Chapter 68: The Storm is Coming

Shen Tang looked at him dully and blankly, feeling that familiar chill in her heart once again.

From the moment they formed a grudge with Incense Burning Tower, his primary idea was to use this to expand the high-end strength of Tianxing Sword Sect. Who could have thought of this initially?

Just like that day, on the surface, he was devising a strategy for the Purifying Sword Talisman to gain a foothold, but in reality, it was meant to cause Liu Qingcang's death.

To say that Yanluo Hall's rapid rise over the years was only because of Yan Jun's appeal... Shen Tang now absolutely did not believe it.

Lu Xingzhou continued, "Incense Burning Tower needs to worry about being counter-guest as host with them, but as long as you secretly reveal your identity, who would dare? Once more time passes, and you cultivate your own strong individuals who feel a sense of belonging, you can absorb those externally hired transitional ones if possible, or dismiss them if not. This is the path to a powerful sect I have prepared for you, paved with the bones of Incense Burning Tower."

Shen Tang couldn't help but say, "Why are you only telling me now?"

"I had to first observe whether the situation would progress as I imagined. If not, then what I said earlier would just be empty boasting." Lu Xingzhou sighed, "Sister, do you really think I'm some immortal who can see hundreds of steps into the future? Being an advisor is not easy; it's easy to be slapped in the face for boasting too much, and for saying too little, you fear the boss will think you're useless..."

Shen Tang glanced at him sideways and said, "Your so-called observing the situation's progress, shouldn't it refer to observing the progress of our relationship, feeling that now even if you boast, I won't blame you, so you dare to speak?"

Lu Xingzhou touched his chin, "To be honest... a little."

Look at the situation everyone is in now, he, Lu Xingzhou, is still being carried on Shen Tang's shoulder, walking slowly!

Shen Tang was in no mood to make a sound.

Lu Xingzhou smiled apologetically and said, "Now all aspects are indeed as thought, only lacking the attitude of Incense Burning Tower itself... always so calm and undisturbed? There's no reason for this..."

Shen Tang, in a bad mood, said, "There has been a change, but it's somewhat different from what we expected."

"How so?"

"A major characteristic of Incense Burning Tower is their extensive connections. At least twenty to thirty percent of the forces within a thousand miles around them have alchemists they cultivated stationed there. I originally thought our external interactions would be very difficult. For example, when we forge swords and want to purchase some Nine Forging Refined Steel, we sent people to find East River Gang. We originally thought East River Gang wouldn't sell to us, but unexpectedly, they sold it very readily."

"Hmm... what about others?"

"If you say East River Gang intentionally eased relations because of that ceremony, then several other completely unfamiliar ones also welcomed us with smiling faces, which is very strange. To be honest, even Wanbao Pavilion being willing to take our auction business is very strange. Incense Burning Tower is a big patron of Wanbao Pavilion."

Lu Xingzhou laughed, "Someone is helping you... wait... that's not right."

His smile quickly faded, and he murmured to himself, "This help might have a bit of a problem."

Shen Tang roughly understood his meaning, and her expression was difficult to describe.

Although Incense Burning Tower was stronger than Tianxing Sword Sect, she wasn't afraid. What she was afraid of was precisely forming a collective isolation, which a newborn force would indeed find hard to endure. So, the initial grand ceremony was intended to do as much as possible to curry favor with the local Xia State and to save face with sects like East River Gang. As long as the isolation wasn't too serious, there was still a chance. But unexpectedly, after calculating for half a day, this kind of isolation fundamentally did not exist. There was no other explanation for this except that Gu Zhan Ting had issued words.

Incense Burning Tower's public assassination during the grand ceremony was already against the emperor's "support" decree. As long as the emperor showed a little displeasure, others would necessarily hurry to cut ties with Incense Burning Tower.

On the surface, he was helping properly.

But Incense Burning Tower, openly defying the higher will yet not being directly dealt with, had a very ambiguous attitude that could lead to many interpretations. One also didn't know if it was intended to leave Incense Burning Tower to give Shen Tang a hard time, or if he deeply felt it was simply better to let Incense Burning Tower further suppress Tianxing Sword Sect.

After all, considering the surface strength contrast, the newborn Tianxing Sword Sect really couldn't beat Incense Burning Tower; the gap was very large. Just leaving Incense Burning Tower like this, was it meant to cause trouble or was it meant for Shen Tang to die?

Shen Tang sighed with some fatigue, "Anyway, Incense Burning Tower's side should not have expected the isolation to be ineffective at first, but now they must have reacted, and will even judge that the emperor's inner thought is to let them fight. As for whether the emperor truly has this idea... I don't know, and perhaps they don't know either."

"They will definitely plan a military attack." Lu Xingzhou said decisively, "Now it's calm and undisturbed, but it's a paralysis. In reality, they must have strong individuals sneaking into Xia State in batches. Once they launch, it will be a thunderbolt strike!"

Originally, sect struggles rarely resulted in such a direct outbreak of full war. Lu Xingzhou's original plan was also to cook slowly with gentle fire, attacking Incense Burning Tower from various angles, slowly disintegrating it. Given its characteristic of having most of its strongest individuals externally hired, Lu Xingzhou could think of many angles to slowly target it.

The result of the analysis was that the biggest possibility was a thunderbolt attack. Thinking that this situation was still changing under the emperor's tacit approval, Lu Xingzhou simply wanted to curse, "Your dad is truly TM..."

Before the words fell, his feet felt soft, and he almost fell down.

Shen Tang was also just lost in thought, immediately reacted and held him. Lu Xingzhou also instinctively counter-held her.

That pressing posture vividly resembled a hungry tiger trying to forcibly violate a girl, disastrous to the extreme.

Shen Tang's face turned red, and she simply carried him up, hugged him back, and put him on the wheelchair. The two looked at each other, both laughing somewhat tiredly.

Unexpectedly, hugging each other like this didn't feel too awkward now... tsk.

Upon careful thought, she only then discovered that they had already strolled for a very long time. Lu Xingzhou's legs, which had just begun recovery training, being able to walk this far was already very difficult, much better than Shen Tang's initial performance.

"This is because the strength of the two immortal bones is strong, right?" Shen Tang laughed, "Wait a few days until you're completely well, no one will think that your strongest magic treasure in your whole body is this pair of legs that seemingly needs to sit in a wheelchair."

"A few days... I don't know if it will be in time." Lu Xingzhou sighed, "I want to end my closed-door cultivation and go out for a trip in advance."

Shen Tang was startled, "Go where?"

"Go see our city lord adult. People from outside sects sneaking into Xia State and launching attacks on Xia State forces, this is properly within her range of duties. You can't say I'm setting her up, right?"

………

"Yo, which wind blew the two honored guests to my humble yamen ah?" In the commander's room of Town Demon Division, Sheng Yuan Yao sat there, looking at A Nuo pushing Lu Xingzhou in with a cold laugh.

When they reached the threshold, A Nuo lifted both hands, carried her master and the chair up, and thumped into the door.

Sheng Yuan Yao, who had a cold laugh on her face originally, almost couldn't maintain her cold face seeing this posture. She really wanted to laugh, but held back hard, "Don't just know how to act cute in front of this official all day. This official doesn't recognize a stingy ghost who held a grand ceremony and didn't even invite me to a single meal."

Lu Xingzhou lost his laugh, "City lord adult, where are your words? We clearly sent Melting Snow Return Origin Pills, that's a Grade 6 pill, isn't it more valuable than a meal?"

Sheng Yuan Yao laughed coldly, "That's something you needed to do for self-promotion. Could it be that you're truly generous and polite?"

"Alright, alright, alright." Lu Xingzhou took out a small box and handed it to A Nuo, "Go give your pretty sister a supplementary gift."

A Nuo smiled apologetically and ran over obediently. Sheng Yuan Yao pressed her head with one hand, "Less of this. This is called bribery now, and this official doesn't accept."

A Nuo said carefully, "Then will Sister accept face?"

Sheng Yuan Yao was very satisfied and pulled her over, starting to rub her face.

A Nuo: "..."

"Speak, what did you come for today?" Sheng Yuan Yao sized up Lu Xingzhou and said strangely, "Why do you look pale? Injured?"

This was not an injury, but caused by being underground for a long time without light. Lu Xingzhou didn't explain this, only laughing, "City lord adult, why are you not in the city lord yamen? It took us a while to find you."

Sheng Yuan Yao's job as city lord was different from others. She never sat in the city lord yamen for a day, working in the Town Demon Division from start to finish. Anyway, she was also the commander of the Town Demon Division. She didn't even go to live in the burned-down city lord mansion, always living in the house allocated by the Town Demon Division.

She simply didn't consider herself a city lord at all.

Sheng Yuan Yao said in a bad mood, "You clearly know that I am this city lord because I was forced into it. It's not just the aftermath of the Xu Bingkun demon case; no one wanted to touch this hot potato, so they threw it to me. Anyway, I said early on that I fundamentally won't govern; just let it be."

Lu Xingzhou said, "So, has there been any follow-up on the demon case?"

"No." Sheng Yuan Yao supported her head somewhat tiredly, "I've exhausted myself these past few days. No matter how I investigate, I can't find any clue about where this demon came from. Now it feels like burying a volcano that could erupt at any time, making people unable to eat or sleep peacefully."

"Has City Lord Adult not considered that you are more likely to find clues in the position of city lord rather than in the Town Demon Division?"

Sheng Yuan Yao suddenly looked up, "What do you mean?"

"Letting you be the city lord was a very absurd appointment. Presumably, your father also knows this. But why did your father agree? He has worked in the Town Demon Division for a lifetime and should have a bit of vague suspicion... If I'm not mistaken, there should still be some hints in your father's letter to you."

Sheng Yuan Yao thought for a while, frowned and said, "No, he only told me to visit other city lords more, especially the prefect. Isn't this the convention of the official circle? What's so special about it... Anyway, even if he told me, I wouldn't do it. Who has the patience to socialize with those bureaucrats? They are all upright and aboveboard on the surface, but their eyeballs turn lecherously. You are all much better than them; at least you look openly and honestly."

Lu Xingzhou: "?"

A Nuo: "..."

Her uniform was indeed good-looking and tempting. The day she ran to eat melon and changed into a young girl's dress off-duty also had a kind of contrasting beauty. Lu Xingzhou indeed always looked at it openly and honestly.

Of course, Lu Xingzhou wouldn't follow her in talking such nonsense. He sighed and said, "If you want to break this case, City Lord Adult should indeed go see those colleagues... But I would rather advise the city lord not to continue investigating."

Sheng Yuan Yao glared and said, "Why not investigate if there's a demon? That will harm people!"

"That will make you very dangerous, won't it?"

"I can request support! I have the backing of the country, unlike you sects fighting alone."

Lu Xingzhou didn't speak. He didn't know if Sheng Qingfeng's meaning in sending his daughter on this external assignment was similar to the national teacher's meaning in tempering the little white-haired girl, wanting his childlike daughter to understand the ways of the world. The previous period had already made her learn to be smooth in the face of facts; next, he didn't know if she would be made to learn to compromise in the face of sin.

Slowly refine her into someone like him.

But that was actually a... very sad thing.