?Fen Gigyu, twisting his saber to finish off the ‘failed’ subordinate, came to the open edge, looking toward the distant spot where all three delegations were now leaving in different directions.

“Tch, should I just…”

He spat to the side, and mused out loud but stopped as he felt a presence closing in, turning with a look of slight annoyance which quickly changed to shock and horror.

“Should you just… what?”

A cold voice resounded in his ears as he fell to his knees and groveled, trembling before Gu Zhen who was in the company of a Mortal Transcendence Realm member of the Golden Ox Mercenary Corps Wu Long once saw not far from this capital, and another one clad in black robes with no identifying marks.

‘This imbecile! I told him to not make a direct move!!!

Damn! I told Lord Ma Hui that he is too arrogant, and has issues with subordination and following orders!

But he pushed him to this position just because he is his latest favorite disciple!

Now Lord Ma is not here, and I’m the one to blame… how am I going to explain this mess to Lord Gu?!?!’

The three floated down from the skies, as the top executive of the mercenaries was seething with rage looking at his subordinate, pushed on to him by the leader of the Mercenary Corps.

“Overseer Fen! Explain yourself!

I gave you strict orders not to interfere!

Haha, Exalted Lord Gu, please believe this faithful slave, I have never intended to go against your orders, this incompetent subordinate of mine has been a problem-…”

“If he is incompetent, shouldn’t he be dealt with just like he dealt with his incompetent subordinate?”

Gu Zhen cut into the disgustingly sweet-toned, appeasing speech of the top executive with a look to the side, where a darkened blood puddle was spreading from a corpse.

“… m-most wise! Of course… that is so~… b-but Lord Ma has… uhm…”

The man started sweating as he struggled to keep up his smile while Gu Zhen sighed, turning away as if disgusted by the sight. The Monarch standing to the other side of the Alchemy Tower Master also threw a look full of contempt.

‘I thought I recognized him from somewhere, so he’s Ma Hui’s disciple… hmm, it would be annoying if he later becomes disgruntled, plus there’s the case of the recent betrayal of Do Bishui… if even Ma Hui starts having second thoughts everything could quite quickly unravel and collapse…’

He narrowed his eyes, shaking his head in the end.

“Haa~… forget it…

Just… withdraw your men”

“Certainly…

All members of the Golden Ox Mercenary Corps in the area, receive orders, immediately stop any pursuit and withdraw! This is a direct order!”

As Gu Zhen threw out his words with slight annoyance and turned to go to the other side of the pagoda tower, the top executive took out a mass communication talisman with limited range, rapidly switching to the tone of authority and self-importance.

“See? You didn’t have to come to make sure I play by the rules.

I admit, my subordinates made me look bad today, my apologies.

Why don’t you come out so we can talk?”

Gu Zhen then said to someone, as the still groveling Fen Gigyu meekly raised his face, but only a little, still not breaking the pose, his eyes widening with shock at the mention of someone else being here.

“I thought I would have to interfere, but then again that may have been the start of the war, wouldn’t it?”

A handsome man landed on the ruined top floor of the tower, seemingly arriving from somewhere below in the city, reflecting in the eyes of the man kowtowing on the ground.

“The Troublemaker”

An apprehensive whisper of the top executive reached Fen Gigyu’s ears as his eyes widened, finally understanding the scope of the problem as he never heard from his Master that the Troublemaker was someone even Gu Zhen paid attention to.

“As I said, subordinates have their way of disappointing me. But, cutting this man and those searching for your people wouldn’t have sparked the war.

It would have been fair game after all, since they were about to start a full-on confrontation.

You’re not going to provoke me into going to war as easily, hahaha

Though as it turns out this one’s a bit of a pampered kid, so his head might’ve cost you at least some kind of a backlash from a certain someone”

Gu Zhen chuckled, looking at Wu Long with eyes that were full of excitement and anticipation. The kowtowing Fen Gigyu slightly clenched his fists at the mention of a ‘pampered kid’, but knew that he was already treading on thin ice around a very dangerous man.

“You don’t look like someone whose plan just failed”

Wu Long’s face was tranquil, but Gu Zhen could see a hidden worry in the eyes that observed himself, his smile widening as he put his hands together to make a few claps.

“Oh, no! How can I be angry when I witness such work.

I must admit, while I expected Liang Yuhan to assist you, it still is not pleasant to have her opposing me. I still have hope that she would see the error of her ways…

But, that aside, I am in awe of how cleanly you foiled the assassination”

“Of the ambassador?”

Wu Long chuckled, and Gu Zhen’s eyes glinted with genuine appreciation.

“Hahaha! As I thought, it is so satisfying to play against someone who can read moves ahead. You not only anticipatedmy move, but even the faint of the target…”

He laughed with delight.

It was true that this assassination’s target was not Cai Yin but the Imperial Ambassador who oversaw the talks and ensured that the Princess was a legitimate opposition to the Throne.

Striking Cai Yin would have effectively completely shut down Wu Long’s interference in the Tingren Kingdom, and was overall not that beneficial to Gu Zhen at this point in time.

“But… what if I told you that the assassination target feint was not the biggest twist?”

He then added, and while Wu Long’s expression did not change, Gu Zhen saw the ‘well-hidden’ suspicion and worry.

“You see, I was thinking, what you would expect from me?

And then any plans I came up with, the Tuamei Kingdom, the Fantian Kingdom, Tingren Kingdom, even the Azure Eagle Empire, all of them were fair goals.

But I just couldn’t make up my mind, so I picked Tingren as I thought you would expect me in Tuamei.

And low and behold…”

Gu Zhen started explaining, walking from side to side, his hands expressively pointing forward with open palms facing one another, and shaking them up and down a couple of times as he articulated a direction of attack.

He was speaking truthfully, as he truly expected Wu Long to defend Tuamei since there were important trade talks happening there, and an attack on officials handling those talks would have been a significant blow to any further cooperation between the Soaring Feather Trading Company and that Kingdom.

And towards the end of his words, he turned to Wu Long, spreading the hands to the sides.

” you expected me here. Truly marvelous”

He concluded with a smile, once more telling the truth. However, his smile widened the next moment, eyes glinting with the excitement that reached its peak.

“But… just in case… ju~st in case…I failed…

In the very tiny possibility of that happening, I decided to-…”

“L-Lord Gu!”

As Gu Zhen was reaching the culmination of his speech, narrowing down his eyes, the Monarch who came with him, approached him with a troubled look and though he hesitated, called out.

The gaze he received in return caused him to shudder, feeling the temperature around momentarily rising, but he still gulped and leaned in to whisper into Gu Zhen’s ear.

The latter’s eyes widened after hearing what the latter had to say, and then any flammable materials lying around started smoldering as the temperature rose fast.

Gu Zhen turned his eyes to Wu Long, his expression slightly somber but not changing much further. He then sighed and smiled.

“…nevermind. It seems I have something to do, so we will finish here

As I said earlier, well played”

He spoke with a chuckle, and rose into the air, after slowly drifting off, almost instantly gaining distance and then completely disappearing as the Monarch closely followed behind him.

Wu Long looked in the direction the man disappeared to, and then turning to the side watched Fen Gigyu who was staring daggers at him standing up while the top executive of the Golden Ox Mercenary Corps was giving him a lecture.

‘Turns out I didn’t need to be able to fight after all’

He sighed looking at the spatial ring on his finger, shaking his head, and left as well, leaving the two on the ruined top floor of the restaurant while leaving a ‘small’ troubles fee to the establishment.

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