Liu Gaoyuan stared at Lin Bingchun's half-smiling expression, and a chill rose from the bottom of his heart. That smile seemed to conceal unfathomable meaning, leaving him completely unable to gauge the situation.
He secretly wondered, Could it be that Lin Bingchun's thoughts were nothing like what I imagined?
Once that thought arose, he became even less certain of what Lin Bingchun was thinking.
For a time, the council hall was so silent that a pin drop could be heard. The other lineage heads looked at one another in bewilderment, none knowing how to break the deadlock.
Fine beads of sweat seeped across Liu Gaoyuan's forehead. He gave two dry laughs, which sounded especially jarring in the silence, then hurriedly waved his hands. "General, please do not misunderstand. My Liu Family has always been utterly loyal to Longqing City and harbors absolutely no selfish intentions.
Now that Longqing City has taken root in the Myriad Phenomena Domain, those spirit mines outside the city ought to be shared by everyone.
We sought to seize those spirit mines only because we wished to find a path of long-term development for the city's cultivators. We had no other intentions.
Everything shall be decided by the General. Liu is willing to serve like a dog or horse, to brave fire and water without hesitation."
Upon hearing this, the other lineage heads hurriedly echoed him. Their voices carried urgency and panic, as though they feared that being even a beat too slow would make Lin Bingchun see them as harboring ulterior motives.
Lin Bingchun's gaze was cold as it slowly swept across their faces. Wherever his eyes fell, everyone felt as though thorns were pressed against their backs.
In the end, he fixed his eyes on Liu Gaoyuan. "Patriarch Liu, do you know how the