Chapter 353: Appearance of Zhi IX and an Ambitious Scheme
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Immortal Palace,
Pantuo Yard,
This secluded space hidden away in the mountains always gave Zhou Bao a sense of harmony, which was something of a deception. When there were people, there was Jianghu; and when there was Jianghu, there will always be disputes. That scenario could be applied to everywhere. In general, the Immortal Palace was a place where people could stand aloof from gaining worldly success, but there were still some competition for gaining profits. It was just that these competition for profit gains had little to do with Zhou Bao.
A streak of white light flashed across the sky and vanished within seconds. From the brilliant glow, the figure of White Tiger emerged in the Pantuo Yard.
The Pantuo Yard was the private residence of Elder Qing. Previously, all the places Zhou Bao had gone to in the Immortal Palace were those that were used for official business only, so he had never entered this Pantuo Yard.
This yard was inconspicuous in appearance. There was nothing attractive about it. But because this was someone’s private residence, it held a special significance, much like Zhongnanhai, the White House and the No.10 Downing Street, places that had existed in Zhou Bao’s previous life. Here, this place was the real core of the Immortal Palace.
As the white light faded, White Tiger’s eyes started running over the slightly shabby yard. Then, with the barest hint of a smile flitting through his eyes, he walked towards the house.
“Look, look, it’s like what I said. I told you the Smiling Tiger would come for sure!” Before he had even entered the house, he heard a burst of laughter from inside. The laughter sounded like it was from a young voice, it rang out clearly and was very pleasant to the ears.
“However, White Tiger was sullen when he heard the laughter. “Hehe, Zhi IX, it’s you. You seem to appear wherever the action is!. Why don’t you go to hell!”
His words were rude, and his behavior was even ruder—White Tiger strode into the room, cast a glance at the two who were drinking tea, and immediately sat down beside them. “Something is fishy is going on with that Zhou Bao!”
“Of course it is fishy. Otherwise, how could you, the Smiling Tiger, be cornered like this!” Zhi IX, a middle-aged frail-looking intellectual, looked as if he could be blown away by a mere gust of wind. He had even applied rouge and powder on his face, which gave him a rather grotesque appearance. His fingers were long and tapering and he was holding a white folding fan. He sniggered and clapped his hand over his mouth.
“At the sight of this delicate and seductive gesture, White Tiger gave a scowl, “Humph, Zhi IX, the Central Mainland Region belongs to our Immortal Palace. We cannot let this type of guy stay there!”
“That is a mere lie. When you were trying to gain a foothold in the Penglai Region, Divine Wind Palace said the same thing!”
“This matter isn’t for you to decide. It’s a You’re wasting your time if you are here to solicit a favor!” White Tiger waved his hands angrily, loathing showing all over his face.
Zhi IX looked totally unperturbed at this. He merely raised his eyebrows and said, “It’s true I’m not the one who calls the shots on this, but today I am here not on my own will. Smiling Tiger, you’ve struck Zhou Bao. That means you’ve committed a breach of the Law of Heaven. Do you intend to commit another breach?”
“Yeah, I did breach the Law of Heaven, but what are you going to do about it? Bite me?” yelled White Tiger, brazen-faced, and clearly using this shameless strategy in front of the two.
After hearing that, even Elder Qing could not stand it anymore. This person was one of the Four Images of the Immortal Palace, and he was about to take control in the Central Mainland Region! That would be an utter disgrace to the Immortal Palace, as well as to him, Green Dragon.
Seeing Elder Qing’s thunderous expression, White Tiger shrugged and kept quiet.
“Elder Qing, what’s your opinion on this?” Noticing that White Tiger had gone very quiet, Zhi IX asked Elder Qing over his shoulder.
“What else could it be? This time it’s White Tiger who started the fight and infringed the rules. We at Immortal Palace have nothing more to say about that. As for that Zhou Bao, we won’t pick on him. Anyhow, he still has a certain bond with the Tian Long Taoism!”
Tian Long Taoism?” Hearing this, a smile flashed across Zhi IX’s eyes. He said, “That being the case, it couldn’t be better. I, Zhi IX, hereby thank Your Excellency, Green Dragon!”
While speaking, Zhi IX got to his feet, gave a deep bow towards Elder Qing, cupped his hands in obeisance at White Tiger, and took his leave.
Hehe, that kid Zhou Bao is truly something. He made a fool of the Divine Wind Palace, and even Zhi IX came forward to speak about him. But Old Caterpillar, the last part of your remark is really ingenious!”
“Hum, just a small trick, hardly worth mentioning!” Elder Qing sneered. “You just said there was something fishy about Zhou Bao. What does that mean? Zhi IX may have taken what you said literally, but I can tell you mean something else!”
“Of course there is something fishy about him!” Speaking of this, White Tiger’s expression turned serious.”That boy’s strength is strong, incredibly strong, and he hasn’t even reached his 20s yet. This is unusual. Elder Qing, did you do a check at that time?”
“Of course I looked into it. I investigated his background and experience, but I failed to find any clues,” Elder Qing said with a wry smile, shaking his head. “If you say he has outstanding talent, I agree; if you say he is an anomaly, I agree with that, too. But like you said, standing next to him, even others with outstanding talents or anomalies will look like ordinary people. I find this odd. But after a thorough investigation, it’s true that nothing came up as fishy!”
“Then, as you say, could he be the…” Before White Tiger could finish his sentence, his expression went a bit odd and unfathomable, as if he was unwilling to proceed because his words might be some sort of omen.
“It doesn’t matter who he is. What matters is what he’s going to do. I’ve been watching him for a while. Though Zhou Bao likes to act recklessly, he still knows where to draw the line. It’s just that he has been too close to Wang She, so he is naturally influenced by him. That’s fine. Even though Wang She can be a pain, he is still one of us, of the Immortal Palace, so he will never go against us. Besides, he was the one who proposed recruiting Zhou Bao into the Immortal Palace. Hehe, from this aspect, my foresight at that point was really not as good as his!”
Talking about Wang She proposing to let the Immortal Palace recruit Zhou Bao, Elder Qing seemed a little emotional. Indeed, when deciding whether to enroll him, Elder Qing had disagreed with Wang She. At last, under Wang She’s unrelenting insistence, Elder Qing finally changed his mind. Whenever he thought of this, the feelings he had suppressed previously always surfaced in his heart.
“These two are getting too close to each other. One must know the other’s background and have an intimate link with the other. If I’m not mistaken, Wang She certainly knows all the undisclosed details about him!”
“Yes, Wang She does know all his secrets,” Elder Qing beamed. “And that is the least of my worries. Now that Wang She reckons he won’t be a threat to us Immortal Palace, everything will be fine then. As for his burgeoning strength, I may have a plausible explanation for that!”
“What explanation?” asked White Tiger.
“Mysterious Turtle Sage has passed his martial arts to him!”
White Tiger’s expression immediately became distorted with shock.”Mysterious Turtle Sage? You’re talking about that old turtle. But now we should call him Venerable Black Tortoise, right?”
“Exactly. That dude has undergone seven Thunder Tribulations at a stretch. Hehe, among all the Venerables, he is still one of the most powerful experts. And it’s a fact that I am not as powerful as he is!” When Elder Qing spoke about Venerable Black Tortoise, his face darkened slightly and he went on, “That guy, Zhou Bao, is extremely savvy, and has even gained insights on the third form of the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique and obtained the heritage of the Real Dragon. At that time, he happened to come across Venerable Black Tortoise who was undergoing the Thunder Tribulations, so he offered the heritage of the Real Dragon to Venerable Black Tortoise. In return, Venerable Black Tortoise bestowed him with great benefits, among which includes the general principles of the Nine Heaven Yuan Yang Technique. As for the other benefits, I have no way to find out what they are!”
“Do you believe that really happened?” White Tiger was filled derision after hearing Elder Qing’s tale. “He just happened to bump into that old turtle while he was undergoing Thunder Tribulations! How could there be such a coincidence? It could be due to fate that they happened to run into each other, but I’ll not buy that. However, now that he is somehow related to that old turtle, I think that makes him even more suspicious!”
“I suspect that, too. But what does that have to do with us?” Elder Qing said with a smile “No matter whether the facts are true or not, he is now a member of Immortal Palace and obviously harbors some strange ideas about the Divine Wind Palace. And that’s enough, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s enough!” White Tiger nodded. “It is his fate that he linked up with Zhou Bao, all this has nothing to do with us. We should just mind our own business and that’s it!”
“Now, do you have any other questions?”
“No more questions about Zhou Bao!” White Tiger shook his head. “But I still have one question for you. Who do you have in mind to take over your post?”
“Didn’t I delegate that decision making to you?”
“Rubbish! This is for your post, it’s no use delegating the decision to me. It’s up to you to decide!” White Tiger said. “I’m just your reserve. If you already have the right candidate in mind, just let us know! Don’t give me a hard time, I am tired of playing guessing games!”
“Hehe, you people always think of the worst scenarios. Well, your guess is right, I do have a suitable candidate in mind, but I can’t tell you who it is at the moment. Just now Zhi IX came to see me. Apart from the matter about Zhou Bao, he also discussed another issue with me. And at present, that issue has the top priority!”
“What issue?”
“Azure Secret Area!”
“What? Damn it! Divine Wind Palace is finally hoping to be involved in the Azure Secret Area?” White Tiger suddenly gripped the handle of his chair so strongly that the handle, which was made of a 10,000-year-old hardwood, instantly disintegrated into ashes. “Entrances to the Azure Secret Area are all located in the Central Mainland Region, which has nothing to do with the Penglai Region. Well, why do they suddenly want to have a hand in it?”
“It’s not a sudden decision, they have been yearning for it for a long time already The only difference is that a thousand years ago, the target of their ambitious plan was not the Azure Secret Area, but Taiyuan Heaven. Look, for this Taiyuan Heaven Meeting, they had made ample preparations! Even Genuine Immortals like Taihai Sage were roped in, and they even included a magic weapon, which showed that they were going all-out to b the winner. But they never expected that their plan would be ruined by Ye Qingtian. Thus, even after having prepared for a thousand years or more, their plan failed. And how could they resign themselves to this failure? Anyhow, Taiyuan Heaven only reveals itself once every thousand years. It looks that they just can’t wait for another thousand years!”
“So they’ve changed their target to the Azure Secret Area?” White Tiger cried in outrage. “Do they really have so little regard for our influences in Central Mainland Region ?”
“No. It is because they are still wary of us that Zhi IX was sent here – to the Divine Wind Palace to seek cooperation with us Immortal Palace!”