Chapter 92: Transfer of Power! The Ancestor’s Final Warning!
Back Mountain, Tranquility Hall.
This was the place in Qingyun Sect where spiritual energy was thickest; originally it had been a forbidden area where successive sect masters closed themselves off to pass away. Now, thanks to Chu Feng’s “filial contribution,” it had been given to True Lord Xuantian as his new cave dwelling.
Inside the hall, the decorations were luxurious; various spirit-gathering formations ran twenty-four hours non-stop, drawing in the spiritual energy of the surrounding hundred-mile radius until it was almost liquid.
True Lord Xuantian sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion in the center of the hall, expressionless.
In front of him lay the pile of heavenly materials and treasures that Wu Hao had just delivered; each single item would have caused Golden Core cultivators to fight tooth and nail.
But he was too lazy even to glance at them.
These things, priceless in others’ eyes, were— to him— just a pile of gorgeous dog food that kept him confined here.
At that moment, footsteps sounded outside the hall door.
“Junior Chu Feng, I request an audience with the Ancestor.”
True Lord Xuantian’s eyelid twitched; he said nothing.
Chu Feng did not care; he pushed the door and walked in by himself.
He looked at the cross-legged True Lord Xuantian, a habitual smile on his face, as if all the earlier conflicts in the main hall had never happened.
“Ancestor, are you satisfied with this place? If you find anything amiss, give orders at any time and I will have them change it immediately.”
Chu Feng’s tone was polite, like a junior paying filial respect to his elder.
True Lord Xuantian finally slowly opened his eyes.
He did not look at the heavenly materials and treasures; instead he fixed Chu Feng with an extremely complex gaze.
There was anger in that gaze, unwillingness, confusion, but more than that was a kind of scrutiny even he could not clearly name.
After a long time he rasped, “You won.”
His voice was very calm, betraying no emotion.
“With the methods you used, I had neither heard nor seen their like. I lost… not unjustly.”
Chu Feng smiled.
“Ancestor flatters me. I only followed the will of the people.”
“The will of the people?”
True Lord Xuantian gave a cold snort.
“Are you sure what you followed was the will of the people, and not greed and desire?”
“Is there a difference?”
Chu Feng countered.
“The human heart was, after all, composed of desire. The desire to live, to become stronger, to live better than others— those were the most primitive desires.
“What I did was only give them a channel to realize those desires, and packaged that channel to sound a little nicer.”
True Lord Xuantian was choked by this sophistry and fell silent for a moment before continuing, “I do not know where your ‘path’ will ultimately take Qingyun Sect — take this world.”
“Will it be as the pie-in-the-sky you painted, where everyone ascends and common prosperity follows?”
“Or will desire swell, order collapse, and everything turn to scorched earth? I… cannot see through it.”
At that moment his gaze became incomparably sharp.
“Chu Feng, today I will speak my mind to you.”
“Remember this: power is, in the end, power. You were able to use hearts and stratagems to lever the sect’s power because within the sect, I was the strongest power. If you persuaded me, or… neutralized me, you won.”
“But the world is far larger than you imagine. Outside Qingyun Sect there were stronger sects and stronger cultivators.”
“Before those true, absolute powers, your so-called ‘human hearts,’ ‘shares,’ and ‘votes’ might be like paper, easily shattered.”
“What would you do then?”
True Lord Xuantian’s words struck Chu Feng like a heavy hammer.
For the first time, the smile on Chu Feng’s face withdrew.
He knew the old man was right.
What he was playing now was essentially still trickery within rules.
If faced with an absolute powerhouse who did not follow rules and only spoke with fists, his commercial methods would indeed be insufficient.
“So…”
Chu Feng looked at True Lord Xuantian and said slowly, “That was why I needed you.”
“You need me?”
True Lord Xuantian was momentarily stunned.
“Yes.”
Chu Feng’s eyes grew earnest.
“You are the Qingyun Group’s top ‘core asset,’ our most solid ‘strategic nuclear weapon’ against external risks!”
“I understood what you said just now. Commercial competition, in the end, still came down to hard strength.”
“So I needed you to become stronger! Strong enough to intimidate the entire Eastern Wasteland, even farther!”
“You simply focused on cultivation and breakthrough. All resources would be supplied by the Group without limit! I would handle all the trouble!”
“You provided the ‘military deterrent,’ and I would handle ‘commercial expansion.’ We would divide labor and cooperate; that was true ‘strong–strong cooperation,’ the real foundation that would allow Qingyun Sect, and our Ascension Group, to go further!”
True Lord Xuantian was completely stunned by Chu Feng’s words.
Strategic nuclear weapon?
Core asset?
Strong–strong cooperation?
He still did not fully understand those terms, but he grasped Chu Feng’s meaning.
This kid wanted to make him his… muscle and umbrella?
And he had spoken of it with such freshness and righteousness, as if being someone’s muscle were an honor.
True Lord Xuantian looked at Chu Feng’s exceptionally sincere face and for a time did not know what to say.
In his thousand-year life, he had never seen anyone make the word “use” sound so full of prospect and temptation.
“I will watch from here.”
Eventually True Lord Xuantian only waved his hand tiredly.
“I will watch how far your ‘Group’ could go.”
“If one day you truly became the demon that destroyed the sect, even if I gambled this old life, I would personally end you.”
That was his final warning, and his last bottom line.
Chu Feng smiled.
He knew this ancestor had been initially “converted” by him.
From a staunch opponent he had become a neutral, watchful potential ally.
“I understand.”
Chu Feng bowed once more.
“Thank you for your guidance. I also promise that as long as I was here, Qingyun Sect would only get better. Our goal was the stars and the seas.”
Having spoken, he turned and left.
Only True Lord Xuantian and the mountain of “retirement pay” before him remained in the hall.
He looked at the gleaming treasures, thought of Chu Feng’s words, and his expression grew even more complicated.
Perhaps…
Let him try; it might not be a bad idea?