856 - Opportunity Knocks
Chapter 856 - Opportunity Knocks
Qin Hui diplomatically declined Luo Yi's invitation and brought Tian Ning back to their accommodation.
The banquet only came to an end near dawn.
After an entire night of celebration, many of the envoys slept soundly on the square, and even smiled in their dreams. Some remained in front of the campfire, laughing in their drunken stupors, yet tears flowed from their eyes as they held their glasses of wine up high and poured the wine on the ground as a sacrifice. Others returned to their respective chambers to rest.
The [Azure Sky Pavilion] gradually became quiet again.
Empress Yu Xiaoxing had left the banquet during its latter half. Perhaps this was just as well, for many people had remained unable to take it easy with her around. She had intended to go to the west courtyard to visit Great Dragon Turtle Demon, who had returned to his quiet room not long after the banquet began because his breath was weak. However, seeing her exhausted look, Ye Qingyu advised her to head back and get an early rest.
Ye Qingyu himself left during the latter half of the banquet as well.
Bringing along Luo Yi, he went to Great Dragon Turtle Demon's quiet room to check on the latter's condition.
"Hoho, Lord Ye Qingyu, having lived long enough to hear about the Heaven Wasteland Domain's grading success, I can die with no regrets. Don't waste any more Violet-Gold Dragon King Ginseng to extend my life, for such a precious herb can surely be put to better use. All I wish is for my dead body to be returned to the Southern Waters of the Heaven Wasteland..." Sounding very philosophical, Great Dragon Turtle Demon had apparently thought through life and death and was free of all worldly attachments.
"Great-grandfather..." Tears welled in Little Dragon Turtle Zhong Xuan's eyes as she felt a feeling of great sorrow.
"My little girl, don't cry." Great Dragon Turtle Demon feebly raised his hand to caress his great-great-great-granddaughter's forehead, saying, "The Heaven Wasteland's situation has been settled, and I'm considered one of those who made vital contributions. Her Highness and Lord Ye Qingyu will thus take extra care of the Dragon Turtle Race in the Southern Waters. The future is bright, and your generation has arrived..."
Ye Qingyu lifted his fingers off the other arm of the Great Dragon Turtle Demon and ended this round of examination and treatment, saying with a smile, "Don't be so pessimistic, Senior. Things may just take a turn for the better."
The latter's eyes lit up but quickly dimmed, "I understand your good intentions, but my demonic qi has been depleted and my vitality has been broken, and thus it would be difficult to cure me even with the legendary divine elixir. I know that you're saying this to console me, thank you so much."
Ye Qingyu still had more to say, but then saw that the latter was in a natural state of mind and no longer had the will to live. Supposing that he had been hanging on for the past few days because the grading outcome of the Heaven Wasteland Domain had yet to be determined, then now that the result was out and the news was excellent, he truly had no more concerns. Nothing anyone said would be of any use if he himself did not wish to live.
However, in reality, Ye Qingyu was not just perfunctorily consoling him.
Over the past few days, Ye Qingyu had been monitoring his internal condition, while because of his absolute trust in Ye Qingyu, he did not hide anything regarding it. As a result, Ye Qingyu could not be any more knowledgeable about it.
It was true that his demonic qi had dried up.
Demonic qi was to the demonic races as dantian was to the Human Race.
The drying up of demonic qi was thus akin to the shattering of the dantian world. To the demonic races, there was no chance of recovery from this, which was equivalent to the destruction of one's foundation. To give an analogy, when the wax of a candle had been burned up, there was no possibility for the flame to be sustained even if there was remaining candle wick.
However, when Ye Qingyu injected the wisp of bright-yellow Immortal qi and the wisp of Phoenix nirvana qi into his body, they settled down inside his demonic qi, within which Ye Qingyu indistinctly spotted an opportunity, and served to prolong his life together with the Violet-Gold Dragon King Ginseng.
But Ye Qingyu did not know exactly how to make the most use of this opportunity, and could not confirm that it would bring about a miracle that allowed the Great Dragon Turtle Demon to escape from death.
After giving it some thought, Ye Qingyu eventually did not bring up this matter.
He vaguely felt that Great Dragon Turtle Demon's philosophical state of mind was best for now. Perhaps, if he said too much, he might cause the latter to become stubborn, which would be disadvantageous to what he wanted to do next.
After chatting a little longer, he stood up and took his leave.
When he walked out of the quiet room, it was the darkest time of the long night. In Heaven Connect City, the four seasons were distinctive, and day and night were well-balanced, forming the best simulation of the natural environment's wonders among the nineteen cities of chaos. Ye Qingyu stood at the entrance of the west courtyard, looking at the distant firmament and inhaling a deep breath.
Dawn was coming really soon.
...
Another few hours passed.
The sky gradually brightened into a light-blue color and was covered with several gauze-soft clouds. A cool breeze gently blew against the flowers that bloomed in the Green Xuan Hall, causing light bouts of aroma to drift along with the wind and suffuse in all directions.
It was quiet and peaceful in the Green Xuan Hall.
Having not yet completely regained their senses from the previous night's celebrations, the Heaven Wasteland diplomatic corps members remained immersed in a festive aftertaste. Apart from those personnel who had earlier been arranged for shifts, the others were still deep in sleep.
However, a piece of news rocked Heaven ConnectCity at this very moment.
The Heaven Wasteland Domain had passed their domain grading!
It was unknown where this piece of news first spread from, but it disseminated at an insane speed anyway. A matter like the grading of a new domain was always going to receive the attention of various parties, and because the Heaven Wasteland Domain had created such a huge stir on the Road of Chaos, the attention it garnered for its domain grading became even greater, to the extent that, in only a night's time, this piece of news became like a shocking clap of thunder which was cast from the clouds of the Ninth Heaven and struck the entire Heaven Connect City with a booming noise.
Upon hearing about it, some of the forces and sects gathered in the city did not feel overly surprised.
However, the leaders of a few truly top-level forces and sects were astounded like never before.
Because they were the ones who had access to inside information, what they had seen and heard were naturally unbeknownst to many ordinary sects and forces.
Judging from the reports of various sources earlier gathered by these powerful figures, although the Heaven Wasteland Domain had caused a massive stir, there were still many super large forces which were extremely covetous of its resources and territory, and had secretly prepared to snipe this grading. Only these higher orders with access to better-informed sources knew that the grading outcome of the Heaven Wasteland Domain would have been a fail nine out of ten times...
The true dark currents were not known to the onlooking crowds.
And the power of these dark currents was absolutely frightening.
But now, it had only been a few days, yet the news that broke was completely different from the inside information received previously. What exactly was going on?
These important personages indistinctly felt an uneasiness.
Meanwhile, all kinds of discussions bubbled up throughout the streets and alleys of the entire Heaven Connect City.
"The Heaven Wasteland Domain actually passed their domain grading?"
"Didn't they not pass all of the tests? Why are they allowed to pass the grading?"
"Could it be because this new domain has a backer from the Alliance of Domains?"
"It appears that the Heaven Wasteland Domain is not an ordinary new domain. They must have got a more powerful force propping them up from behind!"
"The situation does seem a little weird. Hahaha, could the Human Race have finally produced another domain which can become dominant?"
"In any case, the Heaven Wasteland Domain will never be an anonymous little domain ever again. Its future knows no measure..."
"Well said. We must make good use of this opportunity which always develops after the grading of a new domain. We have to think of a way to contact the people in charge of the Heaven Wasteland Domain. As long as the conditions are right, we must move in. I'm certain that they would be very willing to work with us."
"That's indeed the case."
"We cannot lose any time, so let's get to work. Early this morning, I saw the president of the Flying Bears Association personally bringing gifts to the Green Xuan Hall. That fella's notoriously cunning and deceitful, and is definitely not just playing around. Let's not be beaten to it by him."
"Haha, that's indeed so. The accession of a new domain into the Alliance of Domains is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity indeed. The Flying Eagles Chamber of Commerce, which is easily top ten in Heaven Connect City at present, had shot up by making good use of the Clear River Domain's grading!"
"Speaking of the Clear River Domain, it's not too stable these days, and is said to be locked in battle..."
"Let's not talk about the Clear River Domain and instead focus on the Heaven Wasteland Domain, which isn't as easy to bully as the former. The [Ice Sword Killing God], Lunatic Ye is terrifying enough, let alone [Quasi-emperor Xiaofei] who's backing them up imperceptibly..."
"That's right, those who have malicious ideas had better forgo this notion."
For some time, the discussions swept like an oceanic wave from Heaven Connect City to every giant city on the Road of Chaos.
The only topic of these discussions was none other than the new domain that was the Heaven Wasteland Domain, whose momentum of growth became unstoppable as soon it passed the domain grading!
Before the sun had risen up high, the main entrance to the front court of the Green Xuan Hall was already packed with bigwigs from the various sects, chambers of commerce, shops, and mercenary bands, each of them bringing gifts and putting on smiling faces.
When Yu Xiaoxing was woken up by her personal maids, she remained sleepy-eyed and exhausted, but after listening to the report, she washed herself up simply and regained fine spirits.
She knew very clearly that this was an opportunity for the Heaven Wasteland Domain.
The opportunity had arrived.
For the Heaven Wasteland Domain to become truly powerful, it would not be enough to depend solely on Ye Qingyu or the behind-closed-doors enterprise of the domain's various races. Instead, it needed to tap on external forces if it was to become self-governing and self-reliant.
At present, the various forces which had come to request a meeting were precisely the external forces which the Heaven Wasteland Domain needed to tap on.
Although several forces could be harboring unkind intentions, the domain ultimately could not give up eating for fear of choking. What needed to be done was to carefully screen and suitably guide these forces to be useful to the Heaven Wasteland Domain.
Of course, this matter would not be settled so easily, but today was certainly a good day to meet these bigwigs from various parties.
After handing down a series of decrees, Yu Xiaoxing hauled her exhausted body to perform even busier work.
Meanwhile, in his own quiet room, Ye Qingyu was operating the nameless breathing technique and drawing the divine power from the one hundred and eighth god-level yuan liquid pill. This caused the yuan qi in his body to surge like an ocean and a silvery chill to diffuse while his eyes opened and closed intermittently.
His yuan qi finally returned to its peak state of old.