If you'd like to read up to 20 chapters ahead, you can support me on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Thanarit
Thank you for all your support. it really keeps the story going.
The box sat on Chu Xinghe's desk.
"Hello," Ren said, setting it down. "Returning this."
"Sit down," Chu Xinghe said. "We were just about to talk about something you should probably hear."
The office had three other people in it: Lucy at the side table with her notes, Lu Changcheng on the sofa, and Chu Xinghe behind his desk with his tea. Ren took the chair between Lu Changcheng and the window.
"I'm still mad at you," Ren said to Lu Changcheng.
"Look at you, acting all cute. Do you want me to puke?"
"Chi."
Lu Changcheng smiled.
The meeting moved to the matter at hand, which was the Azareth Empire. The mantra incident in the capital district had sealed the Qintara-Azareth border for the third consecutive week. Forty thousand people in an extended quarantine, six thousand civilians shelter-in-place, the border controls tightening as Victoria and Qintara both declined to send hunter teams into acoustic range without a clearer picture of what they were dealing with.
The guild had received updated intelligence that morning. The spread pattern had been reassessed. Forty-eight simultaneous origin points across eight city blocks, activated within the same two-minute window. Someone had placed this. The military's specialist division had confirmed, finally, that the mechanism was not gate-derived.
"Ritual origin," Lu Changcheng said. "That's the division's conclusion. Which means someone built it from scratch."
"Who has the capability," Chu Xinghe said.
"Nobody on any of our watch lists. Whatever this is, it doesn't match any documented tradition currently active in either country."
Ren kept his face relaxed and his hands still and thought about Monk Eon in a prison cell with a three-meter organic statue and a portable portal, and said nothing.
"Ren," Lu Changcheng said.
"Yes."
"Do you know anything about this."
Ren looked at him with the open expression of a man encountering a question for the first time. "What is that? I never heard of it." He tilted his head slightly. "The mantra incident, you mean? I read the news report. Forty thousand people chanting in the streets, bleeding from the face, smiling. Terrible situation."
Lu Changcheng looked at him.
Chu Xinghe looked at him.
Neither of them believed him. Both of them chose, after a moment, to say nothing further on the subject.
The meeting moved forward.
The more immediate matter was the guild's own expansion. Lu Changcheng was Legendary rank now, which made the Dao Guild the strongest single organization in Qintara by a significant margin, and that margin needed to be converted into something concrete before the political situation around the border settled and other parties recalibrated.
The plan had three parts. First, a renegotiation of guild fees with the imperial court of Qin Huanglong, who currently retained twenty percent of the Dao Guild's gate revenue under a protective umbrella arrangement that had made sense when the guild was smaller and now represented a substantial transfer of resources that could be declined. Second, an accelerated expansion into the commercial districts currently served by the Jade Serpent Guild and the Iron Phoenix, both of which had been operating at reduced capacity since their top-ranked hunters were lost in the Zhenlong Gate incident three months ago. Third, the acquisition of three civilian medical facilities currently operating independently in the western district, which would bring the guild's public infrastructure into a population center it had not previously touched.
Lucy had the file on the Jade Serpent and Iron Phoenix. She set the relevant pages on the table and ran through the numbers without preamble. The Jade Serpent's gate operation revenue was down thirty-one percent. Their remaining S-rank hunters had received informal inquiries from two other guilds in the last month. The Iron Phoenix's public rating had dropped for the second consecutive quarter.
"The timing is good," Lucy said. "If we move in the next three to four weeks, we offer better terms than either of them can refuse. If we wait until their situations stabilize, the leverage is gone."
"Agreed," Chu Xinghe said. "I'll draft the approach."
"The imperial court is the more delicate piece," Lu Changcheng said. "Qin Huanglong does not negotiate unless the alternative is clearly worse for him. We need to frame the renegotiation as a mutual benefit, not a demand."
"We demonstrate the gate revenue we're generating under the new structure," Chu Xinghe said. "Show him what twenty percent of a much larger number looks like against fifteen percent of what we currently produce. He gets more in absolute terms while giving up relative share."
"He'll see through it," Lucy said.
"Of course he will. We need him to see through it and decide to accept it anyway."
From the chair beside Lu Changcheng, a voice that had been present throughout the conversation spoke.
"The court's primary concern will be precedent," Wei Liang said. "If the emperor reduces the guild's contribution rate by any amount, every other major guild in Qintara can point to that reduction as a benchmark for their own renegotiations. The framing needs to account for that. The easiest solution is to present the change as a performance incentive structure rather than a rate reduction. If the guild's gate revenue exceeds a defined threshold, the contribution rate steps down proportionally. Below the threshold, the existing rate applies. He gets to tell his court he added an incentive clause. The rate stays nominally the same."
Lu Changcheng nodded slowly. "That works. It gives him the language."
"It also," Wei Liang added, "creates a useful anchor for future negotiations across the board. Every guild in Qintara will be lobbying for the same structure within a year, and the precedent will be one that the imperial court set rather than one that was imposed on them."
"Who drafted that," Chu Xinghe said. "That's good."
"Fellow Scholar Wei Liang," Chu Xinghe said, looking at him.
Ren's eyes went wide for exactly half a second. Then they returned to normal and he looked at the table and kept his expression neutral.
Wei Liang sat in the chair between Lucy and the bookshelf. His scholar's robe was clean. His manner was open, warm, slightly formal, calibrated for rooms like this one. He had a cup of tea he had apparently poured at some point and had been offering useful observations at reasonable intervals. Nobody in the room was looking at him with any particular suspicion. Lucy had her pen in her hand. Lu Changcheng was considering the performance threshold idea.
Ren looked at his hands.
When did he get in here, he thought. When. How. There was no door opening.
The meeting concluded shortly after. The approach to the imperial court, the timeline for the Jade Serpent and Iron Phoenix, the medical facility acquisition. Lucy had everything noted. They were done.
They stood and said their goodbyes without making a production of it.
Wei Liang bowed to Lu Changcheng. "Thank you for having me, Guild Master. The discussion was genuinely valuable."
"Of course," Lu Changcheng said, entirely at ease.
Wei Liang bowed to Chu Xinghe. "Vice Guild Master."
"Scholar Wei," Chu Xinghe said, with a short nod.
He nodded to Lucy, who was already collecting her papers and said "See you, Scholar" without looking up.
Ren said nothing. He walked out and Wei Liang fell into step beside him.
They walked in silence down the corridor, Wei Liang's hands clasped behind his back.
They reached the clinic door. Ren stopped and turned.
"Your abilities have improved, Needle."
Wei Liang inclined his head. "Thank you for your praise, Father."
Ren looked at him for a moment. A room full of Legendary and Mythical-rank individuals. An entire strategy meeting. Nobody had noticed a thing.
He went inside.