65: Chapter 65 Bargaining with the Princess

When the Third Princess walked over, Xie Feng was squatting on the ground staring at the statue of Tsathoggua.

Standing up would be too conspicuous. Although half of that cluster of flames' attention was drawn away by the statue, the other half was still lingering on him.

Xie Feng simply squatted down, pretending to study the patterns on the base of the statue.

At this moment, the state of the statue on the ground was a bit off; its upturned corners of the mouth had dropped, and it no longer had that lazy aura.

As for Xie Feng, he was gloating.

Serve you right! Making you swap my Qi into mana value, you must be feeling terrible now that you see your natural enemy!

"Xie Feng." The Third Princess's voice came down from above. Without having to lift his head by much, Xie Feng could see the Third Princess and the Centurion beside her.

Xie Feng moved half an inch to the side, making space for her.

"Your Highness." Xie Feng thought she had just come over to stand for a bit.

The dome was hot enough to steam raw eggs, and the carving knife sounds of rune repairs creaked noisily. Disciples of the Tianque Sect ran back and forth between Elder Qin and Elder Han, leaving no one to mind them.

The Third Princess stood beside him for a moment before speaking.

"When this palace was young, I heard a rumor about Ranhuo City. Legend has it that the subterranean fire anomaly here was not subdued, but rather reached an agreement with a great Cultivator. A fated person would appear in Ranhuo City, and before the fated person appeared, the anomaly would help Ranhuo City with production. This palace has always felt that these words were false—how could anomalies communicate with people, let alone how could any great Cultivator predict such a distant future?"

She started with an ambiguous legend, without specifying the time, place, or characters, leaving only two keywords: "North" and "fire". If Xie Feng reacted to these two keywords, she would be able to confirm that Xie Feng knew something. If Xie Feng didn't react, she would take back the topic and treat it as if she had truly just told a story.

Xie Feng had seen this way of speaking among palace people countless times in novels on Blue Star.

"If Your Highness has something to say, you might as well say it directly." Xie Feng was straightforward.

The Third Princess was silent for a moment. "The old person in the palace who believed in this story passed away a few years ago. Before leaving, they left this palace a few pages of memoirs, which mentioned a cluster of fire that was not an anomaly. This fire is related to a certain place in the Far North. Before this palace came to Ranhuo City, I only thought it was a legend."

What? What memoirs do you people have? Can you guys stop writing random things down?

Xie Feng's focus was not on the legend at all. The memoirs of the old palace person sounded terrifying. If you people keep being so eager for knowledge like this, you're going to turn into the shape of Yog-Sothoth, okay?

"Now that living fire is right before this palace. And there is a group of things—not knowing whether to count them as flames or monsters—swarming around it."

Xie Feng picked the statue up from the ground and rubbed off the dust on his cuff. "Your Highness wants to know two questions. First, what relationship does this fire have with the Far North? Second, does the thing sealed within your body have any relationship with this fire?"

"How do you…!"

How do you think? After you revealed your Qi and walked over, the mark on my chest was jumping around like Pop Rocks! Xie Feng rolled his eyes, and the Centurion beside him frowned.

The Third Princess's pupils contracted ever so slightly. She clearly hadn't expected Xie Feng to pull these words straight out of her mouth, nor had she expected an Inner Sect Disciple of the Qingyun Sect to lay out imperial secrets so straightforwardly in the open.

"This palace previously thought the Qingyun Sect sent you because Elder Qin values you."

"That's not it; it's mainly because they were afraid I'd die here and they wouldn't be able to answer to Elder Wen."

The Third Princess shifted lightly, amused but unwilling to admit it.

"Good. Since you are so direct, this palace won't beat around the bush either. The first question: since you recognize this thing, do you know why it wants to come to the Nine Provinces? Six hundred years ago, what on earth was in the Far North?"

Xie Feng's expression was calm as he stood up to reply. "Your Highness. I don't want to get involved in palace matters."

Inside, however, he thought: What the hell would I know? It came six hundred years ago, and I came two years ago; how would I know why it came over? Could I possibly be the fated person? I'm no monkey! As for the Hyperborean continent, I do know what's there, but what the hell is the use of me telling you? Wouldn't you just be delivering yourself as food if you went?

The Third Princess looked up at him. "Are you afraid this palace will rat you out?"

"I'm afraid of trouble."

"This palace is standing right in front of you now, which already counts as trouble." She crossed her arms, and Qi slowly seeped out from her body. "The thing inside your body and the thing inside this palace's body have recognized each other. Do you call this 'not wanting to get involved'?"

After the Third Princess's Qi seeped out, the mark on Xie Feng's chest began to throb with pain, and knowledge from his past life started flashing through his mind.

"Your Highness said the thing inside my body and the thing inside your body have recognized each other. Then, when did the thing inside your body start reacting?"

"More than three months ago," the Third Princess said. "It had been dormant ever since entering the palace, until the night of Ranhuo City's first abnormal temperature. That night, the Qi in my body accelerated its circulation on its own and lasted for half an hour before calming down."

Exactly whose family member of a big shot is inside this princess's body? The mark of the King of Volcanoes reacted so intensely, and it's even related to Cthugha?

"Since Your Highness has asked, let me speak my thoughts first." Xie Feng pondered for a moment. "Your Highness might not be able to pronounce the true name of that place in the Far North. Your Highness only needs to know one thing: that place is the source or passage of many entities, and the one before us should have some relation to that place, though the relation isn't all that big."

Xie Feng really didn't know how to explain it; this was hard to say. There indeed was a descendant of Cthugha on the Hyperborean continent, a Great Old Ones named Aphoom-Zhah, but the thing in front of him didn't look like something from the Hyperborean mythological system.

The Third Princess looked at the cluster of flames in the center of the dome. "Is that entity strong?"

"Immeasurably strong." Xie Feng didn't use a description like beating you would be child's play. "Your Highness, I have told you its origin. Now I want to ask Your Highness for something."

"What do you want?" Her voice returned to that businesslike coldness, but with a trace of imperceptible caution more than before.

There is no free lunch in this world. Xie Feng had only learned this lesson a few days ago, and now he could put it into practice.

"When taking the bronze talismans at the outer perimeter earlier, Your Highness should have seen Master Huo. It's that shop in the north of the city with an iron piece nailed to the lintel, branded with a mark of a sword entwined with flames." Xie Feng lowered his voice. "He comes from the Qingyun Sect, and you know how his situation is recently. I hope you can help him out later and protect his shop and business."

The Third Princess didn't answer immediately after hearing this. Her fingers tapped lightly twice on the hilt of her weapon, and then she withdrew her hand.

Within Xie Feng's Qi perception, her face was less than two feet directly in front of him, and the expression on her baby face was extremely solemn—so solemn that he somewhat regretted speaking so bluntly earlier, making it sound like feeding empty promises to a boss.

"You use future intelligence in exchange for this palace protecting a blacksmith?" she asked.

"Master Huo is not an ordinary blacksmith." Xie Feng thought about it. "And he forged a gun barrel for my friend without charging extra. Your Highness might not understand how important this gun barrel is. To put it simply, that is something Tu Ziguan uses to save his life. For Your Highness to protect Master Huo's shop is equivalent to saving my friend's life."

Xie Feng knew Master Huo was definitely abnormal; this guy could turn the statue of the God of Toads into a weapon right off the bat, so he definitely had goods on him. But who didn't have little secrets? At least he had indeed provided help to several people, so returning a favor for a favor had to be done. Besides, Xie Feng still needed to have him forge a blind cane for himself later, so paving the way for himself beforehand was definitely right.

The Third Princess looked at him for a moment.

"Deal," she said. "Master Huo's shop, this palace will protect it. After going back, this palace will look through the memoirs in the palace, and you must be by the side then. You have seen this thing; the thing sealed within this palace's body, you must help this palace recognize it."

Xie Feng opened his mouth. "Your Highness, I am only…"

"You are merely an Inner Sect Disciple at the seventh level of the First Realm." The Third Princess stood up and patted the dust off her knees. "Yet this palace has searched through all the classics in the palace, and no Cultivator has been able to explain clearly to this palace what the thing inside is. You can explain half of it. As for the other half, this palace will wait for you to finish looking through the memoirs in the palace before coming to tell me."

Xie Feng withdrew the hand that was still maintaining a half-clenched posture and rubbed his nose. "This trade is a bit of a loss for me. Does the palace provide meals?"

"Whether it's a loss or not, we'll talk after going out." She turned and walked toward the edge of the dome, her boots making very light and crisp sounds as they stepped on the glazed rock, walking back into the circle of dark-armored Imperial Guards.

Tu Ziguan poked his head out from the side of the stone steps where his squatting had made him numb. "Did you just bargain with the Third Princess just now?"

"No, I just drummed up some business for Master Huo." Xie Feng said expressionlessly.

Tu Ziguan lowered his voice, his tone so sincere it hardly sounded like himself: "Brother Feng, bring your brother along next time you negotiate conditions. Elder Qin over there turned green in the face when he heard you dared to ask the Third Princess for a price."

Meanwhile, outside Ranhuo City, the outer perimeter of the mine pit was blocked off with three layers of sealing strips by the Imperial Guards.

Master Huo stood on an inconspicuous gentle slope on the west side of the mine pit. Standing beside him were seven or eight people, some with completely white hair, some one-eyed, and some missing half a finger. They were all old artisans just like Master Huo, who had iron pieces of a sword entwined with flames nailed to their shop lintels.

"Tidying up, get ready to begin!"