Yù Quán returned with Dong Xiaoli, the new Keeper of Resources. Yù Quán introduced him while posing as Mulian and then handed him off to Su Chunhua to complete integration. He had promised Dong Xiaoli that he would find a death cultivation art when he found one. However, Dong Xiaoli wasn’t worried. He likely wouldn’t be fighting any time soon. Instead, he took the time between cult and Supreme Wolf Sect affairs to practice using the Supreme Wolf techniques with his new dantian and death qi. He was most familiar with them, so if he could use them, he would. Plus, who’s to say he can’t return to his original status in the Supreme Wolf Sect in the future?

With nothing else for him to attend to, Yù Quán finally focused on cultivation. His cultivation speed had dropped since he had gotten so busy establishing the cult. He hoped there would be less for him to do once everything was stable. For now, he would wait nearby to check in during his breaks from cultivation. But first, he would

pay Yàn Lìqín a visit to learn about the death-dealing damas.

…

Yàn Lìqín was in his office, going about his business. Things had been quiet outside of handling the Blossom Hills council. The representatives were full of corrupt figureheads, and it took a lot of planning and verbal battling to prevent them from getting away with their agendas. While looking through the current political issue, he heard a voice he hadn’t heard from behind his doors in a while.

“Yù Quán greets Grand Elder!”

Yàn Lìqín put his scrolls and papers down and stood up. “Come in!”

Yù Quán pushed the double doors open to see his elegant grand elder. It hadn’t been too long since they last saw each other, but with all the work they both had to do, it felt like it had been a while.

“Yù Quán! How are you?”

Yù Quán cupped his hands and bowed. “Well, Grand Elder.”

Yàn Lìqín’s eyes narrowed. “Your cultivation seems to be in the early stages of the Skin Tempering stage. It’s progress, but…”

Yù Quán waved his hand. “Yes, I know, my cultivation speed has slowed. I’ve just been focusing on law enforcement and other forms of strength. I plan on working on my cultivation next.”

“Good, good. So then, what did you come here for today?”

Yù Quán explained his need for more death-dealing dama eyes and asked where he would be able to get them.

“Ah, that’s simple. Death-Dealing Dama hail from the plains in the Laiyuandao region. I’m not entirely sure about their exact location, but if you go there and ask around, you should be able to find them. But be careful; they aren’t strong, but the killing intent they can emit is strong. Don’t underestimate them.”

Yù Quán cupped his hands and bowed, saying, “Yes, Grand Elder,” before leaving. He didn’t know how to feel. While he was happy that it wouldn’t be challenging to find the death-dealing damas, after seeing where the Laiyuandao region was on a map, he knew that it couldn’t just be a quick endeavor. It would need to be a whole trip. Yàn Lìqín didn’t seem to have a problem with him going. It was likely that whatever Yàn Lìqín had planned wouldn’t require him for a while. He likely saw it as a way to encounter opportunities and grow stronger. Knowing this reassured him he would be fine leaving the academy for this trip, but what worried him was the cult. He decided he would monitor their progress while preparing for the journey. If he didn’t feel the cult could continue without him, he would stay for longer.

…

Yù Quán returned to the cave and immediately went to work. For the next week, he did nothing but cultivate, do missions to collect a decent stash of points for the trip and check on the cult. The cult continued to develop, with Rèn Chāngmíng training up a force that now had the support of healing techniques, Su Chunhua setting up several layers of intelligence networks in Blossom Hills and planning the following places to target, and Dong Xiaoli settling in nicely, placing disciples and initiates in businesses and shops based on their ability to produce results and even laying out a budget for resources. Su Chunhua had initially decided to go without spending on anything except for materials to build with since she didn’t know much about those things. But, even then, they had cultivators cut down dragonwood, so their costs weren’t much. But, with Dong Xiaoli there, resources could be allocated where needed to keep businesses running, projects progressing, and people cultivating. With ample time and resources, all three schools were developing well.

Rèn Chāngmíng’s School of Combat now had two shelves with two teams on each. Rèn Chāngmíng also changed how they were referred to them to avoid confusion. The team names, which were colors, would be before the shelf names, which were plants. For example, the team Yù Quán went on a mission with was now called the Red Lotus. Alongside the Red Lotus, there was the Black Lotus team, and on the new Blossom Shelf, there were the Red Blossom and Black Blossom teams., enabling the Blossom Shelf to close the gap to the Lotus Shelf.

The Blossom Shelf was quickly closing the gap in strength, catching up to the first established Lotus Shelf. All thanks to Xu Yaozu, the mission leader with whom Yù Quán had previously been on a mission, guiding the Black Blossom team.

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Yù Quán had mentioned Xu Yaozu to Rèn Chāngmíng. This made Rèn Chāngmíng give him a few trials, during which he determined that Xu Yaozu was just as capable as Yù Quán had said. After he had enough people in his school, he restructured the allocation of disciples and promoted promising disciples to two-peak disciples to give them leaders. Rèn Chāngmíng decided that promoting Xu Yaozu and the other team leaders to two-peak instead of sending them straight to Scholar would be best, as it allowed rising talents to take over without much drama.

Rèn Chāngmíng also started working with Qin Daiyu to establish the Library of Support. They decided that it would be best to keep it simple. They would have the Home Shelf and the Battle Shelf with as many teams as needed. Then, they would send teams orders to dispatch the required amount of healers where they’re needed. So far, they only just started picking heads to fill up the first team on each shelf, with more priority on the Battle Shelf since, as long as they weren’t on a mission, they could help at the base until the first team on the Home Shelf was established. Rèn Chāngmíng and Qin Daiyu agreed that the Library of Support shouldn’t be as competitive as the Library of the Vanguard was. The Library of Support should be about supporting the School of Combat and the cult entirely.

With the burden of business and resources taken off her shoulders, Su Chunhua had dug the cult’s claws into Blossom Hills. They knew almost everything. Recluse masters and people with enough authority were still out of reach for the cult’s information gathering. But, even for those masters and authoritative figures, if it happened in public or traveled through word of mouth, the cult knew. She wasn’t making any attempts to dig deeper in Blossom Hills for now. She felt that that meant accepting stronger people, whom they might be unable to maintain control over. Until the vast majority of disciples were at least in the Body Tempering realm, they would only recruit those in the Qi Focusing realm. She hoped they could find something similar to what Yù Quán had shown her earlier. If there were a technique in the so-called “Genesis Paths to Cultivation” that was better for general use among cultivators, it would also allow them to start taking in mortals. Maybe she could even begin cultivating herself.

Until then, though, she could only take the bottom barrel or youth cultivators and hope to have them trained well under Yù Quán’s people. Besides Blossom Hills, Su Chunhua started networks in neighboring towns and cities. She even sent personnel to live in the Laiyuandao region after discovering that two of their sects were involved in the Blossom Hills black market. Overall, Su Chunhua and her school were doing well. She had one library, the Library of Witnesses. This library focused on placing people in the area to collect information just by living there. She created two shelves: the Beggar Shelf and the Citizen Shelf. The Citizen Shelf would just send a person to live in an area trained in collecting information and maintaining a false backstory.

On the other hand, the Beggar Shelf would place members disguised as homeless beggars so they could collect information covertly. Su Chunhua had gotten the idea from Yù Quán, who had talked about a “Beggars Association” and how there might be one somewhere in Murim. She found a decent possibility of a Beggar's Association by digging into the cities and some people who had once lived there. And if they could do it, why couldn’t she?

Dong Xiaoli’s school was the most established. He came in and just started giving orders left and right. The School of Resources now had three libraries: the Library of Costs, the Library of Business, and the Library of Accounts. Costs regulated spending and verified and approved all uses of cult resources, Business created, obtained, and ran businesses to get resources, and Accounts kept track of total resources, expenses, revenue, and all of the information of the like. He quickly created a checks-and-balances system that ensured there wasn’t a way for the resources to be taken advantage of on a large scale that could easily be integrated into the other schools in case they needed resources for their operations. For example, the School of Combat needs to buy equipment.

At the end of the week, Yù Quán was in the cave, diligently cultivating. He had just reached the 4th level of Skin Tempering halfway through the week.

Tssss…Crack~

A wave of qi was released from where Yù Quán sat in lotus. Yù Quán opened his eyes and smiled.

“5th level, Skin Tempering!”

…

Yù Quán gathered his keepers in his cave, away from the disciples. He told them about his upcoming trip and its purpose. He asked that they care for things independently, as he might be gone for a while.

“While I’m gone, I ask you of some things. Rèn Chāngmíng, keep expanding the troops. You never know when we’ll need an army. Su Chunhua, continue recruitment; start drawing from other towns and cities if you have to. Dong Xiaoli, we need resources, and a lot of them. You three together should keep things running smoothly until I return.”

And he was off. With his new cultivation level, the new reserve of points, and all cult affairs handled, he headed for the Laiyuandao region.

…

Yù Quán

Realm: Body Tempering Realm

Stage: 5th Level Skin Tempering

Main Cultivation Art: [Stolen-eyed Mùmùlián Body](Level 3)

Strength: 1250 Catties

Qi: 2500/2500 wisps

Mùmùlián Core: 22/100

Strange Fire: (Level 2)Murderous Flame(x1)

Techniques:

[Mùmùlián Eye Stealing](Level 3)

[Mùmùlián Eye Refining](Level 3)

[Murder Mantra](Level 3)

[Yellow Qilin Dance](Level 3)

[Qi Compression](Level 3)

Attributes:

[Strange Fire: Murderous Flame]

[Starfire Eyes](Level 1)

[Sightburn](Level 1)

[Top-Quality Maned Hog Ferocity Eyes](Level 1)

[Low-Quality Winged Watcher Awareness Eyes](Level 1)

[Low-Quality False Dragon Pride Eyes](Level 1)

[Low-Quality Death-Dealing Dama Killing Eyes](Level 1)(x2)