Deep Sea Hunter, but Deep Sea Titan

Upon hearing Zuo Le's words, Liang Xun, who had initially thought he could continue to delay, began to look serious.

'Is this Shang Shu's doom? When Master Bai made a move, he leveled mountains; if this person makes a move, perhaps the entire map of Shang Shu will have to be redrawn?'

"Prefect Liang, there is no need to panic. I recently found a strange object in the Wu and Yue regions that can confine the year's phases in its form."

"The rivers and mountains of Shangshu will not be harmed in the slightest."

Having read the plot, Luo Ting knew exactly what this model of an honest and upright official was thinking. Luo Ting believed that his plan would satisfy everyone.

“Your Excellency possesses divine power. If it is truly so, I, Liang, will request permission from the imperial court to build a temple for you and sculpt an image of you in the future.”

Liang Xun suppressed his inner joy to the greatest extent possible, but he did not reveal that he had been stalling for time.

After all, he had some suspicions that this was a charade put on by Si Suitai and Luo Ting, just to trick him into revealing the whereabouts of the wine cup.

Luo Ting knew the truth, but he didn't confront them. He simply charged the Mountain and Sea Scroll with energy, and in an instant, the ancient scroll floated in the air, with red ribbons fluttering, and all kinds of gods and monsters were painted on it.

The surrounding scenery changed abruptly; the pavilions and halls of the government office disappeared, and rugged, precipitous mountains, stained with ink, stood in the middle.

The bronze giant appears in its true form in the scroll painting of mountains and seas.

Loting's original intention was indeed to live peacefully with those beast agents who hadn't provoked him.

He even felt a little sorry for and sympathized with the agents of the Year Beast. They had worked for a thousand years and were still given a sour face. Wasn't that equivalent to saying that the former emperor of Yan had broken his promise?

If he were not as powerful as he is now, and rashly approached the Yan Kingdom, his fate would probably be no different from that of these beast agents.

"Well, Prefect Liang, did he utter a single word in jest?"

"Moreover, Your Excellency has no grudges against the other peaceful remnants of the year and will not interfere with the work of the Year God's Office."

"Only kill the year's phenological form, not the remaining year."

Except for the one who tried to get him involved.

Laurentina conveyed Lotin's message.

"I have never doubted you, and I would never presume to conclude that your words are a joke."

In just a moment, the surrounding scenery changed back to the backyard of the government office, and now all of Liang Xun's doubts were finally dispelled.

This would both protect Shang Shu to the greatest extent possible and avoid causing trouble for that benefactor, truly achieving the best of both worlds.

"However, I do have someone I would like to ask the prefect to introduce me to."

"Does the Prefect know anyone in the Ministry of Rites?"

This was his original purpose in coming to the government office.

"The Ministry of Rites did send a Vice Minister of the Left to Shangshu, but the mountain roads are treacherous, and she may have to wait a while before she arrives."

"I am busy with official duties and cannot accompany you for long. Please forgive me, Your Excellency and Young Master Zuo. If you need anything for the New Year's Eve celebration, please come to the government office."

Liang Xun finally breathed a sigh of relief, as if things were finally starting to feel less awkward.

"Your Excellency, what brings you to the Ministry of Rites?"

When Taihe heard that Luoting was going to contact the Ministry of Rites, she immediately became nervous. The actions of the Sisutai were specifically carried out without going through the Ministry of Rites.

"Then let me ask you this: if the ceremony and rituals of the covenant were not presided over by the Ministry of Rites, were they presided over by the Imperial Household Department or the Court of Imperial Sacrifices?"

Loting completely ignored the internal disputes within these Yan Kingdom institutions; he simply wanted to confirm the progress of the alliance.

Ning Ciqiu, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, had just stepped out of the carriage and entered the government office when he felt that the atmosphere was quite strange.

"Lord Gonggong? Why have you changed your allegiance from Wu and Yue to Shang and Shu?"

As someone who had seen the video brought back by the Grand Tutor in court, Miss Ning was quite sensitive to Luo Ting's appearance.

"Some grudges need to be settled."

"Someone like you would also have grudges in this world?"

Lotin did not answer, because there was no need to.

That lousy chess player isn't exactly a worldly person.

Seeing that Luo Ting didn't answer, Ning Ciqiu didn't dare to press further. But since the other party was walking with Si Suitai, it meant that this grudge was most likely related to the escaped Sui Beast incarnation.

However, the Ministry of Rites has always preferred to treat the elderly with respect, so that they would genuinely and spontaneously serve the Yan Kingdom, rather than imprisoning them as easily as the Si Sui Tai (the official in charge of the year's affairs).

However, with such a dangerous person escaping, the Ministry of Rites dared not continue to sit idly by. They simply preferred to solve the problem by containing and sealing him away.

"I just want to ask, how are the covenant ceremonies, rituals, and temple decorations progressing?"

"The ceremony and ritual will be held together, but preparations will take several months. After all, this concerns the reputation of both Your Excellency and the Great Yan, and the Ministry of Rites dares not be negligent."

As it turned out, the other party only urged the progress of the ceremony and festival.

"Since the grudges are not of this world, could they be related to that person?"

“I will handle this. It will not harm the people of Da Yan in the slightest, nor will it harm the remaining survivors.”

Luo Ting left after saying that, figuring that Liang Xun would slowly work things out with her anyway, and he was too lazy to explain it all over again.

In this way, the Imperial Household Department, the Ministry of Rites, and the local prefects would not interfere in this matter on their own, and Luo Ting could proceed to the next step without any interference.

We should retrieve the wine cups and then take Nian and Xi up the mountain.

Chapter 194: The Eighteenth Peak

A seemingly casual and carefree middle-aged dragon man, dressed in a black mandarin jacket and wearing a coarse black hat, was sitting in the courtyard of Zhoufeng Teahouse, drinking tea. He lit a cigarette in the early spring chill and was puffing out smoke.

This is the founder of the Longmen Carp Detective Agency, known as Old Carp, and an old friend of Prefect Liang.

The mountain is old, the stone steps are old, but the cable car and the people are all new.

After finishing the peanuts, the smoke cleared, and the tea had lost its flavor, Old Li paid for the tea and continued on his way.

"Shangshu's mountains are full of plank roads, and the winding paths reveal long trails of smoke."

"Grab Jiang Feng."

This sign stands out abruptly here; the sign itself is new, the words are new, only the slogan is old.

Old Li looked at the sign with suspicion and took out his tourist brochure to check it.

“That’s strange. The ‘Seventeen Peaks of Shangshu’ listed in the tourism brochure doesn’t include ‘Zhunjiang Peak’.”

There are boardwalks and slippery stone steps covered in unmelted snow, but not a single person is in sight.

"Hey, is anyone there?"

"Hey!"

The only response to the private investigator was the ethereal echo from the mountains.

What's even stranger is that, even though he felt he hadn't gone far from the teahouse, he could no longer see any smoke rising from the teahouse when he looked back at the road he had come from.

He touched his head; his hair wasn't as wet as he'd imagined. A strange, indescribable feeling washed over him, permeating his mind and body.

All the clear memories of the day are fading away quickly, but when needed, they will thoughtfully sneak back into the mind.

"Why do I have to climb mountains? Why do I have to go upwards?"

The vague sense of chaos intensified in Lao Li's mind.

There are people here.

Finally, a female voice, both spirited and intoxicated, rang out from the mountains.

"Where is this place?"

"The end of the journey, in other words, is the summit."

"What do you want me to do here?"

At this moment, Lao Li's consciousness began to blur.

"You sent me."

The woman's voice responded without hesitation.

"Me? I..."

"correct."

"I've come to... catch up with you."

The wine cups in the wooden box emitted wisps of black smoke. In an instant, the old carp underwent a strange transformation, as if another person was now residing in his body.

"Send a message?"

The woman's voice invited the person in front of her to play a game of chess, but Old Carp said:

"Without suspense, it's no fun."

Although Lao Li understands the basics of Go, he is not a beginner player, yet he now exudes the arrogance of someone who thinks he is the best player in the world.

"Oh dear, you look down on me like this? So you've come here to ask me for a drink?"

"No, it's not that. We haven't seen each other for decades, so I came to give you a gift."

It was probably something from the old carp that opened the wooden box.

"A gift sent from afar carries a heavy sentiment, though the gift itself may be small."

"This is?"

"One black wine cup for every hundred liang; the black one is for you, the white one is for me."

The woman's voice paused for a moment, perhaps noticing the unusual nature of the black wine cup, before slowly continuing:

"Gonggong is chasing after you, aren't you afraid of losing everything?"

"I'm afraid, but I'm not afraid either."

"It was simply a matter of necessity."

Suddenly, Lao Li felt some kind of force pushing against his body.

"carp!"

Amidst the shouts, Lao Li opened his eyes and saw the courtyard of the Liang residence.

"Are you OK?"

"It's okay, I'm not at the age where something bad could happen just from sleeping."

Old Li pressed his temples, still trying to convince himself that what had just happened was all a dream.

"It doesn't seem like he's alright to me."

A giant as tall as the small building was talking to the old carp, which made him start to doubt the boundary between reality and dreams again.

"If it hadn't been discovered in time, your consciousness would never have returned."

The giant's words left Lao Li completely bewildered, but the bronze giant, Luo Ting, knew that it was impossible for him not to run into trouble while holding that wine cup.

The fragments of the Stinky Chess Basket have the ability to possess living people. If Luo Ting hadn't just used [Purification], it would have been a question whether the old carp's consciousness would have returned.

"Ah, no wonder!"

"Gonggong?"

Old Carp looked at the giant before him, and a word from his dream gave him a burning pain.

"Ah, it seems you visited the eighteenth peak of Shangshu in your dream."

"A mountain that should never have continued to exist."

"Give me the wine cup; it's still too dangerous for you."

Liang Xun nodded on the other side.

He brought Luo Ting back to the Liang residence from the government office to retrieve the wine cups, only to find that the sleeping Lao Li was breathing erratically and muttering incoherently.

It seems this wine cup is far more dangerous than he imagined.

"Aren't you afraid that your consciousness will also be taken away?"

The old carp was met with a loud laugh.

Lotin's mental resistance had been tested by Precys, and the fragments of the second brother of the Sui family were indeed nothing to fear.

Meanwhile, Lotin kept holding up the [Imperial Order] with his free W, which allowed Lotin's entourage to also enjoy a certain mental resistance buff.