Taking into account Wu Guang's fatigue and the fact that this night was peaceful, it was not strange that he overslept. When he got up, took a bath, and descended to the first floor of the mansion, the time was already nearing noon.

Nobody had come for him in the morning, which was already a good sign, but as he appeared everything changed.

First, he had to deal with Kuang Jing's pestering about their today plans, thankfully he was saved from it by being called by Elder Yanshen.

But this save-up call resulted in the second matter to deal with, which was to meet up with Zhen Gan and Elder Di. The talk with them was by far not light as it touched a lot of themes. In short, Zhen Gan and Elder Di wanted both to hear an exact recount of Wu Guang's experiences during the times neither of the elders was present. This was mainly to prepare a full report for Elder Mo and to avoid missing any details in the overall situation.

The third matter was prompted by them, but as it was something that Wu Guang had to do in any case, it was nothing unexpected. This was opening the box found in the cave yesterday.

Wu Guang did not feel a need to hide anything, so he proceeded to take out the box from his holding pouch and open it right away.

As deduced previously, the bloodline key was indeed the one to open the box and did so without complications. The whole box was full of scrolls, which after a quick check turned out to be topographic maps of four islands. There were the three weaker islands, and surprisingly a pair of maps on locations marked as 'Savage Birds Island'. The latter was the original name of Eagle Island. Neither of the present people had expertise enough to guess what was on the maps, but still, the fact that Wu Heng had surveyed locations on the Eagle Kingdom territory meant that they may have been mistaken about the Black Eagles' objectives.

Wu Guang did not pay much attention to the maps as except for the cost they would be sold for, they were not much of use for him. His attention was grabbed by a small piece of paper that was revealed after all the maps were taken out. The paper was a short letter, addressed to Wu Heng and written in code. One would think that the letter was pure gibberish, but Wu Guang had no trouble seeing through the mystification and understand that it was a real letter. Still, he had no way to crack the code on the spot and even using all the capacity of his consciousness, it would require an enormous amount of both time and effort to decipher. He could only conclude that the person who developed the code was gifted in skill and means because if it was something basic, a strong cultivator, or in Wu Guang's case a strong consciousness would see through it instantly.

At Zhen Gan's suggestion, Wu Guang decided to keep the letter and later request the help of Elder Mo, who had expertise in dealing with codes. Also on a suggestion, Wu Guang agreed to pass all the maps to the sect, while the ones relating to the Fiery Island would be passed to Yi Ma. Wu Guang did not put any conditions and asked the Elders to deal with the negotiation. He only mentioned that Yi Ma had to be made to stay silent about everything he should not share. Both Elder Di and Zhen Gan had the same idea, so after finishing their talk and planning their return journey, both of them left towards the location where Yi Ma was staying in.

Wu Guang was a bit disappointed to find nothing that could help the numerous questions about the Wu family, but after cleaning his mind off the matter proceeded to solve the last issue he had on his mind.

The last issue was the one concerning Lan Yanzhi. He found her holed in the servant room she was occupying, and after thinking for a moment decided to deal with it right away. She attentively listened to his explanation of how the 'Double Shadow Assasin' had died under the pressure of a foreign cultivator, and also explained that not only he witnessed it, but he also had checked the remains and belongings. Speaking of the latter, Wu Guang took out the book containing the description and training methods for the 'Shadow Clone' martial skill.

"It is!" Lan Yanzhi could not restrain herself as to exclaim in surprise.

"Yes, he was carrying it with himself. If you want it back, I will give it to you right away, but..."

"But?" Lan Yanzhi paled a bit after hearing Wu Guang's last words.

"Don't worry, it's nothing bad. It could be said to be something good for you. As you know, martial skills are rare and valuable, so you will be definitively targeted if someone knows you own one" After saying this, Wu Guang proceeded to explain that he talked with the Sect elders and agreed that if Lan Yanzhi wanted to sell the book, the Sect would buy it at full price. Not only that, she would have access to the skill later if she reached the Soul realm and wanted to train it.

Such conditions were extremely good, and so Lan Yanzhi was surprised to hear them. But she knew that neither Wu Guang nor the Sect had the need to lie to her, after all, they could simply hide the fact of the skill was on the corpse. And so after a brief hesitation, she agreed.

Wu Guang did not add that he also had reached an agreement that she could request a copy later. As for why he withheld the information, it was simply because he did not know when would be that possible.

After all, most people would think that a skill book copy was an easy matter, just rewrite and redraw the contents on blank pages. But this was a mistake as Skill books also contained slight traces of martial profoundness and each drawing was by far not a random scribble, but a show of the Skill understanding. So to copy a martial skill book or scroll, the one in charge would need to be at a realm over the skill requirement, in this case, the Sage realm, and also had reached Full mastery over it.

After getting Lan Yanzhi's agreement and finishing the matter concerning 'Shadow Clone', Wu Guang proceeded to the real reason for his visit. Which was a discussion on Lan Yanzhi's future. What he did not expect was that she would instantly grow angry as he offered her freedom.

"Young Master, no, Wu Guang! How could you treat me like this?"

"Wait! What do you mean? I am sincerely offering you to break our master-servant oath and let you go free" Although Wu Guang did not expect such a reaction and had said nothing to solicit it, he felt a bit off when trying to explain himself.

"We agreed for it to last until I can win in a duel or you break it. Still, the time mentioned by Elder Di was a year, so I will definitively stay as your servant for a full year. Or until I can win against you!"

"Hmmm"

"What? Even if you break the oath, I will still stay"

"Oh, I see. Then it's good. From this moment on, I hereby declare before the heavens that I, Wu Guang, the master of Lan Yanzhi grant her full freedom and consider the agreement void" Wu Guang quickly proceeded to break the agreement. He also dissipated the consciousness strand he had left in Lan Yanzhi before, a change that she instantly felt.

"You!" Lan Yanzhi was shocked, and her face turned into one of amazement.

"What? You said that you will stay even if I break the agreement, so you are free to do so. And also free not to. In any case, don't think much about it. If you stay, then good, I will definitively work you to the bone" Wu Guang smirked and used her own words against her.

Seemingly to reach no effect, as Lan Yanzhi recuperated quickly and retorted

"I see, then this Lan Yanzhi will now serve young master Wu Guang for the following year of her own accord. Still, I hope that young master is a decent one, and will not forget to treat me nicely"

"Hahaha, agreed. But drop all that young master stuff. If you want to follow me, then it will be like a free woman. Now, I should remind you that we will be going to the Wei Auction House tonight, so I expect you to accompany me" As Wu Guang said this, he turned out and left.

What he did not see was that as he turned around, Lan Yanzhi's face blossomed with an enormous smile, which made her eyes look like half-crescents.

Between her looks and radiating happiness, she was by far a pretty woman. He also did not hear her mutter, or at least was decent enough as to not show that he heard the words

"Thank you... I will definitively repay your kindness with all the possible means"

________________________________________________________________________

The Wei Auction house was not only the most famous one on the island but also was by far the biggest. It occupied an enormous building comparable in size to the Sect's arena, and between the white stone and rich carvings, looked more like a palace than a simple auction house.

Wu Guang's group was made up of everyone in the manor, and so was far bigger than initially planned. Still, with Zhen Gan leading the way, not even the two initial Soul realm guards at the entrance dared to ask for their tickets. On the contrary, they were allowed entry without lining up and one of the head managers quickly appeared to led them towards a VIP balcony.

This balcony was located near the ceiling, and gave a clear overview of the auction stage, as well full privacy as no one from below or other balconies could see who was sitting inside. Various luxurious drinks and refreshments were also prepared for the guests, and so Wu Guang guessed that Zhen Gan had mentioned their visit during his talk with the City Lord and the Wei brothers. His guess was proven true shortly, as after they settled in, no one else than the younger Wei brother, who was also the head of the auction house arrived to greet them.

"Palace Master Zhen! I hope you find tonight's auction of your liking. If anything catches your eye, don't hesitate to signal to the head manager that will remain here and we will definitively make sure that the item ends with you"

"There is no need, Head Wei. I came here to accompany my sect's disciples, and even if something interests me, how could I ignore the rules of an auction? If I can win the item, then it's good, and if I can't... Well, that's the main fun of coming to such a place, don't you think so?" Zhen Gan indirectly refused the hidden implications of Head Wei. He was an honest man, so how could he accept a bribe from someone who in fact could have relationships with enemies? Such information was not proven and refused several times the day before, but Zhen Gan still decided to keep himself from being too close with such people.

He would not even come here today, if not because he was worried that there could be some incident occurring to Wu Guang or the others.

"Oh! Palace Master Zhen is indeed a person who does understand this world. Then, if there's nothing else that I can do for you, I will be taking my leave" With these words and seeing that no one was stopping him from doing so, Head Wei left the room.

Still, he did notify the auctioneer that if there were bets from the VIP balcony that the people from the 'Three Hills Sect' occupied, they should be passed very quickly, not letting others battle for the item.

This could lead someone to think that Head Wei was not interested in money, but this could not be a bigger mistake. Head Wei was someone who very much loved money, still, after yesterday's talk, he knew that he should hug the thighs of the Sect.

After all, they were the strongest power on the island, and so would be one of the main fighting forces in case of an invasion. So how could he not want to be in good relationships with the people who could later save his money?