Chapter 953: Foreknowledge

Before this, Yucang had been somewhat puzzled about why Niu Youdao had tipped him off. But once Sacred Realm suddenly added Elders to the roster, it became impossible for him not to suspect something.

Niu Youdao had previously told him to arrange reliable people from Xiaoyue Pavilion to enter Sacred Realm. It had made no sense at the time. But after learning that Niu Youdao himself had also been added to the Sacred Realm list and would be going, realization dawned on him. Niu Youdao was preparing backup manpower for himself. Otherwise, there had been no need.

To confirm his suspicion, Yucang had waited. He had waited for Niu Youdao's next instruction.

The reason was simple. If Niu Youdao had wanted those reliable people for some other purpose, then there would certainly have been arrangements for them. He would have had to explain those arrangements before they entered Sacred Realm.

Yet with the deadline now drawing near, Niu Youdao still had not given any further instructions. To Yucang, that all but confirmed his suspicion, so he hurried over.

Hearing this, Niu Youdao was a little dumbfounded. If Yucang had not brought it up, he himself would never have connected those events in that way.

Once he understood what Yucang meant, he realized this was probably impossible to explain clearly. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he said, "Old Brother, you're thinking too much. How could I possibly have known Sacred Realm's arrangements in advance? I asked you to prepare reliable people because the Tiandu Secret Realm scared the hell out of me. Think about it. The Tiandu Secret Realm had nothing to do with me at first, yet I still got dragged into it. Then this Sacred Realm tempering suddenly appeared. I was already frightened once, so I decided to guard against the unexpected. Preparing for a rainy day—understand?"

He was telling the absolute truth, but Yucang plainly did not believe him. Disbelief was written all over his face. "Little Brother, you and I have always gotten along well and cooperated happily. Brushing me off like this is meaningless."

Niu Youdao knew the man would not believe him. Then again, if their positions were reversed, he probably would not believe it either. Helpless, he asked, "Then what exactly do you want from me?"

Still holding Niu Youdao by the wrist, Yucang said, "Give me the truth. Don't brush me off. Do you have an information channel inside Sacred Realm? Did you already know that your own name would appear on the Sacred Realm list? Put another way, do you know what this Sacred Realm tempering is actually for? Tell me what they're going to do and how long it will last, so I can at least prepare myself and give proper instructions to the people under me in time. Otherwise, something may happen that becomes impossible to clean up afterward!"

Niu Youdao sighed repeatedly. "You really are thinking too much. How could I possibly have an information channel inside Sacred Realm? You can't throw words like that around. Planting eyes and ears inside Sacred Realm, daring to probe its internal affairs, daring to scheme against Sacred Realm itself—if word of that spread, people would die!"

Yucang said, "I know this can't be spoken carelessly. But rest assured. If you tell me, then Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know. It will never reach a third person's ears. Even when I brief my people, I'll be careful how I do it. I absolutely won't let anything trace back to you. Once Xiaoyue Pavilion becomes involved in this, we wouldn't dare publicize it either, would we?"

Guan Fangyi kept glancing over from time to time, wondering what the two men were hiding in a corner whispering about so furtively.

Niu Youdao was thoroughly defeated by him. He also knew this truly was impossible to explain. First he pried Yucang's hand off his wrist, then sighed. "Mr. Yucang, I genuinely don't know. Think about it. If I had eyes and ears inside Sacred Realm, then I would also have known in advance about the Tiandu Secret Realm. I wouldn't have been caught unprepared, would I?"

Yucang shook his head. "Those are completely different matters. The Tiandu Secret Realm roster was recommended by the various sects. Once they pushed your name onto it, what could you do? Even if you knew in advance that independent cultivators would be allowed in, what difference would it make? This time is different. The Elders on the list were personally designated by Sacred Realm. Take one step back: even if you truly had no information channel in Sacred Realm before, you could easily have established one afterward. I know something of what you're capable of, Little Brother. Your methods are vast!"

"Know what? You don't know shit! And what do you mean, take one step back?" Niu Youdao was caught between laughter and exasperation. He pressed a hand downward. "Fine. Let's take a step back. Let's take ten thousand steps back, all right? Even if I did know something about an affair like this, how could I possibly tell you? Wouldn't I be putting an enormous handle into your hands? Forget whether I have such a channel or not. Even if I did, I could never tell you. So I truly don't know, and you can stop asking."

Yucang's expression became solemn. "In other words, you're admitting that you really do know some inside information."

"..."

Niu Youdao was rendered speechless. Then, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he nearly jumped in agitation. Pointing at Yucang's nose, he said, "Yucang, explain yourself. I admitted it? What the hell did I admit? Inside information, my ass! I'll say it again: I don't know anything!"

Yucang pressed both hands downward repeatedly. "Fine, fine. You don't know anything, all right? You merely knew it before divination. Is that acceptable?"

"..."

Niu Youdao had no answer. The man had even dragged out the phrase "foreknowledge." Yet if one thought about it, was that not exactly how it looked? Otherwise, why would Niu Youdao have made those seemingly unnecessary preparations?

He suddenly realized this was like getting yellow mud smeared on one's crotch: even if it was not shit, everyone would take it for shit. No matter how he explained, the other man refused to believe him. His teeth itched with frustration. "Yucang, have you lost your mind? Are you finished with this madness? Keep spouting nonsense and don't blame me for ordering you thrown out!"

Yucang did not look mad at all. He reached into his sleeve, pulled Niu Youdao's hand out, and slapped two high-denomination vouchers from All-Under-Heaven Money House into his palm, each redeemable for gold coins or gold drafts. He asked, "I know your name for loyalty and righteousness now resounds beneath Heaven. But I'm not a man without sentiment either. Generous enough?"

What was this? Niu Youdao turned the two vouchers over and examined them. Each had a face value of ten million. Together, that was twenty million gold coins.

The man had casually shoved twenty million gold coins into his hand. That kind of generosity was unbelievable.

Niu Youdao looked up blankly. "Yucang, what do you mean by this? Trying to buy information with money? Let me warn you, I don't play that game!" With that, he immediately tried to stuff the gold drafts back, forcing them hard into Yucang's hand.

What kind of joke was this? Did Niu Youdao dare accept money tied to such a thing? Forget that there was no such secret. Even if there were, he would rather die than admit he had planted an informant inside Sacred Realm.

Forget twenty million. Even if Yucang gave him two hundred million, Niu Youdao would not let himself be bought. A handle like that was far too dangerous to touch. Even talking nonsense about it could get people killed.

What good was making money if one had no life left to spend it? And if someone seized such a fatal weakness and held it over his head, was Niu Youdao really greedy and muddleheaded enough to fall for that?

But Yucang was absurdly generous and refused to take the vouchers back, insisting on pushing them onto him.

Money House vouchers? Guan Fangyi, watching from a distance, thought she had seen wrongly. Once she confirmed that they really were Money House vouchers, she understood what the two were doing. Yucang was stuffing money into Master Dao's hands, while Master Dao refused to take it. What was all this pushing back and forth supposed to mean?

Her feet even shifted a little. She very much wanted to walk over and say, Master Dao, if you don't want it, give it to me!

In the end, however, she stayed where she was. One thing she knew clearly: Master Dao was not a polite man. If he refused money, there was definitely a reason.

"Yucang, keep this up and don't blame me for turning hostile!"

"Little Brother, you're overthinking it. This is payment for your liquor formula. I'm paying you early!"

"Save it! Earlier, when I told you to pay in advance, you dragged your feet and insisted on waiting until the year was up. Now the year isn't even over, yet suddenly you're throwing twenty million at me. Ten million paid early somehow becomes twenty million. Don't you think you're being so generous it's abnormal? If you want to dig a pit for me, use your brain. I'm not a three-year-old child!"

"It's payment for two years. I'm paying you two years in advance."

The hands that had been wrestling back and forth suddenly froze. Niu Youdao stared. "It really is payment for two years of the liquor formula?"

He had calmed down somewhat by now. Even if he accepted the money, what of it? As long as he said nothing and admitted nothing, that was enough. He had been rattled for a moment only because Yucang's mistaken conclusion had genuinely frightened him.

Yucang sighed. "It's true. Why would I lie to you? I promise I won't ask about that matter again. Pretend I never said any of it. Will that do?"

Niu Youdao shoved his hand aside, snatched back the two gold drafts that had been wrinkled almost to tearing during their tug-of-war, and carefully smoothed them flat. Suspicion remained all over his face. "I hear you've been expanding the scale of your brewing operations nonstop. Throwing money around this freely—it seems you've made quite a lot."

Yucang cupped his hands. "All thanks to you."

"Save that." Niu Youdao was having none of it. "No one offers attentions for no reason. If it isn't treachery, it's theft. You definitely want something. Say it plainly."

Yucang said, "How could this be for no reason? Little Brother, I won't say anything else. Just one thing. I've already brought the people from Qin who are going to Sacred Realm. They're waiting outside Zijin Cave. I know something of your ability. Once my people go in, look after them a little. If you can lend them a hand along the way, help them out."

"I'll brief them afterward. Once they're inside Sacred Realm, all of them will listen to you. Nine people from the three major sects. They'll obey you without question. Everything will follow your arrangements!"

Misty Pavilion had established the rules that required three powers to stand in balance. Even though Xiaoyue Pavilion dominated Qin, it still had to face those rules. The situation was similar to Qiyun Sect's in Jin: two puppet-like sects had been raised alongside it as nominal equals. Thus Qin, like the other states, was also sending nine people into Sacred Realm for tempering.

Yucang looked around, then lowered his voice further. "We both understand the situation, so I'll speak plainly. Qin's forebears spent centuries exhausting heart and blood before finally restoring the state. We absolutely cannot stumble over something like this and lose everything. None of us can afford to offend Sacred Realm. One sentence from them can destroy a state! I'll give you the truth, Little Brother: every one of them is yours to use. Use them however you wish. Their survival or death is secondary. But they absolutely cannot bring trouble down on Qin."

"Of course, on that basis, if you can also help bring them back safely, then treat this extra ten million as your fee. I'll still pay you the usual ten million next year. I believe that since you prepared for danger before it arrived, you must have made arrangements of your own. With your methods, Little Brother, you wouldn't walk into danger casually either. Please look after them properly. What do you say?"

Niu Youdao's brows slowly rose. "What do I say? Nothing good! Yucang, after all this, you still fucking suspect I have an inside man in Sacred Realm!"

"No, no, no!" Yucang waved both hands repeatedly, his expression utterly sincere. "Absolutely not. I simply trust your ability to look after them. If you take good care of them, I will not go back on the promised reward!"

If that's truly what you believe, then I may as well believe in ghosts! Niu Youdao cursed inwardly. He had genuinely discovered what it meant to play a lute to an ox.

Fine. Since nothing he said mattered anyway, he could not be bothered wasting more words. He waved the Money House vouchers in his hand and scoffed, "This really is damned strange. Before I went to the Tiandu Secret Realm, you gave me a pile of money. Now I'm going to Sacred Realm, and you're giving me another pile, one I apparently can't even refuse. Yucang, at this rate, if the two of us take another trip through the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm next time, are you going to hand me another fortune?"

"Heh. You were tormented once by the Tiandu Secret Realm and now you're going to be tormented again by Sacred Realm, yet you still think your life is too long and want another round?" Yucang spread both hands and teased him. "Fine. If you're not afraid to die, what would it matter if I gave you another?"

That was true. Niu Youdao's face fell. This money was not easy to earn. He would rather never earn it than go through something like this again.

[End of Chapter 953]