Chapter 337: Invisible Black Hand, Xia Guanghan

“Be wary?” Chu Mu looked, puzzled, at the palace lord, not knowing what be wary meant.

“My vice palace lord sent me information that a short while ago, a large amount of spirit items for the demon fox species were being sold at various locations. When the other side affirmed the transaction, this person intentionally cancelled the transaction and moved it to Tianxia City. During this period of time, the vice palace lord’s eldest son began purchasing from Soul Palace demon fox blood concocted by medicine masters. Thus, the transactions seemed a bit strange…” said Palace Lord Yu.

“Could it be that someone has placed the Demon Fox’s Heart on the list, but never really had the item, and intended to swindle the person’s money?” asked Chu Mu.

“No. It’s impossible for this kind of swindling to appear in our Soul Palace’s exchanges. It was precisely because the other side truly possessed the spirit item and moreover finished the transaction that it seemed a bit strange. However, we didn’t interfere with it. Since the vice palace lord mentioned it, I specially checked over information of this demon fox spirit item transaction and happened notice that you bought a 1 million gold Nine Tail Inferno Fox’s Heart. As such, I’m just giving you a heads up, after all, 100 million is a huge sum to a young person.” said Palace Lord Yu.

Palace Lord Yu’s words made Chu Mu instantly fall to silence.

“Young master wishes to participate in the Battle of the Realm?” Palace Lord Yu didn’t continue his questions and changed the topic to the Battle of the Realm.

“Yes.” Chu Mu nodded his head.

“Then is young master representing Soul Palace, or representing yourself when you fight?” asked Palace Master Yu.

“What’s the difference?” asked Chu Mu.

“If you represent Soul Palace, we can nominate you for a seeded qualification when you enter the competition. You only have to prove your strength three months before the Battle of the Realm in front of ten Palace Masters. We will arrange for you to be in a certain team. You can also use your authority as a young master and choose your own team members. I’m sure there are several young experts who would be willing to be loyal to you, and the other young masters have all done this… Of course, if you want people to be loyal, it would be best to wait for Her Majesty to return and announce you identity to the public…” said Palace Lord Yu.

“The other young masters can form their own camps? Is it not a team composed of the strongest of Soul Palace’s young generation that fights?” asked Chu Mu, astonished.

“That depends on the relations between them. Each young master is arrogant and unshackled. Among them, the fifth young master is even going to participate by himself without any teammates. As for the third young master, he already nurtured a team to participate five years ago. If young master wishes to participate in the competition on his own, there’s no problem as long as young master can make it to the end….” said Palace Lord Yu.

“I don’t understand the Battle of the Realm very well. I’ll think of this matter again once I understand it better.” said Chu Mu.

“That’s fine… if young master has anything he cannot do or talk about, I suggest that you create your own team or participate on your own. That way things will be easier.” Palace Lord Yu’s words had a deeper meaning behind them.

Chu Mu’s expression slightly changed, and he looked at Palace Lord Yu whose tone was ordinary. But very quickly, he understood the meaning of his words.

This was a matter Chu Mu obviously could not admit to and he pretended that he had nothing he was hiding.

Palace Lord Yu didn’t follow up his questions, as he wasn’t completely sure whether this young master was that half devil.

“Is Young Master Chu still at the sixth rank title?” Palace Lord Yu still owed Chu Mu a favor and naturally wouldn’t dig up the root of the issue.

“Yes, does Palace Lord Yu have any method that will allow me to raise my title quickly?” asked Chu Mu.

“This… the palace’s rules hold that anyone with a position cannot give young generation members any special privileges. If young master wishes to obtain a higher title, you must rely on your own hard work. This is also the best help towards young master’s growth.” Palace Lord Yu knew that Chu Mu had entered Soul Palace not long ago so he intentionally explained the situation.

In reality, Soul Palace’s way of doing things didn’t regard favors or face, but it was very proper. If a soul pet trainer’s soul pets and spirit items were all obtained by the faction standing behind him or her, then even if that soul pet trainer had first rate soul pets, he or she would be nothing more than a third rate soul pet trainer because trainer would have no idea of the best method of increasing his or her strength.

“Ok, I’ll think of a way myself.” said Chu Mu.

“Young Master Chu’s strength probably isn’t as it seems. All I can do is help young master obtain work for a seventh rank title. Young Master Chu should be extremely familiar with training in the wild so if young master feels like you have the strength, I can help Young Master Chu choose a seventh rank palace reward. Once the mission has been completed, young master can obtain the seventh rank title after young master donates the required gold and completes the Nine Tail Inferno Fox’s Heart transaction.” said Palace Lord Yu.

“How much of a reward does the seventh rank reward have?” asked Chu Mu.

“A normal seventh rank reward.” said Palace Lord Yu.

Chu Mu hesitated. If he were to go and take the seventh rank mission, it would be far from worth the 30 million gold spent on the long distance travelled. Promptly, he asked: “Are there any eighth rank rewards in the palace?”

“…” Palace Lord Yu opened his mouth to say something, but firmly shut it and his expression turned a bit strange.

In truth, the reward Palace Lord Yu had mentioned was one he had issued. The Immortal Ming Palace Palace Lord Yu was a part of required the inner crystals of a hundred eighth phase Chaotic Thunder Feather Demons to become the ingredients for a pharmacist to prevent a newborn Immortal Ming Bird from dying at birth.

The difficulty for this reward wasn’t too high, after all, Chaotic Thunder Feather Demons were only low class commander soul pets. However, once completed, one would be able to obtain the seventh rank title value granted by Immortal Ming Palace.

The mission was clearly very hard for normal young generation people, and if Chu Mu wasn’t related to the half devil, Palace Lord Yu naturally would be worried if Young Master Chu would be able to complete it.

(TL: author literally just contradicted himself…)

Moreover, just now, Palace Lord Yu was debating whether or not to give Chu Mu a bit of help in secret to make the process of obtaining the seventh rank title value smoother. However, just then, this Young Master Chu had very calmly asked whether there were “any eighth rank rewards in the palace?”. This caused Palace Lord Yu to firmly stop words he was about to say…

“Young Master Chu, you’re talking about eighth rank rewards in the palace?” Palace Lord Yu felt he had perhaps heard wrong and specially asked to confirm.

“Yes, I know that my strength is inadequate, but I want to try…” said Chu Mu.

“There are many eighth rank rewards in the palace, but the danger level is very high. Furthermore, an eighth rank title cannot be obtained by the rewards in a palace, after all, a mission can be completed with the help of someone else… of course, it won’t be a problem to obtain the seventh rank title value since the reward is an eighth rank reward in the palace.” Palace Lord Yu was absent-minded for a moment before replying.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

“Then, Palace Lord Yu…” Chu Mu clearly wanted to use his relation with Palace Lord Yu to skip a title!

Chu Mu knew that obtaining an eighth rank title wasn’t easy. In short, he had to first obtain an eighth rank reward before finding a way to deal with the required 400 million gold.

“Since Young Master Chu requires such, I’ll have my subordinates let you take a look. However, the teammates young master chooses must be first-class, so as to prevent anything unexpected from happening.’ said Palace Lord Yu.

“Palace Lord Yu can relax about this. I won’t do anything reckless.” Chu Mu immediately nodded his head.

Palace Lord Yu shook his head helplessly. He didn’t think that this Young Master Chu had such a big appetite. One had to know that Palace Lord Yu could use his fingers to count how many young generation members in Soul Palace that would be willing to complete an eighth rank reward by themselves…

……

“Young master, the team members you find must be reliable. It’s best to see if that young woman with nice legs has reached Tianxia City. If she’s there, your safety is guaranteed. At least when you face a ninth phase Terror Wolf, you won’t end up so miserable…” said Old Li.

“It really won’t be easy to find her. I can only hope for her to come to Soul Palace to find me.” Chu Mu had already instructed a palace affairs member to leave a message. If Ye Qingzi came to Soul Palace to find him, this palace affairs member would give the message to her.

“Could it be that young master plans on completing the eighth rank mission on your own?” asked Old Li.

“Yup.” Chu Mu nodded his head.

“…” Old Li was speechless.

Presumably Palace Lord Yu had also thought that Chu Mu wanted to form a team to complete the eighth rank reward mission. If he knew that Chu Mu planned on doing it himself, his face would be like Old Li’s…

“Let’s not talk about this for now. Old Li, do you feel there’s something strange about the demon fox spirit item Palace Lord Yu talked about earlier?” Chu Mu’s expression turned serious.

“Perhaps some corrupt businessman is playing with the market. It’s not too serious. Just as Palace Lord Yu said, the item is an exchange within Soul Palace so no tricks can be taken.” Old Li stroked his steel-wire like beard hairs as he spoke.

At first, Chu Mu had believed this was the case as well. However, carefully thinking about it, Chu Mu felt that something was wrong.

Palace Lord Yu had previously said that someone was intentionally purchasing all demon fox high level spirit items before selling it himself to several factions. Then, when the other side accepted the offer, the person would intentionally push back the time…

This made Chu Mu feel someone was deliberately throwing out a bait for someone who specially needed demon fox spirit items…

“Could it be Xia Guanghan?” Chu Mu muttered to himself.

The only people who knew that Mo Xie could continuously mutate were Princess Jin Rou and Xia Guanghan right now. Princess Jin Rou was only a young generation member and although her status in Nightmare Palace was very high, her power wasn’t as much as Xia Guanghan. Further adding on Chu Mu’s relation with Liu Binglan, unless she told even higher people about this matter, she definitely wouldn’t act blindly without thinking.

As for Xia Guanghan, he carried Princess Jin Rou while employing various traps and tricks. He firmly guarded this secret because he wanted to take the enormous benefits for himself. It was pretty probable that this fellow guessed that Chu Mu would come to Tianxia City to participate in the Battle of the Realm and thus began to cast a huge net to bait Chu Mu…

If it wasn’t for Palace Lord Yu making him aware of this, Chu Mu really would have fallen into the trap, defenseless. Although Chu Mu wouldn’t be stupid enough to exchange outside Soul Palace, through this method his identity would definitely be exposed!

“Xia Guanghan, it seems like we must settle things in Tianxia City!” Chu Mu really had to be wary of this. That grim executioner was already sharpening his blade!