by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
As a result, the fifty-fifty split ended up sixty-forty. Xuantian City had taken sixty percent, while Gao Xianyang had been left with forty percent. At that time, Gao Xianyang had turned green with fury.
But Xuantian City was an independent department, and within its walls, people had no choice but to lower their heads. And so he had been forced to endure.
Now five years had passed, and this idiot immediately wanted more from him. Gao Xianyang didn’t know how this idiot had managed to live to this day. Did he not feel embarrassed to directly say such a thing?
But he simply smiled and said, “Brother, I brought some peerless beauties for you this time, and they’re all exquisitely skilled. However, they’re quite haughty, so it’ll be up to your own skills.”
At this time, Long Chen and the other disciples also arrived. When Guo Xu saw Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, Zhao Ziyan, and Hua Shiyu, his eyes almost popped out. He had never seen such beautiful women, so now seeing four of them at once, he immediately began to drool.
Gao Xianyang saw him looking at the four of them like a pig and smiled.
“Stop! Show me your identity badges. I need to confirm them one by one.”
Long Chen and the others were suddenly stopped by a middle-aged guard. He had a hat on at a crooked angle and a sheathed saber on his waist.
Long Chen was first startled, but then he saw Gao Xianyang and the others entering without any investigation at all. He was clearly just making things hard on them.
When Hua Shiyu showed her badge, a large hand suddenly took it.
“Let me see.” This hand belonged to Guo Xu. At the same time as he grabbed her badge, he extended extra far to touch her hand. A feverish light shone in his eyes as he began to lose control.
“Scram!” Hua Shiyu’s face immediately turned frosty, and she sent a kick straight toward Guo Xu’s crotch. Long Chen could hear two consecutive cracking sounds.
Guo Xu screamed and flew back like a shooting star, striking the city gates.
As a result, the broken-down city gates collapsed, burying him beneath the rubble. The dozens of guards were startled. One of them was about to curse at her when Hua Shiyu extended a hand and slapped him across the face.
This Foundation Forging expert was slapped unconscious by Hua Shiyu. The other guards immediately realized something was off. This woman was not so easy to provoke.
Rather than stupidly attacking her, they ran over to Guo Xu, pulling him out of the rubble. But he was still screaming and rolling crazily.
Even for cultivators, the life rod was a fatal weakness. That place was not so easily recovered with Heavenly Dao energy.
That was because it was the root of passing down the ancestral line. It was the foundation of the Human Dao. Using Heavenly Dao energy to heal that spot might recover the form, but it would lose its core ability. It would essentially be crippled, and there would be no more Human Dao coming from there.
Looking at Guo Xu rolling on the ground as he held his crotch and wailed, a disdainful expression appeared on Long Chen’s face. He sneered inside, “I can touch, but if you touch, it’ll be dangerous. Just touching a hand practically severed your ancestry. Do you want to try touching her chest?”
Gao Xianyang heard all this and was delighted. But he put on an expression of shock as he looked back.
The disturbance startled all of Xuantian City, and a large group of experts rushed over.
“Long Chen, how brazen! You dare to attack the city lord’s son?!” Gao Xianyang cried out furiously, hiding his delight.
“Who dares to cause trouble in my Xuantian City?!”
Suddenly, a furious roar rang out, and a middle-aged man appeared in front of everyone.
Chapter 1142 Upholding Justice
This middle-aged man was the city lord. He was also Guo Xu’s father, Guo Zhengyang.
Seeing that his precious son had been injured, he was startled and infuriated. He roared at Long Chen and the others, just about to attack.
“City lord, junior master’s life rod has been severely damaged. It requires peak grade Life Giving Elixir and a top grade Flesh Birthing Pill to heal.” One of the elders quickly examined Guo Xu’s injuries.
Having one’s penis and balls completely destroyed was naturally a heavy injury. Guo Zhengyang only had this one son. Now, this was a big matter.
Guo Zhengyang frowned, and after a moment of hesitation, he said, “Have healers treat him. Medicine can also be poisonous, so healing naturally is better.”
The elder was speechless. He had followed this city lord for three hundred years. Although he was well aware of how stingy he was, he hadn’t thought he would be so stingy with his flesh and blood son.
This was the epitome of stinginess. Healers could definitely help him recover, but it would be painful and take a long time. Guo Zhengyang would rather his son suffer than heal him with medicine.
“Who did this?! Get out here!” As people carried away Guo Xu, Guo Zhengyang glared at Hua Shiyu and the others.
Hua Shiyu was just about to walk out when Long Chen beat her to it. He said, “You are city lord Guo Zhengyang? The Xuan Master has ordered me to give you some money.”
What shocked all the disciples was that the furious Guo Zhengyang immediately smiled brightly upon hearing that he would get money.
“Yes, as expected, the Xuan Master is a hero amongst men. Sigh, my Xuantian City has truly been low on funds recently. We don’t even have the money to repair our defenses. Where is the money?”
Long Chen smiled. He had an urge to prostrate himself in admiration toward the Xuan Master’s scheming ability. With both hands, he extended a spatial ring to Guo Zhengyang.
Just as Guo Zhengyang reached out toward it, Long Chen’s hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, and in front of everyone’s shocked gazes, he threw him to the ground.
BOOM! Dust flew everywhere. Guo Zhengyang had never imagined that Long Chen would dare to sneak attack him. He had no defenses at all and was easily knocked unconscious.
“Long Chen, what are you doing?” Now, even Gao Xianyang was shocked. Was he trying to rebel?
At this time, countless experts flew out of Xuantian City, looking at Long Chen holding the unconscious Guo Zhengyang with dumbfounded expressions. But not one person came to help.
“I was ordered by the Xuan Master to investigate Guo Zhengyang’s corrupt practices. He embezzled the wages for workers just to stuff his own pocket. Here is the tablet the Xuan Master personally bestowed upon me.”
Long Chen took out a golden tablet with a large Xuan character written on it. It gave off immense pressure, and when it was taken out, an illusory image of the Xuantian Dao Sect appeared. This was the Xuantian Dao Sect’s highest authority tablet. Seeing it was like seeing the Xuan Master.
“Starting today, I am the city lord. My orders are to seal the city. No one can leave. Those who disobey will be directly executed,” announced Long Chen.
Everyone just stared blankly. Even Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er hadn’t known that Long Chen had come with special orders.
“Senior apprentice-brother Su Mo, senior apprentice-sister Mu Qingxuan, Hua Shiyu, and Wang Zhen, bring people to block the four city exits. If anyone dares to forcibly leave, kill them,” ordered Long Chen.
Although the four of them didn’t know what Long Chen was thinking, they still led their people to seal the city.
Long Chen brought the remaining disciples into Xuantian City. Once they were inside, they truly became speechless.
There was not a single brick in Xuantian City that was still intact. They were all cracked and broken. This was the most broken-down city Long Chen had ever seen.
Once he was inside, he saw quite a few Foundation Forging experts dispiritedly soaking in the sun. They looked like they were just waiting for death.
Seeing Long Chen dragging an unconscious Guo Zhengyang, those people’s eyes brightened slightly. One of them even excitedly asked, “Senior, have you come to uphold justice and put this bloo
d-sucking ghost on trial?”
Senior?
Looking at this middle-aged man with a full beard and mustache, Long Chen felt a wave of pain at being called a senior.
But he understood this person’s expression. This person had clearly been suppressed and squeezed too hard and for too long. He clearly wanted Guo Zhengyang dead.
“Does Guo Zhengyang have any accomplices?” asked Long Chen directly.
“Yes, yes! I’ll bring you to them right now!”
Quite a few people began to cry out with excitement, shocking Tang Wan-er and the others. They had no idea what was going on.
“Let’s go.”
Long Chen handed Guo Zhengyang to Gu Yang and followed these people to a luxurious mansion. As soon as they arrived, several experts blocked their way, cursing.
Long Chen directly sent those people flying and broke the door down with a punch. Only once all of them had charged in did the people inside react. However, they were easily beaten into submission by the Dragonblood Legion.
At the core of the mansion, a large fatty appeared. He was just about to speak when he was knocked unconscious with a fist.
Xuantian City had four great noble families. Now, as soon as Long Chen arrived, they were all captured.
The entire city was in disorder. Quite a few people tried fleeing, but they were stopped and captured.
Within the city lord’s mansion, Long Chen and all the others were gathered. Guo Zhengyang and Guo Xu were lying on the ground, along with dozens of people from the four noble families. They all lay there, motionless.
Under Long Chen’s orders, Meng Qi investigated their souls. What shocked everyone was that the city lord and even these noble families were people of the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect, or people with close relations to the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect.
Once Meng Qi explained what she had learned with her soulsearch, Long Chen truly had an urge to prostrate himself toward the Xuan Master.
This city lord was an existence the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect had set up in Xuantian City. It was only with their help that he had gained enough support to become the city lord. As for the Xuan Master, he had simply acted like he didn’t know.
Guo Zhengyang was an absolute scrooge. He was miserly with others, and he was also miserly with himself. Just from the way he treated Guo Xu told everything.
Once he took office, he did his best to pull in as much wealth as possible. He was completely corrupt, even squeezing the disciples of their wages. He used all kinds of excuses, and as a result, none of the Xuantian Dao Sect’s disciples wished to stay here, and they went to report to the Xuan Master.
The Xuan Master had once sent someone to investigate, and as a result, Guo Zhengyang had shown a detailed list of his accounting work. An examination of this list revealed no mistakes at all. Then that investigator had left.
As a result, Guo Zhengyang became even more overboard. Those people who had falsely accused him had all been kicked out, and their wages had gone into his pocket.
Just three years after he took office, there were practically no longer any disciples from the Xuantian Dao Sect who stayed. There was no money to be made here, so they all returned to the sect, or they left to make their own way in the world.
Guo Zhengyang saw this, and he quickly enticed a few of his own relatives to come over. From his wives’ families, he managed to bring over many relatives. In just ten years, all of Xuantian City was composed of the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect’s people.
This was because Guo Zhengyang was not content with his situation. With no more disciples coming, his profits were shrinking, and the Xuantian Dao Sect only sent money to fix the defenses every few decades. Therefore, he actually used his own relatives to take in more money.
These relatives were all outer members of the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect, and so amongst them, his background was the greatest, so much so that they couldn’t resist. His aunt was one of Ma Xingkong’s dual cultivation partners.
Once he had duped four relatives here, he directly bestowed them the title of four grand noble families and said they would jointly develop this region.
This region was filled with countless sea demons and rich in minerals. Guo Zhengyang had pulled them in as investors. And so they naturally had to put in money to get money.
The four grand noble families ended up sinking all their wealth into this place. They had thought they would be able to start making all of it back in just a few decades.
But they quickly found that this was not the case. The accounting books were all overseen by Guo Zhengyang, and he constantly gave excuses that the Xuantian Dao Sect had debts and was taking resources. He didn’t dare to touch their investment yet. Only once they had enough accumulated wealth could they go through with the plan, so he told them to wait patiently.
Guo Zhengyang was truly a swindler. Not only did he not give them dividends, he even started charging them rent and all kinds of other taxes.
The four grand noble families were infuriated, but Guo Zhengyang didn’t care. He directly told them that if they wanted to stay behind, they had to listen. Otherwise, they could scram.
But once they left, they would lose the status of noble families, and they would lose their initial investment. So they couldn’t leave, but they also couldn’t do anything to Guo Zhengyang due to his background. They could only endure.
Guo Zhengyang continued with his tricks. He had them dupe more people over. He said that he would give them a third of the profits from those duped people. Furthermore, when they finally left Xuantian City, he would give them an extra fifteen percent of their earnings.
The four grand noble families could only start baiting their own relatives into coming in order to survive.
Now, all the people in Xuantian City were the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect’s outer members. Even the experts on duty were their people. Most importantly, they had all been tricked over, and they didn’t get the slightest salary. Even when they killed sea demons, the profits would go to Xuantian City. With Guo Zhengyang’s severe threats, they didn’t even dare to run away. They could only continue like this until they died.
This was also why no one came to help once they saw Guo Zhengyang had been knocked unconscious. They only watched with stupefied expressions because they were already numb.
But when they learned Long Chen had come to replace Guo Zhengyang, they almost wept tears of joy. They wished Long Chen would directly kill this greedy bastard, because only once he was dead would they be freed.
Long Chen now had over three hundred spatial rings, and each one of them was filled with treasures.
There were weapons, sets of armor, medicinal pills, materials, spirit stones, etc. There was one in particular that made Long Chen’s heart pound wildly.
Chapter 1143 The Xuan Master’s Methods
One particular spatial ring was filled with yuan spirit stones. Yuan spirit stones were the greatest currency in this world as they only ever increased in value.
That was why Guo Zhengyang had always done his best to get more yuan spirit stones, even if it was just one or two.
When Meng Qi had done her soulsearch on him, she found that he had a strange addiction. Each day, he would lie on top of his pile of yuan spirit stones and sleep. That was the only way he could feel at rest.
Looking at the five hundred million yuan spirit stones inside, Long Chen’s admiration for the Xuan Master maxed out.
When it came to strategy, who could compare to the Xuan Master?
He had raised a pig for three hundred years, and this pig had even drawn over more pigs from the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect.
Three hundred years ago, the Xuan Master had seen through the character of the miserly Guo Zhengyang. At that time, he had sown this seed. Now it had borne fruit.
The amount of wealth Guo Zhengyang had embezzled from the Xuantian Dao Sect was just one-tenth of his total wealth. The remaining ninety percent was what Guo Zhengyang had spent three hundre
d years making. The return on the Xuan Master’s investment was huge.
The Xuan Master had subtly hinted that the yuan spirit stones would all go to Long Chen, while the rest of the resources would be sent up to the Xuantian Dao Sect. Because it was Long Chen who personally took them, the Dao Sect wouldn’t be affected by much karma. After all, they didn’t directly give it to Long Chen. The Xuan Master’s intention had been very clear. He had basically been telling Long Chen to be ‘greedy’ and just not report the yuan spirit stones.
The yuan spirit stones took up almost half the total wealth Guo Zhengyang had had. Over ninety percent of these precious yuan spirit stones were the result of his relationship with the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect.
The more Long Chen thought about it, the more he felt that the Xuan Master’s plot had gone on absolutely beautifully. To use his enemy’s money to fatten his own pocket, his plot had practically reached a pinnacle.
“What should we do with these people?” Meng Qi looked oddly at the people they had captured.
“Release them. Even though they’re spies with the intent to bring down the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Xuan Master is a grand and magnanimous man. He doesn’t wish to kill people. After all, the Xuantian Dao Sect has such a friendly relationship with the Heaven Suppressing Magic Sect. Let them go so that the entire Central Plains can see what it means to be generous and forgiving,” said Long Chen sanctimoniously.
Guo Zhengyang, Guo Xu, the noble families, and any people holding any post in the city were kicked out.
The ordinary people who were kicked out thanked Long Chen over and over again. They were finally free.
But as for Guo Zhengyang, when he woke up, he let out a hysterical wail and demanded Long Chen return his wealth. Long Chen directly slapped him unconscious and had those people drag him away.
In less than four hours, Xuantian City had changed masters. Now, Long Chen was the new city lord.
“City lord, do you need to be served at night?” teased Tang Wan-er suddenly.
“Don’t mess around. Long Chen, what should we do? Gao Xianyang and the others charged their way into the storehouse and took the only functioning flying boat to go hunting,” said Meng Qi.