Likes sweets and manga? Was he actually joking? If I get this wrong, the Grand Marshal will run me through with her sword... Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment, then immediately downloaded a bunch of ultra-cute anime stickers—from the classic yellow electric mouse of years past to the recently viral melon-eating girl.
Mixed in were stickers of a "little girl firing a pistol," "anthropomorphized blood cells," "a stray little black cat," and several others.
After a few seconds of hesitation, he hit send.
Saying nothing and just sending pictures was a trendy way to chat these days.
The Grand Marshal wouldn't look at these pictures and jump straight to, "Yuanshi Tianzun actually thinks I like manga, stuff only kids care about!"
No matter how formidable a Scout was, she couldn't peer into your mind through a screen.
Once the pictures were sent, Zhang Yuanqing waited and waited. After about twenty minutes, he heard a ding.
He hurried to check the message.
[Grand Marshal: What's wrong? You sure have a lot of memes.]
Zhang Yuanqing felt a surge of delight. The fact that she had added that second sentence meant she was in a decent mood. A chilling, two-word "What's wrong?" would have been terrible.
He quickly weighed his thoughts and composed his words.
The Grand Marshal loved it when people bowed down and swore fealty to her. The Fu siblings shared the exact same temperament. But you couldn't bow over the phone, which made the effect fall flat, and manga and sweets were definitely out of the question... As his thoughts spun, he finished drafting the reply and sent it off:
[Yuanshi Tianzun: It has been many days since I last saw the Grand Marshal. Yet your immortal, awe-inspiring silhouette from that day remains vivid before my eyes, the sword light that severed the river of destiny is branded into my soul, and the dragon-like ringing of your blade still echoes in my ears.]
[Yuanshi Tianzun: So much so that upon encountering a trivial setback, I spinelessly thought of you. Only then did I realize that you have already become the greatest pillar and most steadfast reliance in my heart. Ah, I do not ask anything of you; rather, I feel ashamed of having harbored such a fleeting thought. The world claims I am an unmatched genius destined for alliance leadership, yet little do they know, I do not possess even one ten-thousandth of your brilliance.]
After sending those two long-winded paragraphs, he followed up with an innocent, cheerful meme of the electric mouse.
It was a bit melodramatic, but with the Grand Marshal's intellect, she would easily see through to his desire for a favor. Normally, speaking in a serious and sincere tone was better for building goodwill, but if he wanted to come running to her frequently in the future, melodrama was the way to go—the more dramatic, the better, Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself.
If he asked for help with earnest, sober formality, Fu Qingxuan would certainly agree for Fu Qingyang's sake. But you couldn't do that again and again. That would make the Grand Marshal feel like she was being fleeced, like this Yuanshi Tianzun was an absolute nuisance.
However, by adopting this over-the-top, bootlicking approach, the dynamic changed entirely. He was providing her with emotional gratification. She would think, "Since this guy flatters me so much, doing him a little favor is no skin off my back. I'm not being fleeced; I'm simply dispensing charity and assistance to my little bootlicker."
Then, doing it once, twice, or thrice wouldn't matter at all.
Fu Qingyang helped him again and again precisely because Yuanshi Tianzun was his loyal lackey. With him buttering up his superior so thoroughly, the young master felt a sense of responsibility toward him. If he didn't back his guy, the world would mock Fu Qingyang for failing to protect even his own subordinate, and who would follow him after that?
Money Prince cared about saving face, too.
[Grand Marshal: Cut the nonsense. Get straight to the point—what happened!]
You'll grow to love this kind of nonsense eventually... Zhang Yuanqing typed out his response:
[Yuanshi Tianzun: It's like this. I'm in Bagui Province, carrying out a mission under an alias...]
He detailed how he had wiped out the Spirit Society stronghold and ended up in a conflict with the Qinghe clan over the seized illicit cash.
[Grand Marshal: Easy. I'll send an email to the Qinghe Branch telling them you are my man and acting on my orders. They won't give you any more trouble.]
[Yuanshi Tianzun: And what if they do?]
[Grand Marshal: I will claim their heads with a flying sword.]
[Yuanshi Tianzun: You are electricity, you are light, you are the one and only legend!]
Zhang Yuanqing closed the chat app in utter satisfaction. Turning to the three beauties on his left, he raised an eyebrow and smiled:
"It's handled. The Qinghe Branch won't dare give me any more grief."
Xie Lingxi, whose expression had been clouded with worry, beamed instantly. "Did you ask Fu Qingyang for help? Wait, no... The Qinghe Branch has experts on par with demigods. As influential as Money Prince is, the Qinghe clan wouldn't necessarily give him face. They don't even necessarily care about the Ten Elders."
Her own family boasted a demigod Old Ancestor, so she was acutely aware of how formidable such a power was.
The corner of Zhang Yuanqing's lips twitched upward.
"I messaged the Grand Marshal directly. She owes me a favor and holds me in high regard, believing I'm more gifted than the Demon Lord and more likely to become a demigod.
"Among the younger generation of our era, she believes that if anyone can ascend to demigod, it's me. Because of that, she's more than happy to build a solid, long-term relationship with me. And the fastest way to do that is to bestow favors upon me."
Queen came to a sudden realization, her face filled with adoration. "Boss, the Grand Marshal already regards you so highly!"
My eye for people really is great.
While Annie admired Master Yuanshi's talent and brilliance, a faint gloom stirred in her heart. His friction with headquarters had initially given her hope of poaching him, but that sliver of hope now seemed utterly out of reach.
How could she possibly seduce a figure whom a demigod went out of her way to cultivate and favor? Unless the President himself took action, it was practically impossible.
***
On the way back to the hotel, Jutou You Shenming dialed the phone number of Deputy Head Poppy's wife.
"Who is this!" a loud woman's voice came through the receiver, speaking in heavily accented Mandarin.
"Sister-in-law, it's Jutou You Shenming from the Xini Branch. I was out on business with Head Poppy today," Jutou You Shenming replied with utmost deference.
The Qinghe Branch differed from other branches. They didn't have secretaries or assistants, nor did they have a fully developed administrative hierarchy.
With Head Poppy reduced to a drooling simpleton by Sanqing Daozu, he could only call the man's wife to report the situation.
"Where is he? Why are you calling me?" the woman asked bluntly.
"It's like this, please hear me out..." Jutou You Shenming swallowed hard. "Something happened to Head Poppy..."
He relayed the events to the woman on the other end, then promptly pulled the phone away from his ear.
A second later, a middle-aged woman's screech erupted from the speaker:
"I don't give a damn who he is or what his status is, I want him dead! Dead, do you hear me?!"
Jutou You Shenming wore a bitter smile. Head Poppy's wife was no ordinary member of the Qinghe clan; she was the younger sister of the clan's current patriarch.
Otherwise, how could an influential post like Deputy Head of the Investigation Department have fallen onto Poppy's shoulders? That position oversaw the enforcement of clan law, which normally required a Dominator at the very least.
Thus, on the Qinghe Branch's home turf, this woman's death threats were far from empty bluster. She possessed the genuine power and backing to carry them out.
After her roar, the woman said in a gruff voice, "Get him settled properly. If anything happens to him, I'll take care of you, too. Wait at the hotel. I'll ask Sixth Uncle to come over and deal with this Daozu person."
The Sixth Uncle she mentioned was the Head of the Investigation Department, a genuine Dominator.
"Yes, absolutely!"
Even over the phone, Jutou You Shenming bowed and scraped repeatedly.
The woman hung up.
The car drove on, arriving at the hotel about fifteen minutes later.
This was one of the few five-star hotels in Nanming City—though its actual amenities only reached four-star standards—and it was quite a distance from the Nanming Branch. In reality, there were plenty of inexpensive inns near the security bureau, but Head Poppy had refused to settle for less.
After submitting to the Five Elements Alliance, the Qinghe clan had grown prosperous in recent years. In the early days, they had merely been a bunch of mountain bumpkins scraping by. The clan's Spirit Walkers had worked as bodyguards for mob bosses, guarded mines, collected usurious debts, trafficked drugs, and handled every imaginable dirty job.
In the eighties and nineties, the two great plagues of Bagui Province were the Spirit Society and the Qinghe clan.
Later, the Master of the Central Court suppressed the Qinghe clan's Old Ancestor, and the entire tribe surrendered to the government. With hundreds of millions, even billions, in annual funding poured into their pockets, their fortunes were completely transformed overnight.
Now accustomed to living in luxury, those former hicks began putting on airs and demanding extravagance, living the lives of aristocrats and magnates.
Jutou You Shenming pushed open the car door, and with Luosifen's help, supported Head Poppy into the hotel.
While riding the elevator up, Luosifen whispered, "Sanqing Daozu is a senior Deacon from Songhai. Headquarters values figures of that rank, too. Should we inform the Songhai Branch?"
Unlike Jutou You Shenming, whose spine had long been bent by the Qinghe Branch, this young Deacon was naturally more inclined toward the Five Elements Alliance.
"A mere senior Deacon is as light as a feather compared to the entire Qinghe Branch. Besides, this has nothing to do with us. We came to mediate. If mediation fails, what does it matter to us? What good comes from poking our noses into it? Whether it's the Songhai Branch or the Qinghe Branch, a single fart from either could blow us away." Jutou You Shenming glanced at the vacant, dazed Poppy and scoffed.
"Greedy bastards! Don't be fooled by how these Qinghe people keep their faces stiff and act profound. Twenty or thirty years ago, they were all country bumpkins—nothing more than upstarts. They were as poor as dogs in the past, which is why they obsess over money now.
"Tsk, tsk. A hundred million... That hurts them more than killing their whole families."
Luosifen lowered his gaze and kept his mouth shut.
Stepping out of the elevator, they returned to the room and tossed the mindless Head Poppy onto the bed.
Right at that moment, Jutou You Shenming's phone rang.
It was that woman again.
An instinctual, practiced, flattering smile immediately surfaced on Jutou You Shenming's face.
"Sister-in-law, what are your orders?"
"Bring that damn ghost of a husband back," the woman said coldly.
"Huh?" Jutou You Shenming froze.
The woman suddenly yelled, "Bring him back to me, right this instant! Are you deaf, or do I need to come pick you up myself?!"
Jutou You Shenming shivered violently. "Yes, yes! We'll head back right away."
He hung up with trembling hands and exchanged a bewildered look with Luosifen.
"She's... not pursuing it?" Luosifen breathed a sigh of relief after a delayed reaction. "Seems she isn't as overbearing as you claimed. She still has some sense. Taking out a senior Deacon isn't something that can be swept under the rug so easily."
"Sensible? She's not sensible in the slightest. Women are creatures of emotion, and she's been throwing her weight around for years. You think she'd weigh pros and cons?" Jutou You Shenming shook his head. "Something must have happened—something big enough to suppress that foul temper of hers."
With that, the two locked eyes, a bold suspicion suddenly crossing their minds.
"That Deacon Sanqing Daozu..." Luosifen's face was filled with horror. "Staying out of it was the right call. Definitely the right call."
Jutou You Shenming muttered under his breath, "Just what kind of background does he have?"
***
Dusk had just fallen.
Inside an abandoned warehouse in Nanming City, Zhang Yuanqing held a porcelain bowl radiating thick yin energy in one hand and a calligraphy brush in the other. His handsome face was stern as the brush tip glided across the floor, rapidly forming mysterious, twisted spiritual talismans brimming with Daoist resonance.
This was an array designed to refine spirit servants.
He still had two Level 6 yin corpses and one Level 6 wraith awaiting refinement. Previously, he had considered refining another yin corpse once his lunar energy accumulated to a certain point.
After careful consideration, however, he realized he had too many yin corpses and too few spirit servants.
It was time for the Ghost Bride and Little Doubi to level up.
Zhang Yuanqing planned to turn that Level 6 wraith into nourishment to feed Little Doubi and Bai Lan.
Little Doubi would smoothly break through to Saint, while Bai Lan, who was already at the peak of Level 4, should be able to reach early Level 6.
In truth, refining the wraith directly into a spirit servant would have saved much more trouble. What he was doing now seemed redundant, like taking off his pants to pass wind.
Yet he was already accustomed to Bai Lan and Little Doubi. By now, the Ghost Bride had fallen far behind his pace; a Level 4 peak spirit servant seemed useful only as cannon fodder.
Bai Lan herself appeared to have realized this. She had gradually stopped calling him "husband," quietly waiting to be discarded.
Zhang Yuanqing slapped his own forehead. Even if he couldn't actually sleep with the Ghost Bride, his soul had connected with hers for so long, so how could he possibly abandon her? Thus, he decided to feed the Level 6 wraith to her.
However, devouring a wraith of a higher rank than oneself was no different from swallowing poison, which was why he needed to draw this spiritual talisman array to purify it.
As the final stroke of the talisman was laid down, the lunar energy suddenly linked together in a seamless circuit. Zhang Yuanqing felt a vast, terrifying power surging through the room.
With a flick of his hand, a blackish-red wooden box flew over from the corner and landed in his palm.
Using his telekinesis, Zhang Yuanqing sent it into the center of the array.
Next, he summoned Little Doubi and Bai Lan. Amid swirling yin energy, a woman clad in a vibrant crimson bridal gown appeared, cradling a plump, adorable infant.
"Master!"
The Ghost Bride bowed gracefully and stood respectfully to the side.
Zhang Yuanqing gave a gentle nod and smiled. "Wife, I've prepared a gift for you."
Chapter 578