Chapter 1232: An Unusual Summons
Yang Haoran ultimately decided to keep all his fallen confidants by his side. However, for the sake of safety and to avoid attracting trouble, he had to resort to certain measures.
First, he promptly sealed off the news, preventing it from spreading externally, so only his close confidants knew of this matter. Second, when faced with Luo Yao's inquiries, he chose to lie.
During the battle on Snow Fox Mountain, many of Yang Haoran's confidants perished. To preserve their souls, Yang Haoran personally extracted them from their bodies. Luo Yao was somewhat aware of this. At the commendation ceremony, seeing that Yang Haoran had not brought the souls of his confidants, Luo Yao inquired about the reason.
Yang Haoran had prepared his explanation long ago. He told Luo Yao that his fallen confidants had been afflicted by an unknown Spiritual Art. This art was not only devastating to the physical body but also equally destructive to the soul. Therefore, even though he had promptly extracted their souls from their bodies at the time, he ultimately could not save his confidants from the fate of Soul Transformation.
It was not a particularly clever lie, but Luo Yao, upon hearing Yang Haoran's explanation at the time, merely nodded lightly, refraining from probing further.
As for whether Luo Yao believed his explanation, Yang Haoran couldn't be certain. However, regardless of Luo Yao's belief, his lack of further questions perfectly aligned with Yang Haoran's desires; that was precisely the outcome he wanted.
To prevent his lie from being exposed, Yang Haoran outwardly relieved Old Master Wu and his other confidants of their duties, assigning their responsibilities to others. However, in secret, Old Master Wu and the other confidants still managed their respective territories. Only Yang Haoran's innermost circle knew of this; everyone else knew only what was visible on the surface.
Because Old Master Wu and the others had their physical bodies destroyed, leaving only their souls, they had lost all the power they had painstakingly acquired, becoming entities only slightly stronger than ordinary Spirits.
Since Old Master Wu and the others had already died once and foregone reincarnation, losing their lives again would mean Soul Transformation. They were willing to risk Soul Transformation to follow Yang Haoran, and naturally, Yang Haoran couldn't let them down. Therefore, over these past three years, Yang Haoran had not allowed Old Master Wu and the others to undertake any missions, large or small. They simply needed to secretly manage their respective territories and regularly report their work to Yang Haoran. Yang Haoran did this as a form of protection before they had fully grown, and also to prevent his lie from being exposed.
Today, Old Master Wu and the others, as usual, were reporting some major recent events to Yang Haoran. Besides Old Master Wu, Bai Xue, Xiang Chuan, Feng Xiao, and others were also present. Although they were not part of the Underworld Office, they were all Yang Haoran's confidants, so they naturally would not miss such a meeting.
The recent situations reported by the confidants included things that pleased Yang Haoran and things that troubled him. Fortunately, the good news outweighed the bad.
The good news included how many Pharmacists the Medicine God Society had recently recruited and what new medicines they had developed; how many members the Flock of Demons Society had recruited and how many had advanced from minor demons to major demons; and how many former followers of the Spiritualist False God, after extensive brainwashing—no, rather, long-term ideological education—had finally been willing to change their faith.
There wasn't much bad news, but it all revolved around internal strife. As an Underworld Office Guardian, he was a true high-ranking official of the Underworld Office, so he was naturally indispensable in this internal conflict. However, he wasn't the one who actively initiated the strife; rather, he was passively involved in it.
He didn't have many enemies within the Underworld Office, but among them, Huo Laoban harbored the greatest animosity towards him. After the internal conflict within the Underworld Office erupted, Huo Laoban had spared no deadly means against him. If his mind hadn't been sharp enough and his strength hadn't been sufficient, he would have surely died at Huo Laoban's hands long ago.
The bad news mentioned in this meeting concerned his adversary, Huo Laoban. Besides Huo Laoban, several other Guardians were also secretly trying to trip him up, which was certainly not good news for him.
These individuals wanted to eliminate him, and he, too, wished to eliminate them. Both sides continuously deployed various treacherous schemes. Perhaps because the timing wasn't yet ripe, or perhaps because their opponents were too cunning, neither side had achieved their ultimate goal, merely causing a certain degree of trouble for the other.
As for how to resolve the troubles created by his adversaries, Yang Haoran now possessed considerable experience. Although the troubles created for him this time were somewhat different, their severity did not exceed his expectations or his capacity to bear. Given some time, he would still be able to resolve these issues.
As a matter of reciprocal courtesy, since his opponents had acted against him again, he naturally could not fail to retaliate; that was not his style. As he issued one command after another, a new round of counterattacks against these adversaries began.
As the meeting concluded, before Yang Haoran could even leave the war room, he received a Communication Talisman from Luo Yao. Inside the talisman, Luo Yao did not elaborate on any arrangements; he simply instructed Yang Haoran to immediately proceed to the Underworld to meet him.
This was not the first time Yang Haoran had encountered such a situation. If Luo Yao was anxious to meet him for something important, he would always instruct him to immediately go to the Underworld. Thus, in his eyes, this matter was quite normal. However, one point did surprise him: the meeting location Luo Yao had set this time was not their Jingling Continent Underworld Office headquarters in the Underworld, but a restaurant he had never visited before.
Although he was very puzzled by this, Yang Haoran did not press for details. Instead, he simply replied with an "okay" via the Communication Talisman and immediately opened the Ghost Gate, rushing to the Underworld.
Under Gu Yi's management, Jingran Pharmacy had now become one of the few behemoths in the entire Underworld. Not only did it offer a wide variety of medicines, but they were also of excellent quality and affordable, thus expanding its operations and generating immense wealth for Yang Haoran.
However, Yang Haoran's visit to the Underworld this time was neither to inspect Jingran Pharmacy nor to withdraw funds. He had come to the Underworld upon Luo Yao's orders, so he did not head to Jingran Pharmacy, but instead rode tirelessly directly to the restaurant Luo Yao had mentioned.
When Yang Haoran arrived at his destination, Luo Yao was actually already waiting, which surprised him. In the past, whenever such a situation arose, it was always he who had to wait for Luo Yao. After all, Luo Yao was a revered Great Emperor of Jingling, while Yang Haoran was merely a Guardian under Luo Yao's command. It should certainly be him waiting for Luo Yao, not the other way around. Yet this time, it was precisely the opposite, how could he not be surprised? When something is out of the ordinary, there must be a reason. He had a faint feeling that something significant was about to happen.
"Could it be. . ."
Yang Haoran thought of the lies he had told Luo Yao. Luo Yao was so eager to summon him to the Underworld, and had uncharacteristically arrived at the appointed location first. Could it be that his lies had been exposed by Luo Yao?
Yang Haoran felt no apprehension, but he still had doubts. However, he didn't let his inner doubts show on his face, as that wasn't his habit.
"Greetings, Great Emperor!"
As usual, Yang Haoran bowed respectfully to Luo Yao, a faint smile on his face.
"Hmm, you arrived quite quickly."
Luo Yao sat motionless in his chair. He first nodded expressionlessly, then calmly responded to Yang Haoran.
Yang Haoran carefully observed Luo Yao's changes in expression and tone of voice, hoping to glean useful information. Unfortunately, Luo Yao's speaking tone and facial reactions were no different from usual, so he didn't obtain any useful clues.
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