The sun was brilliant this day. The Forefather of the Dongyan clan, still leisurely fishing within the gorge, revealed a look of surprise on his face. He murmured softly to himself, “Ruyin, although she physically appears very similar to you, and on the surface has a temperament similar to yours…her true nature is completely opposite to yours. Ninelotus’ heart is far stronger and harder than yours. She truly was born to lead. It seems that when I chose her to be the next leader of the Dongyan clan…it was a choice that will lead the Dongyan clan to great glory.”
Serpentwing Lake. Brightheart Island.
Northmont Baiwei and Ji Ning were seated facing each other, toasting each other and laughing and chatting loudly and happily.
“Right! There’s one thing that you never found out about,” Baiwei suddenly said.
“What is it?” Ning laughed.
“The one who killed Yu Dong and Adept Mooncrescent was you, right?” Baiwei first set up a restrictive spell around them, blocking out all sound, then continued to speak softly. Ning didn’t hesitate; he immediately nodded. He had originally asked Baiwei to help acquire the intelligence reports regarding Yu Dong, Shui Yi, and Dong Seven. It wasn’t strange that Baiwei would be able to guess that he had done the deed.
“Adept Mooncrescent had an extraordinary background,” Baiwei said softly.
“What background?” Ning was startled, although he had guessed at this long ago, which was why he had been so cautious.
“Adept Mooncrescent was a retired Immortal cultivator of one of the secret Immortal armies our Northmont clan controls, the ‘Shadow Army’,” Baiwei said seriously. “You should know that after having experienced life-and-death battles with each other repeatedly, soldiers develop extremely deep ties with each other. Incredibly few manage to survive all the way into retirement. If any retirees are killed, then their old brothers will definitely stand up for them…and in fact the entire Shadow Army will support them, because they have to be able to guarantee that the retirees will have safe, comfortable lives in their final years.”
Ning was shocked. So this was the situation? It really had been a secret Immortal army of the Northmont clan of Stillwater?
“Given the Northmont clan’s intelligence network, they should have already found me out.” Ning frowned.
“If they did, you wouldn’t have been able to spend the past ten years in security and peace.” Baiwei shook his head. Ning’s battle with Chen Jin had been after spending a year back at Serpentwing Lake, and then he had spent nearly nine more years…indeed, he had been back for nearly ten years.
Baiwei said softly, “The Shadow Army’s investigation traced the clues all the way to my estate, the Northmont Blacktiger estate. However, in the end, the Shadow Army is in service to our Northmont clan of Stillwater. They wouldn’t dare do anything to the Northmont Blacktiger estate, and so in the end, our estate stonewalled them. The Shadow Army was forced to just give up; they weren’t able to continue the investigation.”
Ning now understood. So it had been all thanks to the help from the estate of Northmont Blacktiger.
However, what Ning didn’t realize was that the loyalty of an army to its patron was an incredibly important thing. The Northmont clan had to take care of the feelings of their Immortal armies; thus, things couldn’t have been handled as simply as Baiwei had just implied. In truth, Baiwei himself had taken on the blame for this matter, informing the Shadow Army that it was he, Northmont Baiwei, an important young master of the Northmont clan, who had unknowingly killed one of their old retirees. There was no way the Shadow Army could act against such an important young master of the Northmont clan, and thus they had been forced to give up.
Ning, in both his past life and his present life, didn’t understand politics very well. Naturally, he wouldn’t understand that Baiwei had made sacrifices on his behalf.
“Thank you, Brother Baiwei. Please thank Uncle as well,” Ning said hurriedly.
“A minor matter, a minor matter.” Laughing, Baiwei waved his hand in dismissal, then lowered his voice again. “Brother Ji Ning, I heard some stories about you and your senior apprentice-sister Ninelotus.”
“You even know about this?!” Ning was surprised.
Baiwei nodded. “One time, when I was drinking at the Carefree Caverns, I invited Holyfire over. At that time, Chen Jin was present as well. I mentioned you to them, thinking that since you were fellow disciples, by mentioning your name, it would help all of us be better friends. Who would’ve thought that Chen Jin’s face would immediately turn ugly and that he would he quickly leave? Afterwards, I asked Holyfire about this matter, and thus learned about the details of the situation.”