After his declaration of taking the matter seriously, Jiang Ming's expression had visibly changed. His gaze was focused and void of any joy on his face.
His demeanor and aura naturally changed as well. He now exuded a kind of barrier that seemed to block off any interference signal.
This surprised Yuan Chunhua who was sneaking a glance at him.
'He's now acting like the previous purple mist incident.' She thought, comparing the previous him and the current him.
His changes happened in like a snap of a finger, and even Yuan Chunhua couldn't help but be dumbfounded by it.
"Jiang Ming, what are you doing?" She finally opened her mouth and asked him, seemingly trying to get an understanding. She merely told him to be serious, but not turn into a mute.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ming tilted his head slightly to look at her for a split second before turning his head back to its original place, scanning at a particular path.
Not a single word was uttered by him, and that made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
She knew it was from her demand that he was acting like that, but women were like that. They always wanted both ways and so what if it was unreasonable?
"Jiang Ming, talk to me," She said in a slightly raised tone. "Are you trying to play the reverse cold treatment on me?"
"..."
Jiang Ming was utterly speechless as he looked at Yuan Chunhua.
Is she being for real right now? She was the one to tell him to be serious and now she wanted him to talk again?
"Yuan Chunhua, what exactly do you want from me?" Jiang Ming asked in a helpless tone. He really couldn't understand how he should proceed with the situation.
Yuan Chunhua was just about to open her mouth to speak until she heard numerous footsteps.
Jiang Ming was the same as he instantly turned around and noticed a woman being accompanied by three elders. The three elders were all exuding a cultivation base no less than Yuan Chunhua.
"Interesting... this Chen Yanmu is clearly trying to showcase their Tian Shuai Sect position is no less than the 6 powerful clans." Jiang Ming rubbed his chin, secretly curious about the woman that was leading them.
She had long silky black hair, topped with a sect uniform that exuded a charming aura around her. Of course, she naturally had some feisty long legs that could cause men to have a nosebleed. Not to mention, the two assets on her chest that seemed so soft to be grope.
Alas, she was now an enemy and Jiang Ming was wondering what was the best way to get rid of her.
'Such a delicate beauty yet had such a scheming mind. I'll be having a headache if I happen to fall for her charm.' Jiang Ming thought.
He could tell if the elders accompanying her weren't so old already in life, then they might have already started chasing under her skirt.
"Yuan Chunhua, what should we do now?" Jiang Ming asked her while his gaze focused on Chen Yanmu. Normally, he would have already captured them and directly interrogated them just like how he does it in Cultivation Omega.
However, this mission was led by Yuan Chunhua so he could only wait for her instruction.
"Hmm, just wait for a bit longer. I want them to actually meet and see what kind of schemes they are brewing. Information is much more important than capturing it." Yuan Chunhua said and explained the details of their plan.
Since she didn't know Chen Yanmu would have three elders with similar strength as hers, the original plan she wanted to employ must be trashed. After all, she feared a direct confrontation would result in a complete failure.
"If it was only the three elders, then I could still somehow manage a bit by using my secret techniques. However, if we were to include the people that the 6 powerful clans might send, then I have no confidence at all." Yuan Chunhua explained, feeling their manpower was severely lacking.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ming was on the verge of laughing because one call from him and a powerful expert would easily show up and apprehended them.
Naturally, that person would be Qi Shan who could with a flick of her finger immobilize the enemies with her sheer cultivation base alone.
'It's times like this I really miss the vicious demoness.' Jiang Ming sighed inwardly as he wondered where she had gone off to have fun.
Although he could always use the system function to locate her, he wanted to give her some privacy and respect at least. It wasn't that he was being a simp, but she was the only one that knew about his true background.
"Alright then, I'll follow your arrangement, Yuan Chunhua." Jiang Ming calmly replied and waited patiently.
Time slowly passed by, and another group of people started arriving in the opposite direction of where Chen Yanmu came by.
Since the meeting was supposed to be "secret" they had made sure to take a long detour to avoid being tracked and being spotted.
Alas, if they knew someone had long exposed their plan because they couldn't watch them cooperating, then they might puke blood from anger.
"Hoh, who would have thought this senile old man would actually come here personally?" Jiang Ming suddenly grinned wickedly when he noticed a familiar figure.
"You know that old man?" Yuan Chunhua was dumbfounded. How did he know someone of his status without ever being in the high social circles?
The person that Jiang Ming recognized was someone he had thoroughly humiliated back at the entrance of the ancient ruin, Di Tianluo.
Ever since he outright cripple his nephew, Di Tianluo seemed to have gone silent about his whereabouts. Jiang Ming had originally thought he might be searching for some doctors to check what kind of procedure he used to cure his nephew's broken meridians. Or it could also be that he had found out his nephew was secretly poisoned and just needed a trigger to lose his life completely.
"Nothing much, just a senile old man who I bullied during my free time," Jiang Ming shrugged his shoulders, keeping his alias a secret.
The journey of him entering the ancient ruin was only known by Yang Liqin, Qi Shan, and the unknown expert, Shuang Shu.
'Wait a minute, just how many new people did I meet daily?' Jiang Ming paused for a moment as he realized he had been meeting different kinds of people every day. Yet he still managed to remember their names.
Oh well, that was either a perk of being a cultivator or just some names that he needed to remember to extort in the future.
Meanwhile, Yuan Chunhua was displeased when Jiang Ming decided to keep things mysterious.
"Just tell me when did you meet with Di Tianluo? His status in the Di Clan is impenetrable and not many people can directly meet with him." She asked. From his tone of speech, she was sure that Jiang Ming didn't hear about Di Tianluo, but had actually met with him.
"Sorry, but that's out of the scope of the mission. Plus, you're the one that told me to be serious. Hence, the important task ahead is to find out why Di Tianluo appeared here to meet with Chen Yanmu and not about my interaction with him." Jiang Ming smirked, using her own words against her.
Yuan Chunhua clenched her fist in anger and could only make a 'hmph' sound as she focused back on the situation.
At the scene, Chen Yanmu held a bright smile as she cupped her fist and said respectfully, "Junior Chen Yanmu greets Elder Di Tianluo."
"Haha, Junior Chen Yanmu need not be so polite to this old man," Di Tianluo laughed heartily and shook his head.
"You are currently representing the Tian Shuai Sect, so by standard, we have the same status and it would be impolite of me to have you address me as some senior."
"Elder Di Tianluo is too humble. This junior dares not to look at you with equal footing."
"Haha, Junior Chen Yanmu is indeed like the rumors stated. Gentle and polite, truly a virtuous woman that any man would be joyful to marry to."
As the two of them exchanged greetings, more and more people from their respectful clans arrived and greeted Chen Yanmu with respect.
Of course, most of the people were actually holding a revered expression to the three elders that were behind Chen Yanmu. Their action of greeting Chen Yanmu with respect was equivalent to acknowledging the three elders.
Seeing their long and boring greeting, Jiang Ming was on the verge of taking a nap.
'Ugh, these people are really so long-winded. Just fucking get into the conversation and let us know your damn plan so that I can leave. What's the point of proclaiming yourself as a junior or senior.' Jiang Ming cursed silently in his heart, having another reason to thrash Chen Yanmu later on.