"But if he is truly allowed to advance to Golden Core, wouldn't that be counterproductive?"
After a moment of thought, Qian Nishang couldn't help but remind him.
However, how could Ji Yuan make such an obvious mistake? Many things had already been prepared.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have so readily produced the Divine Observation of Heavenly Heart Pill at the previous master-accepting banquet and sold it to Sun Wuyi at its original price.
Ji Yuan had already begun his planning when the Zhuang family proposed inviting various forces.
"Returning to the main topic, have there been any recent movements from the imperial court?"
He withdrew his thoughts and turned to Qian Nishang.
What he was referring to was the game of chess between Fan Yuqing and Wu Wei, and those who had come from the prefectural city.
The former two had behaved quite calmly; even if they employed their respective tactics, outsiders would find it difficult to discern.
The latter, however, had been making frequent moves recently, summoning many officials from the county city.
They were now even poring over case files and inspecting the accounts of the prefectural governor's mansion.
However, such an approach, if not entirely useless, was simply seeking trouble.
Regardless of whether Prefect Fan Yuqing had any issues, he would never leave behind genuine case files and account books.
What could be stored in the archives were all meticulously fabricated, intended solely for inspection by those from above.
"I'm afraid that besides the Prefect himself and the County Assistant Wu Wei, no one in Luoxia County knows what these people are thinking."
Qian Nishang said with a hint of helplessness.
If it were in the marketplace, she would have enough confidence and assurance to see through her opponents' thoughts, plans, and so on.
But in the officialdom, Qian Nishang appeared somewhat powerless.
Without a fundamental understanding of the rules of that circle, trying to guess their thoughts was undoubtedly an almost impossible task.
"Then let's put that aside for now and focus on resolving the immediate trouble."
The trouble Ji Yuan was referring to were the rumors flying everywhere.
And breaking through this predicament was not difficult; it only required making those forces busy.
However, for this operation, Lin Yubai and Elder Hong Tian could not be brought along.
It would be best to even avoid deploying the Nine Profound Sect disciples like Xue Yang as much as possible.
This way, the forces he could command would undoubtedly be greatly reduced.
"I almost forgot, I can now leverage Zhuang Lindao's power."
He suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but smile slightly.
The reason he mentioned Zhuang Lindao and not the Zhuang family was because he currently only had the support of the head of the family's branch.
To make the entire Zhuang family support a certain person or a certain faction, there was no one in Luoxia County at present who had that qualification.
Three days later, Ji Yuan, along with a portion of the Mingxin Xuan's forces and some of Zhuang Lindao's men,
quietly departed from the county city.
The forces that had launched the attack that day were three in number: Lieshan Hall, Hei Ya Sect, and Lihuo School.
All three were veteran forces in Luoxia County, and their mountain gates were not too far from the county city.
However, the spiritually rich lands near the county city had already been occupied by more powerful forces, so the locations of the three sects' mountain gates were not considered prime cultivation grounds.
Besides their mountain gates, the most important places for the three factions were their residences within the county city.
Next, came their various industries within and outside the county city.
Targeting the three factions' industries within the county city was not particularly difficult, as they were not specialized in this area.
With Qian Nishang's skills, if she were to unleash her full power without any reservations, it would take several years to dismantle them all.
And if someone were to destroy the three factions' industries outside the county city, the speed would be even faster.
Without the source of goods for their industries, even if they wanted to do business, they would not have enough items to offer.
This time, Ji Yuan acted under the guise of counterattack and retaliation, and there was no need to take over the opponent's industries.
Therefore, he had instructed them long ago to let the Mingxin Xuan and the Zhuang family go all out, and preferably to destroy those industries directly!
He not only intended to kill the strong members of the three factions but also to destroy their industries as much as possible, preventing them from recovering their normal operations in a short period.
After leaving the county city, everyone dispersed to carry out their missions.
Ji Yuan was responsible for several targets alone, while the Zhuang family and Mingxin Xuan were responsible for the remaining ones.
This time, the former mobilized three cultivators of the third realm, ten cultivators of the second realm, and over thirty cultivators of the first realm.
Qian Nishang could mobilize fewer forces, as most of her personnel were spread out to maintain dozens of trade routes.
Therefore, Mingxin Xuan only managed to gather one cultivator of the third realm, fifteen martial artists of the second realm, and fifty martial artists.
Compared to cultivators, the number of martial artists was significantly higher, but before the Golden Core stage, their strength was also weaker than cultivators.
Several days later, Ji Yuan appeared in the sky above a forest.
His gaze swept downwards, and he soon landed on a dense patch of trees.
With his current cultivation level, even though he was not skilled in formations, he could tell at a glance that a grand formation covered this place, concealing its true appearance.
Upon seeing this, Ji Yuan's mind was immediately filled with a large amount of intelligence about the Lihuo School.
Among the three forces that had attacked previously, the Lihuo School was the most powerful, followed by Lieshan Hall and Hei Ya Sect.
In this operation, Mingxin Xuan was responsible for the weakest Hei Ya Sect, and the Zhuang family was responsible for the slightly stronger Lieshan Hall.
As for the strongest, the Lihuo School, it was naturally left to Ji Yuan.
Fortunately, it was not an attack on their mountain gate; otherwise, with him alone, it would be no different from walking into a trap.
After a moment of contemplation, Ji Yuan took a step forward and merged into the void.
He quietly approached the edge of the formation, and a gap opened in his spiritual sea, from which a wisp of sword energy flowed out.
As the sword energy touched the formation before him, the omnipresent power of the formation was silently parted, creating an opening.
Ji Yuan stepped into it without hesitation, without even causing the slightest ripple. The cultivators in charge of the formation here could not sense anything.
Although his Natal Flying Sword had not yet refined a single restriction, its ability to break through restrictions and formations was still unexpectedly powerful.
After entering the formation, the scenery before Ji Yuan's eyes changed drastically.
From the outside, it appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary forest.
But only after entering the formation would one discover that it was actually a vast spiritual field.
In the spiritual fields filled with dense spiritual energy, countless precious spiritual herbs were planted, and even the air was permeated with an almost overwhelming medicinal fragrance.
Numerous young herbalists and pharmacists busied themselves in the spiritual fields, while many cultivators used their techniques to summon gentle breezes and dew.
In the center of the vast spiritual fields stood a mansion covering a large area.
Even from a distance, one could see ten to twenty wisps of smoke rising slowly. However, after reaching a certain height, a gentle breeze would blow, carrying the smoke away and dissipating it into the heavens and earth.