"Master, this disciple has nothing to pack, so I don't need to go back."
The news of him taking a master here would soon reach the Wang Family. If he went back now, wouldn't he be walking right into a death trap? Even if he wanted to go back, it was no longer possible. He had no choice but to gamble.
If he lost this gamble, he would simply kill Yu Fan and leave Qingshan City for a place where no one knew him, starting all over again. On the other hand, relying on his identity as an alchemist, he could easily survive in any remote little town.
After that, Luo Jiu settled into the Yu Family quite readily.
Yu Cheng was overjoyed; this alone was enough. His son would be able to go off to a better place for advanced training, and now an alchemist had come to stay at their estate—Heaven truly was helping the Yu Family! At this rate, he believed that before long, the Yu Family's standing in Qingshan City would rise a notch.
In the days to come, Yu Fan intended to thoroughly remodel Luo Jiu, though making him obedient was the most crucial part.
Yu Fan had also considered giving this opportunity to someone within the Yu Family, which would have given him greater peace of mind. The reality, however, was that he required absolute loyalty, which meant resorting to some ruthless methods. Precisely for this reason, he could not choose his own family members, such as his parents, and had to pick someone insignificant.
He could not expose the fact that he was not a good-for-nothing; otherwise, he would lose his eligibility to claim rewards. Without rewards, how could he ever become strong?
He was staking everything for the sake of those rewards.
He had even entertained the idea of directly cultivating his own parents, but what if his father accidentally let slip to some close friend or relative that he wasn't useless? Word would spread like wildfire, and how could he continue to comfortably play the fool? He would be run ragged.
Late in the night, Yu Cheng arranged a residence for Luo Jiu—naturally, one close to Yu Fan's quarters was the priority.
Meanwhile, the news that Luo Jiu now belonged to the Yu Family had spread throughout Qingshan City. Surprisingly, this was engineered by Yu Cheng himself, whose move was designed to completely cut off Luo Jiu's retreat and bind him to better serve the Yu Family.
Bang! With a heavy slam, the wooden table in front of Wang He was smashed to splinters. Wang He's eyes were filled with murderous intent, and his body trembled violently.
"This Luo Jiu! I've treated him well, providing him with the best food and drink, and giving him whatever he asked for. I never expected him to bite the hand that feeds him and turn to the Yu Family in the blink of an eye!"
"That Luo Jiu is utterly shameless! You'd get more sense out of a dog. Even a dog knows to be loyal to its master, but what does he do? He goes and attaches himself to the Yu Family!"
"Dammit, cursing his ancestors eighteen generations back, he really is the lowest of the low! Don't let me lay eyes on him again, or I'll give him a sound thrashing!"
Seeing the elders hurling curses, Vice Patriarch Wang Teng pressed his hand down. "All right, everyone, calm down first. Despicable as Luo Jiu is, even if you spend the entire night cursing him, he isn't going to drop dead by morning. He's still comfortably nestled in the Yu Family. Continuing to rant like this will only upset your own livers. Take care of your health; don't let him anger you to the point of doing yourselves harm. Now that Luo Jiu has left, we should first consider what impact this will have on us."
Although Wang Teng held only the position of vice patriarch, his intellect and insight compelled even Patriarch Wang He to admire him. At times, this vice patriarch acted far more like a patriarch than Wang He himself—just like now, when everyone else was consumed by rage, Wang Teng remained perfectly capable of calmly analyzing the current situation while looking ahead to the future.
"With Luo Jiu gone, our Wang Family will lose its supply of Qi Condensation Pills. The cultivation resources our clansmen need most are precisely those pills. If we have to buy them from outside, the prices will probably soar a hundredfold or more," Wang He said, a headache coming on.
"Why don't we go back to the Yu Family and invite Luo Jiu to return? At worst, we can double his monthly stipend," suggested a Wang Family elder.
"Did none of you hear what happened at the Yu Family today?" Wang Teng swept his gaze across everyone present, questioning them.
"I heard about it. Word has it that the Yu Family's young patriarch brought down a heavenly tribulation, but I asked someone from the Yu Family, and it seems he only managed to forge a lump of iron that has zero value," Wang He said. It wasn't difficult for the Wang Family to gather intelligence within the Yu Family; as long as you had money, there was nothing you couldn't find out.
The Yu Family was far from monolithic, and their divided loyalties conveniently gave other clans an opening.
"If it really were just a lump of iron, would it summon the kind of tribulation spoken of by high-level cultivators? Such a massive spectacle has never happened in our Wang Family before. Besides, if it were only a lump of iron, would Luo Jiu go running over to the Yu Family? What kind of person Luo Jiu is, I think everyone here knows very well," Wang Teng said with a smile.
"This Luo Jiu is nothing more than a weathercock, shifting with the wind and betraying his masters. If there's no value in it, how could he possibly go crawling to them?"
"Second brother, do you mean that Luo Jiu has seen through the Yu Family's potential to surpass us, so he immediately defected and betrayed us? Didn't this Yu Fan just forge a lump of iron? Could things be otherwise?" Wang He asked, puzzled.
"Right now, there are two possibilities. First, Luo Jiu has already seen through Yu Fan's true background, so he resolutely chose to follow him, even going so far as to take him as a master."
"The second possibility is that Luo Jiu is gambling. The peculiarity of a tribulation is that it only appears when cultivators break through to powerful realms, forge mighty pills, or refine Spirit Artifacts, and Luo Jiu is betting on this very point."
Wang Teng's analysis jolted the entire Wang Family out of their rage.
"Then, Second Brother, what should we do?" Wang He asked. If possible, he still wanted to poach Luo Jiu back. Losing an alchemist of that caliber could very well shake the foundations of the Wang Family's standing, and buying pills at market prices would be a hefty expense for them.
"This Luo Jiu is, at the end of the day, just trash among alchemists. I've already pulled strings and found a Tier 2 Alchemist, and I was just wondering how to get rid of this one anyway. Knowing he couldn't be trusted, I made preparations in advance. His leaving on his own just saves me the trouble of driving him out."
"Is that true?" Wang He was overjoyed. This second brother of his truly was his greatest asset.
With a Tier 2 Alchemist, the overall strength of the Wang Family would break straight through into the Foundation Establishment Realm. When that time came, they wouldn't even deign to look at a tiny place like Qingshan City.
Currently, the strongest cultivator in Qingshan City was Wang He himself, who was at the Foundation Establishment Realm and remained the sole Foundation Establishment expert in the entire city. With a Tier 2 Alchemist added to their ranks, the Wang Family would likely gain even more Foundation Establishment experts.
"Are you joking, Big Brother? When have I ever lied to you? Of course it's true."