The People Will Suffer

"Damn fox! We spoke to you nicely, and you dared make fools of us!"

Hearing Yin Yunze's words, Yu Liu immediately drew his long saber and shouted, "You'd better hand over the grain like a good fox, or you'll find that my brothers and I don't eat our rice for nothing!"

Seeing Yu Liu's reaction, Yin Yunze gave a cold laugh, his suspicions confirmed.

If they had truly come to trade, couldn't they part on good terms even if the deal fell through? Was there any need to shout and threaten violence?

If the county magistrate had truly meant to do so, could he really have forgotten to tell them?

"You mustn't! You mustn't do that!"

Seeing this, Song Ran didn't back down. After all, Yin Yunze was far too important to Clear Creek Village now.

If the people Song Ran had brought really caused trouble, the Song family might not be able to stay in Clear Creek Village any longer.

Song Ran grabbed Yu Liu and hurriedly explained, "Lord Fox Immortal laid down this rule from the very beginning! He isn't trying to make things difficult for you two! Even among the people of Clear Creek Village, only those who believe in Lord Fox Immortal are given grain!"

"You must not be rude to Lord Yi Yun!" At that moment, Sun Qin, though visibly nervous, also stepped in front of the two men. "Lord Yi Yun has saved countless people. How can you behave like this?"

"Xiao Liu, don't be rash!" Seeing their attitudes, Peng Shulan seemed to take their words to heart. He cupped his hands and asked, "Fox Immortal, can't you make an exception?"

Of course, although Peng Shulan's attitude seemed reasonable, it was still possible that he and Yu Liu were playing a black face and a red face.

But regardless of their intentions, the two men's attitude finally extinguished the last trace of hesitation in Yin Yunze's heart.

Clearly, the two did not regard Yin Yunze as an immortal. They might even have been looking down on this mountain fox immortal all along.

And that unequal attitude was precisely what Yin Yunze least wanted to see.

Yin Yunze could cooperate with the authorities. After all, the person behind these two needed Yin Yunze's grain to get through the drought, while Yin Yunze needed that person's help to gain more believers and increase his Incense of Faith.

But the prerequisite for such cooperation was that, at the very least, the two sides had to be equals.

Even if they were to cooperate, it wouldn't be like this, with the other party refusing even to show his face and casually sending two subordinates, expecting Yin Yunze to come running eagerly to help.

In a partnership, the weaker side could easily be picked clean by the stronger.

And clearly, the other party didn't even regard Yin Yunze as a partner he could look in the eye as an equal.

"No!"

He refused outright, but then, to keep the other party from leaping over the wall like a desperate dog, Yin Yunze added, "It is not merely that I do not wish to do so. I cannot! If I break this precept, not only will you fail to obtain grain, but I too will be implicated and suffer punishment!"

"Fox Immortal, who would punish you?"

As expected, Yin Yunze's words distracted Peng Shulan, who hurriedly asked another question.

"I cannot say."

It was a lie, after all, and the more he said, the more mistakes he might make, so Yin Yunze simply brushed him off.

"I think you're just a damn fox trying to raise the price!" Yu Liu broke free of Song Ran's grip and once again drew his saber, pointing it at Yin Yunze. "Fox, I advise you to be smart! Hand over the grain if you know what's good for you, or I'll tear down this lousy temple of yours!"

"Heh heh..."

With someone kicking up such a fuss, Yin Yunze couldn't just stand by and watch.

Yin Yunze didn't want to cause trouble, but he didn't want to be taken for a soft persimmon, either.

If he wanted to cooperate with the other party, he first had to show him his strength.

And the best way to make someone stop looking down on you was to find a way to break their legs!

Everyone heard a cold laugh, and then a graceful nine-tailed white fox suddenly sprang out of the clay statue before them.

But the next moment, the white fox's body shot upward. Within a few breaths, he seemed to stand with his head against the heavens and his feet planted on the earth.

"I am standing right here. Go on and try tearing it down!"

Yin Yunze's voice boomed like thunder, resounding between heaven and earth and leaving all four of them dizzy, their heads buzzing.

Before they could recover from the sonic attack, they saw sparks burst across the sky from between the nine-tailed white fox's interlocking fangs.

The sparks fell toward the ground, transforming into a sky full of fireballs.

The next moment, the four people present saw a rain of fiery meteors cover the entire sky above them.

When the first fireball struck the ground not far from them, flames leaped up with a whoosh and formed a pillar of fire.

The heat rushed over the four of them, making their breath catch.

"...I don't believe it. It must all be fake!"

Though Yu Liu's face had turned slightly pale, he still denied what he was seeing.

As if in response, a fireball fell straight toward his head.

Facing the fireball, Yu Liu gritted his teeth, refused to believe it, and drew his saber to slash at it with all his strength.

With a soft puff, the fireball was cut into countless sparks.

But before Yu Liu could celebrate, the scattered sparks landed on him and burst into flame again.

In an instant, Yu Liu was on the verge of becoming a man of fire.

"Quick, take off your clothes!"

Seeing that something was wrong, Peng Shulan immediately helped Yu Liu strip off his burning clothes.

Although the two men had moved quickly, much of Yu Liu's hair had been singed.

While Peng Shulan and Yu Liu were still reeling from the fright, several fireballs landed in succession around them.

The rising pillars of fire joined together, trapping the two men inside a ring of flames.

And although these green flames had no fuel, they burned ever more fiercely. Soon, flames had enclosed the space above their heads as well.

The green flames formed a dome that enveloped them both.

Surrounded by roaring flames, Peng Shulan and Yu Liu, who had never encountered anything like this, were at a loss for what to do.

The heat beating against their faces made it hard for them to breathe.

It was as though every breath they drew and exhaled carried away a trace of their life force.

After a mere dozen or so breaths, Peng Shulan and Yu Liu felt their limbs beginning to weaken.

Of course, Yin Yunze wasn't kind enough to remind them that they were running out of oxygen.

"Lord Fox Immortal!" With life and death at stake, Peng Shulan finally used an honorific for the first time. "Xiao Liu merely spoke without thinking. Why must you deal him a killing blow? Those one thousand taels of gold represent our sincerity! And do you know who sent us?!"

Hearing Peng Shulan mention the person behind them, Yin Yunze knew the performance had gone far enough.

After all, the Fox Fire was burning more than just the two men's courage; it was burning Yin Yunze's Power of Incense Offerings too!

To ensure nothing went wrong, Yin Yunze had surrounded them with a wall of fire a full meter thick. As the price, his Power of Incense Offerings was being rapidly consumed.

He stopped maintaining the prison of fire and looked at the two men, who had escaped death and were gasping for breath. "Naturally, I know who is behind you," Yin Yunze said coldly. "Otherwise, did you think I spoke so politely before because I truly wished to converse with fools like you who do not know life from death? I was showing respect to the person behind you!"

Having already spent Power of Incense Offerings to put on this performance, Yin Yunze would not let the opportunity slip. He directly reduced the two men to the sort unworthy of speaking to him.

Panting as he looked at the nine-tailed white fox towering into the clouds, Peng Shulan was not angry. Instead, he said in a low voice, "Since Lord Fox Immortal knows who stands behind me... you should also know that we are not seeking profit this time, but acting for the livelihood of everyone in the county!"

With Sun Qin helping him gather information, Yin Yunze naturally knew what Peng Shulan meant.

Even with the grain Yin Yunze supplied and Song Zhao's help in keeping prices stable, the price of rice had inevitably risen to fifty copper coins per jin.

Those five hundred thousand jin of grain were presumably part of the county magistrate's plan to drive down the price of rice throughout the county in one stroke.

But what did that have to do with Yin Yunze?

How could Yin Yunze fail to see that, having failed to tempt and threaten him, this man was now playing the moral card?

Naturally, Yin Yunze wasn't going to take the bait.

"Have I not been helping you?"

The nine-tailed white fox he had conjured lowered his head to look at Peng Shulan. Feigning anger, Yin Yunze said, "I said that those who do not believe in me may not eat! Yet why has that grain ended up in other people's mouths? Do you think Song Zhao could have kept supplying you with grain if I had not turned a blind eye?"

"Lord Fox Immortal..."

As the person overseeing this transaction, Peng Shulan could not possibly be a fool.

Hearing Yin Yunze's words, Peng Shulan was suddenly seized by a bad premonition.

"Your greatest mistake was not your disrespect toward me! It was calling the gifts I bestowed in return for my believers' sincerity a transaction."

Yin Yunze let out a quiet sigh and, feigning compassion, spoke a famous saying from the real world: "Some things, left off the scales, weigh less than four liang. But once placed on the scales, even a thousand jin will not suffice. The people here will suffer from now on!"