LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 23: The second prince's worries
As Yun Jhin cultivated in his room after the maid came and changed his outfit to fit him better, Bong Susang was making his way towards the communication place, there he directly connected with the spies at the border of the empire and asked them about Sun Sisheng.
However he came out empty-handed as the information he gained gave Yun Jhin a very strong alibi and confirmed his words, the general shook his head, maybe he overthought this, he went back to Yun Jhin's room where he knocked a few times then said without entering the room:
"I'm sorry for my previous actions and I welcome friend Sun Sisheng in the army! As for your request, I will try to do my best to get my hands on the goods."
Yun Jhin followed by responding:
"No hard feelings general, after all, you just tried to protect the benefits of the imperial family and I can respect that I will wait for goods news from you."
Yun Jhin kept himself in his room as the general left and met with the prince who said:
"So is he a spy?"
Susang shook his head as a strange light appeared in his eyes and responded to his liege:
"Most likely not but there is something fishy about him, I would like to continue observing him if his highness agrees, what does your highness have to say about this?"
The second prince looked at his most trusted general and shook his head as he said:
"If you keep your men observing him who will protect me from the assassination attempts? Do you know my elder brother almost lost his head yesterday if it wasn't for eldest uncle timely help?"
The general wanted to say that he wasn't as important as his eldest brother but he kept his tongue as it would only anger the young prince, then he shook his head and left the prince alone, it would be quite bad for him if he angered the prince for no reason, after all, he was still the man's guard.
Yun Jhin eyes opened as he stopped eavesdropping on their conversation and nodded his head and thought:
"It seems the imperial family isn't dumb when it comes to their safety, this would make my job harder, hmm."
He thought about taking over the prince's body but if he did he wouldn't be able to leave the sect grounds or they would realize the man is braindead afterward, he needed to evolve to a stronger caterpillar form before he took over his body!
While the second prince was worrying for his safety Yun Jhin concocted a plan on how to take over the man's body, but he would need the general to be away so he wouldn't be able to sense the soul fluctuations.
Yun Jhin kept himself in his room as he waited for the bodies that were supposed to be delivered to him, after a few days of waiting for some bodies were delivered by a soldier from the army, before he soldier left Yun Jhin stopped him and said:
"I would also require some of these materials, a soul white ginseng, yin strengthening paste, death water of middle quality, and some amplifying paste."
Yun Jhin didn't know the formula of stronger caterpillars but he analyzed the powers and characteristics of the caterpillar forms he knew and then he thought about the materials that could technically make his current caterpillar form go into the direction that he wanted. It didn't take him much time to finish what he said when the man scratched his head awkwardly and said:
"Death water is a quite rare material, brother Sun I will have to report to the general first, the other things can be given as fast as possible but the death water..."
Yun Jhin nodded his head and waved his hand indicating he wanted to be left alone, as his mouth opened sickly crunching sounds could be heard behind the door as the man started to shake and ran away sweating heavily.
Bang Susang snorted as he heard the soldier's report and said:
"Death water of middle quality? where does he think he lives, does he think he is a member of the imperial family? Second prince, what I should do with his request?"
The second prince looked at his nails as he cleaned them with a knife and said after he finished:
"If he wants death water it should be to advance his undead physique, just like all cultivators all he wants is to further his cultivation, it's quite normal in my opinion, we can give him the death water, I already have a batch waiting for me at home, but can we give it to him for free? Soldiers should work for their meal!"
Yun Jhin finished the bodies as he looked towards the second prince's location and narrowed his eyes, putting me to work huh, he thought.
Yun Jhin wasn't lazy but he didn't want to go on any suicidal missions if he got any mission that was out of his scope he would directly leave and try to steal the death water, afterward he would come back and take over the prince's body!
Before he could reformulate a plan the general's voice was heard outside his door as he said:
"I have heard your request and the second prince is inviting you to a briefing."
As Yun Jhin finished the bodies he decided to follow the general to see the second prince, he left his room behind as he met with the prince in the main building, the prince was admiring his nail's as he didn't even look at Yun Jhin as he said:
"If you want death water I have a job for you that you must do before I can give it to you."
Yun Jhin waited for the man to say what he wanted before he responded, the prince took the silence as an affirmative response and he said:
"You see my good general here identified some rebels inside the Heavenly Feather's sect, they work for the heavenly turtle sect if you didn't know the heavenly turtle sect is the sect that backs up the kingdom that we went to war with, we are in this situation due to their interference."
The man frowned as he said:
"The sect patriarch protects his subordinates even though we have hard evidence against them, it's because they are his foster sons, I have one job for you, go and assassinate them and the death water is yours, they deserve death for betraying the empire and becoming such traitorous dogs, even though sects aren't under the empire's hands, on paper, they live on empire's land and they are the empire's citizens."
The prince frowned as he continued:
"Betraying the empire is the highest grade of crime that currently exists, so they have to take capital punishment, do you understand Sun Sisheng? I want their heads presented to me before I will give you the death water, you can refuse this mission but who knows when there will be another easy mission like this? With such a huge reward to boot!"
Death water was used in many things, formations, pill refining, healing, etc. It was a very important material that the imperial family wouldn't easily part with, technically speaking, what the second prince wanted from Yun Jhin was extremely simple as the other people from the imperial family wouldn't give away their quota of death water even if they were held at sword point.
Yun Jhin knew that the Divine Feather's sect had a 5th stage patriarch, if he offended the man he was pretty much lost, he looked at the prince and said:
"What if the patriarch realizes I was the one who killed his foster sons and wants to kill me? Who will protect me?"
The second prince shook his head as he said:
"As I said I won't force you to do the mission, maybe if you broke through to the Ki cultivating realm you could easily deal with the traitors as you could shape yourself with this cultivation technique."
He waved a book in front of his face as he used it as a fan, but then he coughed as a bunch of dust left the old tome and entered in his mouth, then he threw the book away as he shouted at the general:
"Damn it Susang, didn't I tell you to get me a fresh copy?"
Susang shook his head as he said:
"This is the freshest copy my liege, no one touched the library section of the body transformation techniques in years, not everyone has the constitution to use these type of techniques."
Yun Jhin snorted inside, it wasn't the constitution but the inability of those people to understand the technique, he grabbed the tome from the ground and looked through it, he shook his head inside, it wasn't that they were dumb. The technique they used was broken, it was fragmented and it couldn't be used no matter how talented the man who trained in it was. It was a useless piece of garbage.
But he didn't say anything as he pocketed the book and bowed to the prince:
"After I break through to the ki cultivating realm I might be able to train in this technique, with my living undead physique I should be able to do it!"
The prince smiled as he looked at me and said:
"Then I will do my best to get you the 1st stage Ki cultivating realm body that you need, Susang, I know my elder brother got his hands on a body of an elder from the Heavenly turtle sect, it was the assassin that uncle dealt with, make him spit it out, tell him what happened here, he will understand, right now he can't send anyone to assassinate these two curs but with the help of Sisheng here things are now doable."
Susang nodded and left after he bowed to the prince, the prince then looked at Yun Jhin and started to chat with him about his past, Yun Jhin used Sun Sisheng's memories perfectly and even had to act here and there to make things look true on his part.
After a few hours of waiting the prince got bored with chatting and told Yun Jhin that he could go back to his room.
After a day of waiting Susang still didn't come back, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days...
After 2 weeks Susang finally came back, coincidentally Yun Jhin broke through to the 4th stage of the heavenly realm with his body that day.
Slung over his shoulder in a body bag stood the corpse of the elder that attacked the crown prince, he looked embarrassed as he scratched his bald head and said:
"I'm sorry, second prince but your elder brother couldn't be convinced easily, he said that he wanted to show the body to his father as a trophy but with the help of the right minister after a lot of arguing and going back and forth I could finally get my hands on the body, I'm sorry again for making you wait so much."
Technically speaking without the interference of the right minister Susang wouldn't have ever got his hands on the elder's body because it would assist the second prince to grow in favor in the eyes of the emperor after he heard of his deeds, this was something the eldest prince wouldn't ever want to see, he already got a hold of the taste of power and he wouldn't let go of it easily.
He might even break the rules directly and he would go himself to kill his brother, after all, the cultivation difference between the eldest brother and the second prince was enormous, while the second prince was at the 7th level of the heavenly realm the eldest prince was as strong as the patriarch of the Heavenly Feather's sect!
Busang excused himself as he delivered the body to Yun Jhin's room.
Busang then left as he didn't want to watch the grisly scene of a monster like Yun Jhin eating the body of another human being, even though he killed countless people in his time, there was a difference between killing and eating humans.
Yun Jhin looked at the corpse of the elder and licked his lips, this was his ticket to the 1st stage of the Ki cultivating realm, afterwards, he could finally start moving freely in the capital!
Well as freely as he could under the 'protection' of the second prince.