Sovereign of the Three Realms (WN)
chapter-139

Chapter 139: An Old Man Who Plays Dumb, Acts Cute, and Has No Principles

Jiang Chen knew that the old man had thoroughly taken the bait now that the old man had said such words.

Qiao Baishi found it privately hilarious on the side. He also knew that they were finally out of the woods this time. With his honored master’s eloquence, they’d have this old man turning in circles.

“Coincidence? This is something ordained by heaven. Of course it’s coincidence.”

“Ordained by heaven?” Elder Fei muttered to himself, his gaze a bit far away and lost. “I’ve heard of the Renewal Purity Pill, but no one knows of the pill recipe within the Skylaurel Kingdom. It’s said that the cost of this pill is indeed much cheaper than the Peaceful Ruler Pill, and that the ingredients are easy to find. It’s also easier to refine.”

Suddenly, Elder Fei’s eyes moved as if he’d decided something.

“Kid, this old fellow will trust you this once. I can avoid pursuing the matter of you trespassing in the Qingyang Valley, but you must introduce me to this mysterious expert.”

Jiang Chen purposefully made things difficult, “I can’t agree to this brashly. Besides, what’s the use of meeting him? This senior has long since paid no interest to the common affairs of the mundane world. I think that it’ll be difficult for you to ask him.”

The old fellow chuckled, “It’s difficult for me to ask him, but what if you asked?”

“I… why would I ask?” Jiang Chen purposefully played dumb.

“Eh… well!” The old fellow smiled a bit awkwardly. True, why would someone make this request for him? This had nothing to do with them.

Wringing his hands where he stood, he cautiously smiled obsequiously. “Uh, eh, little brother. Tell me, what should I do so that you’ll go ask for me?”

Jiang Chen had a darkened face. “I’m not doing it. I was scared by you just now. Twenty years as a medicine servant, so awe inspiring, peh!”

“Heh heh, don’t be mad, don’t be mad.” The old fellow toadied up to Jiang Chen, raising a hand to tap his shoulder in a fawning matter. “Come, come, come. Let this old fellow massage your back for you. What silly twenty years of a medicine servant? I think that you’ve misheard. I meant that I’ll be a medicine servant for twenty years to whoever can resolve the issue of the Peaceful Ruler Pill for me!”

Jiang Chen found it privately hilarious, and couldn’t help but want to laugh when he saw this old fellow acting the buffoon. When it came down to it, this old fellow was eccentric and a bit crusty, but he wasn’t of the bad sort.

If it were those from the Azure Heaven Northern Palace, they definitely would be threatening him with life and death, and would have no scruples about using any sort of means to force Jiang Chen to come to terms and submit.

This old man was a pill master and seemed to consider those crooked means behind his notice, holding himself pure and lofty, away from all that.

Even if this kind of person had an eccentric temperament, his natural character wouldn’t be crooked.

“I misheard?” Jiang Chen said purposefully.

“Absolutely misheard.” The old man nodded his head quite seriously.

“This means that I can leave and go to the capital?”

“Of course! Why can’t you?” The old man put on an air as if this was a very strange question — as if Jiang Chen was utterly crazy for asking this question.

One had to say, the old man’s personality was quite a bit like an old naughty child. He would play dumb, act cute, and would throw his temper around.

Jiang Chen had had his fun teasing him and laughed, “Elder Fei is it? How about this, come find me in the capital after a while.”

“Really?” Elder Fei’s eyes shot out a great amount of sparks.

“Do I look like a liar?”

“Not at all, not at all!” The old man shook his head as if he was beating a drum. “When this old man first saw you, I felt that you were extremely tall and handsome, of a striking appearance and bearing, a dragon or a phoenix amongst men, an immortal that had descended to the earth… it made it such that this old man couldn’t help but want to become close to you, and even made me yearn to immediately swear the oaths and go through the ritual of slaughtering a chicken and burning yellow paper in order to become blood brothers.”

Fawning words came rolling over him in waves, and flattery billowed — this was the epitome of skilled adeptness.

Jiang Chen discovered that this old man was a bit like him, with no principles whatsoever.

It was as if the old man was sending off his own kin when he saw them off at the road. He waved his hand, “Go well and be careful on the road. If anything happens, just say my name.”

These words were as intimate as they could be.

Apart from Jiang Chen, Gouyu, and Jiang Feng, the others all felt as if they were dreaming. They’d thought that they’d be unable to avoid twenty years of serving as a medicine servant.

Who would’ve thought that Jiang Chen’s few words of bluster and distraction would completely turn the old man around, and would have him send them off as he was sending off his old kin, departing from his usual behavior.

“Chen’er, you…” Jiang Feng wanted to say something.

“Father, let’s go, this old man is one of ours in the future.” Jiang Chen chuckled. He’d dug a hole just now, and the old man had jumped straight in, leaping in headfirst full of joy.

Twenty years as a medicine servant… Jiang Chen smiled. It would be quite interesting with such an old man as his medicine servant.

…

Within the Qingyang Valley, the two medicine boys, Big Egg and Second Egg, were tongue tied and their eyes were bugging out. They had on faces of confusion, and their mouths were wide open — enough to shove in a chicken leg.

“Elder Fei, that kid looks like he’s full of complete nonsense. We’re letting him go just like this?” Big Egg found this incredible.

“Indeed, I feel like that kid isn’t anything good.” Second Egg was equally unable to comprehend.

“Heh heh.” Elder Fei smiled meaningfully, stretching out leisurely on his chair. “What do you two know? I’ve lived hundreds of years, and have seen all sorts of people. This kid is full of both truths and falsehood, a person the same as me. He plays dumb when he should play dumb, pretends to be helpless when he should, and isn’t shy about putting on airs when he should.”

“The same person as you, Elder?” Big Egg and Second Egg were even more confused.

“Yes, the same person.” The old man closed his eyes in intoxication, and started humming a small tune. He’d been probing with his act of playing dumb and acting cute just now as well.

The old man had ended up discovering that young kid that spoke with both ease and fluency, was even better at playing dumb than he was. This was right up the old man’s alley.

The old man was quite a narcissistic person, and felt that Jiang Chen was the same as him. Therefore, he absolutely wouldn’t be a bad person, or someone who wagged his tongue too freely.

In addition, after analyzing the details, the kid’s eyes hadn’t even blinked when he’d mentioned the names of those pills. This wasn’t an act that an ordinary person could put on.

How would he have such knowledge without pointers from a pill master?

How many within the entire Skylaurel Kingdom had heard of the Renewal Purity Pill, to say nothing of anything else?

Therefore, although elder Fei looked muddled, he was actually quite astute. He had at least made some preliminary deductions that Jiang Chen wasn’t making empty promises.

Not to mention that the capital wasn’t too far from here. Even if this kid was up to something, Elder Fei could go any time if he wanted to make trouble for him.

However, Elder Fei’s instincts had been honed quite sharply after living for hundreds of years. This time, his instincts told him that maybe this kid really wasn’t pulling the wool over his eyes.

He wasn’t short on medicine servants or the like anyways.

He had made such a frightening rule because he didn’t want too many idle trespassers swinging through the Qingyang Valley, disturbing the peace of the Valley in cultivating spirit medicine.

It wasn’t that the old man was truly malicious.

There truly was a fundamental difference between the Qingyang Valley, and the Azure Heaven Northern Palace.

It was as Tang Long had said; they didn’t run into any trouble worth mentioning after leaving the territory of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace and Qingyang Valley.

They arrived at the capital of Skylaurel Kingdom early in the morning on the second day.

As they flew high up in the sky and gazed down at it from afar, the capital of the Skylaurel Kingdom was quite an impressive sight. An enormous city wall and moat were as if they were a brilliant pearl embedded into the earth, presenting a splendid sight.

The tall and mighty sturdy city doors, extensive architecture, capital soldiers bristling with armor and weaponry — every detail was testament to the awe inspiring position of the Skylaurel Kingdom.

“The reputation of the four great kingdoms is well deserved. It looks like we were really frogs at the bottom of a well inside the Eastern Kingdom before.”

Gouyu felt quite a mix of emotions as she stood in front of the Skylaurel Kingdom capital and looked at the enormous city walls and moat.

With Tang Long’s warning, Jiang Chen and them naturally didn’t fly into the capital on the back of the Goldwing Swordbirds. They landed outside the city doors instead, and lead the Goldwing Swordbirds through the city doors.

With Prince Ye’s medallion, their entrance through the city doors was smooth and unobstructed.

The guard at the city gates smiled, “You have the medallion of the prince, and won’t have to be inspected when you enter and leave the city gates in the future.”

The presence of a bustling city life greeted them as they entered the capital.

Going by the map that Ye Rong had left Jiang Chen, the group ambled along their way and finally made it to Ye Rong’s ‘Prince Rong Manor’ after roughly two hours.

A group of practitioners clad in red armor surged out out from both sides before they’d made it to the front door, as they openly brandished their weapons at the group.

“Idle bypassers may not linger in front of the prince’s manor!”

“We are friends of the fourth prince, and have been invited to come visit him.” Jiang Chen displayed the medallion.

The red armored practitioners looked at the medallion for a while, after which the captain waved his hand and all the red armored practitioners put away their weapons.

“Please wait, I’ll go notify the fourth prince.”

Hearty laughter came from the manor’s interior after a short while.

“Hahaha, I heard the magpies chattering on the branches after waking up this morning. I made some small calculations and knew that some honored guests were coming to visit. Can it be that my younger brother has come to visit?”

The owner of the hearty voice was Prince Ye Rong.

A red shadow quickly ran out from the door before the sound had even finished echoing. Ye Rong made directly for Jiang Chen, giving him a bearhug filled with burning passion.

“Younger brother, I’ve missed you! I’ve been waiting for your arrival, and have finally seen you arrive.” Ye Rong grabbed Jiang Chen’s shoulders after the bear hug, and looked him up and down, “Heh. Looks like many stories have happened to you along the way.”

Jiang Chen smiled ruefully. “Had you told me that when travelling to the capital that it would be filled with such twists and turns, I definitely wouldn’t have turned down your idea to meet me at the border.”

“What happened?” Prince Ye Rong’s face darkened. “Did some blind idiot make trouble for my younger brother?”

Jiang Chen sighed, “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later.”

“Alright, let’s go in, let’s go in. Let’s all come inside to talk. I’ll throw a banquet immediately to welcome you and wash the road dust off your feet. Today is a day of great joy and we must drink. Heh heh, I hadn’t found it within myself to break open the wine I had begged from the Precious Tree Sect. Today, we’re going to get drunk!”

As a prince, Ye Rong’s personality may not have been the most desirable.

But as a friend, Ye Rong’s straightforwardness rather increased Jiang Chen’s good impression of him. At least Ye Rong didn’t put on airs in front of him or make a fuss about a superior facing his junior.

In addition, Ye Rong toed the line very carefully. Although sexy ladies such as Gouyu and innocent beauties such as Wen Ziqi were in Jiang Chen’s entourage, Ye Rong always looked at them with urbane politeness when his eyes passed over them, with not the slightest hint of depravity.

This point, at least, was quite rare to find in someone in a superior position.