Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Rourou snorted as she laughed. She could not help herself. They were just two dogs. Did they really think their noses were the best? In the mansion, you are just seeing what you are allowed to see. You are blind to everything else.

But as she thought of how she was forced to hide her aura because of these two dogs, she fell solemn.

She was in a bad mood when she saw Qin Yu, “I told you. Don’t ask me anything about her; I won’t say anything.”

Qin Yu frowned. He thought about it before speaking in a low voice, “I won’t ask about the past or the reason. I just want to know what I can do to help her remember me. Do you have any idea?”

Rourou shook her head and rejected him outrightly, “No.”

Her eyes flashed as she seemed to have thought of something. She suddenly said, “I am not the only one behind you. Why don’t you ask the other one?”

She did not say it nicely but she spoke the truth. Qin Yu remained calm and did not seem to get angry.

He knew who Rourou was referring to. But now, he was running from her and really did not feel like summoning her.

Rourou seemed to know what Qin Yu was thinking as she sneered, “Sometimes you are really smart. But sometimes, it feels like you are an utter fool.”

She tapped her fingers on the table in a way that seemed similar to Qin Yu, “Think about what realm and level that one is from; do you really think that she would not have sensed what happened? Hehehe, you are just deceiving yourself!”

Qin Yu’s expression shifted slightly. Previously, the Ruler always looked like she had been sleeping for many years and he managed to peacefully go about doing his things because of this.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Yu seemed to be brooding. He suddenly looked at Rourou, who made it seem like bringing up this point was just a coincidence.

“You seem to wish for me to summon the Ruler…”

Rourou sneered, “So what if you know? I did not intend to hide it from you.” She pointed towards the door, “I have already given you the direction to help you do what you want to. Now, it all depends on whether you want to…go, I won’t see you out!”

Qin Yu left her residence before he reacted. Isn’t this my house? But today, he was in no mood to quarrel with her.

Although that being in Rourou had many bad habits, the good thing was that it did not like to lie.

It was precisely because of this that Qin Yu was able to manipulate her into revealing Yun Qing’s identity. And when she said that she could not say, she would stick to it instead of coming up with a story to lie to Qin Yu.

So whatever she was saying now would most likely be real.

A close relationship must exist between the Ruler and Yun Qing, or rather, Feature. With regards to Feature, Qin Yu had tried to ask the Ruler when he left the Abyss and returned to the Vast Brightness World.

So it also meant that she lied to Qin Yu back then. This made Qin Yu more sure of his assumption – the Ruler had a relationship with Feature!

He benefitted from her but had yet to achieve the things he promised her.

So Qin Yu was feeling guilty. He had been hiding from her and was not willing to face her.

But for Feature, he was willing to go against what he felt…of course, there was another reason. If things were like what Rourou said and the Ruler already knew what was going on and simply chose to observe…

Then…the longer he remained silent, the more indignant she would become, and eventually, everything would pour out.

In his room, Qin Yu activated the space time rules with a thought and they started to shift.

In the back residence, Rourou’s eyes lit up as she looked expectant. She then lifted her hand and tapped the air, covering all traces of the commotion Qin Yu created in order to prevent the two Old Four Claws from detecting anything.

It was not that she was temporarily not lying to Qin Yu. This was her personality and she did not lie.

The two Old Four Claws thought they had everything under control. But to her, they were like old sugarcanes that could be bitten anytime. They were blind even with their eyes opened.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Yu spread his arms out. Above his head, a Sun Moon illusion appeared.

Then, there was nothing after that.

As his cultivation level rose and he became more powerful, Qin Yu could sense the target of his summon.

But it felt like the Ruler was just a ball of air and gave no response. After trying for a while, Qin Yu frowned before letting out a sigh. He looked impatient.

If the Ruler was ignoring him, he had no choice. After all, this was a summoning and not a forceful kidnapping.

In the back residence, Rourou, who was helping Qin Yu hide the traces of his summoning, was looking gloomy.

She could not help but let out a slew of curse words as she scolded, “You…despicable and shameless old woman!”

After living for so many years, she definitely knew how to scold people.

Not only did she know, she was quite good at it. However, at that moment, all the evil words that she wanted to use remained deep in her and she was ‘unable to say it’.

This made the powerful and unpredictable mysterious being feel her mood worsen.

The matter ended without anything changing.

Even if he knew that the Ruler knew about Feature, she was avoiding him and he could not do anything but wait.

Thankfully, Qin Yu had found Feature and was not in a rush.

Moreover…there was a limit to how long she could avoid him for. He did not believe that the Ruler could pretend to be air forever.

……

Far away, in a half-abandoned gap between the heavens and earth, there was the sound of teeth grinding. It was described to be half-abandoned, but it was not because there had been a plundering or a huge change.

It was because neither living nor dead beings were able to reach the Heaven Earth Gap. When the Ruler barged in and used it as a place to rest, she covered her aura and this area was considered half-abandoned. It no longer had the full attributes of a Heaven Earth Gap.

“Little Hoof, you are vicious. You pushed the blame on me!”

“Wait, we are not done with this. You had better take this down and see how I get back at you!”

The Ruler’s mood was absolutely horrible after she had been awoken. She pulled at her own hair.

Starlight shone on her body and instead of looking sloppy, she looked like a fairy.

She was like a messy beauty.

The Ruler thought about it for a while but could not think of a way to get revenge. Her eyelids started to droop and she was too tired to keep her eyes open.

“Just wait…when I wake…I will show you…how powerful…” She forced herself to say this before the sound of her snoring like a cat under the sun could be heard. The sound was extremely adorable.

……

It was time for the Main Court Meeting.

The rules were extremely strict and anyone who qualified to attend had to wear court attire and attend on time.

They could not be late nor absent.

Even if there were special circumstances, they would have to raise the request in advance and the Ministry of Personnel had to approve it before reporting it to His Majesty. Finally, the party would then be allowed to take leave.

The good thing was that the Main Court Meeting only happened twice a year. Otherwise the various court members would suffer. Even just a set of neat court attire was troublesome. The higher one’s position, the more complicated the attire.

In the dark of the night, Qin Yu was called on by his servants. Luckily, he had been thinking about the situation with Yun Qing and how to deal with it, so he was not caught off guard in bed.

Inner wear, outerwear, cloud-patterned pullover, the general pattern of tigers and wolves, the purple robe of a marquis, pendants, cloud shoes…all sorts. There were more than a dozen different things and they were all intricate. The way they were worn had to comply with etiquette and regulations and could not be worn wrongly even in the slightest.

Four servants surrounded Qin Yu as they worked until sweat was visible on their faces. However, there was a fragrant breeze surrounding them and they were not that annoying.

At one point, Rouoru arrived with a few other servants. As she saw the servants surrounding Qin Yu, who was standing with his arms spread out, the corners of her mouth twitched and she sighed softly.

The servants in the mansion had already known that the lady of their mansion was not like other ordinary female figures in other households. She held an extraordinary position and was not very respectful to the marquis. They all looked down without saying anything, afraid of getting blamed.

Another hour passed. After putting on the purple gold hat and having his black hair combed, Qin Yu’s appearance could only be considered ordinary.

However, as the saying went, people relied on clothes like horses relied on saddles. This set of marquis attire looked noble and majestic.

Rourou’s eyes lit up. Qin Yu’s change could deceive others, but not her. However, the way he cleaned up was quite decent.

When Qin Yu opened his eyes, she had already returned to her usual lazy casual state, “It is the first Main Court Meeting; you have to be careful and avoid committing any taboos.”

As she spoke, she walked up to him with a jade pendant in her hands. It was pure white without any markings or carvings. It did not look special.

“Take this pendant. Return it to me when you get back.”

Hearing this, Qin Yu’s fingers tightened as he smiled, “Thank you, My Lady.”

Rourou subtly rolled her eyes and Qin Yu laughed out loud. For her to appear here was already significant. There was no need to care about the details.

Outside the door, Big Head Wang spoke respectfully, “General, we should go.”

Qin Yu turned to leave and did not look back to wave. He held the white jade tightly in his hands, “My Lady, don’t worry. I will be back soon.”

The group of servants looked at them with admiration. Although sometimes, they felt like the relationship between the marquis and the lady was strange, at times like today, everything felt great.

The two Old Four Claws appeared out of nowhere, wearing loose clothing. They looked as bored as they usually did. They were hunched over like two old dogs.

But in the dark of the morning, the eyes of the two Old Four Claws seemed to glimmer. They would occasionally glance to the sides and their eyes flashed.

Qin Yu took big strides as he walked into the yard. He smiled and put his hands together, “Thank you to both of you.”

One of the Old Four Claws nodded his head while the other remained expressionless.

Qin Yu did not care. After thanking them, he stood up and walked out.

Standing slightly behind him, the two Old Four Claws flanked his sides. Big Head Wang knew who they were and automatically took a few steps back with the other servants.

If it were on a battlefield, with more people, they would be better able to protect the general. But this was the Imperial Capital. The people here were strong and scheming. The people they had were considered little and just accessories.

It was nothing frustrating. The thing that the border army people were good at was accepting facts.

So when they first came to the capital and realized their weapons were not worth much here, they felt that the people in the capital were all beyond ordinary.

When their general was given the title of marquis and became a strong and famous person in the capital, even Wang San dared to show attitude at Li Zhouyi’s place.

As Rourou looked at Qin Yu leave, the hint of a smile she had disappeared.

Yawning, she said, “Stop looking, you all have no chance. You are dismissed.”

She was ready to head back to sleep.

As for Qin Yu’s safety, she had already given him the jade and he would be fine.

Rourou was confident of this.

Stepping out of the mansion, Qin Yu frowned as he looked into the darkness where the light from the lamps did not reach.

Behind him, the two Old Four Claws remained calm. He ignored it.

Numerous marquis resided in the East City and many of them would be attending the meeting.

So the usually silent roads were filled with activity even though it was still dark.

When Qin Yu walked to his carriage, he sensed several gazes.

He looked over and saw that most of them were in court attire. He smiled and put his hands together in greeting.

Compared to the manors in the area, Marquis Chongwu’s Mansion was one hundred percent nouveau riche. However, his power was real and His Majesty’s trust in him made others envious.

The elders of the Imperial Clan had already chosen to give in. Although the hundred year agreement was a secret, those that were qualified to know, already knew.

At least for these one hundred years, Marquis Chongwu Ning Qin’s position would be rock solid and might even improve further. They could leave other things to the future, but they still had to build the relationship now.

Qin Yu put his hands together in greeting. He did not overdo it and bent over to enter his carriage.

The two Old Four Claws now flanked the carriage driver on his right and left. The carriage driver paled as he forced himself to swallow. He whipped the reins.

Piak –

The carriage started to move in the direction of the Imperial Palace.

At this moment, a faint breeze could be felt. A subtle scent of blood passed through before disappearing.

Two corpses lay with their eyes wide open in the distance.

Only the eyes could be seen under the face mask of an Old Ye Family iron guard. His eyes were icy and emotionless. His figure was like a wolf, moving silently through the darkness and towards the carriage.

There were nine other iron guards like him. They moved through the darkness, completing the bloody harvest.

Today, at the Main Court Meeting…there was going to be a huge commotion!