Realms In The Firmament

Chapter 1241: Dowry; Dispute; Query

Translator: RITF_Rain Editor: Chrissy

“What Elder Shuang and Elder Han mean is that... we need to make the wedding grand-scale. I don’t see a problem with it. But... The dowry...” The Moon Queen blandly said, “Shuang and Han suggest that we should give some specialties to the bride as the dowry, including a hundred Qiong-Hua Pearls, a hundred Pure Lotus Seeds, a hundred piece of Ice Essence Soul...”

She paused to see how the others would react but surprisedly found that nobody seemed to care about it. Nobody cared.

The Moon Queen was surprised, so was everyone else. [The numbers were mentioned yesterday. Why do you have to repeat? What’s the point? To emphasize it?]

[You are the Prime Master... You make the decision...]

[It has nothing to with me, has it? Stepping out to disagree may not lead to deduction of the gifts, but surely will offend Shuang and Han... They are distant to others but never hurt anybody. Besides, they are so powerful that none of us dare to go against their will. The best thing to do is to wait and see others step out...]

That was the common thought in everybody’s head. Everybody was waiting for others to stand up, so nobody did!

Some elders who really didn’t care started to sit in meditation...

For them, the priority was to cultivate themselves.

The Moon Queen was angry. She said, “It seems everybody is happy for this suggestion. Good. I guess the suggestion is accepted. We are going to give Yue Gongxue a hundred Qiong-Hua Pearls, a hundred of Pure Lotus Seeds, and a hundred pieces of Ice Essence Soul... Anything more to discuss? You may all go home and continue your cultivation if not.”

She decided to talk plainly.

That was obvious kicking the can down the road though!

[You are all keeping your heads hidden and leaving me to face the suppression from Shuang and Han... Am I a fool to you?]

[Do you think I became Moon Queen without a scheming head?]

[Let’s see how you live with this.]

[Even if you all decide to let it happen, those treasures are going to end up in my girl’s hands after all. That could at least be favoring my side!]

[Cultivate? Go on then!]

[Humph!]

As expected, the crowd burst into an uproar. Nobody expected the Moon Queen would accept that ridiculous suggestion.

[No way!]

“Prime Master, that can’t be done!” The Second Elder, who had nearly lost in meditation suddenly stood up and said, with a red face, “Qiong-Hua Pearls, Pure Lotus Seeds and Ice Essence Soul are the prime treasures of Qiong-Hua Palace! They are the foundation of our sect! One piece of any would be too much of a blessing and a great loss of our sect which might take ten thousand years to make up, let alone one hundred pieces! Prime Master, please think again!”

The Third Elder seemed to worry too. “That’s true! In the first place, in the history, no Saintess of our sect ever got married. Yue Gongxue is allowed to leave for marriage; That has broken our rules. Although it is reasonable that the sect gives her something as her dowry, we could give her many other things... How could we give her almost all the best treasures of the sect... No way...”

“That is right! We can’t let that happen...” The other elders were all in haste.

Most of them started to protest against Shuang and Han’s suggestion.

Everybody knew that what the two ladies suggested was going to take away over eighty percent of Qiong-Hua Palace’s storage...

The palace might not be able to maintain regular cultivation conditions!

Qiong-Hua Palace could totally stop dreaming about making any progress if all those treasures were gone...

What was the point if the Qiong-Hua Palace was going to collapse soon?

The Moon Queen felt pretty happy with it though. She pretended to be in thoughts and then said after a while, “I understand that you guys are worrying about our situation, however... Nobody said anything to turn down what Yue Shuang and Yue Han suggested after all. I thought you guys were all that kind and generous to Yue Gongxue, so I made a decision to let the treasure go as a part of her dowry...”

“We... We were seriously considering the pros and cons in our minds... We were simply lost in our thoughts... Nobody said yes to it after all... Absolutely none...”

“That’s right... Prime Master, you know us. We are all cultivators... You know how we would be trapped in our own thoughts...”

“No matter what, I will not agree on that suggestion to give away one hundred of each of the three great treasures! Absolutely not!”

The crowd had burst into a wave of chaos. None of the those who were in the meeting agreed to accept that suggestion.

Yue Shuang and Yue Han did not say anything at this particular moment. If they insisted on giving Yue Gongxue those treasures, it might drive all the others to their opposite side and made the problem utterly challenging to resolve!

In another word, to stay silent at this moment was to show the people their respect on one hand, and to wait for better timing to speak out their mind on the other hand!

The Moon Queen finally felt relieved, but still pretended to be worried, frowning and speaking, “I get it. You all disagree on that. Well, can anybody tell me what we should give her as the dowry? What is the proper number? We should at least decide a number for it before the day ends, shouldn’t we? Are we going to keep such a small problem unsolved forever? Besides, Elder Shuang and Elder Han have been waiting for a long time here.”

That was quite frankly speaking... [If you can not give me a practical plan to solve this problem right now, Shuang and Han are really going to take away all those they suggested to Yue Gongxue! If it causes any conflicts even fights within the palace, I will not take the responsibility to cease the chaos. If any of you confidently believe you can take care of the sisters Shuang and Han, you are free to make any attempts you want...]

“Fine... Okay... We are going to figure something out... It is necessary to give a girl enough gifts as the dowry, but we can not spend every single penny on it, can we?” An elder grumbled with a complaint.

“That is right... One hundred of each of those treasures are definitely unacceptable... We can not afford it...”

“Do not even mention one hundred! One of each could be too much! We needed to seriously discuss the pros and cons even if we are talking about giving away one of each of the three treasures, let alone one hundred... Those are rare and precious treasures we are talking about...”

...

Suddenly, it became a sharp and intense discussion.

In the tens of thousands of years of history of Qiong-Hua Palace since it was founded, none of its people had ever been so enthusiastic and passionate when having a discussion in a meeting. Everybody was eagerly expressing the voice in mind, as if there was no second chance for any of them to talk again.

Yue Shuang was annoyed after listening to the others’ opinions. She finally couldn’t endure, so she shouted loudly, “Ladies! You all! Listen! Listen up! It is reasonable that you all want to express your own thoughts in the discussion. I admit that you all have the right to say your opinion in this matter. However, don’t you think you should at least consider we sisters’ feelings a little bit? We did suggest to give Yue Gongxue a hundred each of the three treasures, and I know it was too much... We never expected our sect will genuinely give her as many. Even Prime Master approves to, we won’t let her...”

“However, you all know we two have suggested one hundred, yet still said that we should not even give away one... Isn’t it smacking us on the face? Don’t you think you should at least show us some respect?”

Yue Han stood up angrily and said, “Whoever truly want to smack the two of us on the face should stand out and show herself! We sisters never fear any fights!”

The enthusiastic crowd suddenly paused.

They all felt pavid facing the two ladies’ overwhelming questioning.

Nobody in the entire Qiong-Hua Palace could surely win a fight against the two sisters. Nobody dared to fight against them.

The First Elder, who had been pretending calm and steady suddenly coughed and spoke gently, “Yue Shuang was right. We are all sisters here. We can not give away all the treasures of our sect. Absolutely not. But there is no need to make this discussion so violent. The problem is nothing but merely the number of the treasures we should give our girl as the dowry. All we need is to figure out a number that both sides will be happy with... We can not give out every penny, but we cannot be stingy either. After all, we should not let Sister Shuang and Sister Han’s be embarrassed... I will not let that happen... Listen up, ladies. Just go down this direction. Figure out a way to satisfy both sides. Harmony is the priority! Take it easy! Take it easy...”

The Moon Queen was sitting on her throne, coughing heavily, staring at First Elder with a weird look in the eyes. [What a goddamn genius, First Elder!]

She couldn’t help but praising the First Elder in her heart. However, even though what the old woman said were a bunch of meaningless words, it had indeed chilled the fiery atmosphere down a great deal...

“We sisters care about our dignity, our faces. We would like to get things done in a decisive and fast way.” Yue Shuang took a step back a little bit and said, “Between fifty to ninety, just decide a number. Go on and discuss it quickly and give us the decision. We will accept whatever number you come up with.”

“What the hell? No way! That is impossible!” Over twenty ladies shouted in a fury at the same time.

Another person asked Yue Shuang with annoyance in the face, “Yue Shuang, do you have any idea how many of those treasures you are suggesting there are in Qiong-Hua Palace in total?”

It was the elder who was in charge of Qiong-Hua Palace’s financial affairs and storages. She looked pretty awkward and didn’t know whether she should cry or laugh at the moment.

“How many?” Yue Han innocently asked.

“Qiong-Hua Pearls, one hundred and three!” The elder solemnly replied with a deep voice, “That is all. We collected only one hundred and three Qiong-Hua Pearls in about eighty thousand years... These are all we have after collecting generation after generation! As for the Pure Lotus Seeds, we have only seventy-five in total! Not a single more! You were asking for one hundred, weren’t you? You are never going to get that many even after killing us all! Impossible! As for the Ice Essence Soul...For eighty thousand years, generation after generation our people have been collecting it. After all the hard works that we have done, forty-nine pieces are all we have in total. Fifty to ninety? That is impossible!”

The elder looked at Yue Shuang and Yue Han with helplessness in her eyes sighed and said, “You girls... You two... You two are selling the entire palace out for Yue Gongxue. Do you truly want us to give away every penny we have to support one person with her wedding? What about we pack up the entire palace and give it to the bride as a dowry? Huh?”

The others burst into waves of laughter after what the elder said.

[Qiong-Hua Palace does not even have enough storage of those treasures to meet your inquiry! What? And you are telling us we should give out twice of the things we have? What a joke!]

[Are you not imposing the entire sect? Yes! Of course! You are imposing the sect to do what we only can not, but you wish!]

Yue Shuang and Yue Han blushed all of a sudden, so they said, “Are these three specialties of Qiong-Hua Palace? How come we just have so a few of it...”

The two ladies had been obsessed with their own martial art cultivation, so they undoubtedly had not paid any attention to things that were relevant. They only got to know that those treasures were Qiong-Hua Palace’s specialties when they were on the way back to the palace this time because they were asking around about what gifts the palace could give to Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue. That was why they had no idea how many of those treasures the palace honestly had. As they heard the elder speaking out the truth, the two of them realized they had made a show of themselves. What they wanted the palace to give was way too much unreasonable.

However, it didn’t matter.

[What we want is to bring up a sky-high price, an unacceptable request to the discussion... What we need is to wait for their response.]

After the waves of laughter, the atmosphere had become more relaxing and harmonious inside the main hall.

The Moon Queen was sitting quietly on her chair up on the stage. She felt that it was a good time to speak again, so she said, “Sister Shuang and Sister Han have been wrapped up in cultivation. It is not a surprise that they barely know anything about the storage of our palace. Qiong-Hua Pearls, Pure Lotus Seeds and Ice Essence Soul are the first treasures of our sect, which decide the foundation of Qiong-Hua Palace. That is why we can’t give Yue Gongxue too many. I will roughly make a range between two numbers. Since Elder Shuang and Elder Han have made a good suggestion, we must show them respects... However, we can not afford giving out too many...”

She thought for a while and continued, “How about this? Let’s decide a number between one and ten. It should be more than one, but less than ten of each of the three treasures. We must make a decision today soon, so let’s stop kicking the can down the road.”

Yue Han twisted her lips and was going to say something. Apparently, she still wanted to argue for more. However, Yue Shuang dragged her sleeve and held her back immediately, gave a hint through the eye contact to tell her not to do anything reckless.

In fact, getting more than one of each of the treasures was already an incredible achievement. If they kept blindly asking for more and more, it might lead to a worse situation! They might fail to get more for Yue Gongxue, only less!

Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue were going to get more than one of each of the three tremendous treasures. In fact, even if they could only get one piece of any the three treasure, it would be enough for them to enhance the low, cheap, powerless Ye Clan into a small Qiong-Hua Palace in Oracle District...

Besides, they were going to get the treasures for free.

Yue Shuang and Yue Han were only asked to help Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue reunite, nothing more. However, because of their efforts, Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue were going to get more than they had ever expected. What a wonderful surprise! They wouldn’t mind how many they could get. All they wanted was to leave safely without making any trouble.

Yue Shuang and Yue Han were merely suggesting a random amount in the first place; all they were doing was making noises...

They never expected Qiong-Hua Palace would accept the suggestion.

No matter how it would end, Qiong-Hua Palace would have to give the bride something as a dowry considering the reputation of the palace...

In fact, if the palace were going to give the couple the primary treasures, they wouldn’t mind giving them more of other valuable things... They wouldn’t want to be offensive to the two sisters for some much cheaper objects after giving out their best treasures... It would be foolish...

“That’s too much... Still too much to give away...” The Second Elder kept shaking her head. She seemed distressed about the incoming loss.

“Ten are obviously too many to give away...” Another elder was shaking head too. “Eight... Maybe seven... No... Still too many...”

“Six? Maybe five... No... Can’t be that many...” An elder rolled up the eyes in annoyance.

“Four? Three? ... Is it ok? It sounds unnecessary though, doesn’t it?” One more elder stood out and spoke. She sneakily looked at Yue Shuang and Yue Han, grumblingly said without confidence, “What about... What do you say... If... What do you say if we give them two of each?”

“Hmm... I don’t know... No no no... Still too many... Too many...” Another elder replied.

Yue Han finally lost control and shouted loudly to ask those elders, “Enough is enough! What the hell? What about zero? What about we give them nothing? Would that still be too many to you? I do not understand what the hell is in your minds! How could you be so stingy? Yue Gongxue is our former Saintess! Our former Saintess is going to get married! We are going to give her something as the dowry! Two of each of the treasures? And you still think that is too much? I... I can not tolerate the nonsense anymore... Shame on you! It is not your own daughter who is going to get married! That is why, isn’t it? You cold-blooded worms of the cold world... I just can not bear it...”

What Yue Han said was rude, uncomfortable, incoherent, but so obviously ironic and satiric that sounded so sharp in others’ hearts.

The other elders were lost in thoughts, and then realized they were wrong to lower the number too much. The Moon Queen had set a range between one to ten, but they actually thought that even two was too much to give away. That would be a disrespect to not only Yue Shuang and Yue Han, but also the Moon Queen. However, they just couldn’t be reconciled to give in at this moment! It was a great deal of some precious treasures they were talking about after all!

“Listen! What about this? Six Qiong-Hua Pearls; Five Pure Lotus Seeds; Four pieces of Ice Essence Soul. What do you think? Is it good enough?” Yue Shuang made a suggestion to cover for everybody, sounding like she was compromising a great deal. “We did not know the storage of the treasures before, so we suggested a hundred of each. You did not agree, because you were right. We don’t have that amount to give away. The Moon Queen decided a range between one and ten, so we chose the number roughly in the middle. That should be quite a compromise if you are aware. I do not think you should still have a problem with it. Am I right? I believe my sister and I are respected to make this happen, aren’t we?”

The other elders felt it pretty tricky to answer the question.

If they disagreed, that meant they were declaredly disrespecting the two ladies. Truth to be told, none of them dared even to mention something like that, no matter what they truly had in their minds.

Whoever made that statement was going to be deadly enemies to the two ladies.

It was obviously besotted to become an enemy to Shuang and Han! Nobody would do it.

Eventually, the First Elder, who was incredibly good at saying something the least meaningful but the most reasonable suddenly opened her eyes, speaking to Yue Shuang and Yue Han, “I am afraid that may still be too many...”

For the first time in a long time in the history of Qiong-Hua Palace, the old lady, expert of reasonable useless words, actually said something that meant something.

The others could not believe what they just had heard, only kept their eyes wide open staring at the First Elder. They were going to accept the suggestion before the First Elder suddenly spoke. Now they had someone to depend on.

“You...” Yue Han stood up and was ready to rage up in anger.

[What the hell? First Elder? Do you think you are really this important? How dare you so declaredly, publicly, boldly object to our suggestion and disgrace us? Do you think we would hesitate on starting a fight against you?]

Yue Shuang hastened to hold Yue Han back and said, “No, don’t be mad... Control your anger... She may only say something that means something for once in her life. It may never happen again before she dies... Let’s not go harsh on her. We should be respected. She should be respected as well...”

Yue Han sat back with annoyance in her heart.

Yue Shuang blinked her pretty eyes and softly said, “Since First Elder has made her point, I must show respect to her as well. Let me make a step back a little bit, a compromise. Four Qiong-Hua Pearls, three Pure Lotus Seeds and two pieces of Ice Essence Soul, let’s make it nine in total! Nine is a number with a good meaning for the couple. What do you think? Have I compromised enough?”

Yue Han didn’t seem to be happy with it. She said in an angry voice, “Let me make this clear to you all now. This is the bottom line. We will not accept any lower amount. You better not push any further again! I am warning you!”

The other elders were all wordless.

[Well... To be honest... That is still... much more than we can afford...]

[However... Yue Han has said that it is the bottom line, hasn’t she?]

[What else can I say? What else can I do?]

[I can’t disagree with that, can I?]

“Heh heh... Well... Ladies, listen... I would love to say something. Ladies, show me some respect. Let’s give her four of the Qiong-Hua Pearls, and I will add one more Pure Lotus Seed to the three, which makes it four in total. However, as for the Ice Essence Soul... It is the most important material that supports Qiong-Hua Palace. I think we should reduce one piece of it, which makes it one. The total number will remain unchanged. It is still nine, which still has the good meaning.”

The Moon Queen interrupted in time to cover for everybody in this conflict.

The others were all shocked. They understood why she reduced the amount of the Ice Essence Soul; it was the most essential material for Qiong-Hua Palace after all. One piece of it was already a great fortune for Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue. What surprised the elders was that the Moon Queen actually was willing to take out one of her own Pure Lotus Seeds! The Moon Queen was always proud because she had some Pure Lotus Seeds. Every one hundred years, she could get only one from the palace storage. It was unbelievable that she would truly give away one of her own! How generous!

The Moon Queen had ended the conflict by making the final decision. Yue Shuang and Yue Han definitely accepted the Moon Queen’s decision. The other elders didn’t dare to disagree as well. They understood that if they kept pushing, it might become an embarrassing fight within the palace. They might have to deal with not only Yue Shuang and Yue Han, but also the Moon Queen. It was the Moon Queen’s decision after all!

Although the elders still thought it was too much to give away, none of them dared to say anything. They were not fools after all. However, they all had the same thought in the heads. [It seems Yue Shuang and Yue Han were right about the Moon Queen. She favors her own disciple!]

Nobody dared to challenge the Moon Queen’s decision. The discussion was ended with a final decision of the Moon Queen!

Many people were still feeling displeased in the hearts. [If only I can get some of those treasures too... Maybe I should marry somebody...]

The Moon Queen peacefully called an end to the meeting.

She left the main hall with both delight and some kind of complicated emotion in her heart.

As the decision was made and the discussion was done, after the Moon Queen left, when the elders thought about what had happened in the meeting, they still felt weird somehow.

[Well, after taking a second thought of it... I realized the Moon Queen was actually standing on Yue Shuang and Yue Han’s side... We were all able to sense it in the meeting... What confused us is... The Moon Queen obviously objected to the marriage of Ye Nantian and Yue Gongxue. Why would she suddenly change her mind? How come she suddenly becomes so supportive to them?]

[She has put Yue Gongxue in prison for many years... We all know it is true...]

[But... It is so confusing that she would act like that... Yue Shuang and Yue Han were pushing her indeed, but they were not strong enough to force her to make such a compromise...]

[I am truly confused by what is going one here.]

When the elders were lost in confusion, the Moon Queen suddenly returned fast. She said, “There is one thing I would like to hear your voice. I have been having this frightening shocks in my heart. It feels like something unfortunate is going to happen to us... It feels terrible, and it is strong. Unbelievably strong. I am wondering if any of you have the same feelings in your hearts in recent days?

If an ordinary person expressing the personal feelings in a formal meeting about something private, asking for opinions, people might think this person was insane.

However, if the Moon Queen of Qiong-Hua Palace said it, that must be something important. The others were all alerted immediately.

Cultivators were different from ordinary people. One thing that they were different on was that when a cultivator reached a certain level in cultivation, he or she would have a marvelous spiritual sensation. It was like an instinct, mysterious, unspeakable, indescribable and powerful. Such spiritual sensation always played an essential part in a cultivator’s life, especially for the superior cultivators.

“If you didn’t mention, I may continue believing that I am having this restless feeling because I am too old...” The First Elder first replied, “That’s it. I had a strange feeling quite often recently. I felt restless in the heart, cold on the back... It feels so real, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of its existence...”

After the First Elder, several others started to go along with the conversation. Apparently, many of them had such a feeling. It was not an individual case.

“If we all have this feeling, something must be wrong. That is weird.” The Moon Queen said, but kept observing the people who were talking among the crowd...

After a while, her face suddenly turned dark. She spoke in a deep voice, “The Prime Enforcer and Vice-prime Master have taken over a dozen of our disciples to Heaven’s Terrace earlier. As I can remember, they have been gone for quite some time now... It is reasonable that they haven’t make it back yet, but... how come we never received even a message from them?”

...

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