Dual Cultivation God Returns

The young people on the deck below looked up at the same time, suddenly noticing the presence of six drop-dead gorgeous beauties laughing about something, wondering how could they have been so blind to their presence on the top floor all this time. It was as if the beautiful ladies were behind a veil that diverted attention from them, but now that they were noticed, it was obvious they were there all this time.

The young masters’ gazes were full of admiration, while Young Lady Shen’s eyes very briefly showed a shocked, then jealous, and finally furious look, her friend standing next to her meekly lowering her face knowing she wasn’t in good mood.

“Ah… now you’ve done it”, Fen Baihu’s voice reached the six beauties on the top deck from behind them, as they turned to look at her with questioning gazes, “My Cloak of Perception only works if no one specifically pays attention to you”

“…Like that pirate lookout noticed us because he was specifically evaluating all passengers as they boarded, and was also consciously looking for good-looking women?”, Luo Mingyu instantly understood what she spoke about, and the principle behind that ability, prompting the Celestial Fox to nod.

At this point in time, Young Lady Shen on the balcony below touched her forehead, announcing she wasn’t feeling that well, and would like to go inside. This prompted a somewhat still distracted, but an immediate response from the group of young people around her, though the push to escort her in wasn’t as enthusiastic as one could imagine it would have been just some moments ago.

“But isn’t that weird then? Our laugh should’ve been at least partially covered by the cloaking effect, no?”, Wu Mengqi tilted her head with confusion.

“There must’ve been a factor that made them conscious of you at least a little beyond just the laugh that brought attention to you”

“They were all at least partially wondering who occupied the top deck, would that be a factor?”, Luo Mingyu made a guess, earning another nod from Fen Baihu as the latter’s tails swayed.

“Indeed, either one alone couldn’t breach the cloak, but combined…”, she made a gesture first showing two index fingers and then linking them together at the tips.

“Haa… this might be a minor deal for him, but it’s still more headache for Wu Long”, Hua Ziyan sighed with a bit of melancholy, somewhat able to imagine the course of events from now. Though, true to her nature, her main concern was causing nuisance to Wu Long.

“This much isn’t really a headache, Ziyan”, Wu Long’s calm voice reached their ears, as they saw him walking toward them with Ye Ling and Yu Huan.

“If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t need to pay attention to it at all”, Feng Yi shook her head, knowing that if it was really nothing he wouldn’t interrupt his time drinking tea with the two beauties while admiring the scenery at the front-facing balcony of the top deck.

“Haha, she got you there”, Ye Ling smiled, amused since her argument was hard to refute.

Wu Long also made a wry smile, admitting he didn’t have anything to counter with.

“I can deal with them if you want”, Shen Min spoke in a neutral tone, causing slight shivers to go crawl up the spine for Feng Yi, Yu Huan, Song Lingfei and Luo Mingyu, as everyone knew how Shen Min was going to ‘solve’ the problem.

“Thank you, Min’er, it’s very thoughtful of you, but it’s alright”, Wu Long chuckled, as the beauty shrugged as if saying ‘alright, tell me if you change your mind’

“Besides, I probably won’t even have to do anything”, Wu Long then said.

At this time, a raised voice reached them from the direction of the stairs.

“Who the hell do you think you are to stop me, Old Man?!”

In response, a calm voice responded in an impeccably polite tone, “My apologies for the late introduction, I am the Wu Family butler. The top deck is fully rented out by the Wu Family, who are not expecting guests throughout the duration of the journey, thus I must ask you turn back”

“Hah, Wu Family? Never heard of them”, the tone of the younger voice slightly shifted from anger to smugness, “I’m sure once your Masters hear that the second Young Master of the Rou Family visited, they’ll scold you for blocking the way”

“Unfortunately, there are no exceptions regardless of who the guests are”, the older voice’s tone didn’t change one bit from before.

The short pause that followed was not hard to interpret.

“Are you out of your mind?!”, the young man who came into Wu Long’s view as he approached the stairs had a look of both shock and outrage, and noticing Wu Long at the top of the stairs behind Butler Bang, raised his voice even more, “Hey! Are you from this ‘Wu Family’? Do you even-…”

“Please don’t cause a scene, Young Master of the Rou Family”, another voice joined in the conversation, as a man just outside the view if looking from upstairs came from somewhere behind the young master.

“Wha-..? Who the hell are you?”, Young Master Rou turned to look at the unknown man, while the most senior of the bodyguards of the Rou Family who were standing around him came in between, facing the newcomer with a serious look in his eyes, prompting the young master to become annoyed “And what are you doing?”

“This man is extremely powerful, Young Master, please be careful, I’m not sure I can take him”, the bodyguard spoke, sizing up the possible opponent, as Wu Long calmly descended the stairs in the background.

“I have no intention to bring harm. I’m late to introduce myself, I am Captain of the Imperial Guard Corps of Wei Dynasty, Chen Hui under the command of Colonel Ri”, Chen Hui placed his hand on the chest, at the same time as his armor covered him, producing the metallic sound.

“…!”, the people of the Rou Family, including the Young Master froze for a moment, widening their eyes.

“…! There were Imperial Guards on the vessel?!”, Wu Long made a shocked expression, stopping mid-stairs.

Chen Hui’s eyebrow twitched, but he made an effort, using up all of his willpower, to not show any reaction, continuing to look at the Rou Family members in front of him.

“Since when did the Imperial Guards, especially of the 2nd Garrison, start patrolling ordinary travel vessels?”, Young Master Rou, having passed the initial shock asked in a visibly more restrained manner.

“I cannot disclose the details of why I am here, but it is not a regular patrol”, Chen Hui replied, “Thus, I would like to ask members of the esteemed Rou Family to kindly not make my work harder and not cause disturbances during this journey”

“…”, Young Master Rou wanted to object, but his most senior bodyguard seemed to have gotten some signal from the look the Captain of the Imperial Guards gave him while talking, cutting in with “We understand, have a good day”

Young Master Rou obviously was incensed at this, but for some reason didn’t argue with the bodyguard, only giving an incinerating look to Butler Bang and Wu Long each, and then turning on the spot, storming away as his bodyguards followed.

“Thank you, Captain Chen”, Wu Long spoke while descending the rest of the way.

“I wasn’t protecting you”, Chen Hui spoke with a sour expression while removing his armor, implying that it was the other side that needed protection.

“Haha, but the situation got solved quickly and silently thanks to your intervention”, Wu Long replied with a chuckle.

“Haa~, if only it were so easy…”, Captain Chen shook his head with a sigh, and then turned a warning look to Wu Long, “Even if it’s true that the brat probably holds a grudge now, don’t do anything rash. His family might not be the most powerful one in the Wei Dynasty, and not even one of the top families, but they still are not someone to thoughtlessly meddle with”

“What do you take me for?”, Wu Long smiled as they approached the side of the open roofed corridor of this deck.

“Don’t give me that. You might be a reasonable fellow if you’re not provoked and when talked to without confrontation. But I’ve seen your eyes when you fight. You can’t fool me”, the captain said with a worried voice, placing his lower arms together on the hand rail and leaning forward, looking at the busy sky port of the city in front of them.

“Hmm, I can’t promise you anything, to be honest, you understand, right?”, Wu Long replied more seriously this time. He had a calm expression and tone as he spoke the words that made the man beside him shudder inwardly.

At the same time, Chen Hui wasn’t an idiot, he knew it was the only reasonable answer he could get. Rather, it was his mistake to expect a certainly more polite and reassuring, but ultimately untruthful answer, which would have given him a false sense of security and thus allowed him to pretend to have peace of mind.

“Well, I did what I could and said what I needed”, he lowered his head with a wry, slightly bitter laugh, and then, as if remembering something, raised his head up again, turning to look at Wu Long, “by the way, I forgot to tell you last time because of the circumstances… but the way you counted is wrong, even though the number’s right”

“So there’s five contenders for the thr-…”, as Wu Long spoke, Chen Hui nervously signaled him to stop.

Wu Long silently placed a hand on the hand rail, and removing it, revealed a talisman.

“Haha, well prepared, I see”, Chen Hui visibly relaxed at the sight of the talisman, not knowing that Wu Long only used a talisman for Chen Hui, since his Sound Rune now allowed him to talk anonymously without using them.

“And, yes, as you were about to say…”, he then continued returning to a serious tone of voice, “it’s true there are five princes vying for the throne, but they are not the 1st to 5th princes. It’s the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th princes. The reason I wanted you to know this, though, is so that you don’t accidentally mention the 1st and 2nd prince, especially in the presence of any member of the Imperial Family, that topic is taboo”

“They’re dead?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen them at least. Talking about them was forbidden long before I was even born, and all Imperial Records have been scraped clean of mentioning them, so I literally don’t know anything. No, to be honest, even if I was offered to learn, I don’t even want to know”, Chen Hui shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ll say it again, wise man”, Wu Long nodded,.

“I just don’t stick my head into things above my pay-grade”, the captain chuckled, gladly accepting that praise.

“What about the other princes who’re not contending for throne?”, Wu Long asked.

“One’s dead, several gave up the right to throne and left to travel the world, there’s also a few who simply don’t stand a chance, even though they technically can inherit”, Chen Hui’s tone became slightly dismissive, reflecting the place those princes held in the Wei Dynasty as a whole.

“Thanks for the advise, I’ll make sure to remember it”, Wu Long then added, as Chen Hui nodded, turning back to look at the city they were about to depart from.

They shifted to lighter small talk for a short time after that, and then went their separate ways, Wu Long returning to spend more time with his ladies.