Chapter 543: Young Master Xuanji

After Tushan Shanhe nodded, Xiao Shou said nothing more and silently accepted the situation.

Only after confirming that neither group intended to resist did Captain Beichen drag Fifth Young Lady Murong and her companions along with the others toward the City Lord’s residence.

Unfortunately, City Lord Murong Shuang was entertaining an important guest when they arrived. Captain Beichen simply locked everyone inside a waiting room beside the main hall and left them there without another word.

His attitude was truly something else.

The three groups sat in the waiting room, looking at one another in silence for quite some time. Eventually, the chubby man with a face full of bulging flesh sidled up beside Xiao Shou and asked in a low voice, "Hey! The guy beside you really isn’t Ximen Xuanji?"

"Of course!"

After answering, Xiao Shou carefully searched his memories for the relevant plot details concerning the most handsome man in the Mystic Jade Realm. It had been so long since he had read the novel, and the ending had left him so frustrated that he had deliberately tried to forget as much of the story as possible. As a result, recalling the details was quite difficult. Only after a while did he finally remember Ximen Xuanji’s storyline.

Throughout the entire story set in the Mystic Jade Realm, Ximen Xuanji was someone whose name was often mentioned but who never actually appeared. Although he ranked ninth among the current generation of the Ximen Clan, his cultivation had surpassed that of his peers long ago, making him the strongest among his generation within the clan.

Ah, there was another detail. The Ximen Clan was famous for cultivating Dao of Confucian. Rather than practicing ordinary cultivation techniques, its members focused exclusively on the path of righteous virtue and noble spirit.

Once they achieved a certain level of mastery, they had to enter the imperial court and further cultivate their noble spirit through political struggles. The background and rules of the Mystic Jade Realm were vastly different from those of the Heaven Origin Realm. In the Heaven Origin Realm, mortal kingdoms belonged to mortals, while cultivators’ sects belonged to cultivators. In this realm, however, Confucian cultivators established kingdoms and imperial courts, governing cities, villages, and towns. Practitioners of other cultivation paths also established their own forces.

The twelve great surname clans were the royal families of the twelve kingdoms in the Mystic Jade Realm. The Ximen Clan was the royal family of the Ximen Kingdom, while the young lady they had just encountered belonged to the royal family of the Murong Kingdom.

Since Murong Shuang governed this city, it should be located within Murong Kingdom’s territory. In the ancient times of Xiao Shou’s hometown, that Fifth Young Lady would have been equivalent to a princess.

However, this was the cultivation world, where countless forces stood above the twelve kingdoms. Cultivators had always judged people primarily by their cultivation strength. Therefore, members of the twelve great surname clans who were not direct descendants of the royal family were not addressed as princes or princesses. Instead, they were called Young Masters or Young Ladies.

Ximen Xuanji was no exception. As a member of a collateral branch of the clan, he had always been addressed as Young Master Xuanji.

The novel had mentioned several times that while the female protagonist was using mind reading to win over the inheritor of the Heavenfall Immortal Sword and scheming against various people, she occasionally heard others talk about Ximen Xuanji.

After entering the imperial court, Ximen Xuanji had steadily risen through the ranks and received numerous honors and titles. He had advanced from being the ruler of a single city to becoming the Crown Prince. Before the great calamity arrived, he had even ascended the throne and become emperor. Joining forces with the Murong Kingdom, he conquered six other kingdoms: Dongfang, Nangong, Shangguan, Gu, Ye, and Su. He had seemed poised to unify the entire world.

What an extraordinarily talented and brilliant man!

Unfortunately, the female protagonist had suffered a cultivation deviation and self detonated the immortal sword, destroying everything. Ximen Xuanji never appeared again after that.

It was not until the later stages of the novel, when the female protagonist sought to resurrect Yun Zixuan, that Ximen Xuanji was mentioned again. Among the materials listed by the system for the resurrection was an item that required her to enter the void, locate the ruins of the Mystic Jade Realm, find Ximen Xuanji’s corpse, and collect his true dragon energy.

Sigh! Such an extraordinarily talented man, reduced to nothing more than one of the materials needed to resurrect the male protagonist. What a pity.

After recalling the relevant plot, Xiao Shou stopped dwelling on it.

He was terrible at dealing with politics, power struggles, and scheming. As a result, his usual approach was to keep his distance from people involved in such matters. If they could not understand one another, it was better not to get involved in the first place.

While Xiao Shou was busy thinking through all these details in an instant, the dark skinned man surnamed Mo, the chubby man with a face full of bulging flesh, and the thin, white robed scholar all showed disappointment when they heard his answer. The chubby man even muttered, "Sigh! So he really isn’t Young Master Xuanji. This is troublesome. Where are we supposed to find an expert with eighth-grade noble spirit from the Dao of Confucian?"

"You are looking for an eighth-grade Confucian expert? What for?" Fifth Young Lady Murong, who was already in a foul mood, overheard their conversation and asked casually out of boredom.

The dark skinned man surnamed Mo scratched his head, looking as though they were in serious trouble. "In response to Fifth Young Lady, we have a friend who has fallen victim to something sinister. Even Brother Ye, with his seventh-grade cultivation of the noble spirit, can’t do anything about the evil influence afflicting Young Master Ying Zhaoming. Just now, we thought we had found Young Master Xuanji, but we never imagined there would be someone who looks so similar to him."