Chapter 81: Talent is Hard to Come By

"Young Master, the Bamboo Flower Gang sent someone to deliver a thousand taels of gold, wanting us to release their people." At the Prefectural Office, Ren Tong led a few men and moved the gold into the hall.

"Hmph! Using money to bribe this official? A mere thousand taels of gold."

Su Fan wore a look of disdain. Although a thousand taels of gold was a large sum, to him, it really didn't amount to much. His annual income from salt production was in the hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.

A thousand taels of gold was only ten thousand strings of cash; he truly didn't look down upon it.

Any casual business venture of his brought in over ten thousand strings of cash a year.

How could he possibly release them? He still wanted to continue killing the chicken to scare the monkey, letting those martial artists know that in Wu Jun, if you are a dragon, you must coil, and if you are a tiger, you must lie down.

My territory, my rules.

Moreover, he had originally thought that the beheading at the Meridian Gate might draw out people from the Bamboo Flower Gang to rescue them at the execution ground, at which point he would round them all up.

He even intended to capture Yin Kaishan along with them, but he hadn't expected the other side to lose their nerve first.

"Trash!"

Su Fan couldn't help but curse.

"Hehe! Young Master, the Bamboo Flower Gang is clearly afraid of you."

Ren Tong had also learned to flatter.

"Fart, are they afraid of me? They are clearly just afraid of the Yuwen name." Su Fan was very clear that the other side didn't know his true strength at all, so how could they be afraid of him? They were afraid of his name, Yuwen Chengji, and the reputation of the Yuwen Clan.

Only after coming to this world did he realize what the Yuwen Clan represented.

For these past few hundred years, the aristocratic clans had truly held a formidable reputation.

It was only by the time of the Wu Zhou period that the aristocratic clans gradually declined.

"Keep the gold, and continue the executions."

Su Fan didn't care about the Bamboo Flower Gang; he didn't look down upon a gang made up of mere thugs. In his view, the Bamboo Flower Gang organization wasn't even as rigorous as the Huashan Sect from his previous world.

Within the gang, only Yin Kaishan's strength was decent, but that was only "decent" when placed in Yangzhou. Looking at the whole world, it really didn't count for much.

His current strength had advanced further, and he no longer placed Innate first-class martial artists in his eyes; he estimated they wouldn't be able to withstand a single hammer blow from him.

"From now on, you all must also train hard; your strength is still insufficient."

Su Fan looked at Ren Tong and the others. There were only three second-class experts. Ling Zhan was slightly better; he estimated he could fight an Innate first-class martial artist for a few dozen moves.

As for Ren Tong and the other, they were only second-class.

As for his private soldiers, most were only slightly stronger than ordinary people, with the elites reaching third-class standard.

They truly couldn't stand alone yet.

Talent was hard to come by, and he didn't want to go looking for the Yuwen family.

Fortunately, there were still two or three years before the great trend began, and some time before Yang Guang headed south to Yangzhou.

At least during this period, Yangzhou and Wu Jun were relatively peaceful.

The Bamboo Flower Gang had reached out its claws, but after he chopped them off, they immediately retreated.

That left only the Iron Cavalry Association.

The strength of the Iron Cavalry Association was indeed stronger than that of the Bamboo Flower Gang.

The leader of the Iron Cavalry Association, Ren Shaoming, had strength above Yin Kaishan's, and his subordinates, the evil monk Fa Nan and Yan Ni Chang Zhen, had decent strength, both being Innate first-class. Moreover, the two of them were disciples of the Yin Gui Sect.

He wasn't afraid of Ren Shaoming; even if his father behind him, Qu Ao, came, to be honest, the threat to him wasn't great.

But the Yin Gui Sect was different. If you really provoked those women, the consequences would be quite serious. The key was that the Sect Leader of the Yin Gui Sect, Zhu Yuyan, was a genuine Grandmaster-level expert, and in terms of strength, she was even above Yuwen Shang.

With his current strength, he was definitely not the other side's match.

Therefore, for the time being, he didn't want to clash with the Yin Gui Sect.

But as for the Iron Cavalry Association, he didn't care. If they really dared to launch a large-scale attack on Wu Jun, he would personally chop off their claws.

"Young Master, we have disappointed you."

Ren Tong felt a bit ashamed upon hearing this. The resources Su Fan provided them were massive.

But he and Huang Quan's cultivation speed wasn't very fast. He also knew that under the Young Master, there was no one usable.

There were only him, Huang Quan, and Ling Zhan.

"Don't say that!"

"It's that my requirements are too high; you have already worked very hard."

Su Fan realized upon hearing this that he was using his own standards to demand things of them. The reason he could cultivate so quickly was due to the accumulation of two lifetimes.

As for Ren Tong and the others, it had only been three months since they obtained Su Fan's cultivation method.

His martial arts method wasn't something ordinary people could understand. If it were just the first three realms—Skin Refining, Tendon Changing, and Bone Forging—that would be fine.

But later on, to improve, one must have a sufficient understanding of martial arts.

At the same time, one must have extremely high control over the body. He could accomplish this because of the accumulation of two lifetimes, plus his extremely powerful divine soul.

Ren Tong and the others needed years of slow grinding.

Ling Zhan, on the other hand, was likely to be faster. After all, he had a deep family background and possessed a family martial general inheritance, and from the Three Kingdoms period at that.

In Su Fan's view, it was even more formidable than the Yuwen family's Ice Profound Strength. Of course, nowadays, True Qi martial arts were the mainstream, but if Ling Zhan really practiced his family's martial general inheritance to the peak,

he wouldn't be inferior to current Grandmasters.

Even if Ling Tong of that year wasn't a first-class fierce general, when placed in this world, he definitely wouldn't be bad.

Especially being in that era of the Three Kingdoms.

In Su Fan's view, Ling Zhan's talent far exceeded Ren Tong and the other. Ren Tong and the other would likely reach first-class and that would be the end of it.

Without any fortuitous encounters, that was just how it was.

Su Fan's physical martial arts, or rather the martial arts of the military generals, were easy to learn but hard to master. Entry was fast, but wanting to practice to a profound level and become a powerhouse was likely very difficult.

Not everyone had the accumulation of two lifetimes like Su Fan, allowing him to ignore time.

For most ordinary people, being able to cultivate to the Bone Forging realm was already very good.

Ren Tong and the other had some potential, but that was about it. Compared to the younger Ling Zhan, the latter clearly had more talent. If he switched to practicing Su Fan's martial arts, he estimated that super first-class wouldn't be the end; perhaps he would reach Grandmaster combat power.

"It seems I still need to find some people with good talent to cultivate."

Feeling more and more that his manpower was insufficient, Su Fan's private soldiers could at most serve as combat soldiers. As for talents who could stand alone, besides Ling Zhan, even Ren Tong and the other were a bit lacking.

However, in this world, to be honest, because the aristocratic clans controlled knowledge, it was difficult for talents to emerge from ordinary people.

It was hard for a noble son to emerge from a humble family.

The Twin Dragons were children of destiny; they couldn't be compared.

Moreover, Su Fan didn't have a very good impression of the two. In Su Fan's view, Kou Zhong was simply a joke.

Damn! You want to contend for the world, and many people are willing to go through fire and water for you.

In the end, when it was almost time, with the north and south already in a stalemate, he decided to quit without a word, letting his subordinates surrender to the Li Clan.

Treating contending for the world as child's play.

In Su Fan's view, he had no sense of responsibility at all. Did he not consider whether those subordinates would have a good future in the hands of the Li Clan?

Stop joking. Once the Li Clan unified the world, if you weren't their direct line and still held heavy troops, how good a future could you have?

Setting you aside would already be quite good; those with heavy hearts would just find an excuse to finish you off.

So in Su Fan's eyes, the Twin Dragons were a joke.

Such people, damn, he would be even less likely to cultivate them. What if they bit back? ===== CHAPTER 82 =====