Dismantling the Spirit Hall Families

Ye Tian set down the shovel in his hand, lightly clapped off the dirt, rose to his feet, and said, "To solve Spirit Hall's problems, we must be ruthless and wipe out all these Spirit Hall families."

The reason Spirit Hall's reputation had gradually fallen into disrepute and its administrative efficiency had become so poor was because these families entrenched in every city were bleeding it dry.

If these festering sores were not completely removed, this colossal entity known as Spirit Hall would one day rot to the core and come crashing down.

Without that resolve, no matter what efforts Spirit Hall made, they would all be in vain.

In fact, this did not apply to Spirit Hall alone. The Two Great Empires were the same.

If the problem of nobles entrenching themselves in local areas was not resolved, the empires would sooner or later fall apart.

Ye Tian had read Douluo Continent as well, so he knew that not long after Spirit Hall's destruction, the Two Great Empires would descend into chaotic warfare.

The Heaven Dou Empire would even split into the two nations of Heaven Soul and Dou Ling.

It was only because the Two Great Empires currently faced the colossal enemy that was Spirit Hall, with external pressure suppressing their internal conflicts, that those contradictions had not yet surfaced.

"Mm, but the problem is that these Spirit Hall families are the pillars of Spirit Hall. If we wipe them out, wouldn't that be a complete denial of Spirit Hall's very existence?" Hu Liena asked with concern.

Ye Tian's view was far too one-sided.

Forget about wiping out all the Spirit Hall families.

Even if they merely touched a few Spirit Hall families, those families would likely unite and deal with the Pope Palace together.

One had to know that a large portion of Spirit Hall's authority was still in the hands of the Hall of Elders.

The authority under the Pope Palace's jurisdiction was actually quite limited.

If they offended every Spirit Hall family because of this and drove them into the Hall of Elders' camp,

it would amount to indirectly weakening the Pope Palace's power. The loss would far outweigh the gain.

This was precisely what made the Spirit Hall families so thorny and complicated.

"Besides, not every Spirit Hall family has vicious people like the master of the Sky Dragon City branch hall. At most, they use some illegal means to amass wealth. Their crimes do not warrant death," Hu Liena said.

Ye Tian walked to Hu Liena's side and chuckled softly. "Little sister, I'm afraid you've misunderstood what I meant. By wipe out, I did not mean killing them. I meant dismantling the power structures centered around their families."

Only by dismantling these deeply intertwined families could Spirit Hall's vital channels be opened.

That would allow the Pope's orders to be carried out without obstruction, forming a powerful administrative machine capable of driving the enormous and formidable giant that was Spirit Hall.

"How would you dismantle them?" Bibi Dong's expression shifted slightly.

Ye Tian's words had truly struck at her heart.

But how could it be easy to dismantle families that had been passed down for hundreds of years?

Several decades ago, Spirit Hall had carried out a long-term encirclement and suppression campaign against the world's great superfamilies—the sectarian powers.

Yet even after she became Pope, more than ten years had passed, and those great families still stood firm as Mount Tai.

The only change was that they had moved from the forefront to the shadows and no longer acted so brazenly.

The only method Bibi Dong had thought of for completely dismantling those superfamilies was force.

They would gather Spirit Hall's top combat strength and destroy those great families before they could react.

For that purpose, the Pope Palace had formulated a plan codenamed "Soul Hunt" years ago.

However, because Spirit Hall's upper echelons had yet to unify their goals, the Soul Hunt plan remained only on paper.

Small families were not as powerful as great families.

But there were as many as cattle and horses; tug one hair, and the whole body moved. They were even harder to deal with.

When dealing with great families, Spirit Hall could still fabricate excuses, claiming that those families had committed countless evils and brought everything upon themselves.

After all, how could a colossal great family lack a few stains on its record?

With only a little explanation, even if Spirit Hall sent troops to annihilate those great families, no one would step forward to oppose it.

Who asked them to be great families?

No one would sympathize with great families at all.

But small families were different.

Forget about raising a blade against all of them—if they dealt with even one small family without cause, all the other small families would immediately feel threatened.

That sense of crisis among the small families would form a powerful resistance, perhaps even enough to drag her, the Pope, from her position.

If they wanted to solve the problem of the small families, that resistance could not be ignored.

Faced with his sister's question, Ye Tian smiled calmly.

"Just as one must eat a meal one bite at a time, families must be dismantled step by step. If we act against them rashly, we'll only end up lifting a rock to smash our own feet."

He looked into Bibi Dong's eyes and asked, "I wonder, Sister, have you ever heard of boiling a frog in warm water?"

"I know that!" Hu Liena eagerly stepped forward. "Brother means we should take it slowly and not rush."

Ye Tian snapped his fingers, rubbed Hu Liena's head, and laughed. "Exactly."

"The reason these Spirit Hall families have cohesion and fighting strength is that they not only usurp Spirit Hall's authority, but also control local connections and wealth."

"To put it simply, they have influence in both the underworld and the legitimate sphere. On top of that, they are Soul Masters with military force. After staying in one place for long enough, they naturally form small cliques."

Ye Tian raised his index finger. "The first step in dismantling these cliques is to separate them and make them consume one another from within."

"How do we separate them and make them consume one another?" Hu Liena asked expectantly.

As expected of Ye Tian—he was so smart.

If she had been the one thinking about it, she probably would not have figured anything out even after half a year.

Yet Ye Tian could quickly identify the crux of the problem and sort out an answer.

That kind of ability was truly astonishing.

"Very simple." Ye Tian smiled mysteriously and spoke two words: "Transfers."

"In short, make the masters of each branch hall rotate positions, transferring them every two or three years so they have no opportunity to put down roots locally."

"When branch hall masters take posts in completely unfamiliar cities, they will inevitably compete and clash with the local Soul Master families. With both sides wary of each other, many problems will be reduced."

"Moreover, a branch hall master is often the core figure of a family. When they take up a new post, they cannot possibly go alone. They will certainly bring several key family members with them. In that way, the power of the family clique will be split apart."

Upon hearing Ye Tian's words, Hu Liena's eyes suddenly lit up in shock.

"The transfer method is brilliant! After local families clash and develop conflicts with outside branch hall masters, Spirit Hall can only send people over to arbitrate. That way, Spirit Hall's control over its branch halls will grow stronger!"

"Ye Tian Gege, you're amazing!" Hu Liena praised, giving him a thumbs-up.

Bibi Dong, who had been listening quietly beside them, said nothing and instead sank into thought.

It had to be said that Ye Tian's words had inspired her enormously!

Transfers!

What a simple and correct policy!

How had she never thought of it?

This was probably the difference in intelligence, Bibi Dong thought.

Ye Tian rubbed Hu Liena's soft hair and chuckled. "Transfers are only the first step in solving the problem of Soul Master families manipulating power. Dealing with Soul Master families is actually a long-term issue."

"Transfers can only quickly eliminate Spirit Hall's current internal contradictions and reduce the public's verbal attacks against Spirit Hall. They cannot solve the problem completely."

"After all, even with transfers, Spirit Hall families still objectively exist."

Hu Liena raised her head and asked, "Then what should we do next?"

Ye Tian patted Hu Liena's head and smiled. "After splitting them apart, the next step, of course, is to beat them up!"