Home at Last!

When the outline of Hongtian City gradually appeared on the horizon, Sun Bo'an let out a long breath of stale air and slumped over the back of his scale horse.

The old cultivator, now in his fifties, looked every bit like an old farmer returning from fleeing a disaster.

The group straggled along in a thin, scattered line.

More than 120 people had set out, but fewer than seventy had returned.

A row of people stood at the city gate.

Sun Wanqing, Sun Changping, Sun Mao, Sun Tieshan, Sun Yacai... everyone from the Sun Clan who had stayed behind had come, followed by members of the eight minor clans. The crowd packed more than half the street.

The beast carriage had barely stopped when Sun Mao came dashing over, running so fast his shoes nearly flew off. He grabbed the side of the carriage and peered inside...

When he saw Shi Jian lying there, with a large bald, scorched patch on his back, his nose tingled and his eyes filled with tears.

"Old Ancestor, you're hurt!"

"I'm not dead, so what are you howling for?"

Shi Jian crawled slowly out of the carriage and deliberately staggered when he landed. Sun Mao hurriedly reached out to steady him, wrapping both arms around Shi Jian's thick foreleg as though hugging a pillar.

Shi Jian glanced down at him but did not shake him off.

Sun Wanqing stepped forward, her gaze sweeping over the glaring scorch mark on Shi Jian's back. Without a word, she took a porcelain bottle from her sleeve and handed it to Sun Mao.

"Spirit salve. Apply it to the Old Ancestor tonight."

Sun Changping moved close to Sun Bo'an and asked in a low voice:

"Bo'an, how many did we lose?"

At that, Sun Bo'an's face darkened. The expedition had indeed yielded a rich haul, but they had also paid a heavy price...

That night, the lights flickered in the Sun Clan's council hall, and the atmosphere was heavy.

Sun Bo'an stood in the hall, reading through the casualty list entry by entry, his voice dry.

"Immortal slaves: sixty before the battle. All forty taken on this expedition perished."

"The twenty left are all those who stayed in the city to farm. Most are the old, the young, women and children. Everyone capable of fighting with magic is dead..."

Silence filled the hall. Forty immortal slaves, gone just like that.

Although these people had not been bought, and the two sides even bore the blood feud of an exterminated clan, they could at least fight, run and work...

Losing two-thirds of them in one stroke really did hurt.

Still, it was just as well they were dead. With them dead, there was no need to keep worrying about them.

Sun Bo'an turned a page and continued, "Of the eight minor clans under us, the Feng Clan lost six people in all, including three core members at the Fifth and Sixth Layers of Qi Refining."

"The Qian Clan lost four. The Zheng Clan had it worst, losing nine people. Clan Head Zheng Ming and all the clan's Qi Refining cultivators are gone..."

"Of the eight minor clans, the Feng, Qian and Zheng clans have now suffered grievous losses. The Zheng Clan is essentially finished. It only has a few people at the second or third layer of Qi Refining left, barely enough to hold up even a single township."

Sun Bo'an closed the register and looked up at the screen behind him.

Behind the screen, Shi Jian lay on a thick beast hide, listening silently to it all, but he did not care much about the people of these minor clans.

"Old Ancestor, what do you think we should do about this..."

"Replace whoever needs replacing."

Shi Jian's voice came lazily from behind the screen. "If the Zheng Clan is finished, so be it. Keeping them around would only drag us down."

"Take all their remaining people into the Sun Clan's outer ranks to work. Give them food to eat, and don't let people say we're heartless."

"Give the Feng and Qian clans half a year to recover. If they're still in the same wretched state after that, cut them both loose."

Sun Bo'an nodded and asked, "And the three vacant spots..."

"Pick people from the rogue cultivators in the city."

Shi Jian yawned and said airily, "Now that the battle's over, quite a few rogue cultivators in White Cloud Commandery have nowhere to go."

"A group also fled back from the front lines in Cangshi Valley..."

"Put the word out that the Sun Clan is recruiting vassals. The terms will be the same as for the previous eight clans, but this time we'll add one condition."

"New minor clans will get only a twenty-percent share of the Spirit Stones for their first three years. It'll go back to forty percent starting in the fourth year. There are more people than land now anyway. If you won't do it, there'll always be a rogue cultivator who will."

Sun Bo'an was taken aback, but he quickly caught on.

Taking only twenty percent for the first three years was practically working for nothing.

But White Cloud Commandery had just been through a beast tide and a mountain purge, and people were dying everywhere. If rogue cultivators could find a great tree to shelter under,

even for a mere twenty percent, they would have to grit their teeth and accept it.

A seller's market was just that cruel.

"I understand."

"I'll leave the rest to you. I'm going back to rest."

Sun Bo'an assented, and Shi Jian rode a demonic cloud back to his cave abode on the rear mountain of the main peak...

Three days later, after the Sun Clan put out the word, more people came than expected.

More than fifty rogue cultivators suddenly flooded into the market of Hongtian City. All were grimy and disheveled, and quite a few were wounded.

Some had fled back from the front lines in Cangshi Valley. Others were down-and-out cultivators who had previously depended on other townships, only for their patron clans to be wiped out. There were even some who had come running from neighboring counties.

Sun Bo'an set up a makeshift "interview table" in the market, with a pot of cold tea and a register beside it...

He wore a mean expression, looking everyone over as if sizing up livestock!

The applicants came in all sorts.

The first was a rogue cultivator surnamed Fang at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. He claimed he could refine First-Tier Inferior-Grade Qi Replenishing Pills and had brought three disciples.

Sun Bo'an looked through his Cultivation Method Jade Slip and had him refine a batch on the spot.

His pill yield was forty percent, and the quality was barely acceptable.

"You're staying."

The second was what remained of the Qin Clan, who had fled from White Stone Town. They had originally been a minor clan of more than a dozen people, but only five had survived the beast tide. Their leader was at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.

"You know the terms?"

"I do."

Qin Dazhuang, the Qin Clan head, nodded and said in a hoarse voice, "Twenty percent for the first three years, forty percent from the fourth year onward, and we submit a copy of our inheritance."

"The Qin Clan has no objections."

Others held the knife and chopping block, while they were the fish and meat.

In times like these, staying alive was what mattered most!

The third was someone Shi Jian had asked for by name.

A solitary rogue cultivator named Shen Po, at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, who practiced a rather obscure insect-control Technique!

His hair was unkempt and his face filthy. All manner of gu insects crawled over him, and he gave off a rotten stench. The other cultivators kept their distance whenever they saw him.

But Shi Jian caught a whiff of him from afar and had Sun Bo'an take him in.

Insect arts.

Unassuming, but in the mountains and forests, their value was far more practical than that of a flying sword.

In three days, the three new vassal forces had been found.

The Fang Clan, the Qin Clan and the Shen Household.

Together with the original five, that once again made eight minor Qi Refining clans under the Sun Clan's rule. Their supply of oxen and horses had been replenished...

Only by stabilizing the lands under their rule could they bring peace to the world.

All that remained was to sit back and wait for the winds and clouds to shift. Shi Jian was in no hurry. As a Foundation Establishment bear demon, he had a lifespan of four hundred years!

Even now, he was only sixty. He still had plenty of time to slowly plan for the future...