Chapter 140: Making a move on Bai Haoran
As the sun began to set on Poison Valley Town, Bai Haoran sat all alone in his courtyard, with a porcelain teacup in his hand while his eyes stared blankly at the dying sun.
The atmosphere inside the Bai Clan estate was already very suffocating and the Patriarch was drowning in his own despair.
His clan that was flourishing under his rule just about a month ago was now on the verge of complete bankruptcy.
His clan lost dozens of disciples during the hunting competition and now even in the Annual tournament except for Bai Bing, they had nothing to show.
On top of that, his son Bai Yun was now bedridden with a shattered chest and broken bones.
But the absolute greatest humiliation was the fact that the entire town had watched Madam Li casually throw a bag of spirit stones at his feet like he was a pathetic, starving beggar who could not even pay a woman to please him.
The more Bai Haoran thought about it, the more he felt ashamed of himself. How would he face his ancestors now? They would spit on his face.
He anxiously brought the teacup to his lips to take a sip of the tea which suddenly felt bitter when he suddenly froze in his seat.
He felt a sharp sensation prick the back of his neck, detecting a presence behind his seat.
Bai Haoran dropped his teacup and slowly turned his head around to look behind him. But the moment he saw the person behind him, his eyes widened in horror as he saw a tall, broad-shouldered young man casually leaning against the stone pillar.
"What exactly is the Seventh Young Master of the Gu Clan doing here?" Bai Haoran asked with a frown on his face completely caught off guard as he channeled his Qi through his meridians and drew his sword halfway out of its scabbard as he glared murderously at the supposedly crippled bastard who had completely humiliated his son.
"Why are you getting so violently angry and defensive, Patriarch Bai?! I am just here to have a friendly little chat with you," Gu Fan just chuckled as he casually waved his hand, completely ignoring the heavy killing intent radiating from the older man.
But Bai Haoran didn’t relax, instead his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he sneered coldly, "Did you seriously not think this through enough, boy?"
"I don’t know how you managed to slip past my elite perimeter guards to get in here, but you are not leaving this courtyard alive."
"And I am assuming you did not tell your father about this secret little rat moment of yours?!" Bai Haoran raised his eyebrow as he deduced right on spot.
And hearing the Patriarch’s calculated, and logical reasoning, Gu Fan actually paused for a second and blinked in genuine surprise.
’Has the world gone wrong or what?’ His eyes widened slightly as realization suddenly struck his mind.
First Song Tianyu had effortlessly seen right through his disguise, and now Bai Haoran was instantly assessing the tactical vulnerability of his secret visit.
What does it mean?
It meant that these guys were not at all stupid like the brainless, one-dimensional villains he had usually portrayed them in his original story or any other story.
Back when he was typing away in his depressing apartment on Earth, he would always write these arrogant sect leaders and clan patriarchs as completely mindless idiots who didn’t possess a single iota of brainpower or shrewdness.
And even though they stood at the absolute pinnacle of their world, they would always act like the stupidest beings alive the absolute second they stood in front of the main protagonist.
’Are they suddenly thinking with their brains and using basic logic just because I am not the main protagonist?’ Gu Fan thought to himself with an amused chuckle.
But these two instances have made him realise that since he didn’t possess Gu Chen’s supernatural plot armour that actively degraded the intelligence of everyone around him, he actually had to rely entirely on his own wits to manipulate these cunning old foxes.
With that in mind, Gu Fan simply laughed off the threat from the old Patriarch and casually walked right over to the heavy stone table, disregarding Bai Haoran’s aggressive Origin Realm aura as he boldly sat down in the wooden chair directly across from him.
"Is the great Patriarch of the Bai Clan really not going to offer a tired guest some tea? That’s no way to treat a guest," Gu Fan asked with a cheeky smirk, leaning back in his and crossing his legs one over the other.
"Huh?!" Bai Haoran grunted as he saw the expression of insolence on his Gu Fan’s face.
His face turned an ugly shade of purple from the sheer disrespect, but surprisingly instead of attacking Gu Fan, he still reached out and poured him tea, and slid the cup across the table while grumbling, "Drink up, you crippled bastard, and enjoy your last wish before I snap your neck."
"I wouldn’t be too sure about that being my last wish, Bai Haoran... I mean Patriarch," Gu Fan replied as he casually picked up the hot cup and took a long, relaxed sip, not at all worried that the Patriarch might have poisoned it.
Bai Haoran felt his jaw clench tightly, becoming incredibly annoyed and deeply frustrated that a mere crippled junior wasn’t even slightly scared of his presence. He slapped down hard on the stone table and demanded, "Why exactly are you here, Gu Fan? Speak up fast and give me a good reason before I kill you. I am running out of patience."
"Already? Aren’t you a quick shot?" Gu Fan was quick to catch on as he shook his head in visible mockery.
"But speaking of running out. I heard you are rapidly running out of resources as well," Gu Fan added, cutting right through the Patriarch’s intimidating facade as he set his teacup down.
He leaned forward, as he laid out the Bai Clan’s miserable reality in front of Bai Haoran.
"You are facing a massive amount of heat right now. No one is on your side... You are all on your own."
"The elders are viciously biting at your ass and greedily eyeing your seat."
"When you had the power you held absolute authority over them they could not even breathe in your presence. But now, you aren’t even able to protect your caravans."
"What is the number now? Eight out of ten?"
"They either get looted on the roads or get sold midway to someone else."
Gu Fan didn’t give the old man a single second to argue, continuing his brutal verbal assault, "Your premium shops are barely selling a single weed, your treasury is bleeding dry just to keep the lights on, and your younger generation is a highly volatile, ticking time bomb, so if this massive crisis goes on for even another week, your treasury won’t be the only thing in this clan that completely goes dry."
"And in this crisis, your trusted elders are seeing their chance."
"A few of them must have already shown you their fangs."
"And you are not able to do shit about it."
As Gu Fan spilled one fact after the other, he leaned back on his chair with his arms behind his head as he looked at Bai Haoran with a taunting smile.
"Is that dirty laundry enough for you, Patriarch? Or do you want me to go on?"
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