Chapter 448 - 443: Old Thief Ximen, I’ll Fight You to the Death

On this day, after staying in his rented cave abode for several days, Master Sui Xiao came to visit Master Su Quan’s residence.

It was well known that Master Sui Xiao was a junior whom Master Su Quan held in high regard. Therefore, to those paying attention, this visit seemed perfectly normal.

"Heh heh heh, are all you Little Demons from the Holy Blood Sect this full of tricks? Or is it just True Inheritors like you?" Ye Rui Master had returned to her usual seductive charm. The smooth progress of their plan had clearly improved her mood considerably.

Du Youqian thought, ’When it comes to being cunning, even an old fox like me who’s lived for over a thousand years has to admit you’re my superior. You madwoman, you old Demon from the Heavenly Emotions and Oceanic Resentments Sect—stop trying to act all pure in front of me.’

Of course, he wouldn’t say anything to spoil the mood. Instead, he just smiled and said, "You’re teasing me. I’m a very simple person. If it weren’t for your sake, I never would have racked my brain so hard to come up with this plan."

"Next, it’ll be Ximen Chuixue’s turn to take the stage. Do you think it will go smoothly?"

Du Youqian was very confident. "When he entered the city, Ximen Chuixue demonstrated a cold and brutal disregard for human life. He also fought both Master Su Quan and Duanmu Master and even seemed to have the upper hand. This way, with Ximen Chuixue collecting the taxes, everyone will have to think twice and wonder if their own neck is sturdy enough to refuse."

"Then let’s stick to what we agreed on," Ye Rui Master said, her smiling eyes turning silky and seductive. "I don’t care what methods you use, just collect ten million Spiritual Jade. You can take two million of that as your payment. Also, as long as you have the ability, you can take all the Artisans who want to flee Huailai."

Indeed, the very reason Du Youqian had finally agreed to do this was that he coveted those Artisans.

With Ye Rui Master imposing such exorbitant levies and extorting fifty years of back taxes, most of those Artisans would surely find it impossible to remain in Huailai City. Their sense of security would be shattered.

That would be the perfect time for the caravan to step in, escort them to Ruihan City, and treat them as honored guests. How wonderful!

The rapidly expanding Ruihan City was indeed in need of a large number of Cultivation Practitioners.

And these Artisans, in turn, needed to find a new patron.

It was a mutually beneficial situation.

"I’ll do as you say." And so, Du Youqian and Ye Rui Master looked at each other and smiled, each harboring their own ulterior motives.

~~~~~~~~~~

Turmoil erupted in the long-peaceful Huailai City.

Initially, when Master Su Quan had wanted to raise taxes, he had practically begged the Immortal City’s administrators for their approval, only to be met with stalling and evasions.

But soon, the infamous Ximen Chuixue came to collect the taxes personally.

The well-informed had long since learned of Ximen Chuixue killing people at the city gate.

Thanks to the exaggerations of a few, Ximen Chuixue’s formidable prowess in Magical Combat and his deadly Swordsmanship became known throughout the city.

And now, Ximen Chuixue’s move to levy taxes on Huailai City immediately sent the entire populace into an uproar.

"Master Ximen, you’re not from Huailai City! What right do you have to tax us?"

Ximen Chuixue replied flatly, "You can choose to hand over the Spiritual Jade I require while you are still alive. Or, you can choose to be killed, after which I will personally retrieve it from your corpses."

"Master Ximen, don’t think Huailai City is defenseless! Master Su Quan and Duanmu Master won’t just stand by and watch you act so outrageously."

"It is only right and proper to repay a debt. They owe me money but can’t pay, so I have no choice but to collect it myself."

"Old Thief Ximen, I’ll fight you to the death!"

"An ant trying to shake a tree. You don’t know your own limits."

In a single night, Ximen Chuixue unleashed three sword strikes and killed five Core Formation Masters!

While it wasn’t a massacre with heads rolling in the streets...

...but with Nascent Soul Masters normally staying out of mundane affairs, the Core Formation Masters were the supreme authority in the Immortal City!

And tonight, the sky had fallen.

The Immortal City’s administrators were chilled to the bone.

Yes, they had over twenty Core Formation Masters among them.

But he had killed five people with just three strikes of his sword. How many more would it take to kill the rest of them?

True, legendary tales occasionally circulated about a Core Formation Master managing to defeat a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

But they were called legends for a reason: they were exceptionally rare!

Under normal circumstances, a Core Formation Master was powerless to resist a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

Had they cultivated the Dao for hundreds of years, only to offend a Nascent Soul Cultivator and die an obscure death?

Of course not!

Since resistance was futile, their only option was to cooperate.

So the remaining Core Formation Masters went to Ximen Chuixue and aired their grievances. "We are willing to cooperate with you to collect the taxes, Master Ximen, but the amount you want to levy is far too high. We have no proper justification for such a tax; it will only drive everyone away."

Ximen Chuixue remained expressionless. "Most Cultivators pour nearly all their resources into their Cultivation and self-preservation, barely managing to get by. Very few have enough spare funds to consume Elixirs in large quantities. Therefore, I have no desire to tax those paupers; I wouldn’t get much from them anyway. The ones I want to tax are the Cultivation Practitioners."

He then relayed the plan Ye Rui had conceived, including the articles on unified management, centralized purchasing of raw materials, unified sales, and centralized taxation. Finally, he said, "For the past several decades, Huailai City hasn’t levied a separate tax on these Artisans, allowing them all to grow fat and complacent, their Storage Treasure Pouches bulging. This time, they will pay fifty years of back taxes! Seal the city gates. During this period, entry is permitted, but no one leaves. Until every last bit of tax is collected, not even a mosquito is to fly out of Huailai City! Oh, and I almost forgot. There are a few Artisans among you leaders as well. How about this... I should give you some preferential treatment. You’ll only pay for thirty years. Of course, to the public, you’ll announce that you paid for fifty."

The Artisans among the Core Formation Masters suddenly felt this was actually a pretty good deal.

But when they thought about the future—if they truly had to accept unified management, centralized purchasing, and centralized taxation from now on—then there would be no reason to stay in Huailai City.

The city exploded. Huailai City truly exploded into chaos.

Quite a few Artisans had settled in Huailai City.

For the past several thousand years, they had lived and worked in peace and contentment, passing their legacy down through the generations.

Some Artisan families had passed down their skills for dozens of generations; the reputations of their shops were built over untold years.

To them, Huailai City had been a wonderful place to live.

Who would have thought that their generation would be the one to encounter something so absurd!

Collecting fifty years of back taxes! Any Immortal City administrator with a shred of sanity would never do such a thing!

But there was nothing to be done.

The Core Formation administrators personally visited each of the Artisans to lay out the grim reality of the situation.

They recounted the Ximen Demon’s cold indifference when he casually killed people upon entering the city, and the terror of him slaughtering five Core Formation Masters in a single night.

They even used themselves as an example, speaking of their own resentment and bitterness, and their helplessness in the face of having to pay the tax.

To pay the tax would be a crippling blow.

To not pay meant death, and all their property would be seized regardless.

Pay or not pay?

It was no longer a choice.

They had no choice!

After all, no one wanted to die.

Besides, very few people could muster the courage to resist when facing a Nascent Soul Master.

And so, throughout Huailai City, every Artisan—sullen, resentful, and filled with hatred—scrambled to pay the fifty years of back taxes with surprising eagerness.

They were afraid that if they were too slow, they would be targeted by that butcher.

Fifty years of back taxes was, naturally, a huge sum of money.

Many Artisans who were normally lavish spenders and hadn’t saved much had to take out massive loans just to cover the amount.

At the same time, nearly ninety-five percent of the Artisans began looking for an escape route.

They could no longer stay in Huailai City. Now that this precedent had been set, life in the future would be incredibly difficult.

Greed is a bottomless pit. Even if that butcher Ximen Chuixue was satisfied for now and left, who could guarantee that Duanmu Xi and Master Su Quan wouldn’t grow jealous of his path to instant riches? Who could say they wouldn’t continue to bleed Huailai City dry, sucking the very marrow from its bones?

And it was at this very moment that the Artisans’ attention was drawn to a particular caravan. Hailing from Ruihan City—a B Level City within the Immortal City Alliance, situated beyond the Endless Desert Sea—the caravan had merely been stopping over in Huailai City to rest when its members were trapped by the lockdown.

Members of the caravan fanned out with gifts, extending sincere invitations to the Artisans to move and settle in Ruihan City. They guaranteed that Ruihan City’s regulations were fair and that, unlike here, they would never levy excessively high taxes on Artisans.

The question now was, could the caravan from Ruihan City actually get them out safely?

The people from Ruihan City immediately and confidently assured them that their Chief, Master Sui Xiao, was an old friend of Master Su Quan. They said that Master Su Quan held Master Sui Xiao in high esteem and would never refuse a small request from him.

The Artisans were skeptical, but most of them, figuring they had nothing to lose, agreed to go with the caravan from Ruihan City.

Some were genuinely willing to settle in Ruihan City; others just wanted to use the caravan as a temporary means of escape, planning to figure out their next steps later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A task that Ye Rui Master once thought would be as difficult as ascending to heaven—something she believed could only be accomplished by slaughtering half the city’s leadership—had been completed with such ease.

It just went to show that for anything in the world, all one needed was the right method.

What seems difficult is easy once you know how.

Another Jade Slip was sent to the Chen Kingdom.

"Senior Brother, after numerous tests, I have confirmed it: this little whelp from the Holy Blood Sect is a prodigious talent. Although he is still developing, I worry that if we truly wait for him to mature, he will be impossible to control. One hundred years from now, he could become our greatest obstacle in the struggle for the Celestial and Earthly Spiritual Object needed to ascend to Divinity Transformation! We cannot move against him now. He is a True Inheritor of the Holy Blood Sect. If I were to plot against him, even by using others to do the deed, the Holy Blood Sect’s divination techniques are formidable. They would surely trace it back to me, and I would be branded with the crime of a senior preying on a junior. However, I have made my decision. The moment he achieves Nascent Soul Formation, I will strike and eliminate him. When that time comes, I ask you, Senior Brother, to lend me your strength!"