Chapter 305: The last effort of resistance
— Meanwhile - Azure River City —
At the Immortal Dream Garden, the former residence of the famous Dream Butterfly, a group of respectable leaders and elders from various forces were sitting on the couches inside a VIP room, surrounded by the courtesans of this famous establishment.
Some of them had clear traces of alcohol on their expressions, while others had maintained their sobriety as they chatted with each other.
One of them had gulped down alcohol as if there were no tomorrow, and finally, his rationality snapped. He spoke loudly while raising his cup.
"That despicable girl with the surname Mo! I heard that she’ll finally be married into the Underworld Palace next week! Hmph! Heaven truly has no eyes! Why does it allow such a despicable woman to always have things go her way?"
As the drunken leader spoke loudly, the expressions of the people in the room grew solemn. They looked around and realized that they were not alone.
The courtesans of this place were still with them.
Usually, if they were being overheard by courtesans from another establishment, they would have already killed them. But... this place was the former residence of the famous Dream Butterfly, the beloved concubine of Young Master Wei, the young master of the powerful Underworld Palace.
They did not dare provoke such a power.
"Ladies, please leave us," one of the leaders said with a smile.
"Yes, my lord," the courtesans replied. They knew their cue and quickly retreated from the VIP room.
But after leaving the room, they quickly rushed toward the nearest enforcer.
...
On the highest floor of the Immortal Dream Tower, in the room where Dream Butterfly used to live, Mirror Butterfly was drinking tea with the matron, the owner and founder of the Immortal Dream Garden.
She was the same matron who had raised Dream Butterfly, as well as one of the Zodiac, the holder of the Rabbit title.
After the Zodiac group was crushed by Wei Chen and Yan Rongjun, and their backer was also apprehended, the Zodiac members were interrogated and were now spending their time in the Thousand Treasure City prison. Mo Xingyao had sent people to rescue the matron, along with Dream Butterfly, who had insisted on following them.
In all honesty, calling it a rescue was a bit of a stretch.
It was more like sending people to a lone estate built in the middle of nowhere, beating up some high-level guards, and informing the matron about the fate of the Zodiac. She quickly followed the people Mo Xingyao had sent.
Even though the Zodiac was a conspirator who wished for nothing more than to gain benefits from chaos, he had planned for the worst-case scenario. That was why he had sent the Rabbit to an estate with a good environment and done nothing to hinder her freedom as long as she remained within the estate grounds.
Thus, the matron had returned safely and now worked as an assistant to Mirror Butterfly to take care of the business.
Since Mirror Butterfly had taken it upon herself to manage the Immortal Dream Garden while she was missing, the matron did not want to add to the chaos. That was the reason she only worked as an assistant and did not take back control.
"By the way, Mirror Butterfly, what kind of gift would be appropriate for the occasion? Mr. Wei is too powerful and has such a high status. I don’t think a simple gift would cut it, but we also don’t have enough resources or influence to procure a great gift either," the matron said.
"This... this also stumps me greatly, Matron. I can’t come up with anything appropriate," Mirror Butterfly muttered as her expression twisted with frustration.
Then, an idea struck her.
"That’s right! How about a lifetime free pass for Mr. Wei to use the services of the Immortal Dream Garden?"
"Do you really think so, or do you just want to see a family drama?" the matron retorted.
As the two chatted with each other over tea about what kind of gift they should procure, a servant girl walked in with one of the courtesans and a security personnel.
The courtesan’s face was solemn. She was one of the courtesans who had been in the VIP room.
"What’s wrong? Why the long face, Han’er?" the matron asked.
"Lady Matron, Lady Mirror Butterfly, I think you need to listen to this."
The courtesan then proceeded to tell the two of them about the suspicious statement she had just heard.
.....
At the VIP room, the group started to discuss the current situation. What had started as drunken rambling had now turned into a serious discussion.
The leaders in this room each possessed great influence due to the strength of their respective factions. Namely, since they were strong, they could do many things and go almost anywhere as long as they checked their targets and were not unlucky enough to run into a Heaven’s Chosen or kick a steel plate.
They were the group of people who enjoyed the old system where might made right.
But after the introduction of the Cultivation Realm Equalizer Portable Array (CREPA), their influence was significantly affected. Other than Azure River City, which had not popularized CREPA, the other cities, especially the trade cities where merchants and businesses were the main feature, had all accepted and popularized CREPA.
This gave all of their enforcers the power to apprehend anyone who broke the law.
Of course, there were some exceptions, such as those who were at the peak of the Void Refining Realm or the Half-Step Great Ascension Realm.
But those people were very rare, and they were already at the very top of the food chain. Besides, if a city were to get serious and send more than 1,000 enforcers, even a Half-Step Great Ascension Realm cultivator would have their cultivation greatly weakened and equalized.
But those cities did not do so because they decided to give some face to the experts. Besides, these experts could control themselves and would not go around causing trouble for no reason.
They knew that if they dared to challenge the new system, even if they won, the next thing they might face was a resounding slap from Young Master Wei. Worse, he would do it while broadcasting that slap across the Three Provinces.
As experts, none of them dared to mess around.
They knew that Young Master Wei despised killing, but his methods were strangely effective at deterring people, especially those at the top of the pyramid. After all, all of them needed to maintain their dignity. Otherwise, their juniors might laugh at their misery.
At this time, one of the leaders spoke.
"The new system... Some of the cities are trying to curry favor with Young Master Wei and have imposed sanctions on us. They said that if we don’t make use of CREPA, they will increase the tariffs on our goods."
Another chimed in.
"Heh! Those bunch of dogs! They’re hitting us while we’re down. When we were at our peak, none of them, not even one, dared to raise their heads!"
The group grew silent... Deadly silent. They only gulped down their wine with solemn expressions, as if trying to drown their frustration and sorrow.
"We need to do something..." someone finally spoke.
"Yeah, we know that, but what kind of something are you talking about? Fight the Underworld Palace? Ha!" another chimed in with a scoff.
"No... We can’t fight them head-on. It’s like throwing an egg against a rock. We need to come up with a plan. A plan to collapse this new system," one of them said.
"How? This damn artifact is practically foolproof! We tried bribing one of the enforcers to give us the artifact so that we could reverse-engineer it, but even after we did so, our best efforts didn’t even scratch the mystery of how someone created this thing in the first place!"
"We also tried using it ourselves, but somehow, like any other artifact, it only works for the person it’s bound to. We even stole some of them and tried to refine them, but after losing a warehouse worth of spirit stones in an attempt to refine it, it still didn’t work."
One of the leaders said in frustration.
"I heard Young Master Wei has a daughter. She’s a glutton who loves delicious food. She usually wanders around with her dog, riding on its back. Her name is Ningning, and he dotes on her very much," one of them whispered, as if afraid that someone might hear him.
The people around the room could not help but gulp.
"Are you suggesting..." one of them asked hesitantly.
"Yes... If we could... take control of her, we would definitely achieve our objective," the first person to offer the idea said, looking around as if checking whether anyone might back out.
"Are you crazy!? That’s not a solution. That’s suicide!" one of the leaders said softly.
"Do you have a better plan?" the one who offered the idea asked, glaring at the man.
After everyone gulped down their saliva, they looked at the man who had offered the idea.
"Know this... if anyone backs out, you know the consequences. Also, after the system is in place, do you think we’ll still have the same benefits we had before? This is just the beginning. It will only get worse!" the leader who had offered the idea asked.
His words struck deep into their hearts.