Chapter 795: A Clue!
Bai Xiaochun didn’t need to do this to every single one of the heavenly duke clans. All he needed to do was show his general stance. The children of the other nine heavenly dukes would immediately begin to ponder the significance of what had happened, not to mention the children in the heavenly marquis clans.
What he had done was enough!
In fact, the very day he left the Chen Clan, he got more messages than he had during the past half month!
Some information was genuine and some was not. When reports came in about the assets of the various clans, Bai Xiaochun merely glanced at them. What he was more interested in was information about what unusual events had transpired in the clans recently.
During the following days, information poured in, and Bai Xiaochun immersed himself in it, searching for clues. Many things were happening behind the scenes in the heavenly duke clans because of the Proclamation of Universal Grace.
The storm was building up to the point that the heavenly marquis clans were starting to lose their grip of control. It was also at this point that, at long last… the four heavenly kings were affected.
The War Champion King got off somewhat lightly, because he had fewer children. Other than the Junior Champion King, he only had five, and was able to keep them under control without resorting to any violent methods.
The Giant Ghost King came off almost completely unscathed. His only daughter, Mistress Red-Dust, didn’t even know what was going on; she had not yet ended the session of secluded meditation her father had encouraged her to begin after the ancestral sacrifices.
However… the Nine Serenities King had it very rough. He had over a hundred children, all of whom were thrilled about the situation and instantly sided with the Grand Heavenmaster and Bai Xiaochun. Zhou Hong wanted to cry. After all, if he wanted to eventually take over the position of king, then he needed a demigod cultivation base. And his only hope of doing that was by using all the resources the clan had built up. But now… his hopes were dashed. And of course, he came to detest Bai Xiaochun more bitterly than ever.
The Nine Serenities King was a bit worried about the matter. Considering he had a demigod cultivation base, he initially didn’t pay much attention to it, but the squabbling and fighting among his children quickly became quite a headache to deal with. However, all he had to do was think about the Wildlands’ famous Spirit Advent King, and suddenly, he realized that his concerns were of little note.
The Spirit Advent King… was the one going most crazy of all!
Currently, he was shouting so loud that his voice echoed out from Spirit Advent Hall to fill the entire city.
“Damn that Bai Hao! That little punk is too ruthless!! All I did was break up him and Shanshan, right? Aghhhhh! I didn’t do anything that bad! What, I'm not even allowed to watch over my own daughter?! This revenge of his is obviously targeting me!!!” He was so angry he was shaking, and the mere thought of how many children he had caused him to howl with grief.
He just had too many offspring…. Considering sons alone, he had over 3,000. And if you added in the daughters… well it was roughly double that. In fact, even he wasn’t sure exactly how many children he had.
The thought of his life savings being divided up among roughly 6,000 children was so infuriating and distressing that not even his demigod cultivation base could keep him calm. And of course, his countless children were very excited by the Proclamation of Universal Grace.
And the fact that they were all siding with the Grand Heavenmaster and Bai Xiaochun was monumental. After all, if the Spirit Advent King resisted the proclamation, it was entirely possible that all his children could join forces and actually fight him.
Spirit Advent City was already in complete chaos, with 6,000 of the king's own children pooling all of their resources and power structure together.
The Spirit Advent King had no options at hand. He couldn’t kill all of his children to save his own clan assets…. And therefore, he simply stared morosely in the direction of Arch-Emperor City.
“That Bai Hao is definitely doing this on purpose!”
Most furious of all was the official heir apparent in Spirit Advent City, who sat with gritted teeth and bloodshot eyes, his hatred for Bai Xiaochun rising into the heavens.
Xu Shan lay on her bed gazing in the direction of Arch-Emperor City, sighing constantly. As far as she was concerned, there was something fishy going on with Bai Hao. She really wanted to go find him and talk about it, but her father had her on complete lockdown, making it impossible for her to leave the city.
As far as Chen Manyao was concerned, she was still in secluded meditation on the orders of the Grand Heavenmaster.
As the four heavenly kings dealt with the situation in various ways, Bai Xiaochun was sifting through volumes of information, trying to find that needle in a haystack that was the clue he needed.
“Miao Lin’er went missing…. Her clan used to have an earthly necromancer…. Her entire clan is missing….” All of a sudden, his killing intent surged, but he quickly suppressed it. Now was not the time to act impulsively.
He could only take action when he was absolutely sure of the facts. That was his only hope of saving Bai Hao.
After all, if he made his move, and then failed, then his enemies would be even more on alert, and it would be almost impossible to track them down.
“I'm only going to have one chance! I just don’t have enough clues! However, I definitely need to figure out where the Miao Clan went!” With those thoughts on his mind, he sent a message to Zhou Yixing and had him start searching for Miao Clan cultivators, with orders to keep eyes on those he found, but not make any sort of contact.
“The only people I haven’t touched now are the four heavenly kings…. Who exactly was it that did the deed that day!? Once I find that out, then I can use all of the information I’ve collected to figure out… where Bai Hao is!” Although he was clearly exhausted, his heart still burned with intense madness.
He hadn’t rested at all for nearly a month, and his nerves were stretched taut. However, he continued working, using the resources of the Inspections Manor to reach out to the children of the heavenly kings.
His instructions were for them to personally come to the Inspections Manor within three days so that he could deliver the Proclamation of Universal Grace to them personally.
Of course, Bai Xiaochun knew that, considering this wasn’t an order from the Grand Heavenmaster, the heirs apparent could simply ignore it. However, he didn't care about that, or how much they hated him.
He wanted to see how many of the children who had no right of inheritance would come. Those people would be his eyes and ears within the palaces of the heavenly kings!
The Giant Ghost King ignored the message, as did the War Champion King and his children. But the children of the Nine Serenities King and the Spirit Advent King rushed excitedly toward the teleportation portals in their city to meet with Bai Xiaochun at the Inspections Manor!
When the day came, Bai Xiaochun emerged from his private chamber to find a shocking number of people waiting for him. Furthermore, the fact that ninety-seven percent of them were from Spirit Advent City left him feeling stunned.
As soon as all these royal children caught sight of him, they clasped hands passionately and bowed.
“Greetings, Inspections Commissioner!”
“You are a true hero of the ages, Inspections Commissioner. The Proclamation of Universal Grace is a sign of the coming golden age of the Arch-Emperor Dynasty!”
All sorts of talk could be heard from the mouths of the thousands of people present. In response, Bai Xiaochun gave a slight nod. He was in no mood for chit-chat. Looking out at the crowd, he somberly said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Arch-Emperor himself has ordered that from this day forward, everyone from the Grand Heavenmaster to the royal officials will no longer have solitary heirs apparent!
“Everyone will now have the chance to win the position of king, even if you don’t have a demigod cultivation base. According to the stipulations of the Proclamation of Universal Grace, all of you now have the right to start out on equal footing to become the appointed heir apparent!
“However, the true judge of how fair this will all be is your own understanding of your clans. Tell me everything you know about them. The more information I get, the more likely that I can make you all happy!
“As of this moment, I have sufficient information from the heavenly marquis clans and the heavenly duke clans, as provided to me by the bastard children and those from the direct bloodlines who have no official right of inheritance. The only people I need information from now… is you here.” Everyone present was already roughly familiar with what had been happening, and took his words in stride. In fact, all of them felt very grateful.
It was only natural for them to support an arrangement in which they could secretly pass the information to him, and he would do the dirty work. When it came to information about clan assets, such things wouldn’t normally be passed to outsiders. But he’d already done this same thing with the heavenly duke clans, and no one had come to be in any danger. And when it came to the demigod clans, no one would punish these children, not even if they were considered to have betrayed the clan by revealing secret information.
After all, they had the blood of heavenly kings in them, even if they weren’t heirs apparent. Normally speaking, they could do whatever they wished without fear of any reprisal. As such, the very day that everyone left the Inspections Manor, news began to filter in to Bai Xiaochun.
As of this point, Bai Xiaochun now had an information network that filled the entire Arch-Emperor Dynasty. Reports came in almost every moment. Even the common people joined in, sending him information about virtually everything.
Bai Xiaochun couldn’t have been busier. Eventually… after five days passed, he suddenly looked up, and his hand clenched down so hard on the transmission jade slip that it nearly shattered. At this point, the killing intent in his eyes burned with complete insanity.
He had found the clue he needed to fit all the pieces together. The impenetrable fog that had surrounded the disappearance of Bai Hao faded away!!
“Their clan used to have an earthly necromancer…. Thirteen clans working together…. The Nine Serenities King…. Miao Lin’er’s grandfather…. He’s hiding in one of those thirteen clans!” Killing intent surging, he looked down at the transmission jade slip and found a message from one of the children of Heavenly Marquis Zhou!
“There’s a celestial necromancer in our clan that I’ve never seen before. He's very mysterious. Supposedly he’s in secluded meditation performing spirit enhancements on some magical items, but I doubt that’s true!”
Bai Xiaochun looked up again, and his eye were crimson. “This is what I needed!”