"May I ask how our Merchant Association has offended you? The Grand Elder is rushing here as we speak. If we have offended you unintentionally, please discuss it with him."
"Yes, please do not act rashly. This is the association's West Sea Branch Headquarters, tied to the livelihoods of Market Wards and powerful factions across the region. The weight of the causality involved is beyond words!"
"Senior, please set aside your thunderous wrath for now and allow us to understand the situation first."
After a flurry of panic, the association's Core Formation cultivator on duty appeared, intending to placate Li Ling and learn what had happened.
The others also urged him to calm down.
Their words concealed firmness beneath a soft exterior, revealing something peculiar about the association as a power.
Its composition was too complex, and the causality entwined with it too extensive. That made it something few people cared to confront lightly.
After all, if someone from a clan offended a powerful cultivator, who then came to their door and slaughtered their kin, that was causality born of blood ties.
If someone from a sect offended a powerful cultivator, who then came to their door and destroyed their sect, that was causality born of a Dao lineage.
But if someone from a merchant association offended a powerful cultivator, who was he supposed to kill when he came knocking? Who was he supposed to destroy?
This was money causality. Those pushed forward to bear responsibility were often only minor pawns and agents, while the masterminds and proprietors behind them stepped outside the affair and watched coldly.
Even if you wanted to kill someone, you might not be able to find the actual culprit.
This time, the people pinning the blame on Li Ling and the others belonged to the