From the very beginning, Qu Tong had never considered Ma Xianhong a threat. She knew her foolish little brother all too well. Though he was flighty, proud to the bone, and dismissive of rules he had no use for, he was unquestionably a good person with principles.
Unfortunately, in this world, good people were all too likely to find a gun pointed at them.
If someone else had laid this Hongmen banquet-a feast concealing a deadly trap-and she had seen through it, she would never have dared attend. But a trap laid by Ma Xianhong...
To use a rather inappropriate analogy, would He Jin have been afraid if the Ten Attendants summoned him into the palace?
Yet the indescribable smile at the corners of Ma Xianhong's mouth made Qu Tong furrow her brows slightly.
Her little brother was still her little brother. His personality hadn't changed. Then...
Her advancing footsteps abruptly stopped. The smile slowly vanished from Qu Tong's face, and she gradually withdrew the foot she had extended, remaining more than ten feet from Ma Xianhong's chair.
Though her senses detected nothing behind her, the instant she had taken that step, she had suddenly felt an aura of extreme sharpness.
She had known he would have preparations in place here, but their strength far exceeded her expectations.
Within ten feet of Ma Xianhong, there was also a special field, invisible and intangible. He hadn't moved from beginning to end, but his stance could not have been clearer.
"Oh? Sister, weren't you going to give me a massage? My head happens to be aching." Ma Xianhong laughed aloud, his gaze laden with meaning.
Kept outside by his barrier, Qu Tong wasn't angry. Her brows merely drew tighter and tighter.
With Dual-Handed Manipulation at her disposal and both her nature and life force cultivated, no killing move Ma Xianhong possessed could do anything to her. But...
Thinking of her plans, and of her Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements, which hadn't even reached the beginner level, Qu Tong relaxed her tightly knitted brows slightly.
"Xianhong, you've changed so much lately. I advised against establishing the new Jiejiao from the very beginning, and lately you've become even more unrestrained. You're being a little too reckless.
"You'll draw the Company's attention. Trust your sister. Don't do anything foolish."
Although Ma Xianhong's new Jiejiao had screened people's character from the outset, in a process akin to a political background check, his heartfelt disregard for certain unreasonable, so-called rules meant he was no more restrained than in the original story. Instead, the quality of the followers in Biyou Village had risen several notches.
He still taught without distinction, but the prerequisite for receiving his teachings was being a human being, not a beast with a crooked heart.
There weren't many rules here, and people enjoyed relative freedom. But Ma Xianhong thought one saying put it well: freedom depended on not infringing upon the freedom of others. However indiscriminately his Jiejiao taught, however mixed its ranks were, it was still an upright, respectable sect. It needed basic integrity, morality, and principles. Otherwise, how was it any different from beasts?
Was he really supposed to follow the same old road as Jiejiao and the new Jiejiao?
If he did, how would they be any different from Quanzhen? Refusing to pluck out a single hair for others, yet refusing to take even a hair from them?
In any case, he killed every practitioner of crooked arts like Zhao Guizhen, who cultivated using innocent lives, that he encountered. Rules be damned. They were simply an eyesore.
As for Qu Tong's warning about attracting the Company's attention...
"You have a point, Sister." Ma Xianhong curled his fingers and tapped the armrest, nodding slightly with a thoughtful expression. "But I haven't broken any laws or disrupted public order. Why would the Company bother with me?"
He blinked, his expression perfectly earnest.
"..."
Taking a deep breath, Qu Tong couldn't help closing her eyes. How could this little brother be so infuriating? Genuine ignorance would have been one thing, but this act of playing dumb was truly hateful.
"Xianhong, the Company isn't something you or I can contend with right now."
Qu Tong narrowed her eyes, her expression utterly serious.
"Don't forget, I helped you build Biyou Village, and I helped you make the Self-Cultivation Furnace, all to help you seek out your lost past and your family. Xianhong, listen to your sister. Don't be an idiot. I don't want you doing anything foolish."
The moment she said that, Ma Xianhong couldn't help letting out an incredulous laugh.
Admittedly, he was still useful to Qu Tong, which was why she was "looking out for him," and this advice genuinely carried no ulterior motive.
But the heart of her speech had appeared in the very first sentence: "Everything you have came from me. You have to listen to me."
Anyone who didn't know better might have thought Qu Tong had actually raised him.
True, if he kept going like this, he would clash with the Company sooner or later. After all, there was that damned Population Red Line Theory: the ratio of ordinary people to extraordinary people couldn't fall below 50,000 to one. To limit the number of extraordinary people, sooner or later they would smash his furnace, just as they had in the original story.
Supposedly, those at the top believed that if extraordinary people became too numerous, their originally loose-knit community would grow increasingly united. Naturally, that would make them harder for certain people with ulterior motives to control.
Ma Xianhong had only one thing to say to that: pure fucking bullshit!
Too fucking many people to manage, so you cut off their path? Normally, you could just turn them into soldiers and cops and be done with it.
All he could say was that the meat-eaters in power were petty and shortsighted-or rather, certain vermin were.
I could do it too.JPG
As for building high walls and stockpiling grain...
Ma Xianhong had never intended to oppose the Company. His sect was Jiejiao, not the Way of Great Peace!
His doctrine was fucking teaching without distinction and intercepting heaven to seize the Dao, grasping that single thread of life within the Heavenly Dao-not fucking "the blue heavens are dead"!
Had he gone mad, or had his followers?
If trash like the fucking Wang family could squeeze into the Ten Elders, what more could a guy like me say?
Forget becoming a Company director later. At the very least, I should snag a seat among the Ten Elders, right?
He wasn't after power. He just wanted the prestige.
How much fun would it be to stir things up alongside the finest talents under heaven?
Once things here were settled, he would have to wander the world and find people bound to him by fate. While he was at it, he could change those tragedies that should never have happened...
While his mind wandered beyond the heavens, Qu Tong's expression on the other side had grown rather ugly.
"Xianhong! Are you even listening?! Stop this foolish behavior and listen to your sister!" Seeing no response from Ma Xianhong, Qu Tong braved the chill and stepped forward, her tone growing more forceful.
Although she could feel some pressure from Ma Xianhong within this range, she had absolute confidence.
As the saying went, great skill bred great courage. Without the ability to back herself up, she naturally wouldn't have come to this Hongmen banquet. After all, the foundation that decided victory at the original Hongmen banquet was the presence of someone nearly invincible like Xiang Yu. As for Ma Xianhong? Ha.
Though she didn't know where things had gone wrong, Ma Xianhong's wariness toward her clearly meant there was a problem with his memories. Under those circumstances, how could he possibly dare let her get close?
Secure in that confidence, Qu Tong pushed against the sharpness in her senses and took another step forward, until she felt a barrier as solid as a physical wall.
A faint smile appeared on her face. Qu Tong was certain victory was in her grasp. In her eyes, Ma Xianhong merely wanted to play mind games with her, and in that arena, she had unquestionably crushed him already.
After all, if Ma Xianhong had truly intended to attack directly, that sharp presence in her senses would have activated the instant she entered. Yet even now, after she had provoked him so openly right in front of him, there had been no response. What more was there to say?
She had this brat of a little brother right where she wanted him!
"Xianhong, listen to your sister, or you'll regret it."
Sensing the faint contempt in Qu Tong's somewhat overbearing gaze, Ma Xianhong looked at her standing outside the field built into his throne, her hand pressed against the wall of air, and couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
Did this damn sister think she had him in the palm of her hand? Did she still want to control him like before?
Heh.
He suddenly rose, shattered the barrier before him with a sweep of his hand, and stepped up to the slightly stunned Qu Tong. Reaching out, Ma Xianhong swept an arm around her slender waist. His broad chest pressed tightly against her body, his scorching breath brushing her ear.
"Sister, don't forget. I'm the sect leader."
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