Chapter Sixty-Eight: Seizing Panlong City

Jiang Beihu grinned broadly as he spoke, making it clear he had already noticed Lin Fan’s cultivation had reached the middle stage of the Spirit Attraction realm—a formidable achievement for one so young. The future course of Lin Fan’s cultivation was anyone’s guess; perhaps he would soar to great heights, or perhaps become stuck at a bottleneck, fading into obscurity.

Yet, Lin Fan’s medical skills were undeniably powerful.

Since his eldest brother and father had promised to look after the Lin family, they would not stoop to imprisoning Lin Fan to force his service to the Jiang family. Despite his boorish appearance, Jiang Beihu, raised in a great clan, was certainly no fool.

Lin Fan took advantage of Jiang Beihu’s words to further his own cause, and Jiang Beihu, in turn, used Lin Fan’s response to draw their families closer together.

After all, the path of cultivation was fraught with uncertainty; who could predict when severe injuries might strike? In the Ice and Snow Kingdom, alchemists held more prestige than physicians, but in truly powerful nations, doctors and alchemists stood on equal footing. Indeed, many renowned doctors were also famed alchemists, and vice versa—the two disciplines were often one and the same.

Given Lin Fan’s remarkable medical skills at such a young age, who could say how far he might go? It was only sensible to foster goodwill with him.

“To call you my elder brother—isn’t that just so you can teach me how to part my hair in the middle...?” Lin Fan muttered inwardly. However, he refrained from saying this aloud. He wasn’t concerned about Jiang Beihu’s negative feelings; he simply doubted the man would understand the joke.

At that moment, Jiang Beicheng stepped forward and smacked Jiang Beihu on the head, laughing and scolding, “So he looks pleasing to your eyes? You were about to kill young Lin just a while ago!”

He knew his younger brother’s thoughts well enough. Now that Lin Fan had saved his life, the Jiang family could not, even if they had such inclinations, repay kindness with enmity and imprison Lin Fan. Their reputation would not allow it. Instead, they had to cultivate friendly relations.

Lin Fan may still be a youth, yet his potential was not fully revealed—one day, he might become a dragon rising from the depths.

After all, never look down on a young man in humble circumstances; who has not once been young? Whether merchant lord, peerless expert, powerful noble, or luminary in another field, all had started as youths and climbed step by step.

Talent, hard work, opportunity—all these could transform a youth into someone others could only look up to.

“I was only worried about you, brother! Concern breeds chaos, you know!” Jiang Beihu said, shrinking back with a sheepish grin after receiving the smack.

Lin Fan, my young friend, to put it plainly, my brother simply admires your talent. We Jiang are not the sort to repay kindness with betrayal, nor would we stoop to such ugliness. My brother wishes to befriend you, and so do I. If you are willing, from today, I shall be your elder brother, Beihu your second brother. If you are not, our promise to look after your Lin family stands unchanged.

Jiang Beicheng spoke to Lin Fan with utter sincerity, his eyes unclouded by any hidden motive.

“Of course I’m willing. If anything, I am the one reaching above my station,” Lin Fan replied, inwardly marveling at Jiang Beicheng’s wisdom. This was how a truly clever man acted—with frankness and genuine intent.

Far from finding it off-putting, Lin Fan felt that Jiang Beicheng’s reasoning was sound. After a moment’s consideration, he clasped his hands and agreed.

In truth, both Jiang Beicheng and Jiang Beihu valued him for his talent and medical skill. But that was a matter for the future. For now, he was merely a cultivator of the Spirit Attraction realm, and the Lin family was a minor clan that could be wiped out by a word from the Jiang.

To acknowledge Jiang Beicheng and Jiang Beihu as his elder brothers was, by any standard, punching above his weight. The Jiang were the foremost family of Azure Snow County; Jiang Beicheng was a Streamflow realm expert and the future head of the family, while Jiang Beihu, the second son, was late-stage Pulse Unblocking.

By all appearances, he was unworthy of their friendship.

But if Lin Fan considered things from the perspective of his own past strength and hidden background, it was actually they who were elevating themselves by befriending him.

For he was once a true god-level powerhouse. Even now, the strongest he had encountered in this world was at the Riverflow realm—yet that was nothing compared to what he could once vanquish with a single breath.

Even a drop of his blood, now, could annihilate countless Riverflow realm experts.

Once he reached Tianshu Academy and reorganized his techniques, his power would advance by leaps and bounds, and Riverflow realm cultivators would soon be insignificant in his eyes.

At that time, the Lin family’s status would far surpass the Jiang family’s reach.

Even putting all else aside, the Lin family’s power was not so simple as it appeared. His grandfather never spoke of it, and he could not ask.

But true brotherhood should not be based solely on external circumstances.

Though the two brothers did have motives for befriending him, they were frank enough. If it had been only Jiang Beihu’s overtures, Lin Fan would not have agreed, but Jiang Beicheng’s forthrightness left him with no reason to refuse.

Very well, he thought. When the time comes, I will lend the Jiang family a helping hand.

The actions of Jiang Beicheng and Jiang Beihu were a timely gift in his hour of need, easing many of his troubles. He would not forget this.

“Excellent! Excellent! Someone, prepare a banquet at once! I must drink heartily with my third brother tonight!” Jiang Beicheng laughed aloud, summoning the servants to arrange a feast, while Lin Fan could only shake his head in resignation—he had not expected his new elder brother to be even more boisterous than the second.

At some point, the venerable Jiang Taihong had vanished from the hall, and Lin Fan had not even noticed.

That night, the three drank together, emptying jar after jar of fiery liquor. Jiang Beicheng and Jiang Beihu also offered Lin Fan considerable guidance on cultivation. Though their pointers were of little use to Lin Fan, he thanked them with a smile, for it was the thought that counted.

The next day, as Lin Fan left the Jiang estate, his storage ring now contained a guest-elder token of the Jiang family and six promissory notes, each worth a hundred thousand taels of silver.

The token had been pressed upon him by Jiang Beicheng, reasoning that he and Jiang Beihu could not always be at Lin Fan’s side, and that the Jiang family’s guest-elder token carried considerable weight in Azure Snow County.

Lin Fan hurried back to Panlong City, completed his transaction with the Mo family, and secured both the land deed and mining rights.

By then, the Zhang family’s name in Panlong City had already been replaced by the Lin family’s. His grandfather Lin Batian and father Lin Xiong had led the Lin clan into the city.

Now, all of Panlong City knew it—Lin family had destroyed the city’s former overlord, the Zhang family!

Three days later, Lin Fan, together with his grandfather Lin Batian and Zhang Yi, used powerful martial arts secret techniques as bargaining chips to successively recruit Blind Zhou the Divine Calculator, Fierce Tiger the Iron Fist, Overlord Gun Yin Peng, and Du Changjiang of the Viper Gang.

Each of these men was a Pulse Unblocking realm expert, skilled in formidable combat arts, though nothing compared to Lin Fan’s own techniques. Surrounded by two such experts, unable to flee or prevail in battle, and seeing the exquisite martial arts Lin Fan offered, they willingly pledged themselves to the Lin family.

These secret arts could allow them to battle above their current rank, perhaps even help them break through to a higher realm—a temptation beyond compare for those who had lost hope of further advancement.

They signed soul contracts with the Lin family at once. These were not mere oaths that left a loophole for Pulse Unblocking experts, but binding pacts: to break them meant instant death.

Of course, these soul contracts did not make them servants, but set conditions—namely, the Lin family would teach them the secret techniques, and for fifteen years, they would serve as guest elders, protecting the Lin family. Unless other Pulse Unblocking experts attacked, they would not act lightly; if they did, the Lin family must provide suitable reward.

Lin Fan had originally intended to make them true followers through master-servant contracts, but these men, all Pulse Unblocking experts, would sooner die than submit to lifelong servitude.

Within Azure Snow County, no one dared provoke such experts except the great clans, and even those would show them respect. Forcing them into servitude could well drive them to self-destruction.

Lin Fan’s own cultivation was low, and his injuries not yet fully healed, so he could not stop them.

Nor did he wish his grandfather Lin Batian to be hurt trying to subdue them. Weighing his options, he agreed to the soul contracts.

He believed that, in time, after he had completed his studies at Tianshu Academy and transmitted his reorganized techniques home, these men would be so eager to remain that driving them away would be impossible.

At that point, asking them to sign true master-servant contracts would likely be far easier.

With these four additions, plus his grandfather Lin Batian, Zhang Yi, and his now fully recovered and newly advanced father, the Lin family commanded a force of seven Pulse Unblocking experts.

At this moment, Lin Fan ordered Zhang Yi to announce to the world: the Lin family had taken command of Panlong City.

From this day forward, there would be no more rival clans—Lin family alone held supremacy.

At the same time, the Mo family declared that they were a branch of the Mo Li clan, and were now returning to the main branch, withdrawing entirely from Panlong City.

These two announcements sent shockwaves not just through Panlong City but all of Azure Snow County.

Who was this Lin family, anyway? No one had even heard of them! To dare to monopolize the resources of an entire city—what brazen audacity! Such rights were reserved only for the top twenty great families!

Even if the Lin family now had seven Pulse Unblocking experts, that would only place them around fiftieth to sixtieth among all the county’s clans—still far below the top twenty.

After all, each of the top twenty clans boasted at least one Streamflow realm powerhouse!

“Lin family? What is this Lin family? They destroyed our subordinate Zhang family?!” Liu Chuanzi bellowed furiously in the Liu household, slamming his fist on the table. “Send men to wipe out the Lin family!”

He was seething after his public humiliation at the Four Seas Auction, where Qian Xin had slapped his face in front of everyone. The fire in his chest had nowhere to go. He didn’t care that Lin family had destroyed Zhang family—as long as they, like Zhang family before them, handed over half their annual profits to the Liu, all was well.

Previously, the Zhang family had always paid tribute to the Liu. He didn’t care who really controlled Panlong City; the other family was protected by the Jiang, whom he could not touch, and he had no interest in meddling in minor clan affairs.

But he had never expected that his envoys to the Lin family would be turned away, with Lin family outright refusing to pay tribute. Their meaning was clear: not a single coin!

With the Mo family announcing their withdrawal and return to the main clan, Panlong City now belonged entirely to the Lin family, and Liu Chuanzi could no longer hold back.

What a juicy piece of meat! The Liu family only directly controlled six cities, with the rest of their income coming from the tributes of lesser clans. And now the Lin dared monopolize all the profits of an entire city?

With anger boiling over and nowhere else to vent, he seized on the opportunity to destroy the Lin family and restore his reputation—to show the world that Liu Chuanzi was not to be trifled with.

“Third Master, that may not be possible. Just now, the Jiang family announced that Lin family is under their protection; to attack Lin family is to challenge the Jiang. Moreover, the Jiang have declared that Lin Fan, the third son of the Lin family, is now sworn brother to both Jiang Beicheng and Jiang Beihu!”