Demon Sword Sect's Undercover-Chapter 790 - 789: Courting Corruption

Fairy Zhuang departed grandly, everything was under her control.

In the courtyard, Hou Niao slowly stood up, a wry smile on his face; did this woman really think she could play such a trick on him as if he were a vegetarian?

Although he wasn’t well-versed in the theories of Dual Cultivation, he had a partner who indeed was! The essence of the Dual Cultivation could never surpass the Harmony Dao, which was founded upon it, no matter how proficient she became in the Heartless Dao. Didn’t he have a great teacher? Master Dong had taught him through personal guidance in the grasslands, with hand in hand and heart to heart teachings, and soaking Golden Essence in meandering waters. Was that all for nothing?

She still wanted to surreptitiously place something on him, thinking to keep tabs on his whereabouts to seize the opportunity to eliminate future troubles.

He would play along for now and wait for the right time to act. However, the countdown for his time here had already begun; he had no more than six months left, in fact, only three months.

After three months, once the core interests of the Wu Sect were compromised, and Chaoyang Peak trembled, a grand search by the entire sect would ensue. How could his secret remain hidden then? fгeewebnovёl.com

It was time to look for an escape plan. Now he couldn’t only consider the issue of the Purple Mansion Flying Sword; this Liu Yishou was genuinely troublesome, causing problems even in death.

Having completed his relaxed stroll and feeling quite good, Hou Niao nonchalantly returned to the Inner Warehouse, greeting everyone with a smile. Thus, everyone knew that Brother Liu was pleased with his abode and congratulated him profusely.

Seizing this opportunity and aware that time was of the essence, Hou Niao called everyone together to announce his decision,

"Fellow colleagues, it’s been half a year since we started dividing the items in the inventory, and most of the artifacts have been allocated. This is all thanks to everyone’s hard work. We’re close to our final goal, and I will report your contributions to our superiors soon, attempting to secure some rewards for your efforts."

The tone of his voice changed, "I propose that tomorrow, we lock down the five warehouses, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, and strictly forbid entry and exit. What do you think?"

This was sudden and seemed rushed. Xiang Tianxing, accustomed to opposing, voiced his concern, "I find this inadvisable. There are still over five thousand artifacts unclassified. Isn’t it too hasty to lock down now?"

Hou Niao waved his hand dismissively. He had yielded to this man many times before, all for the sake of being uncompromising when it mattered most. This was the art of advancing and retreating,

"Let me ask you, compared to before, how many artifacts are we able to classify daily now? And how many were we able to classify before?"

Xiang Tianxing was taken aback but he was serious about his responsibilities, "Before, we distinguished the Five Elements of the artifacts, at most identifying several hundred a day. That number gradually decreased, stabilizing at around a hundred, and now it’s just a few dozen a day."

"Why is it slowing down?"

"Because the remaining treasures are controversial in terms of their Five Elements. Opinions are not unanimous, making judgment difficult, so it’s slowed down..."

Hou Niao nodded, "You see, that’s exactly the issue. Among these remaining five thousand artifacts, many of their Five Elements features are not distinct, some even lean towards other great, mysterious Dao; there are also those with unclear damage, all things we currently can’t accurately classify. I’m certain that if this continues, our division will slow even further because with each item, there will be fierce arguments and no one will concede to another."

Pointing at several warehouses, "We keep these warehouse doors wide open, yet few artifacts pass through per day. Back and forth, one by one— it’s easy for confusion to arise. Let’s not talk about the remaining items. The ones we’ve already classified could easily be mixed up or go missing due to frequent personnel traffic,"

"So I think we should divide the storage now, lock the Five Elements five warehouses and not allow any changes. We need to focus on these five thousand artifacts, and when we finally come to a conclusion, we can pick a time to distribute them into the five warehouses. This approach ensures to the greatest extent that the division of labor isn’t disrupted, and the previous efforts aren’t wasted," he said very sensibly.

Simply put, it means to gather all the ambiguous artifacts together for individual handling, roughly sort them without storing them right away, leaving them for everyone to debate and explore before making a final decision.

His argument was well-founded, and with one or two confidantes among these people, he was able to lead most of them to agree. It was, after all, the correct solution, and there wasn’t much to be said.

One of his confidantes, looking to him for cues, feigned complaint, "What’s the point of us being so diligent when there is no benefit for us? Why the trouble? It would be better to just roughly sort things out and be done with it. In the end, it’ll still need to be reviewed by those above. We might as well turn a blind eye and take it easy..."

Hou Niao feigned anger, "What nonsense are you spouting? When on duty, one must give their all. That’s the responsibility entrusted by the sect. It would be a disservice to the sect’s nurturing if we were to skimp on our duties without full effort. Since when is it okay to do things half-heartedly?"

"As for the benefits, haven’t I already told everyone? Once this matter is finished, I will report it upwards, and the rewards will surely not be lacking..."

Another confidante was unconvinced, "Brother, you’re bragging again. A few hundred Spirit Stones as a reward? What can that amount to with the current prices? I’m afraid it won’t even be enough to purchase those damaged artifacts. Are you trying to amuse us?"

The crowd felt a shared sentiment — there was no point in fussing over this. After all, it was their responsibility. Given the usual leisure, moving house once in a millennium didn’t seem worth complaining about, right?

However, that’s how people are. Accustomed to idleness, they cannot wait for more rewards from the higher-ups the moment they become a little busy, and are quick to grumble at the slightest inconvenience. Nor could they be blamed for their grievances; after all, their colleagues from the Hidden Skills Hall and the Elixir Furnace Hall received only a few hundred Spirit Stones as a reward after their recent busy time, so it wouldn’t be different for them.

They were all quite aggrieved but had no outlet for their frustration.

Hou Niao observed their expressions, confident he could bind them with interests, except for Xiang Tianxing. He had thought to observe further, but it seemed there was no time left and had to reveal his hand to see if this fellow would take the bait.

"Out of the five thousand artifacts, I’ve reviewed them, and most can be categorized. There are disagreements, but they are not on a fundamental level. If everyone abides by the majority’s opinion, each can be settled; the tricky part is the remaining thousand. If we conduct internal voting for each one, there’s no telling when we would reach a decision.

My suggestion is straightforward. There are nine of us here; I’ll take care of two hundred artifacts, and each of the rest of you will take care of a hundred. Your say will be the final on how they’re categorized, after which we’ll decide whether to discard them into the scrap warehouse. What do you think?"

Upon hearing this, everyone’s expression changed, a look of anticipation in their eyes. What Liu Yishou was implying was clear as day. Whether they could sink their teeth into a juicy piece depended on how they would classify these artifacts — turning the good, new ones into bad, old ones could create a significant price difference. Given the current market prices for these treasures, making a thousand Spirit Stones of profit per item would be easy. In other words, each person could process a hundred items, gaining wealth of over a hundred thousand Spirit Stones — no small amount — and no one could resist such temptation.

As for the oversight from above, that was a mere formality. As long as they pooled together some gifts to send up, there wouldn’t usually be any Golden Core Upper Cultivators coming to trouble them. After all, the artifacts in question were for Tongtian Realm cultivators, not anything major that could affect the foundation of a sect.

Out of tens of thousands of artifacts, they were only tampering with a thousand, far less than ten percent. They were already being quite restrained.

All eyes gradually turned to Xiang Tianxing. Clearly, he was the only potential exception. If he blocked everyone’s path to wealth, no one would accommodate him.

In the Cultivation World, this was grounds for enmity!