"Brother Hua is so handsome!" Seeing Hua Xiaomei enter, the Blue-Clothed Woman's eyes lit up. "If only I could turn Brother Hua's head into a human-skin lantern and hang it at my bedside to look at every day!"
Hua Xiaomei's mouth twitched. He couldn't be bothered to respond.
The woman before him was Jiang Ning of the Jiang Family, one of the Hua, Huang, Xiong, and Jiang Families.
She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she was very pleasing to the eye, and the more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. With a faint smile, she had a gentle, refined air. A black mole beneath the corner of her left eye stood out rather starkly, marring her otherwise gentle face, yet also lending her a brisk, decisive look.
Unlike that fool from earlier, whose mind was full of dual cultivation, Hua Xiaomei knew Jiang Ning was quite calculating.
Three Talents Manor had originally been called Three Vegetables Manor. It was an estate where the Hua Family grew Great Medicine outside their main lands. Though Zhan Yunfan was its manor lord, he was still merely a Hua Family servant and steward.
He had originally planned to pass through Three Talents Manor, check this year's accounts, and see whether Sun Daoren of the Yellow Sky Sect had put pressure on the manor after settling in Yi Yang City.
There was no such thing as a paradise beyond the world or ownerless land in the jianghu. The territories of every faction were interwoven like the teeth of a dog! Every inch of land and every acre of fertile soil had been seized by force!
Three Talents Manor sat near the lake, with convenient access to transportation and fertile fields. It could serve as the foundation of a sect.
It was the Hua Family's ancestors who had snatched this land from someone else!
Sun Daoren had lain low in the jianghu for many years and had originally been only somewhat well-known. His sudden forcible takeover of Yi Yang City had truly caught them off guard. Since Sun Daoren had seized the city by force and slaughtered his way through it to take control, he might well put pressure on the factions around Yi Yang City and bring Three Talents Manor under the city's jurisdiction.
After all, Three Talents Manor had not publicly revealed its ties to the Demonic Sect, so the sect couldn't conveniently intervene directly. That was why Hua Xiaomei had decided to come see how things stood first, then discuss with his father how to handle the matter once he returned.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Ning had gotten wind of it and forced her way into Three Talents Manor's affairs.
On the surface, she claimed that the Demonic Sect Four Families were as close as one family and ought to help each other. In truth, she wanted Three Talents Manor to add another copy of the Great Medicine Cultivation Method to the Stele Forest; three tenths of the manor's annual profits would go to the Jiang Family.
Hua Xiaomei had been fobbing her off for the past few days. He hadn't expected her to bring Huang Wufeng along and try to muddy the waters.
Alas! The Demonic Sect was full of such petty, scheming people. How could it ever accomplish anything great?
The position of "Ju King" had been vacant for hundreds of years. Who knew when he would become the "Ju King" and unite the Demonic Sect?
"Brother Hua, your vegetable patch has dozens of cultivation methods. What difference would it make to add one more or take one away?" Jiang Ning, still dressed in blue, tilted her head and stared at Hua Xiaomei's face, pondering where best to begin cutting.
"You've never grown vegetables. You don't understand the tricks involved." Hua Xiaomei shook his head. "Of those dozens of methods, only three are Great Medicine cultivation methods. The rest are half-true, half-false. That way, after failing again and again, they might happen upon a Great Medicine cultivation method and willingly practice it."
"Then I'm willing to contribute a dozen more cultivation methods!" Jiang Ning immediately replied.
"Brother Hua, I'm willing too!" Huang Wufeng approached Hua Xiaomei in a waft of fragrance. She reached out to touch his face, but he batted her hand away with his fan.
"I already told you a few days ago: Three Talents Manor can only have three Great Medicine cultivation methods in its sphere of influence!" Hua Xiaomei blew on his fan with great distaste, right where it had struck Huang Wufeng's hand.
"The jianghu is vast. Why don't you go somewhere else and set up a vegetable patch?" he added.
"Not enough experience. The harvest wouldn't be good!" Jiang Ning said with a bright smile.
The Hua Family's vegetable patches yielded well, naturally prompting the other three families to imitate them.
But these things only looked simple. In truth, they were complicated. How to choose a patch and cultivation methods, build momentum and expand one's influence, and create a virtuous cycle that brought together talent, renown, and a Great Medicine harvest—these were secret techniques the Hua Family had developed through centuries of experimentation.
The Jiang Family had set up a vegetable patch in Liang Province in the southwest before. But they had been too eager to harvest, and ended up getting denounced by everyone.
"You know how difficult it is to cultivate a vegetable patch. How can we quench our thirst with poison or drain the pond to catch the fish? I absolutely cannot agree to this!" Hua Xiaomei declared firmly.
Not every seedling patch in the Hua Family's care could flourish. Even a good one like Three Talents Manor took them years to cultivate.
Though they invested a great deal, they also reaped a great deal. Otherwise, would he have needed to come check the accounts himself?
Inside Hua Hao Hall, Zhan Yunfan could only stand in a corner. On the surface, he was Manor Lord Zhan of Three Talents Manor, a benevolent and righteous man renowned throughout Yi Province. In truth, he was merely a servant of the Hua Family.
There was no room for him to speak among these three. All he could do was wait for them to reach an agreement, then have them tell him what to do.
He waited for the outcome.
"Then the Huang Family and I will join forces with you to oppose Sun Daoren of the Yellow Sky Sect. How about you give us a share of the manor's profits as payment for our efforts?" Seeing Hua Xiaomei refuse to budge, Jiang Ning turned to talk about money instead.
All of Three Talents Town, including the small lake, was private property belonging to Three Talents Manor. The annual rental income from the town alone was enormous, never mind the manor's other sources of income.
It truly made her envious.
With that money, she could do what she wanted without being held back by the Jiang Family's internal constraints.
"Exactly! Exactly! As long as Brother Hua is willing to pay, I'd brave swords and flames for you—even practice dual cultivation!" Huang Wufeng said coquettishly from the side.
In the jianghu, silver was no less useful than martial arts!
While the three of them talked, Cat Master was lazily basking in the sun by the Stele Forest at West Manor. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in from the north. In the space of a moment, leaden clouds blanketed the sky, as if it were about to rain.
Cat Master glanced at the sky, rather displeased, and put the sign reading "Big Cat petting, five taels per turn" into the food bowl. Then he swallowed the silver in the other bowl in one gulp, stacked the two bowls together, and carried them off in his mouth, vanishing after two or three bounds.
Only a few people remained at the scene, watching Cat Master's retreating figure with regret. Cat Master had been appearing these past few days, and every day they came to admire him for half a day.
Cat Master moved without a sound. With practiced ease, he made his way to an elegant courtyard within Three Talents Manor. The courtyard was exceptionally grand; even a small river, specially diverted from the lake outside the manor, ran through it.
In the main hall of the courtyard lay a huge circular rug woven from wool. Cat Master flopped down on it, ready to enjoy another good nap.
"I, Mei Ren of the Demonic Sect's North Sea, pay my respects to Cat Revered One!" A figure seemed to have been waiting inside for a long time. When he saw Cat Master settle into his nest, he knelt on one knee and bowed.
Cat Master had known someone was inside all along, so he wasn't surprised. But he paid the man no attention.
"The North Sea of the Demonic Sect requests that Cat Revered One come to the North Sea!" the kneeling figure said again.
Wait! The good show was about to begin!