In sharp contrast to Lin Mu's deliberate retreat into the shadows — making his fortune in silence — the main gate of the southern campsite was at that very moment playing host to the grandest, most elaborate welcoming ceremony in Black Blood Stockade's history.
The Rank 4 Patriarch, Lin Cang, led the Elders in person to receive the enormous caravan, his face wreathed in warm smiles.
At the head of the caravan, atop a colossal pack beast the size of an elephant and clad in heavy armor, sat a middle-aged man of striking bearing, robed in fine brocade.
This was the leader of the Jia Clan Caravan — Jia Fu, one of the most celebrated magnates in the Southern Border.
Jia Fu swung down from his mount and strode forward to meet Lin Cang.
His face carried the practiced warmth of a merchant's smile, though on his right cheek, a long, vicious scar ran from the corner of his eye all the way to his jaw.
"Brother Lin! Congratulations, congratulations!"
Jia Fu clasped his hands in greeting from a distance, his voice booming.
"I heard the news of your breakthrough to Rank 4 while still on the road. Seeing you now in person — your power contained and your bearing extraordinary — the title of overlord within a hundred li belongs to none other than Black Blood Stockade!"
"Ha ha ha, Brother Jia flatters me! Congratulations to us both!"
Lin Cang stroked his beard and laughed, stepping forward to clasp Jia Fu's arm with great familiarity.
Lin Cang's Rank 4 cultivation had sent Black Blood Stockade's standing in the region soaring — and compelled a major merchant like Jia Fu to offer genuine respect and seek closer ties.
For Jia Fu's part, the miraculous campsite before him — teeming with people, organized to perfection — was a windfall beyond anything he had expected.
He had set out early under crushing performance pressure from his clan, desperately in need of massive transaction volume as political capital in the succession struggle.
And Black Blood Stockade's unprecedented spectacle was nothing short of a supreme treasure dropped from the heavens.
Each had what the other needed. They were a natural fit.
Lin Cang needed the caravan's premium resources to consolidate his newly advanced Rank 4 foundation. Jia Fu needed Black Blood Stockade's purchasing power to pad his numbers.
The two magnates walked side by side along the wide, hardened main road, talking and laughing like old friends of many years.
"Brother Lin, I won't hide it — in all my years of traveling the trade routes, I have seen the campsites of no fewer than a thousand stockades."
Jia Fu looked around at the striking design surrounding him, a flash of genuine admiration crossing his eyes, and could not help but ask.
"But a campsite planned with this level of foresight and this degree of order — Black Blood Stockade is the first I have ever encountered. Which great talent in your stockade is responsible for this?"
Faced with Jia Fu's praise, the lofty Lin Cang had no real knowledge of the specific operations carried out at the lower levels.
But the image of the External Affairs Hall Master — the one responsible for logistics — surfaced immediately in his mind.
"Ha ha ha, Brother Jia is too generous."
Lin Cang laughed and turned, pulling Lin Mao Mao — who had been trailing behind with a broad smile plastered on his face — forward by the arm and presenting him to Jia Fu with evident self-satisfaction.
"This is all the work of our External Affairs Hall Master, Lin Mao Mao. He has overseen administrative affairs for many years — always diligent and conscientious."
Whoosh.
The moment Lin Cang shoved him forward, the smile on Lin Mao Mao's face froze solid.
The surrounding Elders turned to look, and quite naturally cleared a circle of space around him.
Pinned under Jia Fu's gaze — the sharp, burning, battle-hardened eyes of a man who had spent a lifetime in the cutthroat world of commerce — Lin Mao Mao felt a chill run down his spine.
Cold sweat broke out across his forehead in an instant.
He nearly wanted to weep.
The blueprints, the planning — every last bit of it had been handled single-handedly by that little monster Lin Mu.
He, Lin Mao Mao, was nothing but a figurehead who had taken a stall as a kickback and been propped up front as a mascot.
What did he know about commercial planning?
But here, in front of the Patriarch and an honored guest, admitting the truth — confessing that he was a hollow figurehead — would be a public slap across Lin Cang's face, and across Black Blood Stockade's face.
Lin Mao Mao had no choice but to grit his teeth and take the fall. He dabbed the sweat from his forehead with a silk handkerchief and forced out a stilted laugh.
"Leader Jia is far too kind. I... I merely happened to observe ants moving house one day, and had a sudden inspiration."
"It was entirely by chance that I... stumbled upon this layout for the campsite. I could hardly be called a great talent, heh heh..."
The strained explanation made the surrounding Elders avert their eyes in collective discomfort.
And Jia Fu — what kind of man was he?
A single glance at Lin Mao Mao's trembling, pudgy legs and his hollow, unconvincing eyes was all it took. The truth was instantly clear as glass: this fat man was an impostor, through and through.
But he did not expose him on the spot. The merchant's creed was harmony breeds wealth. If Black Blood Stockade needed to save face, he would give them all the face they needed.
"So it was Hall Master Lin's sudden flash of inspiration — a stroke of genius. My respect, my respect." Jia Fu smiled and clasped his hands.
But inwardly, he made a quiet decision: he would find Jia Ping from the advance team afterward and ask.
Whoever had conceived this kind of commercial planning — a strike from a higher plane of existence — was undeniably a talent. Gold hidden in the dark could not stay hidden forever.
The brief interlude passed, and the atmosphere warmed again.
The group followed Lin Cang's lead toward the main reception hall, where a welcoming banquet had long been prepared.
Along the way, Lin Cang was in high spirits, making easy conversation as he walked.
"Brother Jia, in past years when the caravan passed through, your brother Jia Jinsheng was always the first to join in the festivities. Yet at a gathering of this scale today, I don't see him with you?"
The words landed.
Jia Fu, who had been smiling and chatting a moment before, came to an abrupt stop.
Lin Cang caught the shift immediately. He turned to look — and saw that Jia Fu's scarred face had gone deeply, visibly dark.
Buried in the depths of his eyes was a grief he could not fully conceal, and a rage held barely in check.
Lin Cang genuinely had not known. It had been nothing more than casual small talk. But he realized at once that he had touched something lethally sensitive.
Jia Fu drew a slow, deep breath and forced the surge of emotion back down into his chest.
He raised his head and looked steadily at the newly advanced Rank 4 cultivator before him.
At this critical juncture — with great upheaval on the horizon — a Rank 4 strongman was an enormously valuable external ally worth cultivating.
Jia Fu's eyes shifted slightly. He gave Lin Cang a single, barely perceptible look.
Lin Cang understood immediately. He turned and swept his hand toward the Elders and attendants following behind.
"All of you — wait here. No one is to approach without my order. I have urgent private matters to discuss with Brother Jia."
The crowd was puzzled, but none dared defy the pressure of a Rank 4 cultivator's authority. They bowed and withdrew.
A moment later, only Lin Cang and Jia Fu remained.
Once he was certain no eyes or ears lingered nearby, Jia Fu seemed to shed a weight of a thousand jin.
He sank into a chair, his voice dropping to a low, heavy rumble, and finally gave voice to the truth he had kept buried.
"Brother Lin... I will not hide it from you. My worthless brother Jinsheng... is dead."
"What?!" Lin Cang's pupils contracted. Even with his composure, the shock hit him. "Jia Jinsheng is dead? Who in the Southern Border would dare lay a hand on a direct-line member of the Jia Clan?!"
"He died at Qing Mao Mountain. Near the Gu Yue Village."
Jia Fu spoke through clenched teeth, the veins at his temples standing out.
Completely deceived by Fang Yuan's lies and fabricated evidence, his eyes burned with the fire of vengeance.
"Because of Jinsheng's death, I returned to the clan and faced pressure beyond anything I could have imagined. Jia Gui has been pressing me at every turn, trying to use this to drive me out of the inner circle entirely."
"To secure my performance numbers and stabilize my position — and to gather enough resources to send people back to Qing Mao Mountain to quietly investigate the true cause of death and build up my forces..."
"I took an enormous risk, defied the clan Elders' opposition, and set out three months early with everything I had."
The storm sweeping through the Southern Border — set in motion by Fang Yuan's butterfly wings beating at Qing Mao Mountain — had at last traveled across a thousand li of mountains and rivers to present itself clearly before the Patriarch of Black Blood Stockade.
Lin Cang listened and understood. Inwardly, he drew a quiet, sharp breath. Outwardly, he immediately composed his face into an expression of pained indignation.
"Such a thing has happened! That scoundrel Jia Gui is utterly unconscionable!"
Lin Cang clapped Jia Fu firmly on the shoulder, his tone carrying a righteous warmth.
"Brother Jia, my condolences. If there is anything Black Blood Stockade can do to help, you need only say the word. Your elder brother here may be in a remote corner of the world, but in this patch of land, I can still make my voice heard."
Empty promises were often the opening move before a real transaction.
Jia Fu was an old fox who had clawed his way through the vortex of power for decades. He knew perfectly well these were pleasantries. But he struck while the iron was hot and laid down his own hand.
"With Brother Lin's word, I can set my mind at ease."
"Brother Lin — this time, I have truly staked everything. I brought out countless premium resources and Gu worms from my private stores, all in the hope of producing an outstanding set of accounts before the year's end."
Jia Fu fixed Lin Cang with a burning gaze and made his meaning unmistakably plain.
"You have just broken through to Rank 4 — you must be in need of vast resources to consolidate your foundation."
"I only ask that you 'give our business your generous support' this time around. In return, I will offer you the most favorable terms I can."
One side needed massive transaction volume to hold his position. The other needed top-tier rarities to digest his Rank 4 breakthrough.
A transaction of a far higher order — involving astronomical figures — was struck right there in that empty side hall, with a single meeting of minds.
And at that moment —
While the two magnates reached their understanding in the side hall, the Jia Clan Caravan's enormous convoy had finished settling into the campsite entirely.
Common goods, low-grade Gu materials, the various designated zones — all of it was in perfect order under Lin Mu's planning, with nothing missing.
Every eye in the campsite was now fixed on the specially hardened reserved ground at the very center.
Under the gaze of thousands —
Several Jia Clan logistics Gu Masters walked solemnly to the center of the open ground. One of them carefully lifted a strange, faintly glowing seed from a jade box and pressed it gently into the earth.
Then, all of them moved at once — pouring a torrent of Primeval Essence into the ground in a frenzied, unrelenting flood.
Boom—
The earth began to tremble violently.
In an instant, a towering tree of breathtaking scale erupted from the ground at visible speed, driven by the surging Primeval Essence.
Thick roots plunged into the deep rock and soil like coiling dragons. The massive trunk swelled and shot upward — and only stopped when it had reached a full eighteen meters in height.
This was no ordinary tree. It was a living fortress.
The interior of the great trunk had been naturally divided into three broad, stacked chambers — like three overlapping rooms — with patterns resembling windows and doors grown naturally into the bark itself.
A Rank 3 Gu House — the Three Star Cave.
It stood quietly at the center of the campsite. The powerful aura of life and the defensive pulse it radiated were in a different class entirely from the crude tents and wooden sheds surrounding it.
Amid the sprawling sea of tents stretching in every direction like an ant colony, this eighteen-meter giant rose from their midst like an immovable tower — a crane standing among chickens, looking down upon all creation.
Inside the inner tent, Lin Mu gazed through the gap in the fabric at the magnificent Gu House that had erupted from the earth. A razor-sharp gleam flickered through his eyes.
The caravan would remain here for eight full days.
With the Three Star Cave fully formed and rooted in place, the unprecedented grand fair of Black Blood Stockade — where every faction had gathered and undercurrents ran deep — was now officially open.