"Great Grandfather Yun Ji mentioned to your child that if the Ning Family could produce... a thousand different mundane sword techniques that the Yun Clan does not yet possess."
Ning Shaojie paused, a trace of disbelief in his voice.
"They would be willing to share the Qi Nourishing Pill formula with our Ning Family, and promise not to compete with us for the Qi Nourishing Pill market."
"A thousand different mundane sword techniques?"
Ning Yongrui's gaze sharpened.
"The pill formula?"
"No, we cannot take it."
Ning Yongrui nearly blurted it out on instinct, wariness in his voice.
"We must give them the sword techniques. However many they want, give them as many as possible. Meet the Yun Clan's demands to the fullest extent."
"But the Ning Family cannot touch that pill formula."
He knew clearly that the Qi Nourishing Pill was now a piping-hot yam. The Yun Clan's willingness to share it likely carried some deeper meaning.
Competing with the Yun Clan for profit was no different from seeking a tiger's hide.
Ning Yongrui paced several steps around the study, his brow tightly furrowed.
The candlelight flickered, stretching his shadow long, then short.
After a moment, he abruptly halted, a gleam of resolve flashing through his eyes.
"No."
He changed his mind, his voice much steadier than before.
"We will take the pill formula."
Ning Shaojie looked at his father in some astonishment.
"Let us see just how great the profits from the Qi Nourishing Pill truly are."
Ning Yongrui's gaze was deep, as though he had already seen all the possibilities ahead.
"The Ning Family will take only forty percent of the profits."
"The remaining sixty percent will all go to the Yun Clan!"
In Ning Yongrui's study, dawn light had barely begun to show, yet it could not disperse the heaviness between his brows.
The Yun Clan no longer involved themselves in any affairs of Wanfang Lake.
To Ning Yongrui, this letting go was not a relief. Instead, it was like an invisible noose forever hanging over the Ning Family's heads.
In name, he now controlled Wanfang Lake.
This had once been the goal he had painstakingly pursued for decades.
Yet in reality, he was walking on thin ice, and every step might plunge him into an abyss of eternal damnation.
The Yun Clan's almost indifferent attitude toward the Three Treasures of Wanfang Lake—was it true detachment born of standing above all others?
Or was it merely a trap they had laid, waiting for him to take one wrong step?
He did not dare gamble.
Any trace of wishful luck could bring a calamity of annihilation upon the Ning Family.
The Yun Clan had already become Wanfang Lake's true uncrowned king, even though they had never declared sovereignty.
The teacup at Ning Yongrui's fingertips had long gone cold.
All his life's plans for Wanfang Lake were fragile enough to shatter at a single blow before the Yun Clan's absolute strength.
The Three Treasures of Wanfang Lake: the Eye of the Spirit Spring, the Moonlight Stone Mine, and the Greenwood Spirit Forest.
These rare resources, which had once driven countless cultivator lineages into open and covert struggles, now looked like piping-hot yams in his eyes.
He would take them over.
But never for the Ning Family alone to dominate.
Wanfang Lake's order had to be reshaped.
All resources would be gathered into one place and allocated centrally.
What each family received would be redistributed strictly according to its strength and its grasp of the Yun Clan's unspoken wishes.
Only then could he, Ning Yongrui, appear sufficiently "sensible."
The Yun Clan showed no intention whatsoever of moving into Donghu City.
They seemed content merely to keep to their own corner in Evergreen Valley.
After its brutal defeat, the Mo Family had completely withdrawn from Wanfang Lake's stage, its people gone and its halls emptied.
Donghu City, once the eye of the storm, had instead become the most suitable place to deal with the Three Treasures of Wanfang Lake.
A place neutral in name.
A center of power managed in Ning Yongrui's stead, yet dependent on the Yun Clan's every breath in all things.
Ning Yongrui had managed Wanfang Lake for over forty years.
Yet now, the greatest benefits on this land had to be handed over to the Yun Clan with both hands.
He felt not the slightest reluctance.
Or rather, he did not dare to.
With the Ning Family's gains from the Three Treasures reduced, they naturally had to make up for them elsewhere.
His gaze fell upon the Lu Family, barely clinging to life.
The Lu Family was the fish on the chopping block, left for him to carve as he pleased.
This was not because he was ruthless and merciless.
It was simply a necessary sacrifice under Wanfang Lake's new order.
On the day the benefits were redistributed, the atmosphere inside Donghu City's council hall was oppressive.
The representatives of Wanfang Lake's remaining minor families wore expressions full of awe and unease.
Not a single member of the Yun Clan attended.
Their absence carried more weight than any words could.
Seated at the head of the hall, Ning Yongrui calmly announced the new allotments for every resource.
No one raised an objection.
That proposal for dividing the benefits clearly tilted in a certain direction—a direction everyone understood, yet no one dared mention.
When the meeting ended, Ning Yongrui did not linger for even a moment.
He had more important matters to attend to.
Ning Yongrui brought Ning Shaojie to the Yun Clan.
Ning Shaojie was especially quiet today. He held a white jade treasure box emitting threads of chill in both hands, and even his footsteps seemed heavier than usual.
Inside the box were three Dragon Whisker Golden Tail Spirit Fish.
One of them had whiskers nearly five inches long, while its body was no more than an inch in length. Its entire body gleamed with brilliant gold.
Such quality could not be raised without fifty years of cultivation. At Wanfang Lake, it was a treasure seen only once in a decade.
Dragon Whisker Golden Tail Spirit Fish reached adulthood after ten years. Thereafter, their bodies gradually shrank as the years passed, while their whiskers grew year by year.
The older the fish, the purer the Spiritual Energy it contained, and the greater its effects.
Ning Shaojie could clearly feel the icy touch transmitted by the cold jade treasure box against his fingertips, but it did nothing to calm the turbulent waves in his heart.
He saw Yun Long once again.
This absurdly young Yun Family Head still wore an ordinary blue robe. His expression was calm, and his eyes were as deep as an ancient well.
Yet Ning Shaojie felt that every time he faced Yun Long, the invisible pressure surrounding him grew heavier.
It was as if he were not looking at a person, but gazing up at an unfathomable mountain.
Whenever he recalled the night Yun Long had descended like a heavenly god and swept through the Lu Family cultivators, his heart clenched beyond his control.
His father had said that the Yun Clan was an opportunity the Ning Family had to seize.
He understood.
It was only that this opportunity was too great—and far too dangerous.
Since Ning Yongrui had come personally, Yun Long naturally had to show him some consideration.
The Yun Clan had few people, and during this period, the Ning Family had indeed helped them greatly.
Take only the mundane sword techniques Yun Hu required. Without the Ning Family's full support, it would have been little more than a fantasy for the Yun Clan to gather over six hundred varieties in such a short time.
Fortunately, they were only mundane sword techniques.
Had they been sword arts of the Qi Refining Stage or above, let alone six hundred, even if they exhausted the entire strength of Sanshui County, they likely could not gather even six.
A Yun Clan servant stepped forward and respectfully accepted the cold jade treasure box from Ning Shaojie.
Yun Long's gaze never lingered on the treasure box for even an instant.
He already understood. These were most likely the Dragon Whisker Golden Tail Spirit Fish.
The news that his wife was pregnant had long ceased to be a secret in Wanfang Lake.
He looked toward Ning Yongrui and spoke in an even tone.
"I did not expect Commander Ning to honor us with your presence today."
"I happened to have a matter to discuss. I had planned to visit the Ning residence later and ask for your assistance."
At those words, Ning Yongrui's eyes shifted slightly, though the composed smile remained on his face.
"If the Yun Family Head has a matter to discuss, please speak freely."
Yun Long nodded slightly and did not beat around the bush.
"Since breaking through to the Qi Refining Stage, I have been organizing the gains from my cultivation."
"Recently, my father successfully broke through as well, which has verified some of my ideas."
"I hope Commander Ning can make an introduction on my behalf and help me present this cultivation method to the Great Xia Dynasty."
"By doing so, I hope to secure some blessings for the Yun Clan."
The smile on Ning Yongrui's face froze instantly.
The hand holding his teacup trembled almost imperceptibly, and several drops of tea nearly spilled over.
It felt as though a heavy hammer had smashed brutally into his heart, sending violent tremors through it.
So the Yun Clan had long since planned this path!
This Martial Arts Grandmaster who had Entered Immortality through Martial Arts possessed vision and boldness far beyond his imagination.
He had previously reported Yun Long's status as a Martial Arts Grandmaster to the court in secret, but the court had yet to give a clear reply.
Now Yun Long actually intended to offer up a cultivation method on his own initiative.
If this matter truly succeeded, and Yun Long's talent caught the eye of the court's great figures, the Yun Clan would gain the Great Xia Dynasty's protection. From then on, no one would be able to stop its rise.
That pace would likely be several times faster than he had anticipated.
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