203. Royal politics

Chen Ren looked at the approaching group, doing his best to school his expression. Everyone around him had heard Princess Yanyue’s words, and the air instantly tightened. The royal guards remained calm, trained for moments like this, but Anji and Zi Wen only managed a stiff posture.

Tang Boming and his party, however, looked like they were seconds away from walking straight back down the stairs.

Chen Ren couldn’t calm them even if he wanted to. The group was already too close.

And then he saw him clearly.

The Seventh Prince, Yuelan.

The young man walked with leisurely confidence, his silk robes carrying gold-and-crimson dragon embroidery that shimmered faintly with spiritual light. He was shorter than Chen Ren—no more than five and a half feet—and that alone made Chen Ren blink.

Strange… Cultivation usually strengthens and evolves the body. Why is he so small?

He didn’t get long to think about it. Prince Yuelan stepped forward, a smirk settling on his lips as his gaze locked on Princess Yanyue.

“Dear sister,” he said, voice smooth and dripping with amusement, “I thought you would be coming here.”

“I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

“Things always happen when you least expect them,” Yuelan replied with a widening smile.

Her brows lowered. “What are you doing here?”

“Same as you,” he said lightly. “Going to enter the pagoda.”

“For your master?” she asked sharply.

Prince Yuelan’s expression tightened. “I do not have to do everything for our senior brother. I can come for myself.”

“For what?” The princess’s voice turned razor-thin. “To die?”

Chen Ren blinked…

What kind of family conversation is this?

And yet, nobody else around them seemed surprised. Only he and his party was.

Prince Yuelan’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not that easy to kill, sister. You’ll see in the pagoda.”

Then his gaze drifted past her—to the guards—before finally settling on Chen Ren, who stood calmly beside Princess Yanyue. “Who’s this?”

Chen Ren opened his mouth to answer, but Princess Yanyue spoke first.

“He’s Sect Leader Chen Ren of the Divine Coin Sect. A friend of mine.”

Prince Yuelan’s brows lifted in clear confusion. He stared straight at Chen Ren for a long moment before turning slightly to his group. “Do any of you recognise him?”

A collective answer came immediately. “No, we don’t, Prince Yuelan.”

He turned back. “Then who are you?”

Chen Ren kept his tone steady. “I believe the princess already introduced me. I am Chen Ren. It’s an honour to meet you, Prince Yuelan.”

He gave a respectful bow since there was no point making an enemy here. Disrespecting anyone from the royal family meant disrespect to all of them, and Qing He had told him to follow etiquette with the royal family no matter what.

Yuelan gave him a slow once-over. “And you lead this Divine Coin Sect? You look young.”

“I’m young,” Chen Ren replied, “but I do lead a sect.”

“Is it even an Established sect?”

“No,” Chen Ren said calmly. “It’s an Emerging sect.”

As expected, the prince’s expression shifted immediately, amusement replacing whatever interest he had. A few people in his entourage chuckled under their breath.

Prince Yuelan looked back at Princess Yanyue, shaking his head. “I can never fathom why you choose to do certain things, sister. Coming here with a wannabe sect leader… that’s embarrassing for the whole royal family.”

Princess Yanyue scoffed at his words, and looked unaffected. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I brought only those I believe will do well in the pagoda.”

Her voice was sharp enough to cut the air, and the group behind the prince fell silent, looking at Chen Ren and the ones behind him again.

Prince Yuelan’s smirk sharpened. “We’ll see about that. I truly hope you come back from the pagoda, sister. I would hate for Father to interrogate me about your… disappearance.”

His gaze swept over their group once more—lingering, just briefly, on Chen Ren—before he asked one final question. “I suppose you won’t be open to having lunch with me?”

“Yes, I won't be,” she said flatly. “Fortunately, you know me that well.”

Prince Yuelan chuckled. “Oh, I believe I know you better than anyone in the family.”

He paused again, eyes flicking to Chen Ren with a faint, unreadable curve of his lips.

“I’ll be on my way then.”

And just like that, he and his entourage turned and left—robes swaying, guards following, whispers spreading behind them like a ripple across the walltop.

Chen Ren was left with a dozen questions in his mind, but one look at Princess Yanyue’s expression—lips pressed thin, eyes dark with irritation—told him this was not the time to ask any of them.

She turned to him instead. “Let’s get into our rooms first. If we keep standing here, more and more people will come to greet me. Yuelan never knows how to keep his mouth shut, and in the next two hours every important person will try to get an audience with me.”

Zi Wen made a face. “That sounds exhausting.”

“It is,” Princess Yanyue replied without missing a beat. “But

you

won’t have those problems. In fact, it’s good that Yuelan is underestimating all of you.”

Chen Ren nodded. Being underestimated was always a gift. People with lowered guards revealed far more weaknesses.

None of them lingered any further. Princess Yanyue led the way, her guards parting the crowd effortlessly. To Chen Ren’s surprise, much of the massive wall was hollow from the inside—built like a fortress with long corridors carved through its width and entire rows of rooms embedded into the stone.

According to Princess Yanyue, the inner wall was practically a miniature fortress city. There were cultivation chambers, training halls, rest houses, and even different restaurants run by the empire. All of it existed to accommodate the strong and wealthy cultivators who explored the Corpse Lands. Some Established sects even made annual expeditions here.

Fortunately, none of them needed to pay for rooms or food—the royal family always kept a block of rooms reserved.

Princess Yanyue also told them that they could use the cultivation chambers, which were special rooms built with dense qi arrays that greatly boosted training efficiency. Zi Wen’s eyes lit up the moment he heard that. As soon as they placed their belongings in their rooms, he disappeared to find those chambers alongside Little Yuze. Whiskey followed them, probably wanting to explore or cause trouble.

Once the princess and her guards disappeared into their own area, Chen Ren immediately turned to Anji.

“Go bring back Wang Jun from the carriage,” he said.

Anji looked reluctant to climb the endless stairs again, but Chen Ren only smiled.

“It’ll be good training. You’ll need stamina in the pagoda.”

She groaned, but left.

It took almost an hour before she returned, dragging the familiar wooden box behind her. The moment she shut the door and placed the box on the bed, Chen Ren opened it, and a sharp voice exploded out.

“I was almost

certain you planned to leave me in that carriage! Do you know how many people were circling the area? I thought at least one person came to abduct me!”

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Chen Ren rubbed his forehead. “Relax. They were probably checking if the princess really arrived.” He paused, eyeing the head. “And it seems like your senses have gotten good enough to detect cultivators.”

Wang Jun snorted loudly. “A lot of them weren’t even hiding their qi. I may look like this”—he jerked his own tongue at his face—”but I can definitely sense qi.”

Yalan stretched lazily on the bed and said, “I’m sure you can do much more.”

Wang Jun scoffed. “Maybe. But I don’t have to tell you that.”

Chen Ren exhaled slowly. “But you do need to tell me how exactly you expect me to smuggle you into the pagoda.”

Wang Jun clicked his tongue. “Use better words. You’re not ‘smuggling’ me anywhere. You’ll simply be carrying me inside. With dignity.” He then paused, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “There are a few ways I can think of. But I’m not going inside a box again. That ruins all the fun. So—” he lifted his chin higher—“I have the design for an invisible talisman called Phantom Presence Sigil. You can use it on me. Since no one above the foundation establishment realm is allowed to enter the pagoda, it should work fine. Even if some old bastards sneak in by suppressing their cultivation, they’ll still have trouble seeing through my invisibility.”

Anji blinked. “You always had such a talisman, master?”

“Of course not. It took the whole carriage ride for me to remember its design. It isn’t something easy to make, but making several won’t be hard for you. Half a day is enough for dozens. Each one lasts three days. But…” His eyes narrowed. “Avoid hitting me with anything hard. That breaks the effect.”

Chen Ren scratched his head. This was definitely more work, and he already had many things he wanted to handle before entering the pagoda. But he couldn’t avoid it, not with Wang Jun being this stubborn.

“Fine,” Chen Ren said, nodding. “I’ll make it.”

Then he turned toward Anji.

“While I’m drawing the talismans, I need you to go find Li Xuan. He should be here already, and he might be able to give us a lot of information. I don’t think the princess will be free until the pagoda opens. Also, see if Tau Liu and the others from the Jadefire Hall sect have arrived yet.”

Anji nodded firmly. “Okay. I’ll go find him and get you the information.”

She slipped out of the room immediately, footsteps fading down the hallway. When the door clicked shut, Chen Ren picked up Wang Jun and set the head carefully on the desk by the window. Then he pulled out talisman papers, a quill, and ink from his spatial ring. He had stuffed hundreds of papers inside of it.

“Let’s get to work,” he muttered. “I really hope this doesn’t take too long to get right.”

It

did

take long. Far longer than he expected.

Even after thinking about the Phantom Presence Sigil the entire carriage ride, Wang Jun had apparently forgotten—or overlooked—several intricate lines that were crucial for the talisman to work on living beings. The design itself seemed simple: a circle of interlocking lines, and a few arc-shaped strokes around the edges. But those thin, unassuming arcs were what determined whether the talisman could turn a person invisible… or only work on inanimate objects.

And since Wang Jun was neither a full person nor an object, but a head full of complaints, the margin for error was painfully small.

During one of their trials, a misdrawn line caused the talisman to flash and nearly singe off half of Wang Jun’s hair.

The head screeched, “YOU WANT TO TURN ME BALD? MY HAIR IS SACARED AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I CAN GROW MORE!!”

He complained for a full hour without pausing for breath.

Yalan lay on the bed the whole time, laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.

But after six hours of constant trial and error, Chen Ren finally recreated the correct design. This time, the qi flowing through the lines pulsed evenly. The talisman didn’t fizzle, didn’t spark, and didn’t try to burn anything.

It was perfect.

Now all he had to do was make dozens more of the same design.

Around this time, there was a knock on the door with Anji’s and Li Xuan’s voice coming out of the other side.

Chen Ren used this opportunity to test the finalized talisman. He slapped the paper onto Wang Jun’s forehead

A crackle of qi suddenly enveloped the head and the next second, Wang Jun vanished cleanly, leaving only his voice floating in the air: “Oh ho! It works! I knew I still had it in me!”

Chen Ren finally let himself lean back with a relieved expression. Then, he moved to open the door and decided to take a small break.

Chen Ren couldn’t deny it—he was genuinely happy to see Li Xuan here. Their first encounter hadn’t exactly been smooth, but now they were past that. Maybe not best friends yet, but definitely more than acquaintances. And the man proved it by talking about everything he knew on the pagoda.

Li Xuan didn’t know every secret his sect kept, but he still shared what he could. The most important piece, “The pagoda will open at dawn three days from now.”

With so many people trying to enter it—sect disciples, rogue cultivators, nobles, mercenaries—just the journey through the Corpse Lands would be dangerous. Anji had already told him about the princess and according to him, Princess Yanyue would surely be targeted. Maybe not a full blown attack, because she wasn’t seen as a strong contender compared to her brother or the Guardian sects, but still enough that it might hamper their journey to the pagoda.

Then an hour into the conversation, Li Xuan asked the question Chen Ren had been waiting for. “How did you even get in touch with her?”

Chen Ren could only answer with the closest thing to the truth.

He shrugged and said, “She took interest after your father sent a report about the Cloud Mist Tournament.”

Li Xuan accepted it easily enough. It was partially true anyway.

From there, he talked more about his own role in the expedition—how Vice Sect Leader Yan Xiu had appointed him as a team leader, and how other elders had their own chosen disciples leading separate groups. Big sects always had factions. Chen Ren wasn’t surprised. And honestly? He didn’t care.

To every faction in a Guardian sect, he would always be an outsider, and potential threat. The only thing that mattered was that Li Xuan stood on his side right now.

After an hour of discussing the pagoda, politics, and what rival disciples might attempt on the first few floors, Li Xuan excused himself, saying he needed to resume training.

Once he left, Chen Ren returned to work, spending the entire night finishing the talismans.

It was exhausting, but his foundation establishment realm qi reserves made the task easier than before. His control was sharper, his endurance higher. By dawn, he had completed a dozen Phantom Presence Talismans—enough to last nearly a month.

Finally, drained, he set down the quill and stepped outside the room with Yalan to get some air. Wang Jun stayed behind, muttering about reading or doing “important intellectual work,” which Chen Ren knew probably meant complaining in peace.

He stretched his back and told Yalan, “See if you can gather information about the Guardian sects. Anything useful, anything political.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And you? Where are you going?”

“I’m going to do something important,” he said, moving towards a set of stairs. “If it works, you’ll know.”

Yalan didn’t push further, and immediately started walking in another direction.

Finding himself alone, Chen Ren descended the tall stone steps, past groups of arriving sect disciples, nobles surrounded by guards and a few rogue cultivators arguing over room prices.

He had only one goal in mind. To find mercenaries.

Because if he was going to run a business inside the pagoda… He needed manpower. Reliable manpower. And in a place like this, his best chance were mercenaries. Honest ones, if he could find them.

***

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