Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

"I kind of regret taking the water route."

In a corner of the Mirage deck, Shao Yu took off his coat and was wringing out the water from it in his hands, muttering as he exerted force.

With the young man's magical power, the good clothes were wrung out with a squeaking sound, and the water was squeezed out in the blink of an eye.

After letting go and spreading it out, I shook it hard. Although it was still wet, there was no water stain anymore.

Shao Yu reluctantly put his wet clothes back on, and Tian Ming immediately came forward with a shameless face and handed him his wet clothes.

"Hey, help me."

In terms of strength, Shao Yu is definitely stronger as he twists more tightly.

"You kid!" Facing the cunning Tianming, Shao Yu pointed at him with a smile, but still took it and helped him twist it.

Tianming smiled and continued Shaoyu's previous words and replied, "I said it at the beginning, you'd better get here honestly, you're just trying to show off."

"Here you go!" Shao Yu rolled his eyes at him, and returned the wrung clothes to Tian Ming unhappily, saying, "I just feel a little regretful, but I don't really regret it."

“Safety comes first.”

Tianming shrugged, took the clothes and put them on without arguing with Shaoyu.

At this time, Shi Lan also came out from another remote corner.

She also had to deal with her wet clothes, but she had to find a separate place.

Compared to Shao Yu Tianming, Shi Lan's clothes looked the most normal, almost the same as before they got wet - because of the color and because the material did not absorb water at all.

"Let's go."

After dealing with the wet clothes, Shao Yu raised his leg and was about to leave.

Tianming stopped him at this time, "You two go to the Fusang sacred tree, be careful on the road, I'm going somewhere else."

Shao Yu frowned. Why suddenly change the plan at this time?
"Where are you going?"

"Zibei Water Pavilion." Tianming did not hide anything and answered truthfully, "I want to see if I can find Yingyu."

"Didn't you say that the person couldn't be saved? Why were you still going there?" Shao Yu asked back.

"Even if I can't save anyone, I can still get some information." Tianming explained, "That woman must know a lot. I want to take this opportunity to see if I can meet her."

"Have you been thinking about this for a long time?" Shao Yu asked again.

"It's just breaking some branches. If not for this, would I still let you two swim in the sea for half a day?" Tianming replied as a matter of course.

"That's true..." Shao Yu thought about it and thought it was true, but he still tried to dissuade Tian Ming, "But you better not take the risk."

"Times are tough, so let's not look for trouble."

"Maybe it will be useful. I'll give it a try. I won't do anything rash." Tianming insisted on his idea.

Seeing that he couldn't persuade Tianming, Shao Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "Then we will go with you. It will be safer if there are three of us."

"Don't bother. It's a waste of time." Tianming waved his hand and refused without thinking, "I just want to try it by the way. There's no need to go through so much trouble."

"Just do as I say. You go to the Fusang sacred tree, and I'll go to the Zibei Water Pavilion."

"After you get what you want, just leave immediately. If I don't get anything, I will leave in time."

"What if there is a harvest?" Shao Yu asked immediately.

"If there is any gain, I will definitely ask for clarification." Tianming spread his hands and replied, "But don't worry about me."

Shi Lan interrupted at this time, "Just do as Tianming said, but Tianming you must not take any risks."

Shi Lan tried to smooth things over, and Shao Yu couldn't just stop Tian Ming, so he had to give in, "Okay, okay, let you be a hero again."

Tianming grinned, "You guys should be careful too."

After saying that, he left first.

Shao Yu shook his head helplessly, looked at Shi Lan, and rushed towards the location of the Fusang sacred tree.

………………

In Sanghai City, Ying Zheng's carriage slowly arrived at the main gate of Xiaoshengxianzhuang under the watchful eyes of the crowd.

Compared with the last time Fusu visited, Xiaoshengxianzhuang put on a bigger display.

The three main gates were all open, and all the disciples lined up to welcome Ying Zheng.

Of course, there was not enough space for hundreds of students to stand at the main entrance, so most of them lined up at the entrance square inside the villa.

There were only sixty-four disciples standing in eight rows and eight columns at the main entrance, in order to perform the Eight-Legged Dance.

According to the ritual system, the emperor has eight, princes have six, officials have four, and scholars have two.

The last time Fusu came, he was treated as a vassal, with only six rows and six columns of thirty-six people. This time Ying Zheng came in person, so naturally it was the full complement of eight rows and eight columns of sixty-four people.

At the front of the dance line were Xun Zi, Fu Nian, Yan Lu, and Zhang Liang.

When Fusu brought Li Si with him, Master Xun could still show off his stubborn temper, but when the emperor himself came, even he could not act recklessly.

On the one hand, he could not anger the emperor, and on the other hand, as a Confucian disciple, he could not embarrass the emperor for no reason.

As the Confucians waited, the sun gradually rose higher in the sky and the emperor's motorcade finally appeared in their sight.

When the soldiers at the front of the convoy stopped, Master Xun immediately took the initiative to greet them with his three nephews.

The fully enclosed carriage door opened, and Ying Zheng walked out accompanied by Zhao Gao.

Today's emperor did not wear the formal imperial robe, but a white robe, which could be described as a white dragon fish robe using an allusion.

"Welcome to His Majesty the Emperor!"

As soon as Ying Zheng appeared, everyone present, except Zhao Gao who was supporting him, immediately saluted in unison to greet him.

Kneeling was not popular in the empire, so the only ceremony performed was bowing.

Ying Zheng stepped off the carriage slowly and then ordered in a deep voice, "Everyone, get up."

Zhang Liang straightened up again and looked at Ying Zheng who was dressed in white. His thoughts went back to many years ago, to when he was still in Korea, to when he first met Ying Zheng.

At that time, the other party was wearing a white robe like this, full of vigor and ambition.

Although Zhang Liang had no good feelings towards Ying Zheng at that time, he also understood Han Fei's appreciation and admiration for him.

Unfortunately, later...

Sure enough, even the wisest wise man cannot see through time and the future.

………………

On the mirage, Shao Yu Shilan easily and steadily touched the foot of the familiar Fusang sacred tree.

Unlike what they had expected, the Mirage, where Yun Zhongjun had just had an accident, did not become more stern and dangerous. Instead, it fell into a mysterious silence, and it seemed more relaxed than when they came here before.

"Something's not right on the ship." Shao Yu discussed with Shi Lan in confusion.

"It seems that all the Shadow Secret Guards have withdrawn." Shi Lan nodded and also put forward her own findings.

Shao Yu touched his chin, trying to analyze the cause of this abnormal situation:
"Is there a conflict between the Yin-Yang Clan and the Shadow Secret Guard?" He denied it as soon as he finished speaking, "No, there is no conflict."

"The relationship between the Shadow Secret Guard and the Yin-Yang Family is definitely not good, but no matter how bad it is, it won't lead to a public falling-out."

"The Shadow Secret Guards are supposed to be following orders... or are they supposed to be not following orders?"

"Is this a continuation of the conflict between the Imperial Master and the Yin-Yang School?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Lan asked, "You don't think it's a trap?"

"It shouldn't be..." Shao Yu shook his head. "It seems that the Shadow Secret Guards have a clear separation from the Yin-Yang Family before, and their relationship is average. There is no reason for me to cooperate with them."

An accident occurred on the ship and an intruder appeared. The normal reaction of the Shadow Secret Guards was to strengthen the defense - this reaction had nothing to do with the Yin-Yang Family and was their duty.

Only if the Shadow Secret Guards reach a cooperation with the Yin-Yang Family for some reason, they will deliberately show weakness to lure people out and create a false trap of empty defenses.

But it would be good if these two companies don't fight, but the possibility of cooperation... is too low.

Of course, it is also possible that the Shadow Secret Guards set a trap for them unilaterally, but this possibility is also unlikely.

If the Shadow Secret Guards had such strong subjective initiative, they would not have allowed them to enter and exit the mirage so many times.

"I guess there is some problem within the empire." Shao Yu finally made a slightly vague but still accurate judgment.

The Shadow Guards did withdraw.

The reason is simple, the emperor has arrived.

Gu Xun repeatedly emphasized to Zhang Han that he should keep an eye on the mirage until the emperor himself arrived.

Now that the emperor has arrived, he decisively withdraws from the mirage matter.

Of course, before withdrawing his people, he also tried to find out the emperor's opinion indirectly, and only did so after confirming that the other party had no intention of letting him continue to intervene in the mirage matter.

"But the Yin-Yang family's reaction is also abnormal?" Shi Lan raised another doubt.

It is understandable that the Shadow Secret Guard withdrew from the Mirage for some reason, but the Yin-Yang Family suffered a great loss, so why don’t they strengthen their defense?

As they came here, even if we put aside the original Shadow Secret Guards, the Yin-Yang Family's defenses became more lax.

"Uh... maybe it has something to do with the evacuation of the Shadow Guards?" Shao Yu made a guess.

But this guess is just a random guess without any reason - and in fact it is wrong.

Shi Lan once again raised the possibility of a trap, "Maybe there is a conspiracy."

But her guess was also wrong.

The Yin-Yang family became lax not to set a trap - they had no intention of taking action against Tianming, or Shaoyu Shilan, who was Tianming's friend, at this time, so naturally there was no reason to set a trap for them.

The changes in the Yin-Yang School can essentially be said to be due to the emperor's arrival, or they did not want to cause any trouble at this time.

Simply reduce the level of defense and make Mirage safer - of course, the truly important places, important things, or important people will all be well guarded or protected.

The main theme is that it will be dark when you close your eyes.

As long as they don't cause any big trouble, the Yin-Yang family members don't worry about being held accountable by the emperor - they just need to ensure that the Mirage's sailing plan is not interfered with, and anything else has nothing to do with them.

Even if the mirage turns into a sieve, anyone can come up and take a spin, it doesn’t matter, they can pretend not to know.

In addition to this reason, there is also the fact that the situation inside the mirage is rather special at the moment.

Because of the deal between Tianming and Yueshen, Yu Ziqi was handed over.

Yun Zhongjun was very unhappy about this.

On the one hand, he later discovered that Yu Ziqi had some other research value and seemed to be somewhat special - he even guessed that it was related to his identity as the guard of Shushan Yu Yuan.

On the other hand, Old Deng was unwilling to bow down to Tianming and the other young men.

I don't know what's wrong with this old guy at the moment, he's inexplicably stubborn and not at all as free and easy as usual.

But he could neither get the Moon Goddess to do anything, nor did he dare to offend Gu Xun. Xinghun also did not support him in this matter, so Lao Deng could only hold his anger in and asked a large group of people to make pills - they said they were making pills, but it was unclear what they were doing specifically.

At the same time, because of this transaction, Feigong was returned to Tianming.

Gongshu Chou was also very dissatisfied with this.

However, his status was not as high as Yun Zhongjun's, and no one could afford to offend him. He could only angrily ask Yun Zhongjun for a group of people, saying that it was for the purpose of repairing Yunxiao Pavilion.

The reconstruction of Yunxiao Pavilion has been completed, but some details are still not completed, and the most important nine-headed magatama protection system has not been completely rebuilt.

There was nothing wrong with him rushing the work. After all, the ship was about to leave, so of course he had to hurry.

But just like Yun Zhongjun's side, this was all said by Gongshu Chou himself, and no one knows what he wanted the person for.

Yun Zhongjun therefore transferred more personnel.

In short, it's a mess.

Star Soul and Moon Goddess were too lazy to care about this.

Anyway, no matter who it is, as long as they don't want to die, they can grasp the scale and dare not make things known to the emperor.

As long as it doesn't come to the emperor's attention, it's all just a trivial matter.

Shao Yu and the others certainly didn't know about the Yin-Yang family's attitude of giving up, so they naturally had no way of guessing.

After looking at each other, the two felt that they were really at a loss, and could only silently wish Tianming all the best and hope that nothing unexpected would happen - they were thinking about this matter for Tianming, and they didn't care.

They just planned to come over and break off some branches. No matter how many conspiracies the Yin-Yang family had, it would be difficult to pin them down.

The two of them immediately climbed up the sacred tree, found a suitable branch, and went to break it.

Shi Lan was a little hesitant about this, but after only a moment's hesitation, she took decisive action.

As the Princess of Mount Shu, she has the duty to protect the sacred tree, and in theory she should not do such an act of "harming" the sacred tree.

But from a practical point of view, the Shushan tribe does not actually have any rules prohibiting breaking branches of sacred trees.

Their duty is to protect the sacred trees from foreign enemies, nothing more than that, there are almost no more specific details.

Considering that the sacred Fusang tree was 'slightly larger' in size, breaking off a few small branches would not cause any substantial damage. In addition, as the situation was urgent, Shi Lan did not hold back at all.

But the Fusang sacred tree is indeed a sacred tree. The two of them picked up tiny branches that were not much bigger than a finger. With their strength, ordinary branches would be broken with a single pull. However, the branches of the Fusang sacred tree seemed to be made of iron and were only crooked, with no sign of breaking at all.

Seeing that he failed to tear it apart in one go, Shao Yu immediately used both hands and put all his strength into trying to break it.

This time it broke, but not completely.

Not only is it hard, it is also very tough. The branches inside are basically all cracked, but the outer cortex is still connected and very strong.

Most people would have to use a sharp weapon when faced with this situation, and direct cutting can easily solve the problem.

However, although Shi Lan was willing to attack the sacred tree for her brother, she did not want to use a sword to chop it directly.

Shao Yu didn't want to comment on this kind of behavior, which was even worse than trying to cover up one's own faults, but he could only do as he was told.

Relying on his brute strength, Shao Yu successfully pulled down the branch, then handed it to Shi Lan and was about to help her pull down the one she had chosen.

"What are you doing?" (End of this chapter)