Chapter 62: Swallow River City
Longxi.
There was a large mountain in Long Sang Country known as the Yellow Dragon Mountain.
It was the largest mountain in all of Long Sang Country, spanning ten thousand kilometers from north to south and traversing through six regions.
Longxi was to the west of the Yellow Dragon Mountain. It was originally known as the West Dragon Region and later became known as Longxi.
The trip from Mountain Overlook City to Longxi Region would take a few months even on a fast horse.
But thankfully, Su Chen had the Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle and wasn’t in any particular hurry.
The Gu Clan was quite a sizable clan in Longxi Region, as they had extended their reach quite far and had many different branches scattered around the place. The main branch was in Swallow River City.
Swallow River City was near a river, but that river wasn’t called Swallow River but was actually the Longevity River. There was also a nearby fjord known as the Swallow Fjord.
The name of Swallow River thus came from a combination of the Swallow Fjord’s and the Longevity River’s names.
The main branch of the Longxi Gu Clan was located at the very center of Swallow River City.
The Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle descended near the outskirts of Swallow River City. The city was guarded, as was the airspace above the city. If Su Chen tried to recklessly fly in, he would be attacked.
After landing, Su Chen stowed the Flood Dragon Emperor Shuttle away and walked towards Swallow River City’s interior.
The Gu Clan was located in Swallow River City’s West Willow Alley.
Once he reached West Willow Alley, he was greeted by a large set of copper doors flanked by two obsidian hornless dragon statues adorned with gold. Two Qi Drawing Realm cultivators guarded the front door with imposing auras, demonstrating the style of a large clan.
The Origin Qi Scholars guarding the front door were relatively polite. Upon seeing Su Chen walk towards them, they asked, “Who are you looking for?”
Su Chen clasped his hands and said, “I am Clear River City’s former Origin Bureau Head Su Chen, and I am looking for Prince Jintang.”
Su Chen didn’t directly ask to see Gu Qingluo but instead Prince Gu Jintang first, whom he had met in Long Coiling City back then.
When the guards heard that Su Chen was a former Bureau Head and Gu Jintang’s friend, they naturally wouldn’t make any trouble for him and hurried back to report it. Not long afterwards, Gu Jintang appeared.
When Gu Jintang saw Su Chen, he said happily, “Brother Su, it’s you! You’re finally here. Hey, Qing……”
Su Chen didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence and grabbed him. “Brother Gu, it’s been awhile. I’ve missed you a lot.”
He pulled Gu Jintang back.
Gu Jintang realized something and said softly. “What? You don’t want Qingluo to know?”
“It’s not the right time yet. Let’s talk for a bit first,” Su Chen replied.
“You’re really interesting. Alright, let’s find a place and talk about it slowly,” Gu Jintang laughed.
Within the Thousand Incense Pavilion:
Gu Jintang and Su Chen sat across from each other in an ornately decorated room, with Iron Cliff standing guard at the front door.
“Come, come, let’s have a toast. It’s been a number of years since we first met at Long Coiling City, but for cultivators like us things just happen this way. Time flies by in the blink of an eye, so I still vividly remember everything that happened back then. Later on, I heard of your return to Clear River City and your exploits there. You dealt with the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans in short order. All I can say is that I’m totally impressed,” Gu Jintang said as he ate.
Gu Jintang drank a mouthful of wine and then continued, “But now that you mention it, no matter how long we cultivators live and how insignificant time seems to us, taking too much time isn’t a good thing either. Seventh Junior Sister is already of age; even though thirty-seven is quite young for someone in a Bloodline Nobility Clan, she’s reached an age where marriage is a consideration.
Su Chen replied, “That’s what I also realized, so I came here as soon as my term expired. However, some unforeseen circumstances happened on my way over, wasting a year of my time. I hope that nothing bad comes of it.”
“Nothing really bad has happened per se, but there is a small issue,” Gu Jintang replied. “You’re quite smart to come look for me first. If you went looking for Qingluo, you might have landed in some trouble that would be hard to escape.”
“Oh? Then Brother Gu, please explain.”
“It isn’t anything that big,” Gu Jintang replied. “My uncle found a fiancé for Qingluo.”
“Fiancé……” Su Chen squinted.
Gu Jintang began to explain.
Not long before, Gu Qingluo’s father, Gu Xuanmian, had personally found a suitor for Gu Qingluo. The other party was Zhou Qingkuang from the Crane City Zhou Clan, and he was going to be here in a few days to formalize the wedding procedures.
“What kind of person is this Zhou Qingkuang?” Su Chen asked.
“Have you heard of the Cinnabar Crane?” Gu Jintang answered with a question of his own.
Su Chen’s expression sank. “The Scarlet-Eyed Demon King?”
During Emperor Ping’s rule, the country was weakened and without strength, allowing outsiders to easily infiltrate the country. The Beast Race put the country in quite a crisis, and Demonic Beasts were often able to sneak in, wreaking havoc amongst the human race.
One of the more infamous Demonic Beasts during that period of time was the Scarlet-Eyed Demon King.
The Scarlet-Eyed Demon King, as its name suggested, was a Demonic King-level Demonic Beast. It possessed incredible strength, but its worst characteristics were its ungodly speed and bloodthirsty temperament. Unlike most Demonic Beasts, which killed humans for food, the Cinnabar Crane merely killed humans for sport. It particularly liked to hunt Origin Qi Scholars and because it was so fast, it was always able to escape regardless of whether it succeeded or failed. It had once been encircled by countless humans, but it was still able to escape.
One time, they even sent out two Thought Manifestation experts, and even then it was able to escape, a clear demonstration of its evasive abilities. The Scarlet-Eyed Demon King became quite well known because of this and was one of the Demonic Beasts that terrorized humans for the longest amount of time. In the end, it took the efforts of the Cloud-Pecking Du Clan, who possessed the bloodline of a Primordial Beast, to kill it.
This Crane City Zhou Clan was likely the clan that had ultimately inherited the Scarlet-Eyed Demon King Bloodline.
Even though the Gu Clan had the latent bloodline of an Origin Beast, they still could only utilize the Soaring Serpent Bloodline, a Demonic Lord Beast. When compared to a Demonic King Bloodline, they were still far inferior. Gu Mingxuan wanted to bring glory to his clan; as such, choosing a marriage alliance with a Demonic King Bloodline Nobility Clan was an extremely normal decision.
But now that Su Chen was here, what was common under normal circumstances was no longer so.
“What do you think? The pressure’s on, huh? Winning the hand of my Seventh Junior Sister isn’t that easy now, is it?” Gu Jintang laughed.
“But it’s not impossible, right? Even you believe that I still have hope, right?” Su Chen countered.
“Of course.” Gu Jintang slapped the table. “Who told you to have so much money! If you have money, then you’re the boss!”
That’s right. Gu Jintang didn’t think that Su Chen would lose to the Zhou Clan, even if he didn’t have a bloodline.
Because he had money!
He had a lot of money!
As long as they lived in a world where resources were needed and could be used in an exchange, then money still held quite a bit of importance.
Su Chen still had over a billion Origin Stones in hand. This was enough to purchase an entire Bloodline Nobility Clan.
Even an extremely grand Demonic Emperor clan only needed one of the Bewitching Origin Substances; just the technique for reaching the Blood Boiling Realm without a bloodline, or the Hemolytic Totem were enough for them to hand over Zhu Xianyao plus extra benefits.
How much money was that worth? Far below a billion Origin Stones.
If a Demonic Emperor clan’s Young Miss wasn’t even worth that much, how much could Gu Qingluo, who was from a Demonic Lord clan, be worth?
As long as Su Chen was willing to slam a few hundred million down, Gu Xuanmian would absolutely agree.
So what if they were a Demonic King clan? Could he not just give them a larger dowry?
The question was: was Su Chen willing to pay that price?
The answer was: no.