Chapter 612: Negotiation
[V6C142 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Lu Sha’s legs were nailed firmly to the floor until Qianye’s figure gradually disappeared. His face spasmed a couple of times, but he didn’t issue a challenge until the very end.
As a mercenary and a bounty hunter, Du Li’s equipment represented over half of his entire fortune. He wouldn’t be able to recover from this loss for several years if Qianye were to take them all away. Moreover, his combat strength would also weaken. But Lu Sha, at this point, understood that he would suffer even greater losses if he accepted the duel.
Qianye paused slightly as he walked down from the ring. The spectators were still dispersing at the moment—the gazes upon him, both friendly and hostile, were filled with cautiousness.
He gazed around at his surroundings but couldn’t find Li Weishi’s figure at all. As such, Qianye decided not to wait anymore and simply headed on toward his living quarters. His clean victory here seemed to have messed up the mastermind’s calculations. Now that Li Weishi’s original pretext had become void, who would be the next one to step in?
On his way back, Qianye threw his dispute with the Li family to the back of his head. His current thoughts were occupied by the new ability he had succeeded in activating just now. This was the very first time he had been able to use Spatial Flash with his own power.
After seeing Eden’s Demonic Traversal, Qianye kept thinking about that powerful ability which had brought him away from Adruil’s inheritance realm.
Today, an inheritance rune containing knowledge about spatial powers had suddenly appeared in the River of Blood. This allowed him to activate the power of Spatial Flash. His trajectory at the moment was still visible and the range wasn’t very long, but after growing stronger, he would one day be able to move through space at will.
Qianye couldn’t help but chuckle after recalling the battle with Du Li. Had his combat arts reached such a level? It would seem the battle with Eden wasn’t completely without rewards—this kind of benefit was much more useful than contribution points.
In the end, Qianye only had one thought—between him and Zhao Jundu, who would win in a contest of combat techniques?
At this time, two Li family warriors were barring Qianye’s path forward. They said respectfully, “General Qianye, Elder Li Tianquan wishes for you to see him.”
Qianye was somewhat surprised after hearing this name. He knew Li Tianquan was the Li family’s highest-ranking supervisor in this base. Now that such a character had appeared directly, he would likely obtain some answers regarding his suspicions.
Li Tianquan’s office door was fairly stylish with dark golden motifs set against the light red family colors—truly an exquisite piece of work. Such a product could only have been produced in the empire. It would seem that these doors had been shipped over from the mainland.
If even the door was so, what else need be said about the interior? Qianye had been to the offices of Duke Chengen and Duke You back at the Zhao clan, but even so, he couldn’t help but feel astonished at the extravagance here.
One could see that most of the decorations here were old antiques. Moreover, they weren’t just old—they also possessed historical significance. But this wasn’t too odd though because the Li family had risen to power with medicines and divination arts. Any one of them, if well managed, would bring in vast amounts of wealth.
The beautiful clerk who brought Qianye into the room reported in a pleasant voice, “Second Elder, General Qianye has arrived.”
Li Tianquan was behind his desk at the moment, reading through a thick stack of documents. He didn’t look up after hearing the announcement and merely pointed a finger at the seat in front of him. “Sit.”
Li Tianquan kept on reading after Qianye had taken his seat—it was as though the documents were so important that they needed to be completed the very next minute. However, picking this time to work on urgent tasks was clearly a show of power.
Qianye remained calmly seated, and even his eyes did not wander. In truth, he was continuing the line of thought that was previously disrupted by the Li clan soldiers and thinking about Zhao Jundu’s techniques.
Roughly a quarter hour later, Li Tianquan looked up and glanced at Qianye. What he saw, to his surprise, was the latter sitting there with his thoughts on a mental journey somewhere else.
He snorted coldly and said, “General Qianye, you’re making things very difficult for me.”
Qianye returned his attention to Li Tianquan only at this moment. “Oh? About the fight today, I was the one who was provoked first, there were many people at the scene who saw this. Moreover, I refrained from taking his life for the sake of the Li family. Where did I make things difficult for you? Could it be that even the Li family has to back down against the person behind Du Li and Lu Sha?”
Li Tianquan could barely control his expression. He had never imagined Qianye’s temperament would be so different from the reports—this silent young man who usually kept to himself was actually so sharp with his words.
But how could Li Tianquan be led astray by this topic? He slapped a stack of documents in front of Qianye and said, “General Qianye, please don’t divert the topic. Take a look at this first.”
Qianye flipped through the records and saw that they were all complaints, mainly about the mismatch between his terms and strength. Those complaints, genuine or otherwise, claimed that a brigadier general enjoying such terms was fishy regardless of the reason.
Qianye only read a few lines before pushing the documents back with due calmness. “This contract was signed between me and the Li family. Does it have anything to do with outsiders?”
At this point, Qianye said with a chuckle, “Moreover, those fellows won’t dare speak out again from now on, at least not to my face.”
Li Tianquan’s expression sank after receiving yet another unconventional reply. “Qianye, the Li family has treated you with respect, but don’t think for once that this old man is easily fooled.” With that, he brought out yet another set of documents and banged it on the table. “How will you explain this?”
Qianye picked it up and saw that it was his contribution records, the monthly contributions rankings, and rewards list. Qianye was below average on the rankings, but on the rewards list, he was ranked third due to his basic salary.
“I don’t see any problems here.” Qianye pushed the documents back. He had an idea what Li Tianquan was trying to do.
The old man sneered, “You received so many resources from the Li family, so you really should be making an acceptable level of contributions, don't you think? You’ve only earned a meager number of contribution points since the battles began. If you can’t give me a satisfactory explanation, judging from last month’s results, the lightest judgment would be a dereliction of duty. It won’t be excessive to say that you’re avoiding battle.”
Qianye pondered for a moment. Li Tianquan’s excuse in pressuring him was reasonable but not entirely solid. The contract he had signed with the Li family had a clause regarding guaranteed contribution points. Even if they wanted to look into his contribution amount just after the war had begun, he could still argue from this point.
But Qianye was too lazy to dispute. Since Li Tianquan was grasping his fault here, he had surely prepared other excuses. It was better to listen to his actual objective.
As such, he said, “Elder Li, did you not know that I completed the last defensive area mission? As for the low contribution points, it’s because I’ve been fighting with the Demonkin Count Eden from the Dark Abyss.”
Li Tianquan sneered, “I’ll naturally send people to confirm the defensive mission. Where’s the proof? Do you want me to believe that a rank-ten, fine, rank-eleven champion can fight a demonkin count for half a month? Heh, heh.”
There wasn’t a need for further words. That heh, heh at the very end was enough to explain Li Tianquan’s attitude. The demonkin’s combat strength was conventionally higher than their peers from other races. It wasn’t excessive for a count born of a famed demonkin clan to possess combat strength one level above his rank. This meant that Li Tianquan refused to believe Qianye’s explanation.
“Proof?” Qianye wasn’t angered by the disdain on Li Tianquan’s face. On the contrary, he said with a smile, “Where are the two Umbral Edges I traded in last time? Those weapons belong to the Shadowguards of the Dark Abyss. Don’t tell me the Jingtang Li Family can’t even obtain such basic intelligence?”
Li Tianquan’s emotions vanished from his countenance, leaving only a layer of coldness. He picked up a teapot and fiddled around with it while saying, “Qianye, speak the truth. How did you obtain this contract? Who’s the middleman? What benefits did he get from you? Our Li family’s rules are absolute, we won’t let anyone destroy it. As long as you tell me everything, this old man will reward you in secret. Of course, we have to lower your terms on paper in order to appease everyone.”
Qianye was rather surprised at this. In the end, it turned out that Li Tianquan was doing this for internal conflict?
Although there were many doubtful points in this, Li Tianquan was clearly using him to establish his might. On the one hand, it would set back his opponent in the family, while on the other, it would improve his reputation with the independent experts.
Qianye was one of the two stars of the empire. Not many experts would dare provoke him openly even if they were dissatisfied—they probably didn’t even have that notion anymore after witnessing his swift victory in the arena. If Li Tianquan could suppress Qianye, he naturally would’ve subdued the others. This afforded him endless benefits in supervising this growing body of independent experts.
But Qianye had no intention at all of becoming a stepping stone. “You don’t need to take such a roundabout action if you wanted to breach the contract.”
Li Tianquan’s countenance fell as he shouted, “Qianye! Do you think this old man has no way to restrict you?!”
Qianye’s expression also turned gloomy upon hearing this undisguised threat. “Elder Li, there are no idiots here. Just speak frankly.”
“Fine.” Li Tianquan brought out another document and placed it in front of Qianye. “Sign this and we’ll forget about the bribery.”
Qianye picked up and scanned the document. It was a new mercenary contract which halved his current remuneration and removed all extra rewards.
In addition to that, there were many new obligations. For instance, the Li family would have the right to assign him mandatory missions. The duration was five years, during which he would not be able to work for any other power.
This was no longer an independent expert contract. The unconditional assignment clause was enough to make him a vassal of the family.
A cold mocking smile appeared on Qianye’s lips. He tore the contract up in front of Li Tianquan and slapped the pieces onto the table. “Elder Li, you have to be very clear. It was the Li family who begged me to come. At most, I’ll just leave.”
Li Tianquan had never imagined Qianye would shed all pretenses like so. “Qianye, this is the Li family’s domain. Do you think you can do as you wish? Do you really think this old man can’t wipe you out?”
Li Tianquan was absolutely furious as he said those last words, and his voice grew as loud as rolling thunder.