Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8 - Chapter 299 - 165: Lu Shang Doubting Life

Chapter 299: Chapter 165: Lu Shang Doubting Life

The matter was strange, yet shrouded in secrecy.

Even the Imperial Family’s official records offered no clear answer.

But Li Chang’an had his own suspicions.

’The fact that the Jiuzhou Continent had remained so stable, with its nations staying in line and never daring to cross any boundaries even after so many years of conflict, couldn’t have been maintained by the patriarchs of the Twelve Countries alone. There had to be a far greater power propping them up from behind!’

Recalling the shocked and furious voice of the withered old man who had extinguished the Divine Soul Fire before leaving, Li Chang’an quickly directed his suspicions toward Cultivators.

’In my previous life, I battled a group of Cultivators for millennia, only to be surrounded and killed in the end. I never expected I would likely run into them again in this life.’

’It seems enemies are just destined to meet.’

Li Chang’an didn’t trust the men his so-called father had given him.

On paper, this contingent served under Li Chang’an.

But Li Chang’an knew they weren’t loyal to him at all. They could report his activities and whereabouts to his so-called father at any moment.

Therefore, Li Chang’an never intended to integrate them into his own forces. He was simply using them as a convenient front to get things done since he lacked the manpower at the start.

Li Chang’an began by scattering these men across Great Zhou.

Although Li Chang’an had spent the past two years in Cultivation, the Martial Dao tournaments held in his name had never ceased.

Furthermore, the scope of these new tournaments was much broader, no longer restricted to just youths under the age of fifteen as they had been initially.

The annual Martial Dao tournaments gradually became a staple of the Great Zhou’s Jianghu.

Li Chang’an ordered this group of Inner Guards to select promising young people from the tournaments—those with humble but clean backgrounds—and recruit them under his command in the name of the Eastern Palace Crown Prince’s Mansion.

He had initially expected that recruiting around fifty exceptional youths in the first batch would be enough to proceed with his plans.

Unexpectedly, the Inner Guard found him nearly a hundred people in no time at all, and every one of them was a young talent who had already made a name for themselves in the Jianghu.

It seemed the Jianghu Martial Artists of this world held the Imperial Court in much higher regard than those in his past lives.

Combined with the fact that Li Chang’an had become an overnight sensation at the previous Martial Dao tournament, he had long been a role model for countless young Martial Artists.

With these two factors combined, the name of the Eastern Palace Crown Prince’s Mansion acted like a golden seal of approval.

This was an outcome Li Chang’an hadn’t anticipated.

With people now at his disposal, Li Chang’an quickly established the framework for the Jiuzhou Continent’s version of the White Jade Pavilion.

However, this batch of Newcomers couldn’t be put to use immediately.

They would need a year or so of careful training first.

However, while this was a force Li Chang’an was carefully nurturing, it was, in reality, just a front meant to deceive.

It was a classic misdirection. Li Chang’an had never been one to lay all his cards on the table.

…

「Three years passed in the blink of an eye.」

Li Chang’an was now fifteen.

Over these three years of development, the White Jade City that Li Chang’an had founded appeared, on the surface, to operate only within Great Zhou’s borders, gathering intelligence and information on Lu Shang.

Ostensibly, White Jade City’s membership remained steady at around three hundred people, all of them Martial Artists recruited from the Martial Dao tournaments.

Li Chang’an provided them with numerous powerful Cultivation Techniques.

He even secretly passed on some of the teachings from the Martial Scripture.

In reality, however, Li Chang’an used them as intermediaries to secretly build a vast network whose members spanned all walks of life.

Its ranks included merchants, peddlers, and wandering storytellers…

They had no discernible backing from any major powers, but they served as Li Chang’an’s eyes and ears, constantly gathering information on Great Zhou and even the neighboring Great Yuan and Qiangman.

…

Just a few days after his fifteenth birthday, Li Chang’an received a message from Li Yuanqing: someone had found a trace of Lu Shang.

Upon hearing the news, Li Chang’an set out at once.

Lu Shang’s trail had been discovered at a tavern on the border between the Great Yuan and Great Zhou.

The moment Li Chang’an set foot inside, Lu Shang, who had been cultivating upstairs, abruptly opened his eyes.

He pushed open the door to his room, rose, and looked down at the floor below.

When his eyes fell on Li Chang’an, Lu Shang’s pupils contracted. He couldn’t help but let out a cold sneer. “I guessed you’d find me soon enough, but I didn’t expect your intelligence network to be this quick!”

Five years had passed, and Lu Shang’s frame had grown taller and straighter.

The youthful immaturity he once had was gone from his face, replaced by a hardened maturity.

But when his gaze fell upon Li Chang’an, the flickering anger and hatred in his eyes had not changed one bit.

Li Chang’an smiled. “You know, I think there might be some misunderstanding between us. If you’re calm enough, perhaps we could sit down and talk this out!”

“Ha! There’s nothing for us to talk about. Even if there were, it would have to wait until after I’ve ripped your soul from your body!” Lu Shang clearly had no intention of sitting down to negotiate with Li Chang’an.

He leaped down from the upper floor, his entire body a blur as he appeared before Li Chang’an in an instant.

After five years of arduous cultivation, he had not only devoured a great deal of the Power of the Divine Soul but had also successfully stolen a vast amount of Destiny from several other nations.

Now, facing Li Chang’an once more, Lu Shang finally had the courage to reclaim the dignity he had once lost.