Published: February 12, 2025
CHAPTER TEXT:
Recently, Water Steward was quite spirited. Although she was removed from the Five Rings Society, it didn’t mean a complete falling out. With Tong Steward around, she undoubtedly still had many connections to the Five Rings Society.
As a business organization, the Five Rings Society was quite open-minded about Water Steward establishing her own faction.
This behavior may seem like a split, but the original structure of the Five Rings Society was already a union of five individuals with their own agendas. Water Steward was just doing it more thoroughly.
On the rankings board, the Five Rings Society appeared to be suffering significant losses, expressing a neutral stance and a sorrowful attitude as if they were about to take a massive step back in the next ranking.
However, they were not exactly welcoming of Water Steward leaving, but they certainly did not oppose it either. This separation meant that someone had taken the first step, and perhaps the next could also establish a separate faction? Maintaining the name of the Five Rings Society while having enough independence could potentially yield greater benefits.
Additionally, Cloud Summit was now the top in the national district, and Water Steward was an ally of theirs. Since that was the case, maintaining good relations with Cloud Summit through her was a necessary business practice.
After the split, there were no obstacles, no losses, and they could still ally with Cloud Summit—there were only benefits to be had. Furthermore, her battle team had completed seven bounties on the material list due to their proximity to the Cloud Summit, receiving three bottles of five-star potions, two bottles of six-star potions, one bottle of seven-star potion, and one bottle of... eight-star potion.
Yes, it was Water Steward who completed the bounty for Chali Zhuan's hard-beaked creature, which ranked second on the list!
Initially, a newly formed faction, even with the resources accumulated by Water Steward and possibly some behind-the-scenes assistance from Tong Steward, wouldn’t be too powerful. She had previously needed Ye Zhongming’s help with equipment Evolution Potions.
Now, with one additional eight-star evolver and one seven-star evolver in her team, their strength would definitely see a leap. Even if Water Steward didn’t give the eight-star potion to her subordinates but instead used it herself to exchange for other items, it would still enhance her strength significantly.
So when she arrived at Cloud Summit, it was clear to everyone that she was in high spirits.
Commander Mu was not so fortunate. Although he had fiercely responded to the insurgent areas regarding his dismissal and established the Sunrise Freedom Army, it also meant that he had completely torn his relationship with the other three districts. His opponents could now recklessly invade his territory or even attack him. Currently, the Sunrise Freedom Army was incapable of resistance, and he didn’t want to waste the little resources he had painstakingly accumulated.
This time he came not only to check the quality of some equipment but also to discuss with Ye Zhongming whether it would be possible to move the Sunrise Freedom Army closer to the territory of Cloud Summit Villa.
It seemed simple, but relocating a large district was not as easy as moving a battle team; the process was too complex and slow, with immense risks in the apocalypse. He aimed to borrow a teleportation device from Ye Zhongming to first transfer materials and important personnel to a safe location, but he didn’t know what price the King of Cloud Summit would offer.
The cost of using teleportation devices wasn’t small, and Commander Mu was well aware of that.
Li Daqian was the calmest among them. Although he didn’t receive any bounties, he temporarily had no place to seek in Cloud Summit. The unique geographical location of Ten Thousand Beast Manor combined with the famous battle beast, Chisel Fang, ranked first there, meant that hardly anyone dared to attack it.