Inner Hall of the Extinctive Sword Manor House.
The disciples and stewards were gone, making Lin Shan and Lin Mei"er the only ones there.
"There"s something odd about what happened the past couple of days. I feel as if someone"s deliberately trying to go against us." Lin Mei"er looked at Lin Shan with a frown, her face full of suspicion.
"There"s no doubt someone"s trying to go against us." Lin Shan paced inside the Inner Hall, his anger still burning.
"Should we seek Senior Brother Zhuo"s advice? We can ask them to investigate this." Lin Mei"er pointed to an even deeper part of the Inner Hall, her voice carrying rare hesitation. Even though it was a distinguished and orthodox family, for some reason she felt distaste for Zhuo Bufan and the others. It wasn"t fear; either way, she was unwilling to stay with them for too long.
"No need." Lin Shan raised his head and snapped Lin Mei"er"s line of thoughts. "Mount Shu didn"t make us their Luoyang subsidiary to share our tribulations. If we have to disturb them for something like this, we might as well just shut down the Extinctive Sword Manor House."
"But we still have to solve the problem," Lin Mei"er said.
"You must know what matter is a priority and what isn"t. The most important matter is your wedding, your grand wedding with the Young Master of the General"s Manor. Just ignore everything else. The foundation of the Manor House will be stable as long as the marriage alliance with the General"s Manor succeeds," Lin Shan said solemnly.
"Your wedding is in seven days. We mustn"t let any mistake happen."
"Then how do we handle today"s matter?" Lin Mei"er asked.
"Expel the head cook and all menial workers of the kitchen out of the Manor House. The deputy cook will take his place. Get Steward Sun and a few disciples to tag along to the market. Isn"t it just a matter of buying some ingredients? Don"t tell me I have to do it personally," Lin Shan replied impatiently. "As for 18 disciples who have gone mad, lock them all in the dungeon. We can"t let them cause panic."
Lin Mei"er nodded after listening. Then, she asked, "What about the quality issue of our sabers and swords?"
Lin Shan didn"t even give it a thought before answering, "Those are all rumors. I know the weapons that I make the best. There definitely wouldn"t be a quality issue. How can a vegetable knife hack the Goose-quill Saber? Only idiots would believe this. Ignore it. The matter will subside after a few days."
The grand wedding of Lin Mei"er and Ye Yunhai would occur seven days later.
Lin Shan thought, "No matter what, let"s persevere for these seven days. It"s not too late to conduct the investigation after."
Someone else shared his thoughts, except it wasn"t to persevere but to cause destruction. He wanted to make Lin Shan unable to persevere.
Ye Que glanced at Qian Shuxiao while reading the information that Chu Dongnan sent him. "The grand wedding of Lin Mei"er and Ye Yunhai will happen in seven days. Interesting."
"We must wreak as much havoc as possible for the Extinctive Sword Manor House in these seven days."
"He wants these seven days to pa.s.s smoothly and peacefully? I refuse to let him get his wish."
"Dongnan, order the others to do as planned."
Ye Que watched Chu Dongnan as he left before turning his gaze outside the window. "Old man, did you think it"s that easy to be a tortoise hiding its neck (T/N: a coward)?"
"You"re on the verge of losing your life, but yet you think you have the luxury of being an old tortoise?!"
In the short span of seven days, all 5,637 members of the Divine Sect—be it official disciples, probationary disciples, outer executives who couldn"t cultivate, the Branch Masters, even Ye Que—all made their move.
Everyone besieged the Extinctive Sword Manor House and lay out a precisely-weaved wide net.
First, it was food. The next day, Steward Sun and a few disciples tagged along with the menial workers to procure ingredients in Luoyang City. They ended up not even seeing a stalk of vegetable and the axle of their five carriages inexplicably snapped as well. The horses suffered shock as well, causing three pairs to run out of sight, a pair to froth at the mouth and die, and another pair to go weak on the legs and unable to stand upright.
Nothing could be done. Lin Mei"er, Lin Shan, and the rest were able to consume some vegetables and meat, but the remaining two thousand or more members of the Manor House only ate salted vegetables and steamed buns the whole day. After serving everyone steamed buns for three days, the stock of flour in the Manor House was nearly depleted.
To make things worse, the weapons that the Manor House manufactured each day ought to be delivered to the shops in different cities overnight. However, the stock was unable to leave 2.5 kilometers away from the Manor House. After the first incident, Lin Shan sent a few teams of disciples and horses to deliver the goods and each team had doubled in size as well.
However, they would discover the teams somewhere nearby the Manor House early the next morning without exception. The disciples delivering the goods would all be knocked unconscious and when they woke up, their symptoms were similar to those before them. They would all go mad.
Thus, the talk of a ghost became widespread in the entire Extinctive Sword Manor House. No one dared to deliver the goods overnight anymore.
It was so bad that no one dared to step out at night!
Lin Shan was left with no choice but to send his disciples off during the day, thinking they would be able to deliver the goods before night fell. The disciples could rest for the night there before returning the next day. Though the goods turnover rate would slow by a day, it was better than having their stock pile up in the Manor House.
The team delivering the goods in daytime managed to successfully leave the Manor House but failed to return after two whole days. News conveyed via homing pigeons told them that the goods had been delivered and the team had left as well. However, it was simply that the team was nowhere to be seen, not even their corpses. Now that those delivering goods during the day had gone missing, no one was willing to leave the Manor House anymore. They refused to leave even though there was nothing left to eat.
The rumor swirling in the Manor House went as such: "Those forging weapons in the Manor House are all cursed. Those who leave this place with the weapons would be plagued by ghosts."
"They steal your soul at night!"
"And steal your life during the day!"
On the fifth day, returned goods from all places arrived at the Manor House like an avalanche of snow.
Some wanted their down payment back, while others demanded compensation. It had gotten so bad that the authorities even wrote them a letter, asking them to send someone to the Prefectural Magistrate"s Office in Luoyang City as soon as possible and cooperate with their investigation.
Lin Shan was in such dire circ.u.mstances that he couldn"t even sleep soundly at night.
Lin Mei"er had repeatedly told him to seek help from the Immortality Masters of Mount Shu in the rear courtyard if they couldn"t solve their problem. They could deal with the consequences after solving their desperate predicament.
However, Lin Shan ultimately didn"t follow the advice after much thought. He could see that the one going against him was trying to make life difficult for him and break the regular operation of the Extinctive Sword Manor House. The person simply wanted to infuriate him.
"Very well. Cut off my food supply, my source of wealth, and my aides?" I won"t be holding back then." Lin Shan then yelled, "Mei"er, come here!"
Shortly after, Lin Mei"er ran over. "What"s wrong, Father? Have you thought it through? Are we going to ask the Immortality Masters of Mount Shu for help?"
Lin Shan waved his hand.
"No need!"
"Inform the rest: The Extinctive Sword Manor House will be closed down for two days!"
"Take out all our dry food reserves. I"m sure they"re enough to feed our disciples for two days. Two days later, when your wedding is over, our in-laws will naturally find a way to solve this problem for us."
Lin Shan snorted. "Food? Weapons? Prefectural Magistrate"s Office? With the support of the General"s Manor, are these even worthy of being called problems?!"
Ye Que didn"t idle around for these seven days. Whenever he was free, he would sit by the medicinal stove and create medicinal pills.
Every time he finished producing a batch of pills, he would put half of them in the black market and leave the other half for himself.
Thanks to Ye Que"s strange pills, the appearance demonic beasts became increasingly frequent in Luoyang City in these seven days. Moreover, most of them appeared near the black market. It was as if these pills posed an irresistible attraction for them.
The seventh day of the seventh month, the day of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were allowed to meet.
It was an auspicious day for a wedding.
Both the General"s Manor and the Extinctive Sword Manor House inside and outside Luoyang City hung red cloth and lanterns as well as pasted cutouts of the word "happiness" without prior consultation.
The grand wedding was about to begin.