Chapter 449: Bargaining

Li Qingge shook her head, "However, this Mao Qijun was quite capable. Once he died, the internal strife in the Shan Yu Nation couldn't be suppressed, which led to the current situation." He Lingchuan smiled: "These old ministers of noble families just sit and wait for death? Why not strike first?"

"Fu Shanyue has been surrounded by people recently and never travels alone. Why do you think that is?" Li Qingge poured herself a cup of tea. "He's not stupid either. Once he survives this period, he'll have great power in his hands. Furthermore, he must have support in the Royal Court."

If someone is unlucky, someone else must benefit.

"No wonder so many people are now fighting to curry favor with Fu Shanyue; are they afraid it will be too late if they wait?" He Lingchuan mused. "The Chi Yan Monarch lets them be, I'm afraid he's not comfortable in his heart."

"So what if he's uncomfortable, unless he wants to abdicate the throne." Li Qingge shook her head. "Even if he were willing to do so, Lingxu City and the Gods probably wouldn't be. What happens if you defy Lingxu City? You saw it on the way here when you passed the ruins of Thousand Star City, right?"

"It left a deep impression." The ruins of Thousand Star City, the Twilight Plains, and the existence of the lowly slaves were like a conspicuous scar, constantly reminding the citizens of Beijia—

Lingxu City's power is supreme and cannot be challenged.

The next day, Fu Shanyue actually appeared in the inn again.

The Second Master Shi and the others were already packing their bags, preparing to continue on their journey, and He Lingchuan also asked curiously: "Why are you here?"

Fu Shanyue had been in high spirits these past few days, busy receiving guests and accepting the flattery of officials, as if he had forgotten He Lingchuan and the others completely.

The Second Master Shi had even started to worry that his three thousand taels wouldn't come back, and it was at this moment that Fu Shanyue suddenly arrived.

"Your three thousand taels." Fu Shanyue handed a stack of silver notes to the Second Master Shi. "There's another three hundred taels, consider it a fee for calming your nerves."

Just kidding, three thousand taels of physical silver ingots were very heavy; no one would carry them around.

The Second Master Shi had resolved his biggest worry and smiled from ear to ear: "The Crown Prince is generous!"

Fu Shanyue greeted Li Qingge again, and the two chatted and laughed, both very happy.

He Lingchuan listened from the side and suddenly discovered that these two were actually quite familiar with each other.

Fu Shanyue even cracked a few jokes with Li Qingge, telling a story that made Li Qingge cover her mouth and giggle.

With his stubborn and eccentric personality, he usually wouldn't be this close to strangers. But now, he was inviting Li Qingge to come to the Chi Yan capital again in the future.

These two had only just met a few days ago, and it was He Lingchuan who had introduced them. Only a few days had passed? Li Qingge had already negotiated one or two deals with Fu Shanyue, and they were things that could be implemented in the near future, including the Songyang Mansion opening a shop in the capital, the weapon upgrades for the Western Court Guard, and so on.

It was indeed as Li Qingge had said, the Chi Yan Crown Prince was an important connection worth her great effort to cultivate.

And she hadn't forgotten He Lingchuan, naturally chatting with him as well, so he wouldn't feel left out.

A beauty who could handle two men with ease, keeping both sides happy. This kind of skill in social maneuvering was truly incredible.

After the small talk, Fu Shanyue turned to He Lingchuan: "Father sent me a message, telling me to do something for him."

Li Qingge heard this and leaned over to ask: "Did the Monarch see you?"

"No, he just ordered someone to pass on the message."

Li Qingge quickly congratulated him: "Since the Monarch has entrusted you with a task, it shows that his anger has subsided by more than half." Otherwise, he could have just entrusted the official business to someone else, why use Fu Shanyue?

Fu Shanyue smiled: "I think so too. But my situation is special right now, and there are still a few things to handle, so I can't leave the capital immediately, as you all know—" He turned to He Lingchuan. "So, I want to entrust this matter to you."

He stopped talking at this point, looking at the two people on the side.

Li Qingge immediately said: "Oh, I haven't put away my rouge box yet."

The Second Master Shi was stunned for a moment and also said: "I need to go downstairs to get some wine."

These two were very tactful, both finding an insincere excuse to slip away.

Only the two remained in the room, and Fu Shanyue chuckled: "About two months ago, Lingxu City sent a messenger here, but they got lost halfway and there was no further news. Lingxu City naturally couldn't let it go, so my old man couldn't let it go either. Originally, this matter was to be investigated by Fu Shanjie, but he's already dead, so now I'm officially taking over."

"Not doing it." He Lingchuan refused flatly. "Handle your own business. Where would I have that kind of spare time?"

"I'll pay a reward, two pieces of mid-grade Profound Crystals." Fu Shanyue was well-prepared, flipping his palm to reveal two glittering things.

These Profound Crystals were pale yellow, polygonal, each the size of a walnut, but the color wasn't very uniform, with one having a bottom that gradually turned deep green.

He Lingchuan also had Profound Crystals and knew that this was their proper form; natural Profound Crystals condensed underground, their color and quality were up to fate, and being too perfect was actually too fake.

Profound Crystals of different grades contained vastly different amounts of energy. The quality of these two pieces already exceeded what He Lingchuan had seen before, and he didn't know who had offered them to Fu Shanyue.

They were worth a fortune.

As expected, once this guy returned to his own turf, he could be generous? He Lingchuan glanced at them and said with disdain: "Do you think you can buy me off with two Profound Crystals?"

"Just consider it a huge favor to a brother and the Chi Yan Nation." Fu Shanyue reached out and stacked another Profound Crystal on top.

It was also pale yellow, but larger in size.

He Lingchuan suddenly changed the subject: "What kind of demon was the messenger?"

"A Bai Jiandiao."

He Lingchuan smiled: "You want me to do such a huge favor, but only offer three Profound Crystals; you really don't treat me as a brother."

Being a brother to this guy wasn't anything good, it was easy to lose your head.

Fu Shanyue asked curiously: "It's just finding a bird demon, it's not like I'm asking you to turn the tide. It's a pity I can't get away, otherwise I'd want to handle it myself."

He Lingchuan remained unmoved: "Is that so? Then let me ask you. What was the Lingxu City messenger sent to do?"

"Deliver a message."

"What message?"

"Uh..." Fu Shanyue stammered before saying, "Forget it, it's been two months, telling you doesn't matter—it was military intelligence from the eastern front."

"Then this military intelligence must have been very urgent at the time, right?"

"... Hmm."

"That's why a Bai Jiandiao was used to deliver it." He Lingchuan said. "White-Shouldered Eagles are raptors capable of long-distance migration, but they are very few in number. I happen to know that Lingxu City's messengers are divided into several grades; Green Pigeons, Wild Geese, and Feathered Cranes can all serve as messengers, but only the most urgent intelligence is delivered by raptors that are both fast and have endurance."

Even if other countries could tame bird demons for long-distance delivery, they were never as frequent as the Northern Demon Nations—this was the base camp of demons, after all. So Lingxu City could still afford the luxury of classifying its messengers.

These contents were what he had read in the leisure books at the Wenxuan Pavilion in Panlongcheng.

Clearly, Panlongcheng also had quite a bit of research on the Beijia Nation.

Fu Shanyue didn't refute, which was an admission.

"This Bai Jiandiao suddenly went missing, it must have delayed things a lot, right?"

"That goes without saying." Merely delayed?

"Messages don't travel alone." He Lingchuan asked him, "Such important military intelligence, why only send one bird messenger?" If the messenger had an accident on the road, like this time, the consequences would be very serious.

"Uh... perhaps there weren't enough raptor messengers?" Fu Shanyue scratched his head. "According to custom, it should indeed be one message sent twice. The same content, another letter was delivered by a wild goose, but it arrived several days late, causing the Chi Yan army to advance east too late, missing the best opportunity to attack."

"What if the Bai Jiandiao's intelligence was obtained by an outsider?" He Lingchuan was thirsty, so he went back into the room and grabbed a bunch of grapes to eat. "The worst part is, its disappearance very likely means that Lingxu's intelligence delivery pattern has been mastered by someone, such as the departure time of the raptors, the flight route, the rest areas along the way, etc. Then if the other party can intercept it once, they can intercept it countless times in the future. I think this is the reason why Lingxu City is anxious to find out the truth."

Worse than the leakage of the intelligence content itself was the leakage of the intelligence delivery method.

"But Fu Shanjie didn't manage to do it before he died." He Lingchuan squinted at him. "With his resources and connections, he couldn't find it out; do you think it will be easy for me to handle?"

Fu Shanyue stared at him, unable to speak. He had just casually mentioned a commission, how did this guy deduce all that! After a long while, he said: "How did you think of that?"

"Actually, it's very simple." He Lingchuan smiled. "Your father is still in a rage, what kind of good task could he possibly assign to you at this time?"

One must learn to grasp the main contradiction.

Fu Shanyue's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands: "Good, good, good, you're smart, you're capable, then this errand must be handled by you! How about this, double the Profound Crystals, and I'll give you another two jin of White Distilled Silver. You have a Golden Armored Bronze Man, don't you want to upgrade it?"

White Distilled Silver was one of the necessary materials for upgrading the Golden Armored Bronze Man. He Lingchuan finally perked up a bit: "Giving only one ingredient is too little, you should cover the others too."

Fu Shanyue calculated the account, and his back went numb: "Your appetite is even bigger than mine!"

Even brothers must settle accounts clearly, not to mention these two were just "plastic" buddies? After some ruthless bargaining, it was finally decided that Fu Shanyue would gather three materials, all of which were difficult points for upgrading the Golden Armored Bronze Man, belonging to rare items that couldn't be bought even with money.

Not to mention that He Lingchuan had no money now.

If he were to gather them himself, just finding the materials would break his legs, not to mention buying them... In the Chi Yan Nation, White Distilled Silver was simply not for sale!

This belonged to important strategic materials, with very small production within Chi Yan, and every output was taken away by the Demon King or the State Preceptor, not circulating among the people, and it was even extremely rare in the black market.

For an outsider like He Lingchuan to get his hands on this thing here was harder than ascending to heaven. He even suspected that this thing wasn't easy to buy in Beijia either.

Liu Gongcao of Panlongcheng was right, the full name of this thing was "Bankrupting Golden Armored Bronze Man Technique."

Of course, having Fu Shanyue's help was different.

He Lingchuan raised a finger: "I have one last condition."

"That's enough!" Fu Shanyue originally had a bad temper, and at this moment, his face darkened. "Don't push your luck!"

"Don't be anxious, this is a piece of cake for you." He Lingchuan smiled. "Remember the Black Dragon pattern we saw in the Thousand Star City illusion? The one painted outside the official residence."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 450 =====