Chapter 40: The Assembly of Heroes

The Tianxing Sword Sect incident held unparalleled importance in the eyes of those in the know, signaling that the struggle for the throne had entered a white-hot phase of open action.

The Princess was nearly killed, the Prince Qi was demoted to commoner status, and the situation became turbulent.

But ordinary people did not know the connection between the Tianxing Sword Sect and the imperial family; instead, everyone's attention focused more intently on another matter.

The Sixth Young Master of the Huo family investigated the murder at the old manor in Xiazhou and, somehow, discovered that the city governor Xu Bingkun was colluding with demons. The Sixth Young Master fought bravely but died at the hands of demons. His two personal guards, fearing punishment, killed the remaining guards and fled.

This could be counted as one of the most eye-catching events in recent years.

It was not because the city governor colluded with demons; similar things actually happened frequently; nor was it because so many people died—far fewer died here than at the Tianxing Sword Sect.

Rather, it was because the Huo family was such a high-ranking, powerful clan, and the killing of a legitimate son had not occurred in so many years...

No matter how many dirt-footed peasants died, it was not as eye-catching as the death of one Huo Young Master.

Huo Xingyuan, the head of the Huo family, angrily smashed an antique porcelain vase at home: "Damn it! How did Xiazhou protect the Sixth!"

A group of Huo family members around him stared at their noses, eyes on their hearts, daring not to make a sound.

Since Huo Xingyuan was granted the title of First-Rank Marquis Zhenyuan, the Old Grand Preceptor Huo had passed the position of family head to him and was effectively semi-retired. At this moment, the Old Grand Preceptor leaned back in his chair, squinting as he watched his son's outburst, and only after a long while slowly spoke to interrupt: "What do you think of the report from Xiazhou regarding the sequence of events?"

Huo Xingyuan said angrily: "Obviously impossible! Although the Sixth is useless, he was very loyal to the Huo Lei brothers; how could they have betrayed the Sixth to his death?"

The Grand Preceptor Huo said calmly: "What if the matter of the pills was leaked, with such a huge temptation before them?"

Huo Xingyuan fell silent.

Although the Huo family members themselves would never leak the matter of the pills, they also knew how some of the less intelligent descendants operated—several had hidden the pills inside their shadows, thinking this was safer, but they had not considered that shadows could also leak secrets.

Once the matter of the pills was leaked, nothing would be strange, not even the Huo family being raided and their property confiscated.

The so-called Sweet Potato Proposal was merely the fuse to bring the Huo family to the capital. What truly restored the Grand Preceptor Huo to imperial favor was that when Your Majesty was severely injured by the Demon Emperor years ago, the Grand Preceptor Huo, under the guise of a single ancestral immortal pill, treated him to a large extent; this great merit was the key.

If it were discovered that the Huo family possessed not a single immortal pill, but a pill furnace, and that the so-called single ancestral immortal pill was actually one they had tried to refine a few years ago, with efficacy even worse than the one currently on Huo Yu... then the Huo family would be doomed.

Thinking that this matter might be leaked, Huo Xingyuan no longer had the energy to get angry; he frowned and weighed the situation for a long time before saying in a low voice: "If they truly did this out of greed for the pills, I fear we cannot make a scene; we can only swallow the bitter pill in silence."

"I fear they also counted on us not daring to make a scene..." The Grand Preceptor Huo sighed: "The Sixth fought demons bravely and sacrificed himself heroically; having this posthumous reputation is not in vain, so it is not suitable to create more trouble... Of course, no matter how we acknowledge it on the surface, we cannot simply accept whatever Xiazhou says; we must investigate thoroughly. Xingyuan, select a capable person to take over as city governor; this time, keep your eyes wide open..."

Huo Xingyuan looked somewhat troubled: "Xu Bingkun was recommended by us; now that such a huge mess has been made and Your Majesty is furious, I fear the new city governor of Xiazhou will not be willing to use our people again..."

"Who Your Majesty uses is Your Majesty's business; can you not pull someone over? Besides, we only wish to seek justice for the child, not to do anything illegal."

"Yes."

"In addition... that Lu Xingzhou, is he truly the Seventh..."

Huo Xingyuan looked somewhat embarrassed on his face: "This matter... shall I send someone to investigate further?"

The Grand Preceptor Huo ignored him and spoke in a low voice as if to himself: "He has been mixing with the Highness... if it is truly so..."

Huo Xingyuan squinted his eyes, grasping his father's meaning. Everyone in the hall looked at one another, their expressions varying.

The Huo family previously did not know who Shen Tang was, but now that the matter of Prince Qi's deposition had come out, it was truly hard not to know. Under the current circumstances, in the short term, no one dared to openly deal with Shen Tang again; even if other Imperial Princes wanted to deal with her, they would likely only be able to suppress her quietly through gang struggles, let alone them.

If Huo Shang and Shen Tang had mixed together, the subsequent evolution of events...

"If he is truly the Seventh..." The Grand Preceptor Huo sighed: "First, have someone make contact to see if it is possible to resolve his hatred; if not..."

He did not finish speaking, but Huo Xingyuan understood the meaning and nodded: "I understand."

The Grand Preceptor Huo looked around at the sons and grandchildren in the hall and said coldly: "Regardless of whether the Sixth died for this reason or not... in any case, whoever still has pills placed on their shadows must have them all retrieved, and the shadows must be disposed of."

Everyone bowed deeply: "Yes."

"Why won't you let me return to the capital!" Sheng Yuanyao vented her anger at a subordinate sent by her father in the Demon Suppression Bureau: "Even if we don't mention my hard work in solving several major cases here, he should also look at how many risks Xiazhou has faced in such a short time! Am I not his own flesh and blood!"

While saying this, Sheng Yuanyao felt a little guilty.

Regarding the several major cases, her merit in solving them was hard to evaluate. In the Huo family servant murder case, she concluded it was done by Huo Shang, yet "Huo Shang" was wandering right under her nose with a very good relationship; in the case of the Huo family guard and Liu Qingcang's death, the conclusion was thoroughly fabricated; then the Huo Yu case, from the reason Huo Yu came here to the cause of Huo Yu's death, she could almost be counted as one of the murderers.

What was truly praiseworthy was actually solving the case of the city governor secretly raising demons, fighting demons fiercely without retreating, and finally returning with a demon corpse. But this most worthy merit was inexplicably split in half by Huo Yu, who had done nothing, so at least now the focus of everyone's discussion was Huo Yu, with nothing to do with her.

It was a mess... she really did not want to continue mixing in this way; it would be better to return to the capital to take orders and do things, at least there wouldn't be so many entanglements.

The subordinate helplessly said: "Young Lady, you have only been here for less than a month; how can you return already? There is no such rule of duty in the world."

"Cut the act; isn't it all up to him to decide such rules? Haven't they used reasons like 'merit is sufficient' less often? My merits, if discussed, are enough for a promotion!" Sheng Yuanyao said angrily: "What one month? Do you know how I spent this month?"

"Uh..." The subordinate lowered his voice: "Young Lady, since the Sixth Huo died here, everyone must bear some responsibility..."

Sheng Yuanyao exploded: "Are you suppressing my merit? I, old lady, fought demons hard with my head hanging on my belt! What does Huo Yu's uselessness have to do with us!"

"No, no, at most it will be delayed; we just don't want to provoke the Huo family at this juncture."

Sheng Yuanyao was furious but also knew this was normal; it was good enough that her merit wasn't reduced.

The subordinate added: "Also, the imperial decree just issued in the capital, you might not know..."

Sheng Yuanyao perked up her ears: "What gossip?"

"The Emperor has issued an edict to protect the Tianxing Sword Sect."

Sheng Yuanyao was momentarily confused: "So what?"

The subordinate's voice lowered even more: "The Shen Merchant House is the Tianxing Sword Sect."

Sheng Yuanyao: "!"

"Previously, your father dared not tell you, fearing you were young and couldn't keep secrets; now it can be said... I think the Shen Merchant House will likely change its sign back to Tianxing Sword Sect within these few days."

Sheng Yuanyao paced back and forth, very entangled: "They really have a lot of gossip..."

"There will definitely be many more storms to come; we do not know the specific details, but your father certainly does. Since your father still believes it is beneficial for the Young Lady to remain in Xiazhou, then it must be truly beneficial."

"Alright." The greatest hobby of eating gossip finally overcame other entanglements; Sheng Yuanyao snorted: "Anyway, Lu Xingzhou owes me who knows how many favors now; if I can't get things done, I'll go find him to do them."

She acted immediately; Sheng Yuanyao grabbed a register and went straight out to find Lu Xingzhou: "I actually had something to find him for anyway."

Arriving at the Shen Merchant House, the guards did not dare to stop Sheng Yuanyao; she entered directly, and Lu Xingzhou was indeed refining pills in the pill room.

What was surprising was that the assistant beside him was not A'nuo, but actually Du Gu Qingli standing upright behind him as a guard.

Sheng Yuanyao almost wanted to ask when they had gotten together, but seeing their calm demeanor, she held back and only asked tactfully: "Where is A'nuo?"

"Shen Tang went to find Liu Yan'er; the two parties do not know each other, but A'nuo is familiar with both, so she took her to make an introduction."

"So you swapped places and moved Miss Dugu here to protect you?"

"Yes."

Sheng Yuanyao felt something was off. This was inside the Shen Trading House; why were you so concerned? Was the pill being refined that important?

The pill being refined was indeed important; it was a pill Lu Xingzhou was refining for his own leg treatment.

Theoretically, the first batch refined should be the bone-recovery pill: first piece the bones together, then reconnect the tendons, and finally restore the muscles.

But other medicines are more difficult; right now Lu Xingzhou is still just testing his hand, refining the simplest tendon-reconnection pill.

Lu Xingzhou's case was truly much more troublesome than Shen Tang's, because his leg broke when he was very young; his lower leg had missed years of growth, and now even his bones were deformed. Even if they were connected, extra medicine would be needed to stimulate bone growth to match the proper size, an extremely high difficulty. Finally, restoring the muscles that had atrophied for ten years was equally extremely troublesome; no one knew if that fruit, as the main ingredient, was enough to handle so many tasks.

So Lu Xingzhou's mind had always been grave; even with Sheng Yuanyao here, he couldn't spare any attention, only asking casually, "Commandant Sheng, what brings you here?"

Sheng Yuanyao said, "Do you know the Demon Suppression Bureau is also responsible for compiling the world's list of powerful figures? The Hero List, the Demon List."

"I know. It's a pity there's no Beauty List; eating melon on that would be so delightful..."

Sheng Yuanyao: "... There's some truth to that."

Lu Xingzhou added, "Anyway, this has nothing to do with us, right? I'm just a seventh-rank..."

"Your cultivation is average, but Miss Dugu is under eighteen, fifth-rank upper stage; she should have long been entered into the Rising Stars List within the Hero List. Remaining unknown for so long counts as the Demon Suppression Bureau's negligence. And you, a nineteen-year-old seventh-rank upper stage alchemist, are also qualified for the various professional sub-lists."

Dugu Qingli said, "If I don't enter the list, will you forcibly put me on it?"

"Yes," Sheng Yuanyao said. "With so many demonic cultivators, we wouldn't bother asking their opinions; we'd just list them based on battle records. At least we are familiar, so I came to inform you. Also, it's not just Miss Dugu; there's also A'nuo, which is even more absurd..."

Dugu Qingli said, "Does the Demon Suppression Bureau listen to the royal family?"

Sheng Yuanyao honestly said, "Naturally, it does."

"Then you may return; later a Princess's oral decree will arrive telling you not to list them."

Sheng Yuanyao: "?"

Lu Xingzhou suddenly interjected: "I, Lu, support the Demon Suppression Bureau's work; you may list me on the Alchemist sub-list."

Sheng Yuanyao felt Lu Xingzhou was giving her face, and her mood improved slightly: "Didn't you always hide your talents before? Now you're not hiding them?"

"No choice. Now I'm sold to the Shen Trading House... The Trading House owning a listed alchemist is a useful badge, beneficial for future development."

Sheng Yuanyao's expression was blank.

So your face wasn't given to me, but to Shen Tang.

(End of this chapter)