1385 Damage!
It was highly likely the Lawless Lands being in a messy state was because of that possibility. A treaty of alliance between the 13 Lords but on the surface, they flooded each other’s land pillaging, killing, raiding, doing everything possible to make it seem that peace would be impossible between the 13 Lords, and the reason for them doing so? They wasted countless lives of innocent citizens with terror just to create an image of an unstable land to throw off the surveillance being put on them by the other nations
So what if spies were embedded in their power structure? They had spent their entire youth, maybe even their entire life at the Lawless Lands. Ultimately, humans were slaves to their emotions, and as time pa.s.sed by, emotions would change. When people obtain positions of power, they would be more susceptible to their selfish desires, abandoning what they had in the Federation just to fulfill their selfish desires here. All in all, people’s intent would change over time.
“The 13 Lords are very interesting.” Ling Lan smiled. “We have a lot of time. We can slowly dig deeper into them, and I’m sure there’ll definitely be something.”
Tang Ningyu calmed down and took a deep breath. He said, “Lieutenant General Ling, I hope that you can consider this carefully. You’re one of the 13 Lords now, but it won’t affect the overall power structure of the entire Lawless Lands. Hence, the nations won’t act when they receive the news. But, when they realise that you have the intention of unifying the Lawless Lands, they will definitely get rid of you at all costs. There is no question in that.”
“We won’t let them know my intention then.” Ling Lan smiled at Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran ambiguously. “Are you planning to tell them what I said to the Federation?”
Tang Ningyu pursed his lips tightly. The emotions in his gaze were complicated. He couldn’t decide what he should do in that instant. After remaining quiet for some time, he finally replied, “The order I received is to protect you. The spies have nothing to do with me.”
In the end, he still lost to his feelings for Pei Shaoyun. He only interacted with Pei Shaoyun for a short one month and met with his real ident.i.ty a few times after that. By right, he shouldn’t have such a deep emotional attachment to him. However, in the depths of his mind, the innocent smile and the eyes that trusted him fully would always appear in his mind whenever he tried to ignore him. Because of this feeling of guilt, he was unable to do anything harmful to the real ident.i.ty of Pei Shaoyun.
Forget it, he should just pretend that he didn’t know anything. He was supposed to watch over the Ling Lan, not the Lawless Lands. Why should he care?
Also, if Ling Lan was able to hide the truth from the tight surveillance and unify the Lawless Lands, that was his ability to do that.
Tang Ningyu decided to be a bystander. As for Mu Chaoran, he wasn’t as loyal to the Federation or to the Flying Dragon Special Forces as Tang Ningyu. Thus, he obviously wouldn’t report Ling Lan to the Flying Dragon Special Forces. From the very beginning, he already decided to side with Ling Lan.
Plus, a hacker like Ling Lan wouldn’t let them have any opportunity to leak the news out.
The two of them understood this point so they chose not to do anything. They were already Ling Lan’s guests, so they wouldn’t be so stupid as to become his prisoner.
Li Lanfeng, who had stayed in the Chaotic Lands for three months, finally compiled all the supplies Ling Lan needed with the help of Xia Qingyi.
He yearned to go back to Ling Lan so he left the port the same night and rushed all the way to the Lawless Lands. By the time he arrived at the Lawless Lands, he had already left Ling Lan for five months.
The moment Li Lanfeng reached the port of Lawless Lands, he called the manager of the port to look after the three transport s.h.i.+ps. After he settled everything he needed to do, he rushed all the way back to the rainbow palace.
This was the first time he left Ling Lan for so long. He missed Ling Lan so much that he almost went mad. One day apart feels like three autumns. Li Lanfeng finally had a taste of what this felt like.
He dashed straight to Ling Lan’s room. He knew that if there wasn’t any matter for him to deal with, Ling Lan would most probably be cultivating or resting in his room.
“Ling Lan!” Li Lanfeng pushed the door open and shouted happily.
“Ah, Big Brother Li is back.” A pleasant voice much like the gentle sounds of a windchime floated over.
Li Lanfeng stopped in his tracks abruptly. The joy on his face disappeared instantly and his expression turned cold.
But, the next second, a smile appeared on his face again. His aura turned gentle. “It’s Luo Chao.”
Yes, it must be because the Jialan s.h.i.+p had arrived. He missed Ling Lan so much that he forgot all about the Jialan s.h.i.+p. They needed Luo Chao to merge with Jialan in order for them to send the supplies within such a tight time limit.
“Why are you in Boss’s room?” This was the matter Li Lanfeng was most concerned about. Even if she was Boss’s fiancée, they should avoid arousing those rumours, right?
“Boss asked Xuya and I to move in together with him,” Luo Chao said shyly. Although they knew that Boss was a lady, others didn’t. Thus, when they moved in, everyone would definitely think that they were already Boss’s women.
In actual fact, this was indeed the case.
Luo Chao’s words made Li Lanfeng’s heart ache tremendously. His heart couldn’t bear such torment.
“C-Con…” He wasn’t able to say the word ‘congratulations’ no matter how hard he gritted his teeth.
Li Lanfeng didn’t say anything but Luo Chao understood what he wanted to say. Her face immediately turned hot. Fortunately, she still remembered the order Ling Lan gave her. She said hurriedly, “Boss asked you to meet him in the study.”
Although Ling Lan’s decision would cause some misunderstanding, Luo Chao and Han Xuya knew that this was Boss’s way of protecting them. There were too many powerful people in the rainbow palace. All of them were unruly and belonged to the previous Lord Gen. They didn’t dare to create any trouble now because they succ.u.mbed to Boss’s frightening strength but that didn’t mean that they might not do something stupid. For instance, they might challenge Ling Lan’s subordinates to crack down Ling Lan’s powerful image.
The two ladies were on the weaker side so they were easy targets for these people. When someone wasn’t strong enough, their ident.i.ty became even more important.
Li Lanfeng forced the heart-throbbing pain back into the recesses of his body when he heard this. He quickly turned around and dashed into Ling Lan’s study.
The moment he entered the room, he heard Ling Lan’s indifferent voice. “You are back.”
Hearing the words, Li Lanfeng felt warmth in his heart. Ling Lan’s words seemed to have appeased the throbbing pain a little.
“I… didn’t expect your two fiancées to come.” Li Lanfeng had already lost his cool. He didn’t choose to report his work but instead, insisted on finding the truth.
“Luo Chao came so it would be weird if Xuya didn’t come.” Ling Lan looked at Li Lanfeng in surprise. With Li Lanfeng’s intelligence, he should be able to guess what had happened easily.
“I thought that Qi Long wouldn’t bear to let her go.” Li Lanfeng couldn’t control his desire to tamper their relations.h.i.+p so he acted decisively.
Ling Lan was shocked. “What do you mean?”
Li Lanfeng rubbed his forehead in frustration. He seemed to regret what he said without thinking just now.
“I knew Xuya likes Qi Long. Are you saying Qi Long likes her too?” Ling Lan was happy. She didn’t want her two younger sisters to really become her fake wives. If there were really people who like them without fearing that they would offend her or get beaten to death by her, and she felt that the man was good too, she didn’t mind letting her younger sisters go.
Ling Lan had more expressions than normal but the greater the fluctuations in her emotions, the colder her expression became. This made it harder for people to understand her true emotions.
Hence, in Li Lanfeng’s eyes, Ling Lan looked angry.
As expected, Ling Lan liked women. He liked his two fiancées.