Zhang Yuanqing took the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon off his arm, letting it revert to a palm-sized golden carving, and tossed it toward Jiang Jingwei from afar. "Haven't seen you in six months, and you've shot up this fast?" Zhang Yuanqing patted Jiang Jingwei's head. In the first half of the year, Jiang Jingwei's height barely reached his chest, but now she was up to his shoulders.
Kids these days grew fast, shooting up like chives.
Jiang Jingwei stroked the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon with delight. While reading the item's attributes, she stood on tiptoe and announced loudly, "I'll be taller than you after the New Year!"
Resting one hand on her hip, she raised her pointed chin.
*With your matchstick build, you ought to beef up a bit...* Just as Zhang Yuanqing was about to take back the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, Jiang Jingwei bared her canines and chuckled. "I like this item! Give it to me! No, wait, I'll trade you one of my dad's treasures for it."
"Unless it's a Dominator-tier rule-based item, no deal," Zhang Yuanqing said, demanding an exorbitant price.
"I'll go steal one!" Jiang Jingwei patted her chest, promising solemnly.
"The old man keeps all his treasures deep in the magma inside the mountain belly. The only things you can get your hands on are trinkets in the house behind you." The voice was brisk and resolute, perfectly matching its owner.
Clad in a deep crimson training suit, Jiang Ju strode over. He snatched the golden dragon from Jiang Jingwei's hands and returned it to Yuanshi Tianzun before summoning the estate's butler: "Prepare a shuttle cart."
A shuttle cart? Watching the butler drive a shuttle cart over, Zhang Yuanqing asked, "Gang Leader Jiang isn't in the estate?"
"My dad's inside the belly of the mountain, taking a hot bath every day," Jiang Jingwei said, pointing toward the mountaintop.
The estate was built halfway up the mountain.
Taking the driver's seat, Jiang Ju drove the shuttle cart himself, carrying the two away from the estate and heading up the winding slope toward the summit. Only then did he speak:
"This estate is meant for his children and concubines to live in. We don't live here often either—just a few months every year. As for him, he spends most of his time at the mountaintop.
"You should know that once a Spirit Realm walker reaches the peak Dominator stage, their very being symbolizes a portion of authority. Their aura affects the surrounding area, causing mutations in any place they stay long-term. My dad is the contemporary Fire God. Wherever he lingers for too long either turns into a sea of flames or melts into magma."
Zhang Yuanqing nodded. "Understood!"
The Five Elements Alliance's peak Dominators all lived in seclusion, to say nothing of demigods. Demigods of the evil faction mostly holed up inside "guild trials," or, like the President of the Biological Alchemy Society, lived in utter seclusion on a small island.
Jiang Ju drove steadily, chatting with Zhang Yuanqing along the way about the incident where Morality Points vanished, and Jiang Jingwei chimed in enthusiastically.
"Classes at school were suspended, and my tutor had to help with the cleanup work, so I haven't done any homework for days," Jiang Jingwei said.
Jiang Ju sneered repeatedly. "Once things calm down, you'll have to make up every single piece of homework you missed. Don't think you can slack off."
*The worse a family is at academics, the harder they push their kids to study!* Zhang Yuanqing thought sarcastically, then asked, "How has Jingwei's cultivation been going lately?"
After Jiang Jingwei advanced to Saint, Gang Leader Jiang recalled her to the Capital City and began a regime of devilish training befitting the child of a demigod—brawling!
"Just one more A-grade trial and I'll be Level 6! Hehe, my dad says I'm better than my brother," Jiang Jingwei bragged smugly.
"Look at that punchable face of yours!" Jiang Ju fumed. "Did I go too easy with my fists, or did my flying kicks miss your vitals, to make you this cocky? It took me only eight months to go from Level 4 to Level 6, so we're about the same. Once you reach Level 6, you'll learn just how hard killing trials are."
Jiang Jingwei blew a raspberry at him. "Blehh!"
"You're fucking asking for it!" Jiang Ju turned around, raising his fist to lay into his sister.
Not intimidated in the slightest, Jiang Jingwei dared him, "Bring it on, bring it on!"
Zhang Yuanqing parried Jiang Ju with one hand while grabbing the steering wheel with the other to keep the shuttle cart from plunging off the cliff, snapping, "Quit your bickering, both of you! Believe it or not, I can suppress the two of you with one hand!"
He was only joking, but Jiang Jingwei took him seriously and punched him right in the face. "Bring it!"
Flames burst across Jiang Ju's body, blazing furiously. "Try it, then!"
Zhang Yuanqing silently let go of the steering wheel. A golden sun manifested behind his head, and he looked down his nose at the siblings. "Even if your old man showed up today, it wouldn't save you—mark my words!"
Half an hour later, the bruised and battered Jiang siblings, leading a refreshed Zhang Yuanqing, arrived on foot at the summit.
"Utterly useless. You've already advanced to Dominator and still can't beat Yuanshi Tianzun," Jiang Jingwei muttered, clutching her swollen left cheek and glaring sidelong at her brother.
Jiang Ju snorted. "Don't underestimate him. I bet that at the same level, even Fu Qingyang wouldn't be his match."
Fire Masters had one good trait: when beaten, they stood straight and accepted their loss gracefully.
Paying no heed to the siblings' bickering, Zhang Yuanqing looked into the distance. A hundred meters away lay an enormous abyssal rift, within which dark red light dimly pulsed and flickered.
Jiang Ju halted and shouted toward the abyss that led straight into the mountain's core: "Old man, Yuanshi Tianzun wants to see you!"
He yelled three times, but received no answer.
Jiang Ju explained, "My dad might be asleep."
Taking a deep breath, he roared, "Old man, the Palace Mistress of the Water God Palace wants to fight you!"
Red light surged violently within the chasm, belching out black smoke and molten lava. A dark silhouette shot out like an artillery shell, halting high in the air. Fire-attribute spiritual energy boiled in the atmosphere, dyeing half the sky crimson.
The burly figure, with hair as red as blazing fire, snapped his eyes open and gazed down.
The next second, Zhang Yuanqing heard a loud bang beside him. Gang Leader Jiang had vanished from the sky, while Jiang Ju was kicked flying "eight hundred li" away.
"Little bastard, dare lie to me? Looking to die?!" Bare-chested, Gang Leader Jiang barked vulgarly.
Zhang Yuanqing turned his neck stiffly, looking at the burly man whose dark-red skin seemed to flow with lava. He felt as though a gun were pressed against his head, or as if he had run into a white-browed tiger all alone in the wild.
Adrenaline surged, his muscles spasmed, and his calves trembled.
He was not being targeted or stared down by Gang Leader Jiang; merely the presumption of standing alongside him generated immense pressure from tier difference and psychological shock.
"Dad, Yuanshi Tianzun wants to talk to you!" Jiang Jingwei yelled at the top of her lungs, her face black and blue.
Gang Leader Jiang gave a satisfied grunt and nodded. "Full of spirit!"
Turning his head to look at Zhang Yuanqing, he reined in the fire-attribute spiritual energy permeating the surroundings. Instantly, as if a domain had been lifted, the soul-deep oppression weighing on Zhang Yuanqing vanished.
"Didn't you break away from the Five Elements Alliance, kid? What are you looking for me for?" Gang Leader Jiang grumbled irritably. "Whatever. You never got along with those nine old fogies anyway. If you've quit, so be it."
Zhang Yuanqing took two steps back and bowed respectfully. "There is a matter I would like to consult Gang Leader on."
Though he mocked Fire Masters on a daily basis, when facing the contemporary Fire God, he still had to pay his respects properly.
"What matter?"
"I want to ask about the Tongzhou Society," Zhang Yuanqing said, cutting straight to the chase.
Gang Leader Jiang narrowed his eyes at once, giving Zhang Yuanqing the sensation of being eyed by a ferocious tiger. Cold sweat instantly broke out on his back, though fortunately the gaze lasted only an instant.
Gang Leader Jiang looked at Jiang Jingwei and his son "eight hundred li" away. "You two head back first."
Once his children were gone, Gang Leader Jiang fixed a sharp gaze on Zhang Yuanqing. "Why are you investigating the Tongzhou Society?"
Zhang Yuanqing recounted Huo Zhengkui's assassination to Gang Leader Jiang, concluding:
"The Tongzhou Society was established behind the scenes by the Covenant of Freedom. Looking back now, the reason they assassinated Huo Zhengkui was to delay the establishment of an official organization in the Second District and stifle the growth of the Second District's Spirit Realm factions. And in fact, the Covenant of Freedom did achieve its goal."
The Five Elements Alliance was founded over twenty years ago. Following its inception, official forces expanded rapidly, and the number of Spirit Realm walkers exploded, resulting in its current scale and foundation. Prior to that, the five major organizations each acted independently, maintaining merely basic order among Spirit Realm walkers.
Had the Second District's official organization been established several decades earlier, the most powerful Orderly organization in the world might not have been Heaven's Punishment.
Gang Leader Jiang shook his head. "That's wrong. The Tongzhou Society disbanded the very year New China was founded. The assassination of Huo Zhengkui you mentioned happened ten to twenty years after that."
Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback. "The Tongzhou Society disbanded before then?"
He suddenly understood why such a powerful organization had vanished without a trace later on—it had disbanded long before.
*So Senior Lu Yueshuang guessed wrong? The one who attacked Huo Zhengkui wasn't the Tongzhou Society?*
*Lu Yueshuang returned to the Spirit Realm sixty years ago, and there is no way to verify how she came to suspect the Tongzhou Society now... But logically speaking, since the Tongzhou Society was dominated by the Covenant of Freedom, they had plenty of reason to assassinate Huo Zhengkui...* Zhang Yuanqing asked:
"Why did the Tongzhou Society disband?"
Given the Tongzhou Society's contributions during World War II, there was absolutely no need to disband; after the founding of the nation, it would have naturally become the official organization.
"Nonsense!" Gang Leader Jiang said in a muffled, rumbling voice. "The Tongzhou Society's backers were Westerners. How could we let the Tongzhou Society grow and flourish?"
"Please elaborate."
Gang Leader Jiang recalled for a moment and said:
"The Tongzhou Society's headquarters was in the Free Federation, and there were many branches in China. I only joined one of them. After World War II ended, the Tongzhou Society's headquarters wanted us to negotiate with the government to become China's official organization.
"At the time, the native Spirit Realm walkers within the organization were split into two factions. One was pro-Western, believing that with guidance and support from Western Spirit Realm walkers, we could integrate with the international stage much faster, receive funding and item support, and quickly intimidate domestic Spirit Realm walkers to establish order. The other faction refused to take orders from headquarters and wanted sovereignty back, but didn't want to break ties with headquarters completely either.
"The two factions argued endlessly, and headquarters refused to budge, so in the end, it disbanded. I was among the first batch to leave the Tongzhou Society. What a joke—we fought tooth and nail precisely so we wouldn't be slaves.
"Oh, right, the Tongzhou Society hadn't disbanded right away back then; a large number of members had simply broken away. If I remember correctly, something happened to a northern branch. All of the branch's leadership returned to the Spirit Realm overnight. It seemed they got into a conflict over this very issue, sparking an incident. After that, the Tongzhou Society completely disbanded."
"Who do you think had the ability to assassinate Huo Zhengkui back then?"
"There weren't many Dominators back then. Among those with that level of power who were also Tongzhou Society members, there was the Lord of the Central Court, the President of Baihui, and old Zhao from the Taiyi Sect." Gang Leader Jiang wore a sagacious look. "Those three are the only ones I know of. However, communications were underdeveloped back then, and different branches of the Tongzhou Society rarely contacted one another, so there's no way I knew the information of all Dominator-tier members."
*Old Zhao? The only elder surnamed Zhao in the Taiyi Sect is Zhao Chenghuang's great-grandfather...* Zhang Yuanqing sighed, suddenly losing the urge to keep investigating.
If he kept digging and it turned out Elder Zhao was the one who assassinated Huo Zhengkui, he and Little Zhao would have a falling-out. If it were one of the other two alliance leaders, investigating further would be courting death—even though none of the five alliance leaders were likely to be traitors groomed by the Covenant of Freedom.
*I'll find a chance to pass this on to Fu Qingxuan or the Taiyi Sect Master and let the demigods deal with the headache.* Zhang Yuanqing bowed and said, "Thank you for clearing up my confusion, Gang Leader. I have no more questions."
Gang Leader Jiang gave a majestic grunt and turned into a streak of flowing fire, vanishing into the chasm.
***
Two days later, Wanbao House.
Having disguised his appearance, Zhang Yuanqing arrived at the small shop that looked as dilapidated as a hardware store.
Holding a cigar, Lian Sanyue leaned lazily against the back of her chair. Handing him a token, she said, "We've reeled in plenty of Saint-tier minnows, but no Dominator-tier big fish. Go in and pick out targets yourself. The auction starts in twenty minutes."
Zhang Yuanqing picked up the token, tossed it lightly in his palm, and chuckled.
"Dominators won't show up here in person, but as long as someone bids on that item, it means the buyer behind them is a Dominator. All I have to do is follow the vine to find the melon."
With that, he crushed the token with a crisp snap.
Chapter 820