「Imperial Calendar, June 1454. The southern city of Penzes, inside the Viscount’s Mansion.」
Ye Wen Ni’s desk was piled high like a mountain. Countless matters were waiting for her to handle. Many of the docunts’ covers were marked as important, and Ye Zi was prioritizing them.
After a long ti, she finally lifted her head from the desk. She patted her smooth forehead with a slender hand, then rubbed her temples and muttered to herself, "I knew it would be like this. Xiaoyu is coming back tomorrow, that’s great! I’ll finally be free!"
After all the children were brought back from Wutang Town, Yisha went into seclusion at the Viscount’s Mansion. anwhile, the Gandalf Clan faced near-total annihilation! The nobles’ fury practically burned to the heavens. How dare this rchant family, reeking of money and having only just received their noble title, stand them up! The imnse pressure crippled the Gandalf Clan’s dicinal ingredient business. Due to the restrictions imposed by the great noble clans, almost no one dared to do business with them anymore.
At this critical mont, the Gandalf Clan’s forr leader, Mosie Gandalf, stepped forward once again, just six months after his resignation. He took on the family’s disastrous situation and issued a statent, claiming that the Gandalf Clan did not possess the Beauty Pills; they were the personal property of his granddaughter, Yisha. He also clarified a misunderstanding: Yisha had already left the Gandalf Clan, and her noble title belonged to her alone, not to the family!
The statent imdiately caused a public uproar. ’What a joke! A noble title obtained by a child of your clan doesn’t belong to the clan? Who else could it possibly belong to?’
Almost everyone believed this was just an excuse. In mid-April, just as the furious nobles were preparing to impose further sanctions on the Gandalf Clan to force them to resu selling the Beauty Pills, a new auction house suddenly appeared in the southern city of Penzes.
The Ling Auction House!
It announced that it would resu selling Beauty Pills in May!
In an instant, all eyes turned to this southern port city!
The na "Ling" seed to explain so much!
Just when many people thought the Huangpu Clan had been abandoned, soone discovered that the person in charge of the Ling Auction House was none other than the eldest daughter of the Huangpu Clan—Huangpu Yue!
That sa month, Wulan Clan Leader Wulan Xiong publicly rebuked his prospective daughter-in-law, Huangpu Yue. He condemned the Huangpu Clan’s brilliant young businesswoman for her ambiguous relationship with Ling Xiao and for working for his political rival’s family!
According to sources, Wulan Xiong’s outburst only ca after several failed negotiations with the Huangpu Clan. At the sa ti, he declared his intention to suppress the Huangpu Clan with his full might.
Huangpu Yue never responded, but the Huangpu Clan issued a threat of its own: if their clan was attacked, sales of the Beauty Pill would cease imdiately!
Although the Wulan Clan was powerful, they were by no ans strong enough to oppose all the other nobles, let alone the Royal Family, foreign nobles, and foreign royalty.
A bitter resentnt festered in the hearts of everyone in the Wulan Clan. This was especially true for Wulan Tuo, who felt as though he’d swallowed a fly. Ever since the day he had provoked Ling Xiao, bad luck had followed him relentlessly. Now, even his fiancée had run off with another man! Such a humiliating affair would normally have been kept quiet, but it seed a noble in the know had unintentionally let it slip at a high-society banquet. They revealed that the head of the soon-to-open Ling Auction House was not only the eldest daughter of the Huangpu Clan and their first-in-line successor, but also the fiancée of the Wulan Clan leader’s son!
This was a huge piece of gossip. For the noblewon who had taken the Beauty Pill and regained their youthful looks, their greatest concern was ensuring the supply of this Top-Grade Elixir never ran out. Consequently, they paid close attention to the Huangpu Clan. Besides, the clan’s eldest daughter, a business prodigy, had always been a hot topic in noble circles.
As a powerful, long-established noble clan of the Empire, the Wulan Clan certainly couldn’t stomach such a humiliation. This led to the incident where Wulan Xiong, faced with the strange looks of many other nobles, finally erupted in anger.
Ultimately, however, this was all just a sideshow. The biggest bombshell was that this miraculous elixir actually ca from the Ling Family! Stories of Ling Xiao’s exploits were once again brought to light for all to see.
Even those who originally held strong prejudices against the Ling Family and Ling Xiao had to plug their noses and admit one thing: the Ling Family had to have an incredibly powerful backer!
How could they dare to sell Beauty Pills so openly in their own fief without considerable power and a strong backer?
The evasive statents from Ling Xiao’s subordinates in Penzes City only seed to confirm this suspicion. None of them would admit their Lord had a powerful backer. So even brought up the ti Ling Xiao repelled a Sword Sect expert during the New Year festival as an example, claiming, ’Our Lord is powerful in his own right. What’s all this talk about a backer?’
But the more they insisted, the less people believed them!
’What a joke. Ling Xiao... that kid had opened his Celestial Vein less than six months before that. Repel a Sword Sect expert? They must have misheard. Maybe it was a powerful Sword Attendant...’
It was a fact, confird by countless people, that a Sword Sect expert had appeared in Penzes City during the festival. The expert’s subsequent disappearance without a trace proved one thing: there was definitely soone in the Viscount’s Mansion even more powerful than a Sword Sect master!
That third son of the Ling Family, Ling Xiao, had first opened his Celestial Vein, after which his power advanced by leaps and bounds. He put on an outstanding performance while training on the sopotamia Grassland. Then, in the Imperial Capital, he killed an injured Demon Swordsman!
An injured Demon Swordsman... that’s still a master! Even a grievously wounded Demon Swordsman’s deathblow would be fatal! And yet, Ling Xiao erged completely unscathed.
Either Ling Xiao was incredibly powerful, or... he had soone protecting him!
The latter theory was the one more people believed.
Then there was the Ling Family’s eldest son, Lingzhi, and his outstanding performance in the elite military tournant. Although he didn’t reveal power exceeding that of a Great Sword Master, any discerning eye could tell that Lingzhi’s strength had absolutely surpassed that level!
Furthermore, so pointed out that the Ling Family’s youngest daughter, Ling Yun’Er, had already reached the level of a High-level Great Sword Master! Soone had apparently seen her practicing her sword techniques by chance and witnessed long streams of Sword Qi erupting from her blade!
The Ling Clan was on the rise!
This was the fundantal consensus among all the nobles. So were delighted, so were enraged, so were envious, and so were jealous.
But one thing was obvious: for the ti being, no one dared to make trouble for the Ling Clan!
Moreover, as the Ling Family garnered increasing attention, many discovered that Ling Xiao’s subordinates were already incredibly powerful. The well-known City Lord of Penzes City, Mo Qing, was originally only a Tier Six Great Sword Master. However, during a recent test at the Sword Guild, he had advanced to beco a Sixth Rank Mad Sword Master!
The steward of the Penzes City Lord’s Mansion, Uncle Fu, also possessed the strength of a Demon Sword Master. The Grand Commander of Ling Xiao’s private army in Penzes City, Ling Wu, now had the power of a Second-rank Mad Sword Master!
If people knew that Ling Xiao also had ng Li, a Tier Three Demon Swordsman, hiding in the shadows; that Ye Wen Ni had advanced to a First-rank Mad Sword Master; and that the maids Chunlan and Qiuyue had beco Tier Five Great Sword Masters. If they knew that the aloof woman nad Feng Ling, who lived in the Viscount’s Mansion and practiced her sword skills daily, had reached the peak of a Sixth Rank Mad Sword Master... one could only imagine their astonishnt.
The power at Ling Xiao’s disposal had long since surpassed that of an ordinary great family with hundreds of years of history!
Yisha walked in, cradling a beautiful calico cat in her arms. Seeing the mountain of docunts on Ye Wen Ni’s desk, she smiled faintly and said, "You’ve been working hard, Sister Yezi."
"Heh, you’re one to talk," Ye Wen Ni said with a light laugh.
Ye Wen Ni looked at Yisha, who had grown a little thin. She knew that Yisha was also incredibly busy every day and, on top of that, carried a heavy burden, constantly worrying about her grandfather and father back in the clan. Although the nobles had temporarily spared the Gandalf Clan due to the rise of the southern Ling Auction House, the blow to the family’s reputation had been imnse.
The Gandalf Clan’s business was a pale shadow of its forr self. Fortunately, Clan Leader Mosie Gandalf commanded great respect in his circles, and through his tireless efforts, he had managed to stop the steady decline. However, a return to their previous prosperity was now almost impossible.
Yisha’s departure, in particular, was a massive blow. The Gandalf Clan had beco a laughingstock among both the noble and rchant families.
Although their noble status was still recognized by the Empire, it was universally scorned. The exact reasons for Yisha’s departure were unknown, but judging by Mosie’s resignation, reinstatent, and public statent, it was obvious the fault was not hers. In other words, the Gandalf Clan had most likely driven away their own golden goose, forcing out the only mber of their family who actually held a noble title!
If Yisha were to issue a statent now, declaring that she was severing all ties with the Gandalf Clan, then every mber of the family would lose their noble status!
Yisha hadn’t issued such a statent, but no one treated the Gandalf Clan as nobility anymore anyway.
The pursuit of profit can blind people and lead them astray. In their chase for short-term gains, most of the Gandalf Clan had reaped what they sowed. Even more critically, they still hadn’t developed an antidote for the virus in their blood. They didn’t dare let this information leak out. Otherwise, who would ever buy the Gandalf Clan’s dicinal ingredients again?
They had tried to find Yisha, but she had completely ignored them. Now, the mbers of the Gandalf Clan didn’t dare take a single step into Penzes City. Even a fool could understand by now: the powerful, dark-skinned young man from that night was one of Ling Xiao’s subordinates... or perhaps, he was Ling Xiao’s backer himself!
"Where is Brother Ling Xiao now?" Yisha said softly. "I wonder if he’s alright. I’m so worried!"
"Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to him!"
Huangpu Yue stood outside the door, a serene smile on her face. Looking at the two won, she said, "He’s far too cunning for anything to happen to him."
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