Chapter 1083 - Ji Ruyan’s Reques (1/2)

Chapter 1083 - Ji Ruyan’s Request

Yun Che slowly freed her neck from his hold.

Ji Ruyan sat paralyzed on the ground as she placed her hands on her neck and coughed dryly. Yun Che turned away from her and said in a cold voice, “I personally saw the sorrowful plight of the wood spirits and also witnessed how they suffered a tragic fate… At the place they had cautiously kept themselves isolated in fear of others, all the wood spirits, regardless of their sex or age, were slaughtered bloodily…”

“They were absolutely not guilty of some unpardonable evil and were instead so pure and virtuous that anyone would feel their heart and soul purified just by coming in contact with them for a short while… However, they ended up dying at the hands of the Black Soul Divine Sect! Moreover, no one knows how many wood spirits and other creatures met such a misfortune due to it in the past. Your Black Feather Merchant Guild might not have directly participated in those wicked acts but you can’t deny that you did aid and abet an evildoer… It’s certainly true that even death would be too good for you!”

“...” The feeling of pain gradually vanished but Ji Ruyan was still sitting paralyzed on the ground. Her lips had lost their color and she panted heavily without saying anything in response.

“I’ve come back to the Darkya City to kill people! Those from the Black Soul Divine Sect and the Black Feather Merchant Guild… So you’re naturally one of my targets!”

Ji Ruyan, “…”

“I won’t kill you for now, as I want to hear the reason for you coming to meet me alone. It’d be in your best interest to give me a reasonable answer, otherwise I’ll first use your blood to commemorate the departed souls of those wood spirits!” Yun Che’s ice-cold voice contained an even chillier killing intent.

Ji Ruyan slowly raised her head and said in a light tone, “Sir… do you truly want to kill the people of Black Soul Divine Sect? Because they hunt and kill wood spirits?”

“They all deserve to die!” Yun Che said, each and every word expressed the gloominess in his heart.

Feeling Yun Che’s gloomy and bone-penetrating killing intent from so close, it wasn’t fear that appeared on Ji Ruyan’s face but an expression of joy, “In that case, Ruyan has really made the right bet.”

She got up on her feet as she gave him a glance with faint fluctuations in her eyes, “Sir Ling Yun, I ask you… to save the Black Feather Merchant Guild.”

“???” Yun Che knitted his brows. “Save the Black Feather Merchant Guild? What kind of joke is that?”

“You are a righteous person. Since you hate the Black Soul Divine Sect so much, it’s only natural that you’d definitely loathe the Black Feather Merchant Guild with a passion, which abeted the evildoer, but the real situation is absolutely not as it seems.”

Ji Ruyan lightly bit on her lip as sadness appeared within the fluctuations in her eyes. “The prosperity and decline of a merchant guild is often determined in a night’s time. It’s far more difficult for a merchant guild to maintain its prosperity for a long time than a dynasty or a sect. My Black Feather Merchant Guild has existed for fifty thousand years, a period even longer than any sect in the Darkya Realm. Even if we take the entire God Realm into consideration, there are very few merchant guilds that have flourished and prospered for so many years. When it comes to the lower star realms, there are so few such merchant guilds that they can be counted on one’s fingers.”

“As an establishment with such a solid history and abundant accumulation, the foundation of Black Feather Merchant Guild is already deep-rooted and there’s no need to say much about the great wealth and prestige it possesses… But, have you ever given a thought to why would such a merchant guild would take the risk of thoroughly destroying its reputation and carrying out filthy underground trade? To earn more? The profit is so insignificant that there’s no need to do something of that sort.”

“...” It was certainly true that Yun Che had doubted the same thing several times after knowing about the standing of the Black Feather Merchant Guild and seeing its extensiveness. He said with a cold look in his eyes, “You’re not going to tell me that you have been forced by the Black Soul Divine Sect into committing such deeds, right?”

“It’s worse than that,” Ji Ruyan said, “Earlier, the Black Feather Merchant Guild and the Black Soul Divine Sect had existed in harmony with each other as the two major powers in the Darkya Realm. Then, a thousand years ago, the Black Soul Divine Sect caused trouble for us all of a sudden. They held my father hostage, who was still a child at the time and forced my grandfather to give his consent to the Black Soul Divine Sect to integrate their filthy underground merchant guild with the Black Feather Merchant Guild.”

Yun Che, “…”

“My grandfather had nine children in total but except for my father, everyone else died at an early age. As such, grandfather had no choice but to agree in the end… Not long afterwards, the Black Feather Merchant Guild sold Wood Spirit Orbs for the first time and it was only then that my father was released by them. Once they had gotten dirt on the Black Feather Merchant Guild, we were within the firm grasp of the Black Soul Divine Sect and were completely forced into a dark quagmire since then. Every time we were forced to carry out an underground trade, the Black Soul Divine Sect would use a Profound Imagery Stone to leave behind proof of the trade… consequently, forcing the Black Feather Merchant Guild to fall deeper and deeper.”

“Thenceforth, the Black Feather Merchant Guild had no way out but to be controlled by the Black Soul Divine Sect. Otherwise, once it makes the proof of the underground trade public, things would go south in no time. Not only each and every thing that is possessed by the Black Feather Merchant Guild would be destroyed in a day, it would also fall into a miserable situation where the common people would condemn and cast aside even those of its later generation.”

“The Black Soul Divine Sect absolutely didn’t do so just to control our Black Feather Merchant Guild. It wants the whole Darkya Realm to be in its complete control. After all, every time a filthy and evil underground trade was done, the customers would also end up having the Black Soul Divine Sect get dirt on them, similar to the Black Feather Merchant Guild! Our Merchant Guild is required to provide extremely detailed information about all the customers and the things they want to purchase, to the Black Soul Divine Sect and the whole trading process is even secretly recorded by a Profound Imagery Stone…”

“Heh, they actually dare to play with such a big fire? Aren’t they afraid of themselves getting burned down first?” Yun Che asked in disdain.

“Of course, they won’t… because its not them who carry out the underground trade. It’s our Black Feather Merchant Guild that has always been in charge of it. If something were to really happen, the Black Feather Merchant Guild would be destroyed in a day but it definitely wouldn’t hurt the Black Soul Divine Sect in any way.”

Ji Ruyan let out a light sigh, “Some time after that, grandfather constantly felt guilty towards our forefathers and eventually died in depression. When my father inherited the Black Feather Merchant Guild, the only thing he could do was to be as careful as possible in order to not let the masses know about the dirty side of the Black Feather Merchant Guild. For this reason, he didn’t hesitate to personally manage the underground merchant guild. All the customers, especially the new ones, were received and checked on by him, so as to not allow the room for the slightest bit of negligence.

“That means the ‘Mister Ji’ whom I met that day was in fact your father… and he is the current Guild Master of the Black Feather Merchant Guild?” Yun Che asked. He really never thought of such a possibility. It was impossible for anyone to imagine that the power holder of such an enormous merchant guild would actually take the initiative to “receive customers” himself.

It was no wonder that the guild master showed an extremely cold and disgusted look when he straightway brought up the matter of wanting to purchase a “Wood Spirit Orb”… The change in his attitude later also seemed to be too unnatural.

“That’s right, he was none other than my father.” Ji Ruyan nodded her head. Looking at the flicker of surprise flash through Yun Che’s eyes, she gave a pained laugh, “As the matter is related to the reputation and existence of the Black Feather Merchant Guild, father could only deal with it himself. If he were to hand over the responsibility to someone else, there’s no way he would ever feel at ease.”