Chapter 5067 — The Tai Gu Alliance
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Just then a car drew up outside the gate. Qiu Lingshan stepped out of it and, seeing the scene at headquarters, froze on the spot.
For the past month, because reports had come from everywhere of unknown high-level cultivators on the move, she, as deputy director of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, had been run utterly ragged. Almost wherever a sighting was reported she went in person to investigate, though to this day no detailed, confirmed information had turned up. Yet the sheer number and strength of these stranger cultivators were deeply unsettling.
She had never expected that no sooner had she returned from an investigation afield than she would run into this scene. By any reckoning, she, a fine hand of Heaven-Rank Great Perfection, was no weakling—yet set against the aura Xue Jianming was displaying at this moment, it was utterly beneath mention. They were not on the same plane at all.
Astounded beyond measure as she was, Qiu Lingshan was after all the deputy director, and these years had brought her no small tempering; neither in spirit nor in courage was she as other women. Steadying herself a little, she walked straight in.
"What exactly has happened here?" Qiu Lingshan asked in a low voice.
"Director Song, this man came from nowhere and forced his way in for no reason at all," the wounded Lao Wu reported hurriedly.
"You are the head of this place?" Xue Jianming turned around at the words, his bearing all high and mighty, looking down on all creation—until his eyes fell on Qiu Lingshan, and at once they went wide and fixed. That there could be such a captivating female cultivator under heaven! Bold and striking, she far surpassed the classical beauties of the Tai Gu Minor Jianghu!
In truth this was nothing but aesthetic fatigue. Just as a modern man, suddenly encountering a classical beauty, would take her for a goddess descended, so too did he, a man reared in an ancient milieu, react the same way at the sudden sight of a beauty in modern tailored clothes. This was the common nature of men—not to speak of a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection like him, for Golden Core adepts and even Nascent Soul adepts were no different.
The Tai Gu Minor Jianghu was not without its beauties. His own sect in particular held such a peerless one as Leng Leng, who in true beauty was in no way inferior to Qiu Lingshan—only that the two women's styles were utterly different.
"I am Qiu Lingshan, deputy director of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau. Might I ask who you are, sir?" Qiu Lingshan inquired, neither servile nor overbearing. She could in fact guess that these two before her must be among those unknown high-level cultivators who had been appearing without cease of late; it was only that their strength was so startling, so overpowering, that she found it a little hard to accept.
For all that the Mysterious Investigation Bureau had already taken this matter most seriously, even making it a top-priority investigation, they had still vastly underestimated these people's strength. Against an enemy so powerful, the entire Bureau put together would be no match at all.
"Qiu Lingshan? It seems the mortal world is not wholly without merit. To meet a beauty such as Miss Song—Xue has not made this trip in vain." Facing Qiu Lingshan, Xue Jianming's manner visibly softened, and he said mildly, "I am Xue Jianming, of the Tai Gu Alliance."
As he spoke, Xue Jianming deliberately struck a pose of serene detachment. In his eyes there was now only Qiu Lingshan; it seemed to him that once he revealed his identity, this stunning girl would surely bow down before him on the spot. That the strong are honored—this was an unchanging truth in any time and any place.
At these words, sure enough, everyone present, Qiu Lingshan included, was struck with shock. Beyond a chorus of sharp intakes of breath, a collective silence fell. (To be continued.)