Chapter 373 - 368: Taking Money into the Coffin

"I feel like I know you... Have I met you before?"

When they met again, Meng Xiao’s ghost had finally come to its senses, able to clearly express its thoughts.

However, it still hadn’t recovered its memories and seemed a bit slow.

Du Youqian told him honestly, "You owe me money. Lots and lots of money."

"What’s money?" Meng Xiao asked, confused. "No, wait, I think I understand what money is. You said I owe you a lot of it? How am I supposed to pay you back?"

Seeing Du Youqian bullying Meng Xiao, Xi Mengran stood to the side, furiously making faces—it was the only thing she could do.

After all, she didn’t dare to make a move on Du Youqian.

Du Youqian shot Xi Mengran a threatening glare, then smiled and continued communicating with Meng Xiao via Divine Sense. "You can pay me back slowly. No rush. You said I seem familiar. What do you feel when you see me?"

Meng Xiao said, "I feel a little like I want to get close to you... and a little like I want to run away."

"So you both respect and fear me? That’s normal. After all, I am the person you respect most, the one you swore a lifetime of loyalty to."

Xi Mengran told Meng Xiao with her Divine Sense, "He’s probably not lying about that part."

Meng Xiao nodded. "I understand. I will continue to be loyal to you then. But I don’t know how to do anything right now. I feel like I’m supposed to know a lot of things, but I’ve forgotten everything."

He seemed a bit dejected.

"It’s alright, take it slow. Focus on your cultivation first." Du Youqian handed the *Night Illuminating Nine Heavens Soul-Seeking Immortality Technique* to Xi Mengran.

"From now on, you two will cultivate this Cultivation Technique. If there’s anything you don’t understand, help each other and discuss it together. Don’t ask me, because I don’t know either. I’ve never been a ghost, after all."

Xi Mengran made another unhappy face.

Du Youqian looked around. ’The environment here is pretty good. Meng Xiao has made great progress—he’s gone from severely disabled to only mildly so. You two should continue cultivating here. Don’t wander off. I’ll come see you again in a few decades. I’ll probably have a new body by then. Xi Mengran, don’t make me use a secret code again, or I’ll smash your head in.’

Xi Mengran bared her teeth in fury, then with a WHOOSH, shot back into the Soul-Imbued Jade.

This was a far cry from her living self, who always maintained a prim and proper demeanor, who walked with delicate steps so as not to disturb her hair ornaments, and who paid meticulous attention to the etiquette of the Imperial Family.

Du Youqian smiled faintly, not bothering to argue with her.

After giving Meng Xiao a few more instructions, he left.

After returning to the Zouma Gang, Du Youqian enjoyed a period of leisure and took stock of his gains from Su Miao Master’s Cave Mansion.

In total, he had acquired over 700,000 Spiritual Jade and more than fifty Tier Three Treasures, with a combined value of around 700,000 to 800,000 Spiritual Jade.

Then there was the Tier Four Treasure. Its value was hard to estimate, but if it could be fully restored, this single Treasure could sell for over 500,000 Spiritual Jade at auction.

Additionally, there were the Tier Four Cultivation Techniques inheritances: Daoist Soldier Technique and Beast Taming Art. There was also a Puppetry Art inheritance, different from the one taught by Jie Yu, which served as a useful supplement for Du Youqian.

There were also various Tier Three Cultivation Technique inheritances, Secret Techniques, and some incomplete Cultivation Techniques, all of which had some value.

Du Youqian had never been this rich before... ’People really should explore more Secret Realms and Cave Mansions.’

’Cave Mansions are great places to farm for money!’

Of these gains, he would naturally use the Inheritances and Secret Techniques for himself. He kept the Tier Four Treasure for his own use. As for the Tier Three Treasures, he set aside a few distinctive ones to use or to give as rewards, and kept another dozen or so as inventory for the Sect he planned to establish in the future.

He took the rest to the Qingxu Commerce Association and had them help sell them off.

It took almost a year for the Qingxu Commerce Association to sell all the Treasures for him.

Du Youqian now possessed a huge sum of nearly 1,200,000 Spiritual Jade.

Du Youqian hadn’t decided exactly how to spend this money yet.

But it didn’t matter. If he hadn’t spent all his money when he died, he could literally take it with him to the grave...

His leisure didn’t last long. Du Youqian soon decided it was time to make a move against the Shengxia Sect.

His main targets were the Shengxia Sect’s Golden Core Late Stage and Golden Core Middle Stage cultivators; he planned to clip their wings.

Then he would force them into a hundred years of seclusion.

Clipping their wings wouldn’t be difficult, but finding someone to force them into seclusion was a problem.

In the end, Du Youqian had to do it himself—suppress them with a single sword and force them to promise a century of seclusion.

The greatest difficulty lay in how to suppress them without killing them.

A sword is a weapon of slaughter, especially with the Sword Intents Du Youqian had mastered. Whether it was the various Sword Intents from the *Blood Slaughter Sword Scripture* or the Broken Water Sword Intent, they were all extremely lethal.

They drew blood with every strike, making it difficult to hold back.

Fortunately, he could now use the Celestial Dao Sword and the Human Dao Sword. These two swordsmanship styles were exceptionally well-suited for sealing and suppressing.

Thus, the operation against the two veteran Core Formation Masters of the Shengxia Sect officially began.

He clipped their wings and severed their social connections with lightning speed, completing the task in just a few days.

Then, acting as Kang Yinghe’s friend, Du Youqian challenged the two Core Formation Masters to a duel. He proposed that if they won, his side would ensure Kang Yinghe wouldn’t compete for power for a hundred years, and he would give each of them 100,000 Spiritual Jade. If Du Youqian won, they would have to enter a hundred years of seclusion and not participate in the Sect’s affairs.

These terms were quite generous. After all, for most Golden Core Middle and Late Stage cultivators, 100,000 Spiritual Jade was no small sum. It was worth betting a hundred years of their time for such a fight.

Unfortunately, their skills were inferior. Du Youqian suppressed them one by one, and in the end, they could only regretfully announce their hundred-year seclusion.

The remaining two Core Formation Masters of the Shengxia Sect, however, were harder to deal with. They refused to duel Du Youqian and were unwilling to relinquish their power, confident that Kang Yinghe wouldn’t kill them. They were completely intractable.

In the end, Du Youqian resorted to a mix of coercion and bribery. Wielding his sword, he single-handedly broke into the Shengxia Sect’s Grand Array, endured its power, and gave them a brutal beating in front of the entire sect, causing them to lose all face. Afterward, he gave each of them 50,000 Spiritual Jade as a placating gesture.

With this two-pronged approach, they were finally forced to concede, allowing Kang Yinghe to become the Shengxia Sect’s Supreme Elder, the one with the highest authority.

After taking power, Kang Yinghe didn’t turn his back on Du Youqian—he wouldn’t dare.

On the contrary, he was even more respectful than before, because he knew that Du Youqian, who had single-handedly elevated him, could just as easily bring him down.

Du Youqian, for his part, didn’t throw his weight around.

He had moved beyond such low-level pleasures.

When Kang Yinghe asked him what he wanted, Du Youqian only made two requests.

First, to borrow and read their entire collection of texts, with the exception of the Shengxia Sect’s foundation technique.

Second, that after he established his own Sect, the Shengxia Sect would support it for a period of time to help it achieve a self-sustaining cycle.

The first point was easy to handle.

The second point wasn’t impossible, but certain aspects were difficult to define.

They would need to negotiate specific terms. It couldn’t just be the Shengxia Sect providing unilateral aid, or Kang Yinghe wouldn’t be able to keep his own people in line.

Moreover, there was the issue of policies dying with their creators. The two Sects needed to be able to maintain friendly relations even after Du Youqian reincarnated or if Kang Yinghe, for some reason, was no longer in power.

Du Youqian didn’t have much time left in this life, and a newly established Sect would need at least a hundred years to stabilize.

By that time, the Sect should be able to consistently produce its own Core Formation Masters, many of its systems would be deeply ingrained, and it would have forged alliances with other Golden Core Sects besides Shengxia Sect. Only then could it survive independently without Shengxia Sect’s support.

Du Youqian had also considered not building a Sect and focusing on managing the Zouma Gang instead.

But he realized the Zouma Gang had too many hidden dangers. Unless it was thoroughly purged, it was completely unsuitable to serve as an anchor for him in each of his reincarnations.

And the cost of a thorough purge of the Zouma Gang... was far, far too great.

It would be better to use the Zouma Gang as another backer for the new Sect, or as a friendly power, to help the new Sect through its initial phase.

So, after making copies of all the Shengxia Sect’s texts, Du Youqian focused all his energy on establishing his own Sect.

There were several problems to solve when building a Sect from scratch.

First was its Inheritance.

A Sect must have its own Inheritance.

A Sect without a unique Inheritance would have no cohesion.

This Inheritance included not only Cultivation Techniques and Secret Techniques but also rules and regulations. It needed a purpose, a dream, a goal for generations of disciples to strive for. Ideally, it should also have a specialty in certain Cultivation Techniques.

Second was location. A newly established Sect is weak and lacks cohesion. If built in a highly contested area, it would easily fall into conflict with other powers and be snuffed out prematurely.

Third was diplomacy. A Sect couldn’t survive without friends, but making bad friends was even worse. A bad friend is always picking fights and calling you for backup. Do you go or not? If you don’t, you’re disloyal, and other Sects won’t want to associate with you. If you do go, you have to cover your own losses. And if you choose your friends poorly, you might even get betrayed and sold out...

Finally, there were resources. A Sect needs to provide benefits and encourage disciples to cultivate. You can’t expect disciples to spend half their day mining for Spirit Stones and earning Elixirs and the other half cultivating. Therefore, a Sect must control some resources, generating income while managing expenses, to ensure its long-term survival.

The matter of Inheritance was both easy and difficult to solve.

Du Youqian had mastered far too many Cultivation Techniques and Secret Techniques. If he casually picked a few to be the Sect’s Foundation Techniques... the Sect would probably be jointly annihilated by the Holy Blood Sect and others the very next day, not even leaving ashes behind.

That’s right. Although Du Youqian had mastered many Secret Techniques, most of them couldn’t see the light of day.

After much thought, he finally decided to use two techniques with fewer entanglements as the Sect’s Direct Inheritance techniques: the *Seven Transition Celestial Dance Scripture* and the *True Grotto Heaven Golden Profound Body Recording Scripture*. One focused on cultivating the spirit, the other on Body Refining.

The Lower-Rank Techniques would be the *Shangqing Purple Qi Divine Pill Creation Technique* and the *Profound Void Three Treasures Decision*. These two also had few connections, so he didn’t need to fear anyone coming after him for them.

He then made arrangements for the other Secret Techniques, Magic, and so on.

As for the location, after mulling it over, Du Youqian decided to build the Sect on the fringes of the Endless Desert Western Domain. The resources there were scarce, but its main advantage was safety.

’Once I’m powerful enough in the future, I can always move the Sect.’