Chapter 205: Chapter 205: Shaking the Royal City
"Have you heard? Last night, the two great marquises, Marquis Tianqi and Marquis Zhenjun, along with Commander Xuu and Commander Long from the Public Security Office, attempted a rebellion! Their plot was discovered, and Lord Chu Yunfei, Commander of the Imperial Guard, led a hundred thousand Imperial Guards to slay a huge number of City Guards. They captured all the rebels and are set to execute them at noon today."
"Who told you that? The news I heard was that the two marquises tried to assassinate a certain prince, and that’s why they were captured."
"Bullshit! One of the marquises is in the military, the other in politics. What good would assassinating a prince do them?"
"That’s where you’re wrong. The two marquises had actually pledged allegiance to a certain prince. It was under his orders that they plotted to harm the other princes."
"How come I heard it was the Crown Prince, collaborating with the two marquises, the City Guard, and the Iron Blood Guard, who tried to seize the throne? They stormed the Royal Palace to force the current Monarch to abdicate, but Lord Chu Yunfei turned the tide, single-handedly holding off ten thousand City Guard soldiers and successfully capturing the traitors."
All sorts of rumors spread through the streets and alleys. The people were in a panic, everyone trying to find out what could have possibly led the kingdom to execute such high-ranking figures.
Two great marquises! It had been many years since something so monumental had happened in the kingdom’s history.
However, quite a few ministers had attended the banquet last night. Soon enough, the truth of the matter began to spread among the populace.
"What? It was all over some teenager?"
"Who in the world is this Ye Xuan? To have infuriated the Monarch so much that he was willing to execute two marquises for his sake?"
"I heard he’s a student at the Profound Spirit Academy and is on good terms with His Highness the Eighth Prince. Right after enrolling, he offended the Crown Prince Alliance, which was founded by the Crown Prince himself. He showed the Crown Prince no respect at all."
"That’s not all. At the auction held by the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association yesterday, he caused a huge scene and openly challenged His Highness the Sixth Prince."
"Since when did our Liuyun Kingdom produce someone like that?"
In just half a day, Ye Xuan’s name spread throughout the entire Royal City. From three-year-old children to eighty-year-old elders, everyone knew his name.
Everyone was curious just what kind of person Ye Xuan was to make the Monarch execute so many prominent figures for him.
「In the Royal Palace.」
CRASH! Crown Prince Zhao Feng slammed the cup before him, shattering it to dust as Profound Power surged from his body.
"I never thought that Ye Xuan would have so much hidden up his sleeve. He actually got Master Kuchen and so many others to plead for him! Because of him, my image in Father’s eyes has plummeted, and he even stripped me of my position as Commander of the Iron Blood Guard’s Southern Guard."
At that moment, Zhao Feng was overcome with deep regret.
He never would have imagined that a mere student from the Profound Spirit Academy like Ye Xuan could have such a powerful background. If he had known this would be the outcome, he would have never gotten involved, no matter what.
This whole affair had originally been a conflict between his Sixth Brother and Ye Xuan, yet he just had to interfere, leading to this disastrous result.
Unfortunately, it was too late for regrets; what was done could not be undone.
"Eighth Brother, I never thought you had it in you. But no matter what tricks you pull, the title of Monarch of the Liuyun Kingdom will be mine."
A sharp glint flashed in the Crown Prince’s eyes, his expression cold and severe.
Meanwhile, the Sixth Prince, having learned the outcome, collapsed weakly onto a seat in his own chambers.
The previous night, Zhao Jing had also stripped him of all his duties and ordered him confined to the Royal Palace for three months. During these three months, he was not to take a single step outside.
Some of the ministers who had once eagerly curried favor with him began to distance themselves after hearing the news.
Everyone keenly sensed that the Monarch was utterly disappointed in the Sixth Prince and had completely given up on him.
"Damn you, Ye Xuan! This is all your fault!"
The Sixth Prince roared through gritted teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms.
And at this very moment, the ones in the greatest panic were the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association.
When today’s news broke, the entire upper echelon of the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association was utterly stunned.
Yesterday, Ye Xuan had caused a disturbance at their auction house, which had made them treat him with considerable hostility. They knew that the Sixth Prince and his group had followed Ye Xuan when he left, and they were all ready to watch Ye Xuan be made a fool of.
They never expected such a surprising outcome. Ye Xuan was perfectly fine, while the two marquises who had clashed with him, their backer, and even the Sixth Prince himself, all received severe punishment from the Monarch.
The moment this news came out, the higher-ups at the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association were completely dumbfounded, stunned, and panicked.
The Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association, known as the number one merchant guild in the Liuyun Kingdom, was especially shaken after learning what had happened at the Monarch’s banquet the previous night.
The Vice President of the Soul Master Tower, the Vice President of the Court Alchemists, General Luo Zhan of the Golden Lion Corps—which of these people wasn’t a major figure in the Liuyun Kingdom? Yet this group had actually risked everything to plead for Ye Xuan.
If those people found out about the auction house’s attitude toward Ye Xuan yesterday, and if they decided to target the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association in retaliation, it would undoubtedly trigger a massive earthquake for the organization.
For a time, panic gripped the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association as they scrambled to find a way to save face. The few executives from the auction house were immediately stripped of their positions and severely punished.
But the man at the center of it all, Ye Xuan, was perfectly calm.
After returning to the Profound Spirit Academy last night, he had thanked Master Kuchen and the others profusely. Then, under everyone’s astonished gazes, he went directly to the academy’s Cultivation Tower to enter seclusion.
No one could understand how Ye Xuan could be so calm as to enter seclusion immediately after such a life-and-death experience. Even if he had nerves of steel, this was too much, wasn’t it?
Little did they know, while others saw Ye Xuan’s day as a grueling ordeal, he himself considered it to be nothing much at all.
His experience merely amounted to a rather unpleasant day trip to the Public Security Office and the Iron Blood Guard.
Furthermore, Ye Xuan, who had long been planning to cultivate the Divine Spirit Gaze, could barely wait after obtaining the Heart Gaze Stone from the auction. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the cultivation of the Divine Spirit Gaze.
He first spent five days adjusting his entire aura to a profound and mystical state.
After that, he spent another five full days grinding the Heart Gaze Stone he had won at the Celestial Cauldron Commerce Association’s auction, mixing it with various Spirit Medicines and Soul Crystals to concoct a potion.
After applying the potion to his eyes, Ye Xuan closed them to rest, marshaling all the Profound Qi and Soul Power in his body. Following the secret cultivation technique for the Divine Spirit Gaze, he slowly began to practice.
The Divine Spirit Gaze cultivated Soul Power, Profound Sense, and the power of the eyes themselves, merging the three into one. It then used various materials to induce a mysterious transformation in the pupils, allowing them to emit a gaze that could interfere with a Martial Artist’s Profound Sense or a Soul Refiner’s Soul Sense.
The most difficult part of the entire process was inducing the transformation in the pupils to produce the ocular light.
This was the first and most difficult step. Generally speaking, without sufficient talent, even with the right materials and the Cultivation Technique, it was hard to find even one Soul Refiner out of a thousand who could successfully master it.
But for Ye Xuan, who had already cultivated the Divine Spirit Gaze in his previous life, it wasn’t much of a challenge.
Everything progressed slowly, according to the Divine Spirit Gaze’s Cultivation Technique.
Half a month later, a faint green light suddenly emanated from Ye Xuan’s closed eyes.
This green light was like a hazy halo, flowing over his eyelids. On closer inspection, it resembled streams of agile airflow, misty and quite magical.
As Ye Xuan continued to cultivate, the green light grew stronger until, gradually, his eyelids turned completely green.
「Time passed.」
One month later, Ye Xuan’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
SHWISH!
His once-black pupils had, at some unknown point, turned green. Within those demonic green eyes, it was as if countless stars were swirling, and a demonic ocular light suddenly spread forth.
Under Ye Xuan’s gaze, the array patterns on the walls of the Cultivation Tower suddenly became incredibly clear. The thickness of every single Spirit Pattern was perfectly distinct, and not a single flaw was missed, as if his eyes were automatically zooming in and magnifying the minute patterns.
’During the creation of the Spirit Patterns in this cultivation room, the Array Master paused five times. He changed his Spirit Pattern Pen once, and the Spirit Rune Liquid was remixed three times. There are minute flaws in thirteen different places...’
With just a single glance, Ye Xuan took in all the Spirit Patterns in the entire cultivation room, completely analyzing the process of their creation.
’I’ve finally mastered the first stage of the Divine Spirit Gaze.’
Ye Xuan retracted his gaze, and his pair of demonic green pupils quietly returned to their original black, deep and vast.
Before cultivating the Divine Spirit Gaze, although Ye Xuan could have analyzed the Spirit Patterns in the cultivation room, it would have required a period of observation. But now, after cultivating the Divine Spirit Gaze—even just the initial first stage—he could analyze everything with a single glance.
This was the awesome power of the Divine Spirit Gaze.
To Ye Xuan’s pleasant surprise, during this month-plus of cultivation, the Profound Qi in his tenth Celestial Vein had also unknowingly filled up by half.
’This is an unexpected bonus.’
’As soon as the Profound Qi in my tenth Celestial Vein reaches its peak, I can attempt to break through to become a Tier Three Earth Martial Artist. When that happens, I’ll surely become the youngest Earth Martial Artist in the Liuyun Kingdom.’
PHEW!
Letting out a long breath, Ye Xuan stood up.
’I’ve been in seclusion for so long. It’s time to go out for a bit.’
However, just as he stood up, he suddenly felt a strange stirring in his Soul Sense.
The source of this stirring was the Storage Ring on his finger. Something inside seemed to be moving.
Ye Xuan was baffled. He quickly focused his attention, sending it into the Storage Ring.
’My Storage Ring is filled with materials and primal stones; there are no living things in it at all. How could something be moving?’
’Besides, a Storage Ring isn’t a pet pouch. Any living creature inside would surely suffocate and die in under an hour.’
His Profound Sense entered the space within the Storage Ring, and Ye Xuan discovered a pile of Soul Crystals trembling slightly. A fist-sized Soul Crystal had been half-eaten.
The culprit was a purple, weasel-like creature. It was fluffy all over, seemed to be a newborn, and was only about the size of his palm. Its pair of purple, gemstone-like eyes darted around curiously.
