Buzz!
Li Guanqi’s jade slip flashed again and again. He picked it up with a frown, and Wu Bing hurriedly explained what had happened.
Li Guanqi’s breath caught. It seems Tu Kui was still the Heavenly Metal Peak master he remembered. His conscience hadn’t died, and he had come to his senses.
Recalling how Tu Kui had once looked out for him, Li Guanqi shook his head with a bitter smile. “Leave him be for now. Everything will be settled within three days. Let those three days serve as his punishment. Stay out of it unless he tries to take his own life before then.”
Li Guanqi set down the jade slip. If Tu Kui had truly been blinded by power, Li Guanqi wouldn’t have minded killing him. Now that Tu Kui had come to his senses, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
But there was another problem. “Wait. If he doesn’t pass on the news, won’t my whole act have been for nothing?”
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes and frowned as he fell into deep thought. The other side would definitely notice Tu Kui’s fading life force. Once he was no longer of any use to them, they wouldn’t care whether he lived or died. They might even hasten his death.
Li Guanqi let out a long breath and contacted Gu Changsheng to ask about a few things, but got no reply. Strangely, that helped him relax a little. It seemed things were going fairly smoothly on Gu Changsheng’s end.
He paced back and forth across the room, then made up his mind. If he didn’t decide today, the rest of the plan could fall apart. Tu Kui had been a crucial part of it, and Li Guanqi hadn’t expected a problem there.
Meanwhile, rumors that the Guanyun Pavilion was finished spread far and wide, growing more exaggerated with each retelling. Some claimed Li Guanqi planned to disband it. Others said many of its mid-level members had already left.
The Guanyun Pavilion offered no explanation, which only seemed to confirm the rumors. Across the Six Territories, its shops closed one after another. Many even posted signs offering the businesses for sale.
Gu Yong said coldly, “Heh, we’ll test them and see if it’s a smokescreen. Start with one billion spirit stones. Buy up their shops across the Six Territories and see how the Guanyun Pavilion responds! Hmph, they got one over on us last time. This time, we’ll get even! If they won’t sell, Li Guanqi must still be preparing another move. If they do, we’ll drive the prices down and buy them cheap!”
The others nodded and sneered.
“Heh! Just like I thought, he was just a brat. How capable could he be?”
“He ran out of steam after just a few moves. Hahaha, the Guanyun Pavilion must be in total chaos by now!”
However, one of them still felt the need to remain cautious. “Li Guanqi hasn’t shown himself yet. We should be careful.”
Shen Feng scoffed. “So what if he shows up? He’s got enough to worry about with those orders worth four hundred million spirit stones. The Guanyun Pavilion’s former customers are flocking to us, and our shops are packed.”
The Yellow Tower Lord smiled. “That’s right. A void storm must have struck somewhere in the Six Territories recently. Plenty of Paradise Realm fragments have drifted out, so many cultivators urgently need pills and other supplies. Quite a few rare beasts with ancient bloodlines have appeared as well. The Mercenary Association has also bought a great deal from us lately, and we’ve made billions of spirit stones!”
Gu Yong frowned and asked warily, “Shen Feng, have you looked into this sudden surge in revenue?”
Shen Feng nodded solemnly and said in a deep voice, “I have. We’ve made a great deal of money recently, so I looked into it. It turns out a chaotic void storm genuinely swept up spatial fragments of Paradise Realms and scattered them throughout the Six Territories. The demand is real, and the buyers aren’t all from the same faction. Everything can be traced, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Gu Yong tucked his hands into his sleeves and narrowed his eyes, muttering, “Everything... can be traced?”
Shen Feng didn’t see the problem. He frowned and nodded. “Yes, Pavilion Master. Everything can be traced.”
Gu Yong made a snap decision and said solemnly, “Something’s wrong. Pass the word down. Shorten business hours and limit how much people can buy!”
Confused, Shen Feng asked, “Pavilion Master, what’s wrong with that? Even if the Guanyun Pavilion is behind it, we’ve been paid for everything we sold. They couldn’t bring us down this way, no matter how much money they had.”
Gu Yong shot to his feet, his cloudy eyes gleaming. “No! Something is definitely wrong! When everything makes perfect sense and can be traced, that’s a problem in itself! It’s deliberate. Far too deliberate.”
However, by the time Gu Yong saw through the scheme, Li Guanqi had already changed his strategy. “Uncle Tang, are the fake identities for those earlier orders ready?”
Tang Wei patted his chest and laughed. “Don’t worry. They’ll find them after a couple of hours of digging. Fake identities, fake factions, even fake orders! I’ve mixed the real and the fake so thoroughly that even I couldn’t tell them apart without my records!”
Li Guanqi’s lips curled up as he said quietly, “Yu Hua, make sure our hidden agents posing as maids in the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s shops keep their identities concealed.”
Yu Hua laughed softly. “Yes, Pavilion Master. Our agents report that the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion has started checking the orders. All its shops across the Six Territories have closed for two hours to reconcile their accounts.”
Li Guanqi nodded. Everything was still under his control. Sometimes a plan needed a few flaws. If the enemy found something, they would feel reassured. Once they believed they had seen through the deception and uncovered the “truth,” they would accept it without further question.
He wanted the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion to find those flaws, see through his carefully constructed deception, and settle on a “truth” that reassured them. Once Gu Yong verified the orders, he would press his advantage and rake in as much money as he could. Then, when they fell into the trap, Li Guanqi would pounce and tear into their flesh.
While the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion checked its accounts, Tang Wei finally had a moment to catch his breath. In the study, Li Guanqi brewed spirit tea for him and asked softly, “How much have we invested so far?”
The man downed his tea in one gulp and said softly, “Eleven and a half billion!”
Li Guanqi’s lips curved. “Apart from us, roughly how much have the cultivators of the Six Territories spent?”
Tang Wei sounded incredulous. “People’s herd mentality is terrifying. We spent just two days creating this illusion, and the cultivators who saw it came swarming in. In that time, the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion has brought in at least fifty billion! We only account for part of that.”
Li Guanqi looked so sure of victory that Tang Wei couldn’t help but swallow hard. He sent a quiet voice transmission. “The Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion is one massive ship. Are you sure you can punch a hole in its hull? Don’t drag us down with it...”
Li Guanqi smiled slightly and poured him another cup of spirit tea. “Leave it to me. Soon, you’ll be even busier than you are now!”