In River East City, within the Zhou clan headquarters, two middle aged n were having tea. By their rich robes and the servants that tended to their every need, they were obviously senior mbers of the prestigious business clan. The older of the two had had a full head of grey hair and let out a tired sigh as he put down his cup.
"Wanli, what's wrong? You don't like the tea?" The other man asked?
"Brother Liang, no. The new tea from the Cloudy Mountain Province is indeed amazing... But it's afla with a monster invasion, why is Little Yun is heading there again?"
"Wanli, don't let her hear you calling her that. She might take away your businesses."
The older man's frown deepened. "Zhou Wangliang! Don't joke about stuff like that!"
Zhou Wangliang smiled wryly at his brother Zhou Wanli and kept drinking. They were both elders within the Zhou clan in the sa generation as Zhou Ziyun's father. The Zhao clan was now by far the greatest clan within River East City and within the past year it had rapidly expanded into new ventures. Zhou Wangliang and Zhou Wanli also reaped the vast benefits that ca along with it but it seed more wealth caused more problems.
Zhou Wangliang spoke again after a ti, "I no longer have any strength to question her decision. Her growth is simply beyond our realm of comprehension. Didn't you hear? She broke through to the Spirit Initiate Realm the other day."
"Sssss... that fast? How?" Zhou Wanli was shocked.
Zhou Wangliang waved to the servants who left the room. Afterwards, he looked around before leaning forward and whispering, "From my informants, it was red spiritual crystal. A massive amount at that."
Zhou Wanli's eye's bulged. While he was a mortal cultivator, he knew what kind of treasure red spiritual crystal was. "Monstrous... but considering her recent project, I guess it is to be expected... Do you know how much that teleportation array cost?"
"How much?" Zhou Wangliang asked.
Zhou Wanli held up five fingers. "Five, five hundred thousand gold taels."
Zhou Wangliang shook his head in amazent. One year ago, the entire Zhou clan could survive off of a few thousand gold per year. Now, they had no idea what the real how much the money was flowing into the clan except that it was over the hundreds of thousands. Zhou Ziyun had taken over all business operations as the chief executive and elders such as them were relegated to smaller business projects.
This was a simring issue within the Zhou clan that so of the elders were not being given aningful positions within the new hierarchy. Sure, Zhou Ziyun promoted so elders but left others like them on the sidelines.
"Sigh... we can only hope our sons can develop faster and create so accomplishnts. Otherwise, our families will slowly lose our status. In this operation, I hope they will not let us down." Zhou Wanliang said.
Zhou Wanli nodded in agreent, "Brother Liang, let us hope..."
---
Dawn broke at the Ten Thousand Flower Valley and the servants awoke to begin their day. As they shuffled out of their rooms to clean, cook, and handle their daily chores they saw a familiar sight. Zhou Ziyun was practicing her martial arts in the central courtyard. From the sweat on her brow, she had already diligently trained for a while.
She was hard at work stabilizing her cultivation. Indeed, Zhou Ziyun had achieved a miracle that was on par with Lin Qingcheng, Spirit Initiate Realm before the age of twenty! She had never expected to cultivate so quickly, yet the Mind Focusing Realm was completely mastered due to the innate quality of her mind.
Chen Wentian had returned to help her set up a spiritual crystal formation powered by ten kilograms of red spiritual crystal. Her cultivation was relatively traditional compared to Lin Qingcheng but all it took was one day in the runic formation to easily breakthrough. The magical ability of spiritual crystal was no joke. There was also enough power left in it for her to continue to use it for a few months.
Zhou Ziyun ignored the servants and continued to go through all of the forms of the Nineteen Demon Subduing Palms once again. The wind howled around her as spiritual energy shot forth from her hands and her feet. She felt the fundantal change in the power of her strikes and reveled in it. The palm arts held even more secrets than she originally thought and her mind was a buzz with excitent as she studied every aspect of it.
After another half and hour, Zhou Ziyun finished her practice. She was quite satisfied as she felt she had picked up so additional insights. Next ti she sparred with master, he would surely be surprised!
She returned to her room and saw a few servants walk out of it. They bowed upon seeing her.
"Mistress! The bath is ready."
"Good, you can leave."
She waved them off before finishing her morning with a nice hot bath as was her custom. She spent ti reading the morning reports while soaking away her tiredness. A variety of events and news were consolidated by her people and delivered to her every day. This was one of many reforms she had put in place which gradually bore fruit.
She laughed as she read a particular report about Moonlight City. "Looks like Chengcheng is going crazy again. Hmm, three gangs in one day, she's also working hard."
After finishing up, she dressed in her Flying Sentinel armor before rushing out of the room. She left a note with commands on the table for her secretary to pass down to the rest of the Zhao clan. She arrived at the front gate that already had horses ready. There were also four female bodyguards that were on horses as well.
Zhou Ziyun leaped onto the lead horse, a majestic black stallion, and took the reigns. "Lets go!"
The party of five quickly dashed out of the sect complex and along a stone paved forest road. Occasionally they would pass scouts along the road who all stopped to bow and let their mistress pass. Since Chen Wentian refused to have n inside the sect grounds, all of them were female of various ages, hired to keep random people from encroaching on the sect's territory.
Zhou Ziyun arrived at the town at the mouth of the valley. What originally was a tent city setup by construction workers for the sect had transford into a small town called Dragon River Town. It was mainly occupied by the Zhou clan and temporary residents who were hired to continue construction projects within the sect. The wide river right next to it provided transportation for goods and materials to flow in and out of the valley.
A large group of over a hundred n were waiting in the town square. They had armor and weapons and carried travel bags. They were all Zhou clan mbers of various ages, selected to participate in the operation. The older ones were reserved and calm while the young n were energetic and anxious for adventure.
"Mistress!"
The n all bowed in respect as Zhou Ziyun stopped her horse in front of them. She inspected each of them for a brief movent before nodding in approval. They looked ready.
"Zhou Lai, everything has been prepared?" She asked.
A venerable old man who was leading the troop bowed again, "Mistress, everything has been done to your instructions. All materials are prepared and already at the teleportation array."
"Good!" Zhou Ziyun said.
Zhou Ziyun did not need to doubt Zhou Lai. He was her granduncle and personally promoted by her after seeing his ability. She held so doubt about so of the others within the party. Such a large operation needed a lot of manpower and the Zhou clan was still small. Various branch families had talked their way into having their young generation participate and she didn't have a good reason to refuse. She would have to keep an eye out for any incompetence.
She turned to the rest, "We have prepared for this for over a month. This is very important for the future growth of Ten Thousand Flower Valley. It's still a long ride to the teleportation array. Lets go! Operation Spring begins now!"
She turned her horse and dashed towards the south, her troop following behind.
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