"Was it really that simple and brutal?" Xue Fuyao looked at Jimo Xiubai.
He had come looking for her first thing in the morning, bristling with aggression, then rattled off a whole string of baffling remarks. She had thought he already had a plan and had come to ask her to coordinate with him.
"What's so brutal about it? My second uncle did exactly that back then."
As he spoke, Jimo Xiubai extended two fingers in a gesture for eight and said proudly, "Eighty percent. Back then, besides our Jimo Household, there were eight other lineages in the Northwestern Lands. The situation was pretty much the same as it is now. Faced with attacks from the Demon Race, they chose to hide like turtles with their heads tucked into their shells, convinced our household would be wiped out.
"But they never expected our Jimo Household to survive. Not only did we survive, we successfully repelled the beast tide. I heard from my mom that the moment the beast tide ended, my second uncle grabbed his weapon and led his men straight toward those lineages, bristling with aggression.
"First, he had his men surround them to stop anyone from escaping. Then he visited them one by one."
"To kill them?" Xue Fuyao asked.
"To demand money. My second uncle demanded eighty percent of their assets outright. Later, two of them were swallowed up, and when another two lineages saw that, they left the Northwestern Lands altogether. The ones left are the four lineages we have today.
"Back then, swallowing up those two lineages gave their own lineages a chance to catch their breath.
"Now that so many years have passed, I figure it's about time."
At this point, Jimo Xiubai lowered his voice. "I've been keeping an eye on those four