Walking through the void, Li Guanqi wore a bitter scowl.
He had never imagined establishing an organization would be so expensive. It had barely gotten off the ground, yet they were already asking him for one million high-grade spirit stones!
That was a whole million!
Yet Ji Yuchuan had informed him that from Guanyun Pavilion's inception to the present, three million high-grade spirit stones had already been sunk into it...
That left Li Guanqi utterly speechless. Ji Yuchuan had also explained, however, that initial startup costs were bound to be high. It would not burn money quite so fiercely later on.
Furthermore, the work of the Lantern Lighters required time to mature and bear fruit. At present, Qianqiusui's commercial profits were far too meager to sustain Guanyun Pavilion's growth. On top of that, the disciples they were grooming were quite young; it would take at least ten or twenty years before initial results could be seen. Until then, these children required a vast amount of resources to support them.
Li Guanqi had no real objections to this, though he did issue an explicit order: Guanyun Pavilion was under no circumstances to accept assassination commissions of any kind!
As for the sale of intelligence, it could be conducted in coordination with Yunding Auction House. Patrons who purchased goods at Yunding Auction House could be gifted Guanyun jade slips depending on their tier. A tier system could even be implemented—the higher one's status at Yunding, the higher their clearance to obtain intelligence from Guanyun Pavilion.
This strategy made Ji Yuchuan's eyes light up, and he promptly agreed. The only catch was that, as he took his leave, he urged Li Guanqi to send over the spirit stones as soon as possible.
"Goddammit... how can it be this expensive?!"
Li Guanqi stroked his chin, muttering under his breath, "Maybe I should borrow some from my father-in-law?"
At this thought, his eyes brightened. Clearing his throat, he produced a jade slip, letting his eyes well with aggrieved tears as he spoke.
"Mother, I'm out of money... I put together a little faction, and it's burning through cash like crazy..."
Feeding the chickens in the rear mountains, Li Guilan wiped away sweat with the back of her hand. Detecting an incoming transmission, she glanced at her hands, which were covered in chicken feed. Without the slightest hesitation, she wiped them on her silk gown. Seeing that it was Li Guanqi's jade slip, her face broke into an immediate, radiant smile.
Hearing Li Guanqi's voice only made her heart ache for him. "All right, all right, don't you worry. Just tell me how much you need, and I'll talk to Old Meng. Your uncle is rolling in dough—burn through as much as you like! The Meng family doesn't have an heir anyway; if he doesn't spend it on you, who's he going to spend it on?"
A torrent of warmth rushed through Li Guanqi's heart like a roaring river. Li Guilan truly treated him wonderfully.
Feeling a bit sheepish, Li Guanqi said, "Well... Mother, it's quite a lot..."
Li Guilan's booming voice could almost be heard outside the mountains. "A lot? How much could it be?"
"O-One million high-grade spirit stones."
"How much? One million? Are you looking down on your Uncle Meng?! What's the big deal? I thought you were asking for thirty or fifty million... You just wait."
Lowering the jade slip, Li Guilan let the corners of her mouth curl up slightly. The crinkles around her eyes deepened, her eyes narrowing into slits from grinning.
"Heh, that brat called me Mother! Asking me for help means he doesn't treat himself like an outsider. That's wonderful."
"Old Meng! Old Meng, give me some spirit stones to spend!"
From the jade pendant came Meng Jiangchu's aggrieved voice. "What do you mean, give you?! I heard everything from the front hall! That brat asks for money and you just hand it over?"
With hands on her hips, Li Guilan pointed toward the distant mountain and shouted, "Are you giving it or not? If you don't, you can roll your ass over to the front hall and sleep there tonight! Whining like a girl over a measly million or so—hasn't your furnace been fired up already? Can't you just go strike the hammer a couple of times and make it back? Guanqi went through all the trouble of putting together a little faction, and you won't even support him?"
Back in his study, Meng Jiangchu, who had been leisurely savoring his tea, suddenly found the liquid in his mouth tasting intensely bitter.
Staring at the half-bag of spiritual tea on the table, he muttered, "This little bit of tea... one million spirit stones?! What a goddamn rip-off! That little bastard really knows how to scheme!"
Having put away the jade slip, Li Guanqi was in high spirits, humming a tune as he flew toward the Great Xia Sword Sect.
If all else had failed, he had actually contemplated kidnapping Pengluo and dragging it to Guanyun Pavilion. It wouldn't have to do anything every day except let them snap pieces off it just for fun...
Deep in a mountain range of the Luoxia Domain, Pengluo suddenly shivered. A chill shot straight from the soles of its feet to the crown of its head!
The green leaves atop its scalp stood straight on end.
"Who, who, who is it?! What's going on?! Who's trying to harm me?!"
Looking panicked, Pengluo darted its beady eyes all around. Suddenly, a somewhat tender voice rang by its ear.
"Daddy?"
"Uh... my son?"
"Daddy!!"
"My son!!"
Inside the Deliberation Hall of the Great Xia Sword Sect, everyone sat on either side with solemn expressions.
At the head of the hall, the frost at Lu Kangnian's temples had thickened, and the wrinkles on his face had multiplied. Exhaustion hung heavily in his eyes.
Below, Li Nanting tossed down a bloodstained stone tablet, his tone chilled. "Tuwozi Village was slaughtered last night. The sect lost two patrolling disciples."
Qin Xian sighed and said in a heavy voice, "Is this already the eighth village?"
Lu Kangnian snapped his eyes open, declaring coldly, "Step up the patrol efforts. The masters of the seven peaks are to remain on standby at all times! Furthermore... any disciple participating in patrols may draw triple their usual allotment of pills from Pill Peak. Have the sect's craftsmen forge short-range teleportation dharma artifacts! Seven Peak Masters, be ready to move at a moment's notice!"
The more Lu Kangnian spoke, the more agitated he grew, his expression contorting with cold fury. "These damnable evil cultivators, slaughtering mortals at will—they deserve death!"
*Buzz!*
A white-robed figure materialized slowly in the center of the sect hall. Li Guanqi bowed with a grave expression. "Greetings, Sect Master."
Lu Kangnian's eyes lit up, the gloom on his face dissipating slightly as a rare smile surfaced. "You brat, you finally decided to come back!"
Li Guanqi said, "There is no need to expend effort forging teleportation arrays. Rather than doing that, it would be better to craft warning dharma artifacts."
As his words fell, Li Guanqi raised a hand. Wind and clouds surged between heaven and earth. Amid sharp crackling, terrifying purplish-black lightning continuously coalesced in the sky above Tianjian Peak.
In an instant, the boundless lightning converged into a terrifying spiritual sword spanning a hundred zhang!
Yet upon closer inspection, one would find that this condensed lightning sword was composed of tens of thousands of intensely horrifying sword qi!
The spiritual sword hung suspended high above the mountain peak, radiating an immense, boundless pressure of the sword dao!
Every disciple across the Great Xia Sword Sect stopped what they were doing in unison and snapped their heads up.
Excitement immediately filled their eyes. That lightning sword... Li Guanqi had returned!
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly. "With this sword, should any Abyss Demons appear within a hundred li, it will slay them on its own!"
Lu Kangnian's eyes flashed, and he called out "Good!" three times in succession.
Then, in a deep voice, Lu Kangnian commanded, "Notify the sect disciples to evacuate the residents of all towns and villages within three hundred li! Any further... and our sect will be powerless to protect them!"
The expressions of everyone present shifted slightly, for those words undeniably meant the Great Xia Sword Sect was abandoning the mortals outside that perimeter.
Yet everyone understood that this was an unavoidable conclusion.
They had already done everything in their power.
Chapter 727