Chapter 9: Thick and Fast

“So that’s why you came looking for me? You want to use my hand to deal with him?” Su Chen poured himself a cup of tea as he laughed coldly. “That’s a pretty nice way of saying that you want me to do your dirty work.”

Shi Mingfeng said, “Sun Mo was sent by An Sili to harm you. Are you not planning on trying to get revenge?”

Su Chen said lazily, “But he didn’t succeed, did he?”

Shi Mingfeng said with some agitation, “But some have begun to suspect you. If you can kill An Sili, you will be able to demonstrate your loyalty to the imperial family……”

“But I will also incur the wrath of many people within the Immortal Temple, right?” Su Chen countered. “I help you deal with an opposing faction, causing all their hatred to fall on me in the process, and you don’t even have to move a pinky. That’s quite the plan.”

Shi Mingfeng chuckled, “Isn’t this a win-win situation for us?”

Su Chen replied, “Not to me. I don’t care how the imperial family sees me.”

Su Chen really did not care.

Demonstrate his loyalty to the imperial family?

Forget about it! He had not needed the support of the imperial family to reach where he was now.

He didn’t need to rely on killing An Sili to demonstrate his loyalty, because he wasn’t loyal at all in the first place.

Shi Mingfeng, however, felt a bit stifled.

Even though he knew that Su Chen wasn’t that easy to goad into action, Shi Mingfeng was still quite disappointed when he received such an answer.

He helplessly said, “If you don’t care about the imperial family, how could you care about the power of the forces on An Sili’s side? Go ahead, state your conditions.”

Su Chen chuckled. “See? That’s more like it.”

Since they had known each other for quite some time, they were all familiar with each others’ tendencies and personalities.

Su Chen wasn’t easy to goad into action, but he could be bought.

Want him to kill An Sili? Easy. Just offer him the right reward.

Shi Mingfeng was extremely clear about this point. Basically, the only reason he had said all of those things was so that he could afford to offer Su Chen less benefits later on.

Whether or not those words had any effect was hard to say.

Su Chen directly said, “An Sili should have lots of businesses under his control, right?”

Upon hearing this, Shi Mingfeng was stunned. “You want those things? But you don’t lack money.”

In Shi Mingfeng’s eyes, Su Chen was only ever interested in knowledge, followed by resources, and these businesses were only money-making tools. As such, Su Chen normally should not have placed so much importance on these things. Unexpectedly, however, it was precisely these businesses that he was interested in.

Su Chen replied, “I’m not lacking in money, but I am lacking in properties.”

“Is there a difference?”

“Of course.”

Properties were like chickens, while money was like eggs.

People needed to be assigned to work at businesses, and they gave everyone something to do.

A healthy organization was not an organization that Su Chen alone poured his blood, sweat, and tears into raising. Instead, it was successful because it had the ability to sustain itself long-term since it was profitable.

As the Sect Master of the Boundless Sect, Su Chen naturally needed some properties to which he could assign the vast numbers of disciples that would come his way. Not only would this give them all things to do and benefits to obtain, but it was also a way for the Boundless Sect to obtain information from the outside world.

This was why Su Chen was paying so much attention to the businesses, which he normally would not have cared much about.

He not only wanted An Sili’s businesses, but he even wanted to reestablish relations with Swallow River City. The Flight Network, which he had single-handedly created and then handed over to the Gu Clan, was something he was planning on getting involved with again. His old subordinates, Li Shu and the others, had all been summoned in order to begin making the appropriate connections.

The Boundless Sect was deep in the heart of the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain, but its influence was fated to spread throughout the entire country - no, throughout the entire human territory.

He had accidentally explained too much to Shi Mingfeng, but his requests were not too extreme.

Su Chen opened his mouth to make the request, and Shi Mingfeng agreed.

The Scarlet Hand An Sili was a true Arcanist Remnant. He was a Sixth-Ring Master Arcanist, and his strength was equivalent to that of a Light Shaking Realm cultivator with seven Lotus Platforms, or even a low-layer Spirit Burning Realm cultivator. He was a wanted criminal amongst Long Sang Country and had a wealth of combat experience, so it was not wrong to consider him equal in strength to a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator. His true combat ability was above that of the Death’s Shadow of a Youth when it had just broken into the Spirit Burning Realm.

Even so, that was the extent of his strength.

No matter how powerful he was, it was impossible for him to be more powerful than Li Chongshan.

Yes, Su Chen had never planned on making a move personally from the very beginning.

After determining An Sili’s location from Shi Mingfeng, Su Chen sent Li Chongshan, along with the Death’s Shadow, Chu Yingwan, Jun Moxie, and a hundred soldiers from the Hall of Battle on this journey.

The result was obvious, given that two Spirit Burning Realm cultivators, two Light Shaking Realm cultivators, and a hundred Yang Opening Realm cultivators had participated.

Half a month later, Li Chongshan and the others returned, along with a huge stack of records they had obtained from An Sili’s businesses.

Su Chen glanced them over before putting them aside. To him, the most important thing to focus his attention on was his research and cultivation.

During this period of time, more and more outsiders began to show up.

First, Iron Cliff brought the Hurricane Stoneskins back with him.

Su Chen had promised Iron Cliff earlier to find a safe place for the Hurricane Stoneskins to live. He had fulfilled this promise, as the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain was vast and could house these Stoneskins anywhere. Su Chen allowed Iron Cliff to personally pick out a peak that the Hurricane Stoneskins could live in. There, the Stoneskins would receive equal treatment as the other humans.

Not long afterwards, Li Shu arrived with Mingxin and Zhou Hong. Their arrival resolved a big problem that Su Chen had to deal with, which was a deficit in businessmen.

As long-time followers of Su Chen, Li Shu and Zhou Hong had worked hard to manage all of Su Chen’s businesses. Even though Su Chen had never taken these businesses seriously, Li Shu’s business acumen was quite astounding.

Now, they were demonstrating their worth to Su Chen.

In truth, Su Chen did not need properties so much as he needed the talent that had come from managing so many businesses for all these years.

The Boundless Sect had many soldiers but few administrative individuals, so Li Shu’s arrival was extremely timely and helped to mitigate this deficit.

As such, Su Chen didn’t hesitate to promote Li Shu, Mingxin, and Zhou Hong to the Hall of Business to handle those matters. Even Li Shu’s old subordinates were put to good use. These people had been around for many years, and such a position was quite a good one.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

In this single year, the Boundless Sect had managed to steadily build up some kind of a foundation.

Su Chen didn’t make any incredible breakthroughs during this point in time. Instead, he placed most of his attention on reorganizing and centralizing his own strength.

Su Chen’s main style of fighting had become somewhat set at this point. He possessed the Primordial Blood Aspect for close-quarters combat; it didn’t give Su Chen a skill with incredibly destructive capabilities, but it could greatly increase his strength similar to an attribute enhancer. For long-range attacks, Su Chen possessed the Flaming Phoenix Theurgy Art, which was the most powerful tactic Su Chen had at his disposal. The might of the raging flames it unleashed was unrivaled.

His physical body was similar to that of the Ravagers as well. His vitality was vigorous, growing and multiplying endlessly, and he also possessed the Fata Morgana to confuse his opponents and Whitetower Teleportation to agilely move across the battlefield.

The only main regret Su Chen had was that his ability to use thunder had not progressed much. The Thunder Blade could not keep up with his steady rate of advancement, so Su Chen could only rely on the Primordial Blood Aspect for normal attacks and lacked the support of common Origin Skills.

Su Chen could only take things slowly in this regard.

Today, Su Chen continued his research of the Thunder Spirit Totem.

He carefully copied down the inscriptions on its surface, sensing the profoundly thick energy contained within. His microscopic eye carefully took in everything as he did his best to see through its secrets.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter how hard he tried - there seemed to be a unique kind of energy barrier covering the surface of the Thunder Spirit Totem, obscuring his vision like an impenetrable cloud of fog.

Just as he was growing impatient, Iron Cliff appeared. “Master, Cloud Leopard has arrived.”

“Cloud Leopard?”

Su Chen was surprised to hear about Cloud Leopard. He tossed the Thunder Spirit Totem aside and rushed out.

Cloud Leopard was standing like a wooden pole in the main hall.

Su Chen rushed in like the wind, then leapt at Cloud Leopard when he saw him.

“Haha, Leopard, long time no see! I’ve missed you terribly.”

Cloud Leopard’s expression was dark. “Hmph, like hell you missed me.”

Su Chen was surprised. “Hm? What do you mean?”

“If you missed me, you wouldn’t have run into Ravager territory on your own,” Cloud Leopard complained.

“Hey, are you still mad at me about that? Didn’t I tell you already? I did it for your benefit, since entering Ravager territory was incredibly risky. I didn’t want anything to happen to you all. In any case, didn’t the Heavenly Might Battalion’s successful return depend on your efforts?”

“So how come you only told me about all this only recently?”

“Ai, you’re wrongly accusing me here. I told someone to let you know as soon as I left Flowing Gold Fort, but you just didn’t stop running around. It was impossible for him to find you!” Su Chen cried out.

“Are you sure?” Cloud Leopard stared at Su Chen suspiciously.

“I’m sure!” Su Chen said confidently, but he felt a pang of guilt in his heart.

Actually, he had been so busy establishing the sect, researching the Origin Bone Scepter, increasing his own strength, and a whole host of other responsibilities that he had forgotten about letting his brothers know. He had suddenly thought of it not long ago - crap! I forgot to let my brothers know that I moved to the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain - and hurriedly sent people to inform Cloud Leopard and the others.

However, Cloud Leopard was easy to console. Even though he wasn’t young in age anymore, he was still somewhat like a little child, and a few comforting sentences from Su Chen were enough to get him to calm down.

After calming Cloud Leopard down, Su Chen realized that he had been so focused on making a breakthrough in his research that he had in fact forgotten quite a few things.

Gu Qingluo’s side of things was one of these problems.

He had said a long time ago that he would go to find Gu Qingluo as soon as he saved the Heavenly Might Battalion, but because of the matter of setting up the sect, he had not yet been able to go and see her. Thankfully, he hadn’t completely forgotten about this promise, which was one of the reasons why he had chosen the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain to establish his sect.

The Ten Thousand Swords Mountain bordered Empty Mountain, and part of it actually lay in Empty Mountain territory.

Perhaps it was time for him to go and see Gu Qingluo, Su Chen thought to himself.

However, Su Chen was able to suppress this idea in the end.

This was because news had begun to spread, and many of Su Chen’s friends began to come by to pay him a visit, including He Yuandong, Qi Weiyan, Pi Yuanhong, Tang Ming, and may more.

There were even some who chose to join the Boundless Sect.

Jiang Hanfeng, the incredibly lively fellow, had somehow managed to maintain some of his spontaneous and illogical personality. After completing his ten years of service to the imperial family, he returned to his clan to work for them.

However, his free-spirited nature was at odds with being shut inside his clan all the time, especially once his clan began to press him concerning marriage.

“You don’t know the half of it, Senior Brother Su! That girl was both mean and ugly. No one wanted her. My family only wanted to force me to marry her because of her Demonic King Bloodline and said that it was a great undertaking for the clan. Why should I sacrifice my future for theirs? That’s why I ran away. As long as you are willing to take me in, I will stay here and never leave!” Jiang Hanfeng said.

“Very good! I just so happen to be lacking in formations. The Boundless Sect is so big, so there should definitely be a large formation here placed to defend the mountain,” Su Chen said as he patted Jiang Hanfeng on the shoulders.

When he saw Su Chen’s expression, Jiang Hanfeng immediately felt like he had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.