When the sun rose, Ethereal’s imperial city was covered in a tense atmosphere as the five princes fully mobilized their connections. Those with certain status were all highly strung.

  The private armies of the four great clans moved the fastest, and among them, the Yun private army took the lead.

  Although Bai Xiaofei didn’t stay long in the Yun army, he had already told them what to do. As soon as Yun Lan passed down an order, the Yun troops beat the other armies to pour into the city through various channels before the garrison commander, who was a relative of the Third Prince, had all the entrances sealed up.

  However, the rest of the princes quickly found their own way. No matter how they wanted to compete for the throne, the Puppetsmith Holy Mountain and the Ethereal Merchant Group had to operate as usual, in which there would be movement of personnel. Using this loophole, Ling Zong and Ling Hai’s people entered the city.

  Meanwhile, Ling Ming turned to his wife for help. Although she was no longer in the Moonlight Empire, the empire gladly provided their support in this matter. Before long, their special political group arrived at the imperial city, where Ling Ming was in charge of reception, conveniently also bringing his people in.

  Of course, his personnel wasn’t from Moonlight, but his own cultivated force. As a reward for their outstanding contributions, the emperor had allowed all the five princes to have their own private army, the small scale of which was contrary to their supreme quality.

  In addition to those armed forces, many parties in the imperial city were also mobilized: Merchant groups, mercenary groups, solo puppet masters… Anyone who could be a booster had been recruited by the princes. As a result, the city had gradually become a huge ticking bomb waiting to explode.

  “You have been doing nothing for three days! Didn’t you say it was time for a grand event?!” Tan Xin kicked the door open, and what she saw made her annoyance turn into fury.

  Bai Xiaofei was resting his head on Ni Xue’s lap while the latter peeled grapes and intimately fed them to his mouth.

  “BAI XIAOFEI!!!” Tan Xin’s anger shot through the ceiling, but there was nothing she could do.

  “I know what you want to say. Don’t worry, everything is under my control.” Bai Xiaofei smiled and continued chewing on his grapes.

  “Fine! If so, can you describe the situation outside now?!” Tan Xin asked, wanting to see Bai Xiaofei being face-slapped. However…


  “The princes are using their own ways to transport troops into the city. The First Prince is leading in number, followed by the troops of the Third Prince, while the Fourth and Six are evenly matched. The Eighth Prince has the fewest troops, but thanks to the Moonlight envoy group, he’s the closest to the palace,” Bai Xiaofei listed.

  Tan Xin stared blankly at him.

  “Not only that, the mercenary group in the capital has been unprecedentedly active. Almost all the tasks on the mission board are related to recruitment, offering plentiful rewards. On another note, prestigious puppet masters in the city are betting on their favored candidate. However, they can only play a role a little better than nothing in front of the big armies.”


  Sentence by sentence, Bai Xiaofei described the situation of the imperial city clearly. And he still had more!

  “This morning, after getting up, you asked for two trays of small steamed buns, one with donkey meat stuffing and one with beef radish stuffing, but you didn’t finish them. You stopped after three buns and the waiter finished the rest.”


  Tan Xin gulped.

  “You shouldn’t be…”


  “That’s right. I’m monitoring what happens in every corner of the imperial city every second. I even know whose cat caught how many mice today!” Bai Xiaofei finished her words and raised his hand. His storage ring flashed, dropping a huge pile of drained origin stones. “Just when I ran out of origin stones. Help me find someone to ask for some. They can’t be bought at the moment, being regarded as military supplies.”


  Tan Xin still hadn’t recovered from her shock.

  How big is this imperial city?! How did he monitor everything?! And why waste so much effort to do that?!!

  “Don’t you have the Imperial Guard?! Even if your body can store an abundance of origin energy, you will probably be exhausted before the official day of the competition,” Tan Xin expressed her concern, knowing there would definitely be a fierce battle that day.

  Hearing this, Bai Xiaofei sat up. Judging from his slow movements, it was quite difficult for him to hold up his current state.

  “There are matters that I must fully grasp. I promised the emperor to help Ethereal pass through this transformation safely and I am not a person who breaks my word.” With a weak smile, Bai Xiaofei threw away the used origin stones in his hand and sighed. “Peak grade stones, gone just like that. Forget it, too late to wait for more stones.”


  Then, he pulled Huskie down from below the bed.

  “Take out a part of what I put in your space. After this whole thing is over, I’ll treat you to a grand meal.”


  Huskie moved as soon as he heard ‘grand meal.’ Before long, a fiery red crystal tree appeared and the temperature of the room began to rise rapidly. Some flammable items even began to emit smoke.

  When Bai Xiaofei pressed his hand on the tree, the temperature dropped instantly.

  “Ahh, so little time to enjoy life. If someone comes to seek me, help me send them away. I won’t be seeing anyone during this period,” he said to the two girls.

  At that moment, a waiter ran up in a panic.

  “No need to say it. We’ll go downstairs with you,” said Tan Xin to the waiter. She had turned from furious to Bai Xiaofei’s willing errand girl.

  Ni Xue followed Tan Xin out. After they left, Bai Xiaofei gave a long sigh.

  “You guys… Come out.”