Chapter 2239 (Raw 2346): Pleasure Quarter Alliance

After Duke Yun left the Eighth Prince’s residence, his expression turned extremely sullen. The Vice Generals and Senior Feng did not dare to say anything.

After a while, a Vice General wondered softly, “How did it turn out like this? Logically speaking, the Eighth Prince should not fear the Misty Rain Pavilion.”

Duke Yun replied coldly, “Isn’t the reason simple? The fight for the crown prince position is about to begin. The various princes are getting restless. Naturally, the Eighth Prince does not want any problems to happen during this period.”

The succession battle!

Barring special circumstances, the emperor position had to change hands every century. The most outstanding prince would be chosen to succeed the position.

One could be the emperor of the Yanwu Dynasty for only one century.

This was so that the dynasty could continuously have new blood, maintaining its vitality and preventing stagnation.

No matter how ancient a dynasty was, once it stagnated, its Luck would decline, and the risk of its destruction would rise.

Since ancient times, there had been no lack of such examples.

Hence, the rulers of the various dynasties and empires would not remain in their position for long. No matter how brilliant or skilled one was, it would be hard to avoid stagnation after ruling for a long time.

Stagnation was inevitable. The rulers needed to be changed every century in order to preserve vitality.

This encouraged competition in the dynasty, preventing complacency in its progeny.

The current Yan Emperor of the Yanwu Dynasty had already sat in his position for eighty years. It was time to choose the crown prince.

The various princes competed in secret, trying to get ahead in the race to be crown prince and climb to become emperor.

This was why Wang Feng, the Eighth Prince, felt so frustrated.

At such a crucial moment, Monarch Yu recklessly caused trouble for him. How could he not feel frustrated?

If it were in the past, Wang Feng would not care.

How could the Eighth Prince stand up for Duke Yun at this moment?

After Duke Yun left and calmed down, he figured out the details.

“Lord Duke, are we just going to forget about taking revenge for Monarch Yu? If the Eighth Prince does not agree to help, we can go look for another prince,” a Vice General beside Duke Yun suggested seriously. Duke Yun had been established in the dynasty for many years and was now an important player in the contest for crown prince. His support still held a great attraction to the other princes.

Duke Yun said indifferently, “No prince would choose this time to offend a Heavenly Alliance envoy inspector. However, I will definitely take revenge for Ling`er’s death. Even if I lose all my honor and glory, I will not stop. Let’s go to the Divine Sword Pavilion.”

The Divine Sword Pavilion was a Rank 7 sect in the Yanwu Dynasty. This sect possessed deep accumulations.

However, while it was called the Divine Sword Pavilion, it had no relation to the Sword God’s Noble Clan. One was a Noble Clan, and one was a sect. Due to the competition over the Sword Dao, there might even be a rift between them.

—

Just as Duke Yun rushed over to the Divine Sword Pavilion, the Pavilion Master of the capital’s Smiling Daughter Pavilion received news of the appearance of the Heavenly Alliance’s Xiao Chen.

The Smiling Daughter Pavilion was the top pleasure quarter in the imperial capital, Yan City. One would know that the Smiling Daughter Pavilion was not a simple pleasure quarter if one understood it well enough. Its accumulations were much deeper than one would imagine.

“Pavilion Master, we have verified it. That Xiao Chen is the new envoy inspector sent by the Heavenly Alliance.”

A black-clad person reported the latest information to a mysterious woman behind heavy curtains in a woman’s room.

“Xiao Chen…if I recall right, the Fairy Basket that the Ghostly Shadow Bandit, Jiang He, stole should be in his hands,” the mysterious woman sighed softly.

“Yes. We have made a few divinations, and the missing Fairy Basket is definitely not with Jiang He. The only possibility is that he handed it off to Xiao Chen after he stole the Fairy Basket.”

“Good! He would have been fine elsewhere. Since he came to Yan City, he will have to hand over the Fairy Basket.”

The mysterious woman’s soft voice sounded overbearing, unbefitting the image of a pleasure quarter woman.

“I understand.”

—

At the same time, in an invisible ethereal world at the summit of the spiritual mountain outside the imperial capital, in the Buddhist sect holy land, the Hidden Spirit Temple:

A handsome monk looked at the note in his hand and revealed a smile.

“Unexpectedly, you came to the Yanwu Dynasty. It looks like I have to make time to leave the mountain.”

This monk was none other than Yuan Zhen, the monk whom Xiao Chen had interacted with a few times in the Faux God World.

—

Late at night, right before dawn, at the detached courtyard behind the Misty Rain Pavilion:

Xiao Chen, Mo Chen, and Bao`er had yet to sleep, organizing the information that Su Ye got someone to send over.

Previously, Su Ye handled the responsibilities of an envoy inspector.

Now that Xiao Chen was here, he needed to familiarize himself with everything.

However, it was mainly Bao`er and Mo Chen doing the organizing. Xiao Chen did not pay too much attention. He lit some incense and consumed a Soul Accumulating Pill. Then, he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and refined his Soul Energy.

Everyone had their strong suits; tidying up the messy information was not Xiao Chen’s.

Letting Bao`er and Mo Chen do it would accomplish more with less effort. If Xiao Chen helped, he might even make things worse.

The deity image materialized by the Soul Accumulating Pill in Xiao Chen’s Soul Pool slowly faded away.

There were three Divine Vein rings under Xiao Chen’s Azure Dragon Divine Seal. With the aid of the Soul Accumulating Pills, he had cleansed the first Divine Vein ring. Now, no impurities could be seen. Compared to the other two Divine Vein rings, it looked transparent, resplendent, and full of divine nature.

When Xiao Chen opened his eyes, a bright light flashed in them, then disappeared.

He already finished refining his first Divine Vein ring; he still had two more. Once he finished refining all of them, the Soul Energy he inherited from the divine nature flame would truly belong to him, becoming a part of his accumulations.

“Big Brother Xiao, Bao`er and I discovered something interesting,” Mo Chen said softly, putting down the book in her hand when she saw Xiao Chen open his eyes.

Xiao Chen raised his eyebrows. Feeling curious, he said, “Oh? Tell me about it.”

“We discovered that except for the Misty Rain Pavilion, all the other pleasure quarters in Yan City are part of the same organization. This organization is even more ancient than the Heavenly Alliance.”

Feeling interested, Xiao Chen asked, “What organization?”

“The Pleasure Quarter Alliance.”

Mo Chen reported calmly, “There are more than one thousand pleasure quarters in the capital, all of them belonging to this organization. Only the Misty Rain Pavilion is not a member. Among the Pleasure Quarter Alliance pleasure quarters, the Smiling Daughter Pavilion has the most business and holds the highest status. Compared to the Misty Rain Pavilion, not only does the Smiling Daughter Pavilion have deeper and vaster accumulations, but its scale is also significantly more extensive.”

The Smiling Daughter Pavilion.

Xiao Chen thought to himself, The name is very familiar. That’s right. I went to the Smiling Daughter Pavilion once in the Soaring Dragon Marquisate.

The Fairy Basket in my possession that Jiang He stole seemed to be their holy relic.

“The background of this Pleasure Quarter Alliance is extremely mysterious. Even today, no one knows about it. In the Yanwu Dynasty, it firmly suppressed the Heavenly Alliance. More importantly, this organization possesses vast connections. Many of the emperor’s relatives and Noble Clans have unclear connections to them.” Mo Chen paused here, somewhat reticent.

As for the unclear connections, Xiao Chen naturally understood what she meant. There were all sorts of attractive headliners in a pleasure quarter. How many men could resist their charms?

If the pleasure quarters met any danger, they did not have to resolve it themselves. There would be people lining up to fight on their behalf.

Xiao Chen muttered, “Pleasure houses and assassins. These are ancient businesses that would exist in every epoch. With the Pleasure Quarter Alliance’s existence, it is impressive that the Misty Rain Pavilion can enjoy a flourishing business and rise, remaining open until today. Su Ye…this woman is quite terrifying.”

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Figures flew through the air. Nangong Feng and the others returned.

Nangong Feng and the others came to report on the top ten merchant associations under the Heavenly Alliance.

Within one night, this group had conducted a thorough investigation of how many experts were in the top ten merchant associations and how strong they were.

Xiao Chen listened carefully. Soon, he gained a rough understanding.

“Xiao Chen, these ten merchant associations have undeniable connections to the local Noble Clans. We even sensed the Royal Clan bloodline in some of the Sovereign Emperors overseeing them. It is extremely strange,” Nangong Feng reported with a somewhat grave expression.

Mo Yu said, “No wonder the Heavenly Alliance could never expand further in the Yanwu Dynasty, showing oddly low profits. These people have been benefiting off the Heavenly Alliance while helping outsiders, splitting the profits with them. How can the Heavenly Alliance expand?”

Xiao Chen said calmly, “It is similar to what I guessed. The previous three envoy inspectors probably got involved and affected someone’s benefits, so they died mysterious deaths.”

The Heavenly Alliance headquarters grasped the best Alchemists, blacksmiths, refiners, and many more. The quality of the Medicinal Pills they refined, the weapons they forged, and the treasures they refined went without saying.

Purely in terms of business, the Heavenly Alliance could support the subordinate merchant associations with these.

How could the other merchant associations compete?

Today’s situation was due to the web of interests spreading too far. Even the Heavenly Alliance felt helpless about this.

It was not that the Heavenly Alliance’s headquarters did not know about the situation. They had considered forcefully dealing with it.

However, this resulted in three envoy inspectors dying mysterious deaths. They could only leave the Heavenly Alliance factions in the Yanwu Dynasty alone to maintain the status quo.

That was why the envoy inspector position had remained vacant for so long, with Su Ye left to discharge its duties.

“Whoosh!”

A ray of sunlight suddenly entered through the window. Xiao Chen turned his head to look. It was already bright outside.

“Wu Meng…Wu Meng is not back yet?”

Xiao Chen’s face sank slightly. He had sent Wu Meng to follow Su Ye, but Wu Meng had yet to return despite it being day already.