The Modern Martial Immortal

Shameless!

Jing Zhengyang, Wu Changfeng, Lu Qianshan, and Li Guiren were all inwardly cursing Yaoguang for his shamelessness.

Had Yaoguang not yet taken control of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array before speaking those words, Wu Changfeng and Jing Zhengyang, who were both at the Void-Refining Realm, together with the dozen or so Void-Piercing Realm experts in the room, might really have done what Yaoguang had suggested: let hot blood cloud their judgment, lose all reason, and cut down this deputy sect master on the spot, then find a way to pin the blame on the Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators.

But now he held the city-protecting array.

With a level 13 array formation in the hands of a Void-Refining cultivator, even a Void-Shattering supreme elder who walked into it risked being trapped there until death.

Did they really think their two Void-Refining cultivators and a dozen Void-Piercing experts could stand up to Yaoguang here?

They would be walking straight into their graves.

That said, had Yaoguang not held the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, he likely wouldn't have been willing to enter the Southern Capital in the first place, and he likely wouldn't have acted in the same way.

When all was said and done, Yaoguang currently held the high ground, and his advantage was overwhelming. The two sides' trump cards were not on the same level, so they couldn't even manage a fight to the death. As long as Yaoguang pressed hard enough, there were many ways to have them in the palm of his hand.

Yaoguang clearly understood this, and so he had done exactly that.

Neither Wu Changfeng nor Jing Zhengyang dared to make a move.

Because if they did, even if they somehow won in the end, they would inevitably have to answer for Yaoguang's death. Killing a deputy sect master was no small matter. Not even a sect master and a supreme elder acting together could shield them from the consequences, and that was assuming they could even win.

With the two Void-Refining cultivators unwilling to act rashly and no one else willing to stick their neck out, the dozen or so Void-Piercing experts fell into a silence as complete as if they had been struck mute.

The momentum had been utterly crushed beneath Yaoguang's foot.

After a long pause, Wu Changfeng finally stepped forward with a conciliatory smile. "Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, please don't take offense. Family Head Jing had a bit too much to drink earlier and wasn't thinking clearly when he said all that. He meant no disrespect, and we hope you'll understand. Today is the day we welcome your arrival. It's no occasion for unpleasant talk and shouldn't be spoiled by outside matters. Just as you said, come, come, let's keep drinking."

"Oh? Is that so?" Yaoguang said, seemingly lost in thought.

"Of course, of course." Wu Changfeng quickly nudged Jing Zhengyang under the table.

Reminded of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array's power, and seeing that Wu Changfeng clearly had no intention of holding the line alongside him, Jing Zhengyang too cooled down and forced a smile onto his face. "I had too much to drink and spoke some nonsense. Please forgive me, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang. I'll punish myself with a cup."

The other Void-Piercing cultivators in the room watched all of this and understood that in this exchange with Yaoguang, Jing Zhengyang and Wu Changfeng had lost, and it was a crushing defeat.

This deputy sect master is no ordinary figure. The southern domain is about to change.

"Then let the music play on, and the dancing continue. Let nothing else spoil our mood."

Yaoguang's voice rang out through the banquet hall once more, and the tense atmosphere that had filled the room moments before dissolved without a trace.

The welcome banquet lasted three days, all of it endured by those present with hollow smiles and appetites completely lost to dread.

On the final day, the array blocking all psychic thoughts and communication suddenly went down. In an instant, a flood of messages came pouring into everyone's communication jade talismans, and more than a few faces turned grim to the point it was hard to look at them.

Yaoguang, ever the picture of reasonableness, raised his cup once more. "I have felt the warmth of your welcome. I'm sure we will be working alongside each other for a long time to come, so I hope we can get along well and build something great together in the southern domain."

One by one, everyone raised their cups in return, trying to force out smiles.

"I can see that everyone is eager to return. I won't keep you any longer. Let us bring this welcome banquet to a close. Please, you're all free to go." With those words, Yaoguang dismissed everyone.

The moment he finished speaking, everyone except Wu Changfeng left the premises as fast as they could manage, including Jing Zhengyang, Lu Qianshan, Li Guiren, and the other Void-Piercing cultivators. They needed to return and deal with the aftermath as quickly as possible and take stock of their losses.

"Perfected Lord Wu, do you have no affairs of your own to attend to?" Yaoguang asked.

"There are many matters at the domain lord's residence that need to be handed over to you, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang. Whenever you have time, I'll report them to you one by one," Wu Changfeng said with a smile, waiting to be dismissed.

"Oh?" Yaoguang glanced at him.

Compared to the others, this Void-Refining Realm cultivator was clearly going to be harder to deal with. But it didn't matter.

In a world where personal power was everything, a person of sufficient strength could handle any situation with ease. When the powerful stand in court and insist a deer is a horse, and that a rat is a duck... Do you really think those bowing along in agreement are blind or stupid? Anyone who believes that is the one being naive.[1]

Before the strong, all that was unreasonable became reasonable.

"Then go and take care of it as soon as possible. Bring me a detailed report on the southern domain," Yaoguang said.

"Yes," Wu Changfeng respectfully acknowledged the order and withdrew.

Once Wu Changfeng had gone, Qi Sha unhurriedly walked in from the other side, the thick stench of blood and battle clinging to him from head to toe.

"My lord." He offered a brief greeting and went straight to the point. "In your name, we extended invitations to a total of 1,071 merchant guilds. Only 391 showed up. We then moved against the remaining guilds on the grounds of colluding with the Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators, completely eliminating 311 guilds and imposing severe penalties on 259 others. The remainder were spared because they responded in time and had sufficiently good reputations to warrant leniency..."

Yaoguang listened, gave a slight nod, and quickly issued his instructions. "The guilds that were eliminated or purged are to be placed under the joint management of the Ling family, the Chi family, and my own people, and counted as direct assets of the domain lord's residence..."

"Yes," Qi Sha acknowledged the order, then seemed to recall something and added, "There was one strange thing. Most of the merchant guilds acting unreasonably had ties with the Jing, Lu, and Li families. But those that should have belonged to Sect Master Zong Wenxian behaved remarkably well. A few of them did receive some penalties, but because they submitted so cleanly and quickly, we didn't have a strong enough reason to wipe them out entirely."

"It seems like Wu Changfeng will not be easy to deal with," Yaoguang said with a slight smile.

But he wasn't particularly troubled by it.

Having taken the Southern Capital, he now had the foundation from which to anchor himself. All he needed to do next was consolidate his position and firmly establish his footing within the Void-Refining Realm. With the Dao Techniques he had mastered, his accumulated experience at both the Void-Refining and Void-Shattering Realms, and the Dao Artifact he carried, calling himself unmatched in his own realm was no exaggeration. And that was to say nothing of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array.

Wu Changfeng was not really a member of the Heavenly Dao Sect. In a sense, he was merely a dependent of Zong Wenxian, representing Zong Wenxian's will. But precisely because of that status, cutting him down would only draw Zong Wenxian's fury; it would not give the Heavenly Dao Sect as a whole any pretext to move against him.

"Restore order in the Southern Capital as quickly as possible," Yaoguang said, glancing upward. "Every day the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array remains active costs hundreds of thousands of Pure Yang Grand Pills."

"Yes." Qi Sha nodded and withdrew shortly after.

Once Qi Sha had gone, Wan Liugui came to find Yaoguang at the domain lord's residence.

"Deputy Sect Master." His expression was somewhat grave. "Over these past few days, we've looked into the assets outside the Southern Capital. A great deal of them are firmly in the grip of the Lu, Li, and Jing families. Six years from now, when the time comes to pay the sect's tribute, they will absolutely try to make things hard for us, unless you intend to cover the shortfall yourself, Deputy Sect Master."

"That's a minor matter," Yaoguang said calmly. "We'll simply take back those assets within the next six years."

"But they're unlikely to be willing. And if we try to force it, if they take any destructive action in response, our revenues will take a serious hit for a long time, while the amount we owe the sect won't see any reduction at all," Wan Liugui said.

"Have you still not seen clearly? These people are all bluster and no substance," Yaoguang said calmly. "They keep invoking the Yin Lunar Sect's cultivators as their excuse. I actually think that reason is quite useful. When the time comes, we'll go and take back those resource points in the name of helping them fight off the fiendish cultivators. And if they actually go ahead and destroy those resource points, we'll have the sect go after the peak masters and supreme elders backing them."

"This..." Wan Liugui was stunned.

Was Yaoguang planning to refuse to pay the tribute?

That would be an affront to the interests of everyone in the Heavenly Dao Sect. One misstep and it could draw a backlash from the entire sect. In that situation, the position he found himself in might end up looking like that of the former Deputy Sect Master Song, who was directly subjugated as a rebel.

"When all is said and done, the Heavenly Dao Sect is nothing more than a coalition of shared interests. As long as I can show them a way to profit more, even if I cut down a few of Zong Wenxian's envoys, any order of his to move against me won't make it through the Supreme Elder Council," Yaoguang explained. "As for the interests in question..."

He looked at Wan Liugui. "Work with Qi Sha and stabilize the situation in the Southern Capital as quickly as possible. Three or five years from now if things go well... Seven or eight if they don't. Then, the Southern Capital will hold an auction that will put us on the map, and if it goes well, the southern domain's development will be set for a long time to come."

Though Wan Liugui didn't understand the source of Yaoguang's confidence, he gave a nod. "I'll get to it at once."

Yaoguang nodded.

Having newly arrived in the Southern Capital, there were many matters that needed handling. But Yaoguang left them all in the hands of Chi Yu, Ling Ruogu, Wan Liugui, and the others. When it came to purging those who refused to yield, Qi Sha was the one sent to handle it. Yaoguang himself took up his position at the heart of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, holding command over the Southern Capital's greatest weapon.

With that weapon in his hands, no matter how violently things erupted beyond the Southern Capital's walls, he could sit steady and hold the situation firmly in his grasp.

Half a month later, Wu Changfeng paid Yaoguang another visit and delivered a detailed intelligence report on the southern domain. Compared to the superficial information that Ling Ruogu, Chi Yu, and the others had managed to gather, this dossier was incomparably more detailed, describing nearly all the web of power and the various connected interests across the entire southern domain.

The result left Yaoguang somewhat surprised.

This Wu Changfeng is behaving far too cooperatively. Is this the calm before a storm? Is he biding his time? Or perhaps... is he actively hoping for a fight to break out between Zong Wenxian and me?

After Wu Changfeng delivered the exhaustive dossier and departed in his characteristically quiet, well-behaved manner, Yaoguang found himself unable to read the man.

"So then, whose side are you really on? Zong Wenxian's? The remnants left behind by that former Deputy Sect Master Song? Or perhaps... are you siding with the Yin Lunar Sect fiendish cultivators?"

1. There is a story in ancient China. During the reign of the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty. A high-ranking official once brought a deer to the imperial court and called it a horse. He did that to test the loyalty of the other officials toward him. ☜

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