Chapter 121



121 Sealing off Pingyao County

Although Zhao zhengzha had been stopped outside anling city, the Zhao clan would not let it go so easily.

After failing to take action directly and receiving the order from Qiu wanyong on behalf of the Qingfeng sect, they had thought of some other ways.

All in all, it was a combination of blockade and harassment. In the following period of time, it had actually brought a lot of trouble to the Lu family.

The Zhao clan had been in the anling Prefecture for too many years. Before the rise of the Lu clan, they were already a big clan in the anling Prefecture and had a strong influence.

Under their influence, Pingyao County had been isolated.

Here, we need to mention the geographical location of Pingyao.

Pingyao was located in the Northwest corner of the anling Prefecture. Further north and west was a primeval forest with a radius of 100000 miles. It was the common border between the Feiyun state, the Xue state, and the Jin state’s Shuo state. It was named the ‘North barren forest’. There were all kinds of desolate beasts and demon races inside. There were even level four and even level five demon kings living in the depths, ruling over the demon races in the North barren forest.

This was a behemoth that could not be provoked, especially a fifth-level Demon King, which was comparable to a nascent soul cultivator.

Further north from the North barren forest was the Xue state’s Jibei County. However, due to the separation of the North barren forest, the two sides were not able to pass through. In fact, there was only one passage connecting the Feiyun state and the Xue state, which was from the North Sea county to the Ji Nan County.

In other words, when the Zhao family and their allies locked down the East and South of Pingyao, Pingyao, which was in a corner, was an isolated island.

The Zhao clan’s method of sealing off Pingyao County was also divided into two major steps.

The first was to mobilize the forces that were close to them. No matter if it was the families in the various regions, some Chambers of Commerce, or even some forces in the mortal world, they would not allow them to do business with the Lu clan. Through this method, the Lu family’s items could not be sold or bought back.

The Lu clan’s income would shrink greatly. The sales of the water-cloud horses, energy stones, magic tools produced by the clan, and the sales of various medicinal herbs, raw materials, and pills would all be greatly affected.

The local market of Pingyao could not take in so much output. For example, the water cloud horse was priced at over a thousand spirit stones each. Which of the itinerant cultivators in Pingyao could afford it?

Furthermore, they were not only targeting the Lu clan. They were also targeting all the itinerant cultivators in Pingyao County.

Pingyao County itself was not considered barren. It was considered rich in natural resources and had a rather large area. Among the counties in anling, it had the largest population. All of this meant that Pingyao was considered a treasured land.

However, no matter what, it was impossible for Pingyao to satisfy the needs of hundreds of cultivators with just one county without doing any trade with the outside world.

Those unaffiliated cultivators who could not withstand the pressure or felt that Pingyao County was too dangerous and had no future would run away. Once people ran away, no one would rent the man-made spirit vein mansion in the county and the surrounding low-grade spirit veins. No one would do business, and there would be no way to collect taxes.

This was going to break the roots.

Of course, no matter how influential the Zhao clan was, it was impossible for them to completely deter everyone from doing business with the Lu clan. It would be more likely for the Qingfeng sect to do so.

For those with sect backgrounds like Husheng trading company and Feiyun branch, they were not weak and continued to do business. Mu Yangcheng, the leader of the independent cultivators in Sishui, also maintained the deal with the Lu family. There was also a direct trade route between Pingyao and anling city.

For some places that they could not seal off, the Zhao family would increase the pressure. For example, the Lu family had already received several letters of complaint from mu Yangcheng, saying that he had not been doing well in Sishui County. As an ally of the Zhao family, the MA family had been causing trouble for him in si Shui city.

On the other hand, they had also used a more direct method-harassment.

They would hire rogue cultivators and even cultivators from the Zhao clan to attack and detain the Lu clan’s caravans.

This dealt a further blow to the Lu corporation’s business.

The entire situation had become terrible in a very short time.

The Lu family was under great pressure. It was fine if their income declined sharply in the short term, but this situation could not last for a long time.

At the same time, there was also some unrest within Pingyao County. There were already a small number of itinerant cultivators who had started to escape. It was very difficult to stop such things. The Lu clan could not say ‘I’ll kill you if you leave Pingyao’ either. That was unrealistic.

But fortunately, these disturbances were still controlled within an acceptable range for the time being. Most of the Rogue cultivators were just watching. Some even went to the Lu clan and asked them how they planned to deal with this matter.

The Lu Corporation had already started to work on appeasing them. The results were not bad, but this was not a long-term plan.

This kind of thing couldn’t be solved just by placating.

In the end, the key to solving this problem was to break the seal.

After the five foundation building cultivators from the Lu clan discussed with Lu chaoxi, they finally came up with a corresponding strategy. First, he had to solve the problem in the southern Sishui County.

……

Lu ranting had brought four cultivators from the direct line of descent of the Lu clan and five itinerant cultivators that she had hired. They were escorting a batch of goods and had already arrived at the Sishui territory.

They were very careful along the way, but they could not completely hide from people.

When they arrived at Sishui County, they didn’t enter the city. Instead, they took a detour to the south of the city. After another day of walking, they arrived at manling mountain.

This manling mountain was mu Yangcheng’s territory. He was a rogue cultivator. When he was close to sixty years old, he was unwilling to waste his life like this, so he took a risk and tried to break through without the foundation building pill. In the end, he was lucky and really managed to break through this barrier.

After that, he became the leader of the itinerant cultivators in the Sishui River. He was on equal terms with the MA family of Sishui. They competed and cooperated at the same time. In the end, he was still doing well.

A Foundation establishment cultivator without a Foundation establishment pill would have a deeper magic power than an ordinary Foundation establishment cultivator, and a better foundation. Even though mu Yangcheng only had three spiritual roots and was over 130 years old, slightly older than Lu chaoxi, he was already at the sixth-tier foundation building realm.

In fact, compared to Madam MA, mu Yangcheng actually had nothing to do with the Lu family in the past.

However, this time, he had placed all his bets on the Lu family.

On one hand, the Zhao family had offended him before. On the other hand, and most importantly, he felt that the Lu family had a better future than the Zhao family. Putting aside the young initial enlightenment cultivator, Lu chaoxi, he felt that the Golden core patriarch, Lu Qing, was really not dead. Moreover, he was secretly helping the Lu clan.

Sishui was not far from peace. All these years, he saw the Lu clan, which was on the verge of destruction, develop better and better with the help of a mysterious force. Then, in the battle at the northern border, they soared and completely changed the view of the outside world. They once again became a big clan that could fight against the Zhao clan in anling Prefecture.

Mu Yangcheng believed that this mysterious force was the evidence that the ancestor of the Lu family was still alive.

Lu ranting and the others were transporting a batch of goods for him to handle. He promised that he would sell the goods in exchange for spiritual stones and then hand them over to the Lu family.

However, there were two requirements-he didn’t care about the delivery or withdrawal of the money, and the Lu family had to do it themselves. He couldn’t send his men to Pingyao. He had been under a lot of pressure recently.

However, when Lu ranting’s team arrived at manling mountain, he had met with Lu ranting and the others.

“Your trip is very risky.” That was what he said the moment he opened his mouth.

This was his honest judgment.

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Still missing 22 chapters

Today, he was also a hero who had updated 8000 words!