Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Part 14: Make a Feint to the East While Striking to the West
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Midnight.
Luoyang Sword Clan, Fourth Young Master's office.
"...It's done."
The Fourth Young Master stamped the final document, then collapsed face-first onto his desk.
One of the clerks, half-asleep while waiting, took the papers and staggered out.
The head maid had already passed out in a chair in the corner.
Her last task that evening had been to throw a simple "surprise celebration party for the Eldest Young Master's lifting of seclusion" for the Fourth Young Master.
For an ordinary woman without any internal energy, enduring nearly a week of grueling work was impressive enough.
The middle-aged woman sitting across from the Fourth Young Master stretched.
"...Ughhh. At first, it seemed impossible, but this really was a feasible plan."
The Fourth Young Master replied without lifting his head from the desk.
"...Yeah."
She shook her head.
"Giving birth to our darling twins and dealing with the emergency that erupted the same day was less exhausting than this."
"...That's a comparison I can't comprehend."
The woman, who had kept the firm figure of her maiden days, was one of the Fourth Young Master's closest strategists.
She put her glasses back on after a brief respite and began reviewing the documents again.
"By the way, granting the Sword Clan Bronze Token to that information broker, the Crescent Moon Pavilion Master, was an excellent decision."
"...Without her, we never would have made it in time."
A playful glint appeared in her sharp eyes.
"How long do you think it'll take the Second Young Master's side to realize they've been had?"
The Fourth Young Master lifted his head.
A mischievous grin spread across his lips.
"...Probably right about now?"
* * *
Second Young Master's camp, Chief Strategist Choi's office.
"Chief Strategist Choi! We did it!"
Chief Strategist Choi's closest aide burst into the office.
"Hm?! Another cause for celebration?!"
The chief strategist had been toasting his victory over the Eldest Young Master with his subordinates, emptying a massive keg of liquor shipped in from Jiangnan.
"Yes! Report from the Great Selection Merchant Association! The 'egg planting' operation succeeded in multiple locations in Walnut Village, the site of the Fourth Young Master's ongoing business project!"
The subordinates, thoroughly drunk, jumped up one after another and clapped furiously.
"As expected! I knew it'd work! Even if the Fourth Young Master threatened the landowners, those fools had no choice but to be swayed by more money!"
This would create a fatal problem for the Fourth Young Master's business.
When they later tried to acquire the land for the project, they'd discover the plots they'd "planted eggs" in and despair.
"They should have laid down huge advances and binding penalties from the start! Though with their lack of funds, that wasn't an option. Hahaha!"
"The Fourth Young Master's project is doomed to shake from the outset!"
"Now we can thoroughly sabotage that Eldest Young Master bastard's first move too!"
Cheers erupted all around.
In the end, if the Fourth Young Master requested mediation, the Luoyang Sword Clan's Business Support Team would step in.
They'd ultimately have to resell the egg-planted lands at the Fourth Young Master's demand.
But it would force significant time delays and acquisition costs on his side.
Chief Strategist Choi ladled out more liquor and asked,
"Good! Excellent! How much did they buy up?"
"About half our target!"
The subordinates let out near-screams of joy once more.
But Chief Strategist Choi froze, ladle in hand.
"...How much?"
"Half! That's a full tenth of the entire planned site!"
"...That much land in one go? In a single day? From multiple landowners?"
Only then did the others sense something off and fall silent one by one.
"What about the Fourth Young Master's reaction?"
"...No special reports yet."
Chief Strategist Choi's flushed face began to tremble.
"Something's wrong! Something's off! Tell the Great Selection Merchant Association to halt all transactions immediately!"
"...That won't be possible."
"What?!"
One of his closest strategists replied with a grim expression.
"They've already completed payment of the deposits."
"To respond quickly and flexibly to on-site situations, didn't we grant the Great Selection Merchant Association full authority...?"
"They'll use their operational funds first per our instructions and bill us later, right?"
The blood drained from Chief Strategist Choi's red face.
At that moment, the office door flew open.
"Chief Strategist Choi!"
It was Han Myung-hwi, his face pale as a ghost.
"Something's wrong! That bitch Crescent Moon Pavilion Master has the Sword Clan Bronze Token from the Fourth Young Master! There's something we don't know about! Halt all ongoing operations immediately! We need a full review!"
"...Too late."
"What did you say?"
"Already too la—!"
Chief Strategist Choi vomited right there on the spot.
In the frozen office, only the sound of his retching echoed desperately.
* * *
Luoyang Sword Clan, Fourth Young Master's office.
The woman sitting across from him—the strategist from the Sichuan Tang Clan known as the Red Widow Spider.
Commonly called the Red Poison Spider—flashed a venomous smile.
"A complete change of the entire business site in just one week."
The Fourth Young Master snickered.
"They probably never saw it coming."
"Even if I'd been on their side, it would've been the same. They'd have fallen without a clue."
"A perfect feint to the east while striking west."
"No matter how many personnel they have, they were bound to hit their limits in that situation."
The Red Poison Spider licked her lips.
"Tracking rumors about the Eldest Young Master, investigating the incident he caused in the inner gardens, dealing with issues from his seclusion."
"Unable to pull resources from the existing response to the Third Young Master, they must have tasted hell for that week."
"And we had just purged all their spies from our midst not long ago."
"They had zero ways to track our movements."
The Fourth Young Master grinned wickedly.
"In the meantime, we successfully shifted our plans to a bigger, better business site."
"The Crescent Moon Pavilion Master more than pulled her weight. Since she wasn't exposed to the Second Young Master's side, she handled nearly all the contracts for the new site."
"The Sword Clan Bronze Token and a single annex building? A bargain."
"Come to think of it, she was someone introduced by the Eldest Young Master too, wasn't she?"
The Fourth Young Master started to laugh loudly but lowered his voice upon seeing the head maid sleeping deeply.
"The new site wouldn't have been possible without our eldest brother stepping in from the start."
"...You said that from the day he presented the business plan, the Eldest Young Master had shown interest not in Walnut Village, but in that neighborhood?"
The Fourth Young Master smacked his lips.
The boy recalled that day.
The day he was excited to meet his eldest brother after so long.
The moment he had drawn back the tent to explain the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly and show the business site in person.
The Eldest Young Master had clearly been looking not at Walnut Village, but at what was now their new business site.
* * *
"Ah, what the Eldest Young Master is looking at now is not our planned business site."
"That area is one of Luoyang's largest slums."
The Fourth Young Master had laughed.
"No one would dare touch it, even if it weren't us."
* * *
"I thought back then that our eldest brother had simply mistaken it..."
"It's hard to imagine the Eldest Young Master, who runs the charity house, confusing Walnut Village with Luoyang's largest slum—the Valley of Sin, one of the Five Evils. And besides..."
The Red Poison Spider rummaged through the desk and pulled out a thick stack of documents.
"This draft for the business plan change was also provided by the Eldest Young Master."
"Correct."
She flipped through the pages with a sigh.
"Without this draft, even conceptualizing the change would have taken ages."
"With everyone pitching in, at least two weeks, probably."
She placed the heavy stack back on the desk.
"Even the Crescent Moon Pavilion Master's sales of business info to reliable investors—their preemptive investments can't be ignored."
"With that money, we established a new branch of the charity house at our great-aunt's shrine in the Valley of Sin."
"Without the charity house and Fairy Faith connections, switching to the Valley of Sin would've been impossible."
"Exactly."
"And the famous figures inside and outside Luoyang who've pledged huge investments as 'the Eldest Young Master's acquaintances' already number in the dozens."
"Won't keep growing? Eldest brother's connections are no joke. Once they hear he's ended his seclusion..."
The Fourth Young Master clicked his tongue.
"The committed investments already exceed our previous plan's final target."
"The scale grew that much."
The Red Poison Spider scratched her head furiously.
"Has it really only been about a week since we first explained this plan to the Eldest Young Master?"
The Fourth Young Master replied innocently.
"About eight days now, I think."
She finally exploded.
"Does that make any sense?!"
The head maid jolted awake in surprise.
"Oh dear! I must have dozed off."
The Fourth Young Master hurriedly supported her as she staggered to her feet.
"Yeah, yeah. Work's done for today, so head in and rest, head maid."
"No. Until you retire for the night, I..."
"No, no. I'll ask one of the others. Go on."
Unable to defy the Fourth Young Master's firm insistence, the head maid left.
But given her personality, she wouldn't sleep until she'd thoroughly checked the maids filling her role.
"Ah! Why'd you yell all of a sudden?!"
Ignoring the Fourth Young Master's outburst, the Red Poison Spider shot up from her seat and shouted.
"It doesn't make sense! Just one week! But when we actually received this draft, it had only been three days since you explained the business to the Eldest Young Master!"
She slammed the desk repeatedly.
"Then he entered the inner gardens! And shook up the entire Sword Clan by himself! Pushing their endless intelligence network to its absolute limit!"
"C-calm down...!"
She tore at her hair.
"Do I look calm right now?! While resolving his own fateful seclusion, the Eldest Young Master handled several things simultaneously from behind the scenes?!"
The Fourth Young Master just shrugged.
"I've been saying it since forever. People like us can't comprehend the Great Peng."
At his reaction, the Red Poison Spider trembled all over, foaming at the mouth.
"Back then, I thought it was just exaggerated metaphor!"
The Fourth Young Master tsked.
"Quit raging and get some shut-eye. Starting tomorrow, we begin the full cleanup of the Valley of Sin."
Indeed.
This was merely the start of the plan.
The Red Poison Spider calmed a bit, thinking of the mountains still ahead.
"...Right. Purging and reorganizing the underworld organizations holed up in the Valley of Sin alone will take months."
"Yeah. Even with the charity house's help, distinguishing slum dwellers from underworld elements..."
The Red Poison Spider sighed.
"It's like separating ink mixed in water."
"Exactly. So..."
It was then.
"Fourth Young Master! Urgent report!"
A messenger, permission granted, tumbled into the office.
"From the scouts! The underworld organizations in the Valley of Sin...! The organizations...!"
The Red Poison Spider pressed the gasping messenger, too breathless to speak properly.
"What about the underworld organizations?!"
The messenger, face tinged blue from lack of air, looked at them in confusion.
"Th-they... all the underworld organizations in the Valley of Sin have vanished...!"
It was news that made listeners doubt their ears.
"What...?"
"What do you mean? Explain in detail!"
"W-well, the scouts are still investigating the details..."
"But there must be something!?"
Pressed fiercely by the Red Poison Spider, the messenger cried out desperately.
"Dark Heaven Venerable!"
He continued hurriedly.
"Not confirmed, but the moniker 'Dark Heaven Venerable' keeps coming up prominently at the scenes!