Xu Shang's eyes flickered towards the kneeling man with emotions for the first ti. "Maybe there is finally so hope." He muttered.
"I have already had him start practicing the suitable technique we had for him. He had enough rits for it as well." The city lord could sense a look of expectation in the eyes of the man.
So he did what the man was hoping he would do; he nodded with an approving tone, "You have done well."
"Now, tell … what did they say?" All of a sudden, the man shifted in his seat before getting on the main topic. His voice was tense, as was his posture; his hands were clenched beneath the table, hidden away from anyone to see.
The guard paused briefly before he started recounting everything that he knew of. "The council of the righteous sects did not seem to care much about our city. They said that their disciples were busy with their tasks, and those who were not were in seclusion."
Despite not hearing the response he wanted to hear, Xu Shang did not show any signs of anger or dissatisfaction, but he patiently waited for the man to finish.
"The elders said a re beast tide was beneath their prowess and status. They showed no remorse when I tried to use the moral leverage, saying that the city of tens of thousands of people would die if they did not make a move."
At this point he paused speaking, his hand on the floor clenched so tightly that the cracking of his bones echoed in the room.
"When nothing worked, I offered them our final lifeline, as you told … the money. The look on their face flipped like a whore's skirt when they heard we are willing to pay a million gold coins in exchange for their services."
"I am sure that even despite seeing the money, they would love to stick it in our face that we were at their rcy…" Xu Shang nodded grimly. Already guessing what the man was going to say next.
"Precisely." And he did. "They said that we cannot hire a core formation realm cultivator with mortal currency and that we would have to use spirit stones if we even wanted to hire one of them…
So in the end they agreed to 'allow' us to have 3 foundation establishnt realm cultivators."
"3 foundation realm cultivators… I knew it." Finally, a subtle smile appeared on Xu Shang's face. "But then again, this was the best outco we could have hoped for."
"With this lineup, the casualties would be lower than what we had the last ti." The guard spoke delightedly. He seed relieved with the outco, but the smile on the city lord's face vanished.
"We cannot be relieved about it just yet; the tide has yet to pass, and even if we got through this one successfully… What's to say that this would not be the last year our city's gates stand tall?"
Silence filled the air as the weight of his words settled in the heart of the man covered in armor.
"We are not fighting battles to win, Gang Ho." Xu Shang opened one of the drawers of the table and pulled out a smoke pipe. He pulled out a bunch of leaves from the sa drawer and pushed them into the far end of the pipe while holding the other end in his mouth.
Hiss!
He snapped his fingers, and smoke with fus of fire started to co out from the dried leaves.
Taking three puffs at regular intervals, Xu Shang exhaled a puff of smoke that rose into the air and ford a skull-shaped image before fading away. Watching the smoke fade away with a weary look in his eyes, the city lord continued. "...we are fighting to survive."
Gong Ho, the guard wearing the heavy armor, looked at his lord with reverence and worship in his eyes.
"What are your orders, my lord?" Lowering his head, he asked with steely determination. Willing to put his life for the sake of his city and his lord.
Others may have misunderstood his lord, but he knew whatever the man did was for the betternt of this city, and those ungrateful wretches were going to even if you fed them gold with your hands.
"Prepare the second phase of the plan; reinforce all the walls and the gates around the city. Refill the weapon stocks—spears, swords, and arrows. There should be no lack of supplies when they are truly needed.
Check out the stocks of dical supplies we have bought and recheck their numbers to see if we have everything in stock."
As Xu Shang narrated a string of orders, Gong Ho repeated them all in his mind, morizing them instantly.
By the ti he stopped speaking, Xu Shang's pipe seed to have gone out of smoke.
He placed it on the table, away from the docunts. Gong Ho also stood up, ready to leave the room, but then, as if recalling sothing, he paused.
"My Lord…"
"Hmm?" Xu Shang, who was about to turn his attention back to the papers on the table, looked up.
"The unrest in the city is growing stronger, and their opinions regarding your rules and governance are plumting down. Should I have soone handle the situation to increase your fa in the eyes of the public?"
"No!" Xu Shang did not even take ti to think about this matter and firmly rejected his man with a sharp gaze, "Getting their opinion of to beco requires us to use money, and that is not the luxury we have to waste."
"Don't think too much about it, Gong Ho; the more you feed these people, the more they act like they are entitled to it.
After this beast tide, they will have a reality check, and their opinion of will not matter when they need soone to save their lives."
"I understand, my lord." Gong Ho's eyes widened in realization before he bowed to the man once more, deeper than he did before, and walked out of the room.
As the door closed before him, Xu Shnage placed the quill back on the table and looked at the closed door thoughtfully.
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