The Liu Family estate in the northern part of the city stood behind a tightly shut vermilion gate with bronze rings.
Tang Yuehua stood before it, with only Tang Jiu and Tang Shi behind her.
"Break down the gate."
Tang Jiu sent one punch crashing forward. The entire vermilion gate, hinges and bolt included, went flying.
A dozen guards rushed out of the courtyard with weapons in hand.
The Four-Ring Soul Ancestor leading them hadn't even had time to summon his Martial Soul.
Tang Jiu sent every one of them flying, leaving them plastered against the wall. It took a good while before they slid down.
"Tell Liu Ren to come out."
The guards' weapons clattered to the ground. A quick-witted one was already staggering toward the inner courtyard.
Liu Ren had been halfway through a drink with his concubine when he came out, cursing and shoving the door open. Two Soul Emperor-level retainers followed him.
Seeing that the visitor was Tang Yuehua, he actually laughed. "Miss Tang, have you come around and decided to discuss the transfer? But you've gone and smashed my gate—"
He never finished.
The Noble Ring unfurled. A golden halo erupted around Tang Yuehua, instantly spreading across the entire Liu estate.
The Noble Ring had no offensive power of its own. Its core functions were to calm the mind, suppress killing intent, and enhance one's authority.
In the original story, Tang Yuehua, with only a level-nine innate soul power, had been able to suppress Tang San's Divine Slaughter's Domain at level fifty-nine, making him think that a Titled Douluo had intervened.
Now, with the power of Jiang Ce's Symbiote, her three-thousand-five-hundred-year cultivation was equivalent to that of a Soul Sage.
On top of that, the Black Latex Suit came with a fivefold boost. The aura of her domain swelled until even a Peerless Douluo would have to take it seriously.
The two Soul Emperor retainers' expressions changed dramatically.
Their soul power still flowed freely, but an irresistible authority bore down on their minds, leaving them struggling to breathe.
Every time they tried to attack, that oppressive force exploded in their minds, wiping the thought of striking from their heads.
Tang Yuehua stepped forward, appearing before the fat retainer like Gui Mei.
Her right arm, encased in black latex, formed a short blade. She backhanded him across the temple with its flat.
The fat retainer's eyes rolled back, and he passed out.
The thin retainer had just started to retreat when a tentacle wrapped around both his arms and yanked them back. A knee slammed into his lumbar spine.
There was a sharp crack, and his whole body slumped into a heap of mush.
The courtyard fell utterly silent.
Two Soul Emperors had been taken down within seconds by the legendary vase of a young lady, who supposedly had only a level-nine innate soul power.
Weapons clattered across the ground as the guards dropped them. Some went weak at the knees and collapsed where they stood.
"How is this possible—wasn't she only level nine innately?!"
Liu Ren's drunkenness vanished completely. His legs shook like a sieve. He tried to run, but two tentacles coiled around his ankles and hoisted him upside down.
"Have you gone mad?! If you touch me, the North City Chamber of Commerce will make Moonlight Pavilion disappear from Heaven Dou City tomorrow!"
Tang Yuehua withdrew her short blade and walked up to him, looking down at his flushed face.
"Mr. Liu, I didn't come to discuss land or supply channels."
She took a ledger from her Storage Soul Tool, opened it, and held it before Liu Ren's eyes.
"I've already made several copies of this ledger of stolen goods. One for the North City Chamber of Commerce chairman, one for the Heaven Dou City Defense Army, and one for Moonlight Pavilion's safe. I've kept another one for you as a souvenir."
She turned to the final page, covered in the Liu Family's detailed records of ten years of poaching deals.
Liu Ren's face turned from red to ashen.
"The Liu Family is finished."
Liu Ren's lips trembled as he tried to say something, but the tentacles lowered him from his upside-down position.
"But you have one other choice. All the Liu Family's supply channels will be absorbed into Moonlight Pavilion, and your cousin Liu Yi will take your seat in the chamber of commerce. As for you—I'll give you a new identity."
"What identity?"
"Moonlight Pavilion's first dog."
The tips of the tentacles turned into fine, spider-fang-like spines and slowly burrowed into Liu Ren's neck.
Memory Override.
Liu Ren's eyes shifted from terror to confusion, from confusion to emptiness, then from emptiness to a strange, docile obedience.
A moment later, he knelt on the ground with his forehead pressed against the floor tiles.
"Master."
Tang Yuehua looked down at Liu Ren by her feet. A light she had never felt before flickered in her eyes.
Personally forcing an outcome to the ground, then watching it become exactly what she wanted—
It was nothing like sitting in an intelligence room, circling things on a map.
Her heart beat a little faster than usual.
"So this is what you meant, teacher, when you said that once you had power, things became 'simple'?"
"It's not over yet." Jiang Ce's voice sounded in her mind.
"Those poaching mercenary bands outside the city are a menace. Take them in while you're at it."
"Also, you're wet."
By the time Jiang Che reached the end of the sentence, he was cackling wickedly.
Good-girl Tang Yuehua had changed.
Tang Yuehua's body trembled slightly.
But the light in her eyes only grew brighter.
The abandoned kiln north of the city, stronghold of a poaching mercenary band.
Tang Yuehua stood at the entrance as the golden halo of the Noble Ring pushed inward.
Inside, more than thirty desperadoes were gathered around a bonfire, dividing their spoils. The instant the halo swept over them, the domain's mental pressure crushed the breath from their lungs.
The Soul Emperor-level leader had only just stood up when Tang Jiu slapped him down. Tang Shi circled around from the flank. Two Soul Sages against a mob of Soul Ancestors and Soul Kings, already weakened by the domain, made the fight easier than slaughtering chickens.
Tang Yuehua stood in the center of the abandoned kiln, one by one driving tentacles into their temples.
Memory Override. Rewriting. Implanting new loyalty.
After all thirty-odd of them had been changed, she walked out of the kiln alone and leaned against a crooked old tree, panting softly.
"Feeling better?" Jiang Ce's voice murmured by her ear.
Tang Yuehua bit her lip and nodded.
Watching those who had once been stronger than her kneel at her feet, one by one, their minds rewritten and their wills turned to servitude—
The sense of liberation in her heart was beyond words.
This was what power felt like!
"That's the sweet taste of power. Before, the rules kept you in chains, and all you could do was find a way to survive within them. Now, you're the one who makes the rules."
"You'll get addicted to this feeling."
Tang Yuehua's gaze grew hazy, and her voice trembled.
"Then I'll get addicted. As long as you're here, I can't turn the world upside down."
"If you try, I'll turn you into a wooden bead that can only squeak—oh-ho-ho."
"I won't, teacher."
"You're the light of Yuehua's life."
"Besides, Yuehua was always your puppet."
"Very good. You've got the right idea."
"Perfect timing. No one's around. Let's try something different."
"Into the woods."
"Yes, teacher."
Tang Yuehua's eyes shone with anticipation.
The following morning,
the North City Chamber of Commerce meeting hall.
The chairman sat at the head of the table. Before the seven or eight merchants seated on either side lay copies of the ledger of stolen goods.
Liu Yi sat in the Liu Family's seat.
Tang Yuehua sat upright at the other end of the long table.
Behind her, the auras of the two Soul Sages, Tang Jiu and Tang Shi, were completely undisguised.
"Moonlight Pavilion won't hold the Liu Family responsible for Liu Ren's actions. Liu Yi will take the Liu Family's seat, and the North City Chamber of Commerce will open all its supply channels to Moonlight Pavilion. Everything will be settled at market price."
She took out two contracts and laid them on the table.
"Sign them, and the matter of the ledger ends here."
A senior merchant slammed his palm against the table and sprang to his feet. "Miss Tang, are you threatening us?"
Tang Yuehua raised her eyes and glanced at him. The golden halo of the Noble Ring flashed across the tabletop.
The merchant felt as though an invisible hand had seized his Mental Power and squeezed hard. The hairs on his body stood on end, his legs went weak, and he dropped back into his chair with a thump, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
"This isn't a threat. It's a chance for all of you to make a dignified exit. The transactions in that ledger are enough for the City Defense Army to seal the warehouses of some people here. The Liu Family is finished. I don't want the entire chamber of commerce dragged down with them."
The chairman was the first to pick up his pen. No one else dared utter a single word.
A quarter of an hour later, Tang Yuehua walked out of the chamber of commerce, the contracts filled with signatures in her arms.
She stood on the steps, facing the morning light over Heaven Dou City.
Through the windows, the merchants of the chamber of commerce secretly watched her—
The Clear Sky Sect's discarded young lady, once dismissed as a vase, was now someone the entire North City Chamber of Commerce didn't dare offend.
"How do you feel today?"
"I think I understand why Senior Sister gets so excited every time she fights."
Tang Yuehua's lips curled upward. "Teacher, I'm wet again, but I don't want to stop."
"Then keep going. Pick the next target yourself."
"Once you've finished playing, it'll be my turn."
"Yes, my teacher."
Tang Yuehua descended the steps, her stride much lighter than when she had arrived.
There were still several names on the plan for her to circle, and she already had someone in mind for her next target.
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