"You're not just shortchanging on the management fees, are you?" Lu Yang narrowed his eyes. He recalled that Eldest Senior Sister had required them to pay the management fees and hand over all remaining profits from the barbecue shop.
That left enormous room for maneuvers. For instance, the barbecue shop could partner with other stores, funneling part of their profits into the barbecue shop without Eldest Senior Sister ever knowing.
Or they could use the barbecue shop's profits to purchase assets instead of handing them over to Eldest Senior Sister, and then liquidate those assets whenever they needed spirit stones.
With just a slight spin of his mind, Lu Yang could think of seven or eight ways to circumvent the rule. He refused to believe the Cult Master couldn't come up with them.
A fine bead of cold sweat broke out on the Cult Master's forehead. He hadn't expected a slip of the tongue to expose a flaw in his story.
"You two may have thirty percent of the barbecue shop's profits."
Lu Yang remained unmoved. "Turn it all over to Eldest Senior Sister, not a single penny short. You are already chang ghosts incapable of cultivation—what use do you have for spirit stones?"
He had both Eldest Senior Sister and the Immortal Fairy backing him. Whatever he lacked, Eldest Senior Sister would provide; the Immortal Fairy also had plenty of contribution points on hand, which she would gladly give him if he needed them.
He had no need to profit from the barbecue shop.
Besides, if all the barbecue shop's profits were turned over to Eldest Senior Sister, she didn't know how to keep accounts anyway—wouldn't it all end up in his hands eventually?
Meng Jingzhou went without saying; as the eldest young master of the Meng Family, his only worry had ever been having too much money.
"If you don't agree to these terms, I'll inform Eldest Senior Sister right now about you stashing spirit stones. You can take a guess at how she'll react when she finds out."
Cold sweat poured down the Cult Master's face. As chang ghosts, spirit stones were indeed useless to them; hoarding them was merely a way to give themselves an objective.
However, that Dao Seeking Sect's Eldest Senior Sister wouldn't necessarily accept such an excuse.
Lu Yang said leisurely, "On the other hand, if you agree to these terms and patch up the loopholes, this matter can be dropped. Eldest Senior Sister won't know, and I'll also persuade her to let you open branch shops in the outside world.
"How about it? Why not give it some thought?"
The Cult Master fell silent, contemplating the feasibility of Lu Yang's proposal. Chang ghosts were still ghosts; if a ghost had no goal or spiritual anchor and drifted through existence in a muddle, its consciousness would eventually dissipate and return to heaven and earth.
As high-ranking members of the Immortal Cult, their spiritual anchor was the Immortal Celestial. Since the Immortal Celestial required them to open barbecue branches in the outside world and spread them across the entire Central Continent, they had to carry out the celestial's instructions.
The Cult Master stole a glance at the Immortal Celestial out of the corner of his eye. Seeing the Immortal Celestial give an imperceptible nod, he wrestled with himself for a moment, gritted his teeth, and made up his mind.
"Fine, I accept your terms!"
"Now that's more like it."
"By the way, do you know Qin Haoran, the cult master of the Nine Nether Cult?" Lu Yang remembered that the person in front of him wasn't just a slaughterhouse butcher, but also the cult master of the Immortal Cult.
"Qin Haoran?" The Cult Master blinked in surprise. "The Nine Nether Cult's previous cult master was surnamed Qin. As for his given name, I have no idea."
Meng Jingzhou asked in bewilderment, "As fellow demonic cult masters, how could you not know his name?"
The Cult Master explained helplessly, "Honestly, the relations between our Four Great Demonic Cults are nowhere near as close as you imagine. We usually only meet and converse during joint operations or friendly sparring, and the conflicts in our core doctrines make it very difficult for us to stand on the same front.
"For example, the Nine Nether Cult believes that samsara exists in the world and people go to the Nine Nether after death. But our Immortal Cult worships the Immortal Celestial, believing the Immortal Celestial can return from death to life. There is a vast difference between our doctrines.
"Moreover, let alone belonging to different cults, even members of the same cult don't necessarily know much about each other. Supposing Cult Master Qin had a wife and child, would he tell his subordinates? Of course not."
Lu Yang nodded. That made sense. If the Nine Nether Cult had known of Su Yiren's existence, how could there have been zero movement for over a decade?
Su Yiren's existence would have been a threat to the Nine Nether Cult. She didn't know Qin Haoran's true identity, nor the location of the Nine Nether Cult, but would the Nine Nether Cult believe that?
It must have been Qin Haoran who intentionally hid Su Yiren's existence.
"Still, I do know a bit about Cult Master Qin. Without resorting to immortal treasures, the Nine Nether Cult's overall strength is slightly superior to our Immortal Cult's. In fact, Cult Master Qin once complained to me in private that he was under immense pressure, so I suspect Qin Haoran didn't sit as securely in his position as cult master as I did, and that many subordinates below were vying for power.
"The Nine Nether Cult doesn't worship a celestial, so they probably have no immortal treasures in their possession." The Cult Master sounded quite proud when mentioning this. Among the Four Great Demonic Cults, only they worshipped a celestial and possessed immortal treasures. It was just a pity they couldn't get their hands on the immortal treasures inside the Immortal Ruins; otherwise, the Immortal Cult's strength would rank first among the Four Great Demonic Cults!
"The Nine Nether Cult believes in the existence of the Nine Nether and that they will go there after death, so they fear nothing. They proposed many radical plans, like building a city to serve as the entrance to the Nine Nether, declaring war on the Great Xia Dynasty, and so forth, all of which were suppressed by Cult Master Qin."
Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou sucked in a breath of cold air. To dare propose declaring war on the Great Xia Dynasty—was that not an undercover agent infiltrating the upper echelon of the Nine Nether Cult to wipe them all out in one fell swoop?
Applying it to Lu Yang, it was equivalent to him, the Cult Founder of the Immortal Cult, declaring war on Eldest Senior Sister.
That was practically being possessed by the Immortal Fairy.
The Cult Master shared more intelligence regarding the Nine Nether Cult in bits and pieces, yielding fruitful insights for Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.
Having gathered the intelligence, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou felt there was no further need to linger, so they stood up to take their leave.
"Allow me to see the two of you out." The Cult Master was impeccably courteous as he saw Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou off.
"Lu Yang, I have something to say to the Immortal Celestial. I'll be right back," the Immortal Fairy said.
"Alright."
A figure drifted slowly out from behind Lu Yang—a beautiful woman dressed in a goose-yellow dress. She appeared silently before the Immortal Celestial, who felt immense pressure as if beholding the end of his own path.
The Immortal Dao fruit was a superior existence to a rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit; a rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit had no power to resist at all.
"Fairy." Crossing his hands and raising them above his head, the Immortal Celestial bowed to the Immortal Fairy.
The Immortal Fairy gave a faint hum of acknowledgment. "Since we happen to meet today, I have something to notify you of."
"Please speak, Fairy."
"This Immortal has observed that Lu Yang's character and talent both meet my standards. I have decided that Lu Yang is the Second-in-Command of the Immortal Lineage, and you are the Third-in-Command of the Immortal Lineage. In the future, you must treat Lu Yang with the same respect you show me. Did you hear that clearly?"
The Immortal Celestial was surprised at first. Even if Lu Yang's character and talent were sufficient, his cultivation realm was right there for all to see; how could he be qualified to be the Second-in-Command? But then he seemed to realize something, and respectfully responded, "Yes."
Soon, the Immortal Fairy returned to Lu Yang's spiritual space.
"What did you go do, Fairy?"
"I'm not telling you."
The Immortal Fairy giggled inwardly. *Lu Yang, you don't want to be the Second-in-Command, so I'll just make everyone think you are the Second-in-Command. When the time comes, it won't matter even if you deny it.*
*I really am clever.*
Chapter 292