Immortal Kingdoms

With the man not talking, Leonardo obviously wouldn't say anything either.

In any case, he wasn't afraid.

Worst case scenario, they would kick him out of the city, which would inevitably disappoint Junior Brother, but it can't be helped as Leonardo wasn't about to keep bowing his head and silently endure any more nonsense.

The door to the room creaked open as another middle-aged man walked in. However, this man was dressed in plain cotton clothes that stood in sharp contrast with the embroidered uniform of the Disciplinary Committee knights.

The two men exchanged a look and a nod before the one who was waiting in the room all this while dismissed himself and left.

Leonardo observed this exchange with some interest in his eyes, but that was about it. Then, he crossed his arms to his chest and leaned against the nearby wall very casually.

"Supposedly your name is Shi Yunhei, escorted here by a rebirth realm cultivator on your first day and you happen to have a total of twelve slave divinities… Moreover, you brought back a vampire slave divinity the last time you went outside…" The man was talking as though reasonably from a document while making his way over to the desk.

He then sat comfortably on the chair and continued, "It just so coincidentally happens that the timeline of your leave and return coincides with the timing of an unfortunate eradication of a few hidden sects near the borders of the Lush Skirt Plains Province… Though, I'm pretty sure you're already aware of this, right?"

Leonardo didn't even look at the man, his head dropping as though in deep contemplation— or perhaps even sleeping while ignoring the conversation altogether.

The man snorted, "The Jin Dynasty acted against your Memento Mori first and thus no one is helping them or the people enticed into getting involved. However, if the brotherhood behind you has any designs on my Luan Dynasty as well, don't think that you're so powerful to the point where not even the three dynasties can do anything about it."

"What has this got to do with Memento Mori?" Leonardo's expression was as confused as it could get, and he continued, "Those pitiful tricks from the Oliver Essence couldn't get through even me, don't tell me that you couldn't see through this circus show as well? Now that would truly be a disappointment."

The man snorted, "Of course, I've seen through it, I just want to know if Memento Mori is planning to use this incident as a pretext to get involved in the matters of my Greenheart City— I wouldn't even be surprised if that Blaire girl was a mole planted by Memento Mori just to stage this farce."

Leonardo was somewhat at a loss for words as he couldn't possibly speak for whether Blaire was or wasn't someone connected to Memento Mori.

He knew that some agents have infiltrated the city for sure, but those people wouldn't make contact with him this soon. At least, that's what he thought.

Seeing that Leonardo furrowed his brows and sank into contemplation, the man seemed to realize that not even Leonardo was clear on Blaire's background, and the young man must have started to question whether or not this was staged by Memento Mori.

"What do you plan to do now then?" Leonardo asked after breathing in easily, as he wasn't worried about things he couldn't control.

"We have forwarded this situation to the Provincial Minister Manor, as the City Magistrate Manor couldn't make a light decision on matters concerning the brotherhood. Then, they came up with a final verdict to make an exceptional promotion, but…"

The man trailed off.

"But?" Leonardo's frown deepened, he knew this promotion wasn't about to be anything good.

"You will be stationed in the remnants of one of the recently destroyed hidden sects as their territory is technically located within the Luan Dynasty's jurisdictions. From there, you will be given lordship over the land and you will oversee its development as the situation dictates… Consider it a gift from the province, and hopefully, both parties can take a step back and not involve the city in further conflict."

Leonardo laughed, "So you're basically kicking me out from Greenheart City with a pat on the back, is that it?"

What bullshit promotion is this? This is practically exile but they put the term in a beautiful dress.

What can he do in a land without a population?

A land without a defensive formation? After all, the ruined natural formations cannot be fixed back again.

A land without trade routes, agriculture, or protection.

How is this considered taking a step back?

"Listen to me," the man coughed and cleared his throat, "We will provide you with the formation masters to erect a defensive formation when you're ready to move out, and we will also provide three years' worth of provisions enough for 20,000 people. On the other hand, you must cut off all connections with Greenheart City within three years."

Leonardo's expression turned a bit odd at these conditions that could be considered very favorable actually. However, he quickly understood the gist of it, they wanted to use him as bait to lure in Memento Mori higher-ups, as the land under his name will no longer be the Luan Dynasty's in three years.

When that happens, the Jin Dynasty and some of the nearby hidden sects can openly make a move.

The thing about Memento Mori is that after the destruction of the Lost Dynasty, they never had a stable base of operations— they always worked in the shadows.

But Leonardo's situation was different.

Giving him the land was basically shackling down Memento Mori.

They also weren't worried that the entirety of Memento Mori would migrate over as that was way too impractical. Even if they did, such big movements couldn't be concealed and would be easily intercepted.

No wonder the offer sounded too good to be true, but Leonardo indeed desired his own land and territory to govern and expand, and it was very difficult to establish a state on the Core Mainland.

Moreover, he still had Rosaline and the vampire clan who were hidden from the world for so long behind him, he didn't necessarily need immediate assistance from Memento Mori as long as he could hold on with the current power.

With that in mind, Leonardo quickly agreed, "Alright, we can take a step back each."

"Huh?" The man was a bit taken aback as he hadn't expected Leonardo who seemed to have noticed something was off to readily agree, this gave him a somewhat bad feeling.

This has gone too smoothly, hadn't it?

"Is there anything else I should know about?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows.

"Ah no— not really. Just let me know which location would you like to occupy…" The man responded unnaturally.

Leonardo responded without hesitation once again, "The Beast Claw sect's mountain range will be the core of a territory with 4,600 sq.km surface area as my lawful property."

"Are you insane?!" The man stood up from his seat in shock.

That was twice the surface area of a standard mortal country, let alone a city. Even though the standards for establishing a territory weren't those of the secular world in a place frolicking with cultivators, that was still a sizable portion of land.

That much land is enough to squeeze in over 700,000 people, what was he planning to do with that much empty space?!' The man almost cursed as he thought to himself. 'No wonder things seemed to proceed overly smoothly earlier.'