Chapter 55

Ch55 - Everything Goes Down the Drain

Medicinal beads didn’t just fall out of the sky. It was unfortunate that back when Qi Feng dug out Qi Tianyou’s medicinal beads, he casually threw them away. It would be impossible to find them now.

When he thought about wanting to transplant medicinal beads, naturally he could only find new pharmacists and dig out the medicinal beads from their hands.

One couldn’t just mention that medicinal beads could be harvested from certified pharmacists. Even just thinking about meeting them wasn’t easy. The Qi Family didn’t have the guts to do such a thing, so they went searching for uncertified and inconspicuous pharmacists.

In this way, after a lot of hard work, they really did find someone who seemed to have come from deep in the mountains and ancient forests. Because it had been a long time since meeting anyone, that gullible pharmacist was completely deceived.

He wasn’t just captured and shut away?

Gu Zuo read up to here and furrowed his brows.

Ultimately, this matter was for the purpose of helping him. If this spread harm to other people, then he would also feel guilty.

However, he also firmly believed in his big brother’s capabilities. It shouldn’t have…

Sure enough, the subsequent descriptions below were the follow-up.

Transplanting medicinal beads required the freshest goods. For the time being, that pharmacist was placated while locked away. Meanwhile, Qi Feng had to diligently recuperate his health and prepare for the best conditions for the transplant.

But the Qi Family absolutely couldn’t have thought that this pharmacist wasn’t really a savage from the mountains. He was someone with a background!

— He was the cherished grandson of a prestigious certified pharmacist!

The reason why he went to the mountains was to meditate and study medicinal herbs. He also wasn’t without bodyguards. If he wasn’t so young and mischievous, and that he didn’t think of a way to get rid of his martial arts protectors, then he simply couldn’t have been regarded as easy pickings.

As soon as the bodyguards lost sight of their pharmacist, they became greatly worried and hurriedly reported to the certified pharmacist. That certified pharmacist displayed his own capabilities, quickly making discreet inquiries around the city’s surroundings. Not long after, he found his cherished grandson’s whereabouts.

Gu Zuo blanked at this again.

This discovery was too fast. Was it his big brother?

Thinking of this, he turned to Gongyi Tianheng.

Tianheng faintly smiled. He nodded and said: “The Qi Family has been under surveillance from the beginning. Once this affair was discovered, the channels under my control already delivered the information to those people without a trace.” ZNVvRd

As a result, that certified pharmacist was able to clearly grasp the matters of the local tyrant Qi Family abducting someone.

What happened afterwards was inevitable.

When the certified pharmacist brought a huge group of people over, Qi Feng was nearly finished recuperating. The pharmacist’s grandson was also present and was strapped down, ready for his “surgery.”

At this moment, the abductor was caught red-handed.

The certified pharmacist was furious. After rescuing his grandson, he quickly left without any care for the QiFamily's explanations. However, this kind of matter still wasn’t over. After promising favors to the other

Families of the city as well as the City Lord, these people quickly started to act. They used the power in theirhands to suppress the Qi Family from all sides!

In a brief couple of days, the Qi Family suffered damages to more than half of their industries. It wouldn’t be long before the rest were finished off, too!

Everything was all brought about by Qi Feng.

The upstart Qi Family that originally wanted to gradually rise to a higher class had declined like so.

No matter how much they dearly loved Qi Feng, in the end, the Family Head and Madam weren’t just this person’s parents. The interests of the Qi Family weren’t just the interests of these two people. The Qi Family’s funds quickly ran out, and many people left the Family and the elders started fighting over the remaining benefits. Such a large Qi Family had slowly become an empty shell. In order to continue cultivating, even this empty shell was cheaply sold to others.

To this point in time, Qi Feng was still someone who blamed everyone else. He wasn’t willing to admit his own mistakes, and even abandoned himself to his own despair… At this time, the Qi Family Head and Madam could do no more for him.

Ultimately, all that Qi Feng could obtain was a gloomy, little room and the occasional bit of food someone would stuff inside.

The Qi Family wanted to rise in power, and the hopes of the Qi Family Head and Madam were pinned on someone else’s son. Qi Feng caused them to become like this, and they were only willing to give him a mouthful of rice.

Qi Feng cursed the Heavens for being unfair and cursed the person who dug out his medicinal beads. To Bai Wenjun, Qi Feng cried to him for help in one breath and cursed him for his fickleness in another. However, this was all useless.

As for his conclusion, the writing stopped at this point.

Gu Zuo slowly exhaled.

If this string of chain reactions happened to another Family, it simply wouldn’t have ended up like this. n0fvxL

Qi Feng was still troublesome.

The Qi Family was still troublesome.

If Qi Tianyou’s spirit was in heaven and he knew about this, what would he think?

With that guy’s nature, he certainly wouldn’t be happy in taking revenge, but he might take pity on them. dboDsu

However, regardless of what was said, Gu Zuo’s heart truly felt a sigh of relief.

After that, it was Bai Wenjun’s follow-up.

Truthfully, if this guy never showed up, Qi Feng might’ve made life difficult for Qi Tianyou, filling it with hostility. However, if Qi Tianyou smoothly became a certified pharmacist, he would’ve been safe.

No matter how stupid the Qi Family was, it wouldn’t have been careless about protecting something so difficultly nurtured as the pharmacist of one’s own Family. Even if Qi Feng wanted to do something about it, Qi Tianyou definitely wouldn’t have lacked someone to prevent it.

For Gu Zuo, even if this guy went to meet Qi Tianyou after the fact, or if he didn’t visit Qi Tianyou when Qi Feng was around, he wouldn’t have been so disgusted with Bai Wenjun. Even when he originally felt that this guy was too wretched, when Gu Zuo cooled down afterwards, he didn’t truly believe that he needed to receive too many punishments.

So…

Gu Zuo continued to read down.

Just what did his big brother do to this person?

First, it should be said that after Bai Wenjun got rid of Qi Feng, he didn’t have too big of a reaction. He still followed his former habits and went to make friends with useful people, trying to network and gain even more powerful connections.

Slowly, he passed through several rounds of “friendly” recommendations, and finally got connected to a manager of the Gongyi Clan. This let the Bai Family become one of the potential subordinate Families of the Gongyi Clan.

Actually, there were many of these kinds of Families like the Bai Family. It may be considered a local tyrant in one region, but in the eyes of a first class Clan, it was nothing much.

With the desire to become a subordinate Family of the Gongyi Clan and to enjoy its pay of fixed, allocated resources, the Bai Family still had to pass many tests. However, even though it was like this, Bai Wenjun was very pleased. He felt that this trip to the imperial capital turned out pretty good.

After the Bai Family became aware of this, they greatly praised Bai Wenjun.

Afterwards, that manager gave Bai Wenjun a mission. In addition, the manager indicated that if he completed this mission well, then the Bai Family would pass the test.

Bai Wenjun naturally wanted to become the hero of the Bai Family. Moreover, this would give him many bargaining chips in the competition over the position of Family Head in the future. Thus, according to the Gongyi Clan’s requirements, he would only bring a small share of supplies and go to Changlan City to act as a minor manager.

This Changlan City had people from all trades. Its composition was very complex. With limited resources, there were many who fought and schemed against each other. However, this kind of region truly suited the scheming Bai Wenjun. His heart was filled with the ambitions of taming this place and turning it into a stepping stone for his advancement.

Gu Zuo read this and felt that he only partially understood.

Gongyi Tianheng saw the look on his face and couldn’t help laughing. After walking over, he used a finger to lightly point out a line of words.

“Limited resources” and “fighting and scheming.”

Gu Zuo read this and suddenly understood a moment later.

With limited resources and Bai Wenjun himself bringing few supplies, it meant that when he needed to cultivate, it would take a lot of time trying to obtain something. As Bai Wenjun acted as a minor manager, it was inevitable that he wouldn’t be able to secure it. Only through intense consideration could he get it. As for the fighting and scheming, planning and social interactions used up most of the time. With Bai Wenjun’s capabilities, it was impossible to perform flawlessly like Gongyi Tianheng. Thus, when Bai Wenjun stayed here for a long time, his martial strength certainly didn’t surpass his peers. On the contrary, the time available to him was like running water. He exhausted himself physically and mentally in order to chase after a pipe dream.

However, the information written afterwards was still very long.

Gu Zuo thought about it, but couldn’t understand what else there could be. Nonetheless, he continued to read ahead.

As it turned out, after three to four months, the Gongyi Clan manager told Bai Wenjun that he did a good job recently. Although the Bai Family couldn’t become a subordinate Family of the Gongyi Clan, resources were already starting to tilt in favor of the Bai Family.

It was obvious that once the Bai Family got these resources, they were ecstatic as they enthusiastically developed the Family’s economic affairs. Within a short period of time, its industries doubled and its strength suddenly increased.

At first, this seemed like Bai Wenjun would be the obvious choice for Family Head in the future. However, his several brothers weren’t to be trifled with. No matter what his contributions were, they only thought about growing their own strengths first. Even if Bai Wenjun had the Gongyi Clan’s support, they also had their own hidden trump cards. In the Family, the power was in their hands!

Also, the Family Head wasn’t one who was shortsighted. He thought that a shallower relationship between Bai Wenjun and the Gongyi Clan was good, but it was too risky to have the future Bai Family Head clutched in the palm of the Gongyi Clan. Thus, the Family Head secretly nurtured others to keep Bai Wenjun in check so that the Bai Family wouldn’t become a vassal and completely lose their authority in the future…

In the blink of an eye, several months passed.

Bai Wenjun fell deeper and deeper into the fighting and scheming. The Bai Family’s power gradually rose, and several of the internal branches of the Bai Family consolidated their strength. As for those branch leaders who depended on the Gongyi Clan resources, they themselves and their subordinates had their strengths repeatedly skyrocket.

Gu Zuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Even though his mind wasn’t all that bright, he could still see it. This scheme was too… He gave a couple of hollow laughs.

En, too sinister.

Gongyi Tianheng smiled: “A single Bai Family doesn’t amount to anything.”

Gu Zuo nodded. His scalp numbed slightly.

He understood. For a Family like the Bai Family, one more wasn’t too much and one less wasn’t too few. With his big brother here, no matter how much they jumped, they wouldn’t make waves. In the end, tilting some resources in their favor was unremarkable.

Yet, who could’ve known the other implications contained here?

Bai Wenjun was the hero of the Bai Family, letting the Bai Family quickly rise in power. But as one could well imagine, once he completed his mission, if he were to ambitiously rely on the Gongyi Clan to return to the Family and assume control, he’d discover that his strength was the weakest. The Bai Family already had people who secretly contacted the Gongyi Clan. Not only were their contributions greater than his, they’d even stolen Bai Wenjun’s credit. As for him relying on that Gongyi Clan manager, that power didn’t compare to the huge support his brothers had with the Gongyi Clan. Yet, the Gongyi Clan was still fair. He would finally get a chance to seize power against his brothers at the end of the competition.

But his martial strength was distantly inferior to his brothers.

Ultimately, Bai Wenjun would become the abandoned liaison of the Bai Family and Gongyi Clan. He would work painstakingly for many years and his wasted heart’s blood would be turned into tap water.

All of his hard work would end up helping the brothers he detested the most in the Family.

T/N: This is an explanation for the chapter title. The author uses 尽付流水, which is based on the Chinese saying 尽付东流. It means a complete loss, or to waste all of one’s previous efforts.