Chen Xiangrong smiled and said, "Credit that belongs to you is yours. No one can erase it."
"Thank you, my lord."
"The Imperial Court is weak now, but that is of no concern to us. The major sects in the Jianghu all want to seize these trading houses, but none dares make a move. No one wants to be the bird that sticks its head out, since they all hold one another in check. I never expected the Heavenly Sword Sect to be so impatient. They've handed us a bargain instead," Chen Xiangrong said.
"Although the Heavenly Sword Sect takes orders from the Sword Pavilion, all those years as the Martial Arts Supreme have given them other ideas. After so long, they must be unwilling to remain beneath someone else. But they could never have known that you endured humiliation and shouldered this burden, hiding in the trading houses for so many years, my lord," the middle-aged man said.
"Yes, decades. All this time, I've been pretending to be a cowardly, weak-willed fat man. Often, I almost forgot my original identity," Chen Xiangrong said with some feeling.
Seeing his lord's expression, the middle-aged man did not dare utter a sound. In his lord's presence, he dared not show the slightest disrespect.
Ever since his lord had gone undercover, he had rarely used his power. He looked like an ordinary man, or at most someone who knew a little martial arts. Maintaining a disguise for a short while was easy, but keeping it up for decades without anyone spotting a flaw was extraordinarily difficult.
"But now it is time to draw in the net. We can consolidate these trading houses with full justification, using the Heavenly Sword Sect's hands to sweep away the obstacles. Those sects in the Jianghu probably won't