C54

The corner of his mouth lifted into a sneer, and his voice filled with killing intent slowly sounded out, "Ling Zhan, I'm afraid you didn't think that the Duke's Mansion that you operated as an iron wall fortress would already be filled with spies from my Wen Yuan Manor. All of your arrangements have been exposed in my eyes!"

"Grandfather, are we going to pass the news of Ling Yun to the Earth Fiend Sect?" Wen Shang respectfully looked at Wen Cheng and asked.

Earth Fiend Sect, the Wen Yuan Marquis Estate actually had a relationship with the Ling Xiao Empire's arch-enemy, the Earth Fiend Sect? From Wen Shang's words, it seemed that the Marquis' Mansion often contacted the Earth Fiend Sect and secretly passed down some matters to them.

This was something that the Imperial Family and the other powers of the Soaring Cloud Empire had never thought of, because the enmity between the Wen Yuan Manor and the Earth Fiend Sect was not small either. The Soaring Cloud Empire was a thousand years old, and the Wen Yuan Manor had existed for a thousand years, so how could they have no enmity with the Earth Fiend Sect?

In their minds, every time they fought with the Earth Fiend Sect, Marquis Wen Yuan would take the lead. It was as if he had a blood feud with the Earth Fiend Sect and was on the same side as the Soaring Sky Royal Family.

The Wen Yuan manor and the Earth Fiend Sect truly had a blood feud. Moreover, it was one of those grudges that only when one party was annihilated would the other party give up.

In a thousand years, there were three Wen Yuan dukes. Seven of them had already been killed by the Earth Fiend Sect, or they died from serious injuries. The Earth Fiend Sect was the same, how could this enmity be resolved? How could he resolve it?

This grandson of his did not disappoint him. Although his son was killed by Ling Zhan, he was fortunate enough to have left behind such a clever grandson for him.

Right now, apart from a few major matters, all matters within the Marquis' Mansion were handed over to Wen Shang.

Shaking his head, a glint of light flashed across Wen Cheng's eyes. The corner of his mouth lifted with a hint of ridicule, and with eyes filled with killing intent, he sneered: "Don't tell this matter to the Earth Fiend Sect for now, just wait for Ling Yun to properly train his personal guards, and then when the hunt is about to start, he'll tell them, hehe!"

Wen Shang raised his brows, his eyes revealing a bright light. "Grandfather, you're saying …"

"Shh!" Wen Shang quickly brought up a few irrelevant topics. After a long while, Wen Cheng finally put down his finger and laughed sinisterly, a trace of ridicule could be seen in his eyes as he said softly, "As long as you know, the wall has ears!"

"En!" Wen Shang also smiled, his eyes full of craftiness. "Then you don't need to tell that old fox Jun Mo Ran, and just tell that idiot with the worm's brain.

At that time, as long as any of their important figures die, there will be a chance for a war to break out. We can just sit back and watch and reap the rewards.

Otherwise, if our Wen Family were to go head to head against the Ling Xiao Royal Family, it would definitely be a lose-lose situation. Then the thousand years of hard work our Wen Family has put forth might go down the drain, and even if we were to find Ling Xiao, we will probably be plundered by them.

"Speaking of which, that idiot Jun Yue really helped us a lot!"

When he spoke of Jun Yue, Wen Shang's eyes were filled with contempt. That idiot, one year ago, he only resorted to a small scheme and became enemies with Ling Yun, and the enmity between him and the Ling and Qin families deepened.

"Hahaha!" The grandfather and grandson duo looked at each other and burst into laughter. They were hoping that the Imperial Family Hunt would soon arrive in three months, and this would be the start of the show. The thousand years of hard work of the Wen family's ancestors was going to be successful in the hands of this grandfather and grandson duo.

Hehe, as long as we can obtain the other half of the Ling family's key in the entire Soaring Cloud Empire.

If that was the case, they could go and open that treasure. The Ling family had truly wasted the Soaring Cloud Empire, but they had no idea that they were riding on a treasure mountain.

As long as they opened that treasure trove and obtained its inheritance, the Wen Family could unite the Yuan Territory and even expand their influence to the Yuan Territory.

This was the true plot of the Wen family. Jun Yue had never thought that he would be treated like a pawn.

He had thought that the other party was just fawning on him and trying to curry favor with him. He thought that he could ally with the Wen family and eliminate Soaring Cloud, along with the Wen family. That way, the Ling Xiao Empire would be completely part of the Earth Fiend Sect, and with his contributions, no one would have any objections to him taking the position of the Earth Fiend Sect's leader.

In his heart, he was still daydreaming, but he didn't know that he had already fallen into the other party's chess board and was being toyed with in an instant.

He just didn't know which side would have the last laugh in this match.

Wen Shang left Wen Cheng's study and quickly made his way to his courtyard, looking rather impatient.

His courtyard was heavily guarded, and there were many guards patrolling back and forth outside. The moment he entered the courtyard, a black clothed guard immediately came over and greeted him respectfully, "Young Marquis!"

"How many people did I tell you to look for?" Wen Shang's peach blossom eyes swept across the guard as he asked indifferently.

The guard hesitated for a moment, lowered his head, and said, "Young Marquis, the Ling family has been keeping a close eye on us recently, and a few nearby cities have also noticed. We, we've only caught seven this time."

"Useless trash, the duke's manor is raising you for free." A hint of anger appeared on Wen Shang's face, and he kicked the black-robed guard out. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were filled with fear. He crawled to the foot of Wen Shang, not daring to speak. He was well aware of his master's ruthlessness. If he wasn't careful, he could lose his life at any moment.

"I'll give you another half a month, but you won't be able to catch twenty of them. You've delayed this young master's training, and I want your lives. Hurry up and f * ck off!" Wen Shang clenched his fist and cursed with a gloomy face.

"Yes, this subordinate will go right away!" The black-clothed guard stood up awkwardly, not daring to show any dissatisfaction on his face. He saluted respectfully and turned around to leave, but just as he was about to leave the courtyard, Wen Shang called out to him.

"Remember, everything is being done in secret. You can't let the Ling Family members find out. Do you understand?" Wen Shang's cold voice slowly rang out. He ignored the black clothed guards and walked into a somewhat dilapidated room. He pushed open the door and entered before cautiously looking around and closing the door behind him.

The room was a bit dark and damp, and there were weeds on the ground. It looked like the kind that no one lived in, why had he, the exalted young duke and future heir to the family, come here?

Wen Shang walked to the upper right corner of the room. There was nothing strange about that place. It was just a piece of mottled stone brick. Everything seemed normal.

Wen Shang lightly pressed down on one of the stone bricks, and with a crisp sound, the stone brick caved in. At the same time, the ground beneath his feet slightly shook. The ground slowly split open, revealing a passageway. In this place, there was actually a hidden passageway, and the Night Pearls inside emitted a weak light.

Wen Shang's eyes were burning as he walked into the passage. He clapped his hands three times and the passage slowly closed again. There was no trace of the cave as the stone brick returned to its original position.

He walked down the stairs and soon arrived at his destination. It looked like a dungeon, but it was filled with beautiful girls, some only eleven or twelve years old.

They were all switched on and off in wooden cells. Outside the wooden prison were a dozen or so black clothed guards of the Marquis of Wen Yuan's manor. They looked at the girls expressionlessly, and from time to time, they would scold them or enter the wooden prison, knocking out the girl who was about to clench her teeth and commit suicide.

Hearing the sound of hurried footsteps, the fear in the girls' eyes deepened.

"Young duke!" The guards looked at Wen Shang and knelt on one knee, their voices hoarse and emotionless. Wen Shang couldn't help but frown.

Wen Shang looked at the terrified girls, his face expressionless. A trace of coldness even appeared in his eyes, and an ice-cold voice slowly came out from his mouth, "To be able to become a cauldron for this young master's cultivation is your fortune."

When the girls heard his cold voice, their delicate bodies trembled even more. Their faces were filled with fear.

And some of the young girls were expressionless, as if they were already familiar with the scene in front of their eyes. Some of the young girls that were just captured immediately cried in fear. They didn't expect that when these people captured them, they would actually …

Their cold gazes were emotionless as they scanned the surroundings. The young girls immediately shut their mouths, not daring to make a single sound.

Finally, Wen Shang's gaze fell upon a slim and delicate girl. With a light wave of his hand, the black-clothed guard in front of the wooden prison stepped forward, opened the door, and then stood back up. His face didn't reveal any expression, and his eyes didn't have the slightest fluctuation.

Wen Shang walked into the wooden prison. Under the lifeless gaze of the delicate young girl, he roughly carried her by her waist and carried her into a room not far away from the wooden prison.

Soon enough, the sound of clothes being torn to shreds could be heard from within. After a while, a trembling scream could be heard, followed by heavy panting …

If a person were to carefully feel it, they would discover that Wen Shang's Qi undulations slowly increased with the passage of time. However, the Qi was somewhat nefarious, as if he was cultivating some kind of evil forbidden cultivation technique.

An hour later, Wen Shang walked out of the room with a hint of happiness on his face. He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth with his scarlet tongue, enjoying the aftertaste of the meal.

From the aura he emitted, he had actually reached the Great Circle of Martial Master. He was only a sliver away from becoming a Martial King, and was even stronger than Ling Tian and the other two who were in front of him.

This Wen Shang was so well-hidden, so scheming, and had actually pretended to look like a popinjay in the eyes of others. It was unknown how many people he had fooled.

As if they knew what was going on inside, one of them walked out and entered the room.

When he came out, he was carrying two shriveled corpses in his hands. If you looked closely, you could see that they were the girls who Wen Shang had just carried inside. Fear still remained in their eyes.