As Wu Long looked at the worried faces of beauties a warm smile appeared on his face. How much time was it since he was surrounded by so many people who cared for him, or has he ever? He has been surrounded by far vaster number of cultivation partners and lovers, but that never brought a feeling quite like this.
'Hah, joking or laughing it off won't help huh'
He inwardly chuckled as he saw the genuine worry in these beautiful eyes he could stare into forever without being tired of looking.
"Don't worry, it is not like I rely on that mindset, if I did there would beno doubt that it would come to that. I am just speaking of the absolute worst case scenario where every other effort fails. And my other efforts are usually not so flimsy because I don't want it to come to that either"
He calmly spoke without laughter in his tone, his voice colored with warmth and sincerity, which finally managed to make the beautiful faces around him somewhat less pale and distressed.
"Haa~ I guess we also have to make our best effort to prevent that"
Ye Ling sighed as her determination to regain more of her strength solidified. She was the only one who could currently rival Wu Long in strength, though not being a match for him in a true life or death situation, but being the second strongest of the group which put a certain pressure on her as well.
She knew that she could ease the burden on him simply by being in places they needed to protect, freeing him to move without constraints while she holds the fort.
"Our current fortified positions are the Sect and here in Fantian Kingdom. And while the Sect is a certified fortress as long as Palace Master is inside and operates the Grand Formation, this place is only safe because of our presence, so we cannot abandon it.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThus I plan to purchase a mansion here in the capital and have our main base of operations be here instead of the sect for the time being"
Wu Long then disclosed the strategy for them on a personal level.
"Will the Sect be fine? There are still troublemakers inside..."
Wei Lan asked while looking slightly worried.
"Don't worry, the Palace Master might give off that impression, but she's not clueless or without hidden cards. Not to mention that tampering with her formation without her noticing is incredibly hard even for me at this point, as it is something of a masterpiece"
He chuckled. It was a truly impressive piece of work that was quite cleverly disguised as a less impressive formation. It of course was not of higher level than Mortal Grade, as such knowledge and most crucially materials were not present here, but what was ingenious, was the way in which she used the lower level concepts and combined them.
Wu Long himself could construct a more impressive formation, but it had to be a Profound or higher Grade to beat that, as he would need to work really hard and use quite a lot of time to make a better Mortal Grade formation, if he could even do it at all, since he was at his core not a formation master unlike Lian Zhiqiu.
"So we would assemble in the Fantian Kingdom to safeguard our allies from anyone below Seven Profound Realms"
Sui Luxiao said while pondering. She did not need to be in the sect anymore as she now controlled her Trading Company through the medium of her three sons rather than directly, so she had much more free time and was generally more mobile.
"Mm, while they haven't deployed more forceful tactics yet when we level the playing field the fight for the control of Six Kingdoms will become that more fierce, so unless we move in like this they will target areas like the Fantian Kingdom with people in Foundation Building Realm and higher.
In fact, according to Old Yen's report they were already starting to show signs of mobilizing a nearby sect prior to the arrival of Ling'er, Ziyan, Min'er and Mingyu here. They just halted since it became risky with the four of them in the country and in constant contact with the Feng House where Feng Yi was"
He explained the distribution of forces as the beauties got excited to assemble in one position with Wu Long.
"What about Yu Huan? Will we take her with us to the Fantian Kingdom?"
Bi Rui asked as Wu Long nodded.
"Her alchemy pavilion will start working on new pills soon, but as soon as she is done teaching her alchemists, there is a second in command who was Luxiao's former chief alchemist to take charge. Meanwhile it would be much more productive for her to learn new things from me.
I would of course visit the Sect from time to time but as our base of operations shifts here it would be the place I would spend the most time in"
"What about the Gong sisters?"
Wei Lan asked next, since they were currently in her care.
"We would have to trouble them to follow along as it is a bit risky to leave those reckless sisters around wily old foxes without proper care, and Palace Master... well you know.
Though Her Highness would have to remain there since there is a possibility of the Song Dynasty overseers arriving at the Sect"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe chuckled as he thought about Lian Zhiqiu's likely reaction to his words.
"I do have some good news as during the trips on the continent I have succeeded in obtaining and gaining control of two Dao Runes"
Wu Long decided to slightly lighten up the atmosphere as some beauties like Bi Rui and Sui Luxiao who already have experienced the effect of one of those runes became slightly rosy.
"Though there was a development I did not expect, since when I tried to show Mingyu the Dao Runes to help me with studying it and possibly helping you all to gain them it was discovered that I was the only one who perceived them in any way"
He then proceeded to say with slight disappointment.
"Mm, I could not see or feel the Runes, just observe their powers when he demonstrated them. We repeated the process with everyone who is in Fantian Kingdom now but as expected none of us perceive its existence.
I can only assume, but there is probably a special condition that Wu Long meets that allows him to perceive the Runes. And if I were to take a random guess it is the exposure to the Dao Runes in the Soul Sea of that Wood Spirit Empire prince, since it was after that when Wu Long first noticed the existence of the Dao Runes"Luo Mingyu nodded, supplementing his explanation and bringing forth her hypothesis.
"Did you try to perceive the Rune with Soul Power as he brings it to his Soul Sea?"
Cao Xiang asked since it was the closest way to how Wu Long first perceived the Runes.
"Yes, but it unfortunately did not yield any results"
Luo Mingyu confirmed with a sigh as she wanted to help Wu Long who had trouble controlling the Runes.
"There is no easy way of doing it, it seems so I just have to try and practice until I stumble on the right answers. Not to mention that Mingyu is at a critical point in her own studies of Dao Intent, and can possibly soon have a breakthrough so she should concentrate on that"
Wu Long chuckled.