A roomful of beauties stared at a beautiful young girl whose childish features had yet to fade. The scene was lovely, but also strange.
As solemn as a sect leader, Mo Caihuan said, "Since the Dominating Mountain Manor has already made its move, we might as well strike first and wipe it out."
"If we fight the Dominating Mountain Manor, I'm afraid the Five Colors Sect will reap the fisherman's rewards while we struggle," the Fourth Madam said. "Daughter, you're oversimplifying things."
"Of course I've considered that. Once we eliminate the Dominating Mountain Manor, we'll immediately wipe out the Five Colors Sect and unite Lan Province." Mo Caihuan's cheeks still carried a little baby fat, yet she radiated murderous intent. The contrast was jarring.
The four madams exchanged glances, unsure where the girl had found such confidence.
The Fifth Madam, who controlled the secret branch, brightened instead. She suddenly said, "Do you mean to activate the Infiltration Plan we've spent years preparing?"
"What plan?" the Fourth Madam asked, then added jealously, "It's almost as if I gave birth to this daughter for you, Fifth Sister. Neither of you tells her own mother what you've been discussing in secret."
"You're joking, Sister," the Fifth Madam said. "Caihuan is your dear daughter. It's just that some plans must be carried out in secret. The fewer people who know, the better. I only know because I manage the secret branch. Otherwise, she wouldn't even have told me."
"Then can you tell us?" the Third Madam asked with beguiling charm, looking so tender and vulnerable that any man would surely have softened.
"Third Mother, let's wait until the plan succeeds." Mo Caihuan was a beautiful young girl now, not a man. A beauty trap wouldn't work on her.
"What are our chances of success? Once we act, the strength the Whale-Jiao Society has accumulated during these years of hiding its light and biding its time will be exposed," the Fourth Madam asked gravely. "Tens of thousands of members' lives are at stake, along with our family's."
"Seventy or eighty percent," Mo Caihuan said.
"Third Sister, why don't we listen to Caihuan?" the Second Madam said. Born into a scholarly family, she wasn't skilled at fighting and killing, but she considered Mo Caihuan a young prodigy who had always brought them pleasant surprises. This time, too, she could lead the Mo Residence out of danger.
"She's still a child," her mother said worriedly.
"What child is so seasoned in dealing with people that she can fit right in with those old foxes in the Whale-Jiao Society? What child can invent so many profitable little gadgets? She's no ordinary child. I think she's the Star of Literary Brilliance descended to earth," the Second Madam said proudly.
The Third Madam laughed sweetly. "Naturally, it would be best if someone could offer a better plan. But right now, none of us has one, do we?"
The Fourth Madam pondered for a long while. Unable to think of any solution, she could only ask, "What about the Dominating Mountain Manor's disciple?"
"Kill him," Mo Caihuan said. She didn't mind killing, because killing allowed her to accumulate baleful energy. Although she didn't actively seek people to kill, this was an enemy who had come to her doorstep. She didn't mind killing him.
"He's Ouyang Feitian's final disciple from the Dominating Mountain Manor. Do you know how powerful the Overlord Armor Ouyang Feitian cultivates is?" the Fourth Madam asked.
"I do. Once mastered, it makes you impervious to blades and spears, water and fire," Mo Caihuan said.
The Fourth Madam stared at her daughter. "You are indeed a genius, but your father disappeared ten years ago, leaving behind you three sisters and a few disciples, none of whom he'd ever carefully instructed. He originally said that when he returned, he would pass everything he'd learned in his life on to you. Instead, he's been gone for ten years. You've found martial instructors to teach you, but without a renowned master's guidance, how can you be a match for someone else's final disciple?"
"The Overlord Armor is indeed formidable. Unfortunately, it's too famous. Naturally, I focused my research on such a powerful martial art and looked for ways to break it," Mo Caihuan said. "Don't worry, Mother. I'm completely certain I can break his Overlord Armor."
"Completely certain?" Everyone was stunned. What extraordinary confidence!
"Since Caihuan is confident, let her go," the Third Madam urged.
The Fourth Madam couldn't help thinking, How did I give birth to such a precocious daughter? She's only fifteen, and I already can't keep her in line. Helplessly, she said, "Go, then. He's in the guest room."
Mo Caihuan nodded, turned, and left, murderous intent rolling off her.
Inside the guest room, Wu Jianming was considering which young lady he should marry when he heard a servant outside say, "Young Master Wu, the Third Young Lady asks you to come out and meet her."
With an oily smile, he walked out and saw a little beauty whose features had yet to fully mature. Even so, she had the potential to make fish sink and wild geese fall from the sky. Cupping his fists, he said, "This humble scholar, Wu Jianming, greets the Third Young Lady."
Mo Caihuan couldn't be bothered to play along and went straight to the point. "Stop pretending. I know you're a disciple of the Dominating Mountain Manor. Use your Overlord Armor and take three moves from me."
Wu Jianming hadn't expected her to expose his identity so directly. He was just about to speak when he heard a bang. Not daring to hesitate, he hurriedly activated his Overlord Armor, and a faint golden glow appeared over his body.
To his surprise, he saw Mo Caihuan holding a hollow iron rod that was trailing white smoke. Then he lowered his head to look at his belly. His clothes had torn open, and blood blossomed from his abdomen.
"Impossible! How could my Overlord Armor have been broken?" He was utterly shocked.
Mo Caihuan, however, was dissatisfied. The first-generation Flintlock hadn't been powerful enough to kill him outright. If Ouyang Feitian came in person, wouldn't the firearm be useless?
"What a bother!" Of course, since she'd claimed complete certainty, she hadn't been bluffing. She tossed the Flintlock aside and advanced barehanded.
Wu Jianming didn't understand what she intended to do, but when he saw her discard the iron rod, he concluded that it was a single-use concealed weapon. Furious, he immediately shouted, "I'll make you pay!"
He raised his hand, his golden palm clashing with her slender, fair hand.
His wound throbbed. Every trace of tenderness toward the beauty vanished from his heart, replaced by killing intent. He meant to break the girl's arm.
Boom! Internal power collided with internal power, and Wu Jianming's arm shattered inch by inch.
He could hardly believe his eyes. The Overlord Armor was a top-tier defensive art. Though he hadn't mastered it, he'd gained an initial grasp of its mysteries. Blades and swords swung with brute force couldn't hurt him at all. How could it offer no protection whatsoever now?!
Mo Caihuan couldn't care less about his jumble of thoughts. She struck again and again, each palm landing on the golden glow of the Overlord Armor while her internal power hit the enemy's body with precision.
Before Wu Jianming died, a thought flashed through his mind: This must be Striking the Ox Through the Mountain, a move specifically designed to counter protective internal power.
The first time Mo Caihuan killed someone, she had severed her enemy's head with a sword and felt sick for days. By now, however, she had grown accustomed to it. She had seen plenty of dead people over the past few years.
Beyond the Mo Residence, people died every day in Jia Yuan City: in armed clashes, of illness, of starvation, of exposure, by drowning, by suicide...
Mortals had very low productivity, and their average lifespan was only around forty years. After thirty, either a heart attack or a stroke could kill them. That was without even mentioning the oppression of bandits, bullies, local tyrants, and corrupt gentry, which drove people to the point where they could no longer survive.
After seeing enough of it, she had grown used to it.
"Send him for dissection." She wouldn't waste the corpse; she would send it to the clinic to serve as a cadaver for teaching.
The Mo Residence's servants immediately came in to deal with the body.
Mo Caihuan entered the guest room and searched the dead man's luggage, finding thirty thousand taels of silver.
"You really spared no expense chasing girls. Well done, Dugu Mountain Manor." Mo Caihuan pocketed the thirty thousand taels. There was nothing else of note. The more things he brought, the more easily he would arouse suspicion.
His goal had been to woo a girl, marry a young lady of the Mo Residence, and take control of the Whale-Jiao Society. His reward would then have been far more than thirty thousand taels.
The Whale-Jiao Society was, after all, one of Lan Province's three dominant powers, earning three hundred thousand taels of silver a year. Of course, that had been before. Now it earned at least a million taels, and the figure was still rising every year, since its light industrial products were still being promoted and production had yet to ramp up. Once output increased and its products spread across multiple countries, annual earnings of ten million would be perfectly normal.
The Yue Kingdom's annual tax revenue was only around thirty million taels.
In short, this was only the beginning.
Such enormous earnings were also what gave Mo Caihuan the confidence to eliminate the Dominating Mountain Manor and the Five Colors Sect.
Of course, there was another problem with the Five Colors Sect: it had immortal cultivators behind it and was a sect backed by Spirit Beast Mountain.
Spirit Beast Mountain was one of the Yue Kingdom's seven great sects.
Would Spirit Beast Mountain intervene if she wiped out the Five Colors Sect?
If not for Spirit Beast Mountain, Mo Caihuan would have activated the Infiltration Plan long ago. Unfortunately, immortal cultivators were far too terrifying. With a twitch of a finger, they could burn a martial arts grandmaster to ash.
Though her martial arts were formidable and she even knew Striking the Ox Through the Mountain, she still feared immortal cultivators.