Central Palace

ShuîYuê was leaving the palace when she came across Ghost King, he was walking in her direction but when he noticed her he turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, ShuîYuê's feet ran after him, "Excuse me!" she shouted.

Ghost King didn't turn around to reply, "Excuse me, Ghost King!" she shouted once again, but he still didn't reply and turned to his right walking away.

ShuîYuê stared at him, 'Maybe he doesn't want to speak to me anymore, he must have tried to talk to me because Xiàn Fèng and Yìfēi weren't being social with him at the time he came to the palace and Earth Master already pretty reserved herself so he must have thought of being nice to me so he could have an easy time being friends with the other elementals,' she thought as a hurt feeling ran through her body, 'It isn't the first time someone has done this to you and it clearly won't be the last, so get over it,' she told herself sternly.

The Palace of Yú Yìfēi

Water Master was here to discuss the Southeast mountain issue with Yìfēi; she was in her room as Anxi was putting away the various new clothes of Yìfēi; she had dragged ShuîYuê this time with the Water Master willingly going shopping with her, trying to win back Yìfēi.

"Water Master, your hair chain is very beautiful; I like its design," Anxi complimented, noticing it.

"Thanks, it should be in Yìfēi's gifts from the ghosts," ShuîYuê sat down on the chair.

"Really? How come I never saw it? I would have asked her for it if I had noticed it,"  she said surprised.

"You should have gone through the gifts more carefully," ShuîYuê pointed out, eating a rose cake.

"I did go through them in front of her, and if she had seen something like this, she would have already given it to me." She replied, folding clothes.

"How come? Everyone received the same gifts from the ghosts, and I already sent those big fancy jewellery to Yìfēi."

"Yes, I put them away myself," Anxi remarked, nodding her head.

Now that ShuîYuê thought about it, didn't Xiàn Fèng say that the merchant selling jewellery had this in her collection, 'Suspicious,' she thought.

ShuîYuê would be leaving with Yu Han for the Southeastern mountains in a week. She was back at her palace in the side hall going through the scrolls, which enlisted the problems faced by the people living in the mountains. Jade served her tea which she sipped mindlessly, 'She didn't even notice that I served her jasmine tea today,' Jade thought to herself.

"Serving me, Jasmine, today? " ShuîYuê asked suddenly.

"You looked focused, so I thought to serve you something else to see if you could tell," Jade replied.

"You are getting more unruly in Souxin's company," ShuîYuê commented, picking up some papers.

'Don't even ask about that woman, I hate her,' Jade thought.

"Anyways, I have some things I need your help for," she said, finally looking at Jade.

"What can I do for you ?" she asked eagerly.

"I need you to find out who bought this hair chain," ShuîYuê took out the hair chain handing it to Jade.

"There's a merchant who sells exquisite jewellery by the name of Lî MînRú's collection she is still in the city."

"Just find out if this is from her shop and who bought it," ShuîYuê informed.

"Okay," Jade mumbled, taking the hair chain.

"You must do this very carefully and without anyone finding out, okay?"

"I will," Jade nodded her head confidently.

'This is my chance to impress Master and prove to be better than Souxin JîeJîe,' Jade thought smiling to herself.

Underground Black Market, West Territory

A blue-robbed person walked past the hustle and trade shops of West territory, struggling a little to reach the destination since it was quite crowded on the sunny warm afternoon. A shallow stench of metal, along with the sharp saltiness of the ocean, was evident in the air; a tanned man in his late thirties was moving boxes from a carriage to a shop, his strong arms straining with the weight whenever he lifted the heavy boxes.

There content unknown to him, a person stopped in front of the shop, tapping their feet three times continuously before tapping them with every alternate second; the man stood up straight, looking around before carrying a box over to the blue-cloaked person, "The first full moon of the year?" He asked looking around casually.

"Lantern festival," the person answered tapping their foot two times.

"The first new moon of the year?"

"New Year," followed by three taps

"Wine of flowers?"

"Rose," the person asked tapping their foot five times.

"Ocean is?"

"Lilac," the person responded tapping both their feet seven times.

"Good day," he said, lifting the box and entering, followed by the blue-robbed person.

A group of men were arranging the boxes neatly in a store room. The next thing that came into view was a long table on it was an accumulation of shells of different kinds shimmering in the dark room, a small group of women were polishing them, and the next room gave away its content quite easily with the salty flavour of seaweed in the air which was being chopped finely and deftly being set on micro net sheets for drying.

The man carrying the box entered a long corridor which had laundry drying on the outside as the long corridor ended a black door was revealed pushing it open the man stepped aside to let the blue-cloaked person enter, and the chatter of the room died down when the people inside it noticed a new presence, the person proceeded to reach the other side of the room before taking a seat on the long divan, a woman rushed to take off their cloak.

"Welcome, Master," they bowed their heads as a tall, lean man entered.

"Master, you are here," he said bowing his head as the person dismissed formalities with a wave of hand.

"I am leaving for the southeastern mountains in a week; Yu Han is leaving with me too; Dispatch a group of assassins to South territory and another group to the Palace of Yú Yìfēi," the person ordered.

"Who will handle South territory if Yu Han is leaving as well?" The lean man asked.

"JinJong, don't be silly, of course, Bai Yan will; you manage West territory, and I need another ship ready," the person leaned back, spinning a dagger.

"Our shipwrights are working hard; we lost a ship in battle again," JinJong informed guilty.

"Let Shen Wang handle the piracy, do not lose any more ships, we don't have money for that, also the underground tunnel should be used, a ship carrying expensive emeralds is departing from the Central Plains sink that ships beneath the sea bed I want those emeralds, tell Shen Wang to gather his crew," The person ordered observing a carving on the table.

"He's going to demand fifty per cent share," JinJong reminded.

"Tell him he can lose his captain status if he asks for more than five per cent of the share," the person told sternly.

"Master you know how he is," JinJong sighed helplessly.

"JinJong, you know I don't like to repeat," the person said walking around the room.

"Honestly Master, he's not going to agree with a five per cent share," JinJong said as a matter of fact.

"That man loves piracy and wine. Give him a few barrels, and he'll be elated."

"We don't have money to buy wine anymore," JinJong informed nervously.

"We would have money if your men didn't sink our ships!" the person hissed, "That Shen Wang had never lost any ships to any battles and you lot can't even steal a cargo of pearls without losing a battle and the ship to the ocean."

"Will be done," he replied bowing his head as the person left the room.

"South territory should be heavily guarded and keep a sharp eye on Wind Master's movements; no one should be allowed to enter Wudu Palace without a thorough check," the person said as JinJong nodded his head; the blue-cloaked person stopped beside a teen girl picking the sea shell she had just polished.

"Good work," complimented her and then cut off the thick rug with it, "Sharp and light, JinJong, make sure we get a good price for these sea shells."

"Understood Master..." JinJong hesitated to speak but decided he wouldn't have a chance if he didn't speak now, "Master, our ports were destroyed last year, and we can't feed so many mouths with just your salary and savings, we need the funds,"

"You know I tried."

"You must try again, Master; since ghosts have arrived, the people are closing their shops early, and business is not going well," JinJong informed.

"That old fucker Wu Yu won't sanction the fund," the person grumbled.

"These people will die if we run out of money," JinJong implied the heavy need for the fund as the person nodded their head before leaving.

______________________________
Author's note duty on Bāo YànQīng:

-Looks at the readers blankly, The Author nudges her to speak, YànQīng gives Author a stinky eye before clearing her throat-

" Our Author wanted me to convey that she'll be increasing the word count of the chapters that follow, this is probably the last chapter that is going to be 1500ish, reasons

1) THE STORY ALREADY HAS TOO MANY PARTS, THANKS TO US CHARACTERS WHO REFUSE TO ADJUST IN ONE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER SO OUR AUTHOR HAD TO GIVE US EACH A CHAPTER HENCE MAKING THE STORY PARTS UNNECESSARILY LONGER

2) NO ONE WOULD WANT TO READ A STORY THAT HAS SO MANY PARTS AND OUR AUTHOR HAS JUST BEGUN WITH THIS STORY THERE'S AROUND 10 TIMES THE CHAPTER SHE HAS WRITTEN ALREADY AND WOULD MAKE THE STORY PARTS TOO LONG

3) THE AUTHOR FIGURED THAT LONGER STORIES WITH LESS PARTS ARE MORE PLEASING TO READ,

That is all I had to convey for the Author's note, expect a longer chapter word count would probably be around 3k to 4k, and updates once a week are finalised until the Author thinks otherwise, o('^｀)o

Word count: 1500 and 300 for Author's note, Hey Author here I hope you had fun reading it,

Can you guess the person who gave orders to JinJong?
Hope you have a great day/night.ᰔᩚ ( ᜊ°-° )ᜊ .ᐟ .ᐟ

Don't forget to eat and sleep on time, take care of yourselves and eat fruit. I your favourite grammar nazi Author insists, 🍇🍈🍉🍊🍎🍏🍐🍒🍓🫐🍍🥝🥭

Thank you for reading. I'll see you soon. Bye-bye ฅ՞•ﻌ•՞ฅ