"What preparations should I make?" Tang Fei looked up and asked.
"First, hide yourself better than ever and know how to protect yourself."
"Of course," Tang Fei replied.
If his identity were exposed, not only would revenge be impossible, but even the gods couldn’t save him.
He would face certain death.
"Second, strengthen your own power. Third, weaken the enemy’s power."
"How can I strengthen my own power?"
"Increase your cultivation realm, make yourself stronger, and when you are strong enough, more people will gather around you. Then, it’s time to recruit troops and find those still loyal to your father."
"After so many years, are people still willing to be loyal to him?"
"If it were you, I could definitely say no," the old man’s tone was as sharp and sarcastic as ever, "But if it were him, I think it’s worth a try."
"Moreover, the enemy of our enemy is our friend. The relationship between the Royal Family and the nine major families is extremely complex, each using the other while guarding against each other. The Royal Family seeks to consolidate power, the nine major families vie for it... while your identity remains concealed, you must find a way to profit from both sides..."
Tang Fei nodded and said, "I think I understand your meaning..."
"And the most important thing is... hold tight to Phoenix’s coattails... this is by far the most important chess piece..."
Suddenly, Tang Fei felt a chill run down his spine; he looked seriously at the old man and asked, "You knew about Phoenix’s true identity early on, didn’t you? Right when I first brought her back, you knew?"
"Correct." The old man did not deny it and said, "When you first brought her back, I was only suspicious... because her demeanor and charisma were too outstanding, too rare even on New Star, and the suit she wore, along with her communication device, were different from ordinary people’s, more like military-grade products from the Phoenix Empire..."
"And the whip she used, which is not an unheard-of weapon, but is extremely rare... Moreover, many years ago, the Empire had launched a secret initiative, that such high-tech lethal weapons should not be made available to the general public..."
"She told you her name was Phoenix..." A mocking smile appeared on the old man’s lips, "That name isn’t unheard of, there are many Phoenixes on New Star..."
"But, without knowing anything about our identity, she herself said her name was Phoenix... that revealed too much information."
"During our interactions, I tested her, including some of the small habits revealed through her words and actions, which clearly came from rigorous court etiquette training... Once the assassins from the Wuyou Palace started their chase, I was already able to confirm her identity..."
"So, you have always harbored hostility towards her... back then, you wanted to kill her, but you held back?"
"I originally wanted to settle the score with her, even if we couldn’t take our revenge, at least we could extract some interest from those of the Zhong Family."
"So later... you had calculated that she would bring us to New Star?"
"Not entirely sure," the old man shook his head and said, "At that time, I asked you to plant a seed in her heart... whether the seed would sprout or not was up to Tian Yi..."
"What I didn’t expect was that you, boy, are quite favored by women... Her attitude towards you gradually changed, until that morning when I saw the two of you lying on the same lounge chair, I knew the seed had sprouted..."
"What if it hadn’t sprouted?" Tang Fei asked.
He already knew the answer in his heart.
The old man was terrifying; he had calculated everything from a long time ago and was making arrangements without their knowledge.
Back then, he said to plant a seed in Phoenix’s heart thinking it was to help him find a wife...
After all, it was hard to find a wife in the Old Land, and someone as beautiful as Phoenix was absolutely rare.
Unexpectedly, his intention was to use this as an opportunity to control Phoenix, to make Phoenix his chess piece.
Indeed, Phoenix had developed deep feelings for him, then she somehow brought him to New Star, and had been active around the Phoenix Royal Family...
If it were the old man taking him up, or anyone else, it would not have been possible to come into such close contact with the Royal Family Members as it was today.
Phoenix was the best choice, as well as the only choice at that time.
However, what about Phoenix?
What had she done wrong? Merely because she had fallen for a man... from the Old Land?
A sprouted seed doesn’t necessarily bloom into a beautiful flower, does it?
Phoenix and herself were the same; neither could return.
The old man glanced at Tang Fei and said, "Then, they won’t possibly find their way here... even if they do, they’d only find a dead person... No, they couldn’t find the dead."
If there were no feelings between Phoenix and Tang Fei, if Phoenix were one of those heartless members of the royal family...
The old man would hesitate not a bit to kill her as soon as he suspected anything.
Even a mosquito’s leg has its meat, let alone the princess of the Empire...
He wanted the members of the royal family to experience the excruciating pain of losing a loved one, feeling as if life weren’t worth living.
He desperately wanted to do this, to the point of madness.
"So, did you purposefully let that star disc go? All so that they could escape and send back information?"
"The princess who returns to New Star is the valuable one. The princess staying on the Old Land is just a woman of decent appearance. Good for breeding, useless for revenge."
A light bulb went off in Tang Fei’s brain, and another possibility suddenly struck him. He stared at the old man with wide eyes and asked in horror, "Those villagers... sir... did you also instigate them? With your cultivation realm, you clearly could have saved them... yet you acted only after Phoenix and I made our move?"
"They had eaten our food and benefited from our kindness for so many years... Without us, they would have died long ago. Shouldn’t they contribute something?"
The old man looked at Tang Fei and calmly said, "I just had someone use a charm technique which made their blood boil and willingly come out to die..."
"Someone?" Tang Fei immediately seized on the crack in his words and asked sternly, "Who? An Ning? Was it An Ning?"
He knew of An Ning’s feelings for him, but during the time when the entire village stood up, An Ning hadn’t...
Throughout it all, he hadn’t seen An Ning at all.
At the time, he found it strange and even felt a little "bothered"...
I saved you and your mother’s lives over and over again, yet when we were in danger, couldn’t you come out to look even once?
He knew they couldn’t help much, but when everyone else stood up, they didn’t...
Now he understood everything; at that time, An Ning was following the old man’s orders, doing something more important for them.
"Indeed." The old man nodded and said, "An Ning is my disciple; I taught her a little trick."
"Why? Is it necessary to go this far?" Tang Fei forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart.
The old man, unconcerned with Tang Fei’s attitude and confidently said, "You don’t understand... it’s a bargaining chip..."
"What bargaining chip?"
"The one added to Phoenix’s conscience. We needed bloodshed, someone had to die... You couldn’t die, nor could I, so those insignificant people had to."
The old man said in a deep voice, "The more people die, the more she’ll feel indebted to us... With so many dying because of her, hasn’t she thought about making some form of compensation?"
"Like them, these flowers nurtured in a greenhouse don’t understand the cruelty of human nature... They’re not purely kind, yet they still retain a baseline of decency, adhering to basic morals..."
"Indeed, and they know how to reciprocate... See, isn’t everything going according to our plan?"