Chapter 3344 — Arrival at the Paoli Clan

"Ah! Then thank you, Mr. Lin!" Yu Dake was at once startled and overjoyed. He had thought his chance for revenge was gone for good, never imagining that the road would turn and Wei Zhao would actually agree to help him take it.

Although Wei Zhao's words carried conditions, Yu Dake knew his own family well—they would never have been the ones to start trouble—so this matter was surely as good as settled.

……………………

In the vast Hakunamata Desert stood a most imposing ancient castle. Anyone who did not know better would take it for a mirage, a phantom of the sands—such things being common enough in the desert.

Yet the castle was real. This was the seat of the Paoli clan; the Hakunamata Desert was their home.

Today, two uninvited guests stood before the castle. They were Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi of the Five Luminaries Sect, come at the command of Patriarch Xuanchen to strike a bargain with the Paoli clan.

"Junior Brother Kang, looks like the old fellow's navigation was spot on!" Xiao Yi pointed at the GPS device in Kang Jingming's hand, a note of surprise in his voice.

"Naturally. Only a fool would spurn high tech—and the only fool still tracing routes off a map is that idiot Wei Zhao!" Kang Jingming said smugly. "If we didn't have people on this side, we could never have gotten here so fast. If Wei Zhao had beaten us to it, things would have been much harder."

"True! From the look of it, we made good time!" Xiao Yi nodded.

"Who are you? This is private ground, off limits. Do not come any closer—turn back at once!" Just as the two were speaking, a man of strange appearance—pointed ears, triangular eyes, clad in a totem-patterned robe—appeared soundlessly before Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi and barked at them.

The sudden appearance of the totem-robed man startled both Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi. This was a master at the peak of the late Heaven rank, of great consummation—a fighter of the same caliber as Xiao Yi!

Indeed, the totem-robed man had deliberately revealed his strength. In his view, if these two were cultivators, they would sense it and be cowed into good behavior; if they were mere mortals, they would feel nothing but a vague sense of majesty anyway.

"Brother, you must be a fine hand of the Paoli clan? We are cultivators from the Central Plains of the Eastern Land, come to your noble clan on a matter of business!" Kang Jingming steadied himself and said carefully, cupping his fists in salute.

"Oh? Cultivators of the Central Plains?" The totem-robed man paused, then frowned. "What sect are you from?"

The Paoli clan had had no dealings with Central Plains cultivators for several hundred years. The sudden arrival of two men naturally struck the totem-robed man as strange. Still, since they had come expressly to pay a visit, he would have to ask their origins.

"We are of the Five Luminaries Sect. This is our senior brother, the chief disciple of Patriarch Xuanchen, acting head of our sect. And I am the son-in-law of Patriarch Xuanchen!" Kang Jingming declared.

On the matter of the sect head, Kang Jingming did not dare spout nonsense. The Old Ancestor Xuantian—that is, the White Leader—was not yet dead; Patriarch Xuanchen could not possibly style himself sect head. The Five Luminaries Sect had passed its leadership down a single line through the generations, each head appointed by his predecessor, and it could not be changed at will midway—unless that man died, in which case a junior brother might take his place.

As matters stood, the White Leader had not died. So Patriarch Xuanchen, though the true power behind the Five Luminaries Sect, dared not break its rules; he feared to test the old man's limits.

In any case, acting or formal was merely a matter of title; the authority was the same. So Patriarch Xuanchen did not concern himself with it.

"Oh? So the two of you are masters of the Five Luminaries Sect. Wait here—I will report this to my father!" The totem-robed man knew of the Five Luminaries Sect, of course. As a son of the Paoli clan, he had learned the clan's history from childhood, and it included trade with the Central Plains—brokered, in those days, by none other than the Five Luminaries Sect. The Paoli clan thus held them in considerable friendship.

Although the totem-robed man did not know these two personally, that did nothing to shake the deep-rooted conviction planted in him since childhood, and his manner toward them changed at once.

"Well said, well said. This way, brother!" Kang Jingming breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Patriarch Xuanchen had spoken true—the Paoli clan was indeed friendly to the Five Luminaries Sect; their host's attitude made that plain. At least half the battle was won.

The totem-robed man flashed into the castle, and Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi did not follow. They knew their place; having come to call on others and beg a favor, how could they take liberties?

The totem-robed man went straight into a great square hall within the castle. There an old man sat in a grand chair, eyes closed in rest. Seeing the totem-robed man enter, he opened his eyes at once and asked, "Tortu, who has come calling?"

The totem-robed man was named Tortu, the old man's third son.

"Father, two cultivators of the Central Plains' Five Luminaries Sect are at the gate. They say they have business to discuss with our Paoli clan," Tortu said.

"Oh? The Five Luminaries Sect of the Central Plains?" The old man's brows lifted in some surprise. Then he nodded. "Let them in to see me. And summon your eldest and second brothers and all the elders as well."

"Yes!" Tortu answered hurriedly.

He left the square hall, dispatched an attendant to fetch his eldest and second brothers and the elders, and himself returned to the castle gate.

"Brother, how goes it?" Kang Jingming asked the moment he saw Tortu return.

"Come in, both of you. My father will see you!" Tortu said, gesturing them inside.

"Very good!" Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi followed quickly behind.

In the square hall of the castle, Tortu's eldest brother Tortal, his second brother Torkang, and three elders of the Paoli clan now stood in order behind Tortu's father—Torsunmoon.

"Father, these two are the guests from the Five Luminaries Sect of the Central Plains!" Tortu said to Torsunmoon as he came in.