Chapter 254 - 151: The Mortal Realm’s Grand Plan Has Taken Shape

Chapter 254: Chapter 151: The Mortal Realm’s Grand Plan Has Taken Shape

’I... I’m out of a job...?’

The guard from the Jiangbei Shui Family stood by the bridge, frozen. His face was a mask of bewilderment and terror, and his legs trembled slightly. Just moments ago, Chen Fan had approached him with a friendly smile, asking him to inform the Patriarch.

Though he had been terrified to speak with such an important figure, he couldn’t help but scoff internally at the same time. ’Rumors really are poisonous,’ he’d thought.

Everyone said that Chen Fan had been slighted by the Pill Sect one day.

And had annihilated them the very next.

It made Chen Fan sound incredibly bloodthirsty.

’But he seems perfectly nice, doesn’t he?’

But not long after the Patriarch hurried over with a group of core members, they were all dead. The Jiangnan Shui Family was wiped from existence, and the bridges they had built would soon collapse.

There would be no more bridges between Jiangnan and Jiangbei.

"Hurry up and go, Brother Qianming!"

The other Jiangnan Shui Family guards beside him urged him on, their faces etched with anxiety. "Hurry back to Jiangnan before the bridge collapses! Once it’s gone, you’ll never be able to return. You want to be stuck in Jiangbei forever?"

"What kind of godforsaken place is Jiangbei anyway."

"I..."

The guard instinctively ran a few steps before suddenly stopping. He hesitated and said, "If I go back, I won’t be able to find work anytime soon. Didn’t Domain Lord Chen just say he can build new bridges? He’ll definitely need people to guard them, right? Maybe I can find a job in the Mortal Realm."

"Why don’t you all stay too?"

"Let’s all stay behind together."

"Build, my ass!"

The anxious guard was fuming. "For so many years, only a handful of factions have known how to build these bridges. Do you think it’s some simple task? If anyone could do it, the Jiangnan Shui Family wouldn’t be the only one collecting crossing fees. Everyone would be!"

"You’re really not going?"

"If you don’t go now, it’ll be too late. Domain Lord Chen was obviously just speaking out of anger. You don’t actually expect him to build a bridge, do you?"

"Forget it!"

"I’m leaving, Brother Qianming. We’ll help look after your family. But I don’t have many Ghost Stones to spare. At most, I can make sure they don’t starve and bring them along when we flee. That’s the best I can do."

With that,

the remaining Jiangnan Shui Family guards didn’t linger, quickly crossing the bridge toward Jiangnan.

Only the guard who had first spoken with Chen Fan remained.

The surrounding merchant caravans exchanged glances.

Then they too retreated toward Jiangnan.

They used Sound Transmission Talismans to contact their own factions and await instructions.

The point of being a merchant was to earn Ghost Stones.

But if they waited for the bridge to collapse and got stuck in Jiangbei, the loss would far outweigh any gain.

It wasn’t worth risking their lives just to earn a few Ghost Stones.

...

The Jiangnan Shui Family estate was easy to find.

The Nine-Five Dragon Carriage had already landed within its walls. With the core members all dead at the bridgehead, only servants remained. Upon seeing the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage descend, they scattered in panic.

Shao Qiu and Lame Monkey descended from the Nine-Five Dragon Carriage and began to search the premises for loot.

As long as he found the Building Blueprint for the "Bridge," he could build one for the Mortal Realm.

...

Chen Fan sat in a chair, flipping through a ledger in his hands. It was the Jiangnan Shui Family’s account book. After skimming a few pages, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

Since the end of Jiangnan’s rainy season,

the Jiangnan Shui Family’s revenue had skyrocketed.

On one hand, it was because they now had a monopoly; the other two factions in the bridge business had been wiped out during the rains.

On the other hand, it was due to the rise of Jiangbei.

A vast number of merchant guilds were using the bridge to travel to Jiangbei.

In a way,

a huge part of the Jiangnan Shui Family’s recent surge in revenue was thanks to his Mortal Realm. He didn’t mind others benefiting from the Mortal Realm’s success, but a faction like the Jiangnan Shui Family—one that profited off his domain yet remained insatiably greedy...

...had no reason to exist any longer.

"Found them."

Soon, Lame Monkey strode over. "There are several Building Blueprints here, but I don’t know if any are for a Bridge. I can’t really tell. There are also a lot of Ghost Stones. I did a quick sweep—there should be over two hundred thousand of them."

"Mm."

Chen Fan took the Blueprints and glanced over them. One was indeed the Building Blueprint for the "Bridge." The rest were for various basic structures.

"Lame Monkey, you’re with me. We’re going to build a bridge."

"Shao Qiu, you and Hey Hey stay here. Clean the place out."

"Understood."

He had brought Shao Qiu on this trip, in addition to Lame Monkey and Hey Hey, precisely for this kind of unexpected situation. With Shao Qiu’s skills, killing these people who weren’t hiding behind buildings was as easy as slaughtering chickens.

-

[Exotic Treasure Name]: Bridge.

[Exotic Treasure Level]: Green.

[Exotic Treasure Effect]: Can be used to build a bridge across a river. Maximum length: 300 meters. The longer the bridge, the more Ghost Stones required for construction.

-

...

「At the bridgehead, amidst the pools of blood.」

The Nine-Five Dragon Carriage descended.

Chen Fan stepped out of the Dragon Carriage and looked at the old bridge, which was now covered in cracks. He walked to the side and crushed the "Bridge" Building Blueprint in his hand.

Soon—

A spectral image of a bridge, composed of white lines, slowly extended across the water’s surface.

As liquefied Ghost Stones flowed into the spectral image,

it rapidly solidified.

A brand-new bridge materialized over the water, spanning forty meters. Construction cost... "400 Ghost Stones."

"What a lucrative business."

Chen Fan murmured as he gazed at the brand-new bridge that now belonged to the Mortal Realm. This bridge had cost a mere 400 Ghost Stones to build, yet the Jiangnan Shui Family had been collecting far more than that in crossing fees every single day.

To build such a bridge, besides the 400 Ghost Stones, one also needed an Exotic Treasure of any level.