That same evening, Wu Long received news from the Emerald Falls City, from Chen Hui and the Princess through the specialized world-crossing long-distance communication talismans, which became the topic of discussion at the dinner table.
"The Tuyin Dynasty located a few Star Regions away from Wei Dynasty, sent a wedding proposal for Princess Wei Zhenhui", Wu Long sighed after reading the urgent message brought by Butler Bang.
"Eh? But isnât she already engaged to Chen Hui?", Yu Huan asked with widening eyes.
"That would be an impediment for someone who is not an Imperial Royalty, but the identity of the proposing party is a problem. Another Dynastyâs official proposal is a big deal", Cai Yin sighed.
"Not only that, to ensure maximum pressure, they sent out the prince, the leading candidate for their throne, who is proposing directly, he just delivered the proposal letter to the Wei Dynasty Emperor in person", Wu Long added, "They intend to push it through with force"
"So the Northern Ridge Sect and Pale River Hall were sent to escort the prince", Nie Xiwang nodded, realising the situation.
"They were part of the escort, but most of them didnât realize it. They acted as decoys since there is a battle of succession there too, and it is risky for the prince who is in the lead position to travel far. Or... there could be people who wanted this marriage proposal to fall through aside from us as well, that we donât know", Liang Yuhan added puffing out a cloud of herbal smoke, "What we do now know is that multiple such groups were sent out with only one containing the prince that just arrived at the destination, and only Elders knew that there were other groups like it traveling, the intel security was exceptionally high on this one"
"No~! Thatâs unfair! What about the Princess? She seemed to like that funny guy. Are they going to ruin it?", Gong Cui spoke while frowning, as she was quite fond of the romance between the princess and soldier that Wu Long set up. Her sentiment was supported by a lot of beauties who cheered for the couple.
"Donât worry Cuiâer. Iâm sure Wu Longâs going to do something about it. When has anyone really broken any of his plans or made him give up on something?", Gong Liwei sitting next to her spoke with a smile that instantly put Gong Cui at ease.
"Hehehe~ thatâs true", the Music Daoist spoke with a bright smile that seemed to have instantly lifted the overall mood.
"This certainly looks like... itâs a targeted response to our actions, no?", Shen Min asked next, her heterochromatic eyes narrowing with suspicion and then turning to Wu Long.
"Yes, it is too precise, and also very fast", Wu Long nodded, "I had my suspicions about some irregularities, but I recently received a tip off. It seems the Wei Dynasty battle succession is just a tiny part of a larger game. For now, though, we donât have to deal with the bigger one, we can just ignore it and focus on the Wei Dynasty since weâll likely have to deal with the other one later on anyway"
"Big Game, huh...", Ye Ling sighed as she recognized something from his words.
"But isnât Chen Hui in trouble now? He is competing with a prince of another Dynasty now, that has to be a lot of pressure", Cao Xiang asked.
"It certainly makes things hard for him, so Iâll need to travel to the Wei Dynasty for a bit", Wu Long nodded, adding, "I was planning a short trip anyway, since Yuanjieâs matter needs resolving too, and thereâs preparations necessary for that"
"Now? Isnât the main auction only 5 days away?", Bi Rui raised her eyebrows.
"I wonât stay there for long. With my current speed, I can reach there in a day and a half, and most of the time would be wasted on World Stone passages, I can make the trip back with Baihuâs help. I just need to give Chen Hui the long-awaited big achievement that can stall the princeâs advances toward the Princess", Wu Long chuckled, adding, "Although there is certainly a lot of work to do there, and better started early than later. I would need to set up a fake noble family to try and infiltrate the higher circles of the Imperial Society so we can do some prying into distant past that only nobles would know about"
"Isnât that better done with someone like me in charge?", Liang Yuhan asked, "I know you donât like being apart with us, but a short operation in the Emerald Falls City... plus I am pretty much done setting up the Thousand Eyes Palace matters on this continent, so I can start our expansion to the Wei Dynasty capital early"
"The Trading Company is all set up and can start expansion too", Sui Luxiao added next, "That kind of operation would require financial backing. Not to mention we did plan to expand there next just as the Thousand Eyes Palace"
"I can help with infiltrating the noble society. Itâs actually better to infiltrate through the female social circles of noble wives and daughters, and much easier since all I will have to do is set up some tea parties and gatherings that could impress the noble women. Though it would require some expenses, but it should be more efficient than setting up a fake noble family to infiltrate through the stricter social hierarchy of men", Cai Yin spoke, seeing a chance to help Wu Long with something where she was qualified.
She then also hurriedly added, " There is also no risk since weâre under Sister Baihuâs protection, and if thereâs more than one of us there, we can take turns to return here as well, it would be just like Sister Zhiqiuâs situation at the Crow Kingâs Nest"
"Heh, thereâll be no need to take turns", Song Lingfei chuckled.
"Eh? What do you mean? Wouldnât we need to stay there at least one at a time to maintain connection with the Emerald Falls City?", Cai Yin widened her eyes.
The reason Cai Yin mentioned them being there together and taking turns to come back, was because of a single limitation of Fen Baihuâs powers around them. That was, she could take them away from any spot at any time, but if she did, she didnât have a way to put them back there after if she didnât leave at least one there to act as an anchor.
After all, Fen Baihuâs Soul Bead was now with Wu Long, and thus she could only exist in a certain radius around him as a mass of pure consciousness. Every time Wu Long went into the Dream Realm, Fen Baihuâs consciousness became immobile, fixed to the area where he entered the Dream Realm until he exited again. That, however, changed when Fen Baihu gained anchors - Wu Longâs ladies. As Wu Long could now travel with Fen Baihu, and her main consciousness could jump to one of them, or take them away to the Dream Realm or back to him.
On the other hand, since Wu Longâs ladies acted as anchors for Fen Baihuâs power and thus allowed her to project it around them, once they were gone from that spot, her consciousness there would lose an anchor and dissipate, returning to her.
Initially, it was thought that the part of the conscious could be lost forever, which was why Wu Long, who didnât carry Fen Baihuâs Soul Bead at the time, did not leave the Feilin Continent along with everyone through her Dream Realm, but made the trip back himself - he was worried that the part of Fen Baihuâs consciousness that took him away into her Mystic Realm would be truly lost. That fear, however, was proven to be wrong when Wu Long was researching the way to take back her Soul Bead and instead spread her protection over everyone, as in the process he realized that the part of consciousness remaining without an anchor was not in danger, simply returning to her.
That, however, still left a problem that once the anchor - one of Wu Longâs ladies - was removed from the remote location, there was no way to once again instantly travel back to that location. This was the reason Lian Zhiqiu skipped a few traditional dinners together and was only present the day before and today - her location was too far in the Crow Kingâs Nest and so didnât enter within the range of Fen Baihuâs main consciousness, and if she went back, Wu Long would have to manually bring her back there the next day, which he was willing to do, but she decided it was better to just finish the work of formation decoding earlier.
Song Lingfei turned to Wu Long with a wide smile, who made a wry smile.
"Thatâs the thing. The connection is happening through me, through our bonds of the Dual Extreme Infinite Union Art. This would indeed be an issue if all that was acting were Baihuâs powers, but her power expands to you through her bloodline connection, in effect it is I who am handling the logistics, while Baihu channels her power through me. Thus, was a problem until recently, and still would be... if I only had a Celestial Fox bloodline. But I do not"
Everyoneâs gazes turned to Song Lingfei, as some people gasped with realization, and then to Lian Zhiqiu who also smiled knowingly as they realized why she was here for the past two days for dinner despite her work at Crow Kingâs Nest not being finished.
"I have recently gained an achievement of my bloodline powers", Song Lingfei smiled, "At first I was a bit shy because itâs a bit useless. I can set up a spatial node in a location, like a beacon set in space that I can always track. But I lack the complementary power to instantly travel to that location that my bloodline has, since it is a much higher level ability"
"However", Wu Long added, "Since I obtained Lingfeiâs bloodline, and after her achievement she helped me to gain access to it with Mingyu and Cuiâer, I am now able to sense the spatial nodes set up by Lingfei through our bond, thanks to prior experience with Baihuâs powers, though I canât set up one myself yet. That node, however, is just as good a beacon for me as for Lingfei, I too donât have the power to instantly travel through the Void there, but I also have Baihuâs bloodline, so I can project Celestial Fox powers through it"
He then turned to Lian Zhiqiu, "We have done the first test of setting up a node yesterday, and brought Zhiqiu here, and in the morning she went back to the Crow Kingâs Nest without any issues, so itâs a success. The node is also stable, or rather, its stability only grows with time. We didnât tell everyone until now to not make you excited for nothing, but now that itâs confirmed to work..."
"W-wait... are you saying... you can now set up permanent points of travel for Sister Baihu as long as you have been to any location just once...?", Liang Yuhan dropped her smoking pipe, causing Wu Mengqi sitting next to her to slightly jump from shock with widening eyes and make a face that made a few beauties around laugh.
"Yes,although we have to pick locations well to keep it a secret and be able to guard it, but essentially yes. And you guessed it right... that includes other Boundless Worlds, so we are about to become the first, at least known, force to not be bound by Walls of Ascension between Boundless Worlds, allowing us to freely travel between them. As soon as we become a valid power in one Boundless World, we are guaranteed to be able to conquer any Boundless Worlds below it, simply by virtue of being able to bring the power of the higher worlds directly into lower ones"
"Itâs completely broken... the whole intricate system of power in the entire Seven Boundless Worlds would be completely and utterly shattered, rendered useless by this madness", Liang Yuhan put her delicate hand on her forehead with bewilderment, trying to process this.
Wu Longâs and her words made the beauties around realise just how big of a deal this development was as well, although some realized ahead of others.
The whole table was silent for some time, and then broke into cheers and excited conversations.
Meanwhile Hong Ye whispered to Gong Cui, seeing as she was proudly smiling to the fact she managed to keep this a secret, although it was partially because she wasnât seen around much as was Luo Mingyu, "Hehe, is that why lately youâve been less active on the win-win-win strategy and acting all conspiratory with Sister Mingyu?"
"Eh? N-no...o~or y-yes thatâs it... thatâs why...", Gong Cui suddenly made eyes of a dear caught in a sudden bright light.
"Hmm?", Hong Ye raised her eyebrows, but wasnât the type to ask further, and this conversation was lost amid the overall excitement.
"Wait, wouldnât that mean we donât really need that fox in that Secret Realm anymore?", Wu Mengqiâs eyes lit up with another realization amid all that.
"Hehe, the difference is in movement", Wu Long shook his head with a light, slightly conspiratorial chuckle, "We are planning to set up the main headquarters of the Soaring Feather Trading Company on a flying treasure ship, remember? The nodes that Lingfei can set up can only be constant, so it wouldnât be suitable for a constantly moving ship. Besides, if we are lucky and that fox is a Mortal Grade Arcane Beast and not Profound Grade, we can send it down into the Boundless Mortal World, to establish a link with the Battle Godâs Cradle"
This caused another round of excited discussion.
And at the same time, this also confirmed that the expansion to the Wei Dynasty capital was now much less difficult as Wu Longâs ladies could directly supervise it which made it far more efficient,
and do so without any separation from him, always a step into the mist away from his reach, and all back home for dinner.
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lol, yeah, I know it is a bit on the nose but I had to calm down people who donât like separation arcs, there will be none lol ^^