Chapter Thirteen: Shameless
The Gongyang family could disregard the att.i.tudes of most Chu people, but they silently submitted to the First Sword Of The World Token because when so many people’s power reached a certain level, they could not be fought back with wealth and armies.
So when Gongyang Ji said that in the end, it depended on the att.i.tudes of two people, many of those present did not know who they were, but they all knew that the two people he spoke of would be special grandmasters beyond ordinary realm six. Also, the two grandmasters would be related to the Zhou and Xia families.
When Zhou Chenyun walked out of the meeting room, and headed towards the deep courtyard of the Zhou Family, he gradually calmed down from his fury as he walked below the mottled shadows. He found that his att.i.tude today had been affected by the person in his family long ago. Because this person in the family could not reconcile with Consort Zhao Xiang and Ba Mountain Sword Field, his att.i.tude and stance had been invisibly infected.
The local families appeared to live more generously than the families of the Chu capital. Because they were in their own lands, they possessed almost unlimited land to spread out, not like in the Chu capital, where even expanding a street would have many implications.
The Zhou family’s courtyard was very deep, and the most quiet place even had several small mountains. These small mountains were very short, made from a strange soft and loose black soil, formed from weathering of dead volcanoes. The black soil would absorb moisture, and was very rich. The small mountains were covered in a kind of scale-like plant that released such dense spirit energy it seemed to drip out.
In the center-most little mountain was a cave. It was very low, and any person who entered had to bow, and when they entered, they were forced to maintain this lowly and humble posture. It was very deep but not very dark, flashing with a kind of clear but blurred light. This light came from the body of the cultivator in its deepest part.
Residing in this cave was a pretty middle-aged woman. She seemed like a clear moon that gave off this clear but blurred light.
This middle-aged woman was the Zhou family’s most hidden guest. Even Zhou Chenyun was unaware of her origins. She became a guest of the Zhou family because more than a decade ago, a problem occurred to the vital energy in her body, and she needed to rely on the Python Scale Gra.s.s covering the Zhou family mountains and the energy they produced to recover.
But Zhou Chenyun knew very well her power. In these years, she had only helped the Zhou Family twice, but had defeated cultivators that the Zhou Family could not do so themselves.
What was more shocking was that, in the last decade, this middle-aged woman had not eaten at all, relying on the spirit energies and dew on the mounts to live. The method she cultivated was very special, causing her body to turn into a mystical divine body, and not mortal flesh and blood.
The cave chamber was not narrow or small, wide enough and decorated with simple furniture.
Zhou Chenyun kept his humble att.i.tude, and did not waste any words. He put the First Sword Of The Sword token on the table in front of the woman. Then he told her everything that had happened in the meeting room, including Gongyang Ji’s opinion in the end.
When this woman reached out to touch the token, she gave off an indescribable presence. She seemed to turn clear and bright, so people could not see her figure, much less the changes in her expression.
“In these years, I helped kill two people for you, both of whom the Zhou family could not defeat. One of them was Zhou Huang. He received the inheritance of the Blood River Divine Book, he came to get revenge on the Zhou Family. If not for me, your Zhou Family will not exist right now.”
She only said these things to Zhou Chenyun and there was no special emotion to be heard from her voice. But Zhou Chenyun confirmed her meaning, nodded, and then bowed to leave the mountain.
He spent an hour walking out of the Zhou Family Courtyard and into an elegant restaurant by the water. There was only the sound of the cicadas, and no voices.
In the entire place, only one person was drinking alone. This was an old person, one who had been sitting next to Zhou Chenyun an hour ago in the meeting room.
He was Gongyang Ji.
“How did you know our family had such a guest?” Zhou Chenyun sat in front of Gongyang Ji and asked directly.
“I was fortunate enough to see her act once, it was just a coincidence. When she came to kill that Zhou person coming to seek revenge, I walked in with someone on a boat nearby.” Gongyang Ji smiled at Zhou Chenyun. “One has to be more careful when such a person appears near the Nanquan towns. We spent a lot of effort to discover she was a guest of your family. As to her history, we are not sure, and we fear that she was struck with the Blood Loss Sword of the Ba Mountain Sword Field in the past.”
Zhou Chenyun was silent for a long moment and then said, “I took the sword token to ask her for her intention. She answered that if not for her, the Zhou Family would not have existed.”
“In her view, this is time for your Zhou Family to sacrifice for her.” Gongyang Ji shook his head with disdain. “But that is not important, it is more important what you plan to do.”
“In these years, I am uncertain of the special traits of her method and her weaknesses, but up to now, I am certain that she cannot leave the Python Scale Mountain in my family. She still needs to keep taking in the energy to maintain her current state.” Zhou Chenyun turned to look at the stream of water and said slowly and coldly, “All the cultivators of the Zhou Family are not a match for her, and cannot change her decision. But this is not our Zhou Family ignoring the sword token. Ba Mountain Sword Field does not need to convince us, but convince her. So if there is a need to talk, then have the Ba Mountain Sword Field come talk to her.”
“Selling her whereabouts to the Ba Mountain Sword Field is a shameless tactic. But have we, the Nanquan families, done nothing more shameless? Us powerful families are most skilled at doing such shameless things so high sounding and as a matter of fact.” Gongyang Ji held no disdain. He said in praise, “We have stated our att.i.tude. Both her and the person in the Xia Family are things that the Ba Mountain Sword Field need to take care of themselves. If they cannot even take care of her, then the Nanquan has no need to bow our heads to Ba Mountain Sword Field. As to the Xia Family’s att.i.tude, they cannot even control themselves, there is no need to care.”