Shocking the Forces of the Sun Empire

Three days later, in the capital of the Sun Empire, a very important meeting was secretly taking place inside the Royal Palace.

In a massive, luxurious hall, a middle aged man with golden hair and golden eyes was sitting calmly on a throne on its center.

The man just sat there, but he exuded a majestic aura that unknowingly affected his surroundings.

This middle-aged man was Emperor Wu, the Emperor of the Sun Empire.

Compared to the Emperors before him, Emperor Wu was way more famous, almost as much as the founding Emperor of the Sun Empire.

"Did you find out who created and spread all these scrolls?"

Emperor Wu looked at the ministers below and asked in a calm tone.

When the ministers saw his calm look, they weren't relieved but instead became even more nervous.

Suddenly, a short fat man that seemed to not notice the awkward atmosphere stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, even though we have conducted countless investigations, we have yet to find mastermind."

"The only thing we currently know is that an unknown person visited every force last night and left a map with various marks on it.", the fat man said.

Despite his appearance, this short fat man was actually a powerful cultivator.

His name was Shao Chen and he is one of the few people that had followed Emperor Wu since he was still a prince.

After Emperor Wu ascended to the throne, he also got various benefits, whether it is status or cultivation resources.

Emperor Wu nodded his head expressionlessly and continued asking.

"Did you find what these crudely drawn marks on the map are?"

Shao Chen didn't hesitate and immediately replied.

"Your Majesty, I have sent a few of my subordinates into the Dark Mirror Forest and let them search for the locations marked on the map."

"In most of these locations, my subordinates found various cultivation resources or treasures."

"Most of them are just low-level things, but some of my subordinates have found resources that are suitable for Nascent Soul cultivators to consume."

Shao Chen spoke and his voice became a little excited.

Hearing his words, the hall was in uproar.

"Fellow Taoist Shao, are you saying the truth?"

"Nascent Soul level resources? How many of them did you find?"

"Your Majesty, please order me to lead the army. These resources should belong to the Sun Empire!"

The hall immediately became noisy, with each minister shouting their own thing loudly.

You couldn't blame them.

Most cultivators obtained resources by either exploring dangerous areas or simply killing other people.

Now that they heard that there was a large amount of treasures waiting for them, how could they not be tempted?

"Silence!", Emperor Wu waved his hand to stop the noisy ministers.

Inwardly, he was also very excited.

It had been many years since he ascended to the throne and with his talent and the resources of the Sun Empire, he had managed to reach the peak of Nascent Soul Realm.

He only lacked an opportunity to break through.

'Maybe this is my opportunity to break through the Soul Transformation Realm.'

'As long as I achieve a breakthrough, the Snow Phoenix Sect will no longer be able to stop me.'

Emperor Wu unconsciously clenched his fists.

After a little bit of thought, he gave orders to the ministers below.

"Continue sending people to the Dark Mirror Forest to explore the locations marked on the map."

"Also, I want you to continue investigating the mastermind behind all these maps."

"I have a hunch that there is an insidious plan behind everything."

Just like what happened in the Royal Palace, the other forces also held various meetings regarding the mysterious scrolls.

While they were excited about the treasures, they also focused on the mysterious mastermind behind the scenes.

***

At the moment, the mastermind that the Sun Empire's forces were looking for was sitting outside a little hut, calmly sipping his tea.

No one could guess that the mastermind behind everything was a new cultivator that hadn't even reached the Qi Condensing Realm.

Obviously, the person that created all these scrolls was Li Yuan.

Since he couldn't leave this forest, he could only find a way to force other people to come here.

What is something that no cultivator can resist? Of course, it's treasures.

There are a few cultivators that like to secretly cultivate in seclusion for hundreds of years, but there are only a few of them.

It's not that other people don't want to and are willing to put themselves to danger, it's just that they don't have the talent to do so.

"As long as a few of them reach this place, I'll surely be able to develop new customers."

Li Yuan had carefully thought about various scenarios over the past years and had made many plans to deal with each possible situation.

Now that he found that the Sun Empire's strongest cultivators were only in the Nascent Soul realm and could not threaten him, Li Yuan didn't hesitate to use the most straightforward way to bring people to the forest.

Even if everyone knew that there was a conspiracy, Li Yuan was certain that they would be unable to resist.

As for how he spread all these scrolls?

It's actually very simple.

This was the "deal" that he had previously proposed to Liu Feng and Gu Ling'er.

Li Yuan promised to suffer half of the backlash caused by deducing secrets as long as Liu Feng spread these scrolls throughout the Sun Empire.

In fact, "suffering half of the backlash" simply meant that he reduced the profit he made from 10 times to 5 times.

"Unfortunately, this also means that almost all the money I've made has been spent."

Li Yuan was a little heartbroken when he saw that his balance, which was supposed to be more than 5 Million HS Points, had been reduced to only 1 Million HS Points.

More than 4 Million HS Points were spent in order to create the map containing various treasures and resources.

Of course, the information he deduced was not as detailed as what he had previously sold to Xiao Huo and Gu Ling'er, but only contained the location of the treasures.

"It doesn't matter. Just think of it as marketing expenses."

"As long as I improve my strength, everything will be fine."

Li Yuan muttered, trying to convince himself and heal the emotional pain of spending money.

While Li Yuan was doing mental therapy, two figures entered the hut's range.

Li Yuan noticed them immediately and from their aura, he found that one of them was familiar.

Before long, the figures of one young man and one young woman appeared in front of him.

The young man looked ordinary, with a confident expression on his face and a slightly stupid smile.

It was Xiao Huo.

Walking next to him was a young woman wearing a long, blue, elegant robe.

She had a beautiful face, long blue hair and held a silver sword in her hand.

When she looked around, she had a cautious expression.

Li Yuan didn't speak immediately, but used the Identification Technique out of habit.

The information he saw surprised him.