Chapter 221 - Bargaining Chip (2)

In the currency of Xu Yuan’s previous life, that would have amounted to roughly 13.5 billion.

For the entire Great Flame Empire’s imperial court, it was only around one-tenth of a year’s military expenditure. But for a single sect, it was enough to tear flesh from bone.

The Grand Elder drew a deep breath. “Young Master... surely you are joking?”

Xu Yuan smiled and placed the crystal he had been holding onto the tea table. “Is this enough?”

The 40,000 Blackscale troops had already entered Myriad.

At that, the Sect Master, who had remained silent ever since Zhou Xiaohe breathed her last, finally spoke. “It is enough. But the Chancellor's Manor cannot bear the consequences.”

Destroying the Myriad Manifestations Sect might be easy. Dealing with the backlash from the sects as a whole would be another matter entirely. They would make certain the Chancellor's Manor bit off far more than it could swallow.

Xu Yuan shook his head. With a heavy thud, he placed another object on the table. “What about this? Add this to the first. Is it enough now?”

The Sect Master and the Grand Elder stared wordlessly at the object Xu Yuan had taken from his Sumeru Ring.

It was a head, a well-preserved head sealed inside a block of ice. With their powerful cultivation, the two old men could clearly sense that the head was still alive, even through the ice.

Xu Yuan poured himself a cup of wine and said with a faint smile, “Our Chancellor's Manor happened to pick this thing up near Sageridge. Might the Sect Master or Grand Elder recognize him?”

Neither of them answered. The one thing they had least wanted to happen had finally unfolded before their eyes.

Xia Wenlin’s warning in the council hall had come true. The man responsible for the formation had been captured alive.

Seeing their silence, Xu Yuan smiled. “If you would like to silence him, you are welcome to try. After all, this junior is only a mere sixth rank Iron Body Realm cultivator.”

Even in the face of such blatant mockery and damning evidence, the Grand Elder’s composure remained flawless. His expression did not change in the slightest. “Young Master, we do not know this man.”

Xu Yuan sighed. “Cao Guxin, the prodigy of the Myriad Manifestations Sect who supposedly died 40 years ago. Who would have thought he had cultivated some death-defying art and clung to life all this time?”

Even with a blade pressed to his throat and the evidence laid bare before him, the Grand Elder’s voice remained calm and unhurried. He even managed to sound faintly surprised. “To think Young Master actually managed to find Cao Guxin. I was once quite close to him and mourned his death for a very long time.”

He had cut ties at the speed of light. In an age without surveillance cameras or audio recordings, witness testimony in a matter involving the survival of an entire sect would ultimately devolve into nothing more than one side’s word against the other.

After all, no one could prove that Cao Guxin had continued working for the Myriad Manifestations Sect over the past several decades.

This evidence was enough to justify a thorough investigation.

It was not enough to justify exterminating the sect.

Xu Yuan sighed again. “If you intend to sever all ties with him like this, then your sect will probably have to purge quite a few members of its upper ranks, won’t it?”

In this world, once someone entered an interrogation chamber, no one cared about human rights. Torture, bewildering formations, and illusion arts would be applied one after another. Almost no one could endure them all.

The Grand Elder remained perfectly composed. “That is an internal matter of our sect. There is no need for you to concern yourself with it.”

Xu Yuan was rendered speechless. He suddenly felt rather grateful that he had agreed to Yuan Hao’s suggestion to attack the town first.

He truly had not expected the sect’s leaders to remain so utterly convinced that he would not dare kill them, even with a blade already resting against their necks.

He drew a deep breath and glanced back at Xu Xinyao behind him. Her gaze was complicated, but she maintained her cool silence.

Slowly exhaling, Xu Yuan picked up the crystalline device from the tea table.

The Sect Master and the Grand Elder watched without speaking.

They seemed certain that he would not dare crush it.

After all, if the Chancellor's Manor truly intended to attack, why bother sending someone to negotiate with them?

And if the Myriad Manifestations Sect were actually destroyed, the Chancellor's Manor would not be the only faction dividing up the corpse.

Once the sect’s mountain headquarters fell, its decentralized power structure would allow the merchant houses, shops, and businesses under its control to swiftly seek new masters.

Simply put, the other powers of Westmarsh Province would descend like vultures and strip the carcass clean.

Unless the Chancellor's Manor swept through the entirety of Westmarsh Province, all it would get was a helping of scraps, along with whatever remained in the sect’s mountain storehouses.

Under the gazes of the two old men, the solid crystal gradually warped beneath Xu Yuan’s tightening fingers.

Then, with a sharp crack, it shattered.

And with it began the second phase of the sect-extermination plan.

ᯓ➤

Atop the town gate, the moment Yuan Hao sensed the distinctive source qi vibration coming from his military Sumeru Ring, his entire body began trembling with excitement.

What did the signal mean? They were to expand from a single point into a full front, advancing from the eastern district to seize the entire town.

And what did seizing the entire town mean? It meant the sect disciples would use the town’s maze of streets and the town-protecting formation to wage a drawn-out battle against them.

In other words, the civilians would become their human shields. His orders were to avoid disturbing the common people wherever possible. But once someone became a human shield, he was free to kill without mercy. What else was he supposed to do? Surely he could not send his own soldiers to their deaths for the sake of morality.

Humming a little tune, Yuan Hao stood atop the gate tower and leisurely pulled a brand-new crystal from his Sumeru Ring.

Without the slightest hesitation, he crushed it. This signal called in the second wave of aerial strikes from the flying demonic beasts.

After all, the town streets did not give military formations enough space to cleave through the enemy properly. And the town-protecting formation could still inflict tremendous damage on an army formation. Unless there was absolutely no alternative, it had to be disabled first.

Once that was done, Yuan Hao began pacing back and forth across the gate tower, his boots striking the stone with mounting impatience.

The remaining 30,000 Blackscale soldiers had not yet entered the town and formed up.

The 10,000 currently inside were nowhere near enough to control the entirety of Myriad He could not rush this.

ᯓ➤

Inside the pavilion atop the black eagle, disbelief appeared in the eyes of both old men.

You named an outrageous price, and we bargained it down. Wasn’t that how this damned game was supposed to work?

Seeing their expressions, Xu Yuan smiled. “Sect Master, Grand Elder, I forgot to mention something. The second and third phases are connected.”

The blade resting against the Myriad Manifestations Sect’s neck began to press downward. Blood slowly seeped from the cut.

Yet the Grand Elder continued to hold firm. “Young Master, you have no evidence.”

Xu Yuan grinned. “Grand Elder, I suggest you deal with the materials used to construct the ghost capturing formation before saying that. And surely you don’t honestly believe your account books are spotless?”

The Grand Elder’s fist tightened slightly. Those two matters were where the knife truly struck home. The accounts were manageable. They had made preparations for those long ago. But the mountains of formation materials could not possibly be disposed of cleanly in such a short time.

After a brief silence, the Grand Elder spoke quickly in a low voice. “90 million is too much.”

Xu Yuan smiled. “That doesn’t matter. The Blackscale Army has already begun moving. And don’t tell me you can’t produce the money. If you lack the silver, use your assets to settle the debt.”

With that, he leisurely handed the Sect Master a densely written inventory. “It will still take some time for the Blackscale Army to enter the town in full. “So, as of now, you have roughly half an hour left to consider.”