Chapter 31: Outsmarting for the Nameplate
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The Imperial Physician Valley contained three Needle Towers and five Medicine Towers, corresponding precisely to the three tiers of spirit familiars and the five realms of cultivation. Including the other smaller buildings, there were more than twenty structures in all.
“What use is it for you to come in? Without identity plaques, you cannot even open the doors!”
The bound soldiers wore scornful expressions.
They inspected the smaller buildings and found that it was indeed as he had said. Every door was tightly shut, and an identity plaque was required to open it.
A faint smile touched Ling Xuan’s lips. “Little White Ape, are you good at opening locks?”
“My lord, you really want me to open it?”
Hou Junji’s eyes gleamed with excitement, and he was already eager to try.
“Open it. That building is exclusively mine.”
Ling Xuan pointed without hesitation toward the quietest one: a three-story building built against the mountainside.
Sun Tianxin hurriedly tried to stop him. This situation was entirely different from their earlier entry into the Imperial Physician Valley.
They had entered the valley because they were all from the Imperial Medical Office and had been ordered to establish a foothold there. Naturally, they had shown no mercy when confronted by obstruction.
But now that they had entered the valley and inspected the surroundings, they found the place quite satisfactory. The smaller buildings were sensibly arranged and properly spaced. Their mission could already be considered complete.
“Brother Sun, if something from the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion could be opened by just anyone, that would only prove their craftsmanship is not yet up to standard,” Ling Xuan said with a grin. “This is the perfect opportunity to remind them.”
Sun Tianxin was speechless. He hurriedly sought help from Ye Ziyan. “Princess Consort, please persuade the Little Prince. It would be better to wait until Imperial Physician Cui arrives before assigning the buildings.”
Ye Ziyan did not even look in their direction. Instead, she stared at the more than twenty bound soldiers and demanded angrily, “Speak! Who ordered you to stop us?”
Hou Junji drew out a small iron wire that he carried with him and, with complete concentration, inserted it into the building’s Celestial Mechanism Lock.
Click. Creak.
After a series of faint sounds, the lock opened. A stream of energy suddenly rose, and the three words “Imperial Physician Valley” appeared in midair.
“It really opened?”
The bound soldiers looked at one another in disbelief. Someone had actually managed to open a Celestial Mechanism Lock forged by the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion.
The soldier from whom the Yuwen family token had been taken, however, wore a gleeful expression. “You are finished. You opened a Celestial Mechanism Lock without an identity plaque. You will certainly be held accountable. At best, you will receive thirty heavy military beatings. At worst, you will be executed without pardon!”
“Worry about yourselves first. Without a hundred military merits, none of you are leaving.”
Ling Xuan remained completely unconcerned, grinning from ear to ear. “My wife gets the third floor. Brother Sun and Hou Junji will stay on the second floor. The first floor will be used for receiving guests.”
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
From beyond the valley came the hurried sound of hooves. Several mounted riders swiftly charged inside.
“You are in trouble now,” the bound soldiers laughed heartily. “The people here to hold you accountable have arrived.”
“Have they come to deliver me military merits?”
Ling Xuan pushed Sun Tianxin and Hou Junji back with one hand and curled his lips into a smile. “Go. All of you, get inside. This young prince intends to earn the military merits himself, so do not come out and take a share.”
Four figures swept down from their mounts. Their faces were cold as frost, and the treasured sabers in their hands radiated a chilling aura.
“The one who opened the lock—come out!”
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Ling Xuan activated his Aura-Seeking Technique. All four men were in the Qi Sea realm. Their spirit-familiar starbursts were hazy to his eyes, clearly indicating that they had already entered the Spiritual tier.
A faint smile curved Ling Xuan’s lips. “If you are not here to redeem the prisoners, then get as far away from me as possible!”
“You opened the Celestial Mechanism Lock?”
The four men blurred into motion, and flashes of saber light instantly pressed against Ling Xuan’s neck.
Ling Xuan did not move. With a flick of the Purple Heaven Divine Flute, he knocked the sabers aside.
“Imperial Medical Inspector of the Imperial Medical Office, opening the Imperial Physician Valley—what is wrong with that?”
“Opening the Imperial Physician Valley without an identity plaque is a disruption of military-camp order and a provocation against the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion!” the leader shouted.
Ling Xuan retorted, “Imperial Physician Cui has not arrived. Who am I supposed to ask for the plaque?”
“Then wait,” the envoy from the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion replied coldly.
“Wait? You expect this young prince to wait?”
Ling Xuan’s brows rose sharply. “It seems I still need to beat you before you understand what it means to establish a foothold.”
“This is a military camp, not the palace of a prince or a marquis,” the leader of the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion sneered. “Once you enter a military camp, you follow military-camp rules. If you want to flaunt your authority, go back to your own estate.”
“Heh. Today, this young prince is going to flaunt it to his heart’s content.”
Pointing the Purple Heaven Divine Flute at them, Ling Xuan threw back his head and laughed. “You are all in the Qi Sea realm. Each of you is worth a thousand military merits. Will you bind yourselves and sit with the others, or shall I have my men tie you up?”
“You dare bind us?” The envoy from the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion roared furiously. “You—”
The leader had spoken only halfway when he suddenly fell silent, his eyes going blank.
There was no helping it. A flash of purple light had appeared in Ling Xuan’s hand—the Purple-Gold Medical Edict bestowed upon him by the Divine Emperor.
Within Luoyang, the Divine Capital, the Purple-Gold Medical Edict could draw upon the power of the imperial fortune-dragon. Outside Luoyang, it represented supreme status and authority.
Others might not immediately understand what it meant, or might not even know of its significance.
But the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion was different. The leader in particular had keen eyes and knew exactly what the edict represented.
Unless the Divine Emperor personally ordered its return, who would dare provoke its holder? Doing so would be no different from wishing for several extra heads.
Opening the Celestial Mechanism Lock of the Imperial Physician Valley was nothing by comparison. Even if Ling Xuan had demanded that the smaller buildings be demolished and rebuilt, the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion would have complied without protest.
Their arrogance vanished in an instant. All four men sat down together, and the leader even clasped his hands respectfully.
“Little Prince, please do not bind us. We will sit here ourselves. Without your permission, we absolutely will not leave.”
“Bring me four identity plaques at once.”
Ling Xuan’s lips tilted upward. “The moment the plaques arrive, you may leave. But if anyone dares speak carelessly, and this young prince learns of it, each of you will owe ten thousand military merits.”
“An identity plaque must correspond to a name, cultivation realm, and official position,” the leader of the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion hurriedly replied.
“My wife and Hou Junji will serve as my assistants in the Imperial Physician Valley. Brother Sun, what about you?” Ling Xuan turned around.
“Little Prince, I am merely an acupuncturist,” Sun Tianxin replied with a slight bow.
“I shall fetch the plaques immediately.”
The leader of the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion departed at full speed.
The bound soldiers were utterly bewildered. When had the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion become so easygoing?
Not only were they confused—even Sun Tianxin, who belonged to the Imperial Medical Office, wore a dazed expression. Hou Junji was even more bewildered.
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Ling Xuan had not actually allowed them to see the Purple-Gold Medical Edict. He had merely flashed it briefly before the leader of the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion.
The only person who knew the truth was Ye Ziyan. Yang Xuangan had personally delivered the edict under the Divine Emperor’s command, and very few people knew of it. Perhaps within the entire Imperial Medical Office, only Imperial Physician Chao was aware of its existence.
That was also the confidence behind Ling Xuan’s audacious intrusion into the Imperial Physician Valley. He had deliberately lured people from the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion there so that he could use the opportunity to obtain identity plaques for Ye Ziyan and Hou Junji.
Otherwise, once Imperial Physician Cui arrived, asking him to worry about identity plaques for Ye Ziyan and Hou Junji would likely prove impossible. He might even refuse outright.
The Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion worked with astonishing efficiency.
Before the time it took an incense stick to burn, the leader had returned with four identity plaques. After explaining how to use them, he immediately led his men away.
Hou Junji and Sun Tianxin took their plaques and promptly infused them with the aura of their spirit familiars.
Spirit familiars required nourishment from both vital essence and true energy. Even spirit familiars of the same type possessed different auras.
Holding the identity plaque in her hand, Ye Ziyan suddenly found herself caught in a dilemma.
Who could have imagined that the identity plaques of the Demon-Conquering Expeditionary Camp required the aura of a spirit familiar to activate?
Without that aura, the plaque could not be activated. Not only would entering or leaving the Demon-Conquering Expeditionary Camp be impossible, but even moving about inside the camp would become a problem.
Yet once she infused it with her spirit-familiar aura, the Purple Phoenix might be exposed, making it impossible to conceal her former identity as a member of the Chen imperial house.
Ling Xuan was equally uneasy. The Moon-Entwining Spirit Serpent was a Great Spirit Familiar. If he poured its aura into the plaque, would its existence be revealed?
As fate would have it, after activating his identity plaque, Hou Junji began turning somersaults in delight.
“My lord, hurry and infuse it with your aura! There are so many things inside!”
Things?
There were things inside the identity plaque?
Ling Xuan took Hou Junji’s plaque, but he could see nothing. He was startled. Could the plaque possess some kind of storage function?
When he asked what exactly was inside, Hou Junji described it with such vivid detail that Ling Xuan almost forgot this was the Great Sui Divine Dynasty of the Purple Sun Realm.
His mind buzzed, and his face filled with astonishment.
“What kind of black technology is this?”
What Ling Xuan did not know was that news of his opening the Imperial Physician Valley had already spread. Not only had the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion failed to make things difficult for him, they had even hurriedly delivered identity plaques to him.
At the Youzhou military camp, Luo Cheng, heir to the Prince of Beiping, stared ahead in confusion.
“Did that fool give the Imperial Artificers’ Pavilion some benefit, or did he rely on the power of the Prince of Changping?”
Although the squad leader had returned, more than twenty of his soldiers were still bound in the Imperial Physician Valley. It would cost one hundred military merits per soldier to redeem them.
All of those soldiers had been carefully selected by Luo Cheng and disguised as personal guards of the Yuwen family.
Although he had instructed them beforehand never to reveal that they came from the Youzhou military camp, what if something went wrong?
The Imperial Physician Valley had been opened. Not only would people from the Imperial Medical Office soon arrive one after another, but military physicians from every major camp would also come to the valley for instruction.
As he watched the sky darken, Luo Cheng’s thoughts raced.
“Two Qi Sea cultivators and one in the Great Circulation realm. With this prince’s strength, I can rescue them without anyone noticing. Fool, what can you possibly do to me?”