A Rogue in Charge

The Su family residence. One drop of yuanqi liquid, four drops of Ironwing Bird blood essence, ten merit points, thirty thousand in cash, the Kaiyuan Art, the Thunder Yuan Saber, the Blood-Condensing Saber, the Yi God Art Qianjun Chapter, a Qianjun cultivation technique bone fragment, a complete cultivation technique bone book, plus a standard-issue mid-Yellow-grade saber... This was the sum of Su Yu's entire fortune. Everything lay laid out across the table. Su Yu stared at it in deep thought. Ever since returning from the Wind Arrest Hall, he had been brooding like this. He was reflecting on whether he had been too calculating. He had previously thought of himself as willing to spend, having almost emptied his family savings over the past several days. He had also felt that Kaiyuan Eighth Layer was enough. For a student who had not even graduated from intermediate academy, was that level of strength still insufficient? Because of that, he had barely touched his merit points—he still had ten to this day—and he wouldn't have used the yuanqi liquid either if not for those two critical moments. Yet today, Su Yu was reconsidering. Money, if never spent and kept hoarded away, was being saved for when? Wait until he grew strong before trading for what he needed? If he couldn't bear to spend it now, how was he supposed to grow strong quickly? "Money needs to be converted into real combat strength as fast as possible!" "Seven more merit points will be credited soon. My willpower has been stuck around nineteen percent, reading that bone fragment is still a bit blurry, and I've barely been opening the album in my head..." In the past, Su Yu had activated the album very sparingly—once every five or six days on average, sometimes only once every ten-odd days. He had considered it far too extravagant! Activating it once a day was equivalent to at least thirty thousand cash or one merit point, which had felt a bit beyond what he could bear. "Without yuanqi, how do I cultivate? Without yuanqi, how do I practice saber techniques, unlock apertures, or grow strong quickly...?" "Seventeen merit points. If I were in the Wanshi Realm, killing two early-stage Wanshi cultists would cover it—or even killing just one. But in the Kaiyuan Realm, I'd have to kill more than a dozen Qianjun opponents, risking my neck every single time!" At this moment, Su Yu seemed to understand everything, yet also nothing at all. At the very least, he knew one thing: resources had to be converted into strength immediately! Personal strength was the true foundation. No student in Nanyuan had the ability to compete with him, but what about the Great Xia Prefecture? Setting aside the Great Xia Prefecture, and setting aside his status as a student, what did Kaiyuan Eighth Layer even amount to? What was nineteen percent willpower saturation worth? "Fourteen days remain until the assessment begins. Starting today, I will open the album once every day and absorb yuanqi to cultivate!" Fourteen days meant consuming fourteen merit points. Of course, he already had four drops, so ten merit points would suffice. Whatever was left over could be exchanged and kept on him for contingencies. Otherwise, if he died one day, what good would hoarded merit points be? ... Over the next eleven days, Su Yu never left the house. Even when exchanging for blood essence, he did not go to the academy himself, instead having Chen Hao do it for him, sinking all ten merit points into the exchange. Fourteen drops of blood essence, all from Ironwing Birds. Were it not for his lack of funds, Su Yu would have loved to buy several drops of yuanqi liquid to aid his cultivation, keeping himself constantly steeped in an abundance of yuanqi. He genuinely contemplated selling the house—selling it for a million to buy ten drops of yuanqi liquid for cultivation. Unfortunately, reality did not permit it, and he had to abandon the notion. Having a place to lay his head was fine too; at least he wouldn't end up homeless. ... While Su Yu was wholly absorbed in his cultivation, turbulent winds and clouds gathered over the Great Xia Prefecture. The Longwu Guards had withdrawn. They suffered nearly a thousand casualties, yet returned laden with mountains of resources and heavenly treasures, their wagons full. However, the Longwu Guards felt no joy over their immense harvest. Great Xia Prefecture. The Prefectural Residence. Just past the front gate of the estate lay a massive plaza. At this moment, a tall, burly man standing nearly one meter nine tall stood in the middle of the plaza's white jade walkway. Clad in black armor without a weapon at his waist, his face was dark with fury. The man glared straight at the residence not far away—the center of power in the Great Xia Prefecture. "This subordinate requests an audience with Marquis Xia!" The man's voice boomed like thunder! All around, several estate guards kept their mouths shut, pretending not to see anything. Each hung his head, as if no one was speaking beside them. "Marquis, the Longwu Guards have returned from expedition! This subordinate has come specifically to return the command!" A moment later, an elderly man glided over, looking at the tall man and saying softly, "General, the Marquis said you must be exhausted from the campaign and should return early to rest." "Rest?" The tall man sneered coldly. "The Marquis refuses to see me?" "The Marquis has already gone to rest." "He's resting in broad daylight?" The tall man barked, "Is the Great Xia Prefecture devoid of affairs? Does the Acting Prefect have no administrative matters to handle?" "General..." the elderly man said softly. "The Marquis's refusal to see you is precisely to avoid conflict. Since the military order has already been issued, there is no need for you to harbor resentment..." "Nonsense!" The tall man roared in fury, "Harbor resentment? Nearly a thousand Longwu Guards were sacrificed at the frontline! Can a mere 'the military order has already been issued' make this general let it go?" The elderly man pondered for a moment before speaking after a long pause: "General, the Marquis knows this military order was inappropriate... In truth, the Marquis was also duped! During the grand ceremony back then, Wan Tiansheng egged the Marquis on. You must know of the matter as well. The Marquis was unaware of the frontline conditions, so how could he know the underlying situation..." "Wan Tiansheng is smooth-tongued, so the Marquis took him at his word, which led to that withdrawal order." The elderly man sighed. "Wan Tiansheng governs the Great Xia Civilization Academy, and more than half of the Civilization Masters in the army graduated from there. With the Prefect in secluded cultivation, Wan Tiansheng holds enormous authority, and the Civilization Masters are under his sway. If we didn't withdraw, and those Civilization Masters pulled out, were the Longwu Guards truly going to fight the Tianyi God Race to the bitter end?" "Wan Tiansheng!" The tall man uttered the name coldly, his tone chillingly sharp. "His reach is far too long! Daring to meddle in the military—is he not afraid of having his paws broken?" "Had the Prefect not gone into secluded cultivation, he naturally wouldn't have dared." The elderly man sighed. "With the Prefect in seclusion and the Quest Realm backing him, why would he fear the Marquis, let alone you, General?" The tall man fell silent. "That is why the Marquis deeply regrets it as well, yet having already been duped, he is powerless..." The elderly man sighed. "As matters stand, the Marquis can only remain silent. Should he openly tear off all pretenses with Wan Tiansheng?" Saying that, the elderly man added, "General, the army relies heavily on Civilization Masters, and as for Wan Tiansheng... we have no way to rein him in either." "Ridiculous!" "The Great Xia Prefecture is still the Great Xia Prefecture!" The tall man spoke the exact same words Xia Bing had once said. "This is the Great Xia Prefecture, not the Quest Realm!" After a brief pause, the man asked coldly, "Before the Commander entered seclusion, did he ever agree to this matter?" "Well... no. The Prefect went into seclusion before the ceremony." The tall man stared at the elderly man, speaking only after a long silence: "Old Hu, the Prefect of Great Xia oversees the military, while you manage civil affairs. Did Wan Tiansheng's reckless behavior truly happen without tacit approval from you and the Prefect?" The elderly man smiled. "How could that be!" "Must you hide things even from me?" The man grew displeased. He was no ordinary person, but the deputy commander of the Longwu Guards, a Shanhai Realm powerhouse. When Xia Longwu was at the prefecture, the Longwu Guards' external campaigns were almost entirely under his command. "Truly, there was none." The elderly man said seriously, "Wan Tiansheng simply took advantage of the Prefect's seclusion to seize power for himself!" "Then mobilize and purge him!" "Watch your words, General! The Civilization Academy is Great Xia's Civilization Academy, and Wan Tiansheng... is also the leader of Great Xia's Civilization Masters assigned by the Quest Realm. You must not speak recklessly!" "The Quest Realm..." The man muttered, then snorted coldly. "The Quest Realm has kept its doors closed for years. Wan Tiansheng is interfering in Great Xia's military and government—does the Quest Realm even know?" "As long as the Quest Realm doesn't speak out, he remains the leader of the Civilization Masters in Great Xia. We have no way to change that." The elderly man shook his head, then continued, "The Marquis could only place restrictions on him, so he slashed the Civilization Academy's funding by thirty percent. That was already doing everything within his power." "Slashing the Civilization Academy's funding... absurd!" The tall man rebuked him instead, complaining, "Civilization Masters are Civilization Masters, and Wan Tiansheng is Wan Tiansheng! If funding is cut, fewer Civilization Masters will be produced. If the Civilization Masters who reach the All-Heavens Battlefield are weak, how will they fight the enemy?" He might hold grievances against Wan Tiansheng, but he did not wish to see the Civilization Academy dragged down, as that would reduce the number of Civilization Masters and affect the war at the frontline. "Wan Tiansheng will find a way. He promised that the number of graduating Civilization Masters—including those enlisting in the army—will not decrease each year. If there aren't enough, he will dispatch experts from the academy's Heart Cultivation Pavilion to make up the difference!" The Heart Cultivation Pavilion was synonymous with the top tier of strength in the Great Xia Civilization Academy. Most of the Civilization Academy's elders recuperated and cultivated there, with no shortage of Lingyun and Shanhai Realm powerhouses. It represented Great Xia's highest tier of combat power, on par with the Linghai Tower of the War Academy. Since Wan Tiansheng had gone so far as to make such a pledge, the tall man had nothing left to say. After a moment, the man said coldly, "I will let it pass this time, but if there is a next... a general in the field is not bound by orders from home!" "Act as you see fit, General!" The elderly man did not try to dissuade him either. Watching the man depart, he turned and walked back to the grand hall in the rear. Inside the hall, a chubby man was currently eating. Without looking up, he asked, "Gone?" "Gone." "Did he go looking for Wan Tiansheng?" "Unknown." The chubby old man finally looked up at that moment, grinning cheerfully. "It'll be fun if they start fighting." "Marquis, why didn't you explain things to General Zhao?" The elderly man asked, and the chubby old man chuckled. "To enjoy the show!" "..." The elderly man frowned slightly and soon said, "Marquis, this isn't appropriate. It will only cause trouble." "I'm not afraid of trouble." The chubby old man let out a burp, completely devoid of decorum, and said lazily, "Doesn't Wan Tiansheng think he's so impressive? Let Old Zhao turn up the heat on him! Besides, Wan Tiansheng's reach really is too long—he dares meddle in everything! Let Old Zhao knock him down a peg..." "Of course, Old Zhao definitely won't beat him—you don't even need to look to know that. But giving that fellow a bit more trouble is a good thing." "However..." The elderly man wanted to speak further, but the chubby old man burped again and yawned. "I'm taking an afternoon nap. If Wan Tiansheng can't even handle a tiny problem like this, what talk is there of reform?" "Reforming the Great Xia Prefecture... easy to say!" The chubby old man curled his lip in utter disdain. "If it were really that simple, would we have waited until now? Great Xia's tradition for so many years has been that whatever can be taken on the battlefield is never pursued through a second method!" "It is a bit foolish. In fact, I think Little Xia is something of an idiot too, rather low in IQ. But his fists are huge!" The chubby old man remarked with feeling, "His fists are huge, and getting hit by him hurts—the exact spitting image of his grandfather! The old man was the same way: not enough brains, all turned into muscle. What bloody good does reasoning do!" The chubby old man wagged his head. The elderly man's expression shifted slightly, but he did not pick up the thread. The only person who dared call the King of Great Xia by such terms was this unfilial son of his; no one else would dare speak so carelessly. "So if Wan Tiansheng can't even change them, how can he change the Great Xia Prefecture... The Great Xia Prefecture isn't just these few people. Its hundreds of millions of residents have all been led astray by these bastards. Whenever trouble arises, it's slash, slash, slash, fight, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill..." The chubby old man scoffed, "I know they have all muscle and no brains, but what can I do? I can only watch. If I object, I get beaten. When I was young, I took plenty of beatings—what else could I do? That unfilial nephew Xia Longwu even dares strike his own uncle. What can I do about him?" "If Wan Tiansheng wants reform, let him figure it out himself. Old Zhao is brainless too, nothing but muscle. I can't be bothered to reason with him. Let Wan Tiansheng resolve his own headache!" With that, the chubby old man stood up, swaying as he walked. "Also, starting today, issue a military order: whenever Great Xia goes on campaign, military expenditures will be split seventy-thirty. Great Xia covers seventy percent, and they cover thirty percent themselves, offset by spoils of war. Private sales of spoils are strictly forbidden! The Xia Trading Company will handle unified procurement at discounted rates." "Marquis!" The elderly man said softly, "That is too fast and ill-advised. It will cause the Prefectural Army and the Longwu Guards to lose their purity. I fear they might take advantage of it to peddle military supplies on the battlefield. This matter requires careful consideration!" "That makes sense... So I've thought it through: establish a small division—a commerce department—within the Longwu Guards, the Prefectural Army, and the Demon Suppression Army. Have people from the Xia Trading Company take over. The soldiers will only be responsible for fighting, while everything else is handed to the Xia Trading Company's personnel." "Marquis!" The elderly man frowned. "If one must truly be established, it should be staffed under the name of the Great Xia Prefecture..." "Aren't people from the Great Xia Prefecture just people from the Xia Trading Company?" The chubby old man looked surprised. "Are they not? You want to draw a line between them with me?" "No, Marquis, what I mean is that we cannot use the name of the trading company, or the military forces will deteriorate..." "That's simple. The Xia Trading Company personnel sent over will no longer belong to the Xia Trading Company. From today on, they are Great Xia Prefecture personnel. Give them whatever title you like. Oh, right, their salaries will come from your pockets in the future—no, from the Great Xia Prefecture..." The chubby old man showed no hesitation whatsoever, making the decision on the spot. The elderly man didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but after thinking it over, he nodded. "Very well, let it be so. That is still better than using the Xia Trading Company's name." With that settled, the elderly man added, "Marquis, an order arrived from the War God Temple earlier. They wish for one of the corpses of the Tianyi God Race experts slain by Great Xia to be delivered to them..." Before he could finish, the chubby old man suddenly hopped up in fury and cursed, "Are they eating farts! Little Xia killed those himself, and they were gods who infiltrated our borders. What bloody business is it of theirs? Not giving it!" "However..." "No howevers!" The chubby old man fumed, "Tell my old man to come ask for it himself! Damn it, those old codgers aren't incapable of killing gods themselves, yet they want to scrape food from our bowls! What are they thinking!" "So what if it's the War God Temple? What's so grand about it! Isn't it just a temple of brutes made up of old geezers who refuse to die? Researching my ass, a waste of money! Even the Quest Realm knows to go out and kill things themselves if they want to study them. These brutes have simply invented a new excuse to extort our resources—they can go to hell!" "..." The elderly man felt utterly exhausted. Was it really fine to curse like that? Your own father is among them! The War God Temple and the Quest Realm were the two great sacred grounds of the Human Realm. Civilization Masters entered the Quest Realm, while warriors entered the War God Temple. Of course, not just anyone could join. The King of Great Xia certainly qualified; moreover, the War God Temple had been founded by Invincible powerhouses of his generation. Now, asking his son and grandson for a bit of support—wasn't this son being far too cold-blooded! After cursing up a storm, the chubby old man quickly calmed down. Pondering for a moment, he said, "Send it over, but... tell them to exchange several thousand god and demon corpses for it. They slaughter them in swathes anyway, so it's not like corpses are precious to them. This is the body of a top-tier powerhouse, so tell them to send over three to five thousand Shanhai Realm god and demon corpses..." "Cough, cough!" The elderly man wanted to speak, but held back for a long time. The chubby old man continued, "I know they don't have that many—it's an exorbitant demand. If they can't give that, it's fine too. How about this... let them trade a few pocket realms for it! I heard that a few years ago, the old man cleaved off a chunk of space from who-knows-where and brought it back, and King Dazhou cleaved one off a few years ago as well. Deliver them all over." "Marquis... that won't work, will it? Can they possibly agree to that?" The chubby old man hopped up and snapped, "Go negotiate! Damn it, if they refuse, go cry! Arrange for several thousand people to wait outside the War God Temple, and if they don't hand it over, wail until they go deaf! They want something for themselves, yet don't want to pay—what are they dreaming of! Take it or leave it!" "A bunch of old bastards: once their own bellies are full, they couldn't care less about their descendants! We're still starving down here!" "If my old man refuses, tell him I'll turn around and adopt King Daming as my grandfather, just to infuriate that old fossil to death!" "..." The elderly man could barely hold on. He feared he might be silenced by the King of Great Xia. Are you even human? If you call King Daming grandfather, what is the King of Great Xia supposed to call him? Act like a decent person! The elderly man dared not say more and quickly said, "Understood, Marquis. I will arrange for people to handle it. By the way, how should the other corpses be allocated? The Civilization Academy requested that all of them be sent over for research..." "Tell Wan Tiansheng to get lost!" The chubby old man bared his teeth fiercely, putting on a menacing look. Yet the elderly man felt an urge to grind his teeth—stop acting fierce, you look just like a fat cat guarding its food. "Send one over!" The chubby old man didn't care what he was thinking and quickly continued, "Sending one is fine, but tell Wan Tiansheng that eighty Civilization Masters must graduate for me this year! If he's short by even one, I'll settle scores with him. If there aren't enough, he can dispatch them from the Heart Cultivation Pavilion. If he dares swallow my god corpse, he won't see a single copper of funding in the second half of the year—he can figure it out himself!" "Understood." The elderly man quickly agreed, then continued, "As for the War Academy..." "None for them! Give them a few drops of blood essence and be done with it! A bunch of brainless fools—what do they need corpses for? Can they eat them?" The chubby old man had a vicious tongue and cursed endlessly. Only after finishing his tirade did he return to the point: "As for the War Academy, if they send any more green Qianjun fledglings who haven't tasted blood into the army, I'll slash their funding by fifty percent in the second half of the year!" "And over at the Internal Affairs Academy, speed up their training of personnel! The grassroots are missing huge numbers of professionals. Oh, right, has that undercover class they set up yielded any results? Exactly how many people have they infiltrated into the All-Races Sect, and has anyone found their treasuries? If they can't find anything soon, disband it! It costs quite a pretty penny!" "And the Scientific Research Academy! Fifty years ago, I told them to build war airships! Things that can fly, carry people, and suddenly transport tens of thousands of soldiers to the All-Heavens Battlefield! What the devil are they doing? Still haven't built one! Are they just freeloaders? If it still doesn't work, cut their funding!" As the elderly man listened, the phrase he heard most was "cut funding." He calculated briefly, unable to resist saying after a pause, "Marquis, doing it this way could save roughly three hundred billion this year!" "That much?" The chubby old man paused, then his eyes lit up. "Good, issue the orders! Better if they fail their tasks so we can cut it immediately! Eighty percent goes to the prefectural treasury, and the remaining twenty percent goes to me as a service fee!" "Marquis, that will cause trouble." "What does it matter!" the chubby old man dismissed casually. "People need to be pushed, or do you think they'd ever take things seriously? Every one of them is cunning! Take the Civilization Academy, for instance: Wan Tiansheng hoards a batch of elite students and refuses to release them, keeping them cooped up in the academy—isn't that a waste? Producing thirty more Civilization Masters a year is something he can easily pull off!" "If we do this, the academy will be hollowed out within a few years. What about talent development then?" The elderly man somewhat disagreed. Everyone knew about Wan Tiansheng holding back elites. Yet those elite students had other uses. Nurturing talent in the rear, competing for certain pocket realms, and conducting secret research all depended on those people. "Then let him figure it out himself. What does it have to do with me?" The chubby old man didn't care much, saying nonchalantly, "I'm not the real Prefect anyway—I'm an acting one. Do you understand what 'acting' means! If things descend into chaos, I'll run to the War God Temple for sanctuary and let Xia Longwu deal with it himself." "..." What utterly irresponsible words! The elderly man was speechless. With a grimace, he felt that dealing with Marquis Xia was vastly more exhausting than dealing with Xia Longwu. By this point, the elderly man had walked with him to the rear courtyard. Seeing that the elderly man was still trailing behind, the chubby old man asked in surprise, "Why are you still following me? Old Hu, do you have nothing to do? Do you want to take an afternoon nap with me? You old rogue, get lost already!" "..." The elderly man resolved that unless something happened, he would never come here again! As long as Xia Longwu remained in seclusion, he would interact with this person as little as possible. Xia Longwu had always treated him with great respect. He oversaw the civil administration of the Great Xia Prefecture, which carried considerable authority, and given his advanced age, Xia Longwu relied heavily upon him and held him in high esteem. Yet here with Marquis Xia, he was treated worse than a grandson. Just as he turned to leave, taking a few steps, the elderly man suddenly looked back and asked, "What about Wan Tiansheng's All-Races Training Academy?" "Let him open it!" As the chubby old man walked inside, he said, "Special cases require special measures. For those students from the various races, build them the absolute best housing! If they pay, let them stay; if they don't, throw them into the latrines!" "Serve them the best food—give them god and demon meat every day! If they don't want to eat it, make them spend money on other things. Providing god and demon meat... am I generous enough? The finest treatment the human race can offer—who would dare complain?" "Multiply the merit point cost for redeeming cultivation techniques tenfold, and multiply the merit points for killing members of their own race by ten! Let's see if any of those fellows kill their own kin. Maybe some will even deliver themselves to be killed... Now that would be entertaining!" "Wan Tiansheng's methods are far too gentle. What is there to fear? Since those fellows came, they came with an objective. If they don't achieve it, they won't leave anyway. Are we afraid they'll run away?" The chubby old man had already entered the room. While closing the door, he instructed, "I won't shoulder the blame for cutting academy funding. Spread word that the money was all spent on the All-Races Training Academy—it's all Wan Tiansheng's doing! Let Wan Tiansheng take the blame! Oh, and remember to tell Wan Tiansheng that if he's really short on money, he can borrow from me. Just pay whatever interest he likes—I'm not short on cash!" "..." The elderly man pretended not to hear, leaving swiftly. He feared that if he listened any longer, he wouldn't be able to take it.