Chapter 1866 Seven-day return service

　　“Eh? But Senior, I haven’t paid the three spirit stones for shrinking down the Ancient Heavenly City Fragments,” the steel manifestation said in confusion.

　　“There’s no need to worry about that, someone already paid for that for you. As for who that is, I’ll be keeping that a secret for now,” the Almighty Merchant said calmly. After saying that, he handed over the three fragments to the steel manifestation.

　　“Someone already paid for it for me?” The steel manifestation received the three fragments, and said, “Hm… Ok. By the way, Senior, how long can these three fragments stay in this shrunken state?”

　　The Almighty Merchant replied, “With the technique I used, these three fragments should stay in that state for at least another day.”

　　“Thank you, Senior.” The steel manifestation carefully stored the three fragments in his pocket.

　　The Almighty Merchant nodded, and said, “Then, that concludes this transaction.” After saying that, he waved at Song Shuhang, and said, “Fellow Daoist Tyrannical Song, we shall meet again some other time.’ As this transaction had gone without a hitch, the Almighty Merchant decided that he would continue to let Tyrannical Song stay outside of the blacklist.

　　The Almighty Merchant then left swiftly, leaving the steel manifestation to continue catching crabs by the shore.

　　After the Almighty Merchant left, the steel manifestation stopped moving as if it had lost its power source.

　　After a while, the Heavenly Emperor-possessed Soft Feather drilled out from the bottom of the sea, giggling as she came to the side of the steel manifestation. She reached out and held Song Shuhang’s steel manifestation. “Prepare to synchronize with Senior Song… Senior Song, I’ll be taking away the Ancient Heavenly City Fragments with me. Anyway, these originally belonged to me, so don’t say that I stole them from you.”

　　After saying that, she grabbed the ‘powered-off’ steel manifestation, then stepped into a spatial gate, and disappeared.

　　When she ran away, she also took the extra effort to erase the traces of her ‘spatial teleportation’ so that nobody could chase after her through the aura of the teleportation.

　　In order to ensure her safety, she took Song Shuhang’s steel manifestation with her as she randomly teleported over 10 times. While doing this, she also placed a layer of Imperial Rune Seals on the three Ancient Heavenly City Fragments to prevent the Almighty Merchant from tracking her through the fragments.

　　After teleporting a few more times, she quietly escaped back to the dark little planet where she had been temporarily residing.

　　“Hmm, I should be safe now,” the Heavenly Emperor said softly. She then stretched out her hand, and sent the steel manifestation back into the little sun.

　　As her strength had still yet to fully recover, she couldn’t face everything head-on.

　　“Why do I feel like there’s something I still have to do?” The Heavenly Emperor pinched her chin and fell into thought.

　　After a long while, she remembered what she had forgotten to do. “Ah, right, I forgot to get in touch with that little girl Soft Feather.” The Heavenly Emperor looked up at the sky-her main purpose this time was obviously to get in touch with Soft Feather to find out what the latter was doing recently. The Heavenly Emperor really didn’t like the sudden bursts of comfort that she would experience every now and then.

　　But in the end, because of the Eastern Spring Pavilion Fragments, she had forgotten about her main objective.

　　The Heavenly Emperor muttered, “It seems that I’ll have to look for an opportunity to get in touch with Soft Feather. Otherwise, I’ll have trouble unfolding the scholarly faction plan.”

　　At the banquet on Heavenly Field Island. Most of the fellow daoists who were already too drunk were sent to rest under the arrangement of Island Master Tian Tiankong. There were a few others who were still barely awake, and had yet to fall asleep.

　　At this time in the kitchen, Song Shuhang, Su Clan’s Sixteen, Senior White’s clone, Sage Monarch Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue, Venerable Yellow Mountain, and Fairy Almighty Seller were all surrounding Northern River.

　　Northern River was currently cultivating an inner demon clone according to the method described by Soft Feather. He had long since condensed the inner demon, and now the smoky inner demon was already showing signs of evolving

　　Everyone was eager to see what form his ‘inner demon clone’ would take after it properly formed. Was it going to be an inner demon version of that blonde beauty he used to like? Or was it going to be an inner demon version of Copper Trigram? Or, like Soft Feather’s, was it going to be a black-skinned Northern River? Everyone quietly waited for the result.

　　At this moment, Song Shuhang’s face suddenly changed, and his arms shook slightly. Su Clan’s Sixteen said softly, “What’s wrong, Shuhang?”

　　Song Shuhang rubbed his eyes.

　　In his eyes, he received a synchronized scene from his steel manifestation.

　　In the scene, Soft Feather was smiling sweetly, and said, “Senior Song, I’ll be taking away the Ancient Heavenly City Fragments with me. Anyway, these originally belonged to me, so don’t say that I stole them from you.”

　　Song Shuhang said, “…The Heavenly Emperor!”

　　Su Clan’s Sixteen asked, “The Heavenly Emperor? She’s here?”

　　The White Dragon instantly appeared and floated into the sky when she heard this. She had accumulated a decent amount of energy at this time, and even if she had to fight the Heavenly Emperor head-on, she would be able to keep her occupied for some time. At this moment, the voice of the Almighty Merchant sounded from outside the kitchen. “Almighty Seller, we’re leaving.”

　　After saying that, he entered the kitchen.

　　“Eh? Tyrannical Song, why are you here?” The Almighty Merchant frowned.

　　When he was outside the kitchen, he hadn’t been able to sense Song Shuhang’s aura at all. However, as soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw the other party casually sitting inside.

　　“Senior.” Song Shuhang had a bad premonition in his heart. Taking into account the scene he had seen from the steel manifestation, he thought for a while, and then asked the Almighty Merchant, “Where are the Ancient Heavenly City Fragments?”

　　The Almighty Merchant replied, “Your steel manifestation received them for you.”

　　“…” Song Shuhang. “…” The Almighty Merchant.

　　Both could read ‘undesirable’ messages coming from each other’s faces.

　　“My steel manifestation was stolen by the Heavenly Emperor a long time ago.” Song Shuhang looked up at the sky.

　　The Almighty Merchant asked, “What? Shouldn’t your steel manifestation be inseparable from you?”

　　Song Shuhang said calmly, “It is inseparable from me. It’s just that it has been snatched away. The connection between the steel manifestation and me cannot be cut off, so I still occasionally receive some insights and information from the steel manifestation. It honestly isn’t all that new to me. Even further back, I had my life-bound ghost spirit snatched away from me as well, so when a similar thing happened to my steel manifestation, I didn’t feel too much about it.”

　　His calm look was quite heartbreaking.

　　Song Shuhang asked, “By the way, I shouldn’t have paid for the shrinking down of the three fragments yet? Why did Senior suddenly give me the fragments?”

　　The Almighty Merchant replied, “Little Soft Feather paid the three Ninth Stage spirit stones for you.”

　　“Eh? But Soft Feather is currently in my Inner World, helping Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword complete his inner demon clone.” While Shuhang was in the middle of speaking, he already got an idea of what probably happened. “Sigh… It should be the Heavenly Emperor again. Soft Feather’s ghost spirit has been snatched away by the Heavenly Emperor, so the Soft Feather who paid you should have been the Heavenly Emperor.”

　　“…” The Almighty Merchant.

　　You guys are really evenly matched. One of you had your ghost spirit taken away by the Heavenly Emperor, while the other had their steel manifestation taken away by the Heavenly Emperor. If I didn’t know that you probably didn’t intend for that to happen, I would say that you specifically arranged clones of yours to be taken away by her. At the same time, the Almighty Merchant thought of another detail.

　　He stretched out his hand, and took out the three Ninth Stage spirit stones that the Heavenly Emperor had given him.

　　After checking them carefully, he saw that the three Ninth Stage spirit stones were completely fine.

　　However, on one of the spirit stones, there was a small trace of the ‘Imperial Rune’. If he hadn’t looked carefully, he would have completely not noticed it.

　　After he threw that one spirit stone aside… he could immediately sense Song Shuhang’s aura again.

　　He picked up the spirit stone again, and he could no longer sense Song Shuhang’s aura once more.

　　“…” The Almighty Merchant.

　　Motherf*cker…

　　Senior White’s clone said, “Fellow Daoist Almighty Merchant, you’ve been fooled.”

　　Song Shuhang sighed. “We also have some fault in this.”

　　This matter that involved his steel manifestation and Soft Feather’s ghost spirit couldn’t be completely blamed on the Almighty Merchant. After all, they were both parts of him and Soft Feather.

　　“I’m going to go and get the Ancient Heavenly City Fragments back.” The Almighty Merchant tightly wrapped the sheet around his body, and said solemnly, “Fortunately, we have a seven-day return service. It isn’t that easy to take my goods away from me!”

　　In this world filled with cruel and cunning people, only the sheet wrapped around his body could bring him warmth.

　　Seven-day return service: no matter where you are, as long as you are unsatisfied with the goods, we can immediately come and pick up the goods for you. Excellent service all for you!