221: Crazy preparation
That night:
Lead Big Brother and the other students returned to their Families.
They used their connections and employed various methods.
They wanted their Families to dispatch experts.
The result:
Some Families agreed to send some retainers to help.
Other Families directly locked up their people, saying: “You are not allowed to deal with Lotus Leaf Temple!”
“Your mother often goes to Lotus Leaf Temple to burn incense.”
“If you deal with Lotus Leaf Temple, won’t you anger your mother to death?”
And all of this was observed by some Noble families, led by the Cui Family.
Various pieces of information converged.
The Cui Family’s think tank continuously analyzed the intelligence.
“These Noble families are too timid; their own women were slept with by monks, and they even raised the monks’ offspring for free.”
“It won’t be long before those monks completely take over.”
They discussed animatedly.
Finally, they reported to the Family Head.
The Cui Family Head was an old woman.
The old woman reviewed the information, then closed her eyes in thought.
After a long while, she said in a hoarse voice: “The bad news is: according to current intelligence, King Shi Yu has already taken control of at least half of the Noble families through Lotus Leaf Temple.”
Many Cui Family members’ expressions changed slightly.
Half of the Noble families?
That was enough to overturn the Zhou City.
Was King Shi Yu really going to rebel?
Their hearts were uneasy.
The old woman continued: “The good news is, we have largely identified the Noble families who have not pledged allegiance to King Shi Yu.”
“Contact them in the next few days.”
“The day those students from the Martial Academy die will be the day we launch a thunderous strike against Lotus Leaf Temple.”
“With this strike, Lotus Leaf Temple must be utterly destroyed.”
“This is one of the few opportunities for us to show our strength.”
“Everyone must act swiftly.”
“The methods must be ruthless.”
“Only then can we make King Shi Yu and others wary.”
Many Cui Family members nodded in agreement.
“Now, we just have to see when the Martial Academy students will die.”
The old woman looked into the distance, lost in thought… Sending them to their deaths was impossible.
Chu Qing went to the academy the next day and found that half of the students hadn’t come.
Fortunately, the students who did come brought many Family retainers.
Although retainers were not trusted confidantes of the Family.
Their combat power was still quite good.
Lead Big Brother reported to Chu Qing: “Qing Ge, we have gathered over five hundred experts.”
“Among them, more than thirty are in the Skin and Hair Realm, and over a hundred are in the Five Viscera and Six Bowels Realm.”
“The rest are all in the Flesh Realm.”
Chu Qing happily asked: “How many have cultivated Golden Tendons and Golden Bone?”
Lead Big Brother was stunned for a moment, then chuckled: “Most of these retainers come from ordinary backgrounds; none have cultivated Golden Tendons or Golden Bone.”
Chu Qing was disappointed.
Their foundation was insufficient.
No matter how high their Realm, it would be for naught.
He said: “You all purchase crossbows, rockets, lamp oil, and other supplies.”
“I’ll go find some cannon fodder.”
Lead Big Brother hesitated and said: “Should we find an expert to hold the line?”
“Spending a lot of money to get an expert to hold the line is always more useful than hundreds or thousands of cannon fodder.”
Chu Qing smiled: “We have an expert to hold the line.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
Lead Big Brother asked in surprise: “Really?”
“A First Limit expert?”
Chu Qing smiled: “The expert I found only needs one hand to kill a First Limit expert.”
Lead Big Brother looked incredulous: “Really?”
“Truer than true gold!”
Lead Big Brother was overjoyed.
He excitedly said: “That’s great!”
“With an expert holding the line, we are sure to win!”
Chu Qing also wanted to win.
So, he sought out Madam Shi.
However, Madam Shi clearly stated that she would only deal with First Limit experts.
As for the remaining small fries, she found them too messy and didn’t want to get involved.
But Lotus Leaf Temple had many First Limit experts.
Chu Qing felt he still needed more people.
Then, he went to the Worldly Affairs outpost again.
The intelligence dealer was in a good mood.
Because:
Business had increased significantly during this period.
“It seems that ever since the thirteen pawnshops and sixteen constables were annihilated, business has picked up.”
“When business slows down after a while, should I follow suit and annihilate dozens of places to create business demand?”
At this moment:
Footsteps sounded.
He recognized Chu Qing at a glance.
“Master Qing, looking to buy intelligence again?”
Chu Qing tapped his fingers on the table and said: “I need some assassins!”
The intelligence dealer grinned from ear to ear:
“No problem, Master Qing, what level are you looking for?”
Chu Qing asked: “Do you have a package deal?”
The intelligence dealer looked puzzled: “What package deal?”
Chu Qing thought for a moment and said:
“I want to hire killers for the monks of Lotus Leaf Temple!”
“Except for the Abbot, I want to use assassins to deal with all the others.”
“Find a group of assassins capable of wiping out the monks!”
“This group of assassins will be the package deal.”
The intelligence dealer suddenly understood.
He pulled out an abacus and quickly moved the beads.
One minute later:
The intelligence dealer said:
“Master Qing, we need silver-ranked assassins…”
Chu Qing impatiently waved his hand: “Don’t tell me about the assassins’ details.”
“Just tell me how much it will cost.”
The intelligence dealer happily rubbed his hands: “Ten thousand black gold!”
“Only ten thousand black gold, and we can take care of Lotus Leaf Temple!”
Chu Qing cupped his fists: “Farewell!”
The intelligence dealer grew anxious and quickly said: “Discount!”
“Master Qing, we can offer a discount!”
Chu Qing’s eyes lit up: “How much of a discount?”
The intelligence dealer quickly said: “Ninety-nine percent off!”
Chu Qing sighed: “At most, I only have a little over ten thousand gold.”
“No black gold!”
He had actually acquired some black gold when he annihilated the constables and pawnshops.
But he was reluctant to use it.
After all, black gold was truly too precious.
The intelligence dealer immediately looked disheartened: “Then there’s nothing we can do!”
“Assassins must be paid in black gold.”
“However, you can hire cannon fodder.”
“Cannon fodder can be hired with silver notes and gold notes.”
Chu Qing thought for a moment and said:
“How many more Advanced cannon fodder can ten thousand gold notes hire?”
The intelligence dealer quickly said:
“You can hire ten thousand cannon fodder who don’t know martial arts.”
“You can hire a thousand who have trained their tendons.”
“You can hire a hundred who have trained their bones.”
Chu Qing gave all his gold notes to the intelligence dealer: “Find cannon fodder who don’t know martial arts.”
“Prepare them as quickly as possible.”
“We’ll depart at any time.”
The intelligence dealer was stunned.
He quickly counted the gold notes.
Hmm… a full fifteen thousand taels.
“You want fifteen thousand cannon fodder?”
Chu Qing nodded: “That’s right!”
“Let me make it clear beforehand, these fifteen thousand cannon fodder will either break through Lotus Leaf Temple, or… they’ll all die inside.”
Thud!
The intelligence dealer stepped back, almost falling to the ground.
He swallowed hard and stammered: “That’s over fifteen thousand people.”
“You want them all to die inside?”
Chu Qing asked in surprise: “Is that not allowed?”
“In this Human World, everything is lacking except people.”
“Will ten thousand or eight thousand commoners scare you assassins to death?”
The intelligence dealer fell silent.
When he came to his senses, he found that Chu Qing had already left.
He dared not make decisions on his own and immediately contacted his superior.
“Over fifteen thousand ordinary cannon fodder?”
“This Chu Qing truly has a cruel heart and incredibly crazy methods.”
“Over ten thousand people dying at Lotus Leaf Temple, even if they ultimately fail the assessment, Lotus Leaf Temple will be finished.”
“Even the King Shi Yu behind it will suffer misfortune.”
“The entire Zhou City will suffer misfortune.”
“Crazy, absolutely crazy.”
That was over ten thousand people!