Chapter 291 - 146: The Daughter of the Beicang Marquis’s Mansion: Rebukes a Grandmaster, Once Broke 4 Great Limits, and Offers an Olive Branch

Chapter 291: Chapter 146: The Daughter of the Beicang Marquis’s Mansion: Rebukes a Grandmaster, Once Broke 4 Great Limits, and Offers an Olive Branch

Even the Fishing Trade, which operates Eight Docks and has hundreds of boat captains trawling year-round, reportedly can’t catch more than a few Spirit Fish!

If Sea Marvels were so easy to obtain, the Fishing Trade would have long been the undisputed leader of the Grand Lineages in Jiangyin Prefecture.

They wouldn’t be suppressed by the Schools and Prefecture Officials, merely sharing a similar reputation with other great clans of the Upper Nine Professions, like the Medicine Shop.

And just as Ji Xiu was sizing up Xiao Mingli,

Xiao Mingli was also looking at him. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The woman’s gaze shifted, moving from the Sword Plaque on Ji Xiu’s back to the jade pendant at his waist, and then to the long saber in his hand. Her eyes deepened, a thoughtful expression on her face.

’A treasure that has acknowledged its master with a wisp of a Martial Saint’s Qi Mechanism, an Essence Blood Jade Pendant from the Dragon Descendants of the Water Monarch’s Mansion at the edge of the East Canghai, and that saber...’

’That saber...’

Her eyes lowered slightly. Recognizing the saber’s origin, she couldn’t help but murmur,

"This young man has had quite a few fortunate encounters."

After she spoke, she heard the incredulous words of Master Zhou from the Purple Mist Daoist School.

Xiao Mingli’s gaze was languid as she shot him a brief glance.

"Back when my father was enfeoffed as a Marquis, the Great Xuan intended to grant him Jiangyin Prefecture as a fief. It was he who was unwilling to manage it and thus refused."

"This Grandmaster,"

"Are you aware that if he had accepted that title, then based on your words today alone, you would be guilty of breaking the rules and questioning your rightful lord?"

"I could have your life for it."

She lightly raised a fingertip, as if smiling faintly.

But in Zhou Changming’s eyes, it was like a thin blade, piercing him so deeply he couldn’t utter a single word.

The fact that Marquis Beicang had almost been granted Jiangyin Prefecture as a fief...

It was true.

Therefore, this Young Lady Heir, Xiao Mingli, had not misspoken.

As for the accusation he had just blurted out, now that his reason had returned, the memory of it caused Zhou Changming to break out in a cold sweat that soaked his entire back.

He was at the Sixth Grade of Qi Sea, which was considered Middle Grade. Among Grandmasters, he was a mainstay, second only to those prodigies with a Superior Qi Sea.

This was a truly respectable achievement, one that counted for something in Jiangyin Prefecture.

But that all depended on who you compared him to.

This seemingly frail woman in the wheelchair before him, even if you stripped away her identity as ’Miss Beicang’...

Her achievements back then were immeasurable.

It was rumored that before she met with a great calamity and fell from grace, this woman had become a Grandmaster at twenty, forged a Treasure Body, and had once smashed open the Four Great Limits. She was just one step away...

...from taking a True Inheritance Seat of a ’Celestial Pillar,’ comparable to an ordinary ’True Sect’ Daoist Saintess!

Although she later vanished from the public eye and has been silent for three years, now reduced to an ordinary person, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Her status remained, as did her perspective.

In the past, for an ordinary Grandmaster like him, when the gap in their Cultivation realms was as vast as an ocean abyss, if he had dared to speak like this...

Even if this woman had crushed him to death with a single finger, his death would have been for nothing!

For a moment, Zhou Changming was filled with stifled anger, yet he dared not utter a single word.

"Young Lady Heir’s lesson is well-received."

"This old man has overstepped."

Watching Master Zhou, who had been so insufferably arrogant just moments ago, completely lose his temper, Ji Xiu clicked his tongue in amazement.

’Damn!’

’A fief of Jiangyin Prefecture?’

’Doesn’t that mean this great Prefecture City of millions of households nearly became her family’s own ’kingdom within a kingdom’?’

’Truly incredible. No wonder that old geezer didn’t dare make a peep.’

’And that Granny Shi, who had reached the Dragon Tiger Realm and had once gone to Anning County to give him an Iron Order, was standing right there, watching like a tiger stalking its prey.’

Ji Xiu was certain. ’If Grandmaster Zhou from the Purple Mist Daoist School dared to say one more defiant word, a slap would land on his face the very next moment. And even if she ’accidentally’ killed him...’

’...the Dragon Tiger Expert backing him, one of the ’Six Great Mountains,’ would most likely not demand an explanation, but would just quietly collect the body.’

’The title of Great Xuan’s Merit and Fame is really useful!’

’But becoming a Marquis... according to the Six Great Xuan Registers, passing the examination to become a Prefecture Official is only the first step.’

’After that comes receiving a fiefdom, being granted a fief of one County, and only after that can one be enfeoffed as a Marquis over an entire Prefecture...’

’A single Marquis can be so majestic... I can’t even imagine what it would be like for a Vassal Town Lord from Cangdu, who commands all the Manors in a province and establishes their own government!’

’No wonder the Nine Great Families are said to be the most prestigious in the land. After all, they are the descendants of nine founding Dukes who rose from humble beginnings alongside the Great Xuan itself. How could such lineages not be noble!’

Ji Xiu didn’t know about Xiao Mingli’s past. He just assumed Zhou Changming had been intimidated by her background, so he began to speculate about the Great Xuan’s Duke Tier.

At the same time, he secretly made a resolution.

’Once this affair is over, I must go to the Mansion Courtyard and earn the title of Prefecture Official in the Grand Examination of the Manors!’

If he were a Great Xuan Mansion Official,

According to the rules of the Daoist Schools and Martial Arts circles, blades have no eyes. Even if he were to destroy the legacy of the Purple Mist Daoist School, Zhou Changming wouldn’t dare to attack him in the streets!

Unless he had a death wish!

The sky grew dim. Along Daoist School Street, among the sixty-three Daoist Schools, Everlasting Lamps were lit one by one.

Xiao Mingli, sitting in her wheelchair, raised her hand. Her fingertips seemed to be tinged with a crimson glow.

"Young man."

She looked at Ji Xiu, whose face was flickering in the shifting light as he stood lost in thought, and suddenly spoke.

"Your ’Jade Marrow Cold Lotus’ and ’Profound-Scaled Dragon Carp’ are quite effective."

"But I, Xiao Mingli, am not in the habit of taking things from others for free."

"If you have any difficult and complicated problems in your Cultivation..."

The woman said pointedly,

"For instance, the Earth Treasure ’catalyst’ required for your Gang Skill, or perhaps the Magic Technique needed to refine a Divine Thought."

"Within the Marquis’s Mansion, there is a ’Treasure Tower.’ I can permit you to enter and choose for yourself."

Granny Shi pushed the wheelchair closer to Ji Xiu.

Xiao Mingli’s voice was crystal clear.