Chapter 906: Special attention

“Couldn’t we have used that guy as a pretext to start tearing down the Medicine God’s Pavilion so we could get some talent from there?”, Nie Guanting asked, causing both Old Yen and Kwon Qianhong to look at him with incredulity.

“Heh”, Wu Long chuckled, “Start an entire war with the Lin Family and Medicine God’s Pavilion just so we could recruit people?”

Nie Guanting nodded, as that seemed like the most straightforward approach.

“I don’t really need a pretext for that though, since I’m not from the Righteous Path Sects. I don’t like roundabout motivations. If I wanted to start trouble with them, I’d just start it”, Wu Long calmly shook his head.

He explained further, feeling a need to drive this point home for Nie Guanting to know this for future, “It’s true I don’t usually just randomly attack someone who didn’t do anything against me or something that crosses my interests, but it doesn’t mean I need a ‘just cause’ to start a conflict. That’s just basically waiting around to be harmed, or even hoping for it, so you could attack to reach your goals while feeling good about yourself being ‘good’, if you’re not being hypocritical about it. So don’t fall into the thinking of finding pretexts or justifications for our actions. We’re not above acting selfishly, but if we do so we will do so while being open about it”

Nie Guanting nodded, and as Wu Long saw that he truly understood the point, addressed his actual proposal next.

“And it’s not worth all the trouble to mess with the Lin Family at this time for such small gains”, Wu Long noted, not outright dismissing the idea itself though, which caused Old Yen and Kwon Qianhong to turn their shocked gazes to him next, “Besides, it’s always messy recruiting from a place you attack, since there would inevitably be people with good talent that hold resentment or are at least wary of you since you just tore apart their previous environment, whatever their lives in that environment were”

Nie Guanting nodded, satisfied with that explanation as he knew that cases like him or Old Yen, or Li Weifang, who follow Wu Long after initial confrontation are quite rare, and are actually quite far from the norm.

It was, after all, hard to overcome the feeling of initial animosity with sheer admiration for skill and superiority.

Not to mention, there were various personality types who could only ever be befriended or recruited through peaceful means almost no matter the circumstances. And that did not diminish their talents or how valuable they were as followers.

Kwon Qianhong looked at this with surprise, as Wu Long took time to get Nie Guanting to understand, once again feeling his decision to make a final bet was rewarded.

“Ah, here’s his Spatial Ring, just make sure not to sell off the stuff in there on this Continent”, Wu Long spoke, tossing Lin Ganwen’s Spatial Ring to Kwon Qianhong, who caught it even if he was seemingly lost deep in thoughts before.

“Haha, of course, Boss”, Kwon Qianhong made a smug smile, as if the instruction Wu Long added on was ‘insulting’.

Wu Long chuckled, “Just making sure, they’ll fetch the highest prince here after all”

“I’ll be able to get that price anywhere”, Kwon Qianhong spoke with a confidence and arrogance that Wu Long actually didn’t think was out of place.

“Now…”, having settled what happened on Wu Long’s side, he went on to the main topic, “…what do you have for me?”

“Yes, there is a contest of knowledge in Medicine Dao that features prominent aspiring practitioners who came from all around, which locals use to scout for talent, so I took the liberty of having Qian approach some promising candidates”, Old Yen nodded.

Kwon Qianhong added, “I was able to find a few who were interested, I just need confirmation from you and Lady Nie on their character”

“You can continue with that during our stay here, get as many candidates you can, we’ll sort through them before leaving”, Wu Long nodded, as that was actually a surprisingly – considering it was coming from these three – above-the-board method of getting the talent they needed.

“Next, there is trouble brewing between three large Families who jointly own and operate a Medicine Dao practice that is actually on the larger side… or a conflict between a new upstart practice with backing and an older one they are trying to push out”, Old Yen continued.

“I’d go for both”, Nie Guanting shrugged.

“Mm, I agree with Guanting, we’ll go for both”, Wu Long chuckled, causing Old Yen to make a wry smile.

“And finally…”, Old Yen then added, “… there’s the new applicants to join the Crystal Wood Sect, the second most powerful organization on the continent after the Medicine God’s Pavilion. As I reported earlier in the Emerald Falls City, they are indeed going to open their selection process right about now after the Medicine God’s Pavilion closed theirs”

Wu Long nodded.

This meant that there would be a lot of people aspiring for Medicine Dao who would have to settle for joining the Crystal Wood Sect.

And it wasn’t bad talent either, since the Medicine God’s Pavilion has many standards regarding one’s background, status, and connections.

Not to mention there was the ever-present bribery and corruption.

So there were quite a lot of promising talent falling through the cracks and not getting in regardless of how fit they were to practice Medicine Dao.

The Medicine God’s Palace actually welcomed the fact that the Crystal Wood Sect were taking in the applicants they rejected.

It meant that promising aspiring Medicine Dao practitioners who did not fit on the basis of background or status would go into a different field of combat Wood-attribute cultivation, and thus the Medicine God’s Palace didn’t have to covertly dispose of those with high talent and promising future in Medicine Dao that they rejected.

After all, such covert activities always posed a risk to their reputation no matter how well executed they were, and thus had to be used sparingly, reserved for special cases.

“What about that matter?”, Wu Long asked about those special cases next.

“There indeed might be a couple of people whose background was too poor to be accepted into Medicine God’s Pavilion, but with exceptionally great talent to be just left alone. It was a bit hard to not raise any alarms while researching it though so we are not sure”, Old Yen nodded.

“Did you figure out who the Medicine God’s Pavilion or Lin Family uses to do their dirty work?”, Wu Long asked, not having much hope for that.

“No, that also was hard to find without giving away we were digging information on them specifically”, Old Yen shook his head.

“Hmm”, Wu Long made a pondering expression.

Those candidates could be targeted quite soon, even before the Crystal Wood Sect’s selection started if they showed signs they were not going to try to join the non-Medicine Dao path, so Wu Long wanted to learn their identities as fast as it was possible.

“I tried to approach a few of the rejected applicants, but as expected, the Medicine God’s Palace made sure to test everyone separately, so they wouldn’t know the results of others”, Old Yen spoke.

“Who’s on the scene here out of the big ones, the Palace of Secrets?”, Wu Long asked next, causing Old Yen to nod.

The three palaces were a safer bet because unlike other underground information traders, there was typically no danger of exposure.

In other words, in principle, purchasing information about the Lin Family or the Medicine God’s Palace, or about the candidates, would not lead to the Palace of Secrets notifying them someone purchased that information or was looking into their matters.

Thinking that this purchase would not make Palace of Secrets pay attention to the one buying it, however, was utterly naive.

And getting Old Yen, Kwon Qianhong and Nie Guanting under their scrutiny now was not something Wu Long wanted.

Besides, unlike the Obsidian Moon Palace, the other two palaces’ record on this was not as clean, as there were quite a few sensitive cases where shadows of doubt were cast if they breached this principle in favor of the most powerful and influential people and organizations in the Seven Boundless Worlds.

Nothing was ever confirmed, but even those doubts already tainted the reputation.

And the Lin Family together with the Medicine God’s Palace certainly were part of that category for whom they allegedly were willing to break that principle.

“Fine, I’ll make a purchase from them myself”, Wu Long then nodded, “You continue with the research on those two ongoing situations you spoke about earlier as well as the recruitment”

“Yes Boss”, Old Yen made a fist and hand salute, as did Kwon Qianhong and Nie Guanting.

Thank you for reading and your incredible support everyone!!!