Chapter 729: Shuang Lian and Bu Quan vs Long Meng and Long Fu
The center of the Ice Sculpture Capital, there was a lofty pure white castle centered on a tower.
It was the Royal Stronghold, the center of Ice Sculpture Kingdom politics.
Information about the dragonman youngster becoming a duelist and appeared on the top of Tranquil Hill was immediately passed to the Ice Sculpture King.
Any unforeseen events about the Dueling Divine Domain was urgent information.
The Ice Sculpture King immediately shelved his current business and quickly read the report.
“A new duelist was born; it’s Long Fu.” The Ice Sculpture King’s eyes shrank slightly, then he soon sank into contemplation.
According to common sense, critical information related to the Dueling God shouldn’t have been leaked.
However, the Ice Sculpture Royal Family took charge of this operation, and successive generations of kinds vigorously developed it and never suppressed dueling activities. The royal family had massive control over the Dueling Divine Domain.
Or in other words, over the years, members of the royal family were duelists.
It’s just that their names weren’t qualified to be listed on the tombstones, just like the Bayonet Gang’s Bing Xiao.
In fact, as successive kings energetically popularize duels, their faith inherently inclined towards the Dueling God. Even if it wasn’t their main religion, their dedication to the Dueling Godhead’s calculated value was absolutely enormous.
In this aspect, the Imperial Secret Spy Agency were far from the Ice Sculpture Royal Family.
“It really was possible for Long Fu to become a duelist. He has gained too much fame and profit from duels. Those that benefit that much from them usually love duels completely, and this kind of love can produce strong dueling faith.”
“Having this kind of faith is a good thing.”
The Ice Sculpture King’s foresight exceeded that of normal people.
To him it seems that Long Fu was a capable subordinate of an international arms merchant. Now, this capable subordinate had faith in the Dueling God, tantamount to his thinking being altered and being restricted.
This kind of restriction was undoubtedly advantageous to the entire Ice Sculpture Kingdom.
One must know that Long Fu had saint level qualifications!
“Eradicate Long Fu?” For a split second, the king’s mind really emitted that notion, but he quickly threw it to the back of his head.
Why would he want to do that?
If he was worried about foreigners, he wouldn’t have allowed people like Mi Fang, Zhu Gan, and Yun Zhong to become duelists.
And compared to those people, Long Fu could produce more benefits.
“Long Fu’s aptitude is amazing; he is worth recruiting.”
“Perhaps there is much room to collaborate in some areas with the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ arms merchant backer.”
The Ice Sculpture King was very interested in the survivors’ backer.
Just like Cang Xu analyzed, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom and the Sheng Ming Empire were embroiled in a fierce game. As the ruler of his nation, the Ice Sculpture King was willing to work with any power or individual that could help him deal with the Sheng Ming Empire.
And he also understood that just relying on the Ice Sculpture Kingdom was not enough to resist the massive Sheng Ming Empire.
As for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ killing of Teng Dong Lang and the other three gold level duelists, the Ice Sculpture King’s reaction was not as hard lined as Mei Lin, Bao Li Gen, Gu Dong, and the others.
He was a high ranking person, a statesman. In his eyes, these duelists were all his pawns, and not his comrades.
He could more calmly reflect, and even callously analyze the pros and cons based on pure profit and loss comparison.
“However, who is their arms merchant backer?”
“I have already deployed many people to inquire about this, yet in spite of everything, none have made any progress.”
“Divination spells have also been used a lot, yet nothing was gained!”
The more investigations failed to find the “mysterious arms merchant”, the higher the Ice Sculpture King’s evaluation of them was.
He never doubted the arms merchant actually existed.
Because Long Fu was present.
He was an efficient subordinate with saint level qualifications, the one the “mysterious arms merchant” had dispatched to break into a new market. This illustrated that this “mysterious arms merchant” had courage and was certain to be very formidable.
“Since the arms merchant can send a future saint level, they must have provided him with considerable amounts of skills and trump cards.”
The Ice Sculpture King had a similar judgment as Mi Fang.
From this judgement, one could see Zong Ge’s 3 v 1 against the duelists as very reasonable.
This was also why the Ice Sculpture King felt like he shouldn’t attack Long Fu.
If he attacked, he’d have to face Long Fu’s many trump cards. A saint level teleportation scroll could spoil everything and would also offend the “mysterious arms merchant” and spoil a future collaboration before it could be realized.
After all, the Ice Sculpture Capital didn’t block teleportation.
Apart from that, the domestic political ambience was layered. The Sheng Ming Empire and Da Han were external pressures that made the Ice Sculpture King very cautious and unwilling to attack so recklessly.
Past battle records already proved that Long Fu was someone no normal gold level could deal with. Deploying a saint level to handle Long Fu was also not guaranteed to work, and crucially, even if they did succeed, the profits would be slimmer.
The Ice Sculpture King didn’t have the motivation to attack Long Fu, at least not right now.
“In that case, let’s focus on placating him.”
“The current trouble now is his decent relationship with Shuang Lian, he will definitely stand up for her.”
The Ice Sculpture King frowned slightly.
Shuang Lian was a truly powerful Alchemy Guild elder, and she controlled Honey Snow Tower. Remember, this was a magician tower in the capital!
This was no simple building, but a formidable military fort.
The Ice Sculpture King naturally knew about Shuang Lian and also valued her considerably.
Shuang Lian’s magician tower was built with royal family funds. Because Shuang Lian was a former champion of the Warm Snow Cup Grand Contest.
Shuang Lian’s demiplane mainly produced honey snow; she was a primary supplier of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s military!
To sum it up, Shuang Lian was one of his people.
However, the Dueling Divine Domain secret was too high level, and Shuang Lian was unaware of it.
The Ice Sculpture King also didn’t want her to know.
But as it happens, Shuang Lian did know! She was not a duelist, was not restricted by faith, and wasn’t bound by a divine spell contract.
The Ice Sculpture King’s plan to deal with her was to temporarily imprison her in the Dueling Divine Domain and not allow her any connection with the outside world to protect the secrets of the Dueling Divine Domain to the greatest degree.
On the one hand, this was a temporary measure. After the Dueling Godhead was complete, handling Shuang Lian would be easy and simple. On the other hand, the Ice Sculpture King also wanted to seize the opportunity to suppress Shuang Lian and grind his subordinate’s haughtiness and make future assignments easier.
But that was no longer possible.
The Ice Sculpture King quickly recognized that if he wanted to placate Long Fu, he had to inform Shuang Lian of some secrets and placate her too.
“It just so happened the Dueling Divine Domain’s defenses are still somewhat low, let’s have Honey Snow Tower make up for that a bit.”
After pondering, the king gave orders, including a notification to the Alchemy Guild President.
The king didn’t know that in the wake of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corp’s intervention, a new Alchemy Guild faction had been born, the king wouldn’t have paid attention to such a trivial matter.
His announcement was given to the guild president, immediately causing the latter’s plan to target Cai Jing to collapse.
The order was also transmitted to Gu Dong, disappointing him, but also letting him relax, realizing how he should treat Long Fu and was no longer at a loss of what to do.
Inside Honey Snow Tower.
Long Meng and Long Fu, as well as Shuang Lian and Bu Quan were sitting opposite each other, drinking tea.
The four of them were the only ones in the room.
Bu Quan couldn’t help but keep staring at the dragonman youngster, pleasantly surprised to the utmost. Her sweetheart appearing like this to save her made her overjoyed.
Shuang Lian stared at Long Meng, “I didn’t expect that there was such a secret you have never told me about.”
Her tone hid bitterness.
The dragonman youngster was immediately drawn by this, his eyes flickering between Shuang Lian and Long Meng.
These two had history!
Long Meng sighed, “You aren’t a duelist, and if I were to say anything, your freedom would be restricted, jailed somewhere and cut off from the outside world, much like how you are now.”
Shuang Lian coldly snorted, “But now I know, and as it turns out, this place is actually the arrangement of successive generations of kings, the scale is mindboggling!”
“Why did you decide to inform me about this now?”
Long Meng turned to look at the dragonman youngster, “Because of him.”
He briefly stated the reasons and details.
Bu Quan’s eyes flashed, holding her teacup with an excited expression, “Lord Commander, you once again saved me! I really don’t know how to thank you.”
The dragonman youngster fixed his eyes on Bu Quan, his tone sincere and also slightly ashamed, “Since you disappeared, I have always been trying to find you.”
“Despite many people saying you were already dead, I never believed that.”
“My heart told me that you must be alive. You are the one I recruited, and I cannot let any of my people die so easily!”
“Rationally speaking, I never believed that you would lose your life while you were inside Honey Snow Tower and under your teacher’s protection. You just went missing.”
“Alas!” The dragonman youngster sighed, “Truth be told, I didn’t think I’d happen to find you here.”
“When I saw a magician tower resembling Honey Snow Tower, I rushed over here!”
“Lord Commander…” Bu Quan was moved to gleaming tears.
Long Meng was shifting his eyes between Long Fu and Bu Quan.
These two had history!
“Cough, cough, cough!” Shuang Lian firmly coughed, her expression becoming strict.
Her beloved disciple’s liberal attitude really made her furious and frustrated.
What she loathed even more was that this dragoman was actually stirring up the emotions of her disciple right in front of her, simply not paying any heed to her, Shuang Lian.
At once, Shuang Lian gloomily said to the dragonman youngster, “Commander Long Fu, I still want to thank you. If you hadn’t recruited Bu Quan into your mercenary corps, she wouldn’t have come across such danger. If she hadn’t gotten into danger, I wouldn’t have come to save her. By logical deduction, the reason we are stuck in the Dueling Divine Domain is because of you.”
The dragonman youngster promptly stood up and bowed to Shuang Lian, thanking her for her assistance while also taking out a large sum of money to compensate her and Bu Quan.
“Do I care about your money?” Shuang Lian looked exceedingly disdainful.
She had money, a lot of money.
The dragonman youngster knew how she’d react, as Cang Xu had already deduced it for him.
The dragonman youngster pretended to be stunned, then clenched his teeth and sorrowfully resolved that he could try to use some alchemy blueprints as an apology.
This suggestion immediately caught Shuang Lian’s interest.
At the time, the reason why she helped the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, apart from Bu Quan persuading her, was that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ alchemy knowledge truly moved her.
If Long Fu really took out alchemy knowledge of the appropriate level, then Shuang Lian couldn’t bear to refuse this suggestion.
Bu Quan grinded her teeth, filling with worry, “Lord Commander, if it is too difficult for you, then forget it. Knowledge is precious…”
“Shut up, you!” When Shuang Lian saw her disciple siding with an outsider, she immediately became irate and bellowed out coldly.
Bu Quan was cowed by her teacher’s reprimand, utterly afraid.
Long Meng chuckled, coming over to help smooth things over, “Being young is good, Shuang Lian, there is no need to make things difficult for two young’uns.”
Shuang Lian glared at Long Meng, her eyes as sharp as blades, “Long Meng, there is something I need to ask you. You said you were a duelist and are freed to go in and out of the divine domain.”
“You already knew I was trapped here.”
“Why did you come only now? What were you doing before then?”
A deadly question, a soul wrenching question!
Long Meng was immediately struck dumb, bewildered by it.
This was the first time Long Fu saw Long Meng like this, and he felt his horizons broadening.
In the dragonman youngster’s memory, Long Meng was powerful, and in each duel, he performed directly and efficiently with extraordinary might. Long Meng was also calm, wise, and farsighted. He tutored the dragonman youngster in combat techniques, used Resonance Force to immensely help the dragonman youngster, and allowed the latter to quickly grasp many kinds of forces.
Long Meng being stifled and at a loss for words honestly caused the dragonman youngster to…secretly cheer.
“Long Meng and Shuang Lian must have a story with each other. Perhaps Long Meng is indebted to Shuang Lian.”
“This is great, I didn’t expect them to have such a layered relationship.”
With Long Meng attracting the fire, the pressure on the dragonman youngster lessened greatly.
After this conversation, he seized the opportunity to provide a plan for a collaboration between the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps and Shuang Lian.
“My corps needs to stabilize its footing in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, and is currently eager to part ways with the Li Jian Clan…” The dragonman youngster explained his situation.
He proposed that he could sell honey snow as well as other alchemy products on behalf of Shuang Lian.
Long Meng told Shuang Lian that in the short term, she still had to stay in the Dueling Divine Domain and couldn’t return to the Ice Sculpture Capital just yet.
The dragonman youngster used this as a pretext to tell Shuang Lian that while Shuang Lian was missing, many things happened in the Alchemy Guild. Hua Ni, Snow Cake Tower, and others were all targeting her with rampant and repulsive attitudes, Shuang Lian’s influence was in the process of being dwindled.
If the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps and Shuang Lian reached cooperation at this time, selling honey snow and other acts on behalf of her would be simple, yet significant, it was sufficient enough to transmit the important information outwards that Shuang Lian was still alive.
This would enormously retrieve Shuang Lian’s violently dropping influence, furthermore, her adversaries within the guild wouldn’t be as rampant, no longer wanting a foot after winning an inch.
Shuang Lian turned it over in her mind, and under the wide open gaze of Bu Quan, finally agreed to this collaboration.
After taking their leave, Long Meng felt he was pardoned.
Bu Quan was reluctant to part, constantly gazing at the dragonman youngster’s back as it faded from view.
“Still looking?” Shuang Lian coldly snorted.
She was obviously also watching just like Bu Quan, staring at Long Meng’s back.
Bu Quan asked, “Teacher, it seems you are somewhat biased against the Lord Commander?”
Shuang Lian exploded, “What bias? There is no bias!”
“I have come to tell you that draconic nature is lascivious, these dragonmen are not good people, and are naturally disposed to licentiousness. Bu Quan, you are not experienced in the world, especially in romance, you were easily lured by a few words.”
“It is very detrimental to you.”
“Alas, back in the day…”
Shuang Lian didn’t speak as she recalled something.
“What happened to you. Teacher, then?” Bu Quan pricked up her ears, straining to hear what it was, but Shuang Lian didn’t speak, and she could bear to coax it out of the latter.
Shuang Lian broke from her thoughts and returned to reality, seeing her favored disciple looking up at her with wide and curious eyes.
Shuang Lian raised her index finger and flicked Bu Quan in the head, resentfully turning around, “Go back!”
“Time for combat training.”
“I’ll give you three alchemy assignments to write up on.”