"Patriarch has been shutting himself in the dark more often recently, I hope his mental health is ok." The servant gave one last glance to Liu Hao before leaving the hall.
Many servants like him were worried in the Liu clan these days. Multiple shocking events struck the patriarch one after the other recently. First the poison, then the disappearance of Liu Hualing followed by the loss of his heir... Many feared he would lose his mind.
Now he often went into solitary retreat, dismissing everyone in the room to stand by himself in the dark, brooding endlessly or thinking about things no one knew but him.
If they couldn't count on him, who would protect their clan?
Fortunately, Liu Hao could still count on his father and brother to assist him in various matters and slightly alleviate his burden. They were the only ones who could easily approach him and pull him away from his thoughts of vengeance to carry out his duties as the clan's leader.
Now, only his desire for revenge and executing Ye Mo with his own two hands fueled his heart.
"Fang Jishen what have you come here for at this hour?" Liu Hao's voice resonated in the hall as he asked, doubtful. The Liu clan didn't have any relations with the Fang family.
Fang Jishen suddenly coming here in the middle of the night wasn't any less than strange.
"This is for you." Fang Jishen approached and handed a letter wrapped by a red ribbon to Liu Hao, then moved back.
"What's the meaning of this?" Liu Hao asked, his gaze shifting from the letter to Fang Jishen.
"Don't misunderstand sir, I'm just a messenger. "I won't bother you any longer now that I've completed my task." Fang Jishen explained politely. His speech was clear and his manners impeccable.
In front of the Liu clan patriarch, a powerful Foundation Establishment cultivator, Fang Jishen didn't dare outstep his boundaries.
His Fang family was just a small family of cultivators, even against a weakened Liu clan they would barely be able to contend.
Fang Jishen was aware of his own strength, although he would take pleasure in bullying the weak, in front of the strong he would be as meek as a kitten.
He hurriedly left the hall, leaving Liu Hao in a state of incomprehension. After an instant, the patriarch removed the ribbon and swiftly unwrapped the paper.
As he read the letter, his face slowly took on a mad rictus.
"HeheHaHaaAAAH!" Liu Hao broke into uncontrollable laughter, which quickly turned into a shrill scream resonating in the surroundings.
"I must calm down before the poison goes out of control again." Liu Hao's eyes were bloodshot, and his hands holding the letter trembled continuously. Soon, he heard footsteps quickly approaching from outside.
Liu Han abruptly barged into the hall, the servant from before on his toes, as he questioned Liu Hao. "Brother, what's going on? Did the poison emerge again?"
"Take a look yourself." Liu Hao tossed the letter towards his brother.
The paper slowly drifted in the air until it was caught by Liu Han, who read it.
"This little bastard wants to exchange the Moon Pacifying herb and Soaring Leaf for our legacy battle skill and two thousand gold coins? This kid is out of his mind!" Liu Han flew into a rage.
The letter was burned to cinders in a fit of temper, dancing like petals in the wind and evaporating before it could touch the ground.
Never before has Liu Han been so angered.
The legacy battle skill was a martial art passed down from generation to generation since the founding of the clan by their ancestor. It was usually the best battle skill of a clan and one of the reasons for their strength.
Allowing someone unrelated to the clan to learn it was simply heresy.
As for the gold, two thousand might not cause such an intense reaction to another clan, but it was an astronomical sum for the Liu clan in their current state. They had to sell several businesses in the last months and the one that remained didn't bring them much profit, as they were constantly harassed and targeted by malicious cultivators probably at the behest of other small clans.
They could barely get by maintaining their train of life, and between feeding and allowing everyone to cultivate, beside treating the patriarch's condition, their finances were at an all-time low. They had to give up on high-end furniture they kept in their clan for decades for a few gold coins to stay afloat. Paying this sum would render them bankrupt and they wouldn't be able to qualify as a clan for much longer.
"Not only did he kill little Huan and Hualing, but he also wants to extort us with our own belongings. His guts know no bounds, he can keep dreaming, we will never pay!" Liu Han asserted firmly as he left the hall with big steps, still fuming.
"What's this punk relationship with Fang Jishen that he would go as far as to deliver messages for him? Is he secretly backed up by the Fang family?" Liu Hao, who regained his calm, tried to make sense of the situation. But no matter how long he thought he couldn't understand why the Fang Family would help Ye Mo and he didn't like this.
He's more clever than I thought; he has been hiding his game too well. There are too many things we're unaware of." Liu Hao massaged his forehead as he felt this matter was more complicated than he initially believed.
When he thought about it, he realized that he actually didn't know much about Ye Mo, only small reports given to him about his life in the slums, which were all rather ordinary.
"How did his kid obtain a body refining technique? When did he start cultivating? Why target my Liu clan? Could it be he has been hiding himself among mortals all this time to cultivate in secret? Is he an agent of another force in the city? Does he work for the Fang Family?" In his mind, Ye Mo's figure became shrouded in mystery, and as he tried to pierce through this shroud, only new questions arose which he had no answer for.
In the meantime, Fang Jishen was quickly distancing himself from the Liu Clan.
The few pedestrians still outside at this hour recognized his attire and would quickly make way for him.
"Ye Mo you scum, what am I, your henchman?" Unbeknownst to the Liu Clan, Fang Jishen was furious with Ye Mo as well.
During nightfall Fang Jishen was taking a stroll around his residence when Ye Mo suddenly showed up.
Fang Jishen was so frightened he tried to jump over the fence and escape, but halfway through, his clothes were grabbed by Ye Mo and he was thrown to the floor.
Ye Mo gave him instructions and handed the letter to him. He left only when Fang Jishen agreed to carry out this task, albeit unwillingly.
"Humph, don't underestimate me. I heard you're only a rank 2 talent while I'm rank 3. If I work hard and try my best, you will never catch up to me until I can just crush you with one finger. Just wait till I break through the 7th layer and you're done for." Fang Jishen gritted his teeth.
His last attempt to intimidate Ye Mo ended in a tragic outcome, and he lacked the courage to face him head-on from this moment on. However, he refused to become someone's lackey as well—to a newcomer at that.
In one night, the deep wrath of multiple people flew towards a juvenile sitting on a red mat in his house.
"By now Fang Jishen should have delivered the message, the Liu clan must be pretty mad at me." Ye Mo thought with a vague smile on his face.
He knew they would never agree with such preposterous demands.
However, they couldn't entirely refuse either.
The Liu clan was in dire straits. With their heir dead and the clans vying for their assets, they were at the brink of destruction.
The only thing preventing the Liu clan's destruction right now was Liu Hao. With his 8th layer Foundation Establishment cultivation, he was the strongest expert of the clan and their enemies were afraid of his retaliation if he was pushed at death's door.
Since he was poisoned they could patiently wait for him to die, as it was only a question of time for the poison to take his life, then, with the proper excuse, they would rush at the Liu clan like starving wolves, scavenging everything they could and destroying the rest.
The only way to delay this was the Moon Pacifying Herb, a rare plant that could temporarily neutralize the poison, thus they would definitely compromise.
Ye Mo's shameless demands were just a mean for negociation. By asking for the sky at first, they would feel more inclined to give something precious later.
"For clan members, the prosperity of the clan comes before anything, even if they have to sacrifice their life, they won't be able to reject me. Especially Liu Hao, as the patriarch, leading the clan to its doom under his command would be the greatest sin of all and he would not be able to face his ancestors even in death."
"No matter how much he hates me, even if it is to the point of pulling his hair and clawing his face at my mention, he will still have to concede, if only for the moon-pacifying herb. This is also the weight of the righteous path." Ye Mo smiled.
He knew well how the righteous path operated and the disgusting side of their experts, stomping on mortals like they were a stick on their path, slaughtering with a smile on their face, scheming and framing against each other for the slightest of benefits. Yet, they would still give excuses, justifying how their acts were only justice.
Ye Mo has been a spectacle of all of it, as an orphan living in poverty, cultivators paid no attention to him as long as he was smart enough to keep his distances.
For these people, appearances were the most important. If Ye Mo asked for them to send a hundred of their women and children to die by his hands, the Liu clan would do it without hesitation, even sighing in relief, feeling the price was cheap to heal their patriarch.
He was clear of their circumstances, that's why he knew that as long as the herb was in his hands, as long as there was hope for their clan to rise again, the situation would be under his control.
"The Liu clan has been around for centuries, although they are declining right now they should have many things useful for me. With how desperate they are to retrieve their goods, I will gain much more than if I just sold Liu Huan's sword and the moon-pacifying herb to the institute's medicinal stores or some merchant."
"But this comes later, each year the Tiger Martial Institute would send the disciples who reached the 8th layer of the Qi Gathering Realm before being sixteen to the Raging Saber Sect. The last time was a month ago, just before the institute recruitment, so I have less than eleven months to reach this level and leave this place."
Joining an institute.
Using the resources and facilities at his disposal to cultivate and gain new martial arts until he was strong enough to protect himself.
Then leaving for a sect with the institute delegation.
This was Ye Mo's plan for the near future.
Besides the sky blue one, I have filled all my pouches to the brim with water and food. I also have plenty of low and mid-tier Spirit Qi pills of the Yellow Class from people I killed and the tournament's rewards. I can start my seclusion."
Thanks to his stay at the library, he learned the use of every pill in his possession. They were mostly common pills that any cultivator would come across at least once in their cultivation journey, hence, it wasn't difficult to find information about them.
Ye Mo closed his eyes and activated the Black Vortex as he began cultivating.