The Oppressed
“Good morning, Master Yu,” Xuan Sitong conveyed in a different tone upon bumping into Mu Yu on her way out of her mother’s room the next morning.
“Is your mother holding up?”
“She is thanks to your spirit replenishment pills. Thank you for asking.”
Mu Yu just smiled and sat down on the stone seat, fixing his gaze on a weeping willow in bloom. He continued brooding over the meaning of life as he watched a fly struggle to break free of the spider web on the tree.
“Why do you keep staring at my brother?” Xiaoshuai rubbed his eyes as he meandered out of the room.
Xuan Sitong, who also witnessed Mu Yu snap One-Eyed Snake’s neck yesterday, covered her flush cheeks, denying, “I-I wasn’t staring.”
“You want to know what sort of person I am?” Mu Yu voiced, reading Xuan Sitong’s thoughts.
“… Although I’m not sure what happened in the past, all I want to say is that One-Eyed Snake deserved to die for the injustices he had done unto others and the bullying he enacted on other hunters.”
“Mm,” Mu Yu dismissively replied, believing Xuan Sitong was only trying to make him feel better.
“Nothing will change the fact that you saved our lives. For that, we are willing to do anything you ask of us.”
Mu Yu swept his gaze around. “Where’s Mr. Xuan?”
“He is still busy taking apart the fiend beast you caught yesterday. Due to the differences in body parts between level six and seven fiend beasts, we have to thoroughly work out what to sell. I estimate it will take ten-odd days for my father to be done taking them apart.”
“Ten days, not accounting for the time it takes to sell, is too long. From what you’ve told me, you have Body Synthesis Realm cultivators and are a middle-class sect; you should have more manpower, shouldn’t you?”
“Owing to my father’s personality, the elders ostracise him. My father grew fed up with the constant schemes to oust him from the sect several years ago, consequently requesting permission to start a business. That is how we ended up here.”
Although Xuan Sitong did not explicate what sort of people the elders were, two brain cells were plenty to work out they were the conniving type if they did not like the honest Xuan Zhengtang.
Perhaps it was Xuan Zhengtang’s character that Mu Yu saw hope for cultivators. Maybe Mu Yu helped Xuan Zhengtang time and time again to prove to himself that there were cultivators worth keeping alive.
“How much do you pay your sect monthly?”
“Our sect is rather special, in that any Body Severing Realm member can request capital to buy land or a shop at a city for business endeavours. As for the monthly fees, members pay 30% of their revenue back to the sect.”
“Is that the same for you?”
“No, we pay 90%.”
“90%? That sounds outlandish. Why are you paying more than others?”
“We paid 30% as everyone else does prior to my mother’s mishap. When Father loaned two million from Patriarch for my mother, the elders petitioned to force us to pay 90%. If the 90% was less than ten thousand, we had to find a means of paying a minimum of ten thousand.”
“You’re telling me you have to pay ten thousand even if you only make five thousand a month? Guess we found the daylight robbery culprits.”
“They threatened to persuade Patriarch not to give us the loan if we refused. We have to pay back the loan over time in addition to the worship funds. If there’s someone who should be held responsible, it’s First Elder. Every quarter, that scumbag comes to check our worship contributions and collects it himself. He has been embezzling the majority of those funds for the last few years.”
“How do you know he’s embezzling the funds?”
“When my father sought Patriarch’s support after my mother’s injury, Patriarch unintentionally let it slip that we were only paying two thousand in worship funds monthly, so asking for a loan of two million out of the blue was too much. In reality, we paid, at least, eight thousand per month. As such, my father realised First Elder pocketed all but two thousand spirit stones!”
“Hasn’t your father exposed him for embezzlement?”
“He… wanted to, particularly because he wanted to ensure the sect was getting what it need. Sadly, First Elder blackmailed him with the loan, and Father chose to prioritise my mother. People now disparage my father for asking for two million when he’s incompetent. As two million is a large sum to us, all elders and Patriarch must approve if Father is to be granted the loan. That was when First Elder demanded the absurd 90% and so forth.”
“Does your patriarch not care your first elder is doing all this?”
“Due to Patriarch getting on with old age, he has spent more and more time training in seclusion and less time as an administrator. My father, therefore, has no choice but to swallow the bitter pill. We’re sure First Elder is also embezzling the monthly raise. My father would rather be labelled incompetent than do what he believes is wrong.”
Irked and flared up over aforementioned elder’s behaviour, Mu Yu decided to do something about it, or rather, him.
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