Chapter 663: Black Gold

“Clan Leader Wang, what is the meaning of this?”

Song Changsheng’s brow furrowed slightly. The man was, after all, a clan leader and a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, yet his actions were so… unbecoming.

“Sect Leader, I beg you to seek justice for the Wang Clan.” Wang Mingren, however, had completely cast aside his pride, his attitude as humble as could be. ‘In any case, I’m kneeling to a Purple Mansion Cultivator, so it isn’t too shameful.’

“Rise and speak. If you are in some difficulty, I will certainly not stand idly by.” Song Changsheng suddenly felt a headache coming on. ‘Maybe coming to see him today was a mistake.’

Hearing Song Changsheng’s words, Wang Mingren scrambled up from the ground and said cautiously, “Reporting to the Sect Leader, it’s like this. A year ago, a disciple of my clan accidentally discovered a… Spirit Stone Vein beneath a nameless, barren mountain in the Cyan Ape Mountain Range.”

“A Spirit Stone Vein?” Song Changsheng’s eyebrows raised slightly. The land of Xiang Province was barren, lacking Spirit Plants and various Spiritual Materials, but it had quite a few Spirit Stone Veins of various sizes. The Xiang Province Rong Clan alone controlled three micro-sized Spirit Stone Veins and one small-sized Spirit Stone Vein.

There was also a small-sized Spirit Stone Vein on the border between Xiang Province and Yang Province. For this, the Lieyang Sect and the Rong Clan had fought tooth and nail for decades, only for the Song Clan to swoop in and reap the rewards in the end.

To think that another one had now been discovered in the Cyan Ape Mountain Range—the two locations weren’t far apart.

“Precisely. After a preliminary survey, its scale should be that of a micro-sized Spirit Stone Vein, but it is a rich one, with an output no less than a small-sized Spirit Stone Vein. At the same time, it is accompanied by a massive Black Gold Mine Vein.”

“Isn’t this a good thing? What troubles you, Clan Leader Wang?” Song Changsheng asked nonchalantly, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest of his chair.

He knew Wang Mingren had more to say than just this.

Sure enough, the next moment Wang Mingren said, filled with indignation, “Having an extra source of income is naturally a good thing, but somehow the news leaked and the Hengyang Lum Clan found out. They actually came straight to our door demanding it. This Spirit Stone Vein is within my clan’s territory and was discovered by a disciple of my clan. By all rights and reason, it should belong to our Wang Clan. Faced with such a shameless demand, I naturally refused them sternly. Who would have thought that Lum Zhenghui would then threaten to annihilate my entire Wang Clan…”

“Wait.”

Song Changsheng held up a hand, interrupting Wang Mingren. The more he listened, the more confused he became. He knew of the Hengyang Lum Clan; they were one of the foremost Cultivation Families in Xiang Province, with strength no less than that of the Yang Province Chu Clan, perhaps even greater.

Their Clan Leader, Lum Zhenghui, was also exceptionally talented, having broken through to Foundation Establishment Great Perfection at the young age of one hundred and fifty, with the Purple Mansion realm within his grasp.

The Lum Clan’s strength was indeed impressive, but the Wang Clan was also one of the top three major clans in Xiang Province. They were no pushovers, and the gap between the two sides was not significant.

With their Clan Protection Array to rely on, the Lum Clan would find it difficult to even breach the Wang Clan’s main peak, Cyan Ape Mountain. A single misstep could even lead to disastrous losses for them.

For the Lum Clan to threaten to annihilate the entire Wang Clan would normally be dismissed as an empty threat made out of anger and embarrassment. In reality, no one believed they had the strength to do it.

But from the look on Wang Mingren’s face, he clearly believed it—and believed it without a shadow of a doubt.

Song Changsheng was absolutely certain there was something fishy going on.

“If it were merely the Hengyang Lum Clan, this junior would not dare to come and trouble the Sect Leader. I only learned later that the one standing behind the Hengyang Lum Clan is… the Celestial Sword Sect!” Wang Mingren gritted his teeth and spat out a name that made Song Changsheng’s brow furrow deeply.

Ever since the Great City Lord broke through to the Golden Core Stage, the Celestial Sword Sect, which had been the perennial number two, had finally risen to the top, becoming the number one Purple Mansion Influence in the Daqi Cultivation World.

‘Judging by the Celestial Sword Sect’s usual style, they don’t seem like the type to annihilate a whole clan over a simple disagreement, especially not for a mere micro-sized Spirit Stone Vein. It just isn’t worth it for them.’

‘Taking a huge step back, with the Celestial Sword Sect’s power, making a Foundation Establishment Family disappear without a trace would be laughably easy. So why would they reveal their identity?’

‘This whole story sounds sketchy.’

“Are you certain the Celestial Sword Sect is involved in this?” Song Changsheng leaned forward slightly, his eyes flashing with a sharp light. ‘Anything involving the Celestial Sword Sect is no small matter. Without irrefutable proof, I can’t possibly step in rashly.’

Wang Mingren felt as if he were being stared down by a ferocious tiger. His Adam’s apple bobbed twice, and he forced himself to say, “I am willing to stake my life on it.”

Song Changsheng stared at him for a while, making Wang Mingren’s skin crawl.

After a long moment, Song Changsheng finally stood up and said in an even tone, “Since you are willing to submit to the Song Clan, why not just offer the Spirit Stone Vein as a pledge of allegiance and submit to the Celestial Sword Sect? The Wang Clan would naturally be safe then. But instead, you chose the roundabout path to come here to my Vast Mist Peak. Why is that?”

“This…”

An embarrassed expression flashed across Wang Mingren’s face.

To be perfectly honest, that was his original plan. But unexpectedly, something went wrong along the way—and that something came from Yang Province.

On that day, the seven great Foundation Establishment Families of Yang Province, who had always minded their own business where the Wang Clan was concerned, gathered a large force of elites and attacked without any warning. They came on aggressively, and they did so under the banner of the Song Clan.

Wang Mingren and the rest of the Wang Clan had assumed that the Song Clan was also coveting their newly discovered Spirit Stone Vein and had thus raised an army to attack them.

Seeing a pack of wolves before him and a tiger at his back, Wang Mingren weighed his options. To preserve his clansmen, he ultimately chose to surrender to the Yang Province Allied Army—or rather, to the Song Clan—offering the Spirit Stone Vein as his pledge of allegiance.