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Chapter 985: Chapter 961: Resolve_2
Especially since they have not held family power for many years, being marginalized, unable to extract benefits from the family, the reserves of Spiritual Objects in the public treasury kept depleting.
"All because of that damned Li Hongshi! And Li Xiansong, Li Mingzi! If it weren’t for their meddling, our lives wouldn’t be so destitute!" An Elder suddenly spoke with indignant frustration.
Several Elders voiced their agreement, condemning their actions, as if during their tenures nothing beneficial had been done for the family.
People tend to blame others when they are incapable.
This saying was well reflected in them.
"I think the real culprit is that old ancestor; if he hadn’t favored the Clan Leader, would we have ended up in such a plight? Why the differential treatment! Are we not also members of the Li family?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the scene instantly fell into deadly silence.
But the fact that no one interrupted him as he spoke was telling enough, indicating that many present agreed with him to some extent.
"Enough, we are here to discuss how to solve the most pressing issue at hand!" After a while, the lead Elder broke the strange atmosphere in the hall.
But what effective solutions could a group of elders, with minds full of exploitation, selfishness, and self-interest, possibly come up with?
And unsurprisingly, their conversation was known to Li Hongshi.
"Ha! A bunch of old fools who do nothing but blame fate and others! When has the family ever treated you unfairly, yet you still feel dissatisfied? To belittle Ancestor Rui!" Li Hongshi’s face was as frosty as ice, with a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes.
If anyone familiar with him saw this, they would know he must be concocting some dangerous scheme.
"I got it!"
A spark of Spirit Light suddenly appeared in Li Hongshi’s mind, and he immediately called all the Elders to the grand hall.
Half an hour later, all who could attend had arrived.
"A strong and well-founded power not only needs the present and the future but must also take root in the past!"
Li Hongshi spoke passionately: "Surely you all know that due to some unspeakable matter, the family’s past has been entirely erased, but this is absolutely unacceptable! The family could not have emerged from nothing."
"To address this issue, we need a large number of wise, experienced elders to take charge of this matter!"
As soon as these words came out, the Elders present thought this was bad news.
Sure enough, Li Hongshi continued, "I think the Elders here are the most suitable and most qualified for this important duty! Therefore, this glorious and arduous task is entrusted to all the Elders present!"
"Clan Leader, this matter is far too important. I am old and weak, unable to shoulder such a great responsibility, please retract your command," an Elder with white hair and beard trembled as he stood up and pleaded.
"Rest assured, Elder, you don’t need to write it yourselves, just providing ideas is enough, it is not difficult, and a beautiful garden will be especially built for you, which is more suitable for your recuperation," Li Hongshi gently reassured.
If they were really asked to do it themselves, he wouldn’t trust them to do so. Li Hongshi’s purpose in doing this was to find something to occupy them—important, complicated, time-consuming, and reducing outside contact.
And concocting the family’s past history fit all these requirements perfectly!
As for the garden Li Hongshi mentioned? In reality, it was a small hillock outside Mount Wanxian, originally intended to be a herbal garden, filled with a wild appeal.
"Do you have doubts? Or do you not wish to contribute to the family’s endeavor?" Li Hongshi frowned and asked, puzzled.
With the conversation gone this far, how could the Elders dare to refuse? They could only nod in agreement.
"There’s no time to delay, return now to pack up, we set off in half an hour," Li Hongshi didn’t give them any chance to delay, saying, "At that time, I will personally invite each of you."
"Prepare to depart."
A group of elders left the family hall with grim expressions.
"Damn it! Bastard!"
The elders returned to their Cave Mansions, cursing vehemently, yet they did not neglect to prepare anything that was needed.
Half an hour passed in no time, and everyone showed up as agreed, only a few were clueless.
And Li Hongshi did as he said, directly went to their doors, and physically brought them out.
The small hill was close by, the Spirit Boat flew for less than a quarter of an hour before landing, and where there had only been a few simple Cave Mansions, there were now various pavilions and multi-story buildings.
"The next part will require everyone’s effort!"
Li Hongshi had nothing much to discuss with them, and after settling them down, he headed back to Mount Wanxian.
Without these old fogeys meddling in the clan, he immediately seized the opportunity to weaken the factions, mostly by enticing the younger generation to express their dissatisfaction with the unreasonable internal hierarchy and tribute systems within the various houses.
Originally, the establishment of the various houses was well-intentioned, back when the Li family wasn’t strong enough, and it was about banding together for warmth and mutual aid.
However, as the family grew stronger, many things changed for the worse.
Especially for the younger generation, who hadn’t enjoyed those benefits and were greatly oppressed instead, they didn’t have much attachment to the various houses.
Li Hongshi didn’t go too far, knowing that forming cliques is in human nature and cannot be suppressed, his current actions are mainly to maintain a relatively fair environment within the family.
Instead of like the various houses, distinguishing between direct, collateral, and branch lines, creating a hierarchy of ranks. 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝔲𝔟.𝔠𝖔𝖒
But even so, the houses became fragmented and lost the strong cohesion they once had, only those who had been enjoying the benefits were still trying hard to maintain it.
Now speaking of the distant Cave Abyss State, in a certain forested mountain area.
Li Zhirui was still unaware that no one was staking out the outside world; he continued to absorb Spiritual Energy to enhance his cultivation, accelerating the growth of his Spiritual Root.
Fortunately, the space was rich with Spiritual Energy; otherwise, with his terrifying absorption rate, the Spirit Vein of the family would probably be unable to support his and all the family members’ cultivation.
"Based on the current rate of cultivation, it would probably take over a hundred more years to recover my Void Refining Cultivation," Li Zhirui frowned after some estimation.
He didn’t have to worry about lifespan because he could live for several thousand more years, but he didn’t want to wait that long.
In order to speed up the progress, Li Zhirui decided to refine a large quantity of Precious Pills, using them to rapidly increase his Mana.
He hadn’t taken Precious Pills before because his pace of cultivation was already fast, but it was no longer sufficient now, as the Immortal-grade Spiritual Root required too much Spiritual Energy to grow; relying solely on absorbing Spiritual Energy made the growing too slow!
Actually, the main reason for the current situation was because Li Zhirui was recovering his cultivation, not cultivating from scratch, without giving enough time for the growth of the Spiritual Root.
Once he recovered his Void Refining Cultivation, and was not in such a hurry, the issue wouldn’t be as severe as it is now.
While Li Zhirui was engrossed in his tough cultivation, in the depths of a certain sea area in the East Sea, a cultivator suddenly emerged from the thick sand and mud.
And this person was Jiang Fengwu, who had just stabilized her realm and hastened away from Mount Wanxian!
Her haste to leave was precisely for this underwater ruin!
While searching for Void Refining opportunities, Jiang Fengwu accidentally discovered a very concealed Formation in this place. If it weren’t for her expertise in formations, coupled with a coincidental underwater earthquake that caused a slight fluctuation in the Formation, she would not have discovered it.
At that time, Fengwu felt that she had encountered a huge opportunity, but never thought that she couldn’t even find the whole Formation, let alone enter it to seek fortunes.
So, she, who was only at the Divine Transformation Realm at the time, had no choice but to leave in disappointment, thinking to try again after breaking through to Void Refinement.
And the reason Jiang Fengwu concealed this matter, not telling Li Zhirui, was firstly, she didn’t want them to worry.
Secondly, she wasn’t sure she could decode the Formation, and if she invited them to join only to waste decades of their time, she would feel extremely remorseful.
