Chapter 479

In the 291st year of the Cai clan, November 18th, nightfall

The highest tower of Jiang Mansion, top-floor meditation chamber

Xia Hong sat cross-legged on a lotus platform, eyes closed, surrounded by swirling clusters of blood-colored medicinal energy that wrapped him entirely like a blood cocoon; behind him hung silently a dark red bone form, eight zhang tall, its surface covered in molten rock patterns, with clear crimson meridians visible along its exterior, nearly fully formed.

Huh… huh…

As Xia Hong’s breathing grew longer and slower, the speed at which the blood-colored medicinal energy was absorbed increased steadily; the cocoon’s hue thinned, while the bone form continued to grow and strengthen—though the changes were minuscule, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.

Hum…

After a long while, as the final wisp of medicinal energy was fully absorbed by the bones, the bone form behind Xia Hong suddenly emitted a hum, then solidified completely.

At the same time, Xia Hong opened his closed eyes, clenched his fist to sense his condition, then his pupils filled with frustration.

“The bone form grew barely at all; at this rate, to expand the Golden Body to nine zhang will take at least five more years; my strength remains at 75 jun, utterly unchanged—without the Washing Meridian Pill to complement it, the Twelve Blood Meridian Art alone yields negligible strength gains…”

The Great Xia’s Bone-Condensing Pill is merely the mid-grade Bone-Shedding Pill used in the vassal territories; ignorance was fine, but having experienced the extraordinary efficiency of the top-grade Bone-Shedding Pill, Xia Hong could never be satisfied with the Bone-Condensing Pill.

“The Bone-Forming Pill is low-grade Bone-Shedding Pill; the medicinal power of the Bone-Condensing Pill exceeds it by over thirtyfold; the best top-grade Bone-Shedding Pill has medicinal power over fifteen times greater than the Bone-Condensing Pill. My absorption efficiency far surpasses ordinary cultivators—if I had sufficient top-grade Bone-Shedding Pills, I could shorten the time to reach the later stage of Manifest Yang by nearly half, possibly even less than three years…”

He knew he was being greedy.

He broke through to Manifest Yang in September of the seventh year of Great Xia, then, aided by the ancestral ritual’s incense boost, successfully reached Manifest Yang Mid-Stage by the ninth year—only two years total.

Now, in the twelfth year of Great Xia, only three years since his mid-stage breakthrough, his bone form had grown from six zhang to eight zhang, leaving only one zhang remaining to reach Manifest Yang Late-Stage.

This cultivation speed—forget comparing with others—even a cursory look at the average age of Manifest Yang cultivators in the Nine Towns and Mo’ao River would reveal just how terrifying his pace was.

“I can’t afford to be anything but greedy—the gap is simply… too vast!”

Xia Hong couldn’t help but sigh inwardly; the gap between Great Xia and the four Mo’ao vassal territories was truly enormous. Even if one included Jiangxia, Muyin, and Chuishan Towns, even if Great Xia swallowed up its remaining five towns all at once, the disparity remained staggering.

The gap was so vast that, had there been no Blood Miasma Plain or Bone-Eroding Path to block them, if the two vassal territories launched their full force southward right now, even with all his tools—including the system—he would likely still be unable to hold them off.

This situation was unprecedented in the fifteen years Xia Hong had spent in the Ice Abyss; his sense of urgency was overwhelming.

If he could not return to Great Xia, he must find a way to strengthen himself first.

“Only two left!”

Looking at the two Bone-Condensing Pills before him, Xia Hong shook his head, preparing to use them up—but his hand froze mid-reach; he looked up toward the tower’s exterior, eyes flashing with unusual light.

“Your servant bows before the Lord!”

Soon, Jiang Xinfan, his expression excited, hurried up the stairs carrying a sack, bowed respectfully, then handed the sack directly to Xia Hong.

“Lord, I have not disgraced your trust. Myself and Ji Hong purchased six Burn-Bone Pills from the Frost Ash Society at 750,000 taels each; thirty top-grade Bone-Shedding Pills at 300,000 taels each; and twenty Washing Meridian Pills at 370,000 taels each—total expenditure: 20.9 million taels of silver.”

They actually bought them!

Xia Hong took the three silver pill vials, opened them one by one, saw the three types of pills inside, his expression instantly brightened; with curiosity, he asked: “You and Ji Hong managed to acquire such precious pills—yet you don’t even know who your superior in the Frost Ash Society is?”

When they reunited in Luhe Valley, Xia Hong had already asked Jiang Xinfan—he knew that Jiang and Ji Hong, though members of the Frost Ash Society, knew virtually nothing about its upper echelons.

Previously, he hadn’t found it odd; any organization, using one-way contact, could easily avoid direct meetings by making the communication method complex and cautious.

But now he was puzzled: how could they obtain these three highly restricted pills, yet never meet their supplier?

Could it really be that one side left the goods somewhere, and the other came later to retrieve them?

Letters and cheap items could be handled that way—but millions of taels worth of pills? That would be idiotic.

“We made contact through Shigui Tavern…”

Jiang Xinfan clearly understood Xia Hong’s confusion; he explained in full detail the entire process he and Ji Hong used to purchase the pills, along with the Frost Ash Society’s general operational rules.

After Jiang Xinfan’s explanation, Xia Hong now understood the Frost Ash Society’s overall workflow.

In essence, it boiled down to two points:

First, a loose organizational structure: apart from the lowest-level branch halls, which were relatively tight-knit, the county-level headquarters and the central headquarters were extremely decentralized in both personnel and structure.

The six Dragon Heads of the central headquarters, plus Ji Hong as a minor Dragon Head, along with the Yangling County Chief—all these individuals had never met face-to-face; whether issuing tasks or daily communication, they relied entirely on message delivery, and the exchange locations were always outside the city or hidden in obscure corners—anywhere utterly unexpected.

Second, a sophisticated and secretive method of material transfer: such a vast organization required massive financial and material resources to sustain, inevitably creating fixed flows of goods—and within the society, nearly all material transfers passed through Shigui Tavern.

Notably, even within Shigui Tavern, the two parties never met; one left the goods, the other retrieved them later, with a minimum interval of five days, using encrypted methods that changed each time, often with disguises—total secrecy of personal identity was strictly enforced.

Take the recent Luhe Valley uprising as an example: the uprising was a mission assigned by the Frost Ash Society’s central headquarters to Ji Hong, the minor Dragon Head. Ji Hong first received a large sum of silver left by the county chief at Shigui Tavern, then secretly purchased weapons and transported them to the Luhe Valley region; with the cooperation of Jiang Xinfan’s nine men and unidentified elite fighters from the Yangling County headquarters, the entire uprising was orchestrated remotely.

“So what is the background of this Shigui Tavern?”

Clearly, Shigui Tavern was the Frost Ash Society’s true backer; after hearing this, Xia Hong cut straight to the point and asked about its origins.

Jiang Xinfan’s face twisted slightly, then he slowly replied: “You might find this hard to believe, Lord—Shigui Tavern has branches across the entire Mo’ao River, present in every major city within the four vassal territories; the Mo’ao River Heaven List and Earth List were both created by them. As for the tavern’s hidden owners, there are many—but four are dominant.”

“Not the four vassal lords, are they?”

Jiang Xinfan nodded with a smile: “Precisely—the four vassal lords. This is relatively secret information; Ji Hong only managed to uncover it thanks to his status as a closed-door disciple of Counselor Chen…”

He paused, then continued: “Legend says the Shigui Tavern originally had no vassal lords among its owners—only the Nine Surnames, nine aristocratic families with over three centuries of lineage in Mo’ao River. Later, the vassal lords, seeing how profitable this was, could no longer stand idle and forcibly inserted themselves.”

The Nine Surnames naturally resisted, uniting against them—but arms cannot fight against thighs; thus, the nine owners became thirteen, with the four vassal lords holding the majority share.

Though the vassal lords were powerful, as newcomers they were morally in the wrong, and since they already took the lion’s share of profits, and the Nine Surnames were their own people within each vassal territory, they dared not offend them too harshly—so they compromised: they took dividends but interfered in no management or operations.

This was far more interesting than it seemed!