The Azure Soil Kingdom was located a fair distance from the Purple Moon Sect. Some people lamented this fact because they desired proximity to the center of power. Using this reasoning, they frequently whispered to the king about invading nations closer to the Purple Moon Sect. Others, however, lamented the distance for the opposite reason, wanting to be further from the Purple Moon Sect. While being closer to the center of power offered benefits, it also had drawbacks, mainly the fierce competition for resources. Therefore, these individuals whispered to the king that they should invade lands farther away from the Purple Moon Sect.

The king of this kingdom, Hua Zenyuan, known as the Patient King, considered their current location to be ideal. It was neither too far away from the sect, which ensured that they would be promptly informed of important news, such as Hao Yun's recent engagement, nor too close, which prevented excessive competition for resources and allowed them considerable freedom of action. In addition, their proximity to Mirror Lake facilitated secret trades. It wasn't that Hua Zenyuan believed that the Purple Moon Sect was unaware of these trades; rather, he understood that they simply disregarded them as long as the kingdom remained loyal.

Hua Zenyuan sat on a small chair on his balcony, overseeing his entire kingdom. The kingdom was small compared to its neighbors. There had been a time in the past when an emissary from the Phoenix Empire came to his kingdom and asked whether it was true that the entire kingdom could be seen from the top of the castle. When the king confirmed that yes, it was small compared to the Phoenix Empire, the emissary simply sneered and left without another word. Such disrespect aroused hostility from his retainers, yet Hua Zenyuan was not bothered by this display. After all, while the Azure Soil Kingdom was small, it was prosperous, its cultivators were strong, and hundreds of years from now, he believed a Sun Collapsing cultivator would be born within his kingdom. He just needed to be patient and continue his plan to grow his kingdom.

Some of his advisors told him that he lacked ambition, but while he smiled at them, he labeled them as fools who couldn't see beneath the surface. Growing a kingdom was not like growing a rice field. It needed great thought and preparation. His oldest son, the royal prince, asked what his goal was. Since the prince was still not ready for the truth, he simply told him a lie. He said he wanted this kingdom to grow three times the size of the Phoenix Empire. This lie made his son's jaw drop, yet the truth was far greater than that.

Hua Zenyuan wanted to overthrow the Purple Moon Sect. He wanted to swallow it whole, like a crane swallows a fish. As of now, the royal prince was not ready for such revelation, but perhaps in another thousand years, he would be.

Thinking about the Purple Moon Sect, Hua Zenyuan suddenly remembered recent news concerning his youngest son, Hua Beifeng. This son was one of his twenty children whom he considered a failure. He didn't have any desire to rule or grow strong. All he wanted was to pursue art.

"Such a shame," he muttered. "He possessed the intellect to lead this kingdom."

The news about the death of the girl he had fancied—a blind and ugly girl who had tremendous talent in sculpting—should have reached Hua Beifeng by now, and he wondered what his son's response would be. Knowing his son, the king thought that perhaps his youngest would pour all his focus into painting the most sorrowful yet beautiful painting, or perhaps, he would be so sad that he didn't have the will to eat or sleep. He needed to prepare for such an occasion. After all, even if he considered such things meaningless, his image as a just and kind king was needed to grow his kingdom.

A guard suddenly materialized beside him, disturbing his musing. This guard wore black clothes that veiled his entire body. From head to toe, not even a centimeter of his skin could be seen. He looked like a specter that haunted his castle, which was a real rumor spreading across his kingdom—a rumor not intentionally created since the formation of the Ghost Division, but one that he used nonetheless.

"What is the matter?" the king asked. His ghosts would never have appeared if there was nothing amiss, although it didn't necessarily mean it was important. After all, his ghosts were stationed in quite a lot of places, and while some were low priority, he still ordered them to report to him frequently.

"Your Highness," a distinctive male voice could be heard, and the king realized it was the youngest ghost he employed. He still remembered that little kid burning with vengeance in his eyes whom he had recruited from a slum. Now, that beggar kid had blossomed into a fine weapon. "Young Master Beifeng demands to meet you."

Upon hearing the name of the son he had just thought about, the king's eyebrows raised. He looked up at the moon, realizing it was still the middle of the night, and felt intrigued by this development.

"Let him in," the king rose from his small chair and walked toward his throne. He had a feeling that his youngest son would do or demand something interesting. As he walked to the throne, he wondered how he could leverage this situation. Kindness was a trait he carefully cultivated, but it didn't mean he could not be harsh. Or perhaps, he needed to be empathetic?

As he sat on his modest throne, the giant yellow gem illuminated his throne room. A red carpet stretched between him and the giant double doors made of fine white marble. They were carved with a modest pattern, one that depicted a serene wave. When the gates were touched, they would give either a warm or a cold sensation depending on the temperature. Right now, the gates should feel warm. This made the king decide to adopt a warm demeanor at first, but prepared to adjust his demeanor depending on how Beifeng acted.

The gates creaked open, and with a brief announcement from his ghost, his youngest child, Hua Beifeng, entered.

As the young man walked toward him, Hua Zenyuan wondered when the last time they had met was. Had it been a year ago, when he decided to hold a royal tea party in the royal garden? Two years ago, when the betrothal of his second son commenced? Or even longer? He actually didn't remember. A normal father would have been ashamed by this fact, but he wasn't normal.

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He observed his child more critically. Beifeng was supposed to be around twenty, or perhaps thirty? Anyway, the young man actually looked the same age as him. His black hair had hints of white all around his head and his eyelids were the color of charcoal. Beifeng had a skinny body, as if a little wind could make him fly to a faraway country.

By all means, Beifeng was weak. He was the only child who had no interest in cultivating and had decided to pursue art, and thus, the only mortal in his family. Some people thought he was the disgrace of the Hua family, but for the king, even mortals had their uses. Yet, even if by all means Beifeng should be weak, his red eyes shone with such intensity that it felt like they could burn the world. It would be exaggerated to say that the king felt uneasy seeing those red pools, and yet, there was a little truth to it.

"Beifeng, glad to see you," Hua Zenyuan flashed a warm smile. "But I know you didn't come here just to meet me. What's the matter?"

Hua Beifeng scratched his neck. His scratch was rough, and his pale neck reddened instantly. "Father, am I a good son?"

The king raised his eyebrows. Could it be...

"You are indeed a good son," the king said, his mind beginning to predict where this conversation would lead. "You have made no trouble for me. You create beautiful paintings, ones that are adored by master painters all over the world. You have been filial to me, and while some people thought you were weak, that was not a sin."

Hua Beifeng was indeed tame compared to his other children. But he was not exactly a righteous person either. Whereas his other sons used their position to bully people or force themselves upon girls they fancied, Hua Beifeng used his position to create art. While all of his art was sophisticated, not all of it was beautiful. One time, when he was a teen, there was a girl with lips so beautifully red that every time she entered a room, all eyes focused on her. Beifeng was no exception, but instead of enjoying those lips in a normal way, he beheaded her, cut off her beautiful lips, ground them into paste, and used it to create a painting of enchanting red lips.

"I intended to continue being a good son, Father, but today, I have a request. A request that would make me so grateful to have been born as your son." Hua Beifeng then knelt and clasped his hands together. "I know you have heard the news about the death of Cu Lianyin, the most talented sculptor in the world."

As he spoke, his red eyes bore into the king. It was not the gaze of someone pleading for help, but of a predator who had cornered its prey. The king could feel the air around Beifeng drop in temperature, and he could feel a strong killing intent emanating from him. Upon feeling this, the king maintained a calm face, but his heart was actually surprised. This kid, since when did he possess such strong killing intent?

"Indeed, I have heard news about the death of Cu Lianyin. What a pity. Even if she was blind, her talent surpassed all her peers."

Beifeng nodded deeply. "I am deeply in love with her. She was blind, yet she could see things that I cannot see. She was ugly, yet, she could capture beauty that no one else could catch. Next year, I intended to present the most beautiful paintings I have ever painted, and she would receive me with open arms. We would have become a happy couple who understood and supported each other through art. A person like her is so rare that I doubt even if I become Immortal, I would meet another person like her."

The king could see that his son's intense red eyes actually shone with a soft light. It seemed his son had been truly smitten by an ugly and blind woman. The fact that she was dead was, in a way, was a good fortune. Beifeng was not directionless. He pursued art like cultivators pursued immortality, but right now, Beifeng's anger could be directed into other, more useful things. But, there was always a complication in every situation.

"I want revenge," Hua Beifeng's voice reverberated through the throne room. "I want to kill the bastard who trampled the most beautiful flower in the world!"

"Do you know who killed Cu Lianyin, son?" the king asked. "His name is Yu Yongrui, a disciple of the Purple Moon Sect."

The Purple Moon Sect, as a whole, was usually a calm and collected sect. Every move they made was planned years before execution, and they usually chose elegant ways to solve their problems. Most of the time, that elegance was accompanied by a brilliant ruthlessness, and the Patient King believed that their mindset was the key to their prominence. This huge event that shook a quarter of the continent didn't feel too elegant. The sect unleashed all of their outer disciples and wreaked havoc everywhere they went. Already, there were rumors about the chaos that happened in so many nations. There was a king who had his wife stolen by a disciple, and an emperor who had a headache because his advisors, retainers, and sons offended a disciple. There was even a rumor about an empire called the Twelve Sun Empire, whose capital was entirely destroyed by a single disciple. Even the Azure Soil Kingdom, which luckily didn't have any disciples visit them, felt the effects.

The point was, while he intended to swallow the sect whole, that was a story for the future. Currently, he didn't have enough manpower to even make the sect use a fraction of its power, and so, offending them would set a huge setback to his meticulous plan to rise to prominence, which currently was actually focused on research into agriculture as well as several cultivation techniques. If they offended the sect and it demanded repercussions, all of these resources would be gone.

Hence, even the Patient King understood that offending them currently was like stabbing himself in the gut.

"Your revenge is impossible, son. That sect is so strong that even if the entire kingdom colluded with demonic cultivators, we would simply be trampled to death."

"What are you talking about, father?" the youngest prince snapped. "Did I say I wanted to attack the entire sect? I merely wish to eliminate a single disciple. Surely that is not an impossible request. Just provide me with the means, and I will take care of it myself."

"Beifeng," the king straightened his back. He cycled his qi and pressed it toward his son. "You are indeed a genius, but what you pursue is art, and therefore you would have an oversight regarding politics. The Purple Moon Sect is mighty. It's not a sect that would let people slap their faces and do nothing about it. They would retaliate to save face, and we could not afford that retaliation."

"I want to kill Yu Yongrui!" the youngest prince snarled. "There must be a way to catch him silently, cripple him, and deliver him to me!"

"Such naive thoughts," the king pressed harder with his qi. The prince, already kneeling, began to bow deeper and deeper, yet his face stubbornly looked up at the king with red eyes as if he wanted to swallow the world. That face made Hua Zenyuan feel anger rising from his stomach. How dare this little child defy him? "You are a fool if you think they are not watching us. Even now, there is a chance that our conversation is being heard by them."

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