Bai Shengyi had not forgotten that Jin Lingfeng had once told Jiang Ruomei not to learn from her, calling her crude or something.
She hadn't bothered with him before, only thinking he was a simple, idiotic fool with a mind full of rules and dogma. Later, she realized that he just hadn't met Yun Youyue!
If Yun Youyue and Xia Lingling were the first to require revenge in Bai Shengyi's heart, then Jin Lingfeng was second.
Therefore, Bai Shengyi did not simply let him go. She severely struck a blow to his heart.
“Oh, and by the way, your beloved Yun Youyue has already escaped. She paid with two mid-grade Earth-tier spiritual artifacts and abandoned you to flee.”
“What?”
Jin Lingfeng suddenly thought that apart from her life-bound spiritual artifact, Yun Youyue only had one other mid-grade Earth-tier spiritual artifact. Her life-bound spiritual artifact would definitely not be abandoned by her, so where did the two spiritual artifacts she used come from?
It was the Red Lotus Crimson Flame Fan he had given her to keep!
Yet Yun Youyue had left him behind in the illusion!
“Youyue, I trusted you so much… *cough*!”
Jin Lingfeng spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted directly.
“Tsk tsk, what a pity.”
Bai Shengyi smiled gleefully and, without tending to Jin Lingfeng’s wounds, threw him out of the secret realm.
Then she began a short period of seclusion.
The time rules within the Cang Tian Spiritual Mansion were already quite mature. Cultivating and comprehending the dao here was no less than stumbling upon an extremely high-grade spirit stone mine for Bai Shengyi at this stage.
…
Outside the Sang Hai Secret Realm.
In just one month, the continent had experienced great upheaval, with many significant events causing huge ripples.
The most eye-catching among them was the theft of the recipe for the Spirit Root Purification Pill, preserved by the Alchemist Association, by Mei Shuying, and the sudden declaration of war by the Golden Sparrow Kingdom against the Great Ning Dynasty.
The latter event directly overshadowed the criticism leveled at Mei Shuying.
It was simply too shocking.
After all, although the borders of the three kingdoms had always been turbulent, and even two years ago the Great Ning Dynasty had been at war with the Qi Zhou Kingdom, the Golden Sparrow Kingdom and the Great Ning Dynasty had always maintained good relations, even declaring themselves brotherly nations to the outside world.
“I heard that the Great Ning Dynasty declared war first. In the blink of an eye, brotherly nations turned into enemies. It’s truly lamentable!”
“What’s lamentable about it? Don’t you guys know? The reason they started fighting is because the Golden Sparrow Kingdom captured the Fourth Princess of the Great Ning Dynasty, the sister of the current Crown Prince. Can they not declare war?”
“Ah? Why would the Golden Sparrow Kingdom capture their Fourth Princess for no reason? Are they sick?”
“You wouldn’t know, would you? The Grand Preceptor of the Golden Sparrow Kingdom captured nine hundred and ninety-nine virgin boys and girls born at the Yin hour and Yin day to serve as guardians, and that Fourth Princess’s fate perfectly matched!”
…
In Qianlian City, this was a no-man’s-land.
Neither the Shenqi Academy, the Eighteen Great Families, nor the three kingdoms had jurisdiction here. Moreover, because it was the place with the most Golden Core cultivators walking around on the entire continent, the discussions here were more relaxed and free than anywhere else.
It was now high noon, and the cultivators seated in the Chong Ya Inn couldn't help but continue their conversation.
“But the Great Ning Dynasty’s move is quite spirited. I heard that the Fourth Princess is just an ordinary person.”
“So what if she’s an ordinary person? Doesn’t an ordinary person deserve to live well? Is an ordinary person eating your rice or using your spirit stones? Don’t you have ordinary people in your family?”
The opinion of the ordinary person was met with a torrent of criticism, and the person dared not speak again.
“Don’t argue, don’t argue. Let me say something fair. Nowadays, on the continent, it is true that those who can cultivate are indeed more valued than ordinary people, right?”
Another person stood up and said, “Not to mention far away, just take the well-known Alchemist Bai. When she didn’t have her spiritual roots tested, didn’t she also receive a lot of unfair treatment?”
Upon hearing this, many people in the inn fell silent.
Although they were all cultivators, beneficiaries of survival of the fittest, and lucky ones favored by the Heavenly Dao, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of sympathy for ordinary people when they thought about the harshness and discrimination ordinary people faced in this world.
At this moment, in a private room upstairs in the inn, sat two extraordinarily handsome men.
One of them exuded an aura of nobility and appeared immensely majestic. However, before the other man, he seemed somewhat reserved, appearing at a disadvantage.
This person said, “Imperial Uncle, look, even these cultivators who have nothing to do with Yue’er can empathize with Yue’er’s situation. Yet, Mother, as a mother, wishes to put Yue’er to death as quickly as possible. Why do you think that is?”
Qin Si glanced indifferently at Qin Yu, the Crown Prince of the Great Ning Dynasty, before him, and said nothing.
Qin Yu did not seem to mind and continued on his own.
“Yu’er and Yue’er are her biological children, but the fiancée she arranged for me is a murderer, and she has neglected Yue’er for many years…”
The fiancée Qin Yu mentioned was Bai Murong. The Duke of Rong and the Empress had jointly arranged their marriage, but unexpectedly, Bai Murong had killed the Duke of Rong!
Although this news had not spread widely, those with access to information were mostly aware of it!
After the Duke of Rong’s funeral, everyone said that the Duke of Rong’s lifetime of good reputation had been ruined by his own hands. He mistook a pearl for a fish eye and was pecked in the eye by the fish eye.
However, Qin Yu and Bai Murong’s engagement had now been dissolved. Otherwise, he would not have dared to approach Qin Si at this time.
He had managed to suppress his other brothers and become the Crown Prince with his ordinary cultivation talent, which indeed showed his extraordinary capabilities. He had actually followed the clue of Bai Shengyi’s lover appearing at the Bai family’s funeral and traced it back to Qin Si, and then discovered Qin Si’s identity as the Vice Dean of Shenqi Academy.
Seeing that Qin Yu was talking more and more enthusiastically but not getting to the point, Qin Si tapped the table.
“Dong dong.”
Qin Yu immediately straightened up and adjusted his posture.
“Imperial Uncle.”
Qin Si said indifferently, “Speak, what is it you want to see me about?”
Although he had no affection for the imperial family of the Great Ning Dynasty, he felt a connection to Qin Yu and the Fourth Princess Qin Yue, perhaps because they had helped him when he was young. Qin Si did not mind helping them when he could.
Qin Yu said earnestly, “Imperial Uncle, I beg you to help save Yue’er.”
“Everyone says that the Grand Preceptor of the Golden Sparrow Kingdom seeks those boys and girls to serve as guardians, but in reality, my people have investigated and found that this is not the case. They intend to use these people as sacrifices!”
It made sense. If they were just for guardianship, why would they need people born at the Yin hour and Yin day?
Qin Yu said resentfully, “I had finally persuaded my father to declare war, hoping to force the Golden Sparrow Kingdom to send Yue’er back. But Mother, in collusion with the Prime Minister and others, wants to cease hostilities. She wants to abandon Yue’er!”
“I refused, so Mother had people imprison me in the palace, forbidding me from leaving or attending court. But I still escaped!”
The current Crown Prince Qin Yu did not know what the matter of sacrifices involved.
However, he could guess that the Golden Sparrow Kingdom must have offered the Empress immense benefits, and these benefits greatly tempted the Empress, making her willing to abandon her own daughter.
“I know that as Shenqi Academy, you cannot easily act against the three kingdoms and the great families, but now I don’t know who else to turn to for help…”
“I’m sorry, Yue’er. I promised to protect her well…”
Qin Yu gradually lowered his head, his voice filled with self-loathing and guilt.