As Sun Jiao entered the Heaven Council room Fang Yuehai entered the military facility belonging to her Uncle. She was stopped briefly at the entrance but after explaining why she was there the guards quickly let her in.

Walking through the cold and sterile hallways she arrived at the double doors leading to Shen Duzi’s office which in turn led into her Uncle’s office.

To people of this world Shen Duzi was Fang Shaofan’s right hand man, but if Sun Jiao saw this he could only think of two words; glorified secretary.

Opening the doors and entering revealed a warm interior that was unlike the rest of the buildings. The room had the appearance of a personal study rather than a military office. An expensive looking rug lay on top of polished wood floor that matched the large wooden desk and chair. On the walls were various displays of wealth such as a landscape painting, a statue of a beautiful woman and several high class weapons.

To the right of the entrance was another set of double doors that were closed and sealed with a paper talisman.

Fang Yuehai brow crinkled and her lips turned down after seeing the paper with various magical markings on it. The talisman was used to seal the office from noise and sound an alarm if broken.

Her disappointed eyes left the door and traveled the rest of the room. She moved towards the painting and after admiring the mountain and waterfalls the disappointment was already forgotten.

She passed over the statue which didn’t hold her interest, but instead focused on a blade that was resting on a stand. Fang Yuehai’s hand reached out and felt the ornate hilt and moved up towards the guard. Enjoying the cold metal blade she ran her hand down the side and then decided to test the edge.

“Ouch! Ahh I didn’t think it would be that sharp. Isn’t it just a blade for display? What kind of sick mind leaves such a sharp thing laying around?”

Eyes shifting towards the double doors she continued.

“Ahhh surely not my sweet uncle right? No definitely not!”

As a cultivator Fang Yuehai was able to cycle a bit of her ki to heal the wound and quickly placed the finger in her mouth to prevent blood from dripping as she moved towards the desk.

With the same hand she picked up a pen and adjusted a piece of paper left on the desk so that she could write. Dipping the pen into the ink she began to write out her note, but was interrupted by a drop of blood onto the paper.

Frustrated she cycled her ki again and licked off the blood and continued to write.

Yet again a drop of blood fell onto the paper causing her to let out an exasperated sigh.

“What the fuck! Not only is it sharp but it’s cursed? Well the blade isn’t that high quality so it shouldn’t have that much range…”

Ignoring the dripping blood she hurried up writing the letter and signed it. As an afterthought she added a PS at the bottom to ignore the blood as she’d been cut on the blade.

Placing her bleeding finger into her mouth she fled the room while being careful not to get blood on anything else.

With an uncle in the military and a powerful clan background Fang Yuehai naturally knew all about the magical weapons that existed. She knew the blade probably had to be within sight to take effect and worse case leaving the building would help get out of the range of its ability.

The blade was a bit stronger than she estimated causing her to be even more embarrassed for having made such a stupid mistake than she already was. Sure enough though as she exited the building the bleeding stopped.

Having exited the building Fang Yuehai passed by two men smelling heavily of booze that were heading inside.

The smell of alcohol caused her embarrassment to replace itself with disgust.

With a click of her tongue Fang Yuehai turned towards the center of the city and completely forgot all about the previously shameful moment.

The two men that passed her by were none other than Bao Bu and Je Ya who had been tasked to contact Fang Yuehai. Having resolved themselves to failure the night before they proceeded to drink up the courage adn admit their failure.

The soldiers at the entrance of the building looked at them with reproachful eyes, but having recognized them from the night before still allowed them in without a word.

The two traveled down the same cold hallways and stood in front of the double doors in silence.

After a couple of breaths past Bao Bu spoke up.

“We should go inside. It can’t be that bad right?”

Je Ya turned and replied.

“Can’t be that bad. We’ll just lose our jobs and I’ll lose my girl.”

“Could be worse.”

“Could be worse.”

Some time passed, again in silence, and the doors remained closed.

Eventually Ja Ye broke the silence.

“Maybe we say she’s fine? We knocked, she answered, and everything is cool?”

“You want to lie to him?”

Switching to a whisper Bao Bu continued.

“I heard he’s a petty man that’s quick to kill. If we say she’s fine and he sends someone else?”

Bao Bu looked Ja Ye in the eyes and brought his thumb across his neck slowly.

“So we tell the truth? We didn’t do anything? Wait what if he kills us for not even trying?”

“Then we die. Could be worse.”

“Could be worse huh?”

Turning back to the door Ja Ye thought for a bit.

“Wait how the hell could it be worse? What’s worse than death?”

“We could try breaking into Sun Jiao’s place.”

Ja Ye nervously gulped and spoke.

“Could be worse.”

Bao Bu shrugged and pushed open the door.

Ja Ye was surprised but quickly tried to control himself. If anyone was watching then they’d have seen his hands shaking.

Seeing no one inside the two let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s hurry up and leave a note.”

Ja Ye rushed towards the desk and reached for the pen. His hand stopped mid way towards the desk and his eye’s turned to saucers.

“Hey Bao Bu. What was that girl’s name again?”

“You mean his sister?”

“No. No. The one we were suppose to find. Fang Yuehai right?”

“Yeah. Hurry up he could come back any moment.”

“Come over here for a second and read this.”

Bao Bu glanced out in the hallway and then hurried around the desk.

“What?”

Ja Ye pointed towards the note left on the desk.

Dear Uncle,

I’ve come to the city to find out how brother Shi died. I came by and see that you’re in seclusion. When you get out I could use your help. I’m currently staying with the second prince Sun Jiao so you can find me there.

Fang Yuehai

Ps. ignore the blood I cut myself on your stupid sword.

Bao Bu read the letter twice and still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. They had spent all night worrying about how to get information and, like a pie falling from the sky, they were blessed by the heavens with this letter.

After reading it a third time his excitement was dashed like an egg thrown against a stone.

“This won’t work. It says she visited and mentions the sword.”

“Oh no problem.”

Ja Ye without hesitation picked up the note and tore two peices off.

“There. Now we just say we snuck in and used some paper we found and tore off in a hurry.”

“The blood...”

“What kind of person is the second prince?”

Bao Bu’s face loosened as some of the pressure faded.

“Hmm. This makes it seem like she needs help though…”

“What kind of person is the second prince?”

Nodding his head Bao Bu started to see a glimmer of hope. There was just a bit more distance to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

“What. *gulp* What if she’s fine though and nothing happens to her? Won’t they find out we altered the letter?”

With a clever laugh and a gleam in his eye Ja Ye replied without any hesitation.

“What if she’s fine? I ask you. What kind of person is the second prince!?”

Bao Bu’s face lit up like a child that receives a new puppy.

“This might just work!”

~~~

Before entering the Heaven Council Sun Jiao and Xiaobo had talked quite a bit about how things would play out in the Council.

Beads of imaginary sweat poured from Xiaobo’s forehead.

Sun Jiao let out a sigh and continued the conversation.

Sun Jiao reached the door, took a breath, and shoved them open without knocking.

With arrogance that came natural to the body he entered. Unconsciously he used the Sun and Cloud steps without ki that made his steps appear as though they had a mysterious quality to them.

When Xiaobo saw the person at the head of the table he was at first surprised and then excited.

Xiaobo couldn’t help but lie.

The chance was too good for Sun Jiao to give a good impression. If he knew the young man sitting in the center was the first prince and could crush him like an ant he would definitely be a little nervous. Sun Jiao was improving, but how could he handle facing that lion? Even his sister would at least show a little respect to Sun Shen.

Unfortunately, for Sun Jiao, Xiaobo didn’t think of any of this as he just wanted to see a good show.