"Don"t understand? You really don"t understand? This is but a situation that Supreme Cloud purposefully creates!" Ling Xiaozui inhaled softly, his gaze exceptionally profound and distant.
"You and Yun Yang haven"t been spending a lot of days together. Supreme Cloud does things his way; different but measured," said Ling Xiaozui, "The reason we have such feelings all comes from his intentional doing."
"What do you mean?"
"Since we crossed paths, Supreme Cloud has always been the weaker one. However, today, right now, we acknowledge him as our peer. Isn"t this so?"
"Not at all." Dugu Chou chuckled dryly. "Now, I keep feeling like he"s the centerpiece of all this."
"All this time, while we"ve helped him, we"re also accepting his favors. With Yun Yang, have you ever seen anyone receiving a gain without working for it? Or simply just gaining?"
"This… Indeed, I haven"t. Everyone has their own responsibilities and each of us performs our tasks. Even when we sometimes intersect, there"s no entanglement."
"That"s right, even us. We"ve been helping him – although our initial intention was to bring up a junior and never ask for anything in return, he"s repaid us in various ways, including the practice sessions with us. Do you really think that he needed it so desperately as we"ve thought? That he"s the only one improving from the drills?"
"Pardon?"
"Other than the first time, when he did need to meld and secure his cultivation base, to grind the martial skill he"s learned, the two sessions daily that wore him out thoroughly – they weren"t necessary to him."
"I can easily say that what he secured was his foundation, but what we gained was unlimited paths to go forth. Each of our physical aspects, our art, and divine senses, have stepped up from the practices. These weren"t absolutely necessary to him, he was doing more work with less efficiency!"
"That is indeed true."
"Thinking through it, we"ve accepted his service unknowingly a long time ago, pulling our positions to the same level."
"This time is no exception. He has asked us to annihilate the School of Kismet State – while we have to handle the case, he"s given us all that can be gained from the school and he"s not taking a sliver of it."
"From the outside, this is what we should get. We"re going to wipe out the School of Kismet State. Who else do those things belong to, if not us?"
"However, if he were to go with us, could you have forgone your dignity and looted the findings with a junior? That, and he"s carrying the name of justice. As long as he goes, at least eighty percent of these will go to him. Do you not acknowledge this distribution?"
"How can I not? It"s undeniable even if all of it goes to him. If so, it makes sense to say that these are also given by him."
"Still, these aren"t quite adequate. It doesn"t suffice to cover the favor of us fighting Four the Seasons Tower for him and helping to tackle Ximen Huanyu today. Therefore, he gave us the Eastern Amethyst."
"Once and for all, he has recompensed all the favor and debt! Went past it, even!"
"This results in the establishment of his new position. His t.i.tle has gone from the initial senior to… elder brother. Yet, we don"t feel offended – we only think that it"s befitting."
"He"s never given anyone anything on his own initiative without a reason but he"d never mistreat anyone"s a.s.sistance. This is Yun Yang"s conduct. It"s like how he has given me the Rainbow Kirin in the past; it"s the same case."
"Maybe it was intentional, maybe it didn"t even cross his mind, maybe I"m reading too much into it today – but such extreme balance is truly felt being around Yun Yang!"
"You"ll get what"s yours but what"s not yours will only be a wild wish even if you wish upon it."
"Such an ability is unbelievable."
"Nine Supremes" Supreme Cloud, Nine Supremes" Supreme Wit – true to his name, true to the reputation!"
"He has unwittingly become everyone"s core," exclaimed Dugu Chou.
"Thinking further, even the four popinjays of the n.o.ble families, they play all day long, but who among them dares to slack when it comes to what Yun Yang has a.s.signed them? Fang Mofei, Lao Mei and the others as well… they stand by their duties. Sometimes, they"ll get things in advance, but they"ll never get it for anything."
"In the future, we still have a long time to go together," Ling Xiaozui said in conclusion, "This is an extremely balanced and incredibly prudent person… Perhaps he hasn"t realized it himself but sometimes, we can"t already behave simply due to our elder age. I"m believing Gu Chaliang"s words even more now – the Heaven"s Inquisition"s prophecy is precise indeed."
After saying so much, the last line seemed to be a sigh of exclamation. This was what Ling Xiaozui truly wanted to say today, thus the meaningful impact lingered.
Dugu Chou was quiet for a moment, obviously experiencing some realization that was not expressed in words.
"Let"s go." Ling Xiaozui quickly switched the topic. "Finish up the School of Kismet State quickly and hurry back to the capital. I guess that the final battle between Yun Yang and the Four Seasons Tower isn"t far now. We can"t miss this fight. Maybe, this is our last battle in this realm."
"Alright. Still, Old Ling, I"m quite surprised by how Yun Yang handled this issue with the School of Kismet State."
"You mean… why didn"t he think of solving the matter by borrowing one force to extinguish the other?" Ling Xiaozui asked with a grin.
"Yes! Even I feel that the School of Kismet State can be used to go against the Four Seasons Tower. Why didn"t Yun Yang think of it?"
"There must be other reasons behind it. We"re not the think tank, why are we thinking so much?"
Ling Xiaozui let out a hearty laugh and sped off, whizzing through the clouds like a strike of lightning.
…
The School of Kismet State"s higher authorities had been ma.s.sacred and it was only time before the school fully collapsed. However, the mess that they created was far from over. At least, the Residence of Yun was still very crowded, teeming with people.
A breeze drifted above for a moment before it roamed far away after a period of observation.
Only Lao Mei was left supporting the entire Residence of Yun now with a long face. Well, in truth, he was not really the only one left. There were also the guards who had just been recruited, scattered around the residence to receive and direct the visitors.
In spite of this, the reception was an incredibly complex and troublesome task. They could not lash out or show even the slightest of inappropriate expressions.
Once they made the slightest misunderstanding, they could be deemed as being arrogant, hara.s.sing people with their status. Any slight stir or ripple at such a critical juncture could easily cause a ma.s.sive consequence!
As for the others… the four young masters were the earliest to react. They had escaped with their guards at the very first moment while Fang Mofei and Bai Yixue, alongside his master, had surrendered after the first day of helping out at the reception. Yun Xiaoyao holed himself in the palace, refusing to return home, while Bao"er had gone with him for a short stay.
Ji Lingxi had gone to Shangguan Lingxiu"s residence as well. Although Lady Ji was delighted that her crush was popular and admired, loved and revered, the crowd had gone way past her limit of acceptance. In addition, she was being too obvious a target if she remained there, thus, Ji Lingxi left swiftly, escaping the chaos to her best friend"s house.