Chapter 295: Safeguard!
After the call with the Blood Demon Lord was ended, Qin Feng picked up the communication sphere and put it back in the pockets of his robes.
In the conversation that Ashen had with the Blood Demon Lord, it was decided that the tribal heads of the Xue Mo Tribe, Baihu Tribe, Zhuji Tribe, and Tian Jian Tribe will all leave for the Eastern Sovereign Hall.
Ashen will meet them there and make arrangements beforehand for the meeting between the tribal heads and the elders of the Eastern Sovereign Hall.
But before that, Ashen would need to inform the Emperor about this matter, ask for his permission, and if possible, ask for some powerful cultivators to accompany him to the Eastern region to take care of Lin Feng.
To do this, Shang Jiao was the perfect person to delegate this task to.
However, before he would do that, he needed to know one more thing.
He looked at Qin Feng, and without any beating around, he directly asked,
"Qin Feng, how did you manage to arrive here in a matter of hours after the incident? From what you have told me, the treasure was stolen the night before yesterday."
Even Ashen hadn't expected Qin Feng to arrive this quickly; there must be some trick to it.
From what he knew, only the Qinglong Tribe had a teleportation formation large enough to teleport someone to the Shang Clan's inner sanctum directly.
Traveling to the QingLong Tribe would take more than half a day, even with the fastest flying ships.
Qin Feng scratched his nose and said, "It is all thanks to an ancient teleportation formation located directly beneath the Blood Demon Lord's Palace. Normally, it is left unused due to the immense amount of qi and qi stones it consumes. However, given the urgency of the situation, the Blood Demon Lord granted permission for its activation."
Ashen gave a curt nod of understanding and asked, "Then what about your companions? Why have you brought them? I don't see a need for them to accompany you."
Qin Feng sighed heavily before glancing to both his left and right.
He placed the plaque given to him by Huan Tian on the table and spoke:
"It was my friend's wish, the one who saved your subordinate."
He paused and gestured to his right, where a beautiful tigress sat with a blank expression:
"She is one of the tiger kings he had enslaved. There are four others who have accompanied me here; however, they weren't allowed entry due to their enormous size."
He remained silent for a fraction of a second before gesturing to his left, where two young girls sat, looking at Ashen with a revering gaze.
"She is Ni Yan, my friend's lover, and the other is her friend."
Taking a short pause, he added:
"And the one sitting at the far end of the sofa is Princess Fanrong of the Zhuji Tribe. She is also the deputy leader of the tribe, like myself."
After he was finished, Ashen leaned forward and asked with a puzzled expression:
"And what is the wish of your friend? Just to bring them to my palace for sightseeing?"
Qin Feng's eyes widened slightly as he didn't have any answer.
Didn't his friend only ask him to take them along with him to the ninth prince's palace?
There wasn't any mention of what to do afterwards.
"T-That... I don't know..." Qin Feng's voice was low and full of embarrassment.
He knew this answer would look too foolish in front of a prince of the empire.
"You don't know?"
Ashen's incredulous voice entered Qin Feng's ears, almost feeling like a blade to his already embarrassed heart.
He immediately decided to explain himself:
"He only asked me to take them along with me. There wasn't any mention of what to do afterwards."
Hearing that, Ashen rubbed his chin in thought: "Hmm."
He then looked at Qin Feng and asked, "This friend of yours, is he crazy?"
Qin Feng's eyes widened at his question as he instantly retorted, "No, of course not!"
"Hmm..." Ashen nodded and continued to act like he was in deep thought.
Then suddenly, he spoke: "Qin Feng, from what you have told me, I can deduce what your friend's wish was."
"Really?" Qin Feng leaned forward excitedly, his eyes reflecting delight: "Please enlighten me, your highness."
"Then listen closely." Ashen spoke. "First, your friend is injured and will take around 200 years to heal, correct?"
Qin Feng nodded, confirming his statement.
Ashen then continued: "Then why would someone like that ask you to bring the ones he cared about to me? And that too with my plaque."
"Why?" Qin Feng asked curiously, inviting Ashen to continue.
Ashen's lips curled upwards as he answered, "To safeguard them until the time of his return."
Qin Feng's pupils enlarged at this revelation.
"What do you mean?" He asked. "Please elaborate, your highness."
"Of course," Ashen replied confidently.
He glanced at Hu Shui before explaining:
"First, his enslaved beasts. They won't be safe without their master. Either they would be killed or enslaved by humans or be hunted down and slain by the beasts of the Forest of Beasts as traitors. Nonetheless, they are in danger and hence need to be safeguarded."
He then glanced at Ni Yan and Yu Li before continuing:
"His lover is weak, and without him, she won't be treated with the respect she deserves. He must've been worried about her, and hence, he asked you to bring her to me for her safety."
Lastly, glancing at Fanrong, he added:
"As for Princess Fanrong, I can't say. But I can guess that she also must be in danger without him, and for her safety, he asked you to bring her too."
He crossed his hands and asked with a prideful smirk:
"And who but a prince like myself is suited to ensure the safety of so many individuals?"
Qin Feng's eyes widened in disbelief. He couldn't believe that the prince in front of him managed to deduce all this just from the minimal amount of information that Qin Feng provided him.
Really, princes of the empire are a different breed.
He shivered as this thought entered his mind; however, soon another thought replaced it.
This was a question that he needed an answer to.
Thus, he asked:
"Then why did he not ask me for help? I can also safeguard them."
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