Looking at his Destiny Value, now reduced to just 1 point, Gu Wangchen could no longer suppress the smile tugging fiercely at his lips.
How many years had it been?
All because of that damned -99 Destiny Value, he had been left with nothing but a top-tier cultivation method his father, the Prime Minister, had obtained for him, yet he was unable to cultivate.
It felt like sitting atop a mountain of gold he couldn’t touch; the frustration kept him awake almost every night.
He opened his status panel and glanced at his upper-tier Heavenly-rank technique, the Haomiao Taixuan Scripture. For a moment, Gu Wangchen felt an overwhelming sense of melancholy.
His inability to cultivate wasn’t just a problem he himself had been seeking to solve all these years; even his Prime Minister father and his father’s subordinates had been searching for solutions alongside him.
Whether it was within Da Qian or out in Bei Mo, Nan Jiang, Xi Yu, even as far as Dong Ying and Fulin, they had made inquiries. Over the years, he had tried countless methods, to the point where his whole body was practically a walking medicine jar.
But to say the medicine had worked would be a lie—it had been completely useless.
And now…
Simply by disrupting that fated first encounter between Sikong Yue and Li Zhaoning, a problem that had plagued the entire Xiangfu for years was resolved, just like that.
It was all about finding the right remedy for the problem!
With this thought, Gu Wangchen forcibly pressed down the corners of his mouth. He couldn’t wait any longer and was about to activate the technique he had already practiced to perfection right there in the carriage.
“Master, something’s up.” The maid, An Li, leaned over and whispered a warning.
“What is it?”
“Jing Ting Wei is suppressing a Magic Cultivator on the avenue. The area ahead has temporarily turned into a battlefield. We’re…”
“Oh? Even Fenghuang Avenue is blocked?” Gu Wangchen grinned, thinking to himself that he had only just finished lifting the blockade at Ba Qiao and was ready to head home, but now someone else had blocked his way.
“It’s not a formal blockade. Fenghuang Avenue… aside from the Emperor and the Two Ministers, no one else has the authority to seal it off. But the battle between Jing Ting Wei and the Magic Cultivator is so intense that the entire avenue is effectively blocked.”
“So isn’t that the same thing?”
Gu Wangchen asked offhandedly, then his expression turned serious and he lowered his voice. “This could get tricky… We left in a grand procession this time. Everyone knows I’m in this carriage.”
Based on his deliberately crafted image as a pampered good-for-nothing, what he ought to do now was flaunt his status and pressure those Jing Ting Wei officers to let him pass.
If it was before, before he’d awakened memories of his past life, perhaps he really would have let the Magic Cultivator go just to maintain his persona.
But after awakening his past-life memories, he was reluctant to do so.
This was different from blocking Ba Qiao. Even if he’d blocked Ba Qiao for a few hours, the worst that would happen was people having to take a detour to enter the city.
But if, because of him, a Magic Cultivator who could have been subdued managed to escape and caused unnecessary casualties, his conscience wouldn’t let it go.
After a moment’s thought, he made up his mind. “Stop the carriage. Xiao Li, come out with me to watch the excitement!”
“Yes, Young Master~”
Stepping down from the carriage, attended by a crowd, Gu Wangchen sat in his beloved rocking chair, enjoying grapes that An Li had peeled for him, while he surveyed the entire length of Fenghuang Avenue.
On both sides of the avenue, buildings stood close together, their downstairs restaurants and shops stretching all the way along the street. All kinds of goods dazzled the eye, and some shops were so lavishly decorated they even boasted glass display cabinets.
Colorful silks were hung under the eaves of the fabric shops, fluttering in the wind and adorning the midday Sheng’an City in a gorgeous new robe.
The sizzling of oil, the clinking of wine cups, the loud chatter of people playing drinking games, and the sonorous voices of storytellers all filled the air. The avenue was thronged with people on both sides as far as the eye could see.
But contrary to his expectations of a “Jing Ting Wei enforcing the law, idle bystanders retreating” scene, even the area closest to the incident was crowded with people eager to watch the commotion.
Most of them wore cloth hats or headscarves and simple robes typical of the Central Plains. Yet, there were also many foreigners, obviously not from the Central Plains, striding boldly through the streets.
There were the tall, burly, bearded men of Bei Mo with bone necklaces, traders from Xi Yu with headscarves carrying fragrant spices, western merchants with blond hair and blue eyes in fine suits, and even the short, conical-hat-wearing, sword-carrying men from Dong Ying.
None of them found the others strange; all gathered outside the cordoned area, faces alight with curiosity as they watched the fight.
Seeing this “Myriad Nations in Their Finery” tableau, Gu Wangchen was reminded of the world’s background.
In Xian Yuan Wendao, the Da Qian Dynasty was modeled after the “Great Prosperity Era,” where “Jiutian Heliu opens the palace gates, and envoys of all nations pay homage to the Mianliu.”
And, of course, it incorporated elements of the supernatural.
For dramatic effect, Da Qian did not enforce curfews, and commerce was extremely prosperous. “Sheng’an City That Never Sleeps” was just one of its many illustrious titles.
However…
Gu Wangchen thought of the Sick Emperor who hadn’t attended court for years, the undercurrents flowing beneath the city’s brilliant lights, the battles between the Three Major Political Factions in Sheng’an City in the main story, and later, the An-Shi Rebellion. He couldn’t help but sigh a little.
“Forget it, there’s no point worrying about things too far in the future. What matters now is changing my own fate and gaining a foothold in this perilous Sheng’an City.”
“Power. Only by having real power can I truly influence the plot to come and change…”
He put aside these thoughts and looked up at the fight ahead.
More than a dozen people wearing Xuanhei Feiyu Uniforms, standard swords at their waists, their chests and backs marked with the angry-eyed Bi’an pattern, had drawn their blades and were besieging a black-robed figure. The figure wore a sorrowful white mask and was shrouded in black and red murderous aura.
That figure seemed seriously injured. Every time she threw a punch, a trace of blood seeped through the bandages tightly wrapped around her, dripping to the ground.
Surrounded and attacked from all sides, the figure was quickly forced into a desperate situation.
Gu Wangchen looked at the figure, feeling a strange sense of familiarity, but couldn’t recall why.
At that moment, the besieged person seemed to notice that, unlike the others in rich robes, Gu Wangchen didn’t possess a trace of true qi. At the cost of taking a blow to the back, she lunged forward and grabbed the throat of a Jing Ting Wei officer. Black and red aura instantly wrapped around the man.
With a sickening crunch, the officer went limp, skin shriveling as life left his body.
“Shit, demonic technique!”
Now Gu Wangchen remembered who that figure was—it was Mu Chanyi, inheritor of demonic arts from Xian Yuan.
She was a growing antagonist who played against Feng Aotian Sikong Yue all the way to the late stages of the story!
This woman was a madman with no scruples. His status meant nothing to her—in fact, it might even have the opposite effect.
With that realization, Gu Wangchen no longer felt like sitting back and watching the show. He sprang to his feet and ordered, “Enough of this. Let’s take a detour!”
He wasn’t joking. Keeping up appearances was all well and good, but only so long as his own life wasn’t at stake. The instant he’d locked eyes with the inheritor of demonic arts, he’d sensed her killing intent.
Clang!
Facing the black shrouded figure charging at them like a cannonball, A Liu immediately drew his sword, barely managing to parry a punch that could shatter gold and split stone.
“Damn!”
The slender, pale fist slammed into his sword, and A Liu felt his insides churn. He stumbled back three steps, only managing to steady himself by bracing against the carriage.
Just one exchange and he’d lost most of his fighting strength.
They were both at the Fifth Realm, but how could the gap be this wide?
But before he could recover, the black aura-shrouded figure slipped past him, reaching straight for the stunned Gu Wangchen.
“Don’t you dare hurt the Young Master!”
As the shout rang out, several guards drew their swords and attacked Mu Chanyi, and chaos erupted as both sides clashed.
Only, it seemed someone was missing from the scene.
A Liu glanced around and realized that the Young Master’s personal maid, Xiao Li, was nowhere to be seen.
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