Such a big commotion outside Qinghe Pavilion immediately attracted many people's attention.
Even Gu Nan could sense the several auras that were immediately projected over, as if ready to attack at any time.
But of course Gu Nan didn't take it to heart—what a joke. He was currently here in his true body. Perhaps if Zhong Qinghe personally came, then Gu Nan might give him some face and be on the alert, but these Tier 4 fellows couldn't pose any threat to him.
Lu Xinhuan, who also sensed the movement behind her, coldly waved her hand, signaling for them to remain on standby.
She was fully aware of the terrifying thing about Gu Nan. This person had always acted without the slightest scruple, and they were currently in the World of Gods. If they started fighting, they probably wouldn't even have time to send a rescue signal to Zhong Qinghe.
Lu Xinhuan forcibly restrained her anger and asked, "What did Your Excellency come here for?"
So Gu Nan had to repeat his reason for coming—in fact, he didn't lie at the beginning. He'd indeed come here to lead the way for Lu Xinhuan and her group.
But since they expressed hostility, leading the way could also be changed to ordering them to go that way instead.
...
A few minutes later, Du Ke, who had a bloody nose, a swollen face, and even several broken ribs, said with a bitter expression, "Miss Lu, that Gu Nan…"
"Don't even think about revenge. That person is not someone we can afford to provoke." Lu Xinhuan looked indifferent, as if she was talking about something that had nothing to do with her.
As one of Qinghe Realm's representatives in the outside world, it wasn't like Lu Xinhuan never compromised before. Sometimes, business was precisely the art of compromise.
Lu Xinhuan looked at Du Ke's still unwilling gaze and suddenly became fed up with him. She waved her hand and had people take him away.
In the end, she didn't have a personal friendship with Du Ke outside of work. Whether he wanted to sulk or court death by attacking Gu Nan—none of that had anything to do with her.
The only matter Lu Xinhuan was truly concerned about right now was how to "rescue" Zhong Die—if she couldn't change Zhong Die's mind for the time being, then she at least had to get her back first.
Zhong Die had already entered the sanctuary hosting the Ceremony of Blood, so it was impossible for Qinghe Pavilion's people to barge in and kidnap her. Presently, the best method was to help a vampire become the head of the Raymond clan, then have that clan head banish Zhong Die.
"It's a pity the vampire named Mara responds to neither coercion nor bribery, or else things wouldn't have to be so troublesome."
Lu Xinhuan naturally also had contact with Lady Mara, but with the vampire clan's high status in the Capital of Blood, why would they take a tiny Commerce Association seriously?
In the World of Gods, almost any relatively large force had the protection of a god behind them, or else they wouldn't be able to survive.
The Undead Kingdom was a main plane that had already been abandoned. It was practically impossible for this plane to provide gods with the power of faith, but this didn't mean the forces here didn't have backing.
According to the backstory in the game, the god backing the Raymond clan should be the God of Iron.
His divine authority wasn't related to vampires in the slightest. On the contrary, it was even somewhat conflicting, but such a situation was all too normal in the Undead Kingdom.
So even if Lu Xinhuan threw out her principles and tried to threaten the Raymond clan with her background, it wouldn't actually have any effect.
Lu Xinhuan had a splitting headache. She'd never come across such a bizarre situation in all her hundreds of years working for Qinghe Realm.
News had spread throughout the city that the ancestor's seal in the sanctuary was "accidentally" opened by Zhong Die, and almost simultaneously, everyone learned about information inside the seal pertaining to Cain's Left Hand.
Lu Xinhuan didn't even need to think about whose handiwork all this was.
But what she couldn't figure out was why Gu Nan actually paid a personal visit to Qinghe Pavilion today and sent her a detailed explanation of the information recorded in the seal.
One should know that the seal's contents included hundreds of lines of fragmented sentences and esoteric passages, which contained a lot of useless information and misleading wording.
Everyone knew important information regarding the divine weapon was somewhere in this reccord, but it would take an absolutely astronomical amount of time and effort to pick out the correct answer amongst all the misleading information.
The information was so incomprehensible that many people simply threw these passages to the back of their minds and just kept an eye on the sanctuary. As soon as anyone in there made the slightest movement, a large group of people would immediately follow them.
Everyone believed that the Raymond clan, a clan of vampires, would definitely be able to solve the puzzle faster than anyone else.
But Lu Xinhuan was certain that not even the Raymond clan would be able to find the answer as fast as Gu Nan did!
"No matter what, let's first verify the truthfulness of this information. Additionally…" Lu Xinhuan quickly made a decision, took one last glance at the information on the paper, then burned it to ashes.
And before the paper was completely burned to cinders, the words on it could still be vaguely made out: [Lightless Night, Four Seasons Mountain Valley, three vampire hearts]
At the same time, a gray mark disappeared in front of her, rushing towards the endless void.
After a long time, a mysterious reply fell into her hands. It only had a single word and a signature.
[Received.
—Sylvia]
...
What Lu Xinhuan didn't know was that at the same time she received the method to open the seal, a similar message also reached the Raymond clan.
No one knew who sent the message. Right at midnight when the moon shone brightest, a parchment scroll of extremely low quality was placed on Lady Mara's desk.
That point in time was when vampires were at their most powerful and their senses were most heightened, yet the other party chose precisely this time to deliver the scroll…
"The other party's strength may be far beyond our imagination." The round table meeting that had just been held appeared again as Lady Mara's expression sank more and more.
The crumpled-looking parchment was just placed in the middle of the round table, surrounded by seven Legend Rank powerhouses, yet none of them reached out to take it.
They didn't even need to take it. The message on it was already visible because there were just a few lines.
[Lightless Night, Four Seasons Mountain Valley… Qinghe Pavilion]
"The time and place match. This person's analysis of the arcane passages is already on par with ours," Lady Mara couldn't help speaking up when she saw everyone else being silent.
True to the public's expectations, the Raymond Clan did indeed have a considerable advantage in analyzing the cryptic passages.
While others were still scratching their heads, the Raymond clan had already deciphered two of the three important pieces of information—time and place.
The only thing they still didn't have a clue on was how to awaken the Ancestor's Staff.
It wasn't that there was no information. Rather, their ancestor actually gave too much information, enough for them to derive hundreds of possibilities from it. However, this matter just happened to be the talk of the town right now, so they couldn't afford to take their time and slowly try every single possibility.
The group of vampire princes felt as if a large net was slowly closing in on them, blocking every single path they could take, and then… forcing them to take the only path left.
And that remaining path was none other than the one laid out here on this parchment.
"Even if it's a trap, we can only jump headfirst into it."
"It seems that this Qinghe Pavilion is the key."
The middle-aged man named Harrison asked expressionlessly, "Qinghe Pavilion? Does it mean to say this Commerce Association holds the final clue, or is it saying Qinghe Pavilion has what we need to awaken the Ancestor's Staff?"
"Who knows?" A woman with long blonde hair sitting next to him knocked on the table and was the first to stand up. "Then everyone, let's start with this Qinghe Pavilion first."