Shen Fei had the steward prepare a package. Its contents were not particularly expensive: three stalks of soul-nourishing grass, two boxes of Meridian-Warming Pills, and twenty intermediate Demon Crystals.
They were all common supplies for easing the effects of overdrawn soul force and nourishing the meridians. They were easy enough to buy on the market, but the quantities were generous and the quality excellent, enough to last Xiao Ning'er two or three months and restore most of her depleted foundation.
He had diverted these supplies from the accounts under the guise of family purchases. The amount was small enough to disappear among the monthly losses. Even if Shen Hong inspected the accounts, he would only see it as ordinary expenditure.
The steward stood beside him, holding the wooden box and waiting for instructions. "Deliver it to the Winged Dragon Family's side courtyard." Shen Fei kept his head lowered as he leafed through the ledger in his hands, his tone even. "Say these are cultivation supplies the household prepared for the future young mistress according to custom. Observe the formal courtesies, and say nothing more."
The steward froze for a moment. The marriage agreement between their family and the Winged Dragon Family had been in place for years, but relations had remained lukewarm, and they had never taken the initiative to send anything.
This eldest young master had never cared about the engagement before, either. Why had he suddenly decided to make an overture? Though puzzled, the steward did not dare ask. He acknowledged the order and withdrew with the wooden box.
Shen Fei looked up toward the window. Outside, the wind rustled the leaves of the locust tree in the courtyard. Of course he knew Xiao Ning'er would not accept it.
The girl was unyielding, with pride in her very bones. How could she accept charity from the Sacred Family for no reason? Besides, she had always detested the Shen family, and that dislike extended to him, her fiancé in name, whom she rarely treated kindly.
But he still had to send it. Delivering it in person would be presumptuous; sending someone was a matter of courtesy. It did not matter if the supplies came back. At least she would know that not everyone in the Shen family was like Shen Hong. If she truly ran into trouble later, she might not ask for help, but having another path open to her was never a bad thing.
He withdrew his gaze and continued leafing through the ledger. Over the past two months, the exchanges of supplies between the Sacred Family and the Dark Guild had dwindled further. The losses recorded in the accounts had decreased month by month. Presumably, Nie Li had been working in the shadows, throwing the other side off its rhythm.
That was a good thing. At least it gave him more time to lay his plans.
The steward returned that afternoon. He held the wooden box in his arms, untouched, with even its seal still intact. Beside him stood an old servant from the Winged Dragon Family, holding a note.
"Young Master Shen, my young mistress says that the engagement was merely a customary arrangement made by the elders and cannot be considered binding. These supplies are too valuable for us to accept. Please take them back."
The old servant's manner was respectful, but his words were firm. "This note was written by my young mistress herself."
Shen Fei took the note. It contained only two lines, the handwriting slender but the strokes forceful. It said that she would not accept rewards she had done nothing to earn, that Young Master Shen should keep the resources for himself, and that he need not send anything again. He glanced at it and set it down. It was exactly what he had expected.
"Thank you for making the trip." Shen Fei nodded to the old servant and had the housekeeper fetch a small gratuity for his trouble before seeing him out.
After the old servant left, the steward stood to one side, uneasy. To him, returning the supplies was a slap in the Sacred Family's face, and he feared the young master would be displeased.
"Young master, this..." "It's fine." Shen Fei shook his head, his tone unruffled. "Put everything in the storeroom. We'll discuss it another time." The steward breathed a sigh of relief and hurried away with the wooden box.
The room fell quiet again. Sitting at the desk, Shen Fei lightly tapped the note with his fingertips. Its return had been expected; he had never held out much hope in the first place. If she had accepted it the moment he sent it, she would not have been Xiao Ning'er.
This was only a minor interlude, too small to stir up any waves. He gave it no further thought, turned toward the bookshelf, and pulled a thick volume from the bottom shelf.
Its cover had yellowed. It was an old book on basic Breathing Techniques that had sat there for years without anyone ever opening it.
What truly concerned him was his own strength. In the months since his rebirth, he had devoted most of his attention to gathering intelligence and probing the Dark Guild's limits. As for cultivation, he had merely maintained his daily progress without giving it much thought.
For one thing, he had to conceal his abilities so Shen Hong and Shen Yue would not grow suspicious. For another, he knew that cultivating step by step would not let him advance quickly.
In his previous life, he had clawed his way through the ranks of the City Defense Army, fighting Demon Beasts every day. His combat experience had grown rapidly, but his cultivation had barely budged. He had only reached gold rank 1-star when he died.
With his current foundation, even with his battlefield experience from his previous life and his knowledge of how to hone his soul force efficiently, cultivating at a normal pace would, at best, bring him to the threshold of gold rank 3-star by the day the city fell.
Gold rank 3-star was already enough to count as a top genius among Glory City's younger generation. But against the Demon Beast Tide, that level of cultivation was nowhere near enough.
When the city fell in his previous life, more than a dozen gold rank Demon Beasts had charged at the forefront. Behind them were black gold rank beast kings, not to mention the Legendary Demon Beast that had finally smashed the Beacon Tower apart.
At gold rank 3-star, he would have to give everything he had just to fight an ordinary gold rank Demon Beast. Against a black gold rank one, he would not survive even a single blow.
He had far too much to do. He had to watch the Dark Guild's three hideouts and find an opportunity to uproot the people inside. He had to pass anonymous intelligence to the City Lord's Mansion from time to time, warning them in advance of nighttime Demon Beast raids.
He had to protect more civilians when the city fell and prevent the horrors of his previous life from happening again. Brains and intelligence alone would not be enough for any of that.
Without enough strength to back him up, any black gold rank opponent could easily crush him to death. No matter how good a plan was, without the strength to carry it out, it was nothing but empty talk.
His weakness was all too obvious. In terms of actual combat, he had a full year of experience in the City Defense Army. He had seen the attack patterns of all kinds of Demon Beasts and knew how to stay alive on a battlefield, how to defeat the strong as the weak. Not a single family scion at his rank was his match.
But when it came to cultivation talent, he was only a little better than an ordinary person, nowhere near a heaven-blessed prodigy.
The cultivation method the Sacred Family had passed down to him was merely a conventional high-grade technique-better than some, worse than others-and its cultivation speed was never particularly fast. On top of that, he had kept his abilities under wraps and had not dared cultivate with all his strength, slowing his progress even further.
Before, he had lacked both the means and the energy to spare. Now his intelligence network was largely in place. He had access to the family's accounts and secret correspondence, and he had a fairly clear grasp of the Dark Guild's movements. It was time to put improving his strength on the agenda.
Before you continue