Chapter 1374 - Nope

Before that, Empyrean Sword Sect had treated Tianming and Yu Ziqian rather well even though they sided with Long Wanying, either because they wanted to get on the Sky Palace's good side or because they wanted to try to recruit them. Shi Yan didn't even have anything to say when Tianming defeated Li Haochen and got the divine herb for himself. However, among the first things the Wind and Rain Swordlords had done upon their arrival was to give Tianming trouble, much to Gujian Qingshuang's surprise.

Does their arrival represent a change in the attitude of the Empyrean Sword Sect? he wondered. He was now under Tianming's control, so he had to take his side no matter what. Thus, he lowered his voice and asked, "Swordlords, are you absolutely sure?" Glancing at Shi Yan, he noticed that she didn't seem to know what was going on either. Even though they had taken a stance against Long Wanying and the others, they’d never specifically gone against Tianming.

"I asked you to call him out. Don't waste words with me," the Rain Swordlord said, rolling her eyes.

"Understood." Gujian Qingshuang escorted them to the Celestial Welcome Hall for a basic reception while he went to 'invite' Tianming over. That was but a mere formality, of course, since Tianming was keeping a constant watch over the situation.

Granny Mu Hua started helping the hundred thousand swordpupils settle into the first three branches, making the swordpupils of Azuresoul Palace rather furious, but they didn't dare to voice their frustrations. All they could do was sigh and leave. They even had to endure the rage of seeing those guests casually destroying their homes and personal belongings. Gujian Qingshuang took note of all of it. Many wanted him to stand up for them, but all they got was a helpless stare.

"Sigh, the Azuresoul Palace is truly in trouble, being stuck in a struggle between first-rate sects like this."

"It doesn't matter whether we even survive. There's no dignity in living like this."

Things grew more and more messier on the Azuresoul Sword Mountain.

......

Ye Dongliu's expression soured as he entered the Celestial Welcome Hall with his head lowered.

"Where's the Sky Palace disciple?" Gujian Qingshuang asked.

"Li Tianming said...."

"What did he say?"

"He said ‘nope’," Ye Dongliu relayed. The entire hall was silenced by those words. To think that Tianming simply refused the summons of the Wind and Rain Swordlords, but that refusal made it sound like they were simply requesting an audience with him! Yet that was indeed possible with Tianming's status. Sky Palace disciples didn't have to answer to anyone.

"He won't come?" The two swordlords exchanged glances of delight.

"This child is interesting. He really thinks he's a bigshot," the Rain Swordlord said.

"It's fine. We have time, after all. Since he won't come, we'll go see him. Chief Instructor Gujian, lead the way!" the Wind Swordlord said.

"Understood." Gujian Qingshuang obeyed. The matter of the Empyrean Sword Sect shipping away the eight hundred million divine herbs hadn't been finalized yet. Gujian Qingshuang didn't want to lose all of them for no reason, so he needed Tianming to stand up for the sect. Not to mention, splitting the harvest was bound to be a troublesome matter in the first place.

The so-called support that the Empyrean Sword Sect and Group of Celestial Maiden Halls claimed to provide was only lip service. It still fell to the millions of swordtroops of the Azuresoul Palace to truly harvest, guard, and bring the fruits back to the Azuresoul Sword Mountain. Only after that would the spoils be split. All the supporters had to do was come over for a short retreat without putting in too much effort to keep the Supracloud Sanctuary at bay and they would take away up to ninety percent of the harvest, which would number in the billions.

However, the way to split the harvest had yet to be decided upon. That was because the Azuresoul Palace had initially negotiated with the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect about the joint agreement to help with the harvest. Back then, they had been promised thirty percent of the harvest, which was only natural since the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect couldn't just be lending their name out for no benefit at all. When push came to shove, they might suffer real casualties too. The Azuresoul Palace had been all too happy with the generous arrangement, only for the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect to fall upon hard times, resulting in Long Wanying asking her friends from Group of Celestial Maiden Halls to come to their aid while still respecting the initial three-tenths split.

But now that Gujian Qingshuang was part of Tianming's conspiracy, he learned that Tianming actually wanted all of the fruits for the Azurecloud Continent. That was possible because Yan Nuxia's cohort had come to help them without expecting divine herbs in return. Yet the Empyrean Sword Sect had demanded nine-tenths of all the divine herbs harvested by the Azuresoul Palace. On top of that, they wanted to ship away all the divine herbs harvested so far, which made it incredibly uncertain how much would be left over for the Azuresoul Palace at the very end. It was nothing short of robbery, which was only enabled in the first place because both the Azuresoul Palace and Supracloud Sanctuary would invite outside forces into their conflict to gain an edge over the other side. Yet they were the ones who were actually fighting and suffering casualties over the divine tree!

That was the reason Tianming wanted to tie the two sects together. Even if they focused only on harvesting the divine herbs within their own territories, they would be able to keep more than ten times what they usually got! Given those plans, the Empyrean Sword Sect had become an obstacle to him, especially when they hadn't got a handle on Yun Tianque yet.

......

Meanwhile at the Sixth Sword Branch, Tianming had known that the Empyrean Sword Sect's reinforcements would arrive. Thus he had gathered the people around him to wait in that part of the mountain. It didn't take long for Gujian Qingshuang to bring the swordlords, Shi Yan, and a thousand elite swordpupils to him. Before they had even arrived, he felt their combined sword ki prickling against his face.

He could tell at a glance that the two swordlords were experts of the sword. It was said that they were incredibly powerful when fighting together. Being a couple for such a long time had allowed them to achieve an unthinkable synergy. Not even people like Yang Ce would be able to defend against their combined onslaught, making them among the strongest forces that the Empyrean Sword Sect could mobilize. Not to mention, they had brought a hundred thousand swordpupils with them, making them far more powerful than Tianming's faction in terms of combined might.

Though it was a troublesome predicament, Tianming had to calmly deal with it. The swordlords met his gaze and tried using their sword ki to intimidate him, but Tianming didn't buy their little trick. Now that he had the Azuresoul Palace in his hands, he was fully confident when he faced off against millennial seniors like these.

The thousands of people on their side stood off against Tianming's own thousands. Those from the Group of Celestial Maiden Halls didn't avoid the Empyrean Sword Sect swordpupils like the Azuresoul Palace swordpupils did. They didn't back down from the pressure one bit, causing the tension in the surrounding atmosphere to peak. Since they didn't break the silence, Tianming kept quiet himself, not bowing to them or showing any respect at all.

Gujian Qingshuang introduced the two sides. He didn't boast too much on the swordlords' behalf, adopting neutrality in his descriptions of both sides, almost as if he was encouraging a clash between the two sides. It was an interesting sight to behold, with both sides keeping quiet.

After some time, Tianming found the standoff rather boring and turned to leave, causing quite a lot of people on the side of the Empyrean Sword Sect to lose their temper. They stood at the peak of power, yet this junior was about to leave them hanging without even a word to excuse himself!

"Halt!" somebody finally called out in an insidious tone. "How could a disciple of the Sky Palace not know any basic manners?"