The infiltration plan began.
The plan was simple: buy off or turn the subordinates of Dominating Mountain Manor.
Of course, this was no ordinary bribery, but winning people over from the heart. The strongest weapon in the mortal world was "sincerity," and the infiltration plan aimed to pierce through Dominating Mountain Manor with it.
Mo Caihuan went among the rank and file and learned that gang members joined gangs simply to put food on the table and avoid being bullied.
These days, the common people could barely survive. Without banding together, they would be bullied to death.
They either relied on their families, joined a religion, or joined a gang. The law now served only to protect the imperial court itself, not ordinary people. Commoners had to find their own way out.
The lowest-ranking gang members had it rough too. They were nothing but cannon fodder. Even working themselves to the bone earned them barely enough to eat, and they still had to worry about their petty leaders squeezing them dry.
The petty leaders could force them to gamble and win back the money they had paid them. And gambling was not the only method. Their own birthdays, their parents' milestone birthdays, and all sorts of other occasions could also be used to force their underlings to hand over money.
With their money taken back under perfectly plausible pretexts, the rank and file had no savings and no room for anything to go wrong.
Mo Caihuan went among the rank and file, cracked down harshly on petty leaders who oppressed their members, and promoted responsible people to replace them. This gave the Whale-Jiao Society's lower ranks a fresh start, and they in turn began influencing the lower ranks of Dominating Mountain Manor and the Five Colors Sect.
The members' problems were her own problems. Mo Caihuan treated everyone with sincerity.
The lower ranks of Dominating Mountain Manor and the Five Colors Sect had been steadily eaten away. Now it was time to reap the harvest.
Ouyang Feitian, the master of Dominating Mountain Manor, would never have imagined that its lower ranks were riddled with holes. The moment he issued a mission, the Whale-Jiao Society would learn his troops' movements.
Unless Ouyang Feitian challenged the entire Whale-Jiao Society single-handedly, he could forget about concealing his movements.
Next, uprisings broke out in several of Dominating Mountain Manor's branches, and the Whale-Jiao Society took them with ease.
Dominating Mountain Manor's petty leaders also withheld payments, demanded bribes, and extorted their underlings. They were just as inhuman. The members yearned to turn the tables and become their own masters.
Soon, Dominating Mountain Manor was isolated. Every branch was gone.
"You've gone too far!" The manor master flew into a rage, but he had no time to reclaim the strongholds one by one. The best approach was to attack the Whale-Jiao Society's headquarters and slaughter them all.
He gathered his officers, mustered a thousand rank-and-file members, and set out immediately.
As long as he destroyed the Whale-Jiao Society, everything would return to normal.
But he was wrong. Among those thousand men were spies the Whale-Jiao Society had turned. The moment Ouyang Feitian took action, someone notified the society.
Ouyang Feitian was ambushed halfway there.
As for the infiltrators, a strip of yellow cloth tied around their right arms identified them as allies.
Crossbows and firearms fired together.
"Crossbow bolts? Is the Whale-Jiao Society trying to rebel?" Ouyang Feitian had not expected the enemy to use military equipment.
No one answered. They simply kept firing mercilessly. Their main target was the mounted party around Ouyang Feitian. The rank and file could be spared as long as they did not resist.
"Overlord Armor!" Ouyang Feitian unleashed his supreme technique.
"The one glowing is Ouyang Feitian! Shoot him!" The moment the captain saw someone using Overlord Armor, he shouted for everyone to concentrate their fire.
"Mere crossbow bolts can't hurt me!" He had perfected his Overlord Armor. It could deflect crossbow bolts, and even early firearms could not so much as scratch him.
Boom!
Just as Ouyang Feitian prepared to counterattack, a thunderous blast rang out. His body went numb, and he was hurled backward. He seemed to see his own arm flying away, scattering crimson blossoms of blood.
Why had his Overlord Armor failed? His mind was filled with questions. Even if someone answered, he would never hear it, because he was already dead.
A cannon. The Whale-Jiao Society had used a cannon.
"The enemy leader is dead! Lay down your weapons!"
Seeing their manor master dead, the rank and file did not dare fight back. They all surrendered.
When the news reached Jia Yuan City, all four madams were stunned. In just three short months, Dominating Mountain Manor, one of the three dominant powers, had been destroyed?
"Ouyang Feitian is dead. We should ride this momentum and storm Dominating Mountain Manor," Third Madam said excitedly.
Fifth Madam said, "Caihuan has already ordered the troops to withdraw. She hasn't attacked Dominating Mountain Manor."
"Why?" Third Madam asked, puzzled.
"Dominating Mountain Manor is easy to defend and hard to attack. There are many traps and hidden passages around it, so taking it won't be easy. Without funding from its branches, it won't be able to recover anyway. Caihuan believes there's no need to sacrifice lives to capture a meaningless fortress," Fifth Madam said. "Young as she is, Caihuan has thunderous methods and a bodhisattva's heart. That's what makes everyone willing to fight to the death for her."
They all fell silent. As the adults, they felt ashamed of how far they fell short.
"Fourth Sister, you've raised a fine daughter," Second Madam said enviously.
Fourth Madam felt proud, but spoke modestly. "All three girls of the Mo family are our dear daughters. Caihuan is everyone's daughter."
"What next? Are we really going to move against the Five Colors Sect?" Third Madam asked.
"Let's ask Caihuan when she gets back," Second Madam said.
Without their realizing it, Mo Caihuan had become their pillar of support.
Meanwhile, Mo Caihuan was sorting through the reports sent back from the battlefield. She had remained at the Whale-Jiao Society's headquarters all night without sleeping, waiting for news.
When word of victory arrived, she considered what to do next. The infiltration plan had been extremely successful. Repeating the same trick would make taking the Five Colors Sect no problem.
The problem was Spirit Beast Mountain, which stood behind the Five Colors Sect.
The Yue Kingdom's seven great cultivation sects were minor sects that did not even rank among the major powers of the Heavenly South. They had taken advantage of the fierce war between the righteous and demonic paths there, swooping in at the end to claim the Yue Kingdom and gather cultivation resources from both sides.
The demonic path was lying low. In another thirty or forty years, it would fight its way back into the Yue Kingdom, and all seven great sects would have to clear out.
By then, I'll be an old woman too, Mo Caihuan thought helplessly.
Should I make a move?
In the end, she decided to act.
Since she was going to act, there was no point hesitating. If she wanted to unify the Heavenly South, she would have to deal with cultivators sooner or later. There was no avoiding it. When soldiers came, she would meet them with generals; when floods came, she would hold them back with earth.
Upon returning to the Mo Residence, she told her four mothers outright that she would move against the Five Colors Sect next.
"Are you confident?" Fourth Madam asked.
"The Five Colors Sect is indeed stronger than Dominating Mountain Manor, and its rewards and punishments are clearer. But its rank-and-file members are no better off than those at Dominating Mountain Manor. It's six of one and half a dozen of the other. The infiltration plan will work just as well," Mo Caihuan said. "The Five Colors Sect's petty leaders have even more ways to bully people. They produce shoddy goods like cloth shoes and bamboo baskets and make the members resell them. If they can't sell them, the members have to swallow the entire stock themselves."
"Isn't that forcing people to buy and sell?" Second Madam asked with a frown.
"Exactly. The members are angry, but they don't dare speak up."
Fourth Madam could not help saying, "Ah, without you managing the Whale-Jiao Society, we'd be much the same. The petty leaders invented all sorts of pretexts to withhold money and extort people, and we knew nothing about it."
"The Five Colors Sect's lower ranks are rotten, but it has more experts among its middle and upper ranks. It will certainly resist more fiercely than Dominating Mountain Manor," Mo Caihuan said. "But with the power of our crossbows and firearms, the advantage is mine."
"Then do it. Once we eliminate the Five Colors Sect and the Whale-Jiao Society dominates Lan Province, we won't be under so much pressure." This victory had left Fourth Madam with complete faith in her daughter's abilities.
Mo Caihuan did not dare let her guard down. After all, Spirit Beast Mountain, which backed the Five Colors Sect, was very likely to intervene. Then she would have to face cultivators.
She returned to the Whale-Jiao Society's headquarters and issued combat orders. This operation had only one requirement: speed! They had to destroy the Five Colors Sect before the cultivators could react.
But the Five Colors Sect was no fool. Seeing Dominating Mountain Manor reduced to dust and ashes in the blink of an eye, its sect master immediately dispatched his trusted followers to oversee the strongholds and branches, preventing the rank and file from rebelling.
Then he recalled experts to defend the main headquarters, lest the Whale-Jiao Society raid his home base.
The infiltration plan continued. Uprisings succeeded at some branches, but nowhere near enough. Instead, many intelligence operatives were discovered by the sect master's trusted followers and brutally killed.
"Heh, the same trick won't work on the Five Colors Sect. A mere Whale-Jiao Society is nothing to fear," the sect master said with a chuckle.
The deputy leader flattered him. "You are wise, Sect Master. The Five Colors Sect's strength has long surpassed that of the Whale-Jiao Society and Dominating Mountain Manor combined. We've simply kept a low profile and refrained from acting. If the Whale-Jiao Society thinks we're as fragile as Dominating Mountain Manor, it's gravely mistaken."
"That said, the petty leaders in our branches really have gone too far," the sect master said. "I've heard about it too. To squeeze money out of the members, they force sales on them, selling them piles of shoddy junk and making them resell it. The goods are poor quality and overpriced, so they can't sell them at all. The members can only swallow their broken teeth along with their grievances. It's time we brought those leaders into line."
"You are wise, Sect Master. This is indeed a fine opportunity to root out the worms in our branches." That was what the deputy leader said aloud, but inwardly he thought, If the petty leaders don't take their cut, how are the senior leaders supposed to take theirs?
When the petty leaders made money, they also had to bribe the senior leaders.