Volume Four: Buddha Saves No One, Only I, the Demon, Deliver Salvation - Opponents (Part One)

Luo Qian's strategy, when you got right down to it, was worth less than a coin: bounties. Zheng Daoguang's firsthand intelligence listed the leaders of every Bandit Company, great and small. The price on each head ranged from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of High-Grade Immortal Jade. The head of Flower Bee, leader of the largest gang, One Swarm, was priced at a staggering ten million! The bounties alone would cost Luo Qian several billion High-Grade Immortal Jade. Even Luo Qian, wealthy as he was now, felt his hand cramp and his heart bleed at the expense.

If the Awakening King had not been backing them, Luo Qian could have controlled the supply of weapons, Immortal Jade, and other goods, leaving the bandits with bare walls and empty fields through commercial channels until they were trapped and starved. They could seize Immortal Jade, but expendable supplies like weapons were harder to obtain. Magic Treasures and weapons needed refining again after long use. Without good materials and high-quality Immortal Jade to replenish them, damaged treasures would be difficult to repair. In time, the bandits' fighting strength would decline, and a final sweep would bring swift success. But with the Awakening King supporting them, such "slow poison" tactics would not work.

The Awakening King's covert control of the bandits could not bear the light of day. He could hardly help them openly.

Before long, however, the bandits issued a counter-bounty: three hundred million High-Grade Immortal Jade for Luo Qian's head! That laid bare the fact that someone was manipulating them from behind the scenes. Luo Qian would never believe that profit-hungry bandits could produce that much money, much less willingly spend it. Without someone directing them, how could they act with such unity?

Luo Qian immediately posted another bounty: five