Chapter 155: Chapter 152- Hatching A Plan in the Outside World (1)

Currently Outside the Hundred Plants Dimension…

Pearl City was a commercially successful City.

With the profitability of the Hundred Plants and Herbs dimension, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But it being a subsidiary City of the famed Martial Alliance Academy further boosted its reputation.

Wealthy and powerful cultivators chose to settle down in the city and have families.

Over time, Clans formed from these families and go on to monopolize the resources circulating in the city.

However, these local Clans, despite their power within the city, had to bow their heads to the owners of a popular restaurant chain, a popular Spirit Treasure Store chain, a popular gambling chain, and a few other popular chains in the city.

Why would they as powerful Clans bow their heads to these successful but seemingly ordinary chain owners?

Well, it’s because these ’store chains’ were actually run by the Six Holy Sects and the Five Great Clans.

Due to this city being a subsidiary city of the Martial Alliance Academy, which was a neutral ground for all, the Six Holy Sects and Clans couldn’t just come into the city and monopolize everything.

They instead created these side businesses to pose as restaurants or Spirit Treasure shops on the surface, but in reality, underneath they were sucking up the wealth coming into the city and funneling it through these side businesses back to their Clans and Sects.

Everyone knew what they were doing, but which smaller Sect or Clan would dare speak up?

The Six Holy Sects and the Five Great Clans were similar to tapeworms in a cow’s stomach.

They would just worm their way into the cow somehow and then sit there while waiting for the food to come. When it does, they would slowly and methodologically eat the biggest chunks of food. The scraps that happen to remain went to the cow to nourish its body.

The city was commercially successful, but what was going back into the city was negligible. Rather than helping the mortals that were being exploited in this city, the City Lord would instead spend the city’s wealth on himself or on decorating the surface of the city to hide all the ugliness beneath it.

Speaking of the City Lord, he was currently sweating up a storm in his main office, which was inside his eight-story tall and fifteen-acre wide City Lord mansion.

As he sweated like a pig, he would wipe himself down with an almost soaked napkin.

He actually looked like a pig from how fat he was. He could barely sit in his seat; he had to shift the chair back from the table to give his plump belly some space.

As the City Lord dabbed his face, he looked across the table at the old man in gray robes before saying nervously.

“Se-Senior Gu, it really isn’t my fault. The expansion of the city to accommodate the new cultivators who paid in advance for their estates has left the mortal population restlessly. They’re angry that they’re being forced out of their homes without being properly compensated. In a situation like this, we can’t always be on guard for Demonic Cultivators sneaking into the city and tampering with the Multidimensional Teleportation Array.”

The old man across from the City Lord called Senior Gu, glared at the City Lord before saying coldly.

“My Martial Alliance Academy was the one who received the plans for your expansion, and we agreed. But now you’re saying that this expansion plan didn’t account for the displacement of the mortals in the city?”

The City Lord swallowed a large lump of saliva and then stuttered.

“Th-The calculations for the city’s expansion were off, we only discovered this after we started.”

“You mean, after you’ve received a big check from the cultivators paying for the estates they were promised?”

The City Lord went pale as he understood the underlying meaning Senior Gu was trying to infer.

“Ah! No-no-no, Senior Gu, how would I dare embezzle money from the Academy? If anything, the Sects and Clans in the city are far wealthier than me and are getting richer and richer by the day!”

“Shut up!”

Senior Gu barked, and the City Lord’s mouth clamp shut as he tensed up.

Even though both of them were cultivators in the Spiritual Realm, the aura this Senior Gu was giving off made the City Lord scared witless.

Compared to the cultivators in the Academy and those outside in the same Realm, the Academy’s cultivators were far more powerful.

It wouldn’t even be a stretch to think that an Elder from the Martial Alliance Academy like Senior Gu, could battle two or even three Spiritual Realm cultivators in the outside world!

The City Lord squirmed in his seat after Senior Gu’s yell, but to calm his nerves he tremblingly picked up his cup of tea and down it in one go.

He then held out the cup to one side and the boy who was standing behind him came forward and picked up the teapot on a small cart nearby, before pouring him another cup.

Senior Gu was about to speak, but he stopped and turned to look at this boy who looked around fourteen or fifteen.

He found the boy’s presence strange.

Senior Gu could sense him clearly, but for some reason, while he stood off to the side, his senses would just dismiss him entirely as if he wasn’t there. He was so unassuming that Senior Gu had to actively remind himself that he was there.

With a frown, Senior Gu closely stared at this boy for the first time.

His appearance was rather ordinary, but he was dressed in extremely luxurious clothing. He kept his head down as he poured the cup of tea and retreated, but Senior Gu could still see that a small scar was on the right side of his bottom lip.

“Who is this boy?”

The City Lord was drinking his newly poured cup of tea, but when he heard Senior Gu’s question his hand fumbled and some of the tea spilled onto his chest.

“Ah, this is—this my son, Dae Han.”

“You’re son? When did you have a child between the span of last year and now?”

“Senior Gu, he was an orphan that I found on the streets. He had a moderate talent for cultivation, so I adopted him two years ago, however, he’s been away cultivating at a Sect until recently.”

The way in which the City Lord said this sentence was stiff, like he had rehearsed it a million times. But at the same time, it could be a result of his nervousness in front of Senior Gu.

“Is that so, but why is he in here during our conversation?”

“Ah! Senior Gu don’t worry, he’s—he’s not… uhm, I mean, I’m grooming him to take over my position. I believe he’s capable.”

Senior Gu looked at the City Lord who had a forced smile on his face, before he glanced at Dae Han briefly then completely ignored him to say.

“Bring out the information on everyone, both mortals and cultivators, that have entered and exited Pearl City within the last five years. Wait, no, within the past ten years. Those Demonic Cultivators have surely been planning this for a while to damage the Teleportation Array to this extent.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep