Chapter 198 (Part 2): I Have a Way!

The Saintess was still the Saintess, but there was now someone beside her who could stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

Tsk! A petal lightly hit Qian Xu on the head, causing her to instinctively cover her head and let out a whimper.

Looking up, she saw that the two girls who had been fighting passionately just moments ago were now staring at her, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

“You… please continue your chat. I’m going back!”

At this moment, she had none of that earlier desire to cling to Lingqian; instead, she fled back in a fluster.

It was as if a thief had been caught red-handed by the owner.

Watching Qian Xu scurry away in panic, Hua Jian tilted her head in confusion.

“What is that little one up to now?”

“She’s embarrassed.”

Linglong sheathed her Ling Sword and turned to Hua Jian.

“Are you planning to just stay here and not move?”

“I was busy with many things the past two days and couldn’t find time to see you. Now that I have time, and you happen to be at the Qian residence, I naturally came down to meet you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking it easy for a while. Besides, your plan doesn’t include me.”

Hua Jian looked at Linglong with a hint of reproach.

“What can I do? Wanhuagu didn’t tell me the specific plan. Even if I wanted to meddle, I couldn’t.”

“And if I forced my way in, I’d only add more variables to this plan. If I caused the whole thing to collapse, that would be a disaster.”

“So my best option right now is to lie low and do nothing. That way, I can’t go wrong.”

“True. The lower your profile now, the better. If you keep showing off your skills…”

Linglong rubbed her chin, wearing an expression that was far from pleasant.

“Wanhuagu would definitely seize such a publicity opportunity. Before, they had no proof, but now that you’ve appeared, they can turn words into facts.”

“So I plan to stay indoors for the near future, freeloading at the Qian residence. Let Xinrui and Manhui handle things outside.”

“Then what have they found so far?”

“Unfortunately, nothing. Wanhuagu’s forces in the city have mobilized, but that person vanished into thin air that night.”

Hua Jian shook her head.

“Wanhuagu doesn’t have many spies in Freezing Winter City, and many of them are out in the open.”

“They work fine for ordinary tasks, but now they’re not very useful.”

“After all, the Qian family is also acting. Compared to the true masters of Freezing Winter City, Wanhuagu’s efforts are too trivial.”

“Instead of asking me, you might as well go directly to Qianqianxue. She definitely knows more than an outsider like me.”

“My Shijies said she claims not to know either.”

Linglong shook her head.

“Freezing Winter City is too vast. Finding a Demonic Spirit King who is deliberately hiding here is no easy task.”

“Besides, no one can guarantee that Youye hasn’t already slipped out of the city to lay low.”

“The City Protection Array is good, but the Magic Path isn’t without methods. It’s not that difficult to sneak in or out with minimal disturbance while the array isn’t running at full power.”

“And Freezing Winter City can’t just activate the array at full capacity to catch one Youye—that would look too over the top.”

“They’re still counting on Youye to feed wrong information back to Tianmomen.”

“Speaking of which, if you want Tianmomen to walk right into the trap, why not just open the Secret Realm and let everyone who wants the treasure go in and fight over it?”

Though an outsider, Hua Jian still knew something about this matter.

In short, the three families planned to use the Secret Realm as a trap to severely harm Tianmomen.

Since that was the case, why not just open the Secret Realm Gate and let Tianmomen come in on their own?

“Then how do we distinguish ordinary treasure hunters from Tianmomen cultivators? Once a battle breaks out, what do we do with the ordinary hunters? Besides… it wouldn’t make sense.”

Linglong shook her head.

“This Secret Realm was nominally discovered by the Qian family. For a realm found by a major faction, the faction always explores it first, cleans out all the high-value resources, and then opens it to other cultivators for a ticket fee.”

“Take the Secret Realms of Linglong Pavilion, for example—they all come from this background.”

“The Saint Sect eats all the high-value goods first, then hands the leftover low-value parts to Linglong Pavilion for disposal.”

“That’s the standard procedure for Secret Realm development. If they didn’t do it this way, Tianmomen would become suspicious.”

“Besides, if we open the gates wide, Tianmomen cultivators could mingle with ordinary ones inside. We can’t just close the gate and indiscriminately kill everyone inside, can we?”

“That’s what the Magic Path would do. The Right Path can’t act that way.”

“So many rules. I guess you’ll just have to wait for Tianmomen to take the bait willingly.”

Hua Jian propped her cheek on her hand, indicating she was out of ideas.

“If it were up to me, I’d plaster recruitment notices all over the Northern Territory, hype up this Secret Realm like it can make you rich overnight, and toss in some materials that Tianmomen would find very interesting…”

“Then you still wouldn’t know who inside the realm is good and who is bad.”

Linglong countered.

“That’s where you’re naive. We don’t need to distinguish them ourselves. Instead, we can learn from Linglong Pavilion: set harsh development requirements for the Secret Realm, force the cultivators inside to fight each other, and declare a winner within a fixed time!”

Hua Jian’s smile grew more sinister.

“Gu rearing, free-for-all—I’m very familiar with that!”

“We can also set a fixed self-destruction time for the realm, so the cultivators can’t slowly grind their exploration progress. That way, Tianmomen’s people will have to go all out to find what they want and bring it out.”

“Meanwhile, we hide the item in a place ordinary people can’t find. Once that item is found, it means… Tianmomen’s people have appeared!”

“A wild red name visible only to cheaters. Let’s see just how many cheaters are in this Secret Realm!”

“Hmm… that actually makes some sense. Hua Jian, come with me up there and explain your idea to the Shijies. What do you think?”

By “up there,” Linglong naturally meant the Tower Ship anchored in the sky.

“Is that… appropriate? My identity is still pretty awkward…”

Hua Jian wasn’t worried about Linglong harming her, but boarding the ship as the Wanhua Saintess would indeed be very awkward.

But Linglong said it wasn’t a problem. It would be awkward for the Wanhua Saintess to board, but if Hua Jian went up without wearing that outfit, then it wouldn’t be awkward.

The Venerable Master of Spirit Pond and the others might not be aware of the bond between Hua Jian and Spirit Pond, but the Ling Emperor who came out with Linglong on this mission definitely knew all about it.

As long as Hua Jian didn’t swagger onto the ship in that Saintess Uniform, they would definitely turn a blind eye to her presence.

Besides, they were cooperating now, so the security wasn’t that tight.

“Alright, I’m also curious what your ship looks like inside.”

Hearing this, Hua Jian had no reason to refuse.

Lazy as she was, unwilling to move as she was, since Linglong had spoken, she couldn’t let her down.

The way to get to the Spirit Pond Tower Ship was simple: just fly up.

Yes, straight up. No fancy boarding method—just the two of them using their own power to fly up and land on the deck of the Tower Ship.

There was actually an invisible barrier. The Tower Ship anchored in the sky had a concealment formation activated.

Without close observation, you couldn’t even see the massive ship.

And its altitude was extremely high. Even without the concealment formation, from the ground it would look like a tiny black dot.

Ordinary masters couldn’t reach it at all. Only a Ling King could fly to the ship’s altitude, and even then, finding its position was hard.

As for a Ling Emperor, that went without saying.

“Your movement technique has improved a lot.”

As they flew toward the Tower Ship, Linglong noticed that Hua Jian’s technique seemed quite different from what she had seen before.

Previously, Hua Jian would suddenly transform into a mass of petals and fly up, but now she had a new way of using it.

A cluster of petals would bloom under her feet, and she would lightly touch the tip of her toe against them, gently lifting off.

Compared to the original Flying Petal, this method was much more graceful.

The only thing was it seemed a little slower than normal Flying Petal.

“Oh, this is a technique specifically designed for my Saintess Robe. After all, walking barefoot is uncomfortable, so I use petals to pave the way.”

Hua Jian shrugged and gave a reason that left Linglong speechless.

“So you learned this technique just so you wouldn’t have to walk barefoot, and to add a special effect for yourself?”

“Look, now every step I take blooms flowers under my feet. Isn’t that super pretty?”

Pretty it was, but the thought that she learned a technique purely to boost her appearance left Linglong at a loss for words.

It didn’t fit with her own more practical family rules.

She shook her head to discard the polite thoughts in her mind.

“The Tower Ship is over there. Don’t lose me!”

Linglong pointed at a patch of clouds in the distance that seemed perfectly normal.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

The current speed was nothing more than a leisurely stroll for both of them. If Hua Jian lost her, she wouldn’t have the face to stay by Linglong’s side.

As they got closer to the white cloud, Hua Jian vaguely sensed something wrong. This seemingly ordinary cloud seemed to conceal a terrifying giant beast.

The closer they got, the more distinct it became. Finally, after crossing a certain boundary, Hua Jian saw the faint outline of the Tower Ship.

She told Linglong about this discovery, and unsurprisingly received a look as if she were an immortal.

“Your perception is already sharper than mine.”

Linglong pointed ahead, indicating that she herself had to go further before she could see the ship’s outline.

The spot where Hua Jian detected the Tower Ship was almost exactly where an ordinary Ling Emperor would.

Although you couldn’t say Hua Jian’s perception equaled a Ling Emperor’s, it was enough to show that she was no longer the same as before.

They continued forward, and Hua Jian felt a few gazes sweep over her and then disappear.

It seemed they were confirming the identities of those approaching. After recognizing the newcomers as Linglong and Hua Jian, the ship opened its gates for them.

The Tower Ship had long been protected by a formation. To enter, one had to hold a Token, and the cultivators inside would open the formation.

It wasn’t a simple matter of just holding the Token to come and go freely. Even a Saintess like Linglong had to follow the rules step by step.

When someone holding a Token approached the Tower Ship, the Spirit Pond cultivators controlling the formation would receive an alert, and they would decide whether to open it for the person outside.

The privilege Linglong’s Token here gave her was probably that her entry application could jump straight to the front of the approval queue, and she could bring strangers aboard without going through layers of checks and inspections.

When she brought someone along, it didn’t require so much red tape.

“Here, take my hand.”

Just before entering the Tower Ship, Linglong reached out to Hua Jian, afraid she might accidentally be left outside.

Hua Jian gladly accepted. Stepping forward, she grasped Linglong’s delicate hand and even mischievously gave it a light squeeze.

Linglong’s hand was warm, her skin very smooth. Even though she trained extremely hard, her hands bore no calluses from the practice, like a pampered miss from a wealthy family who had never done rough work.

But her grip was strong. Hua Jian felt as if her hand were being clamped by a large pair of pincers, unable to move an inch.

Linglong’s grip was perfectly balanced—neither painful and uncomfortable, nor so loose that Hua Jian’s hand could slip away.

Hua Jian wondered if Linglong had secretly practiced this many times in private, to get the pressure so perfect on this first handshake.

Before she could think further, the space in front of her opened up like ripples, and the Tower Ship she had once seen from afar appeared before her again.

Big. So big. Enormous!

The two of them slowly descended from above the ship. It didn’t feel like landing on a vessel at all, but rather descending onto a small city floating in the sky.

Stepping onto this giant ship, Hua Jian finally realized what the Saint Sect’s foundation meant.

The ship’s size far exceeded her imagination, and the number of people on board was a figure she had never conceived.

Watching the girls walking back and forth on the plaza-like deck, Hua Jian couldn’t help turning to Linglong.

“This ship didn’t bring half of Jade Pool’s people out, did it?”

“Pfft, of course not. This isn’t even the largest ship in Jade Pool. If there’s a chance later, I’ll take you to see the biggest one. It’ll definitely blow your mind.”