Chapter 2735 Mang Shui"s Wrist!
When Zhao Xiaochun and the other members of the Dragon Gate Guild Club"s main team first encountered Long Tao, they all found him to be strict, cold, and unapproachable. But after spending more time with him, this impression was soon disproven.
Long Tao was strict when it came to carrying out tasks, but he was a very sweet person who always thought about his friends outside of work. This made him seem as though he had a contrasting personality.
Because of this reason, Fang Duoduo and Zhao Xiaochun, who were also members of the Radiance Hundred Sequence, felt great affection for their leader.
Long Tao and Lin Yuan first met in the Radiant Moon Palace on Leaning Moon Mountain.
At first, Long Tao had not thought much about Lin Yuan.
The young were susceptible to hubris. This especially applied to Long Tao, who used to be Sequence #3 of the Radiance Hundred Sequence.
But after meeting on Leaning Moon Mountain, the memory of Lin Yuan was seared into Long Tao"s mind.
Mystic Moon had acted far more familiar and favorable toward Lin Yuan than anyone else.
He and Cheng Rui had been asked to spar with the tea attendants while Lin Yuan became the Moon Empress" disciple without doing anything.
From this, Long Tao had known that the Moon Empress had been leaning toward Lin Yuan from the start. He and Cheng Rui had just been there to go through the motions.
Despite knowing that Lin Yuan had to be extraordinary to be picked by the Moon Empress, Long Tao still felt indignant and constantly sought out opportunities to compete with Lin Yuan.
Long Tao only became friends with Lin Yuan through his second ident.i.ty, "Black".
As a young and talented elite, it was difficult for Long Tao to feel respect and admiration for another.
He had only started paying attention to and developing a positive impression of Black because he had saved Millstone Town, which was right outside of Ascending Dragon City.
After Long Tao learned about Millstone Town"s situation, he knew that the insect tide would have devoured the town if Lin Yuan had not been there to protect them. All the residents of the town would have ended up as food for the sea of insects.
This young man had been clearly capable of fleeing but had stayed where he was. Hence, Long Tao had badly wanted the opportunity to get to know Black.
Serendipitously, Chen Hongfeng from the Dragon Gate Guild Club"s reserve team, whom Long Tao always had his eye on, had happened to be matched with Lin Yuan.
It had just so happened that the Dragon Gate Guild Club"s main team had one empty spot to fill, and Long Tao had decided to recruit Black.
At that time, Black had only been beginning to make a name for himself on Star Web and had yet to exhibit any outstanding power. Long Tao had also invited Black with the intention of nurturing him.
As the Young Leader of Coiling Dragon"s Valley and the Dragon Gate Guild Club being one of the top B-level guild clubs, he had many opportunities to join the ranks of A-level guild clubs. Hence, Long Tao had been filled with confidence.
However, Black had turned him down.
Later, Long Tao had led all the members of the Dragon Gate Guild Club to the outskirts of the Royal Capital, where the contained dimensional rifts were located, so they could train.
They had happened to encounter that incident there, and he had also been able to meet Black in real life.
From that battle, Long Tao had gained a full understanding of Black"s power and begun viewing him as a friend.
Otherwise, as one of the top-ranked members of the Radiance Hundred Sequence, Long Tao would never have allowed his dedicated reporter to work with Tian Ningning to hold a press conference to promote Black!
Long Tao and Lin Yuan"s friends.h.i.+p had started from Lin Yuan"s ident.i.ty as "Black".
Hence, his feelings toward Lin Yuan remained pure even after he learned of Lin Yuan"s true ident.i.ty.
Subsequently, he received help from Lin Yuan time after time again.
When Lin Yuan produced treasures like the Golden Lotus Brocade Pearls, he had been willing to trade them with Coiling Dragon"s Valley and had allowed Coiling Dragon"s Valley and Dark Clouds Bird Shrine to be the first two factions to get their hands on these resources.
From then on, Coiling Dragon"s Valley developed rapidly.
Coiling Dragon"s Valley could be considered one of the top three factions in the Radiance Federation now because of the foundation they had created with those precious resources.
Lin Yuan had also provided precious resources like the law crystals to help Long Tao"s father and grandfather increase their powers. They also enabled the Long family to produce their first Immortal expert.
It could be said that Lin Yuan was the biggest reason Coiling Dragon"s Valley managed to become one of the top three factions in the Radiance Federation.
Long Tao was well aware of how much Lin Yuan had done for him, and he had always been extremely grateful to Lin Yuan.
But at the same time, he knew that he had no means of being of help to Lin Yuan.
Everyone had friends who were doing better in life. Aside from transferring resources between each other, friends also offered each other genuine relations.h.i.+ps.
The members of Coiling Dragon"s Valley who had gone to the manor were reporting the situation in the manor to him.
Long Tao knew that Lin Yuan was currently fully focused on dealing with the dead spirits crisis.
The members of royalty"s attention was also fixated on the dead spirits wave.
The original plan was to hold the Radiance Knight and Radiance Envoy selections immediately after the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection. However, they had been postponed. This made Long Tao aware that something urgent had cropped up.
It was because the members of royalty were not paying attention to the manor in the north district that people like Mang Shui were able to take advantage of the situation and have the audacity to do such things.
There was no way for Long Tao to correct Mang Shui"s way of thinking.
Mang Shui was one of Cultivated Garden"s envoys, and Cultivated Garden was under Tian Feng"s jurisdiction. Hence, Mang Shui possessed a position of a similar level to Zuo Ming and You Zhe of the Spirit Guards.
As long as Mang Shui did not go overboard, Long Tao believed that it would be better to wait for Tian Feng to discover and handle Mang Shui on his own! This way, Tian Feng would not be humiliated, and Coiling Dragon"s Valley would not be negatively implicated.
Given Coiling Dragon"s Valley"s current status, targeting an envoy from Cultivated Garden openly in front of other factions would lead to significant repercussions.
However, as per Lin Yuan"s wishes, Long Tao had picked out one of the members from Coiling Dragon"s Valley who was present in the manor. The person he had selected was Long Zhuo.
Long Tao stressed to Long Zhuo that at the sign of any bloodshed in the manor, he had to step in immediately to put an end to it.
The manor in the north district had been set up at Lin Yuan"s request. Although Cultivated Garden was the one in charge of managing the manor, any incidents would be traced back to Lin Yuan.
As Lin Yuan"s friend, Long Tao did not want Lin Yuan"s reputation to be damaged.
As for his reason for picking Long Zhuo, who had tried to take over his position in the past, it was because Long Tao had decided to concentrate on increasing his own power.
Hence, he planned on nurturing a few close confidants in his family who would replace him in managing Coiling Dragon"s Valley.
Long Zhuo met Long Tao"s requirements in all aspects.
This arrangement was Long Tao"s way of testing Long Zhuo.
Long Tao had seriously discussed his thoughts with Long Zhuo.
Since he was a child, Long Zhuo felt that his fate was an unfair one and had only been trying to claim some authority within Coiling Dragon"s Valley. Now that Long Tao was willing to voluntarily hand over authority to him, Long Zhuo"s desires were satisfied.
Once an ambitious person"s desires were satisfied, he would turn into a handy tool
Long Tao was not worried that Long Zhuo"s desires would grow in the future and that he would become dissatisfied with the power he had been given.
Long Tao would use his feys to control Long Zhuo and the others he picked to ensure that he would retain full control over Coiling Dragon"s Valley even while he was focusing on increasing his individual power.
Hence, Long Tao did not have to be worried when he used Long Zhuo and the rest and he was also willing to invest resources into them.
Apart from from his ambition, Long Zhuo had an upright outlook and had a strong sense of righteousness.
Thus, Long Zhuo was very displeased with Four Beasts Territory trying to use brute force to take the resources of the other factions.
After Long Zhuo issued his order, Coiling Dragon"s Valley"s experts summoned their feys and quickly took control of the conflict.
Gao Huan, who was leading Four Beasts Territory, never expected the people from Coiling Dragon"s Valley to get involved in this fight.
Gao Huan asked fearfully, "What does Coiling Dragon"s Valley mean by this? Are you trying to help Spirit Snake Ravine with whom you have ties?"
The factions present in the manor had complicated relations.h.i.+ps. Many of them had ties with each other. This was why they had chosen to keep to themselves at first, and it was rare for a faction to forcefully stand out on behalf of another faction.
If Coiling Dragon"s Valley insisted on coming to Spirit Snake Ravine"s aid, they would be ruining the unspoken rule here.
Before Long Zhuo could speak, a cold voice said from nearby, "It sure is rowdy here! Why are all of you gathered here? Don"t you have anything else to do? There are people supplying you with resources every day. Don"t you know how to use these resources to strengthen and raise your grades?"
The tall and skinny man who spoke was wearing brown attire with green embroidered patterns of flora and fauna. He shot his gaze at the people from Four Beasts Territory and Spirit Snake Ravine first. But he quickly s.h.i.+fted his gaze away to frown at Long Zhuo.
Although he did not say anything, his aura suppressed that of the members of Coiling Dragon"s Valley.
The tall and skinny man was using this demeanor to express his displeasure.
This man was the manager of this manor, one of the envoys from Cultivated Garden - Mang Shui.
If Long Zhuo was facing someone of Mang Shui"s status on his own, he would already be trembling in his boots.
However, he now had the support of Long Tao and the entire Coiling Dragon"s Valley. Hence, he was able to retain his composure even when facing someone of Mang Shui"s outstanding status.
Moreover, Long Zhuo spoke first to Mang Shui, "Lord Mang Shui, you are tasked with managing this manor. Although you are working under Tian Feng"s name, you are actually working for Lord Lin Yuan. You have silently permitted the factions to fight over resources and caused the experts here to all be on guard. The conflict between the factions has escalated. If you don"t properly manage the atmosphere in the manor, issues will probably crop up in the future!"
Mang Shui"s brows were tightly furrowed.
He glared at Long Zhuo while he began to think.
What intentions did this member of Coiling Dragon"s Valley have?
Coiling Dragon"s Valley had to have the support of someone in order to rise to become one of the Radiance Federation"s top three factions.
A trivial member of Coiling Dragon"s Valley like Long Zhuo had to be backed up by someone in order to be brave enough to say such words!
Mang Shui mulled over this. He believed that the Radiance Federation"s members of royalty were unaware of this matter. If they were, he would already have been called out and questioned by Tian Feng!
After pondering further, Mang Shui concluded that Coiling Dragon"s Valley was doing this to threaten him and attempt to obtain profits from him.
Mang Shui had a large amount of resources to allocate, but they could not go into his own profits.
If he could work with Coiling Dragon"s Valley and receive kickbacks from them, he would be able to receive even more resources than he previously could.
Mang Shui decided that it would be better to prevent the problem from growing. He would seek Long Zhuo out for a private negotiation later.
"It"s true that the atmosphere in the manor is worsening. From now on, if any factions want to fight with each other, you are prohibited from getting help from other factions. Any faction that does otherwise will have 30% of their resources docked for the next three months. Today, Spirit Snake Ravine found helpers. Since I only just put this rule in place, I will give them a small punishment as a lesson. I will take back their two rooms and reallocate them in the future! If anyone from Spirit Snake Ravine can"t swallow this arrangement, you can come and see me about it."
When Lin Yuan, who was hiding in the shadows, heard what Mang Shui said, his brow furrowed deeply.
Mang Shui was adept at seizing opportunities, and it showed through even in his speech.
First, Mang Shui agreed with what Coiling Dragon"s Valley said in order to placate them. Then, he used his new rule to punish Spirit Snake Ravine, who had received help from Coiling Dragon"s Valley, so that he could establish his authority amongst the other factions.
It was likely that he would try to start a conversation with Long Zhuo in private. His att.i.tude then would be a far cry from what it was now.
If Mang Shui really wanted to punish Spirit Snake Ravine, he could have confiscated Spirit Snake Ravine"s resources.
However, Mang Shui was sending hints that Spirit Snake Ravine could seek him out. Clearly, he wanted to obtain under-the-table benefits from them.
At this moment, Lin Yuan received a reply from Tian Feng through the Thoughts Letter Paper.
[Tian Feng]: Little Yuan, have you arrived at the manor in the north district? Why are you asking me to head there? I have just finished attending the imperial meeting and will be able to arrive at the manor in five minutes at the most. Mang Shui is very capable. If you have any urgent issues, you can let him handle them!
Lin Yuan did not send a reply to Tian Feng"s message. Instead, he stored the Thoughts Letter Paper away.
As the member of royalty in charge of Cultivated Garden, Tian Feng turned out to be a bad judge of character and had caused such a serious issue.
It was likely that this incident would lead Tian Feng to rea.s.sess his subordinates.
Lin Yuan prioritized character over abilities.
In this world, people of outstanding character did not lack in abilities either.
At first, after hearing what Mang Shui said, Lin Yuan had been ready to step in.
But since Tian Feng would be able to arrive in five minutes, it would be better to let him handle it personally.
When Long Zhuo heard what Mang Shui said, he silently praised Mang Shui. He had not left anything out in his speech.
It was clear that Mang Shui wanted to change the atmosphere in the manor and take away any reason Long Zhuo could use to target him.
If he continued to target Mang Shui, he would go against Long Tao"s arrangement and cause trouble for the Long family.
Mang Shui had been observing the expressions on Long Zhuo"s face.
When he saw Long Zhuo"s fury subside, Mang Shui changed his tone and said, "Since bad influences have appeared and factions of the likes of Coiling Dragon"s Valley have been made uncomfortable, any faction that causes trouble in the next week will lose a room"s worth of resources. You should all use this incident to reflect!"