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As soon as Wei Songlin walked out, a bunch of people swarmed around him. “Elder, what’s the situation like? How is Clan Patriarch?”

Wei Songlin said, his expression dark, “His Lotus Platform shattered and his cultivation base has dropped back to the peak of the Yang Opening Realm.”

“What?” Everyone who heard this was stunned.

Wei Songlin added on, “However, the foundation is still there. Father said that as long as he carefully nurses his wounds, he should be able to reach the Light Shaking Realm again.”

“That’s good,” everyone sighed with relief.

As long as he could reach the Light Shaking Realm again, then the situation wasn’t too dire.

“However, it’s going to take at least ten years or so.”

This single sentence brought everyone abruptly back to reality.

Ten years!

Ten years wasn’t really a long time, but it wasn’t short either. Most importantly, how much strength you had determined how much benefit you had. Without the support of a Light Shaking Realm cultivator, the Wei Clan was going to have a difficult time of things for these next ten years.

Someone sighed, “If it’s ten years, then it’s ten years. At least it’s better than the Shen Clan.”

The Shen Clan!

Upon hearing these words, everyone felt their hearts tremble.

As soon as news of Shen Yuanhong’s death had spread, the Shen Clan lost a lot of prestige. Many people were already beginning to eye the Shen Clan’s businesses, and were reaching their hands in.

Actually, even without Shen Yuanhong, the Shen Clan still had quite a few experts. The Lai Clan had no Light Shaking Realm cultivators, but even so in terms of pure strength they might not even be able to measure up to a Shen Clan without Shen Yuanhong.

However, there was an issue with this: the influence a Bloodline Nobility Clan had was directly correlated to the power they possessed. According to the territory outlines of the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans, the Wang Clan had the most shops, Origin Qi Scholars, and territory, followed by the Shen and Wei Clan. With Shen Yuanhong’s death, the number of businesses the Shen Clan owned didn’t quite match up to their actual strength.

Of course, this was only a mismatch. Things might not have been such a big deal since people would have been a bit more considerate. Shen Yuanhong had just died, and nobody would be so impatient as to swallow up his clan’s businesses (at least that quickly). They were still comrades and allies, so some camaraderie was present. Some clans even had in-law relations with others.

As such, unless the Shen Clan had totally collapsed, people wouldn’t usually be this obvious about it. Even if they were going to take some, they would do it by slowly boiling the frog to death, one step at a time.

However, the Clear River Gang had forced their way in.

The Long Clear Gang had massacred the Red Eagle Gang on Red Dust Street just shortly after Shen Yuanhong had died and forcefully seized those businesses.

Normally, this situation would have been brought to the alliance, and the Long Clear Gang would have been punished.

However, no punishment actually occurred.

First of all, Lai Wuyi steadfastly defended the Long Clear Gang – for his clan’s face, for the profits that were about to come his way, for the hearts of the gang members, and for his own well-hidden wild ambition, Lai Wuyi unhesitatingly stepped right into the pit Su Chen had dug for him.

The Wang Clan remained silent – An Siyuan had seriously warned Wang Zhanyu not to make any more careless moves and was watching him all the time. Wang Zhanyu had only attacked Su Chen once, but to mitigate any commotion he had been forced to use a connection in the imperial palace that had been very hard to come by. Things only calmed down then and only then, and he was not willing to start something again in the slightest.

The Long Clan and Lian Clan followed suit. They also made quiet moves themselves, each seizing the territory of two of the smaller gangs belonging to the Shen Clan. Of course, they did it in a way that was not nearly as bloody as the Long Clear Gang.

For a multitude of reasons, the Long Clear Gang’s massacre of the Red Eagle Gang went unpunished, giving everyone else a bad idea.

To countless people, the Shen Clan was like a piece of fat meat. Someone had already savagely bit off the first bite; talking things over civilly was longer possible. If they didn’t want to be squeezed out of contention, they would need to quickly start fighting for it.

Under these kinds of circumstances, the fate of the Shen Clan was quite obvious.

In just a few days, the gangs under the Shen Clan’s control had been attacked multiple times and were at this point almost completely wiped out.

Gangs were like knives.

Knives meant for butchering fatty pieces of meat.

Even though these organizations didn’t seem like much, they were very useful to many people. Any dirty business that couldn’t be seen by others were done through these criminal gangs, and these gangs were often responsible for attacking an opponent to probe their strength. Finally, territories that were hard to take over all at once were usually taken over slowly by these criminal gangs.

For instance, storefronts.

Since I control the gang that owns this street, I control all of the shops along this street as well.

If I don’t want certain shops on this street to continue doing business, there are many things I can do.

One could say that gangs were the outermost layer of protection. Without this layer of protection, the thick cut of fat meat would be revealed to everyone.

As such, once they lost control of the gangs, the businesses belonging to the Shen Clan followed suit shortly after.

The Shen Clan naturally had people guarding these stores, but everyone knew that how much strength you had determined how much territory you could possess. If you didn’t have enough strength but had a lot of territory, protecting it would be very difficult.

In the following days, the hundred or so businesses that the Shen Clan owned in Clear River City had all been harrassed on some level. The people from the Shen Clan did their best but could only protect a small portion of them.

Under these conditions, the Shen Clan began to sell some of their businesses. Like this, they could concentrate their defensive efforts. This was often how large Bloodline Nobility Clans would adapt and protect themselves under dire circumstances.

Some people could reascend to the top after a few years of hibernation, but others would totally collapse, never to rise again.

When he thought of the Shen Clan, Wei Songlin felt his jaw clench.

He thought for a moment, then said, “Old Li, organize the few shops along Large Willow Alley later and sell them.”

Chief Steward Li felt his heart leap. “Elder, those stores are quite profitable!”

“I know!” Wei Songlin said impatiently. “But if we don’t give away some real benefits, who would be willing? With Su Chen here, Father’s wounds definitely won’t be covered up. Haven’t you seen that Shen Yuanhong’s death has already been announced? Right now, the best course of action is the safest.”

“Su Chen!”

Upon hearing this name, everyone felt itchy with rage.

If it weren’t for him, everyone wouldn’t have fallen to such a lowly condition.

“Ten years! Everyone, please wait patiently for ten years. When the Clan Patriarch recovers his strength and reforms his Lotus Platform, the Wei Clan will definitely get revenge!”

“Yes!” everyone agreed at the same time.

However, no one had expected that Su Chen wasn’t planning on giving them ten years of time.

A servant hurried over. “Elder! Elder!”

“What’s the matter? Why are you making such a commotion?” Wei Songlin frowned. Even though the clan had fallen on hard times, it wasn’t a reason for servants to lose their heads in this kind of manner.

“Elder, Su Chen has returned!”

Upon hearing the name Su Chen, everyone’s hearts trembled. When they heard that he had returned, everyone was shocked.

Hadn’t he returned a long time ago?

No, that wasn’t right.

Wei Songlin suddenly realized that the underling meant that Su Chen had openly appeared in Clear River City again.

Ever since the massive pursuit outside of the city, Su Chen had kept himself in hiding.

Now, he was officially announcing his return.

“In what fashion did he return?” Wei Songlin asked.

“In no particular fashion at all,” the underling replied, a little confused. “He just appeared at the Origin Bureau and began to take care of business.”

“Take care of business......” Wei Songlin fell into deep thought. Suddenly, his expression changed: “Not good!”