Chapter 1509 - 100: Factions (Part 1)
The night was deep, the moon hung high.
Someone knocked on the gate of Xie Xuanyi’s courtyard on the mountaintop.
The visitor was none other than Venerable Huo Gu, with whom there had been several brief encounters earlier.
"Brother Lu, sorry to intrude."
Huo Gu stood outside the door and spoke very politely: "I don’t know if Brother has time to spare, might we chat for a while?"
He had deliberately brought a jar of wine as a visiting gift.
The Divine Soul conversation via the Ruyi Order had just concluded.
Xie Xuanyi readily opened the door and let Huo Gu in, but the moment the latter stepped into the courtyard, he began looking around everywhere.
"Brother Huo, what are you doing?"
Xie Xuanyi let out a soft snort, knowing Huo Gu was looking for Cui Zhen.
"That young lady from earlier today... why isn’t she here?"
Huo Gu blinked, his face full of regret.
There are some people whom one only glimpses in passing, yet they shake the heart and are never forgotten for life.
Today, upon entering Great Saint Mountain, Master Ni Yu and Peacock Venerable were invited to the feast. It was an entertaining banquet; all the Disciples of Five-Colored Ridge were present. However itchy Huo Gu’s heart was, he had no choice but to wait for the banquet to end... now that it was over, he immediately came to visit Brother Lu, only to find no trace of his "beloved."
"..."
Ao Ying’s expression turned strange upon hearing this.
"Miss Cui has never seen the wider world."
Xie Xuanyi smiled and said, "She wanted to go down the mountain for a stroll, so I let her."
"How could you?"
Huo Gu grew somewhat anxious: "Great Saint Mountain is packed with Immortals, heroes from all under heaven gathered here. The lowest of the low are Yin God Realm great cultivators... if some senior takes a fancy to her and forces her away, what will Brother Lu do then?"
Forcefully abduct Cui Zhen?
Xie Xuanyi held back his laughter and said with feigned calm, "She’s just a young lady. If some great cultivator really takes a liking to her, then I will grit my teeth and part with her. Why, Brother Huo, are you interested in this Miss Cui?"
Huo Gu was stunned for a moment.
He had assumed that Brother Lu had a close relationship with the young lady; otherwise why would he go to such lengths to get her an invitation?
Yet now, it seemed...
Their relationship wasn’t as close as he had imagined.
Indeed, in the Demon Country, there are few pure-hearted good people.
Who knows, perhaps Brother Lu had raised such a beautiful and graceful young lady, and gone to the trouble of securing an invitation, precisely so that here on Great Saint Mountain he could find her a good "next buyer," forge a profitable connection...
Letting her benefit someone else would be a real pity.
Better to let her benefit himself.
"Ahem..."
Huo Gu scratched his head, smiling somewhat sheepishly: "To be frank, I do rather like her. Brother Lu, why don’t you name a price and gift this young lady to me?"
"It’s negotiable, it’s negotiable."
Xie Xuanyi beckoned, motioning Huo Gu to sit, personally poured him wine, then asked, "Brother Huo, visiting in the middle of the night... surely it isn’t only for this matter, is it?"
At these words.
Seven-tenths of Huo Gu’s drunkenness vanished.
"I almost forgot the real business."
Huo Gu hurriedly sat up straight and said earnestly, "Brother Lu... though we’ve only met once and have known each other but a few days, I, Huo, already regard Brother Lu as a confidant. There is something I must tell you."
"Please speak."
Xie Xuanyi sat upright, took a cup, and drank first.
"Tonight, my Master ’Master Ni Yu’ was invited to attend a banquet here on Great Saint Mountain."
Huo Gu lowered his voice and said, "The host is none other than the younger brother of the current Holy Emperor... Nether Sea Venerable. This banquet is set up specifically for ’Five-Colored Ridge’."
"Oh?"
Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes, somewhat surprised.
The information he had received said that Nether Sea Venerable never leaves his abode.
Even when his own son died in battle...
He still did not leave his cave dwelling.
But today he had taken the initiative to host a banquet and invite a crowd of Great Venerables to attend?
"Today it’s Five-Colored Ridge, tomorrow it will be Sun Erosion Great Marsh, the day after that Heavenly Phoenix Palace..."
Huo Gu said slowly, "I don’t know the detailed arrangements, but if I’m not mistaken, this sort of banquet will not happen only once."
"Nether Sea Venerable needs to see the attitudes of those who attend."
"This birthday banquet is absolutely not as simple as a celebration..."
"Everyone will have to make a choice."
He met Xie Xuanyi’s gaze and said word by word, "Though Brother Lu is only in the Yin God Realm, behind you stands Red Flame Great Venerable. Since you’ve accepted an invitation, you’re already in the game and cannot remain aloof. I fear that in a couple of days Ming San will come calling; when that time comes, Brother Lu will also have to make a proper choice."
Xie Xuanyi fell into a long silence.
He thought it over quite seriously for a long time.
"Fellow Daoist Huo."
Xie Xuanyi asked in a low voice, "I wonder, at tonight’s banquet, what choice did Five-Colored Ridge make?"
Seeing that the other had caught his implied meaning, Huo Gu let out a small breath.
"Peacock Venerable did not state a position, but my Master firmly refused Nether Sea’s request."
He grinned and said, "Whether the Holy Emperor is dead or alive, Five-Colored Ridge has no intention of wading into this muddy water... If you ask me, Nether Sea Venerable is making needless trouble. Why force those Yang God Realm big figures to declare sides? The Holy Emperor is one of the top-tier heroes of the last thousand years; a three-hundred-year birthday is rare indeed, and we all came sincerely to congratulate him. If we really start fighting at a birthday feast, Great Ape Mountain will lose face, and when word spreads, it’ll be a laughingstock. After all, that Saint Prince has already cultivated to the Yang God Realm. Even if right now he’s not a match for Nether Sea Venerable, give it some years—who can say for certain?"
He rambled on at length in one breath.
Huo Gu felt much lighter in his heart.
He pulled Xie Xuanyi into drinking several jars of wine, then finally, drunk and swaying, bared his heart: "Brother Lu, we’re both small people. Even if we bow to Yang God Realm Great Divine Power Users as Masters, we still can’t escape this flood of worldly strife... I, Huo, just want to find some remote and quiet Pocket World where I can properly forge Treasures and delve into the Dao of Artifact Refining. If, in a few days, Ming San comes to ask you to declare a stance, you mustn’t covet petty profit and drag yourself into the whirlpool."
As for why he came tonight.
It was because he’d already seen through it... Brother Lu’s reason for coming to Great Saint Mountain was that he had sold off "Phoenix Blood."
One misstep leads to a hundred missteps.
This matter of choosing sides is anything but simple.
In the struggle over the Great Ape Mountain Saint Emperor’s succession, once you choose the wrong camp, never mind those in the Yin God Realm—even Yang God great cultivators can be reduced to ashes in an instant.
"I understand."
Xie Xuanyi said sincerely, "Thank you for the warning, Brother Huo... I will keep it firmly in mind."
"We’ve been chatting for so long..."
Huo Gu smacked his lips, looked at the empty wine jars, and asked dejectedly, "So where is Miss Cui, why hasn’t she come back yet?"