When Li Luo reached House Luolan, he sought out Jiang Qing’e immediately to fill her in on the conversation with the First Princess.
“She confided that much in you?”
Jiang Qing’e was astounded. Out of all the girls she knew, the First Princess rated a solid brick wall on a scale of difficulty to read. The two spoke cordially on most days, albeit with some guardedness. But getting the First Princess to open up was no small feat. And her words to Li Luo had brought them to a new level of closeness.
“Perhaps it’s because I can treat the Little Emperor…” Li Luo offered.
Jiang Qing’e nodded slightly. “So the struggle at the royal court is white-hot in intensity too. It will be a turbulent six months.”
“The entire political landscape of the Xia Kingdom might change.” Li Luo sighed. Why couldn’t they have a bit more peace and quiet?
“Will the regent give up power willingly?” he asked.
“I have not interacted much with him in the past, but he is not truly n.o.ble as he seems. I recall both the Master and Mistress saying that he was not a good person.”
“Which means that buddying up with the First Princess means we’re baddy-ing up with him? And I get the feeling he knows I can heal the Little Emperor,” Li Luo groaned.
“That doesn’t matter. Obviously the First Princess will do her best to protect you on this matter. Besides, if the regent opposes you, it shows his own lack of impartiality. It does him little good in their internal politics.
“Also… I mentioned before about the mystery of the Master and Mistress’ death lottery. It seems like the regent is one of the great suspects.”
Li Luo agreed. One had to wield great power to influence the death lottery. There were not many who would fulfill that criteria.
“The regent has not openly moved against House Luolan before, but still he is a suspect. I think that the First Princess gaining any advantage over him is good news for us.”
Li Luo nodded.
“But outside help is still outside help. We must rely on ourselves first and foremost. In the face of absolute power, no amount of plotting can help us.
“Regardless of whether the secession goes well or not, House Luolan has its own troubles to face. We either win, or we crack.”
They shared a look and saw their same resolution mirrored in the eyes of the other. They had given blood, sweat, and tears for House Luolan. They would not allow it to be broken.
“In the next two days, some of the students will be entering the Suncreek Villa. Lingqing is overlooking things over there, but we should always expect some teething problems. Please try to help out if you can,” Jiang Qing’e said.
Li Luo nodded. Resonance Artificers Hall students were all prideful people, and rightly so, given their abilities. Other elite villas like the Skypalace Villa might haze them a little to wear them down, but the Suncreek Villa was not like that. Their strongest were fourth-grade resonance artificers. There would be friction that arose from this reversed dynamic.
Still, he believed that Yan Lingqing and Cai Wei could handle it. He could step in if needed.
“Besides that, I’ve already given all the Royal Sap to Uncle Biao. He says the miracle paste will take a while to make, and that you should be patient.”
“Alrighty. That’s not urgent for now anyway.”
“And you should also prepare for the Golden Dragon Dao Fields.”
“Got it… Hey, Qing’e, your nagging is starting to sound like my mother’s.”
She was quiet for a moment, and they stood together for a moment. It was a cool, autumn day, and the yellowing ginkgo leaves covered the floor in pale gold.
Li Luo looked at the smile that had lit up her face, and he suddenly had an urge to run away.
Her slim hand clamped down on his shoulder before Captain Legs could steer his vessel to safety.
“Sister Qing’e, what are you doing?!”
“Well, if I were the Mistress, then there’s one more thing I would do.”
“Aw, can we not?”
“Let’s go. You’re free anyway. The practice arena calls.”
The tall girl strong-armed her protesting fiance into the practice room, where she shut the door firmly behind her. Strange sounds could be heard from behind it.
…
Over the next two days, Li Luo spent much of his time at the Suncreek Villa overseeing the transition. They were already back to the height of the Suncreek Villa’s success in the past, and their artificers were stronger than Hanzhi now as well.
The Suncreek Villa was the golden goose of House Luolan, and the golden eggs made up Li Luo’s pocket money. He had to protect it carefully.
Just like the two leaders had foreseen, there were teething problems for the newcomers. This was inevitable, but Li Luo had a simple trick to deal with it. He simply released the first batch of eighth-grade secret watersource, and suddenly they were all absorbed in their newest toy. It was like putting metaphorical blinders on them. No one cared who was beside them anymore. They just wanted to charge straight onwards.
Soon, the Suncreek Villa was in a good rhythm, and the working pace was picking up steadily.
Both Cai Wei and Yan Lingqing were happy to see it take off. They decided to treat the young lord who had made all of this possible.
It was a moonlit night at the House Luolan headquarters. The wind shuffled along at a languid pace, enough to keep the night cool, but it was so barely perceptible that the night was quiet.
In a stone pavilion sat Li Luo with Jiang Qing’e, Yan Lingqing, and Cai Wei. Besides the visual feast, there was also an actual feast, laid out in sumptuous fas.h.i.+on on the table.
The four ate and chatted.
“It’s all thanks to the Young Lord that the Suncreek Villa has found such a quick rise to success. If you have any requests, just say the word,” Cai Wei said teasingly.
Li Luo looked deep into the eyes of the doll-like beauty. “Anything?” his voice trembled.
Cai Wei batted her eyelids. “Spit it out and find out,” she said playfully.
“Vixen, how could you tease a betrothed man?” Yan Lingqing said in disgust.
Jiang Qing’e continued eating, smiling without comment.
Li Luo looked at the s.e.xy Cai Wei and licked his lips. Encouraged by her come-hither look, he gathered his courage. “Dear Cai Wei, I want…
“…you to give me five seventh-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights each month!”
Her face froze. “Young Lord, tonight is actually my retirement dinner. Working as a manager at House Luolan is too hard, so I’m quitting. We will part at dawn.”
Li Luo was speechless. d.a.m.n, this was a real quick change.
Yan Lingqing was shaking, smacking the table with one hand for emphasis as the laughter peeled out of her.
Jiang Qing’e just smiled.
“Sister Cai Wei, you said ‘anything!’” Li Luo whined.
“Seventh-grade liquids and lights cost 300,000 skygold apiece. Five bottles is 1.5 million skygold. In a year, we would be spending over ten million.
“Sure, the Suncreek Villa is taking in good profits now, but it can’t possibly all go to feed a black hole like you!
“Unless you want me to sell House Luolan’s other businesses!”
Li Luo hastily laughed to soften the sharpness of her tone. “Well, maybe not five bottles a month. Surely we can negotiate it?”
Cai Wei rubbed her brow, all playfulness gone from her manner. But she did not say no either. She knew that all of House Luolan’s businesses were ultimately there to serve the two leaders of the house. Still, she wanted a bigger source of wealth first before she started feeding them so much.
“Only one bottle of seventh-grade spirit liquid for now. I can provide a few more fifth and sixth-grade ones,” she finally said after some lengthy calculations.
“Perhaps two bottles of seventh-grade spirit liquids when the Suncreek Villa gets a little bigger.
“Young Lord, seventh-grade spirit liquids are on a completely different level from sixth-grade ones, you know. I can count the number of qualified artificers who can make those on my fingers. They’re far rarer and far more expensive than sixth-grade liquids and lights by an entire scale,” Cai Wei grumbled.
“Alright, whatever you think best, Cai Wei. One bottle a month it is.” At this rate, Li Luo would never fill up his acquired resonances. He was broke already at the seventh-grade. How on earth would he survive the eighth and ninth grades?
Acquired resonances had their own bottlenecks to overcome. He was feeling it now, although he couldn’t really tell it to Cai Wei, who would not understand.
Since his seventh-grade spirit liquid intake was going to be limited, he had better channel more of his liquids and lights into his woodearth resonance. It was only fifth-grade for now, so it should improve a little more quickly.
If he could bring his woodearth resonance to the seventh-grade in the next half a year, he should become much stronger.
Seventh-grade dual resonances against a ninth-grade singular resonance. Surely he stood a chance?
Now that the Suncreek Villa was on a good track, he would head to Golden Dragon Bank tomorrow. It was about time for the Golden Dragon Dao Fields to open…