High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

Linjiang City. The Lin Family Manor. A storm was brewing.

The air in the study seemed to have frozen, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Lin Zhen sat at the head of the table, his face ashen and the bags under his eyes heavy. He looked as if he had aged ten years in the last month.

The core family members seated below him looked just as grim. Some stared down at the tips of their shoes, others repeatedly refreshed the screens on their personal terminals, and a few simply gazed out the window in a daze.

"Speak," Lin Zhen’s voice was dry and hoarse. "What’s the situation? Report, one by one."

Lin Liye, who was in charge of the family’s external businesses, spoke first, his tone strained. "Within three days, seventeen of our properties outside the province have come under varying degrees of pressure. The mining permits for six of our mineral sites are under temporary review, partners for four of our trading companies have suddenly announced a suspension of cooperation, and another seven..."

He paused, his voice dropping lower. "Have had their normal operations disrupted by local forces for various reasons. Preliminary estimates put the losses at over eight hundred million Federation Coins."

"What about within Dongjiang Province?" Lin Zhen asked.

"For now... there haven’t been any large-scale moves within the province," Lin Liye said. "But for three major projects we had already negotiated, the partners have put them on hold, citing the ’need to reassess risks.’ The banks have also tightened our credit lines, and the funding chain for our new projects already has a gap."

Lin Yongfeng, in charge of the family’s internal affairs, chimed in, "Our family’s main partners have all sent messengers over the past two days. Their tone was polite, but the message was clear: it’s not convenient to continue our close cooperation for the time being. As for whether they’ll renew our contracts when they expire, they need to ’reconsider.’"

"’Reconsider,’" Lin Zhen sneered. "They’re waiting to see if our Lin Family can survive this, aren’t they?"

The study fell deathly silent.

No one dared to respond.

Lin Zhen’s gaze swept over the room, finally landing on the silent Lin Liren. "Liren, what about you? Any progress on contacting Xu Wuyi?"

The root of this entire affair, after all, was Xu Wuyi himself. The Lin Family was now willing to give up half of their fortune in exchange for his forgiveness.

Lin Liren looked up, his face etched with unconcealable exhaustion.

"Father, I personally went to Yunhai Prefecture three times," he said in a low voice. "The first time, the Qiao Family’s steward stopped me at the gate, saying that Mr. Xu was resting and couldn’t see visitors."

"The second time, I sent a message through an intermediary, stating our willingness to pay any price for just one chance to meet. The intermediary replied the next day with Mr. Xu’s exact words: ’What’s past is past. There’s no need to bring it up again.’"

"The third time..." Lin Liren gave a bitter smile. "I hadn’t even gotten close to Yunhai Prefecture before two men in plainclothes, clearly military, appeared and ’politely’ asked me to leave."

"They said that Mr. Xu is now a key protected individual of the Federation, and any unauthorized approach could be considered a security risk."

"A security risk?" Lin Zhen slammed his hand on the table, his voice suddenly rising. "How could anyone from our Lin Family possibly be a security risk to an Innate Martial Artist?!"

No one answered.

Everyone knew that to those who wanted to curry favor with Xu Wuyi, the current Lin Family was the perfect offering.

Stomping on the Lin Family was a way to both show goodwill to Xu Wuyi and carve up the profits from their downfall. It was killing two birds with one stone.

"Father, everyone." Lin Liye, who was sitting to the side, closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "The ones coming after us right now aren’t Xu Wuyi himself. He doesn’t even have to say a word; countless people are rushing to ’vent his anger’ for him."

That was the most despairing part.

From beginning to end, Xu Wuyi had never publicly expressed any hostility toward the Lin Family, nor had he used any official power to suppress them.

But the more that was the case, the more eagerly those who wanted to curry favor with him acted. Everyone knew that this kind of unspoken grudge was the hardest to resolve.

Only by stomping the Lin Family into the mud could they prove their sincerity.

"Father," Lin Liren, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up. "There’s one more thing."

Lin Zhen opened his eyes. "Speak."

"I received a message yesterday," Lin Liren said, his voice strained. "That Grandmaster Duan we managed to connect with... he had someone return all the gifts we gave him."

"What?!" Lin Yongfeng shot to his feet. "Those were rare treasures we spent over three hundred million to collect! He was clearly satisfied when he accepted them and even said we should visit more often!"

Lin Yongfeng’s agitation was understandable. The gifts themselves were only a small part of the cost; the real expense was the effort and resources spent to establish a connection with Grandmaster Duan in the first place.

And now, with a single action from Grandmaster Duan, all of that investment had gone down the drain.

"Someone from the military paid him a visit," Lin Liren said in a low voice. "I used my connections to ask around. A week before the award ceremony, a lieutenant general from the military headquarters personally visited Grandmaster Duan and informed him of the list of recipients in advance."

"As the lieutenant general was leaving, he ’casually’ mentioned that this young man, Xu Wuyi, is someone who clearly distinguishes between friends and foes, and who values loyalty above all else."

The study once again fell into a deathly silence.

A "casual" mention. A light remark, yet it was enough to make a Grandmaster immediately sever all ties with the Lin Family.

Grandmaster Duan might be a Grandmaster, but even he had to weigh his options when faced with the military’s top brass.

Offending the military for the sake of the declining Lin Family versus staying on the good side of a "Federation Hero" who was almost certain to become a Grandmaster in the future—anyone could do that math.

"Good, what a good ’distinction between friends and foes,’" Lin Zhen muttered to himself, then suddenly began to laugh, a desolate sound. "So now our Lin Family has become the target for others to prove their ’loyalty’ to him."

As he laughed, his eyes grew red.

...

「The next day. Linjiang Command Headquarters, small conference room.」

Xu Wuyi sat on one side of a long table. Across from him were several officials from the Dongjiang Province Martial Artist Administration Bureau, as well as a liaison officer from the military stationed in Linjiang.

The meeting had already been going on for over an hour, mainly to coordinate Xu Wuyi’s future security arrangements, resource allocation, and other procedural matters.

With Xu Wuyi’s current potential, even without the title of Federation Hero, the Federation was prepared to invest in him without limit.

In theory, he would need to pay for this with merit points, but in reality, just like when he went to the research institute, he could run up a tab.

As for whether he would ever pay it back... that was a discussion for another time.

"Martial Artist Xu, your daily security will be handled by Team Seven of the Special Operations Division. You’ve already met the captain, Zhou Zheng," the liaison officer said, pointing to the information on a light screen.

"The team consists of twelve members who will provide a 24-hour watch in shifts. We have also arranged plainclothes protection for your parents to ensure their absolute safety."

Xu Wuyi nodded. "Thank you for your hard work."

"It’s our duty," the liaison officer continued. "In addition, according to the Federation’s Hero Protection Act, you are granted the highest level of security authority. The Special Operations Division has the right to deal directly with any unauthorized attempts to approach, follow, or investigate you."

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