"Brother Song, what do you plan to do next?"
Victor Li was a bit impatient to know Ian Song's next move. Just the first step had already boosted his momentum, gaining him over eight thousand Nascent Divinity experts.
At this morning's court, quite a few officials took the initiative to get close to him, their attitudes especially eager. Even his second brother, Nathan Li, looked at him with envy and jealousy.
As for Lucas Li, that guy is far too scheming—his expression revealed little change, but his attitude was much more respectful. When they met, he even greeted him as 'Fourth Brother' with great courtesy, which Victor found quite satisfying.
You have to know, in the past, neither Nathan nor Lucas had much respect for him.
So now, he trusted Ian Song completely.
Watching Victor Li bask in his newfound glory, Ian Song smiled and said, "Victor, you can't rush things. Right now, it's best not to take too big a step."
Hearing this, Victor pondered for a moment, then looked at Ian and asked, "So, what do you mean, Brother Song?"
Ian asked, "Even though you've gained over eight thousand Nascent Divinity retainers, do you really think they'd give their lives for you?"
"Probably not."
Ian Song nodded. "To put it bluntly, all these people came for benefits. If they can be lured by benefits, they can just as easily betray you for greater ones!"
"They wouldn’t dare!"
Victor Li snapped angrily, but after thinking it over, he realized he had no good way to control these people, and his expression turned a bit defeated.
Ian shook his head. "It’s not about daring or not daring, it’s about whether the benefits are enough. If you had three or five Fusion-stage experts in your manor, you could keep them all in line. But you don’t, so you have to make them see that following you—the Fourth Prince—means even more benefits, benefits no one else can give!"
Hearing this, Victor’s eyes lit up, but after a moment, he realized he couldn’t offer anything better than the Godbreaking Pill.
Suddenly, he thought of Ian and stood up to bow. "Brother Song, please teach me."
"Brother Li, let’s sit and talk." Ian hurried to help Victor up, then took out three jade slips.
"What are these?" Victor asked, a bit confused.
"Cultivation manuals."
Ian said, "These three manuals—one is for Nascent Divinity stage, and can be trained up to late Nascent Divinity. The second is for Fusion stage, and the third is for Tribulation experts!"
"Ah!"
Hearing Ian’s explanation, Victor couldn’t help showing a look of shock and excitement. The War King True Canon he trained in was one of the Tang Dynasty’s three great arts, but even at its peak, it only reached late Fusion stage.
For years, the Tang Dynasty had searched for Tribulation-stage manuals, but they were far too rare and precious. The Prime One Church had them, but refused to pass them on.
So, for all these years, the most talented royal descendants could only force their way into early Tribulation, and without follow-up techniques, they’d get killed by the second heavenly tribulation.
As a royal descendant, Victor had dreamed of getting a Tribulation-stage manual.
But now Ian was just giving him one.
He could hardly believe it was real.
"If you use these three manuals well, you can make them absolutely loyal to you," Ian added.
"Brother Song, let’s become sworn brothers!"
Victor blurted out. He realized he had nothing to offer Ian in return—spirit crystals? Don’t joke, the Fourth Prince Residence wasn’t nearly as rich as Ian. Power? Ian was probably from the Phoenix Heaven Church and wouldn’t care. Beauties? Ian was aiming for the Prime One Church’s Saintess.
Ian was briefly stunned, then smiled and nodded. "Alright!"
An hour later, with Bada, steward Sam Li (Li Shantian), and the newly advanced Nascent Divinity expert Raina Quinn as witnesses, Ian and Victor became sworn brothers.
This wasn’t just casual talk. Both of them swore on their heavenly tribulation: if Victor ever harbored murderous intent and killed Ian himself, a tribulation stronger than his current realm would descend to destroy him.
And vice versa.
Of course, if you were confident you could withstand a tribulation stronger than your own cultivation, you could break the oath.
Legend has it that two thousand years ago, a late Tribulation expert killed his sworn brother over an immortal artifact. He thought his cultivation was high enough, and with the artifact in hand, he could survive the tribulation.
But the tribulation was many times stronger than he’d imagined, and he was blasted to bits.
Victor wasn’t especially clever, but Sam Li and Bada were both sharp.
So, following their advice, they used the Nascent Divinity and Fusion-stage manuals to establish the Heaven-Arts Pavilion.
Of course, the pavilion wouldn’t just have those two manuals. Victor waved his hand and had all the manuals and Dao-arts from the Fourth Prince Residence’s Scripture Pavilion moved into the Heaven-Arts Pavilion.
Anyone in the Fourth Prince Residence qualified to enter could read inside the Heaven-Arts Pavilion.
But it cost Merit Points.
There were two ways to earn Merit Points. First, you could take missions from the Quest Hall and get points for completing them—so no one could just sit around and slack off in the Residence.
Second, you could trade spirit crystals, Spirit Medicines, magic artifacts, and so on for points.
One Merit Point was worth one top-grade spirit crystal.
When the retainers found out there was a manual in the Pavilion that reached late Nascent Divinity, they were all fired up. The seven late Nascent Divinity experts were especially excited—they’d been stuck for years with no Fusion-stage follow-up.
Now, they finally saw hope.
So, as soon as the Pavilion opened, almost all the retainers showed up to ask about it.
The Heaven-Arts Pavilion was split into the Scripture Hall and Quest Hall.
The Scripture Hall had three floors. The first was filled with ordinary manuals and Dao-arts; for one Merit Point, you could read there for a day.
The second floor held the Nascent Divinity-stage manual Ian had given Victor.
Sam Li cleverly split the manual into three volumes, only redeemable one at a time.
The upper volume cost 1,000 Merit Points and covered cultivation from Qi-Refining to early Nascent Divinity; the middle volume, for mid Nascent Divinity, was 2,000 points; the lower volume, for late Nascent Divinity, was 5,000 points.
Of the eight thousand newly advanced retainers, ninety-nine percent didn’t have any proper Nascent Divinity manual.
So they all desperately wanted the manuals on the second floor.
Right now, their salary in the Residence was fifty top-grade spirit crystals per year. To redeem the upper volume, they’d have to stay for twenty years.
Twenty years wasn’t that long for cultivators.
But the feeling of seeing something vital but not being able to get it was aggravating. Only a few dozen with real family wealth could cough up a thousand top-grade spirit crystals right away and get the upper volume.
To prevent leaks, anyone who bought a manual had to swear by heavenly tribulation not to pass it to a second person.
So what about the rest who couldn’t buy the upper volume?
Naturally, they rushed to the Quest Hall to take missions!
In no time, the once-empty Quest Hall was packed with people.