Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 206

Chapter 206: White Tiger Empire

“Tell me about the White Tiger Empire,” Fang Chen said.

Ji Congyun gathered his thoughts before replying, “The White Tiger Empire is located 4000 kilometers east of Chillwater. Since the founding of our Chillwater a thousand years ago, we have been under the jurisdiction of the White Tiger Empire. Heavenroc, Vastsea, and Redsky are the White Tiger Empire’s vassal states too, though its vassal states aren’t just limited to us.

“The White Tiger Empire has a prevalent martial arts culture. Earth Profound realm martial artists are aplenty in their country, and there’s a sizable number of Heaven Profound realm martial artists too. Their strongest sect is the Ten Directions Sect, and it’s rumored that they have three pinnacle Heaven Profound realm martial artists.”

At this point, Ji Congyun looked at Fang Chen and saw that the latter was still calm, so he carried on, “There’s also a rumor that grade-7 states are much closer to their superior states than in our case. I heard that it’s commonplace for grade-6 states to recruit Heaven Profound realm martial artists from grade-7 states. These martial artists serve as the immortals’ followers. This means that the Ten Directions Sect is backed by immortal sects.

“That’s why…” Ji Congyun paused for a brief moment before saying, “The White Tiger Empire won’t intervene no matter how Chillwater’s politics shift; they don’t care whether it’s our Ji Clan in charge or the current imperial family. However, if an outsider threatens their interests, they will make a move, and they could potentially rally the help of the immortals they have ties with too.”

Fang Chen nodded contemplatively.

The White Tiger Empire was indeed as powerful as he had heard. Even Great Xia was once indirectly their vassal state, back when it was still paying tribute to Chillwater.

“Let’s take a step back for now,” Fang Chen said. “You’ll claim the throne but maintain the status quo in Chillwater for now. Compile your martial arts legacies and send it over to Great Xia. In exchange, I promise that some of your Ji Clansmen will become cultivators in the near future.”

Ji Congyun’s eyes lit up. He was planning to claim the throne in the first place. The death of the imperial family’s Old Ancestor had created the perfect opening for him to do so, after all!

Furthermore, he thought that trading martial arts manuals for an opportunity for his clansmen to become cultivators was a highly beneficial deal to the Ji Clan.

“I suggest you keep this matter under wraps for now. There might be people who don’t want to see your Ji Clan attaining such power,” Fang Chen said.

Ji Congyun narrowed his eyes. “I understand. I’ll do as you say. As soon as I claim the throne, I’ll issue an order to organize all of Chillwater’s martial arts legacies. I’ll make sure to keep this deal under wraps.”

Fang Chen nodded with a smile as he turned his attention back to brewing his tea.

Wait. Ji Congyun suddenly realized something after seeing Fang Chen’s smile, and that made him frown in astonishment. A second later, he asked in resignation, “Young master Fang, you never intended to have Great Xia annex Chillwater at all, right?”

“What makes you say that?” Fang Chen smiled.

Ji Congyun stared at Fang Chen with deep eyes. This fellow might be young, but it feels like he’ll pull one over me as soon as I drop my guard.

“Great Xia has nothing to earn from annexing Chillwater. Our countries are far from each other, making it impractical to govern them together. Besides, it’ll only be a title difference once I take the throne; the trouble that arises from annexing Chillwater isn’t worth a superficial title, and you aren’t someone who will bother with such a facade.

“From the start, your goal has been Chillwater’s martial arts legacies. That’s the thing that truly benefits Great Xia.” At this point, Ji Congyun couldn’t help but smirk. “Young master Fang might be an immortal, but there are things that an immortal can’t do. The only way you can compile Chillwater’s martial arts manuals is for our Ji Clan to take the throne.”

Fang Chen chuckled. He pushed another cup of tea to Ji Congyun and said, “Have more tea.”

Ji Congyun picked up the teacup and drank it.

It was as if the two of them had come to an implicit agreement to stop the conversation here.

Ten days passed in a flash.

Hundreds of Ji Clan’s martial artists finally returned from all directions. Practically all of them had incurred injuries of some kind, and there were some missing individuals too.

Ji Congyun took a sweeping gaze to estimate the losses they had incurred from this operation. He breathed a sigh of relief. The casualties are less than a tenth. This is still acceptable.

The casualty rates of their previous expeditions here to find ki stones for Immortal Zuo hovered between 60% to 70%. Sometimes, it might even go as high as 90%.

“Lay out everything you have collected,” Fang Chen instructed.

Ji Junhua and the others glanced at Ji Congyun. The latter berated them, “Didn’t you hear young master Fang’s words? Lay out everything you have collected! Anyone who dares to keep anything for themselves will be harshly punished!”

“Yes, Old Master!”

The crowd hurriedly laid out everything they had risked their lives to collect before Fang Chen. Not everyone had managed to collect something, and some of the items required them to work together to obtain.

Most of the items were flowers and herbs, and unlike the Scarlet Fruits and the Blood Ginseng, they didn’t harness much spirit ki. Even so, they were still decent nourishment for martial artists.

Other than that, they also acquired around 10 low-grade ki stones. These were probably left behind by the cultivators who had previously entered this place and died here.

Fang Chen was mildly disappointed. Looks like Enlightenment Heaven Supreme didn’t leave much here. Just as he was about to speak up, he saw in his peripheral vision a pile of ore that emitted a faint cold gleam.

Suddenly, the little sword flew out and devoured the pile of ore. It let out a satisfied burp before returning into Fang Chen’s body.

Ji Congyun and the others stared at the sight in bewilderment, though they dared not say anything.

That should be a pile of spirit ore for forging artifacts. It looks like my little sword doesn’t necessarily have to eat artifacts; it can feed on spirit materials too, Fang Chen deduced.

He first split the items into ten portions before taking nine portions. “You can keep the rest. Those ki stones are valuable, so keep them well.”

Ji Congyun thought Fang Chen would take all of the ki stones, since Immortal Zuo had displayed a huge fixation toward them back then. He didn’t expect Fang Chen to keep his promise and properly split a tenth to them.

“Thank you, young master Fang.” Ji Congyun carefully stowed away the items, especially the ki stone. Our descendants will require the ki stones if they ever step on the path of immortality.

…

“Young master, are we staying in Chillwater?” Xu Ge secretly asked on their way back.

“I made a deal with the Ji Clan. We’ll return to Great Xia after he compiles Chillwater’s martial arts legacies for us,” Fang Chen replied.

Xu Ge and Zhao Yan’s eyes lit up. Great Xia will rise to a greater height if it obtains Chillwater’s martial arts legacies. That will lay the foundation for it to become a true grade-8 state!

Shortly after Fang Chen’s group entered Chillwater’s capital, they encountered an old eunuch.

“Eunuch Lin, are you waiting here for me?” Ji Congyun asked.

Eunuch Lin eyed Fang Chen and the others before replying with a smile, “His Majesty will be holding a banquet tonight. We’ll be having esteemed guests over, so please be present.”

Esteemed guests? For such words to be mentioned before me and Fang Chen, it could only mean…

“Someone from the White Tiger Empire is here?” Ji Congyun asked.

Eunuch Lin simply smiled. “Please don’t be late.”

With that, he took his leave.