Chapter 1306 The Current Situation
w.a.n.g Wei suddenly craved food after not eating for so long, so he searched for a place to grab something. However, with the current chaos, most places were destroyed or closed. He searched for a few seconds before finding a small restaurant.
"You"re open?"
The waiter suddenly fell to the ground. The last thing he expected was someone to appear in his room suddenly. Then, his face paled as he realized something: "Cultivator." He immediately stood up and kneeled on the ground: "Sir, please spare my life."
w.a.n.g Wei looked at this poor man and shook his head. The mortals in the upper dimension had a rough life. Although they can naturally live for over one thousand years, their lives are as fragile as paper in this world ruled by G.o.ds, demons, and higher dimension life forms.
"Get up," w.a.n.g Wei said, and a magical force picked up the waiter from the floor. "Is this your restaurant?"
"I…This…S…"
The waiter was incapable of forming a normal sentence, so w.a.n.g Wei waved his hand to release a golden light that immediately made his mind and spirit calm and at peace.
"Thank you, Lord," the waiter said. "And to answer your question, this is indeed my restaurant. No one wants to work in these dangerous times, so I had to do it myself."
"Aren"t you afraid?" w.a.n.g Wei asked.
The waiter sighed deeply: "Of course I am. However, the money at home has run out, and I need to feed my family."
"I respect that." No matter how weak this man was, it was respectable that he put his life in trouble to feed his family. "What"s your name?"
"Lord, my name is Hui Mengwei."
"Wei? It seems our name has the same character. In some way, this is a kind of fate," w.a.n.g Wei smiled. "Serve me your best dish, and if I"m happy, your fate will change from now on."
Hui Mengwei was shocked but was soon filled with excitement. No matter what this opportunity was, whether it was simply a monetary reward or a chance to walk the cultivation path, he knew his life would change for the better as long as he could please this lord.
"However, can I please this lord?" Hui Mengwei knew how high these cultivators" standards were, and his little restaurant was "small" even in its heyday. "This is not the time to hesitate." He rushed to the kitchen to prepare. Although he was the owner, Hui Mengwei was once a cook and learned from his father. After inheriting the restaurant, he was more hands-off, but he"s the one who created most of the menu, so his cooking was decent — at least by mortal standards.
w.a.n.g Wei found an empty seat and started his work. A screen materialized before him, showing w.a.n.g Qi"s frowning face less than ten seconds later. "What"s wrong with you?"
"Sect master, you can"t do this."
"What are you on about?" w.a.n.g Wei asked.
"I"ve said it before: my loyalty lies with the Madam. I will not accept or acknowledge anyone else."
w.a.n.g Wei looked at him in puzzlement before remembering something: "b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Don"t tarnish my name and reputation."
"Aren"t you doing that by yourself?" w.a.n.g Qi sneered. "3 million years!" he roared. "I don"t think you"ve spent so much time with the Madam."
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I told you not to slander me," w.a.n.g Wei yelled back. "I was helping her remove Blood Dragon"s Dao Imprint."
"Do you think I"m stupid? You spent so much time with such a beautiful woman that nothing happened between you two?"
"Your words are either insulting my integrity or revealing what kind of person you are," w.a.n.g Wei sneered. "So, which is it?"
w.a.n.g Qi was immediately embarra.s.sed: "You really didn"t do anything?" w.a.n.g Wei just looked at him with ferocious eyes. "Then, why did it take so long?"
"Do you think anyone can remove the Dao Imprint of a Paragon? The process would have taken yuan epochs if not for my cleverness."
w.a.n.g Qi paused as he remembered reading something similar in the records from the Fate Shadow Guard. He coughed in his fist before continuing: "I"m sorry about that. I just wanted to protect —"
"I"ve tolerated you enough," w.a.n.g Wei cut him off. "Once I return, I"ll check your cultivation, and if I"m not satisfied, I"ll punish you myself."
w.a.n.g Qi smiled wryly. "I understand." He sighed. "It doesn"t matter. As long as I can protect the madam"s rights and future happiness, it doesn"t matter if I suffer a little."
"Sect Master, are you not returning immediately?"
"I planned to eat something, check on you before returning," w.a.n.g Wei said, his eyes still fierce. "However, after seeing your reaction, I think I should see her and report to prevent others from slandering my name."
w.a.n.g Qi coughed again: "Sect Master, that happened so long ago; why are you still focused on that? You"re a great man, so show your broadmindedness and don"t be so petty."
w.a.n.g Wei was immediately baffled. It hasn"t even been 10 seconds. Since when was this b.a.s.t.a.r.d so shameless?
"However, since you"ve changed your itinerary, I recommend you also add visiting Emperor Kong," w.a.n.g Qi said. "You missed the previous meeting, and although I"ve explained, it might be best to explain directly."
"You have a point," w.a.n.g Wei nodded. "I should probably bring a small gift." w.a.n.g Qi agreed with these words. Since they were in the wrong by canceling the first meeting, it"s normal to show sincerity by apologizing with a gift.
"What happened during my absence?" w.a.n.g Wei asked.
"Where to begin?" w.a.n.g Qi said. "The professionals came running to use less than 100,000 years in their conversation. After suffering a little, they all thought they were suffering from luck backlash from Blood Dragon"s death. Some of the people who refused to sign the contract even contacted us. Of course, I made them sign a more restrictive contract."
w.a.n.g Wei nodded. These alchemists should be happy I gave them more than 100,000 years as a vacation.
"The Puppet Demon"s Workshop is already in operation," w.a.n.g Qi continued. "Everyone else is retreating and increasing their strength after acquiring so many resources. The Fate Changing Hall is a similar situation. Your plan worked. Most of the resources from these loose cultivators" hands had to be returned to us since they only had the raw materials. However, there are some issues that you need to decide."
"What is it?"
"Some Loose Cultivator Professionals have taken some of our business by offering lower prices. I"ve been debating whether I should stop them or not."
w.a.n.g Wei pondered: "No need for that. There is a mixed bag among loose cultivators, so the quality of their professionals is less than ours, not to mention their low numbers. However, you can create false scenarios and spread rumors about these professionals cheating others and delivering faulty products."
w.a.n.g Qi"s eyes lit. One of the advantages of using the hall"s own professionals is that they must guarantee their products and their reputations. However, suppose someone chooses the unofficial path and hires one of those loose cultivators. In that case, there are no guarantees, meaning it"s easy to take their operation down by ruining their already shaky reputation.
"These people are not stupid, so there is a chance they might deduce we are behind these sudden rumors," w.a.n.g Wei continued. "To ensure no problem, choose one of the professionals with a terrible personality and blame it on him."
"As expected of you, sect master," w.a.n.g Qi praised. He destroyed these people"s secret business with one move and removed all suspicions from themselves.
"No amount of boot-licking can save you," w.a.n.g Wei sneered. "Anything else?"
"Internally, there is nothing else to report," w.a.n.g Qi explained. "But a few noteworthy things happened outside. Firstly, the sect sent news that the trial would take longer than antic.i.p.ated."
"If they take too long, I might not need it by the time they"re ready," w.a.n.g Wei frowned.
"It probably won"t take that long. At the very least, you can use it to deal with the Paragon Realm Bottleneck," w.a.n.g Qi rea.s.sured.
"You may be right. Continue."
"The Rebellion was not happy with us, probably envious of our wealth. However, they said nothing out loud but asked us to sell them information."
"Did you agree?"
"Of course, after all, they are now our own."
"Oh?"
"Red Mask has taken over most of the lower and middle-level officers. The rebellion is basically ours — except for a few groups."
"That"s good to hear," w.a.n.g Wei"s eyes s.h.i.+ne. "What"s the situation with the upper echelons?"
"We don"t have enough people?"
"Didn"t Red Mask tell me she was confident she could take over the Blood Dragon"s information network?"
"And she did, but we only got 70% of them."
"That"s excellent for such a short period," w.a.n.g Wei said. "But 70% should be a lot of people." These parasites have an extensive network. Although not the best, they are probably one of the largest in the world.
"That"s the problem — there are too many people," w.a.n.g Qi said. "Red Mask has been scrambling to control these many people."
w.a.n.g Wei understood the issue. Although she conquered these people, she cannot trust them yet. As such, she"ll need the original members from the Fate Guards to supervise these new members, but w.a.n.g Wei"s original foundation was way too small compared to the Blood Dragon, meaning Red Mask did not have enough people to supervise these people — let alone spare members to control the Rebellion"s upper echelons.
"I"ll be in retreat once I"ve dealt with a few things here. I"ll take this opportunity to create more Tier 10 and 11 Creation Life Forms," w.a.n.g Wei replied. "And if she"s truly desperate, she can borrow some creations from Jia Ping and Dulgun."
"Is this alright?" w.a.n.g Qi asked. The Fate Guard is one of the core a.s.sets of w.a.n.g Wei"s political powers, so it may be a problem to have others involved.
"Like I said, it"s a desperate move. Plus, Red Mask will know what to reveal or hide from these people," w.a.n.g Wei replied. He knew the risks, but this was one of the dangers of swallowing a behemoth like the Blood Dragon"s network. So, it was worth it to take the risk to digest the behemoth since the reward would be worth it. As for the problems that will arise? They can be dealt with given sufficient time.
"I understand."