Skyflare City could be considered one of the few metropolises of the Renhuang Province, and this was the domain under City Lord Huang's overwatch. With the City Lord personally handling the transfer procedures, Leonardo quickly got himself a new estate in the most prosperous corner of the city, and it was called the Ye Estate.
In the Ye Estate, his identity was no longer bound to that of an attendant, but he still preferred being addressed as Attendant Ye, as this would further intrigue people into inquiring about why would someone who owns an estate in such a metropolis be a mere attendant, inadvertently promoting Emily's name in the process as the individual capable of forming an alliance with an entire provincial family all on her own.
This way, no matter how accomplished Leonardo is, the famous Attendant Ye would always be no more than a foreshadowing process to the unfathomable Commanding General Qing.
With a bit of stirred gossip about how the young miss of House Qing, the youngest daughter to the current Patriarch Qing and his legal wife, was banished from the family thousands of years ago due to her divergent martial intent. However, she was a tenacious character and didn't give up, blazing an unprecedented path to success with her witts and overwhelming talents, eventually managing to defeat the War Goliath, Commanding General Renhuang, in no more than five seconds.
These depicted stories of heroic struggles and relentless chase of glory awed many people, and the stories kept on growing more exaggerated by the hour. Eventually, people started saying that Commanding General Qing felt it was beneath her to stay in such a small family like the Qing, especially since they were at the bottom of the seven families. Hence, she did them a favor by dealing with the Xia, Freya, and Levi families in one blow to cut ties with the Qing family and start her own Qing branch.
This piece of news was the most explosive and circled the furthest, catching the ears of both the elders of House Qing and Lady Viola, and setting their anger ablaze. Even with their toes, they understood that the source of these rumors could be no other than Skyflare City and more accurately, the Ye Estate. As for Viola, she immediately assumed that Attendant Ye was forcing her to pay him a visit by playing these little games. Otherwise, the circulating rumors would go out of proportion, turning House Qing into a laughing stock.
Viola immediately left the Qing Estate in a fit of anger and urgency, unaware that the elders were holding a secret meeting deep in the rear mountains of the stronghold.
…
In a cave deep in the mountains.
A few individuals clad in tight, concealing robes as they sat in a semi-circle around a high yet empty throne. "Who could have guessed that little girl to become such a late-blooming talent?"
Someone finally broke the silence.
"Don't play the regrets game now, too late for that. We need to consider our future course of action, and very quickly at that."
"We can't put more pressure on that lass now… Should we return her name and re-enlist her on the family's genealogy? That way, the younger generation would have a solid connection to the Renhuang family, and perhaps…"
"You make it sound so easy! What price must we pay to get her back? Make her the new Matriarch Qing of the family? She's just an immature child, yet to understand the ways of our wicked world."
"An immature child you can't touch, at the very least."
"Who could have seen such a day coming? Say, how about we start with Attendant Ye?"
"How exactly are you going to do that? Unless you send a 9th-tier powerhouse, it's near impossible to silence him without making a big scene. Moreover, anyone beyond that threshold of power has long since faded in the background of our times; it's as though something is keeping these powerful figures at bay, never to make a sound."
"Those Seniors are the dragons among cultivators; they have long since transcended our pity squabbles and became deities of their own rights. If they dare make moves in the secular or martial factions, they'd leave no option for the Divine Temple but to interfere."
"So, are the rumors true? About you know…"
"Silence! We have long since deviated from our original agenda. For now, our top priority is to fix our image in public! Start spreading words to mediate our relationship with that lass…"
"Yeah, and on the other hand… Perhaps we could have little Viola try and seduce Attendant Ye to our camp? So far, that lass has no one but him in her corner. Sigh, that girl Viola was too reckless, he must have realized she was never on Commanding General Qing's side, to begin with, hence the current situation…"
The elders felt bitter, and some who already harbored some discontent at how Viola did things after obtaining sudden power and authority felt even angrier. In fact, some of them were making plans for the future if Commanding General Qing truly started her own branch of the Qing family in the future, should they join it?
Maybe they can start by sending their descendants as a gesture of goodwill, right?
…
Although Leonardo didn't know to what effect the ripples of these rumors would reach, he knew that it would at the very least sow a seed of discord in the hearts of the family's elders.
Big families were no different from massive corporations; they chase the pragmatic values of black and white; loss and gain. In such families, even the lower bracket of its members are brainwashed to daily consider their selfish future and personal gains. This was the downside of big families after prospering for thousands upon tens of thousands of years.
Most people thought that Leonardo's goal was to help Emily stand out and establish her own Qing family, but only Leonardo knew that he was merely planting a seed of his Evernight Crown in the heart of the Jin Dynasty.
First, he would need to sort things out with the Black Market people, as he had anticipated their visit very soon. Most likely, they would first join up with Emily and interrogate her about his identity, but their efforts were bound to fail.
Whatever techniques or seals the Black Market placed within Emily's body were already destroyed with Leonardo's heavenly retribution thunderforce. As for the seals in her mind, they were likewise snuffed out with the help of his innate martial intent and the fragment of will he left behind to guide the woman through her singularity tribulation.
At the moment, unless they openly dispatched a 9th-tier powerhouse and exposed their tail, it wouldn't be worth it to open conflict with Emily.
Moreover, she knew the ins and outs of the organization just as they used to know the ins and outs of her body and mind. A fallout would benefit neither party, and she would at most end up in a cooperative relationship with the organization just like Leonardo.
Leonardo walked through the garden of his private manor in the heart of the estate as these thoughts shuffled through his mind. At the same time, his eyes sparkled with longing even as he looked in the direction of the buffer zone of the two dynasties.
Somewhere in the far distance beyond that horizon was the mother of his child, he wondered how she was faring. Leonardo didn't know, but Emily had already brought Nier and Ingrid to her Commander's pagoda and allowed them to rest in her personal chambers on the fifth floor.
It was unknown what means Emily used to convince the two women, but now, all three of them were in the depths of the Qing Sector.
"It should be right about now," Leonardo murmured to himself as he stared into the cloudy skies. Behind him, two maidservants in conservative attires crept closer respectfully as they bowed. "Attendant Ye, a procession from the Qing family has arrived on flying ships, should we open the protective formation?"
The Ye Estate was the size of a small town from the Lush Skirt Plains Province, hence, the airlines above the domain were flight restricted with massive formations blocking the entry of unauthorized flying ships.
"Did they mention their purpose in coming over?" Leonardo turned over to the pair of maidservants, asking lightly.
The two young maidens blushed ever-so-slightly at the sight of those glimmering, honey-brown eyes. Leonardo's current disguise was far from handsome, but the air of mystery around this enigma of a man, coupled with the circulating rumors, aptly compensated for the lack of aesthetic charm.
"Ah! N-not really… I don't think so…" the maidservants were a little panicky. In fact, when the servants of the estate noticed the incoming procession, they were too freaked out, gossipy, and excited to even follow standard procedures.
They simply rushed back to report, leaving the Qing family procession waiting outside the formation's barrier.
Leonardo could somewhat guess her thoughts, feeling speechless.
Really now?
Seeing Leonardo's expression, the two maidservants were quick to bow and apologize repeatedly, almost on the verge of crying.
Leonardo felt stumped. "Hey, hey… Don't cry now; everything is alright, just let them through…"
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