Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 260 Collusion

At night, the stars are shining brightly. In the remote mountains of Far East Town, a majestic waterfall cascades down. The sound of the rushing water is stirring, resounding through the silent world.

In the distance, two first-level spirit ships came rapidly and landed on the top of the mountain. Dozens of Muhe grassland monks in Tianshan Sect’s attire jumped down.

At the leader's command, everyone entered the waterfall cave, which was the location of the second-level spirit pool.

Inside the Water Curtain Cave, all the monks stationed from the Xunyang Sect gathered together with nervous expressions, looking at the intruding monks from the Tianshan Sect as if they were facing a great enemy.

The situation is tense and on the verge of breaking out.

"This is our territory, you have crossed the line." The big man headed by Xunyang faction accused loudly, but his eyes were vague, and it was obvious that he lacked confidence.

The leader of the Tianshan Sect, who spearheaded this operation, was named Dorf. He snorted coldly and said dismissively, "Stop talking nonsense! I'll give you ten counts. Get out of here!"

The Xunyang faction's leader's eyes flickered, and he gritted his teeth: "Let's go."

After saying that, he led a few people out.

"Stand still." Dolph said without turning his head: "Go back and tell your boss that if you dare to take advantage of this spirit pond again, we will not be so polite."

"Hmph!" The leading man snorted coldly, not wanting to be outdone, and left with his men.

"Letting them go like this is too easy for them!" said a Muhe Prairie monk behind Dolph.

"The boss asked us to avoid violence as much as possible. We just need to recapture the spirit pond. There's no need to make enemies everywhere. Since they understand, let's spare them this time."

.........

In late spring, in March, warblers fly and grass grows.

The climate in Bianxia Town is still cold.

After breaking through the foundation-building stage, Song Xian continued to practice every day. During this time, he had already formulated the sect's future development plan. The first step was to build a large-scale casino in the Stone Valley near Tianshan Mountain. The reason for choosing this location was that it was the only way for Bianxi City to travel between Dongluo City on the Muhe Grassland.

Traveling caravans had to pass through the inspection areas of Sunset Ridge and Ziwu Ridge to pay taxes.

Stone Valley is located between the two places, a place that caravans cannot bypass. Building a casino here can attract caravans and passing monks will always want to play a few games.

The second reason is that the Stone Valley has a spacious terrain and is located in the central area. Its distance to Dongluo City is basically the same as that to Bianxi City. If it is completed in the future, it can attract monks from the Muhe Grassland.

Song Xian has included the area within dozens of miles around Shitouling, and plans to build a city here that integrates entertainment, leisure, food and gambling.

In addition to the gambling house, a series of supporting halls and pavilions will be built there, such as brothels, food courts, animal fighting halls, martial arts arenas, intelligence offices, etc. If the development is good in the future, some industries such as alchemy, weapon refining, talisman making, and array making can also be opened.

Of course, this has to be done step by step. First, the casino must be built, its reputation must be raised, and customers must be attracted. Once people are there, other industries can be established one after another.

Gambling and food have always been inseparable. It is impossible to build a gambling city by just opening a gambling house. Brothels, food courts and inns are necessary facilities.

To achieve a large scale, it was not enough to rely on the strength of Hunyuan Sect alone, so Song Xian sent people to invite all the sects and forces in Bianxi City.

Many sects have promised that as long as the Shitouling city is completed, they will invest money to open gambling houses, brothels, spiritual wine and spiritual stone shops here.

Originally, only the Beast Taming Sect, the Luoyun Sect, and the Kong Family had opened gambling houses within their respective territories in Bianxi City. Other sects and forces rarely got involved in this industry. Even if they did, their scale was very small and the income was not much.

An industry like a gambling house needs a big background so that others can trust it.

The territories occupied by small sects are relatively remote, and because they are weak and distrusted by others, naturally not many gamblers go there.

Now that Hunyuan Sect is taking the lead and uniting various forces in Bianxi City to build a large-scale casino near Tianshan Mountain, those small sects are naturally happy about it.

Not only does it save the Hunyuan Sect's favor and face, but if done well, there will also be a lot of profit.

Song Xian not only extended invitations to various forces in Bianxi City, but also ordered Muhe Grassland Monk from the Tianshan Sect to extend invitations to the forces in Dongluo City, asking them to invest money to open gambling houses and shops in Shitouling.

It is not enough for only the Bianxi City sect to join. If we want to attract the monks of Muhe Grassland and build Tianshan into the largest trade center between Qin State and Muhe Grassland, we must have the forces of Muhe Grassland join in.

Opening a gambling house was just the first step in his efforts to gradually attract the Muhe Grassland forces to integrate into the organization.

Currently, the construction of Shitouling has begun and is expected to be completed within two to three years. By then, we can invite various forces to move in.

…………

In the dim training room, Song Xian finished his day's practice, got up and left, returning to his mansion.

As soon as he entered the inner room, the housekeeper came up to report that Lu Yuan had come and said he had something important to discuss and had been waiting for him for a while.

He then came to the waiting room. When Lu Yuan saw him coming, he stood up and bowed.

"What's wrong? Senior Brother Lu." Seeing that his face looked a little serious, Song Xian waved his hand and motioned him to take a seat.

Although he has advanced to the foundation-building stage, he still maintains the same respectful address towards his fellow disciples and does not put on the airs of a foundation-building cultivator.

"I have something to report to the headmaster." Lu Yuan sat down, frowning deeply. "I discovered that the Red Flame Mine has a large deficit, and it has been going on for a long time."

The Chiyan Mine is a first-class high-quality resource area near Tianshan Mountain, rich in Chiyan Stone.

"Tell me what happened in detail."

Lu Yuan then explained the whole story. This resource area used to produce about 1,000 kilograms of red flame stone every year, but in recent years, the output has been decreasing year by year. In addition, the ore producing area has been secretly increasing the number of miners and has not reported it to him. This is obviously abnormal.

He therefore sent people to investigate and found that the Chiyan Mine had increased its security and even the people he sent could not get in. This was obviously an attempt to cover up one's mistake.

Lu Yuan started investigating from all aspects, and learned the information from the people recruited from the Chiyan Mine's resource area and the monks who had contact with and managed the Chiyan Mine.

After sect disciple Tian Qi took over the Chiyan Mine, many management regulations were changed. Tian Qi divided each mining area into separate areas, with one person in charge of each area. Everyone reported to him individually, and they were not allowed to exchange information with each other.

Therefore, even the monks assisting inside did not know the daily stone mining volume, only Tian Qi knew it.

In addition, Tian Qi secretly recruited some people and worked day and night for twelve hours.

Whenever he encountered inspections from the sect, he would dismiss them as if they were the men, and fill up the newly mined mines to conceal their tracks.

Although he made a series of arrangements to prevent the leak, the truth could not be hidden. The people who assisted in the management of the Chiyan Mine all knew that Tian Qi used the spiritual mine to make a lot of money and line his pockets.

But many people turned a blind eye to it. Firstly, they did not want to offend Tian Qi, and secondly, Tian Qi would give them extra spirit stones during every festival.

Because he had gained benefits and was unwilling to meddle in other people's affairs, Tian Qi was able to hide the truth in the Chiyan Mine.

But it’s not that no one reported this situation to the sect. One of Zhou Qiang’s disciples once reported it to the sect, but in the end it was left unresolved.

It was because Lu Yuan found this disciple of Zhou Qiang that he obtained conclusive evidence and came to report to Song Xian.

After Lu Yuan finished speaking, he took out the file that had been prepared long ago and handed it to him. On it was the list of personnel in the mining area that Zhou Qiang was responsible for and the monthly ore production, which was quite different from what Tian Qi reported.

Song Xian flipped through the file in his hand and remained silent.

All the spiritual fields, spiritual ponds, and spiritual gardens within the Tianshan Mountains' key resource areas have been contracted out for management. Only minerals like these are not leased out, as the specific annual output cannot be determined.

Therefore, the previous management model of the Tianshan Sect is still used, with the sect disciples responsible for mining.

He also had an impression of Tian Qi, who was one of the disciples who defected from Qingyun Sect.

The Chiyan Mine was originally managed by a cultivator from the Tianshan Sect. After a series of adjustments, Tian Qi was transferred to this place as the supervisor at the recommendation of Zhong Wenyuan.

According to Lu Yuan's investigation, at least one-third of the output of the Chiyan Mine was concealed, which is a considerable amount.

But this is not the key point. The more important question is whether Tian Qi's corrupt behavior was his personal wish, or was he instructed by someone behind the scenes, or was the person behind the scenes in collusion with him.

Tian Qi was recommended by Zhong Wenyuan, and someone inside the Chiyan Mine had reported this situation, but it was not taken seriously. However, Song Xian had never heard any report in this regard.

Based on this inference, it seems that Zhong Wenyuan, the elder in charge of government affairs, cannot escape the responsibility.

Emotionally speaking, Song Xian absolutely believed that Zhong Wenyuan would not do such a thing. However, looking at the clues that seemed like ironclad evidence in his hands, he was not so sure. After all, people change, just like Xu Ning.

Before this, he had never thought that Xu Ning would collude with Cheng Qian to embezzle public funds.

If Zhong Wenyuan is really involved, what should he do? Should he punish him like Xu Ning? He is the elder of the sect!

The brightly lit hall fell into silence. Song Xian remained silent, and Lu Yuan did not speak either.

He came to report this matter with great determination and after much careful consideration.

He knew that Zhong Wenyuan was most likely involved in this matter, but after finding conclusive evidence, he decided to report the matter directly to Song Xian and let him make the decision.

"Does Senior Brother Wenyuan know about this?" After a long silence, Song Xian finally spoke.

"Zhou Qiang has reported this problem, and it was Senior Brother Zhong who handled it at that time. So I didn't tell him and came directly to find the headmaster." Lu Yuan answered in a deep voice, and the implication was self-evident.

"Where is this Zhou Qiang now?"

A large part of the file is clues provided by Zhou Qiang, including his testimony.

"He is in my residence. Do you want to see him, Master?"

"Bring him here!"

"Yes." Lu Yuan responded and left.

Soon, a young man was brought here. Song Xian looked him up and down. He was not tall and strong, but his back was very straight, like a pine tree.

"Disciple Zhou Qiang greets the Master." The man bowed respectfully.

"Where are you from?" Song Xian did not ask about the affairs of the Chiyan Mine directly, but instead asked about his origin for no apparent reason. There were more than 300 cultivators in the entire sect who had joined the Tianshan School. Naturally, he did not know the bottom line of each disciple, and only knew the names of some disciples in important positions.

"I am from Bianxia Town and my family lives in Liutang Village. I was selected into the sect in 169 years after reaching the third place in the Taoist calendar, and I achieved transcendence in 175 years." Zhou Qiang answered with his head lowered. His words were sonorous and powerful, without showing any fear.

"Okay." Song Xian nodded: "Don't stand, sit down!"

"Disciples don't dare."

"It's okay, don't be restrained, just sit down if you're told to!"

"Disciple obeys your command." Zhou Qiang then took a seat as he was told.

"This file was just handed to me by Senior Brother Lu. It contains your testimony and the information you provided. Please take a look and see if there are any errors." Song Xian handed the file to him.

Zhou Qiang quickly stood up and took it with both hands, carefully reading it again: "Master, the part about the disciple was indeed written by the disciple."

"I heard that you reported this issue to the sect before. Who did you report it to?"

"I mentioned this to Senior Brother Luo Cheng, who is in charge of the affairs of the Administrative Hall."

"and after?"

"Senior Brother Luo only said that they would investigate, and we haven't heard anything from them since."

"Besides you, has anyone else at the Red Flame Mine reported this to the sect?"

"Disciple doesn't know."

"Brother Lu's investigation revealed that, apart from the mining area you're in charge of, the mining areas under the charge of others also have the same situation. Are you aware of this?"

"I know a little bit about this. It's almost an open secret, but I haven't gone to collect evidence to verify it."

…………

Song Xian asked a lot of details, and Zhou Qiang answered them one by one.

Now that there was evidence, there was nothing to hesitate about. Song Xian immediately ordered someone to invite Lin Zixiang over.

Soon, Lin Zixiang arrived here. He glanced at Lu Yuan and Zhou Qiang and bowed to him: "Master, I wonder what you want me to do."

"Take a look at this." Song Xian handed the file to him.

When George Lam took it and looked at it, he was shocked. It was he who recommended Tian Qi to Zhong Wenyuan to take the position of head of Chiyan Mine, and he was also the man behind Tian Qi.

"Master, what is this?"

George Lam tried hard to remain calm, swallowed secretly, and looked at Song Xian with some nervousness. For the first time, he felt panic in his heart, even more nervous and panicked than when he was fighting a life-and-death battle with the enemy.

He didn't know why Song Xian summoned him and showed him this. He instinctively thought that Tian Qi had betrayed him, so Song Xian wanted to hold him accountable.

He is an elder of the sect and one of its founders. If this matter were to be made public, he would lose all his prestige and reputation.

Thinking of this, his body tensed up, like a criminal facing execution.

What Song Xian was thinking about at this time was Zhong Wenyuan.

If Zhong Wenyuan is really involved with Tian Qi, what should he do?

This is a difficult question.

The reason why he called Alan Tam was because he was the sect's law enforcement elder and he needed him to arrest someone.

"Brother Zixiang, go and capture Tian Qi and put him in the sect's detention room first, then interrogate and investigate."

"Yes." Hearing this, George Lam finally breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know if Song Xian was giving him a chance and deliberately warning him.

In short, as long as things are not brought up in person, there is still room for maneuver.

(End of this chapter)