27: Chapter 27 Diplomatic Clashes: Using War to Sustain War

Great Elder Chen Xinglie's ear arrived at Ironwood Island before he did.

The flesh sealed inside a jade box, along with a ransom note containing only a few brief words, was delivered by Leng Feng's men into the inner hall of the Chen family.

That night, the main residence on Ironwood Island was ablaze with lights, and even the number of patrol ships in the Inner Harbor tripled.

Yet, no matter how much the Chen family hated them, they dared not gamble on whether Great Elder Chen Xinglie would be chopped up piece by piece and sent back.

Three days later, in the main hall of the Lords Mansion on Blue Moon Island.

The sea breeze poured in through the half-open window, causing the curtains in the hall to ripple slightly.

Lu Changyuan sat at the head of the table; there was no tea by his hand, only an open ledger.

Lu Hu stood to the side behind him, while Leng Feng stood guard by the hall entrance, clutching his sword. The entire hall was chillingly silent.

The number of people from the Chen family was not small.

There were two squads of guards, one in front and one behind, surrounding a woman dressed in deep cyan robes.

She was only around thirty years old, with a dignified appearance, but her eyes were extremely cold. Her Spiritual Pressure was steadily fixed at the Peak of Early Foundation Establishment; she was clearly not just a vase who only knew how to calculate accounts in the inner courtyard.

This was the Matriarch Xu Sushuang of the Chen family.

As soon as she entered the hall, her gaze swept over Lu Changyuan, then over Lu Hu and Leng Feng standing on either side, and finally landed on the black wooden box in the center of the hall.

The box was not opened, but she knew what was inside.

It was the severed ear of her Chen family's Great Elder, and also a slap in the Face that Lu Changyuan had deliberately dealt before the negotiations began today.

She did not immediately turn hostile, but stood still in the hall and said coldly, "Young Lord Lu, quite the tactic."

Lu Changyuan did not even lift his eyelids.

"Sit."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang looked at him for two breaths before slowly taking her seat.

The few guards behind her originally wanted to follow, but after a single glance from Lu Hu, they stopped dead in their tracks, not daring to take another step.

After a brief silence, Matriarch Xu Sushuang spoke first.

"There is no deep enmity between the Chen family and Blue Moon Island."

"The misunderstanding at the reef a few days ago resulted in casualties on both sides. If we continue to tear at each other, it will only benefit others."

"I have come today to take the person back."

Lu Changyuan finally looked up, glancing at her with a half-smile.

"A misunderstanding?"

"Your Chen family's three warships and hundreds of Cultivators pressed into the outer seas of my Blue Moon Island, claiming you wanted to search for mines, skin people, and extract souls. Matriarch Xu, you sit in my hall today and tell me this is a misunderstanding?"

The coldness in Matriarch Xu Sushuang's eyes deepened, but she still suppressed her anger.

"The rules of the sea are: whoever sees it first, owns it first."

"The reef is in international waters. Your Blue Moon Island mined it privately first; it is not necessarily unreasonable for my Chen family to investigate."

As soon as these words were spoken, Lu Hu sneered.

"My blade is already at your Chen family's throat, and you're still talking to me about the rules of the sea?"

Matriarch Xu Sushuang ignored him completely and stared only at Lu Changyuan.

"Great Elder Chen Xinglie is, after all, the Great Elder of my Chen family."

"Young Lord Lu, name your price. Spirit Stones, medicinal herbs, Magical Artifacts—if it can be discussed, we will discuss it."

With this sentence, she finally put the real topic on the table.

Lu Changyuan did not immediately state a number, but raised his hand to push the black wooden box over.

"Open it."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang's fingertips paused.

A guard beside her hurriedly stepped forward to lift the lid. Inside, besides the already blackened severed ear, there was a section of Spirit-Locking Rope soaked in blood. The aura remaining on the rope was clearly that of Great Elder Chen Xinglie.

Matriarch Xu Sushuang's expression finally darkened.

Lu Changyuan leaned back in his chair, his voice flat.

"This is the first item."

"The second item is in the outer reef area."

"Your Chen family's Great Elder is still alive because I want to negotiate with you. It is not because your Chen family actually has the ability to make me afraid to kill him."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang's chest rose and fell slightly. After a long while, she said, "One hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones is too high."

"Your Blue Moon Island has just gained a foothold and your Foundation is unstable. Forcing the Chen family to death will not benefit you either."

"Fifty thousand."

"I will add a ship of spiritual materials to put this grudge behind us."

Lu Changyuan smiled.

The smile was faint, but it lowered the temperature in the entire hall by a notch.

"Matriarch Xu, you don't seem to have figured out who is begging whom today."

He raised his hand and tapped his fingertip lightly on the table twice.

"First, I am not selling Great Elder Chen Xinglie; I am selling your Chen family's Face."

"Second, fifty thousand Spirit Stones and a ship of spiritual materials cannot buy back the hand your Chen family reached into my Blue Moon Island's waters."

"Third."

His gaze suddenly sank.

"What my Blue Moon Island lacks most right now is not your scraps, but people."

A trace of genuine shock finally flashed across Matriarch Xu Sushuang's eyes.

Lu Changyuan flipped a page of the ledger in front of her. It was densely packed with records of labor, farmlands, city walls, water channels, and Workshop rotations. Beside them were the nodes required for the island defense array and estimates for the defensive line against future beast tides.

"One hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, not a single coin less."

"In addition, five thousand Mortals."

"I want people who can work the fields, move materials, and be integrated into the Workshop and wall defenses."

"If there are any with Spiritual Roots among them, I will accept them as well."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang's expression changed on the spot.

"Are you crazy?"

"Five thousand Mortals, and on this sea? Lu Changyuan, you are digging up the roots of my Chen family."

Lu Changyuan just looked at her indifferently.

"Since your Chen family dared to bring hundreds of Cultivators to press upon my Blue Moon Island, you should have known that losing once would not just mean losing Face."

"Besides, I only want five thousand people; I didn't ask you to cede the island."

"That is already me being reasonable."

This sentence made Matriarch Xu Sushuang so angry that her fingertips were trembling.

Yet she was unable to refute it.

Because she knew very well that this time, the Chen family's reputation had been brutally broken by Blue Moon Island in front of the surrounding sea areas. If they couldn't even redeem Great Elder Chen Xinglie, or if they only managed to save his life by haggling, then the Chen family would never be able to suppress others on Ironwood Island and the nearby sea routes again.

After a long silence, she suddenly said coldly, "Do you really think the Chen family will always be manipulated by you?"

"Giving in today is to spare Great Elder Chen Xinglie's life. But don't forget, the Chen family is not the only one eyeing that mine on this sea."

"Even if you take the Spirit Stones and people, you may not be able to hold onto them."

Lu Changyuan nodded upon hearing this.

"That sentence at last sounds like the truth."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze pressing down like a blade.

"Therefore, Matriarch Xu, you should understand even more that if you do not provide what is due today, tomorrow I will hang Great Elder Chen Xinglie on the highest black rock in the Reef Sea, so that everyone passing by can see clearly."

"At that time, those eyeing that mine will not decrease."

"But the first ones they will laugh at will definitely be your Chen family."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang's breathing finally faltered for a moment.

It was not that she had never seen ruthless people.

But she was seeing, for the first time, someone like Lu Changyuan—so young, yet able to hold a blade to your throat while calmly calculating for you which way of dying would look uglier.

The hall was so quiet that even the sound of the wind seemed piercing.

After a long time, Matriarch Xu Sushuang slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, it was as if she had forcibly swallowed that breath back into her stomach.

"One hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, I will give."

"Five thousand people, I will also give."

"But the people must be delivered in three batches."

"The first batch will arrive at the port tomorrow, the second batch in three days, and the third batch within seven days at the latest."

"When will you release Great Elder Chen Xinglie?"

Lu Changyuan did not answer immediately, but flipped his hand to take out a blank Jade Slip and tossed it in front of her.

"Write the routes and times for the Chen family's delivery of people and Spirit Stones inside, and swear a Spiritual Oath."

"When the first batch and the Spirit Stones arrive at the port, I will let you see the person."

"When all three batches are delivered, I will let him go back."

"During this period, if one batch is missing, one day is delayed, or one useless person is mixed in..."

His smile was extremely faint.

"I will dismantle one part from Great Elder Chen Xinglie and send it back to you."

Matriarch Xu Sushuang stared at him intensely, but in the end, she took the Jade Slip and forced out a drop of essential blood to drip onto it.

When the Spiritual Oath was formed, the bit of killing intent that had been taut in the hall finally settled onto the paper.

The next morning, the first batch of Spirit Stones and Mortals transported by the Chen family arrived at the port.

The one hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones were divided into dozens of iron boxes and were the first to be landed. The first batch of about a thousand Mortals being escorted, both men and women, were mostly sturdy in build. Their eyes were filled with anxiety, but they were clearly much better than those half-dead goods in the slave markets.

Lu Changyuan stood on the high ground of the port watching this scene, his expression without much fluctuation.

But Shi Jian, standing behind him, felt his heart pounding fiercely.

Five thousand people.

This meant that the city walls, water channels, Workshops, and farmlands that had been stuck on Blue Moon Island could all be pushed forward significantly.

Even Lu Hu, while holding the ledger and counting the Spirit Stones, couldn't help but grin.

"Young Lord, this blade has truly cut into the Chen family's flesh."

Lu Changyuan looked at Matriarch Xu Sushuang, who was gritting her teeth as she stepped off the ship in the distance, his voice flat.

"Cutting flesh is not enough."

"I must also make them return in pain, and by the way, have them spread the word for me."

In the afternoon of that day, Great Elder Chen Xinglie was dragged to the edge of the port, allowing Matriarch Xu Sushuang to see him from a distance.

The old guy hadn't died from his injuries, but he was tied up like a useless dog by the Spirit-Locking Rope, his eyes filled only with shame, anger, and resentment.

Seeing that he was still alive, Matriarch Xu Sushuang's shoulders and back visibly relaxed, then quickly tensed up again.

Lu Changyuan did as he said; he neither broke his word nor gave any extra Face.

In the following days, the Chen family indeed dared not violate the oath.

The second and third batches of Mortals were successively delivered to Blue Moon Island. Although Matriarch Xu Sushuang tried to keep the numbers to the minimum limit, they eventually reached the total of five thousand.

Shi Jian almost never stopped; while dividing the people into the Workshops, wall defenses, water channels, and spiritual fields by batch, he also picked out those with steady hands, sharp eyes, and quick feet to supplement the crossbow positions and material transport teams.

By the time the last batch of people disembarked, the labor force that Blue Moon Island had originally lacked most was finally forcibly filled.

When Matriarch Xu Sushuang left in humiliation with the oral orders for the remaining two batches, another heavier scent began to drift in the sea breeze.

Lu Changyuan watched her retreating back and suddenly sneered.

"The old dog will not learn his lesson."

He turned his head to look at Lu Hu.

"Send my personal letter to the main branch in Yunzhou."

"Just say… Blue Moon Island is about to fish for a big one."