Chapter 1012: A New Expansion Plan
In the Central region of the Hu continent, there existed a city.
It was massive and was considered as the largest city of the entire continent. And yet, it wasn’t the capital of the Hu Empire.
This was a city called as Second Light city.
Millions of large buildings dotted its land, while eighteen rivers merged into six lakes within it. Each of these lakes had elegant gardens around them while several palaces were redacted within the lake itself.
These six lakes were termed as the Six Royal Lakes, and held the six palaces of the branch families of the Hu clan.
They were considered as the headquarters of each of the branch clan and held their high ranked members.
This was also the reason why the city was called as the Second Light city. It only housed the headquarters of the branches of the Hu clan. The True Capital of the Hu empire was thousands of kilometer north of the Second Light City and was the most secure place on the Hu continent.
And right now, under the Second Light City, a large being was resting.
A few hundred screens floated around him, showing the scenes from all around the city. One could see the insides of the six royal places, various large mansions belonging to influential experts as well as hidden areas of the various clans.
Nothing was hidden from the monitoring of the System and Lin Wu could see everything.
“Hu Dagao certainly did some good work.” Lin Wu was pleased with the efficiency of the man.
His work was fast, and he carried out orders to the T.
The man had also recovered a part of his confidence he had lost after battling Lin Mu. But now that confidence was presented in a different way. His ambition had also returned, but it had been twisted as well.
If before, Hu Dagao wanted to become the strongest by nurturing his Great Hu claws and tempering his bloodline, now he was looking into expanding his power by following Lin Wu. He had already been convinced by Lin Wu’s vast array of skills and knew that there was none other that could match him.
Hu Dagao even had thoughts that Lin Wu might have already exceeded the Immortal Ascension realm and was either from outside the Ming Dao world, or a special existence like their Clan spirit.
Even as a direct Heir, Hu Dagao hadn’t actually seen their Clan Spirit before and had only heard about it from his family. In fact, other than a few elders of the older generation, and the patriarch, there was no one else that had the qualification to see the Clan Spirit.
Though when it was time to worship the Clan spirit, there were times when some of the heirs could see its image. Those who could do so, would gain some insight and some might even improve their bloodline.
Just from this alone, Hu Dagao was impressed by the abilities of the Clan Spirit. And now he was facing someone that might be equal or even stronger than their clan spirit!
It couldn’t help but make him that much more excited.
Right now, the man was within one of the six Royal Palaces and was sitting with several other people.
“HAHAHA! Senior Brother, you graced us with your presence. How long has it been since we met?” One of the men sitting in the hall asked.
There were several small tables set in front of each person, and each table was filled with tens of dishes. Servants were also going around, serving wine and various liquors to the people present in the hall.
“I think the last time I came here was thirty years ago.” Hu Dagao said while taking a sip from a wine cup.
“Of course! Of course! It was during cousin Chu’s birthday.” The man replied.
“It is nice that you’ve come to meet us though. We’ll make sure that you have no complaints from us at all.” A woman sitting nearby replied.
“This is already quite good, Junior Sister Jie. I’m pleased with all that you’ve done.” Hu Dagao said with a smile that hid a lot.
No one in the Hall knew that true reason why Hu Dagao had visited them.
While they knew that Hu Dagao had arrived in the Second Light City, they didn’t exactly know why at first. Then they heard that he was visiting each of the clan branches and that he was greeted with great fanfare.
This made the people of the third branch rather nervous as they wondered if they had been looked down upon.
The Hu clan had Six branches, and each branch had their royal palace here. But even then, the influence of each branch was different. The First branch was at the top, while the fifth and second branch were tied below it.
The fourth branch was third in ranking, while the third and sixth were tied at the bottom.
The two clans competed against each other to rise, and if they got a patron from one of the Heirs it would be really good for them.
This could already be seen from the First, fifth and second branch.
Each of the branches had a strong heir backing it. Hu Dagao was the only one who hadn’t done it so far as he had taken a different route in expanding his influence. After all, if he directly backed a branch, he would also have to split some benefits with the elders who were within it.
These elders might be from a branch, but they weren’t weak. There were Dao Treading Realm experts among the branches and Hu Dagao needed to pay some respect to them.
It was not the same as Kulung, who was beneath him despite being in the Dao Treading realm. These were elders who held the bloodline of the Hu clan and were his own family. Thus, he still needed to think about respecting them.
But this also stemmed from the fact that Hu Dagao was nurturing his strengths in a different path before.
Now that he had Lin Wu backing him, things had to change. Especially after the mission that had been given to him.
He continued to chat with the people in the banquet and fed them plenty of sweet words. They did the same, and the party continued for several hours. It wasn’t until late at night that it came to a conclusion.
This was also the time when the most important matters would be decided by the involved people.
“What do you think then, Senior Brother? Our people have discovered a few good mines, and think that it might be good to start excavating.
Some even think that there might be a high grade spirit stone mine somewhere below the metal ores.” Hu Chao asked.
He was the heir of the third Branch of the Hu Clan.
On the Hu continent, this was already a very high status and if he went out, people would be bowing to him. It wouldn’t be wrong to call Hu Chao a prince either.
But in front of Hu Dagao, who was a direct heir and descended from the Patriarch of the Hu Clan, this status was nothing.
Not to mention, Hu Chao also had a lower cultivation base and weaker bloodline.
If Hu Dagao wanted to, he could suppress the man merely by exerting his bloodline pressure.
The man in question though, sat silently with a calm expression on his face and didn’t answer. The hall was mostly empty at this point, and only three people were left in it. These three were the highest ranked members of the third branch’s younger generation, with Hu Chao being the highest.
The other two were Hu Jie who was Hu Chao’s sister, and Hu Pei, who was his cousin.
They sat nervously while Hu Dagao seemed to be pondering on their offer. They needed a lot of money to do the projects that they had just spoken about. And even if they were very high ranked in their branch, they simply didn’t have the assets needed to carry out these projects.
After all, these were their private projects that would be helping them build their own strength. They couldn’t take the help of the clan, as it would mean offering a higher share to the clan.
But if Hu Dagao could help them in private, it would be a lot better. They wouldn’t have to offer as big of a share and would also be able to build a good relation with a direct heir.
Five minutes passed in silence as the three members only got more anxious.
“Alright.” Hu Dagao finally spoke.
“Haha! I knew Senior Brother would not disappoint us.” Hu Chao laughed in joy.
“We’ll make sure that Senior brother does not regret his decision either. Thirty percent share of the mines will be yours to take when we have it running.” Hu Jie stated.
“That’s great. And I’d like to take our cooperation further.” Hu Dagao said before taking out three green crystal plates. “Take one. We’ll keep in contact.”
