As everyone knew, some True Venerables did not have independent Tier 5 Spirit Veins, but that was not the standard by which the value of the two was measured.
It only showed that in the Cultivation World, as in any other world, resources were not distributed evenly.
Two of the Merchant Alliance's True Venerables had been killed, and one of them had been captured alive before being brutally murdered. The nature of it was extremely vile.
Then there was the fact that the Merchant Alliance had been looted of a massive amount of wealth... In any case, however great the losses were, it was all whatever they claimed with their own mouths.
So was it really excessive for them to demand that Houde compensate them with six Tier 5 Spirit Veins?
As for the matter of two of their True Venerables injuring one True Venerable Houde, their attitude was: it had been a misunderstanding caused by poor communication, and compensation was impossible.
In any case, True Venerable Houde had not exactly failed to fight back; it had merely been a mutual brawl—between the lines, there was even a faint sense of mockery.
All these demands were truly quite rude.
But what was even ruder was that the Merchant Alliance stated that if you really refused to compensate us, we would rob enough from other people. You forced us into this!
In plain terms, they wanted to suppress Houde in terms of momentum—the cost of being a thief had always been lower than the cost of guarding against thieves.
If the Houde Cultivators truly banded together and struck back, the number of True Venerables would certainly be greater than the Merchant Alliance's.
However, while the Merchant Alliance's organization was loose, coordinating the many True Venerables of Houde was even more difficult.