Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

  Princess Yunyue has heavenly spirit root?

  Wang Lu's words caused the dwarf and the founding father to exclaim in unison.

  In the eyes of immortal cultivators, the meaning of the three words heavenly spirit root was very significant. One must know that of all the people in the continent, only one in ten thousand people have a spirit root. However, among those with spirit roots, even for the whole continent, not many could see someone with heavenly spirit root, even for years at times.

  Although the strength of the cultivator who laid the foundation of Cloud Country could be called as formidable, his aptitude was in no way the level of heavenly spirit root. Because if a cultivator with heavenly spirit root encountered a bottleneck in cultivation that caused a lifetime puzzlement, it would often happen when they were near Deity Stage or higher. And the roar from a Deity Stage Cultivator with heavenly spirit root could not be resisted by Wang Lu repeatedly—at present, it seemed like the founding father should be in Yuanying Stage, which although he couldn't deal with him head on with force, he also wouldn't be annihilated just because of a roar.

  In simple terms, for this founding father, the heavenly spirit root was extremely valuable. The value of his descendant having this spirit root was truly difficult to measure.

  When the founding father went into silent, the dwarf shouted, "This is impossible! How could the daughter of a mere usurper have a heavenly spirit root…"

  Wang Lu smiled. "How is it impossible? Do you know the rule of how the heavenly spirit root would appear in someone?"

  The dwarf said, "My servant saw her with his own eyes and definitely didn't see the vision of heavenly spirit root in her!"

  The owner of heavenly spirit root would often be born with abilities. Such as the ability to clearly see the fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy. Some people could even spontaneously manipulate the five elements like those born with psychic ability. Meanwhile, Princess Yunyue never displayed this ability.

  As a matter of fact, Princess Yunyue certainly didn't have the heavenly spirit root. Because although she has the qualification to cultivate, it wasn't so exaggerated as heavenly spirit root. What Wang Lu said was a sheer fabrication.

  He was having a thrilling adventure, thus took this big gamble. Through the previous dialogue, he knew that the dwarf hasn't personally seen Princess Yunyue, and the founding father could not possibly know the current situation of his descendant, or else he wouldn't have said anything about 'I'm afraid the royal bloodline has already withered.'

  And since these two did not know the situation of Yunyue, he was free to make his move.

  "Princess Yunyue of course would not reveal any abnormalities. For a young princess who lived in purdah since childhood, showing any ability will not bring her any benefit, and people would instead suspect her. The ignorant fools in the world would see her ability as threat, so since she was very young, she was cautioned not to show her ability, never let anyone see or know. She must not use it arbitrarily. After a long time of shutting herself from people, she is now completely able to restrain her ability, behaving just like ordinary people."

  Although the dwarf completely didn't believe that story, at the moment, he has no clear and strong evidence to refute that. All of the previous action was basically done by his servant independently from him. Many of the matters were only known by his servant. However, now that the servant has already been turned into a pool of pus by Wang Lu, thus, the dwarf was unable to verify many matters.

  Wang Lu said, "For cultivators, the legitimacy of the bloodline is in no way in accordance with the rules of the mortal world. Heavenly spirit root is more legitimate than earthly spirit root, and earthly spirit root is more legitimate than five elements spirit root, this is the rule of cultivators. Senior, I think, for you, a young and beautiful descendant with heavenly spirit root is far more useful than a waste descendant who can't break free from his disabled condition mentality, right?"

  This was another gamble of Wang Lu, betting that the ancestor of the Cloud Country was acting on self interest; the so-called family bloodline for Wang Lu himself was actually worthless. Otherwise, after waking up from years of slumber, how could he have a preference for a deformed dwarf? Was it not because the dwarf was a cultivator, moreover, a Peak Jindan Stage cultivator at that? However, the talent of this dwarf was, after all, limited. Peak Jindan Stage was as high as he could get, hopeless for any future breakthrough.

  However, a cultivator with heavenly spirit root was different. As long as there was a right guidance, a mere Peak Jindan was not even close to the limit… Theoretically, the princess could even achieve higher cultivation base than that of the founding father!

  Upon hearing the words heavenly spirit root, the voice went into silent. This made the dwarf so nervous, for fear that the founding father would give up on him because of this.

  However, the founding father was not so gullible. "If that's the case, how can you prove that what you say is true? How to prove that Yunyue does have heavenly spirit root?"

  Wang Lu said, "If you don't believe me, you can go to the city of Yunyang to witness it yourself. If there is so much as a single lie in my words, you can just kill me."

  Upon saying that, Wang Lu gently exhaled out, trying to calm the pressure in his heart.

  This was his last gamble, but also one with the highest risk. He gambled that the founding father of Cloud Country has not been fully freed. Although he has a great power in the royal tomb area, he could not move at will. As such, it was impossible for him to go to Yunyang City to witness the quality of Yunyue.

  Because up to now, the founding father has yet to appear in person, but just displayed his strength and communicated with Wang Lu and the dwarf using his voice. When normal people woke up, they would get out of bed and stretch out or something, but why would he still stay in his 'bed'? Did he have any illness?

  Therefore, Wang Lu took a gamble on himself, betting that the forefather was unable to personally witness the authenticity!

  As a result, the voice went into silence for a long time. "You have three days to bring Yunyue to me."

  With that, a gray liquid flew up from the crack on the ground and pierced straight at Wang Lu's chest. Wang Lu didn't try to dodge or withstand, but just let it corrode his body.

  "Rest assured, in three days I will bring her here."

  —


  After leaving the royal tomb, Wang Lu heaved a long sigh of relief. Three days. This was the buffer time that he bought for himself with amazing words.

  This hidden plot could no longer be solved with the normal strategy. Unfortunately, because the process on the previous chain was indeed a bit too fast, in dealing with the current chain, he was a bit hasty, resulting in an unexpected situation that caught him off guard. An old demon, with inscrutable cultivation base, suddenly appeared. This was indeed a fatal error on his part. However, there was still a chance to save the situation.

  The gray fluid in his chest was not a problem. The founding father possibly thought that the rotten corpse fluid was a terrifying poison, enough to make all cultivators below Jindan terrified and helpless. However, Wang Lu was very clear with his current physical ability, which could easily suppress this highly poisonous fluid. Digesting and absorbing it would happen in a matter of days. If he returned to Spirit Sword Mountain, any Heavenly Sword Hall Elder could casually help him dissolve it instantly.

  The problem was that, he didn't come to take risk in immortal dream land just to survive. Moreover, as a professional, even if he inadvertently triggered the hidden plot, which caused the difficulty of this chain to abruptly increase, he still wanted to pass this test perfectly.

  Within these three days of buffer period, he believed he could find a way to do just that.

  That founding father old demon was definitely not invincible. He must have a fatal weakness. For example, who covered the ancient monument with spells to suppress him?

  At present, it could be said that the ancient monument was the only exposed weakness of the founding father. If he wanted to clear this test perfectly, then that was where he should start.

  —


  Late at night, within the restricted ground in royal palace. In the thousands-of-years-heritage secret chamber, rows of neat jade shelves were reflected in the dim light of candlelight.

  Wang Lu was standing within a cluster of bookshelves, holding a centuries-old ancient book, earnestly reading it word by word.

  "So that's how it is. The founding king of Cloud Country is indeed extraordinary. His name is Yunkongjun 1 , a great cultivator from a righteous sect. In his old age, he returned to his hometown and established Cloud Country… The records end here, but there's no description about Yunkongjun. This book is really useless."

  The country ruler book that was regarded as the most valuable thing in the cloud country king room was commented as trash by Wang Lu as he put it aside. Then, Wang Lu picked up another book and speed read it to the end, only to once again shake his head.

  "The ancient records of rite operation actually has no record about Yunkongjun… Alright, let's start with the construction of the royal tomb."

  After failing to get anything from reading two consecutive books, Wang Lu tried another idea and began to investigate on the construction of the royal tomb. After all, in legend, the monument and the royal tomb were built together so perhaps there were clues in it.

  However, even after he read three to four more books, Wang Lu still didn't find any clue. There was simply no record on how did it appear, or who built it.

  Seeing this, Wang Lu immediately lost interest in this secret chamber. Obviously, someone had deliberately deleted the record about the stele. And since someone had deleted it, Wang Lu believed that there was definitely nothing left in this room.

  However, this didn't mean that the trail was completely severed. Things that related to the secret of the country, even if there was no record of it in the book, Wang Lu believed the king of the Cloud Country definitely knew something about it.

  Therefore, he directly looked for King Yunyang.

  "The country monument?" King Yunyang was on his bed. He didn't get angry for disturbing his sleep late at night, and he also didn't ask Wang Lu to leave. Right now, his only hope to save his daughter was completely pinned on Wang Lu, thus he would not refuse any request from Wang Lu.

  "There is indeed a secret passed on from king to king about the country monument… come with me."

  King Yunyang, without hesitation, got up, get dressed, and led Wang Lu to his study room. Then he picked up the imperial seal and pressed something on it. A jade scroll then rolled out.

  "This is the greatest secret of the royal family."

  Wang Lu smiled. "And you're just going to let me, an outsider, see it? Is that according to the rules?"

  King Yunyang sank his voice. "Right now, the entire Cloud Country is in danger of collapse, what rules could be bigger than the country itself?"

  "Well said," Wang Lu said and then opened the scroll. In just one look, his complexion immediately changed.

  …