Chapter 1122: Overwhelmed

Ye Liuyun listened to Qiong Qi's suggestion, thought for a moment, and said, "Capturing the ferocious beasts is feasible. However, poisoning might harm the innocent. We can replace all their liquor with watered-down liquor!"

Qiong Qi nodded and said, "That works too, though the effect would be weaker! Can I leave now?"

The clone, however, laughed and said, "Your suggestion is only half feasible; it doesn't count as you passing. However, if you carry out the liquor swap, then you can leave!"

"You're clearly being a scoundrel!" Qiong Qi refused to comply.

"Don't get excited! The places where liquor is stored in taverns all have formations. Without you, the formation master, how could we swap the liquor?" Ye Liuyun then flattered Qiong Qi again.

"Hmm... then I'll grudgingly help you once more!" Unable to resist praise, Qiong Qi immediately put on a show and agreed.

So, Ye Liuyun first prepared several sets of Cheng Clan disciples' attire, then went to Beast King Mountain Range, captured many ferocious beasts, and caused quite a commotion.

Along the way, they chatted loudly, saying they were sending the beasts to the Cheng Clan's Beast Fighting Arena.

Meanwhile, Du Yan had already bribed the Beast Fighting Arena's purchaser, intending to buy the ferocious beasts at a tenth of the price from him.

That purchaser, greedy for money, couldn't help accepting Du Yan's bribe, and also thought he could make extra profit from the Beast Fighting Arena via the ferocious beasts.

After buying the ferocious beasts at a tenth of the price, he listed them at seventy or eighty percent of the market price; the profit difference was enough for him to live lavishly for a while.

Therefore, when Ye Liuyun's group delivered the ferocious beasts, he immediately accepted them. Upon hearing the news, the Beast King actually sent a ferocious beast of the Tianzun Realm to personally inspect.

Upon inspection, it was confirmed without doubt that these were ferocious beasts from the Beast King Mountain Range; he immediately attacked and seized all the beasts that had been sold over.

Thereafter, the Beast King notified all ferocious beasts that upon seeing any Cheng Clan person, they should sound an alarm, after which a powerful expert would come to slaughter the Cheng Clan people.

After learning of this, the Cheng Clan immediately dispatched investigators, uncovered the truth, and quickly realized someone was secretly sabotaging them.

They immediately sent someone to explain to the Beast King, but as a result, they didn't even get to see the Beast King—he directly fed them to the ferocious beasts.

The Cheng Clan's Beast Fighting Arena saw its stock of ferocious beasts sharply decline; they could only purchase beasts everywhere to barely maintain operations.

Meanwhile, the news spread that several Cheng Clan taverns in the Imperial City were selling watered-down fake liquor.

The Imperial Family and the Feng Clan, moreover, secretly fanned the flames, widely spreading the news of the Cheng Clan's decline and fake liquor sales, which eventually led to their funds running short and various problems arising.

For a time, the merchant guilds that did business with the Cheng Clan all came knocking demanding settlement, and their numbers kept growing, fearing that if they arrived late, the Cheng Clan would be unable to pay in spirit stones.

Faced with the merchant guilds' demands for payment, the Cheng Clan could not immediately produce that many spirit stones, so they began gathering spirit stones from nearby branch veins and elsewhere.

Then this news was spread again, serving as evidence that the Cheng Clan had no money to pay its debts.

Those who had bought fake liquor at the Cheng Clan taverns, not knowing who was backing them behind the scenes, actually started shouting at the taverns, demanding they be shut down for reflection.

Those who frequented taverns in the Imperial City were either rich or noble; gathered together, their influence was also considerable.

Helpless, the taverns could only temporarily close their doors.

However, at midnight, several taverns were poisoned again, causing anyone who entered to die!

Afterwards, even after the Cheng Clan sent poison experts to clean up, no one dared to come eat there anymore.

"Fake liquor, taverns that poison people to death—who would still dare to go?"

For a time, those flagship taverns the Cheng Clan had built in the Imperial City were all forced to shut down.

At the same time, several Cheng Clan disciples with improper conduct were immediately exposed by well-meaning individuals, whose actions were then exaggeratedly publicized, instantly making the Cheng Clan the target of public criticism.

Enraged, the Cheng Clan Chief immediately had those disappointing disciples executed.

However, the rumor immediately spread again, claiming that these disciples had committed many misdeeds under the Cheng Clan Chief's orders; now that the truth has come to light, they were all silenced by murder!

Then the common folk harmed by those disciples, as well as indebted merchants, etc., all came knocking to demand compensation.

In short, wave after wave of news spread everywhere, leaving the Cheng Clan overwhelmed and harried.

Moreover, rumors circulated among the nobles that the Cheng Clan supported shadows and foreign tribes, causing those powerful figures who had intended to ally with the Cheng Clan to immediately halt cooperation.

Furthermore, the officials who had already defected to the Cheng Clan immediately severed ties and denounced the Cheng Clan.

All of this, only the liquor swap and poisoning were done by Qiong Qi.

After finishing his work, fearing the Cheng Clan would find out, he directly left the Imperial City to go seek cultivation resources.

However, those behind the scenes fanning the flames could even be traced by Xia Tianqiong, revealing it was the Feng Clan and the Imperial Family causing trouble.

These two forces clearly intended to add insult to injury.

The Cheng Clan's misfortunes were not limited to the taverns and Beast Fighting Arena.

The Feng Clan had already begun frequently taking action to suppress the Cheng Clan.

Moreover, many strange occurrences of uncertain cause also happened frequently.

For example, an inn owner was suddenly robbed and killed; a tavern suffered collateral damage from a customer brawl and was forced to close; a business partner suddenly dropped dead, elixirs failed, and so on.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun took advantage of the Cheng Clan's preoccupation, using funds invested by the Feng Clan to open two more Beast Fighting Arenas in succession, located very close to the Cheng Clan's arena.

Soon he had snatched away half of the Cheng Clan's business.

As for the Cheng Clan branch disciples who dared to cause trouble on their doorstep, Ye Liuyun showed no mercy, dispatching shadows and numerous monster beasts to eradicate them completely, making the Cheng Clan's Beast Fighting Arena business suffer even more.

He then used the resources seized from those Cheng Clan branches to continue opening more Beast Fighting Arenas, expanding at a very rapid pace.

Before the Cheng Clan could get busy dealing with him, he had seized twenty percent of the market and was still expanding.

Mainly, his current business costs are low—only constructing Beast Fighting Arenas requires spending; the ferocious beasts and the demon cultivators guarding them basically need no investment.

However, the Cheng Clan, having been cut off from the ferocious beast supply, could only purchase beasts at high prices everywhere. Moreover, they had to pay spirit stones in advance; otherwise others feared the Cheng Clan would collapse and dared not sell to them.

The superiority and inferiority became immediately apparent. In just one month, Ye Liuyun seized the Cheng Clan's Beast Fighting Market in the northern Zhongyang Dalu.

Within Ye Liuyun's sphere of influence, the Cheng Clan's Beast Fighting Arenas could not operate at all.

Outside Ye Liuyun's domain, some Beast Fighting Arenas closed due to their branch veins being eradicated, while others barely clung on, struggling to survive.

All of the Cheng Clan's businesses suffered a massive blow: income sharply dropped, expenses surged, and with over ten mineral veins looted, their payment pressure was indeed considerable.

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