As Wu Long looked at the scenery side by side with the Empress she did not express any emotion to him standing relatively close to her.

“Tell me what you see”

“If you think I am not aware of all the treachery and filth of this outwardly beautiful city drowning in luxury you do not quite understand how my vision works it seems”

“Heh, on the contrary, that was exactly my point”

“…?”

She looked at Wu Long with a raised eyebrow.

“You see all that makes up this city and thus miss all the beautiful scenery”

He chuckled and she widened her eyes.

“You see, the reason they are not called Truth Seeing Eyes, but Truth Seeking Eyes is because while they do see more than a normal person, depending on how you use them they see different things. As a Dao Cultivator you benefited greatly from these eyes as they helped you understand the Dao more easily as if you ‘saw’ it, but it made you reliant on this vision, believing what your eyes saw was true.

In fact it made you easy to manipulate since your perception could be shaped by the hands of others”

As he spoke a bead of cold sweat came down the side of Nie Xiwang’s face as when she slightly turned to look at him she suddenly saw another celestial being next to her, but compared to the one she saw the previous night this one did not have such a cold, deadly aura and was instead tranquil and serene. The next moment she saw something that quickened her heartrate and made her slightly blush as she quickly turned away.

“Heh, what you saw last night was the manifestation of my being when I am ready to engage in conflict, the glimpse you saw just now was my readiness to share my knowledge, and lastly, you saw the manifestation of the area I am most skilled in, pleasure”

He said with a chuckle as he was very interested in what she saw last looked like. Theoretically she saw the manifestation of his projection of pure pleasure, though a very toned down one. He meticulously controlled the output since she technically ‘experienced’ the pleasure that he projected in thoughts, feeling it solely by seeing it with her eyes, and thus if he did not adjust it that could have driven her insane.

“You-…!!!”

She then turned back and looked at him with an incinerating gaze as her face was flushed red and her heart was pounding.

“I merely demonstrated to you how easily your eyes can betray you”

He raised his hands on his sides with an innocent look and a playful smile as she did not dare to look at him with the Truth Seeking Eyes any longer.

“Enough! What all of that have to do with the reason I should pardon your actions?”

She then turned and went back to stand in front of her throne, her back facing him.

“Overlook is a more precise word, since I do not seek your pardon. But nevertheless, the thing I am pointing out is that the situation in which I had no other choice but to do what I did is partially your responsibility. Your belief in your eyes made you blind. That blindness is what allowed Nie Changsheng over there as well as other imperial heirs to do as they please as long as they avoided the narrow area you saw”

“And you think if you say this I will admit my guilt and then say that you were right in doing what you did?”

“Partially, but more than that I am trying to tell you that while it did bring a disaster those eyes could give you so much more depending on how you use them”

Wu Long said as he smiled and turned to face the Empress who turned in front of the throne to look back at him.

“You… what is your goal in this meeting, exactly?”

She slowly started to understand that the matter with Nie Changsheng was only bait that allowed him to meet her. In truth he did not care about explaining himself to her, or seeking her pardon, as he did not fear the repercussions in the first place.

“Hmm, to make a good impression on you so that you will do me one favor”

“And you give that good impression by calling me incompetent and pointing out the flaws in my ability?”

“A good medicine can be bitter. The things I pointed out might be hard to hear but they will benefit you. As a Dao Cultivator you should understand that”

Nie Xiwang looked at Wu Long for some time in silence as she was digesting his words, and then closed her eyes as she slowly breathed out. It was in that brief moment that she collected herself, and a tranquil light could be glimpsed in her eyes when she reopened them.

‘Impressive, Mingyu would benefit tremendously if she were to have daily conversations with her’

Wu Long thought as he noticed how quickly she took control over her emotions and considered his words from a logical perspective. Not to mention that the Blade Empress’s Dao was Equilibrium Dao, as she held the strength of mental power with which she moved the blades behind her. There was no Spiritual Qi manipulation in the air, and techniques with Spiritual Qi did not have such an effortless and precise control of objects not in contact with the practitioner.

‘Who is this man, really…’

At the same time as Wu Long was impressed and amused by her, Nie Xiwang was trying to figure out how could someone who by her intel should have been a discarded former member of a prominent family with humble origins be so strong and knowledgeable. She could also not understand how he manipulated what she saw but she already accepted that her reliance on her special vision created a blindspot, bigger than she could have ever imagined.

“What favor do you seek from me?”

“Is the business with your nephew considered done?”

“Do not push it”

She said and Wu Long chuckled as he understood her response as confirmation that she would indeed not pursue the matter with Nie Changsheng.

“I am seeking the entity that supports this Empire from the shadows, the one which made it immune to meddling from other forces of higher stances than your own”

As Wu Long said this Nie Xiwang’s eyes finally showed utter shock as she could not believe someone not from the Imperial Family knew about their secret. Even among the Imperial Family, this secret was only told from one Emperor or Empress to another down the line of succession on the day of coronation.

“How… how do you know that?”

The swords behind her slightly trembled and then stood still again as she looked at Wu Long.

“I believe it does not make a difference, since the fact I know does not change. And future prevention is futile”

As he said this she first maintained silence and then nodded, unable to argue with the fact that once the secret was leaked it was no longer a secret, and finding the way in which it was leaked would not have any meaning at this point. Of course, she could not know that Wu Long knew of this not from a leak and that he did not share it with anyone.

“Do you understand what you are even asking for? You might be confident in dealing with me, although I do not understand it, but the entity you are seeking is an entirely different level”

“I know”

“And you still wish to meet?”

“Yes, to be honest, I could have taken a more rough approach but I changed my mind last night when I saw how you handled the situation”

“So the evidence you collected was not for me…”

“Correct”

Wu Long smiled at how fast she caught on. The reason he collected evidence in the first place was so that he could have a reasonable explanation in case his negotiations with the rulers of the Empire broke down.

Nie Xiwang looked at Wu Long with a pondering gaze as she almost admired the audacity to completely disregard the threat of the Imperial Family like they were nothing in his eyes.

“… I cannot make that decision, but I will contact you once I have the answer”

She finally said as she shook her head.

“That is good enough for me, I will be taking this fellow back but I will give you the one who I caught by his side as a courtesy and a show of goodwill. You will learn a lot of interesting things if you interrogate him, both about what your nephew was up to as well as about the powers that be in this world. The needles in his back are arranged in a special order and should be removed in another order so I would not recommend touching them. I will remove the one that restricts his speech before I leave”

Wu Long chuckled with a satisfied nod and motioned to Butler Bang who sat the man in gray clothes with a crushed face on the floor as Wu Long approached and removed one of the needles. The man looked at the Blade Empress with a terrified gaze but did not speak even though he felt that his ability to speak returned.

Nie Xiwang looked at the man with an introspective expression as she nodded to Wu Long.

“I will await the answer in the inn I am staying at”

He smiled and then turned to leave, followed by Butler Bang who held Nie Changsheng as well as Old Yen who looked at Wu Long with even more reverence now.