Chapter 731: Borrow

Hearing the words "great wealth and honor," Gaoyuan Marquis first laughed, saying, "Marquis Baoying, you are joking. I now govern a province and command one hundred thousand troops; I can take whatever wealth and honor I desire in the Human World. As an old woman, what could I possibly be dissatisfied with? What 'great wealth and honor' could I possibly still need?"

It was no wonder she was sensitive; "great wealth and honor" had a specific implication when used toward feudal lords like them.

Marquis Baoying shook her head and said, "Gaoyuan Marquis, you are too tense, as if we are trying to persuade you of something. If we were here to persuade you of that, the four of us would not have come together without a single soldier or attendant. It is just that I am a crude person from the wilderness and do not know how to choose my words; 'great wealth and honor' was used in a way that caused ambiguity. Let us change the phrasing: it is a particularly great piece of good fortune."

Gaoyuan Marquis lightly tapped the lid of her teacup and said, "Wealth and honor? Good fortune? What is the difference? What meaning does it have for an old woman like me?"

Marquis Baoying said, "For us, wealth and honor are naturally just passing clouds. If one does not possess extreme ruthlessness and take extreme risks, it is impossible to advance further. However, as a Sword Hero, one has not necessarily reached the peak. Therefore, we do not just live day by day in the Human World, having no desires at all. Anything that can make us have pursuits and make the road ahead more meaningful—are those not all great pieces of good fortune?"

She raised a finger and said, "Realm, strength, Sword Intent... does Gaoyuan Marquis not care about these things?"

Gaoyuan Marquis shook her head and said, "Realm? I have long since stopped climbing the Heavenly Ladder. As for an old woman like me, my strength is just as it is; where would I still need any power? Even if my power were ten times greater, could I resist the Grand Preceptor? If I cannot resist, I naturally cannot act as I wish and must remain beneath others. What is the difference between being second and being twentieth?"

Marquis Baoying asked earnestly, "Then what about lifespan?"

She anticipated that once she asked this, Gaoyuan Marquis would surely be unable to remain calm, but to her surprise, the old woman still said lazily, "That is also of no matter. Compared to ordinary people, this old woman has lived long enough. I have enjoyed what I should have enjoyed and have no regrets. Living another few decades or a few hundred years would still be the same. My life so far has been quite lucky, smooth and without worries; if I lived longer, perhaps I would encounter some misfortune and might not die a peaceful death. It is evident that living is a risk, and dying is, on the contrary, peaceful."

Marquis Baoying paused, unable to speak for a moment. The other party had even brought up not dying a peaceful death; it was truly impossible to continue the conversation.

Beside her, Siqing Marquis suddenly laughed and said, "That is a reasonable point. Living is a risk; sometimes if you live a few more years and your luck fails, you suffer more, and you might still have regrets when you die. It would be better to die early with your merits fulfilled. But what if you live long, your luck is good, and you spend half a lifetime in comfort and ease?"

Gaoyuan Marquis only heard half of it before she guessed what they were going to say. She did not play dumb and said, "Are you talking about the rumors of the Lingzhi Auspicious Omen?"

Marquis Baoying had been scrutinizing Gaoyuan Marquis's expression. As far as today was concerned, Gaoyuan Marquis did not reveal any flaws; it seemed she really only knew the rumors and nothing else. She felt some doubt in her heart, but she also felt that since Gaoyuan Marquis had a reputation abroad and had lived to such an old age—an old person becoming cunning—it was quite normal that she could not see through Gaoyuan Marquis.

Siqing Marquis clapped his hands and said, "Exactly! Gaoyuan Marquis, you know it too, right? The Lingzhi Auspicious Omen is precisely what people under heaven are thirsting for today."

These "people under heaven" were actually a handful of people above others. Ordinary commoners had never thought of any auspicious omens.

Gaoyuan Marquis frowned and said, "I have heard that the Lingzhi Auspicious Omen can grant one's heart's desires, but I have never heard that it has anything to do with lifespan. Even if it were related to wealth and honor, that would be mundane wealth and honor, having nothing to do with strength or realm. Where did you all learn these things?"

Siqing Marquis did not answer and looked at Marquis Baoying.

Marquis Baoying stepped forward and said, "We have a clear source of information and know that the auspicious omen is related to these fields, but it is inconvenient to speak clearly. If Gaoyuan Marquis does not believe it, please look at how grandly the various mansions in Jingcheng are treating it, and you will know. Especially that old fellow Shou Wang; with one foot in the grave, he is very obsessed with lifespan. In order to borrow life, he even asked the Imperial Court to change his royal title to Shou Wang. For the sake of lifespan, he has done many wicked things, his reputation is notorious, and there are those in the Imperial Court who look down on him. Shou Wang simply stopped being greedy for anything other than lifespan; he pushed away the power he already had in his hands and treated wealth like dirt. To seek life extension, he spends thousands or tens of thousands of gold, wishing he could announce to the world that as long as he lives long, anything goes."

"Precisely because of this, although the auspicious omen is important, if it were merely an auspicious omen, Shou Wang might not take it to heart, at most being the same as everyone else. Especially since his status is sensitive; if he were particularly concerned just for the so-called 'great wealth and honor' or the auspicious omen of 'gaining the world,' would that not be announcing to the world that he is an ambitious person? He should have some reservations. But he is still particularly active, wishing he could send out troops once a day. Just on the sixth, the day the incident happened, he sent a wave of people to the north to search for the Lingzhi. If he is this concerned, even disregarding the influence, what could it be for other than lifespan?"

Gaoyuan Marquis lightly picked up her tea and took a sip, saying, "You are not only well-informed about the Lingzhi news, but you are also very clear about the movements of His Highness Shou Wang and the various forces in Jingcheng, aren't you?"

Marquis Baoying laughed and said, "Everyone says you are far-sighted, but others are not blind either. How could we not know?"

Gaoyuan Marquis looked at her deeply: this was not just "not blind"; this had reached the level of real-time communication.

On the night of the sixth, the Empress Dowager accidentally killed the Emperor. At that time, the Grand Preceptor was already present and immediately sealed off the hundred-mile radius of Jingcheng, so that not even a fly could fly out. This meant that all messengers after the sixth were cut off. Although some rumors leaked out in the following days, they were all news from the Jingjiao outside the city gates; contact within the Nine Gates was completely severed. Not only after the sixth, but theoretically, news from the daytime of the sixth should not have been able to get out either. Because ordinary spies cannot report every single thing, but rather report once a day or even once every few days, unless there is some heaven-collapsing event. Since Shou Wang had already sent many groups of people out of the city, what kind of big event would it be to send another group? There was no need for a fast horse to report urgently; it would suffice to summarize the news at night and record it.

But because the city was sealed for a hundred miles at night, what happened during the day could not have been transmitted out; it should have all been blocked inside Jingcheng.

This refers to ordinary communication methods, namely scout reports, fast horse dispatches, merchant spies, carrier pigeons...

Anything with a physical person, beast, or object that was to leave Jingcheng should have been intercepted.

Unless there was a means of real-time communication. That is, the series of Art Tools from Tang Zhao.

Although this kind of method has become somewhat popularized in Yunzhou, even in Yunzhou, it is mostly used within departments, and even only within powerful departments like the Governor's Office, the Land Inspection Division, and the Jing'an Division. Even ordinary government offices and local garrisons have not used it yet, let alone it being on the shelves for public sale, so this batch would not have leaked out.

If one were to say that there are real-time communication Dharma Artifacts in other places...

Gaoyuan Marquis would not say it is absolutely impossible, but as far as she knows, there are none.

Among Sword Guests, there are convenient methods like "thousand-mile voice transmission" and "flying sword message transmission," but they have never been popularized to ordinary people. And on the side of the Talisman Sword Masters, there are even fewer. One must know that using Rune Formulas to facilitate life and entering the homes of ordinary commoners was a theory originally proposed by Tang Zhao. Let alone the implementation of the theory, even the "White Jade Brilliance" that opened its doors wide to sell Art Tools directly was a heaven-shaking event.

Marquis Baoying is not some great feudal lord either. With the area of her territory, she does not even need high-end means like real-time communication to govern effectively. She is not someone who has been plotting to do a great undertaking in Jingcheng, so how could she have left such communication means there early on, and specifically kept an eye on a place that is not a vital point like the Shou Wangfu to report news?

From the fact that the four of them came together and Marquis Baoying, while not the strongest, has been the one talking to Gaoyuan Marquis, it is feared that she is the one leading this matter; she might possess a news channel and have other trump cards.

In Gaoyuan Marquis's heart, the thought from the very beginning crossed her mind again: how could they have come so coincidentally?

It just had to be today, just at this moment.

It just had to be that they knew the news so completely, with details that ordinary people would not know.

Does she really have some means that breaks boundaries?

But as for how Marquis Baoying is hiding her true strength and waiting to amaze everyone, Gaoyuan Marquis does not feel that way; she just thought of another person: Prince Shun!

Prince Shun also once told her heaven-defying news, and his methods could be considered brilliant; he could even predict the level of the Heavenly Supreme, which was not to be called anything but mysterious. But he failed after one day of entering the capital, and now the person is ruined. It is evident that he did not really have any outstanding abilities, and that "heaven-defying" could not defy it onto himself. Even the things he once "defied heaven" about, no one knew except for Gaoyuan Marquis.

And this Marquis Baoying is seemingly another Prince Shun.

How exactly do these heaven-defying people defy heaven? And who knows?

As Gaoyuan Marquis thought this, she felt even more chilled in her heart: are there really so many heaven-defying people in the world? And she has seen so many of them?

These people all came to her door voluntarily, and they all sought her out specifically.

Is this a coincidence?

Gaoyuan Marquis laughed and said, "Since Marquis Baoying knows that so many people are coveting the Lingzhi, and each one has impressive strength, you still want to go forward despite the difficulties. Could it be that you have some certain news? Relying on just a few of you to snatch food from the tiger's mouth, this news must be incredibly accurate, right?"

Marquis Baoying asked in return, "Marquis, do you not know?"

Gaoyuan Marquis felt a chill in her heart and frowned, saying, "What do I know?"

Marquis Baoying said, "The place where this auspicious omen is to appear is in your Yunzhou. The East Pillar of State, the Northern King—it will appear in the Northeast, and it is in the Northeast of your Yunzhou."

The pointing of these words was very obvious. If Tang Zhao heard this, he would definitely feel guilty. Because Jiugao Mountain is in Dongshan County, and Dongshan County is the northeastern part of Yunzhou, which fits that ballad perfectly. But Gaoyuan Marquis truly did not know about this; Tang Zhao had not told her about his Senior Sister's matter. She knew of this rumor, but she had not associated it with herself, nor did she intend to search for it, so she did not feel guilty at all, only continuing, "To appear? Has it not appeared yet?"

At this time, Marquis Baoying got stuck. She pondered slightly and said, "We do not know about that."

Not only did Gaoyuan Marquis find this absurd, but even those few feudal lords were a bit stunned, thinking: didn't you say that finding Gaoyuan Marquis would mean finding the Lingzhi? How did it get to the point of saying you don't know?

Just then, Marquis Baoying did not know which string she had connected, but her expression suddenly became serious again, saying, "No, the Lingzhi has not reached the time to appear yet. Therefore, we have two requests. First, we need you, Gaoyuan Marquis, to take us back to Yunzhou to find the Lingzhi; after finding it, everyone will share it together and distribute it equally. Second—we need to borrow your eyes for a use."

There is an urgent work task these two days, and I cannot write on the weekend. Ying ying ying, please allow me two days off, thank you everyone.