Chapter 358 Meeting Amid the Falling Snow
After meeting with the promising alchemist, Wu Long retreated to his residence for a day to revise Song Lingfei's treatment strategy in light of the new proposal. After figuring out the exact problem and tweaking the technique that would have been used for the slow treatment method, he accompanied Wu Mengqi who often met Song Lingfei the very next day.
The sheltered princess was eager to learn something about the outside world that was not in the books she read or was taught, and was starved for socializing with someone close in age, while Wu Mengqi simply enjoyed the company of the both wise and yet at the same time socially naive princess.
Though Wu Mengqi secretly had anticipated the day when the princess of the Song dynasty would meet Hua Ziyan, expecting to see quite an amusing scene when the clueless and innocent girl would meet the most dauntless and unapologetically and unashamedly experienced Dual Cultivator of their group.
When a somewhat evil grin would appear on Wu Mengqi's face as she thought about that meeting, Song Lingfei would have shivers, though the former always managed to brush it off as thinking of something unrelated and make the latter bring back down her guard.
This day, they sat at a wooden pagoda gazebo on a top of a rather thin snowy peak, the top of which was just wide enough to fit the gazebo. The surrounding scenery painted white with snow looked peaceful and tranquil, the slowly falling large snowflakes shining brightly as they swayed with no wind to push them in any direction.
The gazebo had a heat-conservation formation and a heating formation installed so they could comfortably relax with some tea, not minding the cold weather.
Crown Prince Song Minfu was also present. He would normally let the two young ladies meet in private, but any time Wu Long would join them he was there as well even if there was nothing in particular to discuss with him. Though this time he was invited since the talk concerned his daughter's treatment.
As Wu Long explained the new circumstances, the Crown Prince's face visibly brightened, as the new proposition was a concession between the two rather extreme alternatives. Song Lingfei also became cheerful at the news.
"Thank you, Mister Wu. Words cannot express how grateful I am for everything you are doing for me and my father"
Her silver eyes shone brightly, as the dark shadows became smaller, as if a celestial light shone behind her iris. Song Minfu's pleasant mood became mixed as he saw the expression with which his daughter looked at Wu Long.
"If anyone deserves praise it is Fairy Yu Huan who have thought of this method"
The latter only softly shook his head with a smile, and Song Minfu's eyes instantly became brighter at his words, jumping on to this opportunity.
"That's right! I should reward that bright young lady for her efforts!"
"I am not arguing with that, and believe Father is right as I am grateful to Fairy Yu Huan as well, but I also do not think we should diminish Mister Wu's efforts in actually finding a way to bring that idea into reality, not to mention that id it was not for him, Fairy Yu Huan would have continued to be unknown to us"
Song Lingfei spoke as her eyes did not leave Wu Long's face while Wu Mengqi was struggling to hold back her giggles as she watched the Crown Prince's face.
'Hahahaha, this uncle's intuition is great. Not that it would help him anyway'
Her gleeful expression did not escape Wu Long's peripheral vision but he only wryly smiled, inwardly sighing thinking that she was having too much fun at someone else's expense.
As Wu Long took a sip of the tea, and put an empty cup down, two hands stretched to pick it up, one of a trusted female servant that has been serving them tea in this meeting, and another of the Imperial Princess herself.
"It's alright Chu Fan, I will pour the tea myself. When else would I use the tea ceremony skills that I have been practicing for years if not on such occasion"
As Song Lingfei spoke, the servant backed off with a slightly hesitating expression as she secretly looked at the rapidly darkening face of the Crown Prince while Wu Mengqi's shoulders started to slightly shake, and her expression was becoming unnaturally still.
It was true that as a princess, like any noble lady, Song Lingfei had a lot of lessons in tea ceremony, flower arrangement, etiquette, and other lady-like activities, but it was implicit, even though it was never explicitly stated, that those skills, apart from some exceptions like important public events, were only honed for one purpose, for her prospective husband.
And while Song Lingfei was clueless to her father's rapid change in the mood the servant who had to back off felt tremendous pressure as she inwardly screamed 'What else can I do Your Highness?!?! Why are you looking at me as if I could just say "No" in that situation!!!' while sweating profusely. Never had she found herself between a rock and a hard place quite severely like today.
Wu Long looked to the side, warning Wu Mengqi to hold it in with his eyes as she was starting to lose control, and the latter finally excused herself, not confident in being able to last much longer. He sighed as not being able to keep her cool when she was amused was one of her weaknesses, though he found it loveable. His sensitive hearing soon picked up her uncontrollable laughter in the distance.
'Haha, that girl is someday going to get me into trouble'
He inwardly chuckled as he respectfully received a new cup of tea that the Imperial Princess gracefully poured with elegant mannerisms. The moment he received the cup, his finger touched hers, and a blush appeared on her cheeks as she took her hands back.
The rest of the meeting went quietly as they discussed trivial topics with Wu Mengqi rejoining them not long after. The only difference was that the Crown Prince's mood was quite sullen the whole time, never improving until the end.
After the meeting, he remained in the gazebo, looking at the scenery with only an old man, Chu Ren standing not far behind him.
"Did you manage to find anything out during our stay here?"
"Only that the young man used to be almost invisible before visiting the capital, it was said that he could not cultivate properly and that his talent was the worst in history.
He was also considered not very bright, so a nickname 'a waste of a good face' seemed to have attached"
"Not bright? Trash talent? Are they feeding us false information on purpose? Where in the world would you find someone with bad talent who could cultivate to the Revolving Qi Realm from Qi Gathering Realm in a year?"
Song Minfu's head half-turned as his sharp gaze fell on the old man.
"That is what most of the disciples seemed to believe, My Lord. It is not like we could freely move to get more information out of them either, so that is the extent we managed to get while operating cautiously"
Chu Ren did not falter under the Crown Prince's eyes, and diligently reported back with dignity and respect.
"Mm"
Song Minfu nodded with a sigh and turned his face to look at the slow snowfall again, seemingly deep in thought.
"Ah, there was one report that I found interesting, it is that the young man seemed to have appeared out of nowhere about half a year prior to our first meeting him, brought by an Outer Court Elder who picked him up somewhere.
The peculiar thing was that he was allowed into the sect even while not meeting the minimum standards of cultivation level as he was reportedly in the 2nd level of Body Transformation Realm"
Chu Ren chuckled at the last part, clearly considering it to be a ruse since it was hardly believable. The Crown Prince also snickered at the absurd notion, but focused on what the old man was saying next.
"My subordinates speculated that the Elder who brought him in must have had a special status that allowed him to make such an exception happen, but it seems quite the opposite as that man is not even considered a mid-level person with no real presence or authority.
Thus, in my opinion, it is almost certain that the Great Seductress must have had a hand in this, though there is no proof to support that. Have Your Highness got any information from her by chance?"
"Hah, as if that witch would spill out anything. You know how problematic it is to talk to her, she has no respect for the Imperial Authority and there is nothing that I can give her that she herself cannot get.
There can hardly be any negotiation with her. I tried to subtly get any information about him but she just laughed in my face"
The Crown Prince said with a grumbling voice, the last of his words coming out particularly aggrieved as he rarely experienced such treatment.
"Haa~ I guess we can only judge from what we know then"
Chu Ren sighed as it seemed impossible to get any further information about the man.
"Hmm, despite all of his mysteriousness and secrets I do find him trustworthy when talking to him... but I cannot move on feelings alone"
Song Minfu sighed as well, placing his index and middle finger on his right temple, massaging it as if soothing a headache.
"Wait and see... huh?"
The old man behind him muttered the only approach available to them, to which the Crown Prince closed his eyes in frustration as that was all they had been doing until then. It was quite an unprecedented position for him who was used to be on top of any situation.
However, as in the beginning of this whole ordeal, the stakes were just too high for him to not bite at the bait Wu Long has shown, placing the Crown Prince in the passive position and never relinquishing the leading position.
Meanwhile Wu Long, after reporting to Lian Zhiqiu about his upcoming trip and receiving a sarcastic remark about him 'bothering to tell' her, and how grateful she was for such a 'grand gesture', departed from the sect, heading to the south once more, but this time moving through a different route, as Old Yen was waiting for him in the Gutian Kingdom.
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