Chapter: 69

Blue Wind Profound Palace Residence.

When Yun Che returned, he saw people in red robes standing outside of his residence, which made him raise a brow.

'What are they doing here now?' he thought, staring at the backs of the people from Burning Heaven Clan who were talking with Qin Wushang, who had a neutral expression.

"Palace Chief Qin, this old man is here to see nephew Yun Che. I wonder if Palace Chief Qin will allow me to meet him."

As he got closer, he could hear them better.

This made Yun Che confused.

He was sure that except for those close to him, no one knew about his real strength.

'Well, not counting the people of Asgard now.'

So he found it weird that people from the Burning Heaven Clan were looking for him.

He wondered if it was some scheme from Fen Juecheng.

'Probably. With his personality, I don't think he would be giving up soon.' Suddenly, a smile of anticipation formed on his face, wondering what scheme Fen Juecheng had cooked up this time. 'This makes it quite interesting. Seeing their expression, they are not here to fight, at least it seems. A political talk?'

With measured steps, he closed the distance between them.

"As I've said, Elder Fen, Yun Che is not—Oh, Yun Che, you returned!" Wushang, who was about to deny Fen Moli the tenth time, raised his voice towards Yun Che who appeared behind the people of Burning Heaven Clan.

This made everyone from the Burning Heaven Clan turn around and look towards him.

Weirdly, Fen Juecheng was not present among them.

"I just returned." Yun Che nodded before he looked at Fen Moli with interest. "I heard Elder Fen is looking for me. I wonder why that is."

"Nephew Yun."

Yun Che blinked, staring at Fen Moli's face speechlessly.

He thought this old man was quite shameless.

He could obviously feel that he had no goodwill towards him, yet he called him in such an intimate way that people might confuse their relationship for the first time watching them.

But he didn't think much of it and thought it was Fen Moli's way of trying to gain points from him.

"This old man has heard many heroic tales regarding Nephew Yun, and couldn't help but personally come and meet you." Fen Moli was all smiles. Looking at him, one might not even think he had any bad intentions towards Yun Che and came with goodwill.

It was good enough to confuse Wushang, who also wondered why Fen Moli was acting so friendly towards Yun Che.

"Oh." Yun Che made an 'o' shape with his lips before it turned into a teasing smile. "What heroic tale, Elder Fen? This disciple is interested to hear them."

He didn't remember ever showing any "heroic" act in front of the public, so Yun Che knew this old man was obviously cooking something.

Heck!

The only public appearance he had made so far would be his fight with Murong Yi six months ago! But that was definitely not enough to garner the attention of Burning Heaven Clan.

For now, he really couldn't think of anything but the fact that it was related to Cang Yue and his relationship.

"Ahem." Fen Moli coughed and smiled sheepishly. "What's the point of things that are nothing but the past now? In fact, this old man was here for another purpose."

Fen Moli smiled like an amiable man.

If people of the Burning Heaven Clan saw him now, they would probably mistake him for someone else.

Their elder was never this amiable!

He was an arrogant and deceitful man! Not some good old man!

"And that would be?" Yun Che still didn't break his smile and inquired, interested to hear what he had to say.

"I don't like to beat around the bush, so I'll get straight to the point. Nephew Yun, I have heard that you have great control over Fire Profound Energy. So great that it makes me jealous and sad at the same time. This old man thinks that Nephew Yun's talent isn't being fully explored and feels saddened due to it. Taking it upon my shoulder to not let a gem like Nephew Yun be rusted, this old man has come to invite Nephew Yun to be a part of my Burning Heaven Clan's inner disciple!"

Wushang's face suddenly turned ugly.

He couldn't believe Fen Moli dared to poach the disciples of his palace right in front of his eyes; it was as if he never put him and his palace in his eyes!

This ticked him the wrong way.

He thought even if the Burning Heaven Clan was one of the four major clans, this was just too much!

This shameless display made him disgusted!

"Nephew Yun, what do you think?" As if unaware of Wushang's expression, Fen Moli looked at Yun Che and asked. He believed that no one would deny a request to join his clan, especially as an inner disciple!

One should know, his clan was one of the four major clans within the Blue Wind Empire.

Just being a part of it made a person a celebrity within the empire, and no one would dare to offend him due to the fear of his background!

Now he, the Grand Elder, has personally come to invite someone.

Fen Moli thought no one would dare to reject his offer!

"Invite me? Hmm… Is this really something Fen Juecheng came up with? With his rash and petty personality, this doesn't sound like a plan he would devise." Yun Che thought and looked at Fen Moli. "It's him, isn't it? And I think it's not related to my relationship with Cang Yue, but something else."

The only thing he could think of that would garner the attention of this old man would be either his relationship with Cang Yue, which caused Fen Juecheng to be angry and wanted to kill him, or—

'Her sudden increase in strength! So that's it! As long as one did a little research, it isn't hard to come up with a theory that her sudden increase in strength has something to do with me. Or even if it doesn't, since they know I have a relationship with her, they must have thought I should know the reason for her sudden increase?'

Cang Yue was the princess of the Blue Wind Empire.

Even if she didn't have an official position, she still had her status as the princess.

The Burning Heaven Clan, or any other clan, wouldn't dare to make a move against her; especially when the king doted on her so much.

No one wanted to incur the ire of the Emperor Profound Realm cultivator within the Blue Wind Empire. And the king of the empire obviously had one or two such cultivators serving him.

As such, the best approach would be to aim for someone who might know her secret and doesn't have any strong background; in this case, that would be Yun Che!

Thinking this, Yun Che smirked.

'It's the cliché trope of extending a friendly hand and then stabbing in the back. Sadly, they never had the chance to succeed.'

"I appreciate your offer, but I would have to decline. Currently, I'm happy being a disciple of the Imperial Palace. If, in the future, I have other plans, I'll definitely consider your sect."

While Wushang sighed with relief, Fen Moli's face suddenly tensed.

A frown appeared on his face, showing his dissatisfaction with Yun Che's answer.

This wasn't how he imagined things to go! He thought Yun Che would be jumping with joy to join them, but reality really hit him hard, making him angry!

Controlling his emotions and not breaking his expression, he forced a smile.

"Is that so? Then I won't be taking more of your time. If you change your mind, come and meet me. We have our doors open for you all the time."

Saying his part, he didn't even look towards Wushang and left.

Seeing this, Wushang sighed.

"Why are you so relieved, Palace Chief? Did you really think I would join them?" A sad expression formed on his face. "You really break my heart, Palace Chief. My allegiance stays with the palace all the time. Since I have used its resources, I wouldn't just backstab it with a straight face. Have some faith in me."

Yun Che thought Wushang had really no faith in him.

Otherwise, he wouldn't look so relieved at the fact that he denied Fen Moli's offer.

This made him sad.

Obviously, he was the most trustworthy handsome gentleman to ever live since the existence of the Primal Chaos.

"Hahaha…" Wushang embarrassingly laughed, feeling ashamed. "You can't blame me. Not everyone is lucky enough to get personally invited by the Grand Elder of the Burning Heaven Clan."

Suddenly, his face turned serious, and he added.

"But, Yun Che, you must be careful of this Fen Moli. He is known for his arrogant and deceitful nature. Don't get fooled by his acting. He is definitely after something else!"

"You don't have to worry about that, Palace Chief." Yun Che smiled, feeling his worries ease. "I know what's good for me."

"That's good then." Wushang smiled. He looked at the sky before saying. "It's already getting quite late. It seems that the princess and Yuanba are already asleep. You should go and rest too."

"I'll do that. Thank you."

Wushang nodded and left with a smile.

Standing alone within the courtyard, Yun Che had a weird smile on his face.

He rubbed his chin, and his eyes gave off a soft golden hue.

'Just one decision and things have already started to derail from the original. Strangely enough, the Ancestral Goddess has been quite quiet for some time now. I wonder if she has exhausted her powers, or found an alternate path to reach her goals. Either way, it's good for me if she stops meddling with the fate of people around me just so she can push me to become stronger faster. It's quite annoying.'

Shaking his head, he left towards Cang Yue's room.

Feeling tired, he also decided to rest for today.

…

..

.

The next six days were boring, to say the least.

The fights were unexciting, and there was no thrill.

He wanted to go and meet Yuechan, but every time he made the decision and imagined how the situation would go, he stopped himself.

He wasn't like Yun Che, and definitely not as shameless as him.

Even if circumstances forced him, he still felt weird facing her normally.

So he kept putting off meeting her.

And just like that, a week had passed.

Finally, the second round ended!

Only thirty-two people were left in the tournament, which was further divided into two groups.

Seeing the list, Yun Che couldn't help but smirk and think, 'They really want Ling Yun to win, huh? They aren't even trying to be smart about it. Too bad for them, that ain't happening!'

...

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