Protect Our Clan Leader

Chapter 2392: Chapter 26: Human Race Immortal Ancestor! Transcendence Holy Body_4

Upon hearing, the shopkeeper’s heart settled slightly, and he hurriedly recounted the process of receiving Young Master Shouzhe.

After listening, the literary Immortal Emperor Wenrui carefully inquired about some details, and only after an incense stick’s time did he reward the shopkeeper and let him depart.

Afterwards, he asked about the details of Situ Xuejia’s interaction with Young Master Shouzhe. After confirming the situation, he also rewarded him and let him go.

Reflecting on the information just obtained, Immortal Emperor Wenrui pondered, “Neither haughty nor humble, with almost the same attitude towards the mortal shopkeeper and myself, it indeed requires extremely strong self-confidence to achieve.”

“Old Ancestor,” Prince Yuan Zheng said, slightly excited, “could it be that this Young Master Shouzhe is truly a noble offspring from the Central Lands?”

“Hard to say,” Immortal Emperor Wenrui said solemnly, “but one way or another, this child’s background is definitely extraordinary.”

“Old Ancestor, this is an opportunity for our Xinluo Immortal Dynasty,” Prince Yuan Zheng said excitedly, “In recent centuries, the Xian Wu Immortal Dynasty, relying on a princess marrying into the direct lineage of the Sacred Dynasty royal family, has even borne a Sacred Seed. Being deeply trusted by the Saint Emperor, they oppress our Xinluo at every turn in trade, and constantly clash with our dynasty over the territorial disputes of the Immortal Lai Archipelago.”

“If we can curry favor with the noble young master, our dynasty’s predicament will be easily solved.”

No wonder Prince Yuan Zheng was excited.

The Xian Wu Immortal Dynasty has mostly flat terrain, fertile land, abundant spirit soil, and plentiful harvests of spirit rice and spirit valley. On the other hand, the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty has complex terrain with many mountains and peaks, insufficient spirit rice grain yield, but numerous mineral veins.

For years, the two dynasties have relied on mutual trade to compensate for their shortcomings, and have been relatively peaceful. Moreover, purely in terms of martial power and economy, the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty surpasses the Xian Wu Immortal Dynasty by a notch.

However, in recent centuries, the dynamics have changed. The Xian Wu Immortal Dynasty, relying on the favor of the Saint, has begun to act arrogantly, continuously raising the export prices of spirit food and spirit rice, while aggressively suppressing the mineral prices of the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty.

They even block the shipping routes to the Tianrui Saint Dynasty, causing the mineral export economy of the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty to become increasingly difficult.

And the dispute over the ownership of the Immortal Lai Archipelago at the border further exacerbates the conflicts between the two sides, becoming increasingly hard to reconcile.

However, the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty cannot retreat, as retreat would not only boost the arrogance of the Xian Wu Immortal Dynasty, but in the future, they would be trampled upon. If the Saint Seed born from the Xian Wu Princess inherits the Saint Emperor’s position, then the Xinluo Immortal Dynasty will face even harsher days.

Immortal Emperor Wenrui pondered, “Yuan Zheng, this matter may not be so simple. People like him won’t easily intervene in the internal affairs of the Sacred Dynasty. With no previous ties with him, how could he be moved by our few words?”

Prince Yuan Zheng’s face stiffened, a bit annoyed, “Actually, this matter is my fault. I was building good relations with Little Immortal Monarch Lici, but didn’t expect her identity to be exposed by Young Master Wu Chou, forcing her out of the family. Afraid of offending the Si family, I had to distance myself from Little Immortal Monarch Lici, unexpectedly missing out on a great opportunity.”

“Let’s not mention the past, especially since Little Immortal Monarch Lici is from the Heavenly Abode of the Sea of Clouds. Even if she wanted to help us, she couldn’t directly intervene in the internal affairs of the Sacred Dynasty,” Immortal Emperor Wenrui pondered, “Our focus should still be on how to curry favor with Young Master Shouzhe.”

“How about we gift him an immortal artifact?” Prince Yuan Zheng suggested, “They bought even the Divine Spiritual Treasure from the auction house, probably still lacking some.”

“Lacking what?” Immortal Emperor Wenrui glared at Prince Yuan Zheng with annoyance, “They bought those things casually, most likely to reward juniors or the head of households. With their ample supply of Immortal Spirit Stones, they can easily buy immortal artifacts, how could one immortal artifact make them owe us a favor?”

“Then what to gift? Rare treasures? Beautiful women?” Prince Yuan Zheng was at his wit’s end, “They definitely don’t lack rare treasures, and regarding beautiful women… even if we send a princess to serve him, he might not even take a liking. The ones serving him are all True Immortal Realm mid-stage beauties…”

For a moment, Immortal Emperor Wenrui and Prince Yuan Zheng were both exceptionally troubled.

Curry favoring someone like Young Master Shouzhe is indeed a very troublesome affair.

“Got it!” Prince Yuan Zheng suddenly clapped his hands, “For thousands of years, haven’t we been secretly excavating and retaining Red Sun Sacred Iron? We already have about ten catties in storage…”

“Red Sun Sacred Iron?”

Immortal Emperor Wenrui’s face twitched, seeming slightly pained.

This is the main material for refining Sacred Artifacts, and Xinluo Immortal Dynasty has only produced twenty or thirty catties over thousands of years, with more than half being tributed to the Tianrui Saint Dynasty. These ten catties were secretly accumulated bit by bit with great difficulty.

Immortal Emperor Wenrui still dreams of one day having an extra Sacred Artifact for Xinluo Immortal Dynasty.

“Old Ancestor, although Red Sun Sacred Iron is precious, ten catties is far from enough to refine a Sacred Artifact. Moreover, refining Sacred Artifacts is extremely difficult, even Sacred Supreme level can’t refine them. What use is it if we hold onto them? If you don’t risk something, you can’t gain anything big. Only with treasures like Red Sun Sacred Iron can we catch the eye of Young Master Shouzhe,” Prince Yuan Zheng said.

“Yuan Zheng is right.” After careful consideration, Immortal Emperor Wenrui finally made up his mind, “Since we aim to curry favor, let’s make it grand. The formula for Silver Yudan Gold, which I have studied all my life and finally completed, can also be shared with Young Master Shouzhe.”

Immortal Emperor Wenrui’s cultivation of the Zi Xuan Immortal Verses is a metal-element immortal scripture, besides having good combat ability, it specializes in mining and has a profound understanding of various metals. In addition, Xinluo inherently has numerous minerals, hence Xinluo Immortal Dynasty has made significant achievements in metal materials.

Silver Yudan Gold is Immortal Emperor Wenrui’s greatest lifetime achievement, a special alloy.

Unfortunately, this alloy requires a True Immortal level Artifact Refiner of the fire-element to smelt it in large quantities, hence production has always been a significant issue.

And Immortal Emperor Wenrui is unwilling to collaborate with the Sacred Dynasty’s Artifact Refiners, fearing the formula would be leaked.

“Silver Yudan Gold?” Prince Yuan Zheng was delighted upon hearing this name, “This is indeed a good idea. Silver Yudan Gold is a high-end alchemy material with great cost-effectiveness, usable for refining Dao-level Items, and can be used for some core components of shuttles. This will definitely be useful to Young Master Shouzhe.”

After finalizing the gift, Immortal Emperor Wenrui and Prince Yuan Zheng carefully rehearsed how to talk to Young Master Shouzhe, how to deal with him, striving to consider every detail.

This consultation and rehearsal took several days.

…

On this day.

In a rather decent tavern within the Immortal City of Xinluo.

Wang Shouzhe had already brought out his carry-on cave mansion, temporarily setting it up in one of the tavern’s rooms. At this moment, the cave mansion was open, and he was sitting in the courtyard inside, chatting and drinking tea with Yun Tiange.

On the stone table carved from bluestone, a small red clay tea stove was bubbling, brewing Spirit Spring water overflowing with spiritual energy.

Wang Shouzhe gathered his wide sleeves at the wrist, leisurely making tea with movements as smooth as clouds and flowing water.

With his movements, the faint aroma of tea wafted through the cave mansion, distant and gentle, refreshing.

“That Prince Yuan Zheng has already come several times seeking an audience, yet you keep avoiding him, Shouzhe, aren’t you being a bit too excessive?” Yun Tiange sat across from Wang Shouzhe, holding her chin, smiling brightly.

“Not excessive at all,” Wang Shouzhe chuckled indifferently, “If I were too easy to meet, wouldn’t it make Shouzhe seem worthless? The colder we act, the more they’ll willingly come over, and be less likely to doubt our identities.”

Hearing this, Yun Tiange couldn’t help but blink, pondering slightly, “Why does this strategy feel familiar?”

She suddenly realized, clapped her hands, “Wait, isn’t this Wang Ningxi’s tea stratagem?”

“Ah~ I understand why Ningxi is like you, all the tricks originate with you… Shouzhe, you are the true ancestor of tea stratagems!”

“Wait? Why does the Emperor feel something’s still amiss… Wang Shouzhe, are you using this ’playing hard to get’ strategy against me too? No wonder, no wonder, the Emperor can’t get enough of you!”

“…”

Wang Shouzhe remained silent.

Majesty, how come I didn’t realize before that you’re so imaginative?

…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com