of Lord Gen," Lord Kun finally said the words Ling Lan wanted to hear.
"However, on the subject of supplies, you must satisfy our needs," Lord Kun immediately brought up his demands.
"We will be responsible for the supplies, but only when money comes to me," replied Ling Lan.
In terms of supplies, Ling Lan wasn't actually worried. Firstly, she had the Chaotic Lands, along with Soul Society's 18th district's governor, Xia Qingyi, helping her to prepare and gather supplies. If Xia Qingyi was smart enough, he would grasp this opportunity to acquire the Soul Emperor's full support. That way, she would actually then be a real representative of the Soul Society on paper. It would also make her deals with the Soul Society become proper.
Secondly, on the matter of acquiring high-end weapons and equipment, the Lingtian Independent Army would be able to resolve that if the Chaotic Lands and the Soul Society were not able to.
Thirdly, Ling Lan believed that Little Four would definitely wake up. It was only a matter of time. Once Little Four woke up, she would be able to continue working to build up their corporate empire. When that happened, what wouldn't she be able to do?
These three points were enough for Ling Lan to have the confidence to accept Lord Kun's conditions. Of course, Ling Lan wasn't some idiot in business. Money that she could make still needed to be made.
"That's not a problem. Even if we don't have money, we can use items to exchange for them," said Lord Kun as he smiled slightly. It was clear that he didn't want to give money.
"That's fine, but that price must be lower than the market by half." Ling Lan mercilessly haggled down the price.
"No way. You're crazy." Lord Kun, of course, wouldn't agree. That condition was like squeezing him dry.
"We can't do business without money," Ling Lan said calmly. "One trip to and fro, no matter if it is manpower or supplies, everything is doubled. The losses I suffered there can only be managed with the money you give me."
"Hadn't you already made money by bringing in the supplies?" Lord Kun said calmly. "Don't you have such a large appetite. Otherwise, if you make everyone unhappy, it wouldn't be good for you."
1378 You Want to Fight?
"If we're talking business, exchanging items for my supplies is not sustainable for my side. You already know I can't sell the exchanged items for 100% of their value, and selling them at 60-70% of their value is already being optimistic, so me accepting the exchanged items at 50% of the value is a reasonable offer. Lord Kun, I'm not trying to cheat you. If any other merchant was in my position, you would have been given an even lower price when it comes to your proposal." Ling Lan was actually quite knowledgeable of the business world. Her eloquent words stunted Lord Kun for a moment.
"What you say makes sense, but the other lords will not consider 50%. If the Soul Society wants to enter into the Lawless Lands quickly, you should concede a little." Thinking about the potential profit they could make, Lord Kun got a little excited, but on the surface, he still had a stone-cold expression. "You should think about it carefully."
Ling Lan massaged her temples, contemplating the offer of Lord Kun. After a few seconds, she finally relented and said, "Then tell me, Lord Kun. At what price can you accept?"
Lord Kun calmly said, "80% of the original selling price."
Hearing the ridiculous offer, Ling Lan shook her head regretfully. "I will lose too much with that price. If this is a short term deal, it will perhaps be fine, but considering that it is a long term deal, the Soul Emperor would definitely not agree to that price."
"You really won't consider it?" Lord Kun's eyes sharpened slightly. The temperature of the entire main hall suddenly dropped.
Ling Lan stared directly at Lord Kun fearlessly. "It's not that I won't agree to it. That price is simply not acceptable to the Soul Emperor."
Hearing Ling Lan denying any fault in this failed argument, Lord Kun's expression got even worse.
"Lord Kun, you should really think where you stand in this deal. I'm being nice when I say you should be the conceding party here, not me. Although we do wish to have a place to call our own in the Lawless Lands, we are not desperate for it. Just think about it. Letting us suffer losses while you reap profit, doesn't sound like a good long term business relationship. Only when both sides profit, we're happy. Don't you think so?" Ling Lan said slowly.
Lord Kun visibly contemplated for a few seconds before slowly speaking up, "Tell me the lowest you can go? Don't go around in circles with me. I only want to hear it straight up."
Ling Lan bit her lip in frustration. "70%. That's our limit."
When Lord Kun heard that, a small smirk appeared on his face. "Alright, we'll settle with 70%."
Looking at the gloating Lord Kun, Ling Lan suddenly realized she had been fooled. She smiled bitterly. "I'm still too naive."
"It's just as you said, it's better when both of us win." Lord Kun smiled happily.
"Yeah, it's very good, but I will be punished by the emperor." Ling Lan helplessly sighed.
"If the emperor wants to discipline you, tell him to come find us." Lord Kun gave Ling Lan some empty words to comfort her. Suddenly, he shifted his gaze to the green plant growing in the corner of the frozen hall. He uncontrollably let out a confused sound. "Hmm?"
"I've never seen this species of plant before," Lord Kun instantly teleported next to the plant. He reached towards the plant as he said in a joyful tone.
Before his fingers could clamp down to pull a lead off, the green plant suddenly retracted back into the soil before emerging a meter away from him in the soil.
"It could sense my intentions." Lord Kun's lips curled upwards as he looked curiously towards the green plant. He again reached out with his hand in an attempt to stop the plant from escaping. However, before he knew it, a pale jade-like hand had already lightly held his wrist.
"Lord Kun, are you that bored to play with my pet? Don't you think that's a bit rude?" Ling Lan looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Pet?" Lord Kun looked at the green plant that had now vanished, with a shocked expression. The presence he felt earlier was clearly of the plant element. Could it be a plant that had a certain degree of intellect?
Ling Lan wasn't nice enough to explain to Lord Kun, so she only looked towards Lord Kun indifferently, hoping that he would take his hand back soon. She didn't want him to annoy Little White's clone.
"What if I must?" Lord Kun was a person who wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted, so he obviously wouldn't stop even if Ling Lan told him to stop.
Hearing Lord Kun's dominating words, Ling Lan narrowed her eyes. A dangerous presence leaked through her voice as she said coldly, "Perhaps, you want to fight?"
The two of them stared at each other coldly. The originally harmonious atmosphere was instantly replaced by a bone-chilling atmosphere as it slowly diffused through the whole hall.
Bang!
The two of them both expanded their concept energies and sent each other flying backwards.
Ling Lan waved the red cloak behind her and landed firmly on the ground. Her right hand had three ice spears in it.
Lord Kun on the other hand softly landed on the ground. As he landed, the ground below him cracked open to reveal countless of green vines wrapped around each other. The interlocked vines seemed to have came alive as the vines slowly expanded and contracted like a beating heart. The small buds on the surface of the vines slowly blossomed into bright red flowers the size of bowls.
"Plant concept!What a rare sight." Ling Lan got cautious. The concept Instructor Number Five had was similar to what was shown before her. In her spars against Instructor Number Five, Ling Lan never got ahead of him before. Most of the spars ended with her getting beaten to a pulp by Instructor Number Five. Such terrible memories about the plant based concept naturally made Ling Lan adhor any person who had the plant concept.
"You're not too shabby either. You are quite perceptive yourself." Lord Kun believed that his sneak attack was well hidden in the first exchange between them. Other than Lord Qian, any of the lords would have been injured by that. They definitely wouldn't have been like Lan Xiao who sensed it the moment Lord Kun had made his move.
Ling Lan didn't respond to his compliment. She wasn't going to tell him that the reason she was able to sense it quickly was completely because she had a lot of experience dying to sneak attacks infused with the plant concept. After 'dying' so many times, her body had naturally completely memorized the presence of those sneak attacks. Once any sneak attack infused with the plant concept came near her, her body would instinctively escape from it.
"I have heard a lot about you from Lord Zhen, but since we've started already, let me see just how strong you are." Right as Lord Kun finished speaking, the flowers on the vines suddenly increased in size and then began to outwardly grow.
Seeing this, Ling Lan immediately leaped off the floor. The place she was standing at originally had already become a wall of ice.
Phew! The red flowers suddenly spat out bright red liquid at the ice wall Ling Lan had just formed. Then, a sharp sizzling sound echoed in the area, and the ice wall instantly liquefied into a puddle of red liquid.
"It's a type of poison concept. The strong poison has the ability to disintegrate domain concepts…" Ling Lan's expression tensed up. This ability was quite similar to the disintegration ability of her Profound Insight concept. However, it was still much different in terms of how they would disintegrate concepts.
Her Profound Insight's concept of disintegration would cause her opponent's domain concept to disintegrate by its own accord and split up in a molecular level.
Lord Kun's strong poison concept on the other hand was disintegrating the concept by rearranging his opponent's domain concept's structure, causing his opponent's domain concept to be filled with flaws or cracks. Then, the flawed domain concept wouldn't be able to hold together and completely collapse.
Despite the two being fundamentally different, they still produce the same results
1379 Return!
"Using your ice element concept alone won't be enough against me. I heard a lot of fanfare about your space concept. I really want to witness the so-called invincible space concept. I want to see just how invincible it is under the assault of my plants." Just as Lord Kun finished speaking, his gentle aura turned malicious. Then, he lifted a finger to point at Ling Lan's direction.
Ling Lan immediately felt something was not right. Without wondering why, she just jumped off the ground.
A crimson bug suddenly emerged from the floor where she was standing at. As the crimson bug crawled out from the ground, it shook its body a little to reveal the razor thin wings. Seeing Ling Lan flying above it, it let out an ear-piercing screech, revealing its mouth which had rows of teeth much like a meat grinder. It then flew towards Ling Lan at lightning speed with its intimidating teeth.
"Hmph!" Seeing the crimson bug coming towards her, Ling Lan just snorted in response. She flicked her sleeve and multiple green tentacles shot out of her sleeve. Slit-like holes could be seen all over the tentacles, where it housed rows of thin and sharp teeth. There was also still saliva hanging off the teeth. Seeing the revolting bug coming towards them, they weren't frightened by it but instead, they got excited, as if they met their lunch. More saliva started to form in its mouth, but most of it dripped on the ground which corroded a huge area.
"Screech!"
"Rawr!"
When the two monsters faced off against each other, they started taking mouthfuls of each other's body.
"Screech…"
"Rawr…"
The two monsters continued to bite each other ruthlessly. Everything depended on which one was stronger. Only the strong were able to devour their opponent. At this moment, one could even hear the sound of chewing, which sounded exceptionally eerie in the empty main hall.
After Ling Lan released Little White's clone, she disregarded the crimson bug. She landed on the ground lightly and placed her red cloak over her shoulder. They were like her red wings as they glided down slowly along with her. Along with her arrogant and domineering aura, she looked like an emperor looking down on her subjects.
Lord Kun suddenly had this gut-wrenching feeling from the depths of his body. He felt shame, ashamed that he had intruded on the territory of a king, and fear, fearful of what was about to come.
However, the feeling only lasted for a fleeting moment. But, before he could analyse these emotions, Ling Lan flicked her fingers with her outstretched hands.
In an instant, an overwhelming amount of ice needles were formed densely in the air. And with a snap of a finger, they flew towards Lord Kun like the rain in a storm.
"Simple tricks!" Lord Kun scoffed. He placed his palms together and his body immediately sunk into the ground like a plant.
Phew! Phew! Phew! The ice needles pierced the marble flooring like a pin cushion.
Suddenly, Ling Lan's entire body suddenly shattered into ice shards.
Vines with glowing red flowers could be seen shattering through all the ice.
After the vines missed their target, they fell heavily onto the ground heavily, cracking the marble floor into tiny pieces.
"What a pity." Behind the spot where Ling Lan was standing, a plant had grown out from the ground. In an instant, it turned into Lord Kun.
"Two failed sneak attacks. His instinct is really amazing…" Lord Kun carefully scanned around him. He wanted to find where Ling Lan was hiding.
He carefully took a step forward. Suddenly, his expression froze as he could feel something brushing his legs.
Lord Kun remained motionless. His eyes slowly got tainted with green. With the help of the Eye of Plant, he finally saw what he felt.
It was a thin and almost invisible thread laid horizontally in front of him. This was the threat that his leg touched.
Lord Kun raised his head to carefully look at the area near him. Under a certain lighting angle, he could see threads covering the main hall from the right to the left, forming a huge web. Unexpectedly, he had become the prey of the web.
A figure slowly appeared in the air to show Ling Lan crossing her arms in front of her chest. There was a transparent threat linked to each of her fingers. Without a doubt, the creator of this huge web was Ling Lan.
"I didn't expect you to have such a technique," Lord Kun said with a stern face.
Every imperial realm formidable warrior had their own signature imperial technique. They would rarely be used until the final moment. Just based on this huge and frightening presence, as well as the powerful threat he felt from the web, Lord Kun had reasons to believe that this was Lan Xiao's imperial technique.
"If I didn't have this ace up my sleeve, how would I have been chosen to come here?" Ling Lan replied with a calm expression before tightly clenching her fist.
The threads in the main hall started to enclose on Lord Kun from all directions.
"Break!" Lord Kun waved his hands and numerous vines burst out from the floor below him. Then, they attacked the threads crazily.
The two parties started fighting bloodily. Either the red flower vines got minced by the threads or the threads were torn apart by the vines. The battle would only end when one party depleted all of their domain concepts energy.
Ling Lan watched as her threads got lesser and lesser slowly. As for Lord Kun's vines, there seemed to be an infinite number of them. New ones kept appearing to replace the ones that died.
This was an expected result as Lord Kun was more powerful than her. No wonder he was one of the figureheads of the 13 Lords. His strength was indeed a tier above the other members of the 13 Lords.
One Lord Kun was already powerful. Then, how powerful was Lord Qian who was rumoured to be in the god-realm?
The more she understood about the imperial realm, and the closer she got to god-realm, Ling Lan got a deeper understanding of how scary god-realm was. When she was young and naive in the past, she just knew that her master was powerful. She would at most think that her master was only a little more powerful than her father.
This naive perception remained until she became a titled domain formidable warrior. But, after she smuggled herself into Planet General to meet her mother with the help of her master, was when she finally understood how frightening god-realm was.
At that time, even though her master was standing in front of her, she was completely oblivious to her presence.
When he revealed himself, the sense of danger she felt then was terrifying. Her Profound Insight told her clearly that if her master was her enemy, she must run away immediately as far as she could.
When an imperial realm formidable warrior met a god-realm formidable warrior, the only thing she could do was run. This showed how frightening god-realm was. The god-realm was definitely unbelievable in the range of human capabilities. Honestly, Ling Lan thought becoming an imperial realm formidable warrior was already an unbelievable feat, but at least an imperial realm formidable warrior could still die.
The threads were disappearing at a noticeable rate. In the end, there were only a few hundred threads left. Seeing this, Lord Kun smiled lightly. Although his smile looked normal, the feeling it gave was exceptionally cold.
"Since you have been so kind to show me your beautiful show, let me return the favour." Lord Kun waved his hand and vines erupted from the floor around Ling Lan. The red buds on the vines bloomed instantly. In that instant, a gentle breeze blew past the main hall. The petals of the flower seemingly couldn't withstand the wind as they detach themselves to be carried on by the wind. The main hall suddenly dove into a world of red petals. It was eerily beautiful.
1380 Calculated Their Steps! I
Witnessing such a beautiful sight, Ling Lan's heart trembled. Although a scene like this would usually invoke a feeling of admiration and appreciation within someone, it only invoked a feeling of dread in Ling Lan.
The more beautiful something was, the more dangerous it was. In the learning space, under the guidance of her instructors, Ling Lan had a deep understanding of this principle, whether it was the written meaning or the hidden meaning.
The petals suddenly seemed to have given a burst of life, as they naturally changed their direction to fly towards Ling Lan ferociously.
At the scene, Ling Lan instantly understood what Lord Kun meant when he said he would return the favour.
Without a doubt, he was returning her with petals like how she did to him with ice needles.
Ling Lan placed her hands together and a giant ice dome congregated around her.
Boom! The razor sharp petals exploded as soon it hit the ice doom.
A dense red mist soon began to spread around the hall from the exploded petals.
The emergency alarm in Ling Lan's mind started blaring furiously. Without a second to waste, she quickly held in her breath.
However, Ling Lan immediately realized something had gone terribly wrong, as the red mist was slowly infiltrating into her domain concept.
It was corroding her domain concept!
Right at this second, Little White's clone, who was fighting with the crimson bug, finally devoured its opponent. It burped in satisfaction… The meal it ate today was very nourishing for its body. After it finished the battle today and had a good sleep, it would be able to advance.
Suddenly, its body shuddered. It turned wild with joy as it looked at the thick red mist.
It smelled something that was even more delicious. This red mist was definitely the tonics of tonics.
"Rawr!" (Master, please let me eat it.)
Little White shouted agitatedly as the appearance of the red mist was a huge opportunity for it. If its master ate the red mist without sharing with it, it would cry itself to death. In Little White's eyes, anything that was good for it was good for its master too. Thus, in his mind, its master would like to eat anything that it liked to eat too.
Fortunately, Ling Lan didn't know that Little White had this weird perception about her. If not, she would definitely give Little White some quality education to let it understand that there was a difference in the taste between humans and monsters like it.
While Little White was being jealous of eating the good food by herself, Ling Lan was still thinking of ways to solve this danger that could erode her domain concept.
Suddenly, she could hear Little White shouting with all its might.
"That's good too." Ling Lan decisively stopped using her ice element concept. Almost instantly, a slit appeared in front of Ling Lan. It slowly opened, revealing a deep and endless multi-dimensional space.
"It's really the space element." Lord Kun's expression turned serious. He carefully observed the multi-dimensional space that was opened.
After the multi-dimensional space appeared, a huge suction force came out of it. All the red mist in the air got sucked into the multi-dimensional space.
Little White was a pet that loyally protected its master. After the red mist was sucked into its belly, it noticed that Lord Kun still wanted to attack its master, so it got angry and it tried to bite Lord Kun.
Hmph, Little White must be a qualified loyal pet that attacked without barking.
Who instilled this thought into Little White? …Please look for its raiser, Li Lanfeng.
In Lord Kun's point of view, he could only see the multi-dimensional space extending and moving towards him. His gaze turned sharp. He waved his hands in an orderly manner and a patch of grass magically grew ground from the pulverized marble floor. Then, the grass grew out radically until it was like a giant wave of grass. With its immense momentum, it moved towards the multi-dimensional space with the intention to wrap itself around it.
The giant grass wave covered the entire hole. Although the suction force coming from the hole was strong, the grass wave could still hold on as its ends were clinging on the edge of the hole, helping it to hold on with perseverance. No matter how much Little White sucked, it wouldn't go in.
This stalemate was maintained for a few seconds. Little White soon realized it couldn't do anything to the grass wave, so it decided to stop.
Snap! The multi-dimensional space closed up. The grass wave slowly fell to the ground without the suction force from the black hole.
When it fell to the ground, everyone could see that only the edges of the grass wave were left. The center portion had already been sucked away.
Little White felt a little full. The mass amount of energy was wreaking havoc in its body, so it must immediately enter its evolution state or the energy would go into an uncontrollable state. If that happened, it would get injured.
Hence, it started rawring out loud a few times. (Master, I'm full. I need to evolve so I'll leave first.)
Before Ling Lan could reply, all of Little White's clones in the main hall withered away. Little White followed its withered clones and flowed down their roots, piercing through the marble floor to reach the soil below the rainbow palace to hide in the depths of the soil.
"Space element is indeed impressive. Take another attack from me." A cold intent appeared in Lord Kun's eyes. His hands danced around each other quickly, and soon the entire main hall was swarmed with plants. The extravagant and brightly lighted hall turned into a world of plants.
Ling Lan could distinctively feel her opponent's domain concept pushing away and segregating her ice element domain from the main hall.
This was clear evidence that her opponent's domain concept was more powerful than hers. Although they were both in the imperial realm, there was a huge difference between her and Lord Kun.
Killing intent suddenly appeared in Ling Lan's gaze, and a powerful force of presence descended on Lord Kun's head.
Lord Kun was caught off his guard by the sudden change so he vomited out a mouthful of blood.
Fortunately, this force of presence only lasted for a split second. Even so, Lord Kun felt cold sweat all over his body, even his legs were a little weak.
"God-realm!" He stared at Ling Lan with dread before finally managing to squeeze these two words out. He didn't expect such a frightening existence to be present around Lan Xiao.
Ling Lan placed her hand behind her back and said calmly, "The 13 Lords of the Lawless Lands is very powerful. If the Soul Society doesn't show some sincerity, how can we ask for a peaceful collaboration?"
In order to do business in this vicious land, you needed to have a powerful background. If not, you're not here to do business, you're here to give up your life.
"Soul Society really covered all their steps," Lord Kun said with a pale face. He was pale because having such a powerful person stationed here didn't mean anything good for the Lawless Lands. Plus, he was also quite injured from the altercation.
"Thank you for the compliment. The Soul Emperor doesn't like to fail." Ling Lan smiled and said, "The promises of the Soul Society still remain effective."
"Good. I'll tell Lord Qian about this." Lord Kun replied resolutely, "Tomorrow at 8 am, the news of a new Lord Kun will be announced. This is a decision made by the 13 Lords of the Lawless Lands."
Ling Lan nodded. "Thank you. The goods will be here three days later."
"It's a promise then," Lord Kun confirmed.
"Yes." Ling Lan gave her promise again.
After this affirmation, Lord Kun's figure disappeared from the main hall. The world of plants quickly subsided. In a blink of an eye, the main hall returned to its normal appearance.
Only after a few minutes did Ling Lan feel that Lord Kun's aura had completely disappeared. "Pfft." She finally spat out the blood that she had been withholding in her chest.
1381 Nothing!
"He only took over my body for one second, but the backlash is already so severe. Just how strong is Instructor Number One?" Ling Lan pressed against her chest and smiled bitterly. However, asking Instructor Number One to possess her body for a while was a part of her plan. Even though it would severely injure her, it was something that needed to be done. For her plan to conquer the Lawless Landed, she needed the strength to stand on level ground with them, even if she didn't have it, she still needed to fake she had it.
"This should be enough to stall them for a while." Ling Lan endured the immense pain and walked to the ice throne to sit down. Then, she began to practice her Qi exercises. Without the Nuwa agent, Ling Lan could only use her own restoration techniques. She was lucky that the Qi exercises had always been good to her. Despite not being as strong as the Nuwa agent, it still showed some positive results.
At the spaceport, where the Jialan Ship was docked at, it was just as Ling Lan had expected. A few unknown factions attempted to steal the supplies on the Jialan Ship. However, these people didn't think that they would be met with a brick wall.
There were actually more than 10 titled domain realm formidable warriors guarding Jialan Ship and domain realm masters swarmed the ship.
Of course, the thieves weren't weak either. Although they were caught off guard in the beginning, they quickly calmed themselves and pushed back those on the Jialan Ship.
Right as other factions were watching from the sidelines, deciding whether they should join or not, the Jialan Ship finally revealed their fangs. No one expected the Jialan Ship to have an ace mecha clan of 2000 soldiers, and most of them were peak level ace operators.
It should be known that an elite ace operator with a top-class ace mecha could easily deal with a beginner domain realm master. A peak level ace operator with a top-class ace mecha would be able to fight against titled domain realm formidable warriors. It was just like if the Jialan Ship suddenly had 2000 men who were just as strong as titled domain realm formidable warriors. Would any standard faction be able to fight against them? Unless it was a faction under the 13 Lords. However, the factions of the 13 Lords had made a pact with Ling Lan, so they definitely wouldn't take the risk of exposing themselves by sending their own ace mecha clans to join the battle.
Those factions who saw the situation turn badly for them, quickly retreated. Zhao Jun and the others remembered Ling Lan's orders and didn't chase them. They stood firmly and guarded Jialan Ship without leaving its side.
Li Shiyu, who had been busy saving the injured soldiers, finally treated the last patient. After some grueling hours of work, he finally stepped out of the medical operating room.
Luo Chao, who had been busy dealing with all kinds of administrative affairs, was currently lounging on a sofa in front of the operating room. She was leaning on the back of the sofa with her eyes closed.
Her face showed that she was completely exhausted. As the commander of the starship, she was given the responsibility of commanding the battle. It was her first time taking on such a huge responsibility, so it really exhausted her.
When Li Shiyu walked out of his operating room and saw this pitiful sight, he felt sad for LUo Chao. He walked into his own room beside the operating room, took out a blanket and gently placed it over Luo Chao.
His gaze fell upon Luo Chao's beautiful and elegant face. Despite Luo Chao and Luo Lang's faces being almost identical, Li Shiyu could always differentiate between the two of them ever since the first time they met.
Although everyone basically reached a consensus that even their smiles were completely identical, Li Shiyu never actually agreed with that. From his point of view, Luo Chao and Luo Lang's smiles were completely different. Luo Chao's smile had a hint of shyness to it, while Luo Lang's smile on the other hand was a blank sheet. If he were to say it nicely, it would be considered a pure smile. If he were to say it in a mean way, then it would be considered just Luo Lang being stupid.
But, all of this was just his own opinion. After all, Li Shiyu wasn't someone who would force people to agree with his subjective opinions. The differences he saw between the two of them were kept in his mind, never to be told to anyone.
However, it was because of his unique perspective that made him pay more attention to Luo Chao. In Lingtian, Luo Chao had always been the person who everyone neglected. Her brother Luo Lang just shined too brightly in front of others. No matter if it was physical skills or mecha piloting, among the younger generations in Lingtian (not including Lingtian's Boss Ling Lan who wasn't considered a human), he was definitely among the top three. In addition, he was also the one of the brigade leaders. Luo Lang was definitely the person everyone had their eyes on in Lingtian.
In contrast, his younger sister Luo Chao, other than the friends she grew up with, along with a few older individuals who she was in good relations with, most would ignore Luo Chao's growth because of the traditional and primitive thoughts about women. If she were to appear in front of everyone, she would either be mistaken for her brother Luo Lang, or be given the label of Brigade Leaders Luo's younger sister. It could be said that in Lingtian, even though she had become the department head of the one of the departments in logistics, there were still people who believed she got to that position because she had such a good brother. Furthermore, they also brushed off her personal achievements just because she was Boss��s fiancée.
No one truly acknowledged Luo Chao's abilities. She was constantly being underestimated and wronged, even her dumb older brother Luo Lang didn't notice. Boss Ling Lan however… As the commander of an army, there were too many matters he needed to handle, which constrained his time to concern himself with his fiancée. Additionally, Luo Chao had always been a strong-willed woman. Even if she had been wronged, she wouldn't speak out about it. She would only bite her lip and work hard to quickly grow, in order for everyone to acknowledge her sooner.
It was like that when she followed Li Shiyu to learn medicine. There were many times, when he did checks at night, he saw her staying back in the operating room by herself. She used needles on her own body to study where the pressure points were precisely at. Only after experiencing the effect and pain that came along with it could one finally acquire this technique. Luo Chao understood that, and did not go easy on herself.
Li Shiyu acknowledged that in the past, he was more or less affected by the traditional way of thought. That was why when Boss sent Luo Chao and Han Xuya to learn under him, he only taught them some basic first aid for emergency purposes. He didn't want to teach them too much. However, Luo Chao's perseverance and her willingness to improve made him acknowledge her, and all her drive to improve was because of one person. Wasn't he the same when he first set out to be a military doctor? It all was to help that one person who he treasured the most. Li Shiyu understood Luo Chao's thoughts because he was in her position before.
After noticing her strong drive to improve, Li Shiyu began to patiently teach Luo Chao all of his learnt medical techniques. He was willing to teach whatever Luo Chao wanted.
After Lingtian became an army and Luo Chao left to become a department head within the logistics department, Luo Chao finally felt she could hold her head up high. Luo Chao faced the suspicions against her, worked hard and slowly proved everyone wrong. Others might not have seen all of her hard work behind her glorious achievements, but he saw it clearly. He knew the path Luo Chao took was not an easy one, but rather quite hard.
Most importantly, no one helped her in this difficult path. Luo Lang had always been negligent and careless, so he wouldn't understand Luo Chao's trouble unless told. Boss on the other hand… Li Shiyu actually believed Boss clearly knew about Luo Chao's troubles, but Boss never chose to do anything about it, he just watched from the sidelines. Sometimes, even Li Shiyu couldn't understand why Boss would be so heartless. After all, Luo Chao was his fiancée, not just another subordinate. Why did he treat her that way? Even if he didn't help her, at least he should give her some words of comfort.
Unfortunately, he never said anything to her.
1382 This Was Love!
Li Shiyu saw everything. He felt his heart hurting for Luo Chao. He interacted with Luo Chao for a long time, so he knew she was working so hard for Boss Lan's sake.
Luo Chao didn't want to be left too far behind by Boss Lan. She wanted to catch up with him and stand beside him.
This was probably what love was!
Li Shiyu didn't really know anything about love, since he placed all his focus in his medical research, so he never really had the time to experience love before. However, after learning Luo Chao's feelings towards Boss Lan, Li Shiyu felt that her actions could only be explained by love (actually, Luo Chao just wanted to catch up to her idol).
Unfortunately, the man Luo Chao loved wasn't someone who would prioritise his family! Boss Lan's heart was too big for just his family. He fitted too many people inside his heart, leaving the space for Luo Chao almost negligible.
Boss Lan was definitely a good boss and a good brother. Li Shiyu acknowledged Boss in those aspects wholeheartedly. However, looking from Luo Chao's point of view, Boss Lan wasn't a qualified lover or fiancée.
However, this was all Luo Chao and Boss Lan's personal matter, while he was just a bystander. He didn't have any right to decide whether they were qualified to be together.
Oh, he needed to talk about his little sister, Xuya, too. This was their matter. Although he couldn't say anything about their relationship, he could still have his own opinion about it. In his opinion, Boss Lan was a bad lover and a bad fiance.
He felt pity for Luo Chao, so maybe because of this feeling that he started to take notice of Luo Chao. Unconsciously, he started doting Luo Chao as though she was his blood-related little sister. He hoped that Boss Lan wouldn't let down such a good young lady. He didn't want to see his beloved little sister getting hurt or cry because of love.
If that day really came, he hoped that he would be able to provide Luo Chao with a sturdy shoulder to cry on.
Thus, when he heard that Luo Chao wanted to lead the Jialan Ship to reinforce Boss Lan, so as someone who was worried that she would get hurt, he decisively moved his surgery room onto the Jialan Ship.
Of course, this was only a small part of the reason. Most importantly, he was worried about Boss Lan. When Boss Lan left, he didn't bring many bottles of medicinal agents with him. Li Shiyu was afraid that without him, based on how Boss Lan always disregarded his safety when he was fighting, Boss Lan would be severely injured. He was really afraid of this.
Still, he didn't expect the first night at the Lawless Lands to be so dangerous. If the reinforcements didn't come in time, if there wasn't a Dr. Frankenstein like him stationed here, a lot of soldiers would have died.
As the captain of the Jialan Ship, Luo Chao had a torturous night. Luckily, she managed to pull through it.
Li Shiyu's gaze landed on Luo Chao's furrowed brows. She was frowning even in her sleep. Ever since Boss disappeared during the battle with Twilight, Luo Chao's brows had never relaxed. Li Shiyu was worried about Luo Chao's state of mind.
Impulsively, Li Shiyu raised his right hand and massaged Luo Chao's brows lightly. He wanted to straighten the creases on her forehead.
His little sister Luo Chao was most beautiful when she was smiling.
Suddenly, Luo Chao opened her eyes with vigilance when she felt someone touching her forehead.
Li Shiyu retracted his hand in shock. He looked at Luo Chao, who opened her eyes, with a gaping mouth. He didn't know what to say suddenly.
"Brother Shiyu?" Luo Chao looked at Li Shiyu in surprise. She didn't understand why he looked so scared.
Luo Chao sat up, causing the blanket covering her body to slide down. Instinctively, she lowered her head and pulled it up. When she saw the blanket, she knew that Li Shiyu must be the one who placed it over her. She looked up and said gratefully, "Brother Shiyu, thank you for the blanket."
Li Shiyu finally regained his senses. He said seriously, "Don't sleep like that in the future. The temperature here is a little low. It is easy to catch a cold here, especially when you're so tired."
"I understand, Brother Shiyu," Luo Chao replied obediently. She knew that Li Shiyu reprimanded her because he was concerned about her, so she accepted it readily.
"Luckily, you're alright." Li Shiyu suddenly turned to walk into his room. After some time, he came out carrying a leather suitcase.
"Brother Shiyu, where are you going?" Luo Chao asked sternly. They just fended off the thieves. It wasn't safe to go out now.
"I am going to see Boss Lan," Li Shiyu replied calmly.
"Why? Didn't Boss say he would come and find us?" Luo Chao asked in confusion.
"Boss sent everyone out yesterday, why do you think he did that?" Li Shiyu asked Luo Chao instead of replying to her.
Luo Chao started thinking seriously. After a moment, her pupils dilated in fear. "Boss is fighting too?"
"Do you think that they will only mess with us?" Li Shiyu sneered. ���If they wanted to uproot us, they definitely would not let Boss go."
"Why didn't you say earlier? I'll call people over immediately," Luo Chao jumped up and said agitatedly.
"This is not the right time for them to go over," Li Shiyu replied in a composed manner.
"Why?" Luo Chao didn't understand what Li Shiyu meant. Shouldn't they send help to Boss as soon as possible?
"Boss's fight isn't something people like us can take part in. He sent everyone here probably because he was afraid that his fight would implicate us. He is concerned about our safety." Li Shiyu's mind was as clear as day. As someone who was once an inheritor of the Li family, he had been groomed to become a family head ever since he was young, so his thought process was smooth and based on reason. If there wasn't already a better choice, the Li family would never bear to let Li Shiyu walk on the medical path.
"I'm just worried that Boss might be injured and that he doesn't have enough medical agents with him. If he doesn't get the agents in time, it may affect his health in the future." Li Shiyu explained why he wanted to leave now. The thieves came and left quickly, so there was a huge possibility that Boss won his fight.
"I understand, but I want to go too." Luo Chao hurriedly caught up with him.
"If you leave, what will happen to the Jialan Ship?" Li Shiyu understood that Luo Chao was worried about her fiance but as the captain of the Jialan Ship, it wasn't right for her to leave.
"It's alright. My brother is here." Luo Chao gave a naughty smile.
"Huh?" Li Shiyu was puzzled. What did this have to do with Luo Lang?
Luo Chao pouted. "Hmph, my brother always asks me to pretend to be him. This time, he can pretend to be me."
"Huh?" This time, Li Shiyu was stunned.
"Let's go, Brother Shiyu. I've already told Jialan to inform my brother." Luo Chao hooked Li Shiyu's arm and smiled at him sweetly.
"I see. You're Luo Lang now." Li Shiyu understood her intention now. Luo Chao would return to the rainbow palace as Luo Lang. Fine, this could be a way for Luo Lang to compensate his little sister after years of not taking care of her and leaving her without a care in the world. Li Shiyu abandoned the poor Luo Lang decisively.
Thus, 'Luo Lang', Ji Ming, Yu Shangfei, Tang Ningyu, Mu Chaoran, Li Shiyu, and Han Xuya brought a portion of the servants from the rainbow palace back.
Lord Gen's guardians were with them so their journey back to the rainbow palace was very peaceful. No insensible people came out to block them or create trouble for them.