Meeting the commander
"I told you to wait for me at your dilapidated doorway, why didn't you listen? Do you really think you're something special just because you've become the Fei Household's son-in-law? You dare to act tough with me?" Tie Liuyun said to Kang Dabao in a low voice, his tone unpleasant and tinged with anger.
"This humble official dares not, but I missed Elder Ye's letter on the way here, and thus unintentionally disobeyed the command," Kang Dabao replied respectfully, bowing his head as he listened to the question, just as he had when the two first met, not daring to look up.
"Let's assume you're telling the truth. Remember this: you're not just Fei Nanying's son-in-law, you're also someone I promoted." Tie Liuyun's expression softened slightly upon hearing this, and he spoke slowly.
"This humble official will never forget the kindness of your command and guidance." A trace of sorrow welled up in Kang Dabao's heart, and he cursed inwardly, but still bowed deeply again and replied gratefully.
"Don't you want to ask who did this?" Tie Liuyun stopped looking at Kang Dabao and instead scanned the broken walls and ruins in front of him before asking the question.
"If the commander doesn't say, then this humble official will not ask." Kang Dabao's heart tightened upon hearing this, and he hurriedly pretended not to know, continuing to reply with his head down.
"Raise your head and speak properly. This act is fine for now, but stop pretending. You're not stupid; you know that even if you were the eldest son-in-law of the Fei Household, I wouldn't do anything to you. Besides, the Daoist Black Shoes is still loitering around your house. He's no ordinary person."
After finishing speaking, Tie Liuyun ignored Kang Dabao's reaction, walked with his hands behind his back to the shop of the Ye Household, and seemed to find it quite strange as well.
By this time, the entire Chongming Market had been cleared out. Apart from the Chongming Sect members and Tie Liuyun's Xiezhi Iron Guard, there was no one else left. Tie Liuyun, unconcerned, simply raised his voice slightly and continued, "This was done by the Three Incense Cult of Pu Prefecture, using Second Tier Beast-Luring Incense. In the thirteen counties of Cloud Horn Prefecture, all the markets and workshops that had received the Yue Household's trading permits suffered. It happened so suddenly that even some Foundation Establishment forces couldn't withstand it. As a result, four or five Foundation Establishment from various families have died."
"Even four or five Foundation Establishment True Cultivator have died?" Kang Dabao's shock at this moment was genuine.
In the remote place of Cloud Horn Prefecture, Foundation Establishment True Cultivator are no ordinary people. Many Qi Refinement cultivators may have never even seen four or five Foundation Establishment cultivators in their entire lives.
"Why did it come to this?" Kang Dabao pondered inwardly. "Does Tie Liuyun mean that the Three Incense Cult is targeting the Yue Household? But why is the Yue Household just standing by and letting themselves be humiliated?"
Kang Dabao of the Three Incense Cult in Pu Prefecture knew little about him. He was just a minor sect leader of a declining sect, and his knowledge was pitifully shallow compared to the True Disciple of those major sects. He was far from being knowledgeable and erudite.
He could barely make out the Foundation Establishment forces within Cloud Horn Prefecture, but he knew very little about the forces in other prefectures. Therefore, he only knew that the Three Incense Cult of Pu Prefecture was famous for its incense making, and that there should be no False Core or Golden Core cores within the sect.
"What a grand gesture!" Tie Liuyun sighed. "His family has been lying low for years, and now they've made a name for themselves."
"Not everyone has someone to come and rescue them. The Lord still remembers you and specifically asked me to come." Commander Tie was clearly not the kind of person who would be easily swayed by kindness. In just a few words, he had already done this act of repaying kindness twice.
"Lord, I will forever remember your kindness in restoring my life." Although Sect Leader Kang Da thought to himself that it made no difference whether you came or not, and he didn't know how you would explain yourself when you returned, he still had to express his loyalty and gratitude.
"Hmm." Tie Liuyun nodded with satisfaction at Kang Dabao's attitude, then said, "There's something else. Your Pingrong County Magistrate Sun Bingdou, is also dead. A group of Gold-Devouring Rat were lured into the Spirit Stone mine in Tanggu County by the Three Incense Cult. He couldn't stop them, and not even a trace was left."
"So now we need to locate the mine." Kang Dabao's face immediately showed difficulty. Being an official in Pingrong County is really not easy; how come another one has died!
"This is a matter for your Pingrong County, discuss it yourselves. The task Huo Bing assigned you has nothing to do with me, I can't be bothered with it." Tie Liuyun's face was full of disgust when he mentioned "Huo Bing".
"Don't worry too much about this place, wait and see." Tie Liuyun said meaningfully to Kang Dabao before waving his hand. The Xiezhi Iron Guard formed ranks and boarded the flying boat one after another. Tie Liuyun also rode on the Mystic Falcon. Without saying goodbye, he led the team back.
Tie Liuyun, who came to the rescue, could simply leave without a care in the world, but Kang Dabao still had many things to do.
By this time, everyone had cleaned up and left, so Yuan Jin also revived the spirit boat and carried everyone back to the Chongming Sect.
Each family returned with corpses and wounded, except for the Chongming Sect's family, who not only had no fewer people on their way back, but also had Ye Zhengwen and Ye Yaoling with them.
After much deliberation, the former decided to reluctantly go back with Kang Dabao to become an elder. The latter, however, was still too young, and with Ye Pinglin dead, he would have no one to rely on. It would be better to take him back to the Chongming Sect to raise him first, and deal with the future later.
Ye Yaoling's younger brother, Ye Pingshui, is still working as a weapon-training apprentice under Yuan Jin within the sect. Bringing the two siblings together allows them to support each other.
The beast attack launched by the Three Incense Cult was undoubtedly a disaster for the Chongming Sect. Apart from the fact that the number of people was not too great, the Chongming Market, which Kang Dabao had spent a lot of money and effort to build, was completely destroyed.
The destruction of Chongming Market was only one aspect. Most of the businesses operating in Chongming Market were related to the Chongming Sect and the three neighboring families, but now every household was in mourning. These were all small, struggling families, and if even one Qi Refinement cultivator was lost, their lives would become even more difficult.
Not to mention that many people actually used their family savings, or even took out loans, to start their businesses. Now, they don't even know if they've recouped their investment, and they've already died. This has greatly damaged the Sect Leader Kang Da Chongming Sect among the various families.
Kang Dabao had originally planned to unite them together in a few years to develop and strengthen the sect, thus laying the foundation for the restoration of the Chongming Sect. Now, this plan can only die in its infancy.
Compared to the destruction of Chongming Market, this incident caused him even more lament. Sect Leader Kang Da silently murmured to himself, "It's truly not easy for a middle-aged person to accomplish anything."
After returning to the sect, Pei Yi roughly calculated the losses suffered by the Chongming Sect, and the figures he reported made Sect Leader Kang Da gasp in shock.
Fortunately, these were all submerged costs, with no debt. It was just that the Spirit Stone Kang Dabao had invested earlier were wasted, Chongming Sect's future income would be significantly reduced.
Chongming Sect gained nothing in this battle. The Demon Beast horde had destroyed many of the monsters' corpses, and the majority of what remained was distributed among various families by Sect Leader Kang Da to make up for their losses.
Its value is insufficient to compensate for the losses suffered by each family; it is merely a gesture of appeasement by Kang Dabao to slightly win back some people's hearts.
Fortunately, in order to attract more customers as quickly as possible, Sect Leader Kang Da has not accepted Spirit Stone from the various shops he rents out in recent years; otherwise, it would be quite difficult to return them now.
However, for families like the Ye Household, Kuai Household, and Xue Household families with whom they had frequent interactions, it was inevitable that they would have to contribute a small sum of money.
"Damn it, why did we forget to take those four heads out of the Storage Bag and exchange them for Spirit Stone with Tie Liuyun!" Sect Leader Kang Da suddenly remembered this while counting on his fingers, and was so angry that he almost stood up.
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