For the time being, there was nothing more that could be done about the Soul Candle. Jiang Wang could not move the Soul Candle out of the Celestial Palace, nor did he have any certain method to burn it away and completely eliminate Jiang Yan.
Conversely, Jiang Yan's forceful extinguishing of the divine soul flame had already proven that he possessed at least the ability to grievously wound Jiang Wang's divine soul.
Therefore, for Jiang Wang, compromise was already inevitable. He had to admit — Jiang Yan truly understood him well.
In the end, he could only reach a temporary agreement with Jiang Yan.
Jiang Yan pledged never again to try to dominate Jiang Wang's decisions, and pledged never to casually leave the Soul Candle. Of course, perhaps he might not have been able to leave in any case.
Jiang Wang would not completely trust Jiang Yan's words. Compared to those, he trusted his own thinking more.
From the current situation, Jiang Yan could slightly influence his thoughts, but could not perceive what he was thinking. Otherwise, before Jiang Wang attempted to ignite the Soul Candle, Jiang Yan should have tried to prevent that situation. Yet he had done nothing.
This showed that even if everything Jiang Yan said was true, they were now two independent individuals — thoughts and memories would not be shared.
But despite this, from now on, whenever his thinking involved Jiang Yan, Jiang Wang planned to conduct it within the Illusory Realm of the Void.
It concerned himself — he had to be cautious.
The path of cultivation was truly like walking on thin ice. Who could have imagined that simply using White Bone Path techniques would lead to being tainted by the White Bone Venerable?
Regardless, Jiang Wang would absolutely never again use any secret arts of the White Bone Path system.
One Jiang Yan was already headache enough. If some other demon or phantom were to pop out...
Having said that, the reason Jiang Wang agreed to Jiang Yan's conditions was that the White Bone Path was already his target for revenge, and the White Bone Holy Lord was inevitably an objective that could not be bypassed. Whether he agreed to Jiang Yan or not, it made no difference. At least their general direction was aligned. Being able to resolve his own hidden danger in the process was, of course, even better.
However, Jiang Wang would not truly leave Jiang Yan unmonitored either. Seizing the White Bone Holy Lord's body was merely a long-term option. Should the opportunity arise to expel him earlier, he would certainly not be soft about it.
There were thus two paths. The first was to find a method to drive the Soul Candle out of the Celestial Palace. The second was to strengthen his own divine soul power. If he could reach a level where he could eliminate Jiang Yan without damage, then naturally there would be no need to worry about his threat.
He currently had no ideas for the former. As for the latter — was the Red Adornment Mirror not exactly a treasure that could enhance divine soul power? Although the process was very dangerous...
In any case, although the Soul Candle had not been resolved, at least he now understood what existence had been affecting his thoughts.
What remained was simply the question of how to deal with it.
Problems placed before one would eventually be solved. Relatively speaking, the unknown dangers were always more terrifying.
Leaving the room, Jiang Wang gathered his trusted subordinates.
That was to say — Xiang Qian, Zhu Biong, Zhang Hai, and Dugu Xiao. Just the four of them.
Twenty days had passed in a flash. He needed to take full control of the situation.
The five of them sat in order of rank and position, quietly listening as Dugu Xiao gave a complete introduction to the recent situation. Before, he had been busy dealing with the Soul Candle and had only caught a few rough words from her.
"...The overall situation in the Jiacheng city domain is still trending positively. But for some reason, the Four Seas Trading Alliance has been finding it increasingly difficult to coordinate supplies. Of course, our Green Goat Town domain's supply situation is still fine. The afflicted have been reduced to seventy-six people. There have been no new afflicted for three days. It can be said that in Green Goat Town, this plague has been completely brought under control," Dugu Xiao concluded.
Her information only extended to Green Goat Town at most, and perhaps Jiacheng. It was impossible for her to grasp the situation of the entire State of Yang.
Jiang Wang was about to speak.
Flap flap~
The cloud crane nimbly squeezed through the window.
"Every day these past few days, it flies down once at noon," Xiang Qian remarked abruptly.
Until it received a letter, the cloud crane would not leave.
"An'an must be missing me," Jiang Wang thought to himself. He extended his hand and let it land on his palm.
He said aloud: "You've all worked hard during this period. For the three transcendents — twenty Dao Stones each, as a small token of my gratitude."
One Dao Stone per day was certainly not stingy, but it was also what was fitting. When he could not take charge, the town domain had still operated according to his will. That in itself was a testament to their loyalty.
Zhu Biong and the others would not refuse.
The cloud crane transformed into a letter in his palm. Jiang Wang set it aside for the moment, looked at Xiao Xiao, and said: "Don't slack off in your training during this period. Once you've built a solid foundation, I'll procure a Meridian-Opening Pill for you."
He currently could not obtain a perfect Meridian-Opening Pill — that was something priceless and unavailable on any market. But buying an ordinary Meridian-Opening Pill was no problem at all. Even if purchased from the Four Seas Trading Alliance, his Dao Stones would be sufficient.
This was a meteoric rise. Dugu Xiao was both shocked and delighted: "Thank you, Master!"
Dugu Xiao's performance was there for all to see. Regardless of whether anyone had opinions, no one could deny that this was a reward she had earned.
In the Zhuang Kingdom Dao Court's Dao Merit system, Dao Merit points themselves held currency-like circulation within Zhuang Kingdom.
But outside of Zhuang Kingdom, Dao Stones were the transcendent currency that received widespread recognition.
Zhuang Kingdom's Dao Merit system was well done, with very stable prices. Roughly ten Dao Merit points could be steadily exchanged for one Dao Stone.
There was an even more intuitive demonstration:
In the Zhuang Kingdom Dao Court, five hundred Dao Merit points could be exchanged for a low-tier basic Dharma Treasure. That was to say, fifty Dao Stones for one basic Dharma Treasure — a very reasonable price. The dagger that Su Xiuxing had that was destroyed by the Pig-Bone Masked One, Jiang Wang estimated at around one hundred twenty Dao Stones. (This also illustrates how generous Jiang Wang was in spending two hundred Dao Stones for Xiang Qian.)
In the Zhuang Kingdom Dao Court, according to quota, one hundred Dao Merit points could be exchanged for one ordinary Meridian-Opening Pill.
But this was the Dao Court's resource support for transcendent disciples. The true price of one ordinary Meridian-Opening Pill was fifteen hundred Dao Merit points. Converted, that was one hundred fifty Dao Stones — one and a half ten-thousand stones. (A Dao Stone was a hundred-stone; one hundred Dao Stones equaled one ten-thousand stone.)
Whether what Dugu Xiao had done was worth one hundred fifty Dao Stones was a matter of opinion.
For many people, an ordinary maidservant could be bought and sold with mortal gold and silver. A single Dao Stone might be enough to exchange for dozens of them.
But for Jiang Wang, loyalty and dedication were far more precious than Dao Stones.
No one expressed objection to Jiang Wang's decision. Instead, Xiang Qian stared at the letter in Jiang Wang's palm with his dead-fish eyes for a good while, and for once showed a hint of curiosity: "This is a secret technique of the Lingxiao Pavilion, isn't it?"
Jiang Wang did not deny it, and instead asked: "Have you been to the State of Yun too?"
This dispirited, down-and-out fellow was truly a person with quite the story.
"I have." Having gotten his answer, Xiang Qian seemed to lose all interest immediately, and muttered: "It was just so-so."
"The State of Yun is a rather fine place," Jiang Wang said casually. He continued: "Let's leave it here for now. Everyone, go attend to your own affairs. Fellow Daoist Zhu, please stay a moment — I have something I'd like to trouble you with."
The others filed out one by one. Dugu Xiao's steps could not help but be light and bouncy, her heart filled with tremendous joy.
"I also have the chance to become a transcendent cultivator!"
She felt that the sunlight had never been so bright, and this world had never been so beautiful!
...
After the others had left, Jiang Wang took the Red Adornment Mirror from his Storage Casket and handed it to Zhu Biong, who remained in her seat: "Fellow Daoist Zhu, take a look at this mirror. Does it seem familiar to you?"
He now had a need to enhance his divine soul power, and the exploration of the Red Adornment Mirror also needed to be put on the agenda. This item had been obtained from Hu Shaomeng. He was thinking that perhaps Zhu Biong, who also hailed from the Angling Pavilion, might have some knowledge of it.
"I've already seen it before."
What Zhu Biong referred to was naturally the time when Jiang Wang had been trapped inside the mirror world. At that time, she had already studied it and found nothing.
She did not take the mirror, and merely asked: "What is it called? What is its origin?"
"It's called the Red Adornment. I obtained it after killing Hu Shaomeng." Jiang Wang was very forthcoming about this — it was nothing shameful.
"The Red Adornment Mirror..." Zhu Biong murmured it several times, then said: "I seem to have heard of it, but I can't recall where for the moment."
She vaguely touched upon some flash of inspiration, but was ultimately unable to grasp it concretely.
After frowning in deep thought for a good while, she still came up with nothing.
"It seems it is quite the treasure," Jiang Wang said with a smile, and put the Red Adornment Mirror away again.
He was not completely forthcoming with Zhu Biong either. He did not mention that he had already conducted an initial exploration of the Red Adornment Mirror.
"It's fine. Whenever you remember, just tell me about it. Also, please keep this confidential for me."
Jiang Wang finally said: "After all, an innocent man is guilty because of the treasure he carries."
"Of course." Unable to remember, Zhu Biong straightforwardly stopped trying to think about it, and said crisply: "This lady keeps her word too!"