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Yan Xiaobao accepted these stones, believing their task was complete, but Gao Yan quickly returned all the books to their original places before repeating the process with twelve more books. He copied them again and handed over another twelve brand-new mory Stones to Yan Xiaobao. This happened multiple tis until Gao Yan finally picked up a large book. Within the book, there were multiple mory Stones, and Gao Yan managed to copy thirty-five of them before handing them to Yan Xiaobao.
"The first twelve stones contain information about twelve experts who always attend the banquets. The next twelve stones are about guests who have been invited repeatedly. The following thirty-six mbers have visited on occasion. Finally, the last thirty-five stones are about the City Lord himself. These contain everything we have on him. You should be able to learn a lot about him from all this information." Gao Yan said to Yan Xiaobao. The white-haired young man nodded to indicate his understanding and couldn’t help but feel relieved to have possession of all the information Gao Yan shared. Regarding paynt, neither Yan Xiaobao nor Gao Yan ntioned anything. Both understood that paynt was unnecessary to discuss. Yan Xiaobao knew that Gao Yan felt he had owed Xu Yue for years. A long ti ago, Gao Yan had been disabled and had lost all his hard-earned Inner Energy, but thanks to Yan Xiaobao and Lan Feng, Gao Yan managed to quickly rebuild his cultivation base. He had beco far stronger than he had ever imagined, all thanks to Yan Xiaobao. At that ti, Yan Xiaobao didn’t ask for anything in return, and now that Yan Xiaobao needed help, Gao Yan was clearly willing to do his best; ntioning paynt would only undermine their friendship. Yan Xiaobao felt assured Gao Yan would help him with all his capability because such loyalty needed no financial transactions.
Yan Xiaobao and Cai Jie achieved their goal. After expressing gratitude to Gao Yan, the two young n left the small, cunning inn behind and returned to the mansion belonging to the Rong twins. Together, they found a small room with a library inside the estate. Everything inside was covered in dust, suggesting the room hadn’t been used in years. They applied a bit of power, managing to clear the dust, and slowly took their seats in the chairs.
"Do you want to learn about the City Lord himself, or do you want to know about the many n he has invited to his mansion?" Yan Xiaobao asked as he laid two storage stones before them. One was about the City Lord, and the other about his guests. Cai Jie sighed before picking up the stone about the City Lord. "Let’s start with this one," he said, then pressed the mory Stone to his forehead. Sitting in the small library they had discovered, Cai Jie and Yan Xiaobao each placed a stone against their foreheads. As silver-blue light flickered constantly in the room, the two n diligently recorded the essential details they encountered.
Cai Jie uncovered many interesting facts about the City Lord, while Xu Yue ford a detailed understanding of the guests who attended the City Lord’s banquets. He started from the guests who were always present at each al. The information provided by Gao Yan was extrely detailed, describing which factions the individuals belonged to, the particulars of their families, their teams, their most commonly employed attacks, their highest-ranked attacks, and their known or suspected alliances. However, the most useful aspect for Yan Xiaobao was the information Gao Yan included regarding whether these families were loyal to the factions they aligned themselves with. When categorizing four of the twelve mory Stones, Yan Xiaobao identified an individual who wasn’t loyal to his faction.
The person identified was Dong Liang, a nobleman and Clan Leader of the Dong Clan. On the surface, he appeared to be part of the City Lord’s faction, but in reality, he belonged to the First Prince’s faction. Whether the City Lord was aware of this was a major question that Yan Xiaobao couldn’t answer. Since the information was sold by Gao Yan, accessing it wasn’t a challenge.
In the Capital, there were six prominent factions. One was the City Lord’s faction. The second belonged to the First Prince, the third to the Second Prince, and the fourth to the Third Prince. Besides these four factions, there were two others. One was led by the rchant Zhan Weisheng, and the last was led by the King and his supporters, forming the Royal Faction.
In the Capital, most rchants followed Zhan Weisheng, making his faction one of the largest. rchants and High-level rcenaries supported this figure aligned with the City Lord.
The current King was elderly, and his faction was small. Most nobles supported one prince or another, while so chose to align themselves with the City Lord.
After analyzing many of the mory Stones, Yan Xiaobao discovered that of the twelve stable banquet mbers, three were loyal to individuals other than the City Lord. Among the commonly invited experts, half were loyal to other Lords. Of those who had attended sporadically, the majority were loyal to soone else.
The three individuals disloyal to the City Lord’s faction were Dong Liang, a noble nad Huang Zhen, and a rchant nad Han Shi. Huang Zhen was the Clan Leader of the Huang Family and truly loyal to the Second Prince. The rchant Han Shizong was loyal to Zhan Weisheng. Whether the City Lord was aware of the true loyalties of these three experts was unknown to Yan Xiaobao, but he silently noted to keep an eye on them.
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