Plans for the Twins
Xue Feng eventually woke up, but even as he did, he was still somewhat in disbelief from Yggdrasil and thought the previous hour was a dream.
However, after he sensed his lowered cultivation and saw Yggdrasil sitting just a few meters away, he realized it was real and began laughing in glee.
"HAHAHA, Duan Zhen always bragged about how I would never reach the Xiantian Great Realm. Not only can I, but I could also reach it in a decade! He's going to be scared out of his mind!" Xue Feng laughed in pleasure as he began concocting random scenarios and started to lose himself.
However, his fascinations quickly started turning crazy, and Li Rou thought he had gone mad. Thinking her husband had gone mad, Li Rou began to shake some sense into him.
Thankfully it worked, as very soon, he started calming down.
"Husband, all of that is in the future, but for now, we need to ensure that Yggdrasil is never known to the public. Even with how much Duan Zhen trusts you, he would not hesitate to start a war over this." Li Rou spoke seriously. She was the group's sense of reason.
Xue Feng came back to reality after he heard Li Rou's words.
"Bai'er, your mother is right. How many people did you tell about this?" Xue Feng seriously asked as he grabbed Xue Bai's shoulders.
If Xue Bai had told anyone about this, there would be many problems.
"Only five people know of its existence, but each person is different. Since I planned to give Uncle Li a Yggdrasil fruit from the beginning, I told him what Yggdrasil does. But the other four people are different. Two of them are the Wang twins. After all, they helped me bring the thing back home, while the other two are the Stone Gambling Pavilion's shopkeeper and chief blacksmith. But neither of them knows anything about Yggdrasil and only thinks it's a low Black-grade natural treasure." Xue Bai answered truthfully.
"You opened Yggdrasil from a Spiritual Jade Stone?" His parents asked simultaneously.
"Yes, how else would I find this good a treasure in the city." Xue Bai replied back.
His parents were speechless. Yes, how else could he find Yggdrasil in the central city of the dukedom? Almost every inch of Snowy WInd City had been optimized for both real estate and defensive purposes. So finding something new there was virtually impossible.
But Li Rou caught onto something else, "How did you even find out about the Stone Gambling Pavillion? Neither of us told you about it."
"Uncle LI told me to go there if I wanted to test my luck." Xue Bai replied innocently. His mother's face looked scary, and he wanted to downplay any involvement in this.
"Did you only buy the stone that Yggdrasil was in?!" Li Rou was fuming.
Not only had her idiot of an older brother not learned from his previous experience of gambling, but he dared to bring her son into it.
"No, I bought two more, but I planned to open them at home." Xue Bai hurriedly explained as he pointed to the two stones that sat at the side of Yggdrasil.
Xue Bai had made Little Wang carry them into his courtyard. But since Xue Bai couldn't open them without help, they had been sitting on the ground.
Li Rou snorted in anger.
Waving her hand into the air, the two small stones that were a few meters away floated from their original positions and immediately attached themselves to her fair hand like they were metals being attracted by a magnet.
"I'm confiscating these! Also, if I ever catch you in a Stone Gambling Pavilion, then!" Li Rou didn't need to finish her sentence.
Even though Xue Bai didn't know what she planned to do, he had no plans to find out.
"I'll get even with Big Brother Huo after this, but first, we need to plan out what to do next." Then, suppressing her anger Li Rou spoke.
The group of three became silent after Li Rou's words as they thought about what they should do next.
Xue Bai did have some ideas, but he felt like he had been talking way too much and way too intelligently for this entire day. Staying silent now was best.
Thankfully both of his parents were extremely intelligent, and within a few seconds, they thought of the most reasonable actions to take next.
"I think we should bring those two to us for a discussion and move the Wang twins into the Core Region of the estate." Xue Feng stated, which was quickly seconded by Li Rou.
The twins were already bound to them, and their dukedom and Xue Feng looked highly upon their talent, so silencing them would be stupid.
As for the other two, silencing wasn't off the table, but for now, Xue Feng thought to just recruit them.
If they weren't loyal and tried to leak the information, it wouldn't be too late to kill them later.
Finished with their plan, the parents stood up, ready to go and complete it.
"Bai'er, take this token and go to my courtyard and find a place to plant Yggdrasil somewhere where the Spiritual Qi is the densest. And don't worry. I know you can't sense it yet, so I have markers around the garden. From 1-10, with ten being the densest." Li Rou gently spoke as she handed Xue Bai a token with a flower engraved on it.
Xue Bai took it and placed it into his pocket before asking a question of his own.
"Mother, should I come with you two to see the Stone Gambling Pavillion workers?" Xue Bai asked. He had recruited them and thought that he should see it through.
After thinking for a little, his parents agreed. After his fall, while he hadn't suddenly become a mature adult, he had grown somewhat and showed promise. So they thought that involving him in dukedom's affairs earlier would help his growth.
"First plant Yggdrasil in my garden, then you can come to us. We will be in the main hall where we talk about military affairs instead of my office." Xue Feng spoke.
After nodding at each other, the trio split up to do their own roles.
However, after his parents left, Xue Bai realized that he still couldn't carry Yggdrasil, especially now that it was encased in a pot with Spiritual Soil weighing it down even more.
"Xiao'er, call over one of the Wang twins to come and help me carry Yggdrasil. We are going to mothers courtyard!" Xue Bai yelled out.
Xiao'er didn't enter but just shouted back a yes, before leaving to get the Big Wang.
It didn't take long for Xiao'er to arrive with Big Wang. And after the man saw Xue Bai still struggling with Yggradrasil, he went and lifted it with ease.
Big Wang was in the Law Engraving Realm, so the tree weighed almost nothing to him, no matter how overpowered it was.
The three then started to make their way to LI Rou's courtyard, but since Big Wang didn't know the way, Xue Bai was in the lead.
Half an hour later and with Xue Bai sweating bullets, the three arrived at Li Rou's courtyard.
'This world is too big. Just the distance between courtyards is more than some parks!' Xue Bai thought.
He was getting really tired of how big the world was. And while Xue Bai knew the world was only big to him since he was still a mortal, it still didn't make it less annoying.
Thankfully, Xiao'er was a great maid, as once she saw how tired Xue Bai looked, she went into the pouch at her side, pulled out a small handkerchief, and delicately wiped away the sweat.
"Young Master, I have some water if you'd like?" Xiao'er kindly asked as she pulled out a bottle of water from nowhere.
But Xue Bai was too tired to realize that Xiao'er just used a spatial ring and nodded instead.
Taking the water bottle and downing it, Xue Bai felt refreshed.
After a few deep breaths, Xue Bai then went over to the gate of Li Rou's courtyard.
Though Li Rou had her courtyard unattended, she had locked it using a formation.
Thankfully, Xue Bai had his mother's token, so after he undid the formation blocking their entry easily, the three of them could enter inside.
Inside his mother's herb garden, Xue Bai now noticed the markers that were everywhere. He hadn't noticed it the first time, but looking at it once more, he realized just how much his mother had detailed this spare courtyard of hers.
Other than the numbers, almost every single herb was labeled, and even the Spiritual Soil they sat in was also ranked and labeled.
It was an OCD patient's wet dream.
However, Xue Bai didn't look at the numbers much past his first glance. Big Wang was with him now, so rather than using the numbers that could be slightly wrong, Xue Bai asked the man to find the densest places instead.
"Young Duke, the densest is around that tree in the center." With his perception, it wasn't hard for Big Wang to find it, and he quickly pointed it out.
"Big Wang, dig out a space for Yggdrasil near the tree in the center but make sure it's far away. I don't want the two to kill each other." Xue Bai ordered.
Finding a spot with dense Spiritual Qi and still far away from the tree in the center wasn't easy, but Big Wang eventually found one and planted Yggdrasil in a hole he dug.
"Young Duke, do you have any other orders?" Big Wang wanted to go back and cultivate. He and his brother were getting closer and closer to the Law Manifestation realm each day, and he didn't want to waste a second.
"Yes, go call your brother and meet us in the main hall. Father and Mother will be giving you a surprise." Xue Bai replied vaguely.
But Big Wang could read through the lines and looked ecstatic. So after he quickly bowed, he flew off, running to go and find his little brother.
"Young Master, are we going to the main hall now?" Xiao'er asked once she realized that their job here was done.
Xue Bai nodded at her.
Before the two left Li Rou's courtyard, Xue Bai made sure to turn the formation back on. And since that was only a button press, the two then started to head over to the main hall.
The main hall was a part of the same building as Xue Feng's office. However, the office was only a side room, while the Main Hall took up the majority of the space in the building.
And, like its bland and vague name, the main hall looked very simple.
The main hall was just a vast hall with ten seats for every commander under Xue Feng and two at the front.
However, since the two seats stood on an elevated platform, which signified a higher position, it was obvious that there were people even more important than the ten commanders.
These seats were, of course, for Xue Feng and Li Rou.
Usually, in the Baishen Plane, most governmental bodies had a very patriarchal structure, but Xue Feng loved his wife and greatly respected her opinion.
Coupled with her many alchemy-related connections, Li Rou had a compelling voice in the dukedom's affairs.
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