Book 15: Chapter 26

Catkins Dancing to the Winds Concert

Blue Prince is the only Prince worthy of being labelled as being an excellent achiever, I answered after Boss asked me what I knew about Blue Prince. Well, at least thats the rumours claim. Ive never met him, so I only know this much.

I summed up my headaches, including His Majestys request for me to mentor a Prince, Mount Daluo supporting a faction, and Feng Qizhi trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate me. Have you any clue how rare it was for me to sit down and talk with Boss? Why wouldnt I take the opportunity to complain about His Majesty?

Rumours among the people are even less credible than rumours in the pugilistic world, though. In short, hes the only actual competent Prince.

Considering Green prince and Orange Princes records, it didnt mean much to be the only. As far as I knew, only Red Prince was a failure, falling for Chu Yinghua and still not having had a single bowl of huntun with her.

We, as officials, are in no position to critique the imperial family. Boss cleared her throat, then lowered her voice. Seeing as Uncle wants you to mentor a Prince, it would seem he wants Mount Daluo to support the imperial court, but I dont think thats his only goal. Rather, I suspect its not even his primary goal.

Where did that come from?

The comment was tantamount to raining on the efforts s.h.i.+fu and I had spent building Mount Daluos great reputation up.

Do you realise how disastrous it would be for all women in the world if s.h.i.+fu decided to come out of seclusion to show what he was made of?

I cant help. Boss smiled. The best I can do is allow you to personally apprehend him.

h.e.l.l no! He may be shameless, but Im not.

Boss whacked me over the head. Uncle has yearned for Mount Daluos support for a long time. He has faith in Mount Daluo; I would go as far as saying he respects Mount Daluo. You can tell from the way he speaks of Mount Daluo. Otherwise, he wouldnt have had Mount Daluo as his princ.i.p.al guest when he invited the three patriarchs to the capital years ago. Of course, there is also Hero Shenzhous reputation in the equation.

As opposed to saying that Uncle wants to win Mount Daluos support while the opportunity is here, itd be more correct to say that he never gave up trying to win Mount Daluos support. Bringing you on board is just one step in the process. Ive never seen Uncle stop trying; you just werent aware of his attempts. Mount Daluo has always been dancing to its own beat and often kept to itself. You might think he only started trying to recruit Mount Daluo after speaking to your sixth brother. Think about it, though. He had tried to recognise you before that without being too obvious, correct?

I never thought about any of that. If the imperial court had the backing of the three biggest sects, then it was a force to be reckoned with. Anyone who partic.i.p.ated in the battle at Lawless Cliff couldve attested. Even the Seven Champion White Princes wouldnt be as much of a threat anymore. It wasnt easy to recruit three sects that carried on as they saw fit, having said that. Mount Daluo didnt like to stand out. When it was inevitable, we avoided letting it be known that it was us. Even if our involvement was known, that was a result of someone else mentioning it. Shaolin had kept to themselves for years; it had reached a point where it was impossible to tell if Mount Daluo was the recluse or if Shaolin was. Wudang, which was closest to the imperial court, had a fortress around themselves. Lai Jingzhen was sane for, what, half of the time? Itd take a special kind of stupid to a.s.sume they could control Wudang through him. Control was impossible, so the next compromise was an alliance. The next compromise after that was to just have the support of the three sects.

From the looks of things, His Majesty had secured Shaolin and Wudangs support for Red Prince and Cyan Prince. Although the imperial court had yet to face a crisis that required reinforcements from the two sects, there was no issue publicising the two sects supported the imperial court. At the very least, the two sects had tacitly consented. From s.h.i.+fus perspective, it was possible for Mount Daluo to receive the same treatment. Thing was, s.h.i.+fu never showed any signs of support or even sending a messenger.

As Boss mentioned, His Majesty never mentioned supporting a Prince prior to his conversation with Sixth. Perhaps he had been planning it long beforehand, except he withheld because he expected to be rejected. Maybe he didnt get the hint from me but from experience? For all I knew, s.h.i.+fu mightve rejected him once already, prompting His Majesty to tread carefully around me.

I folded my arms to deliberate why Sixth was allowed to make contact and reintroduce Mount Daluo but not before. s.h.i.+fu never mentioned getting involved in any manner. It was my brothers who delivered hints. I trusted them, but it was uncharacteristic of s.h.i.+fu. I didnt want Mount Daluo to become a supporter solely due to the fact that Id be the one who pa.s.sed the policy. As a consequence, Id be the patriarch even if I wasnt the legitimate patriarch. More importantly, it was foolish to connect Mount Daluo to the imperial family too tightly.

Mount Daluo watched over the most desired thing in the world, and the ent.i.ty with the greatest potential to misuse it werent the violent people in the pugilistic world but he imperial family. Emperor Yuansheng wasnt the sort of sc.u.m to try using Six Evils, but that didnt mean others in the family werent. It only took one, whether they were born yet or not. That was not someone who Mount Daluo shouldve welcomed in.

If I could think of reasons to refuse supporting the imperial family, s.h.i.+fu had to have had thought of them, too. That aside, he hated collusions more than anything. If someone wanted to form an alliance with him, they needed to walk themselves over and kowtow first before he rejected them with any vigour. Otherwise, they couldve just stopped while they were ahead. Therefore, it made no sense to me why he made an exception this time.

I didnt have free time to talk with Sixth in Nanjiang due to Pangu waking, and then Fiends Genesis kept me busy afterwards. Most importantly, I couldnt access my internal energy to do any digging. Now that I thought about it, the reason my s.h.i.+niangs urged me to support a Prince was rather far-fetched. There was a common denominator in all the recommendations to support a Prince it was never s.h.i.+fu who told me to. It had been years since I had seen s.h.i.+fu, and it had been years since I had been back to the mountain. The only way Id know if his mindset had changed or not was if I personally visited him.

By the time I shook my head, I realised I had been ignoring Boss for a while, but she didnt mind.

Sorry, my mind wandered off, I expressed with an apologetic smile. Where were we?

Boss cracked a smile. I was about to answer your question on Blue Prince when you looked possessed. Something come to mind?

Havent sorted it out yet. How about you go first. Is Blue Prince as the rumours claim?

Okay. My conclusion may not agree with yours. Boss wiped away her smile. He is as the rumours say. In fact, hes more talented than the rumours claim. Blue Prince isnt interested in the contest for power because, if he wanted to be Crown Prince, hed already be Crown Prince.