.

He hadn't been able to take care of that boy himself, so he had to focus on someone else.

That someone was his family.

But he didn't act immediately; he waited for his son to recover before making a move, and when finally, after a month of intensive treatment, he had largely recovered, he told him about the events and, most importantly, about the boy's death.

He expected this would comfort his son, but it seemed to have irritated him instead.

It was clear that he had intentions of taking care of that boy personally, something he could no longer do.

And when he learned about the situation with the woman from the Liang family, it seemed that this had caused him to lose some interest in her.

The father thought this was a good thing; he believed that women were only a source of distraction from cultivation and a cause of trouble.

In the past, seeing his son interested in that woman, who had clearly already lost her previous cultivation talent, had displeased him, but he thought that perhaps once his son had won her over, and had used her for his own pleasure, he would set her aside and finally focus on more important matters.

Now, seeing how things had gone and that his son had finally gotten serious, he was relieved, and so he told him about his plan to personally take care of the Zhu family.

He thought this would make his son happy, but it seemed he still hadn't fully understood his son's thoughts.

He intended to strike the boy's family, but his son had something else in mind:

To hit the boy's business.

As far as they know, to Zhu Rong, his family wasn't very important, probably due to his low status and the way they had treated him.

Therefore, his son said he intended to eliminate his business first.

He discovered that the boy had only recently founded his own business, which was now doing greatly.

That was something Zhu Rong had built with his own efforts, and that was exactly why eliminating it would give Li Duoji such satisfaction.

Although the father didn't entirely understand his son, he didn't find the idea wrong.

The Li family, like the other three families, also had their businesses.

In particular, they specialized in creating runes and various arrays.

This was one of the areas most affected by this emerging business, and their profits had been reduced by almost half in this time.

It was a heavy blow, and if it weren't for the fact that he had other, more important matters, he would have acted immediately to suppress them.

Now, however, it was different.

Now he had one more reason to strike them, and although things were more complicated now that the business had grown large and more powerful, something that left him a bit stunned given how quickly it had grown, he did not hesitate after discovering that many others shared his opinion.

Many had been caught off guard by their sudden and rapid rise, and many wanted to do something against them. Therefore, he decided to ally with these people and eliminate this company, and split everything among themselves.

This led them to attack the company, which resulted in a crushing defeat, with some of those who had collaborated disappearing that very night.

He also suffered a heavy loss from this, as several of their experts were eliminated.

But it didn't end there. After that incident, the business decided to exert pressure on all of them, which led to further losses, and their profits fell even more, with them losing over 70% of their earnings that month.

This was yet another heavy blow, which led all the family elders to blame him, and even scold his son along with him.

Worse yet, the patriarch, who had retired to cultivate in seclusion, emerged upon seeing how his family was falling apart and had to put aside his breakthrough, which angered him greatly. As a result, Li Duoji and his father were placed under house arrest in the family manor.

This was yet another humiliation, but he understood there was little he could do about it.

That said, the patriarch seemed to have his own plans, and from what he had heard, he had decided to personally take care of this company.

He was happy about this, because unlike all the other experts in his family, his father was at a peak stage of the Mortal Realm and had already made progress toward the Spirit Realm.

His strength was immense, as was his influence.

So he forgot the humiliation he had suffered and made himself comfortable while waiting for his father to act, and that day was today.

***

Above the skies of the Zhu Rong business building, a figure appeared.

He was tall, slightly elderly, but of imposing stature; although he showed signs of aging, he did not seem to have lost his vigor.

He was Li Bo, the famous patriarch of the Li family, and the grandfather of Li Duoji.

Like the other patriarchs of the other families, he had not appeared in recent years, which was due to the fact that he had taken his time and retired to cultivate in seclusion.

He felt he had reached a crucial point in his cultivation and that it was time to attempt to break into the Spirit Realm.

This was the goal of everyone, and he was no different.

He had prepared for this for a long time and thought that in another two or three years he would succeed, but who would have thought he would have to set everything aside and leave earlier than expected to deal with the trouble caused by his son and grandson?

He was furious when he discovered that the family's business, which he had personally grown for decades and built up to its current position, had been destroyed on such a large scale in record time by none other than his eldest son.

And the cause of it? A petty grudge against a dead person.

This sent him into a rage, and if it hadn't been for the fact that they were his own blood, he would have whipped them to death.

That said, as much as he blamed his son, he definitely wouldn't have ignored this new activity. He figured part of the fault was on them, and the very fact that they'd dared to get in the way of his family showed that they didn't give any respect to his family, in other words, to him.

This made him decide to act personally to settle this grudge and see for himself what kind of place this was that had caused so many problems.

He was now at the location of the business and could see at a glance that it was prospering, with a tide of people constantly coming and going, such scenes he had rarely seen even in their shops.

And yet, here he was, seeing these nobodies who had taken away all the affairs of his family.

He intended to seize everything by force and, in the meantime, give a severe warning to anyone else thinking of messing with his Li family.

Just as he was preparing to act, he sensed the presence of several figures emerging, and soon five figures appeared in the sky alongside him.

They were all cloaked men, and although the auras they emanated were all powerful, ranging from the fourth stage to even the fifth stage,

this made him furrow his brow, but he soon realized who they were.

"Oh, and to think the pavilion would act personally to protect them. Are you really sure you want to get in my way?" he said calmly, but his intent was clear: if they didn't step aside, he wouldn't hesitate to deal with them.

Among the five individuals, the one in front stepped forward and said:

"Li Bo, this is not a place where you can do as you please. If you don't want to make an enemy of the pavilion itself, I suggest you step back," said the cloaked man, as he removed his hood.

He was a tall, strong man in his middle years, with short hair and piercing eyes.

His aura was that of a fifth stage cultivator, at an advanced phase.

He was one of the experts that the pavilion had assigned to the Zhu Rong business.

They were held in high regard, especially since their master had instructed them to maintain good relations with the business.

Now that they were actively involved, their security and prosperity were directly tied to the pavilion's interests, so they hadn't hesitated to send someone of his level to keep an eye on any potential problems.

He had been here for more than a month and had seen that, during this time, the business had gone smoothly, with all problems and conflicts resolved efficiently.

He had even started wondering what he was doing here when clearly they didn't need his help, but these were just his thoughts.

Today, finally, one of the situations he'd been sent here for had come up, one he found especially troublesome.

Li Bo seemed to recognize who it was right away, his expression twisting slightly as he spoke:

"Cao Jian, I didn't expect they would send you as a watchdog for this place. It seems the pavilion really holds this small business in high regard," he said.

The person named Cao Jian, however, did not reply and continued to watch him with a warning expression.

"Normally, I would give you some face and turn a blind eye on this matter, but unfortunately, this is not one of those times. One way or another, today this place ceases to exist.

I suggest you step aside or don't blame me for not giving any face to the pavilion."

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