Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 972: Compromise

Zhao Biren was watching the Disciples of the Lament Scripture Sect stare daggers at him, thinking to himself with amusement, ’Look at these ungrateful brats, glaring at me... all pissed off, thinking I’m standing in their way. You think I’m helping Valley Master here? It’s a lot fairer to say that I’m saving your lives, dummies’

Of course, he neither expected them to understand nor thank him for it. He just found it absurdly funny that they, including their Elder, didn’t realise how close they were right now to ruin and that he was actually the one thing standing between certain doom and them.

He saw that look of relief in the Elder’s eyes when Wu Long first intervened in the situation. He knew exactly what the latter thought. And it took him considerable mental fortitude to not start hysterically laughing at the fact the Elder of the Lament Scripture Sect actually thought that the worst thing that could happen to him - Wu Long’s involvement - was some kind of stroke of luck.

"I can’t back down like this!", the Elder of the Lament Scripture Sect hissed through teeth to the Elder of the Blood Skull Sect, "There has to be a way"

"I just told you, you can try persuading the guide to abandon his client... though that’s unlikely to succeed... it’s a bad look for any guide and rarely happens", the latter shook his head.

"You can’t expect me to believe there’s nothing else I can do!", the former insisted, adding with a sound transmission, [I’ll lose all face... not just in front of all people here, these lowlives don’t matter that much, but my Disciples are here...]

The Elder of the Blood Skull Sect rolled his eyes with some annoyance, [Ugh, you Righteous Path posers and your constant worry about ’loss of face’, worry about your life instead - this shit just got very serious. You may not want to understand with your simplistic brain, but there are internal politics in places like this too, and the fact he’s favored by the Right Guardian and we’re backed by the men of the Left Guardian made this seemingly little problem a hell of a lot bigger and a fuckton more complicated]

[I wouldn’t count on Evil Path barbarians to understand honor, but even if the situation got actually dangerous, my face is not the only thing at stake, my mission is also going to hell, and with it, the agreement between our Sects - remember, the condition was that you helped us successfully finish the job, not just your assistance], the Elder of the Lament Scripture Sect narrowed his eyes with a hint of disdain.

"Tsk", the other Elder clicked his tongue in extreme frustration, not able to deny that returning with failure wouldn’t get him a pat on the head from his own Sect either.

Not only did the agreement between their Sects include a sizable, and much anticipated compensation, but also the release of prisoners which included, among others, the younger brother of the Sect Master of his Blood Skull Sect, captured in the last Evil-Righteous war of their Continent almost a hundred years ago.

"Alright... let me think for a bit", he finally spoke in a hushed tone.

"We don’t have enough time for that! The situation is only becoming worse by the second! I need a solution!"

"And I can’t simply pull out a solution out of my ass just because you say I should, I need to think", the Elder of the Blood Skull Sect snapped back, and after an intense staredown between the two, turned to the one called Feather Warrior, exchanging sound transmissions.

While these people held this semi-private council, the atmosphere around them became a bit ambiguous.

Changsun Yong, despite being still technically imprisoned in the midst of Lament Scripture Sect Disciples, was not under any pressure at all. Rather, it was increasingly clear that he was, for the time, no longer in any danger, while those surrounding him were in an awkward position of neither fully pulling back nor fully committing to start the conflict.

Wu Long’s attitude was of a frivolous man who left all the details and the situation itself largely to Zhao Biren to deal with while continuing to seemingly spend quality time with the beauty sitting on his lap. It almost seemed like the reason he got involved in the situation at all was just a whim of his.

And Zhao Biren, having put the other party on the backfoot, didn’t rush to push them any further, knowing not to corner a rat too much.

The crowd of spectators were also idly watching from the sidelines. The previous tension continued to dissipate, as it looked more and more that nothing was going to happen. It got to the point that some have lost interest and went their own way, some new people appeared, busy asking around what this whole ruckus was about, and only some were still lingering, just in case something did happen and an opportunity to profit from the chaos sprang up.

"Khm...", after the inaudible conversation in sound transmissions, Feather Warrior cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable, "Hey Dead Fish, I have a proposal"

At this point, a rather pale man with a dreary expression and a soulless, vacant look in his eyes with dark bags under them, softly landed and immediately crouched on the railing of the second-floor terrace, not far from Zhao Biren, "What proposal? The situation seems pretty much dead to me"

"Everything looks dead to you", Feather Warrior rolled his eyes, "Besides, I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. It’s still kind of a stalemate though, no? Sure, these guys can’t touch the brat, but if they refuse to back down, the masked guy can’t take the kid away peacefully either, right? If they just dig their heels in and refuse to leave, it’s the masked guy who has to make a move and in that case he’s not in a dominant position either. Whoever makes the first move loses, but it can’t last forever either. And neither of them want a big fight to break out"

Dead Fish took a moment to think about the carefully framed by Feather Warrior situation, but almost immediately made a depressed sigh, lamenting the fact he had to expend energy thinking so hard, "Why does everything troublesome always happen when I’m on duty?"

He then begrudgingly continued to think everything over, and then turned back to Feather Warrior with a slight grudge for bringing him into it, "The fuck you want me to do about it? If it’s about asking the Drinking King to back down, I won’t do it. Especially at your request. As far as I’m concerned, as long as you and your men don’t do anything - I’m not obligated to do anything either, which is perfectly fine by me, so just don’t do anything and leave me alone. They’ll figure it out on their own"

"I’m speaking to you because they won’t, not anytime soon at least. And there’s a chance there’s going to be a big mess if they do try to solve it on their own... Come on, man, we can’t have this shit happening here right now. You think I wanna be talking to you? We have to clean everything up ASAP. You know how sensitive the higher-ups right now are", at the end, Feather Warrior spoke completely sincerely. It was actually part of the argument used by the Blood Skull Sect’s Elder to persuade him.

Dead Fish sighed as if carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, "Fuck. I hate to agree with you. I hate getting involved, but I’d hate getting in trouble from above even more...", and then turning his dead gaze to Feather Warrior added, "I hate you"

"Well gee, thanks for that", the latter almost groaned in frustration, "So are you willing to work with me on this or not?"

"Stop with the meaningless bullshit. What’s your proposal?"

"You motherf-... Ughn!" the Feather Warrior almost snapped, clenching both hands into tight fists and his jaws together, and then closing his eyes took a deep breath , gathering all his willpower, "It’s simple, really, since none of them are willing to back down, and they both don’t want a big fight that would create chaos which would ruin everything for both - let them fight it out without creating any mess, a clean fight-..."

"Too many words, dumbass. You’re proposing a fight in the Death Arena", Dead Fish grasped his forehead with one hand as if feeling a headache from Feather Warrior’s lengthy talking, but his expression slightly changed to a pondering one.

Feather Warrior almost exploded, physically shaking with rage as veins popped up on his skin, but forced himself to not say anything, waiting for the other’s response.

"This could work", Dead Fish finally said while turning his dead-inside gaze to Zhao Biren, "What do you say, Drinking King? I think it’s the best outcome your client can get out of this. The Right Guardian might like you, but he won’t be happy if you cause a mess at this sensitive time for the entire Crow King’s Nest"

Zhao Biren, realizing this was perhaps the limit he could push things to, turned to Wu Long, who chuckled, "Fine by me"