Chapter 598 - Chapter 598: Chapter 570: Hundreds of Insects Thrive in the Prosperous Era

Chapter 598: Chapter 570: Hundreds of Insects Thrive in the Prosperous Era

Although the process and outcome of the conflict were deliberately downplayed by the official stance of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals, it was evident from the Alliance’s subsequent actions following the battle.

All the recently issued instructions for the offensive were urgently revoked; the states were given orders to fortify their defenses to protect against potential infiltrations from the Five Elders’ Monks. Initiating warfare was expressly forbidden in any state, and the current objectives were primarily aimed at defense.

The front lines sent ever-increasing summons to the states.

“New instructions every morning and evening, what a mess!”

Practically overnight, the war policy underwent a drastic 180-degree shift, leading to heartfelt complaints from the cultivators in the Immortal Alliance.

But such is the might of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals, that none dared to voice their grievances in person. Their only recourse, bitter exclamations, came during private gatherings.

The progress of the war, was not dictated by the will of the cultivators.

It merely shifted aspects from seeming overwhelmingly advantageous to a standoff between both sides.

With setbacks in the outward-facing war, internal struggles were far from calm.

At the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals Headquarters, it was rumored that many high-ranking cultivators were stripped of their positions for investigation, including some veteran Unity-Path cultivators with deep backgrounds and long tenures who were not exempted.

However, the reason for their interrogations remained unknown to the public.

Even once these cultivators were discharged, they remained visibly weak and refused to discuss the matter, even if they had been tortured. All questions were met with a wall of silence.

This led to widespread skepticism and fear.

After all, no one wanted to be the next inexplicably dragged away for questioning.

However, Li Fan knew that the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals was cracking down on nonexistent traitors.

Regardless of how meticulously they mulled it over, how could they possibly imagine that the leaker of the Tianxuan Spirit Sealing Formation Map was a minor Golden Core Cultivator in the remote Misthaven Ocean, who had never even come into contact with the matter?

Therefore, the investigation was doomed to bear no fruit.

Perhaps the case would eventually be hastily closed with a few scapegoats making forced confessions.

And the list of those harmed by Li Fan would see a few more names of innocent victims.

Having obtained a rough understanding of the war’s progress over the past year, Li Fan resumed perusing the many messages that He Zhenghao had sent to “Zhou Qingang”.

Most of these messages were inquiries and reminders asking when he would leave seclusion.

At the beginning of his seclusion, the messages were quite frequent. However, for reasons unknown, perhaps due to giving up or others, the messages dwindled over time.

“The Emissary is in deep seclusion, as are you, Brother Zhou.”

“No one can get a hold of either of you.”

“Nowadays, it seems everyone is doing the same, destroying their Communication Talismans and claiming they are in seclusion.”

“If this continues, I fear that we in the Misthaven City Governance Hall will not even be able to gather ten functionaries! How am I supposed to report to the Emissary when he returns!”

…

While He Zhenghao was pouring out his grievances, Li Fan snorted in contempt.

“Do you even remember that I am the Emissary?”

Ignoring this soon-to-be-dead man, Li Fan swiftly cleared the messages in the Communication Talisman. He then left the secret room where he had been in seclusion, and quietly appeared in the Governance Hall.

“Brother Gao, the role of Elixir Quality Assessor at the Elixir Hall has recently become vacant. Someone offered me fifty thousand contribution points for this position. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a bit low, at least eighty thousand.”

“After all, not long ago, we earned a whopping one hundred and thirty thousand contribution points from the position of Marshal at the Martial Arts Battle Hall. This time…”

As He Zhenghao was speaking, he suddenly noticed an extra person in the room.

He abruptly stopped talking and looked at “Zhou Qingang” with an embarrassed expression, unsure of what to say.

However, Gao Yuan’s eyes merely narrowed slightly, showing no signs of panic at having their private deal exposed.

Instead, he greeted “Zhou Qingang” with a smile, casually saying, “It’s been a while, Brother Zhou. Just in time to offer us some advice!”

With that, he warmly pulled Zhou Qingang over and revealed the details of their scheme to sell off the vacant positions in Misthaven City.

Then, with expectation in his eyes, he looked at Li Fan, awaiting his response.

With this move, he quickly resolved the awkwardness between He Zhenghao and himself and bridged the gap that had formed due to Zhou Qingang’s long absence. Furthermore, he was inviting Zhou to join them.

Even Li Fan, who had been dealing with officialdom for hundreds of years, couldn’t help praising, “Impressive.”

Looking at the two men with a faint smile, he didn’t choose to be the righteous man exposing their wrongdoings.

He only pretended to ponder for a moment, then slammed his hand down on the table: “Eighty thousand contribution points?”

“That’s too low! Bottom line, one hundred and sixty thousand contribution points!”

“Take it or leave it!”

Unexpectedly, Zhou Qingang was even more greedy than they were, doubling the price in one go.

He Zhenghao was immediately dumbstruck.

However, after a moment, he regained his composure and tried to reason with Zhou: “Brother Zhou, you’ve probably just woken up from your seclusion and haven’t had a chance to catch up on the current market conditions.”

“The role of Elixir Quality Assessor can only fetch up to eighty thousand at most. After all, we are not the only ones selling it in Misthaven Ocean, and people choose us only because of our low prices and the chance to use it as a stepping stone.”

“Doubling the price all at once…”

He Zhenghao shook his head: “With that amount of money, why wouldn’t people go to Luoyan State or other more prosperous places?”

Gao Yuan nodded in agreement.

Li Fan looked at them both coldly with a mocking expression: “I’m not familiar with the situation? Do you two really think that I have no knowledge of outside affairs while I was in seclusion? I think it’s you two who are out of touch!”

“Zhou Qingang”‘s behavior was markedly different from his usual demeanor.

Given Zhou Qingang’s careful and steady nature, he wasn’t the type to speak randomly.

Could it be that…

Gao Yuan and He Zhenghao exchanged a glance, both of them with an incredulous look in their eyes.

As the saying goes, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ll fear no retribution; a simple sentence from Zhou Qingang had managed to make them both tremble with fear.

Leaning forward, He Zhenghao asked cautiously: “Brother Zhou, what do you mean by that?”

“Zhou Qingang” didn’t answer, he just looked at Gao Yuan.

A flicker of anger appeared in Gao Yuan’s eyes, but he quickly suppressed it and put on a smile as well as an attitude of humility.

It was then that Li Fan slowly said, “The Battle of Heavenly Spirit State is nearing its end, and the war will soon come to a close. Your days of profiting from the chaos of war and manipulating official positions are nearly over!”

At these words, both He Zhenghao and Gao Yuan looked utterly stunned.

And for once, their shock wasn’t feigned.

After the initial shock subsided, both men had an incredulous look in their eyes.

“There has been no news of this. How did you come by this information, Brother Zhou?” He Zhenghao asked hastily.

“Not that we don’t trust you, Brother Zhou, but this involves significant matters of the Immortal Alliance. You mustn’t speak carelessly,” Gao Yuan added.

“How did I find out?” Zhou Qingang sneered at the two of them with cold eyes.

“Of course, it was the Emissary himself who informed me about it!”