The two parties had made an agreement long ago, yet neither had ever intended to honor it faithfully. One refused to give, while the other dared to demand, each racking their brains to exploit every loophole and play every trick. Once the fire at Zhaixing Tower broke out, even the last shred of mutual trust between them was incinerated without a trace.
The suspicion and bad blood between the Heavenly Palace and Juju would never dissipate. He Lingchuan was certain that their internal friction could never be stopped.
*A man without trust cannot stand.* Those words were not merely moral instruction; they were an unvarnished reflection of human self-interest.
Trust was wealth itself. Once shattered, what could possibly rebuild it? The arrogance of the Heavenly Palace, or Juju’s insatiable greed?
“Twice as much as before Juju raised hell! A true case of adding insult to injury!” Thinking of the Ke family’s misery and gloom, Fang Canran clapped his hands and roared with laughter. “It’s high time the Demon Emperor and the celestial gods put their own hounds in their place. Tighten the collar, and the Ke family will choke until their eyes roll back, not daring to utter so much as a whimper!”
The more miserable the Ke family was, the more delighted Fang Canran felt.
He had no desire to see Ke Shouyi drop dead right away. He wanted the entire family to suffer a drawn-out torment, watching their ill-gotten wealth slowly stripped away by wind and rain.
He Lingchuan asked him, “How does it feel to have your vengeance?”
“Invigorating!” Fang Canran shut his eyes, savoring the feeling once more. “That exhilaration, that sheer, unadulterated release—words fail to describe it.”
He had finally taken the first step toward fulfilling the dying wish of the Shao clan.
The heavy burden he had carried since he was old enough to understand was at last partly lifted.
His ancestor Shao Jian’s gruesome death had been Beijia’s doing.
The slaughter of his ancestral Yuan Kingdom had been Beijia’s doing.
He had planted only a single blade into Beijia’s flank. If given the opportunity in the future, he would gladly drive in a hundred more.
“The road ahead is long and full of obstacles.” The wine had warmed, releasing a rich aroma. Fang Canran personally filled their cups. “It was you who helped me take my revenge. Come, I drink to you.”
Without He Lingchuan’s daring havoc in the Heavenly Palace, he would never have had the chance to avenge his clan. In that sense, he owed He Lingchuan an immense debt of gratitude, one that could never be settled by a few light words of thanks.
The three of them raised their cups and drained them in one draught.
The wine carried a faint fruity fragrance and slipped smoothly down the throat.
Afterward, Fang Canran inquired about where He Lingchuan had been during this past year.
He Lingchuan replied simply, “I had some personal business to handle. Then, using your token and passphrase, I borrowed some hands from Mount Rong and brought them all the way out here. I assumed Mount Rong would have informed you.”
“After fleeing Beijia, I laid low for a long time, during which no one could reach me. To tell the truth, the token and passphrase I gave you weren’t really mine; they belonged to Lingshan. I merely bent official business to serve private ends,” Fang Canran said with a laugh. “I fabricated some false trails to make the Jinjiao clan believe I perished in the rampages of the Thunder-Wielding Behemoths. So many people went missing that night that there was no way to investigate.”
He Lingchuan recalled that most of the dead and missing that night in Lingxu City were ordinary civilians. Yet as the mastermind behind the chaos, Fang Canran clearly had no care for that.
“How did you end up at Blade Harbor?”
In a few words, He Lingchuan recounted his purchase of the Yangshan Archipelago, concluding, “From now on, you may address me as Island Master He.”
Fang Canran chuckled and cupped his hands. “So it is Island Master He now! Forgive my disrespect!”
He laughed twice more, looking slightly dazed.
“After pulling off something so earth-shattering, you actually ran off to Blade Harbor to build an enterprise from scratch? You really are...” *Bored out of your damn mind.*
“What are you really doing here?”
“Lying low, of course,” He Lingchuan said helplessly. “The same reason you came!”
Fang Canran had fled Lingxu City and hidden away in a remote corner of the sea precisely to vanish from Beijia’s sight, hadn’t he?
“Just how did you end up making an enemy of Beijia?”
No ordinary man could do such a thing. To put it bluntly, why would an ant go out of its way to provoke a human?
Even entertaining such a delusion was unthinkable.
“Can’t an unaffiliated wanderer make an enemy of Beijia?” He Lingchuan swirled the wine in his cup. “My desire to bring Beijia down is even fiercer than yours.”
Well then. Who didn’t have things they couldn’t speak of? Since he refused to say, Fang Canran did not press him, raising his cup instead. “It can, entirely so. Come! Let this cup be to hoisting sail upon the world, and to the days ahead!”
One had obtained his revenge, while the other had acquired islands. Both had fresh beginnings.
He Lingchuan drained his cup before asking, “How stands the war between Beijia and the Mou Kingdom? I hear Mou has won several battles.”
“It ebbs and flows, with victories and defeats on both sides. Whether Beijia or Mou, right now they are only testing the waters, far from committing their full strength,” Fang Canran said leisurely. “A clash between great powers—how could it ever be so simple?”
Dong Rui chimed in, “In your eyes, which country will emerge as the ultimate victor?”
“In terms of national strength, Beijia is unquestionably the strongest.” Fang Canran took a sip of wine. “In the twenty years I spent in Lingxu City, what struck me deepest was the sheer scale of that nation’s accumulated wealth and heritage. It can only be described as bottomless.”
“The longer you stay, the more terrifying it becomes. So for the two of us to pull off what we did in Lingxu City was truly…”
Truly a stroke of monstrous luck.
A colossal empire that had reigned supreme for six centuries without a hint of decline accumulated wealth, power, and confidence that an ordinary person could scarcely fathom.
That was true depth.
“Yet the Mou Kingdom’s army is disciplined and fearless in battle. Not only does it have the backing of its populace, but it also enjoys the support of numerous Daoist orders.” He paused, hesitating. “Both are dominant powers of this age. It is genuinely hard to say.”
He Lingchuan could tell Fang Canran believed Beijia had the better odds. Yet given Fang’s allegiances, he loathed to admit it aloud.
Hope was something one always had to preserve.
“Victory or defeat in war isn’t decided solely by national strength. It also hinges on fortune, momentum, natural resources, and the will of the people.” He Lingchuan lifted the pitcher and poured him another cup. “Otherwise, there would be no need to fight at all. Everyone could just compare who earned the most money over the years, whose armaments were superior, and whose soldiers fought best.”
In his view, Fang Canran understood Beijia too well—too well aware of its might, like staring directly into a blinding light until one’s eyes were dazzled, rendering him blind to the surroundings.
“That is also true.” Fang Canran adjusted his tone smoothly. “I’ve heard that Beijia and Mou are both considering a temporary truce, and negotiations are underway at the front lines.”
“Oh?” He Lingchuan’s eyes flickered. “Can they reach an agreement?”
*Heard?* Sometimes, a rumor was deliberately leaked. Whether Beijia truly wanted to fight or not was likely known only to a select few, such as the Heavenly Palace and the Demon Emperor.
“Negotiations will succeed as long as both sides genuinely wish to stop fighting,” Fang Canran said. “However, factions within Beijia appear to be divided. The war hawks believe they must first teach Mou a harsh lesson and negotiate from a position of decisive victory, or Beijia’s prestige will be compromised.”
“There is truth in that.”
The dignity of a great power could not be insulted. Put another way, if another state could offend Beijia and walk away unscathed, how could Beijia’s domineering aura deter the realm in the future?
Arguments could be made for both war and peace; the tug-of-war within Beijia would persist.
And while Mou was occupied fighting Beijia, it would have no time to look eastward. He Lingchuan pondered this. It meant the window of opportunity granted to him by the geopolitical climate would not remain open for long.
Fang Canran tore off another strip of dried squid. “In times of war and chaos like these, hiding out at sea to play island master is quite leisurely and pleasant. You can even sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight.”
“Watch the tigers fight?” He Lingchuan’s interest was piqued. “From where the Yangshan Archipelago sits, what tigers are there to watch?”
Others took to the sea to flee trouble; he had done so to establish a foothold.
“The Ya Kingdom, of course,” Fang Canran said, chewing slowly. “The Ya Kingdom has been stirring up trouble lately, probing both to the west and north.”
The Ya Kingdom lay east of Bailie, founded by nomadic cavalry tribes. It had already swallowed parts of Bailie’s territory, and late last year had demanded a massive indemnity from Bailie.
“To the west lies Bailie, and to the north… the Chebin Kingdom?”
“Correct. According to the intelligence I’ve gathered, the Ya Kingdom has maintained intimate ties with Beijia over the years. Not only do they openly exchange envoys, but on the Ya King’s birthday, Lingxu City even dispatched an emissary with congratulatory gifts. The Ya Kingdom flaunted those gifts far and wide.”
“So the Ya Kingdom is in league with Beijia.” He Lingchuan tossed two peanuts into his mouth. “In that case, the Mou Kingdom faces enemies on two fronts.”
“With Beijia backing it, the Ya Kingdom acts with even greater impunity,” Fang Canran analyzed. “For now, its interest in Bailie is greater than in Chebin to the north.”
“Extorting money from Bailie is easy, so the Ya Kingdom will do it again and again.”
One picked the softest persimmon to squeeze; bullying became a habit, whether between men or nations.
“Yet if I were the Ya King, I wouldn’t swallow Bailie whole.”
Fang Canran agreed. “Indeed. Otherwise, the Ya Kingdom would share a direct border with the Mou Kingdom.”
Keeping Bailie in place meant Mou could not easily direct its military wrath against Ya. Without Bailie serving as a buffer, the Ya Kingdom would have to face Mou’s fists head-on.
Having covered external politics, they chatted casually for a bit longer before He Lingchuan asked, “Are you still practicing your old trade here on Platinum Island?”
The Taihang Sect was the dominant power on Platinum Island.
“Indeed. It’s what I handle best.” Fang Canran gestured outside with his chin. “Tonight’s ghost market features an auction hosted by us. Care to come have some fun?”
“Certainly. I actually have a few items I wish to part with.” He Lingchuan retrieved two objects from his storage ring and set them on the table. “Care to appraise them for me, Head Manager Fang?”
One was an oily-yellow, lustrously translucent seal.
The other was a command medallion carved with three pythons: black, gold, and blue.
A faint radiance flowed slowly within the seal. Fang Canran recognized it as top-grade chicken-fat yellow stone.
The three miniature colored snakes on the medallion, however, circled around and swapped positions right before their eyes.
Having inspected countless treasures, Fang Canran was visibly moved at first sight. “You’ve come across good things again?”
“Indeed. Take a closer look.”
Fang Canran put on a pair of gloves and carefully picked up the seal to inspect it. Intaglio-carved into its base were the two characters *Miao Miao*, with a hollow depression in the center of the second character—not formed naturally, but a tiny hole punctured by external force.
When he took the medallion into his hand, a biting chill emanated from it. Holding it for merely a few breaths caused frost to form across his hands, making it unbearable to hold.
Fang Canran set both items down, his expression grave. “These are ancient relics? It is rare to see them so well-preserved. Do you know their origins?”
Ancient spiritual treasures possessed distinctive properties; a knowledgeable cultivator could discern their basic effects and uses with a light touch. Unless the wielder had discovered specialized techniques, no additional explanation was necessary.
“Both are personal magic artifacts belonging to Master Sanshui.”
Chapter 953