Louis, dressed elegantly and neatly, arrived with professional personnel.
But when he thought he would be meeting Great Han's Corpse-Shattering Taishui for the first time,
Upon arriving at the location,
Only An Wuyang and Kim Gyeong-joo were present.
Louis's smile and visible front teeth immediately disappeared.
He even circled the Diancang Sect once more
Before returning to ask An Wuyang politely: "Excuse me, may I ask... is Corpse-Shattering Taishui not here?"
Louis nodded repeatedly: "My apologies for the presumption."
An Wuyang quickly waved his hands: "We're the ones who should apologize for troubling you."
A prince and a divine son,
Exchanging polite apologies back and forth,
These two were being absurdly courteous.
As they talked, their similar attitudes created a strange sense of mutual admiration.
Strength doesn't equate to barbarism. The powerful should be more polite and gentle, because their inherent strength would make even barbarians speak to them courteously.
Pingshou Prefecture of Wei Gao.
This place wasn't particularly large or small,
Just a shallow pond that could raise turtles but never produce true dragons.
The Shen family had been living comfortably in their little domain.
But after the Shen family ancestor followed Wei Gao's main forces to participate in the maritime siege against Great Han,
The Shen family's fortunes gradually declined.
The Shen family ancestor had died.
And he died at Lu Ding's hands.
This resulted in a situation where, even after Kim Yeon-ju's territory expanded here, the Shen family could still contend with her thanks to their two ninth-level Earth Observation cultivators.
After all, on the surface, Diancang Sect only had Hong Quan-hwan at Earth Observation ninth level, and Hong Cheng-cai hadn't shown his face for decades.
Life had been manageable.
But after losing one of their two ancestors,
The Shen family began to falter.
An atmosphere of anxiety enveloped the Shen household.
Until today, ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢•𝕟𝕖𝕥
News of Kim Yeon-ju's defeat spread.
In this small country—smaller than a single province of Great Han—news traveled fast from one end to the other in no time.
The Shen family immediately rejoiced.
In the Shen family hall, their last remaining ancestor was saying:
"Hahahaha! Now Kim Yeon-ju has her own troubles to deal with, Diancang Sect will suffer alongside her, and the other bloodline candidates will ostracize her!"
"Now that she can't even protect herself, Pingshou Prefecture will—"
Here, his voice rose sharply: "Still be ruled by our Shen family!!!"
Other Shen family elders in the hall applauded.
"Good!!! Well said, Ancestor!!!"
"Pingshou Prefecture belonged to the Shens before, and it shall remain so!"
"Every resource here, every coin, must bear the Shen name! No one can take them away!"
"It's a pity Ancestor Xing'an couldn't hear this news..."
This last remark was like someone throwing a pot of boiling water during a water festival celebration.
The Shen family's sole remaining ancestor, Shen Xingfu, darkened his face,
Grabbed a cup and hurled it at the speaker: "Fuck it!! If you can't speak properly, get out!!"
"My elder brother, your Ancestor Xing'an, died a glorious death for our nation!!"
"Back when we fought against Great Han with your fathers, he told me—"
"Even if he died, he'd want to die on the battlefield!!"
His impassioned speech earned another round of applause.
Shen Xingfu basked in the applause before sitting down.
He raised his hand to signal them to stop,
Took a sip of tea, then slammed the cup down and continued: "BUT!!!"
"That bastard Lu Ding—I'll make him pay!!"
"He dared kill my elder brother. I won't let him get away with it."
At this, the other Shen family members grew agitated again,
Immediately joining in the cursing: "Ancestor Xingfu is right! That bastard Lu Ding dared kill our Ancestor Xing'an—he must have ambushed him! Those despicable Great Han people have despicable blood!"
"What do you mean 'must have'? It was definitely an ambush! How else could he have killed Ancestor Xing'an?"
"I agree, but you're not going far enough—it wasn't just an ambush, he must have ganged up on Ancestor Xing'an with many others!"
"I heard that bastard Lu Ding isn't even twenty yet, still wet behind the ears. If I ever catch him, I'll skin him alive and pull out his tendons!!!"
Someone rushed in to announce:
"Ancestor, Kim Yeon-ju is here to visit."
Shen Xingfu laughed as he looked around: "Hahahaha! She must be here to negotiate peace. With all her troubles now, she doesn't have the energy to fight us anymore."
"Everyone, straighten up! Let her see the Shen family's spirit!!"
"Yes!" the others responded.
Kim Yeon-ju and Lu Ding were welcomed into the Shen residence.
Upon entering the hall,
The Shen family had intended to intimidate Kim Yeon-ju,
But when they saw the White Eagle officer insignia on Lu Ding's uniform,
They all held their breath.
Any thought of intimidation vanished.
Originally, Lu Ding disdained wearing this thing.
But not wearing it caused too much trouble—
Otherwise you'd get situations where people didn't recognize his status, and every stray dog would come challenge him. Annoying.
So Lu Ding reluctantly wore it—might as well use it.
He could tell the Shen family had planned to intimidate Kim Yeon-ju,
But with him standing there displaying his insignia, they all wilted like frostbitten eggplants.
Admittedly, this thing was useful.
Shen Xingfu's thoughts raced:
Why was Kim Yeon-ju with a White Eagle officer?
Weren't the White Eagles supporting Kim Gyeong-joo?
The question swirled in his mind,
But now wasn't the time to dwell on it.
He hurriedly rose to greet them: "Heavens! A White Eagle officer gracing my humble home! This old man failed to welcome you properly, forgive me, forgive me! Please, take the seat of honor!"
These people's faces changed as quickly as ever.
Lu Ding originally wanted nothing to do with them,
But upon sniffing, he detected no trace of demons or monsters.
They must have some skill, no wonder they killed a Deputy Director.
For now, Lu Ding would play along to investigate the rabbit spirit's whereabouts.
After all, he couldn't just kill the Shen family members without reason, could he?
He wasn't that violent a person.
"No need, my visit was sudden. It's normal you weren't prepared."
Lu Ding sat down, searching for conversation topics.
"You're all gathered here today—what were you discussing?"
Having just been passionately talking about it,
His question reopened the floodgates:
"Officer sir, we were just talking about that bastard Lu Ding."