The next day morning, somewhere in the Kunyu Mountains;
It was the dawn of an important day for Mark. He was so excited that he couldn't sleep all night properly and freshened up even before sunrise.
And what did he do, next?
Well, nothing…
Mark kept on staring at his pocket watch. There are still a few hours left till noon.
"Man, why is time running so slowly…"
His concentration was disturbed upon hearing the sounds of bullets outside. He left his room and stepped outside of the house without informing the other two housemates (Lan Ju and Jinlong).
As soon as he left the house, he witnessed the bandits, or more like their families started gathering outside on the street while a group of bandits with handguns appeared to be on a march.
From time to time, they were shooting bullets into the air, disturbing everyone's sleep for no good reason. Several people, especially the wives and the children had this annoyed look on their faces but they couldn't say anything else too as these brave soldiers will bring them back to their homeland.
Mark, on the other hand, had a different view. He was elated to see the progression of the guns. Being in a good mood also made him ignore the sound pollution and stood there for a while until the leader of the group spotted him.
The group stopped their march when they reached the guest residence where Mark is standing outside.
The leader greeted him with a deep bow and introduced himself as Hou Qifang, a general of the Kunyu Royal Force (i.e. Kunyu bandits).
As Mark nodded in return, the 5-circle realm Spirit Warrior continued to say, "His Majesty ordered us, the generals, to pass you a message if we ever see you during the day."
"What is it?" asked Mark.
Hou Qifang answered, "It's nothing important, Lord Lu. His Majesty just wants to have an important talk with you regarding the war and supplies. If you tell us when you will be free to talk, he will be visiting you with our Grandtutor."
"Now it is a good time to talk," replied Mark.
Earlier day, he was introduced to this grand tutor of the Western Yan who was the only Exalt realm expert in the midst of Feng Wu's army. He was their backbone too.
However, Mark didn't think much of him after defeating supreme realm experts with ease. The Grand Tutor was just another weakling. But then again, he is here to talk with them anyway. So, he agreed to talk.
As Hou Qifang bowed and left with his group, Mark mumbled, "I guess I should also write everything on the paper of what I had in mind."
Imperial City, Phoenix Empire;
*knock* knock* knock*
The series of knocks disturbed the emperor's sleep, making him a bit angry.
"Come in…" He shouted.
The door was opened and an imperial guard enters. He bowed, "I apologize, Your Majesty but it is an emergency."
Emperor Shang's eyes widened and he became fully awake by the word 'emergency'. "What is it?" he asked.
The Imperial guard replied, "Your Majesty, our patrolling guards spotted two carriages bearing the crest of Eastern Sun's royal family. A 7-circle realm powerful beast and its rider were also spotted in the skies."
"Eastern Sun's royal family?" Shang Fu furrowed his brows in displeasure. "But, we didn't receive any letter. Did they think my city is a place where they can come and go as they please?"
The imperial guard then gulped in a bit of fear and further said, "According to Supreme Commander, the beast is of emperor grade."
"A beast emperor?" Emperor Shang's eyes immediately changed as soon as he heard those words. He shouted, "Who's there?"
As the servants rushed in, the emperor ordered them to prepare his bath and clothes. He then ordered the imperial guard to make preparations for the guests from the north.
"Ah, Yes…" The imperial guard was surprised by the sudden change in Emperor's attitude but he didn't dare question his majesty and hurriedly scurry away from the room.
Roughly about an hour later, the two bicorn carriages stopped at Genesis Weapon store and were parked in the training grounds. Everyone got down.
The two guards at the training grounds greeted Song Yue and Shang Wei with a deep bow.
While Shang Wei simply nodded, Song Yue, who was familiar with them, let out a smile and conversed, "Xiong Heng, Lang Mu; how are you doing? Are there any troubles in our absence?"
One of them replied, feeling elated as his existence is acknowledged by someone like Song Yue. "Lady Song, thank you for your kind wishes. It's been quiet around here ever since the store was closed. Once in a while, some kids would try to trespass on the ground to play games. And once in a while, some people from the imperial palace will come to check whether Lord Lu returned or not. Other than that, there's no problem here."
"What about little Chang?" She was a little bit surprised about the closure of the store. After all, her fiancé gave the spare keys to the store to Chang Bo to work as the interim manager and take advanced orders. "Have you seen him around?" She asked.
Soldier Lang Mu answered her question, "Lady Song, he stopped coming for the past three weeks. But, I heard that the kid opened a store branch somewhere in the city and was taking orders from there… We don't know the details."
"Is that so?" Song Yue assumed that Alina must have given him the money to do that as she knew that the android was given a hundred thousand gold coins to open a new restaurant and manage it. "Okay, good job for looking after the store and the grounds. Here…"
She gave them a gold coin each as a token of appreciation and started walking as they thanked her with big smiles.
Xie Mei watched her actions from behind and her eyes narrowed in displeasure, "this woman is weak but very difficult to beat…"
After unlocking the shutter, Lan Ju then lifted it up and everyone entered through the invisible barrier to see the interior of the duplex mansion. Shang Wei and Xie Mei never came here. So, they were quite surprised by how beautiful and clean it looked.
However, Song Yue appeared to have different thoughts. She couldn't help but comment, "there's a lot of dirt around. Was Allen and Alina out of the city for a few days or something?"
As far as she can remember, there has never been a day when she saw the house with dust around. Every part of the house including the store always looked sparklingly clean.
She quickly took out her communication talisman that connects to her best friend Lin Xue. As they were communicating on a daily basis, she knew about her adventures with Allen.
So, she thought her friend would have the knowledge.
But then, since she plan on surprising Lin Xue and purposely didn't inform her arrival at the city, Song Yue put away the communication talisman and looked at the manticore, "Mr. Baltrow, I'm going to Lin Clan to meet my friend. Can you keep an eye on the store and others?" She glanced at Xie Mei as she said this, hoping that this beast king would understand.
Thankfully, she understood what Song Yue wants to say and nodded. "You go…"
After a while, in one of the bicorn carriages, Song Yue, her disguised father, and Shang Wei left to visit Lin Xue's residence.
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