Qi Like Tar

"Oh," Liming said as she rocked back from the table a little. "Well, uh...."

"You don't need to answer now," Paike assured her. "Just take some time to consider--"

"No," Liming stated coldly. "We are going to crush them."

Paike was surprised by the venom in her voice. It made his blood boil. His little sister had always been a passionate child. She wore her emotions on her sleeve and was quick to act on them. However, she was rarely vindictive.

If her actions were rash, it could have easily been put up to youth, but they weren't. Even when she acted with passion or anger, she was typically fair and within the rules. She was just decisive and expressive. A bit unconventional, but nothing wrong as the family saw it.

Had she simply been a loose cannon, they would have never started preparing her for responsibility. There were many of their family who were not suited for a leadership position, and they still had a place in the family. If they grew powerful enough, they became lone operatives with their own influence but were kept from the day-to-day running of the family.

Father was one such. He was too powerful for anyone, even the patriarch, to stop him from doing whatever he wanted. Luckily, he knew himself well enough to let his wife run their branch of the family day to day. Only when drastic action was needed did he get involved.

Liming took after Mother.

So to see her passionate wasn't a surprise, but for her to be so vindictive, something must have happened. Despite his intensity, Paike didn't press as she laid out a plan. He would find out later and didn't want to burden her with it.

The issue was that this was, in essence, a school. There was no complete elimination of a threat. They couldn't go around killing their fellow disciples. Even maiming was out of the question. The elders were watching, and at some point they would be stopped.

So even if Liming humiliated the leadership through trickery, if they were still powerful, then they couldn't be tricked again. Maybe they would back off for a while, but that was it. In the end, she just needed to show them that they couldn't win.

Hence why she was overcomplicating it. She did account for this in her plan in a way, but it was risky.

"In the end, your goal is just to remove all their cultivation resources, right? Everything else is just a means to that end." Paike asked. She had told him what she wanted to do. Just because he was letting her choose the direction didn't mean that he wouldn't make sure her plan actually fit her goals.

"Yes," she confirmed.

"Well, how else can you go about that?" Paike asked. He motioned for Guan Li not to interrupt. He knew their friend had a few ideas, but he wanted Liming to figure this out for herself. It was a good learning opportunity.

"I need them to be distracted around the same time, or else they will tighten security on their homes when one of the others gets targeted..." Liming started to think through the problem as if it was one of the strategy exercises from the family's classrooms.

This was a familiar situation as he helped teach several of her classes after he had aged out. He was used to asking probing questions to get her to think and come to a valid conclusion herself. It wasn't always the one he would have chosen, but he wasn't her.

Paike let her go on for a bit. Her plan wasn't bad, but she wasn't using all her resources well. It would probably work. But if they got together and put aside their differences, what was to stop them from getting them back? Not much. It was about respect. She had to make them believe they would truly have no chance at making a comeback.

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Then she needed to use those cultivation resources she stole to sprint ahead so by the time they finally recovered from her strikes she would be so far ahead they couldn't even hope to challenge her.

It turned out it was Guan Li that broke first.

"Why don't you just beat them up and take their stuff? Or let me sneak in and steal it while they are sleeping?" He blurted out after being visibly uncomfortable for quite some time.

That wasn't exactly what Paike was thinking, but close enough.

"They are all in Middle Topaz. I don't think I can beat them up." Liming countered. "And no offense, but they probably have traps around the caches of resources, and without the Topaz qi sight, I don't think you can avoid them."

"First of all, I am offended. I'm sure I would have no problem." Guan Li said with a smile. "But why do you have to be the one to fight them?"

"Well, if I'm going to be the one making the plan and being the leader, won't I have to be the one who is respected? If it's not me, then they will have no compunction against striking back at me because I will be seen as weak." Liming said.

That was a well-thought-out point. It wasn't wholly true, but it was thinking along the right lines.

"It sounds like you need to have a different structure than being a tyrant. You need allies." Paike said while gesturing to himself. It was what he was trying to get her to see for herself. That she could rely on her family. Not just to have her back when things went wrong, but could actively ask them for help. It seemed that she wasn't going to get there herself, though. She might have some kind of mental blind spot about that.

That was what was expected, and she wouldn't be seen as weak if the help came from close allies like siblings. Not compared to if she hired mercenaries. Ironic, considering their family's line of work.

"I can't ask that of you. They are a stage ahead of you, and there are at least four of them." She protested.

"How many times have you seen your brother fight up a state or two?" Guan Li asked, offended on his behalf. "Besides, it's not like they would all team up on him. As you said, they are at odds with each other."

"It's not that I don't think you can't win, brother." Liming assured him. "But it's too much to ask."

"It is not," Paike said. "I understand why you say that, but it really isn't. Maybe if you wanted me to just charge in and take them on head-on, but I don't need to do that."

"Then how is this me taking care of it?" Liming asked. "If I'm just going to leave it to you..."

"No, don't just leave it to me. But you can use me. You seem to be under the impression that we are overmatched. I'm telling you that we aren't." Paike insisted.

That seemed to get through to her.

"Do you think you could talk Li Feng into helping?" Liming asked. "If the two of you worked together, I don't think all of them together will be able to stand against you."

"Now you are thinking," Paike said. "Yes, I can see about that."

Obviously, Li Feng wouldn't fall into close allies, but he was his own faction that was aligned against the existing structure. Well, Paike didn't think Li Feng could be bought.

"That is good," Liming said, her tone switching from the concerned sister into a much more serious expression that he wasn't used to seeing on her. It was downright professional. "Among the girls. I can say that thirty-seven of them are willing to follow me. I lost a few to the early recruitment to Qin Meiyou's faction, but the rest should stay firm for at least a day before they start getting pressured thoroughly. I have made some inroads with..."

Paike was shocked. He knew there was something odd going on with the female cultivators and how they treated Liming. There was certainly a respect they gave her, but he had chalked it up to her being the highest-ranked girl. Apparently she had spent this time building a power base.

It only reinforced the idea that he was no longer interested in his previous plans to live a quiet life teaching his family's children. Even organizing a large faction of disciples sounded tedious. He wouldn't want to give up that much time he could be cultivating or training.

Hearing what Liming had been up to when they weren't together was interesting. It didn't sound like she had spent nearly as much time cultivating as he had expected. Was that normal for the other disciples as well?

Or did she put that aside for now to build alliances? Despite not dedicating all her time to cultivation, she was still far ahead of the pack. Only Li Feng and Paike were truly ahead of her, and he knew Li Feng was as dedicated as he was.

Still, Paike assumed that more had cultivated as he had. That was the point of being a cultivator after all. But then he would have expected to see more growth out of them if they had any talent. So maybe more slacked off than he expected.

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