Chapter 160: Chapter 157: Agreement
Throughout their conversation, Shen Changchuan hadn’t told a single lie.
He simply told half the story and held back the other half.
The rest was all their own speculation.
And that was more than enough.
Shen Changchuan knew that whether it was Shen Shiyin, Shen Zhongshan, or the others,
everyone present was an insignificant member from the branch families of the Tian Nan Shen Clan.
A single Qi Introduction Ninth Layer Cultivator from the clan
was already the most powerful figure they could ever hope to interact with,
someone who could make them bow respectfully and even shower them with endless flattery and praise.
So what to say of a True Cultivator at the Soul Emergence Realm?
To them, such a person
was an absolute powerhouse they wouldn’t dare offend in the slightest!
If they tried to see it from the other side,
if their loose lips leaked the news of Dawan Village’s prosperity and income, attracting the greed of others, inviting trouble, and ultimately causing the plans of a Soul Emergence Realm Elder to fall through...
An Elder of the Soul Emergence Realm wouldn’t even need to retaliate personally.
He would only need to express his displeasure on some occasion,
and his subordinates would investigate the whole affair and take revenge on you just to appease that Elder.
It would be the kind of revenge you couldn’t fight back against, the kind where no one would dare to help you.
You, and the family behind you,
would all be plunged into an abyss!
And that
was precisely why Shen Changchuan dared to bluff with borrowed authority.
The members of the Shen Family present couldn’t afford the consequences of that failure!
Besides,
they had all been relegated to this place just to make a living.
Let alone a connection to someone in the Soul Emergence Realm,
they probably didn’t even have connections to a master at the Ninth Layer of Qi Introduction within the clan.
The name of Senior Shen Tingchu was enough to cow them.
It would make them keep everything they saw in Dawan Village a secret.
Of course,
Shen Changchuan was the type of person who always considered failure before victory.
Success would be for the best.
He just needed to stall for two or three years, and he was eighty to ninety percent confident he could advance to the Soul Emergence Realm himself.
If he didn’t succeed,
if someone had a connection he didn’t know about,
or if by some accident, someone inadvertently leaked Dawan Village’s situation, attracting the covetous attention of Tian Nan City,
Shen Changchuan still had a few backup plans to deal with failure.
’Worst case, I’ll just have to temporarily leave the Shen Clan’s system and become a Loose Cultivator for a while.’
’I’ve already reached the Seventh Layer Late Stage, and the Eighth Layer is within sight. With the powerful techniques I’ve learned from numerous kinds of Magic via the progress bar panel, I’m more than capable of venturing out on my own. It wouldn’t be impossible to find an opportunity to advance to Soul Emergence out there...’
’Of course, this identity as a member of the Shen Family, especially as the son of the Shen Clan Leader, has brought me considerable benefits. Unless absolutely necessary, I should try to hold onto it...’
In Shen Changchuan’s mind,
numerous thoughts flashed by.
...
Time flew,
and in the blink of an eye, several days had passed.
Shen Shiyin and his group had already departed, taking with them the tribute of one hundred Spirit Stones.
In addition,
Shen Changchuan also privately gave them some local specialties.
Shen Zhongshan and his group received some as well.
Those local specialties weren’t worth much to the current Shen Changchuan, nor did they cost him anything.
He had received them all over the past few months while managing the commercial district.
Some people who came to visit and get acquainted with Shen Changchuan naturally wouldn’t arrive empty-handed, and would bring some local specialties as gifts.
Shen Changchuan had no use for them,
and the Cultivators in Dawan Village had already received their share of income from work, but there was still plenty left over.
So, Shen Changchuan simply took some of it to give away as favors.
Shen Changchuan wasn’t someone completely ignorant of social niceties.
Although he had used Senior Shen Tingchu’s name as a bluff to coerce them,
who knew if someone might feel resentful and try to cause trouble for him in secret, to make things difficult?
As they say, details determine success or failure.
It was a simple precaution worth taking—might as well cover all the bases.
After all, he had nothing to lose.
And while Shen Changchuan was dealing with the matter of the Shen Family group,
the Shopkeepers of the major merchant associations had already held several meetings to discuss the situation.
"Sigh... now that the Cyan Essence Water Grass has appeared, it’s given credence to that rumor."
"From now on, the various outside powers that were watching from the sidelines will inevitably jump into the fray. Loose Cultivators from all over will swarm in, and all sorts of shady characters will be mixed in among them, including countless powerful experts."
"Now is not the right time to be doing business at all."
"Never mind the possibility that Dawan Village itself could be attacked—our caravans transporting goods through the wilderness will face challenges far more difficult than before!"
"Until the situation becomes clear, I’m afraid any caravan that goes out will be a one-way trip!"
At the meeting,
someone said worriedly.
Clearly, they were not optimistic about the plan Shen Changchuan had proposed.
"Exactly. The future chaos is practically visible to the naked eye. Unless we have several masters at the Ninth Layer of Qi Introduction overseeing things, how could it be so easy to slaughter others until they’re too scared to make another move?!"
"I agree. And what’s more troublesome is that ’that person’ only hired a Seventh Layer helper. What good can that do? If our families pooled our resources, we could probably hire several Seventh and Eighth Layer Cultivators to guard the transports, but what’s the use in that? Once the great battle begins, a Seventh Layer Cultivator will probably just be high-level cannon fodder..."
"I feel the same way. The situation is still unclear, so it’s really not suitable for us to get involved. If we stop operating now, we might earn a little less, but at least we’ll break even and won’t suffer major losses..."
"I understand your concerns, but ’that person’ was the one who proposed it, and he guaranteed with full confidence that it would work. He has no intention of accepting our opinions!"
"Why don’t we just forget it? We’ve earned our Spirit Stones and paid the rent. We can just leave. It’s not like we have to stay just because he wants us to..."
"That’s out of the question! If we do that, we’ll completely tear face with him. We can’t do that."
"But the risk is just too great! Unless ’that person’ can hire a few experts at the Eighth and Ninth Layers of Qi Introduction, this is purely a money-losing venture..."
"How about... we do this..."
Throughout the discussion,
the Shopkeepers had absolutely no faith in the plan Shen Changchuan presented.
This was because,
the plan was simply too outrageous.
He was just sending a single Seventh Layer Late Stage helper to escort their transport caravan,
and then he had the audacity to claim they would kill every last Tribulation Cultivator who dared to plunder them, using their blood to shock others into submission.
What a joke.
Where did a mere Seventh Layer Late Stage cultivator get the nerve to make such an arrogant boast?!
After all, last time,
their caravan had been attacked by a Cultivator at the Ninth Layer Realm!
Their distrust
was completely understandable.
However,
after a heated discussion,
the Shopkeepers ultimately agreed to Shen Changchuan’s plan.
But they also proposed their own conditions.
They would continue to operate in Dawan Village,
and they would organize several merchandise transports to cooperate with Shen Changchuan’s plan.
At the same time, however,
if the plan didn’t achieve the desired effect,
or if the transport teams suffered losses that caused the caravans to lose money on three separate occasions,
then they would no longer continue to operate,
and would instead prepare to withdraw from Dawan Village.
