Instead of rocking left and right, the ship was steady despite floating on water.
A line of people knelt on the deck with Jiang Lin watching over them with his expressionless face.
“What’s this?” Chen Jingzhai asked with a frown.
“Master-Uncle Qing Mu brought them here,” Jiang Lin replied nonchalantly. “They are the Liu family.”
“Oh?” Chen Jingzhai grinned. “I did not expect him to act so fast.”
He then looked at the 45 people kneeling on the deck. Twenty-four of them were females, while the rest were males. All of them were cultivators.
The strongest of them was a person who resembled Liu Mingke. He was in the Golden Core Plane.
Out of the remaining 44, 40 were in the Foundation Establishment Plane, while the rest were in the Meditation Plane.
“What do you plan to do to them?” Jiang Lin asked.
“Hmm… Let’s hear your idea.”
“Just kill them. Let them die a painless death.”
“No!” a woman begged. “Please, spare my daughter! She’s innocent! S-she can become your servant!”
“Shut up!” the middle-aged man who led the Liu family barked.
“They sure are courageous.” Chen Jingzhai grinned. “I sense some hatred from them as well?”
“Well, that’s a given.” Jiang Lin coldly sighed. “It only took the Puppet Temple two hours to kill 274 direct descendents of the Liu family, 13,600 servants, and 1,423 collateral members. The family, known to be on par with royalty, was destroyed because of a mistake made by one of their children. Naturally, they feel hatred toward you.”
The middle-aged man slumped while a few people glared at Chen Jingzhai angrily.
“And here I thought you would pity them.” Chen Jingzhai was surprised.
“Why should I? I would clap and applaud if you killed them instead. Who doesn’t know how cruel the Liu family is? They’re like vampires who drink the blood of their soldiers. The others couldn’t go against them because they have five Golden Core Sages.”
“Five Golden Core Sages? Where are the remaining four?”
“They didn’t want to get caught, so they tried to detonate their cores. Master-Uncle Qing killed them before they could do so. He also said that you need a group of people to serve you, so that’s why he brought them here.”
“What about other stuff? Like their treasures?”
“Don’t even think about it.” Jiang Lin laughed. “Since the Puppet Temple is the one who did all the hard work, it’s natural that they get to keep all the treasures.”
“What? And this is my only reward?” Chen Jingzhai complained.
“Come on, don’t be greedy,” Jiang Lin persuaded. “The Puppet Temple had taken out one of the kingdom’s powerhouses. They had broken the silent agreement between the kingdom and the celestial clans. Thankfully, they had a reason to do that, so they didn’t get punished.”
Chen Jingzhai was now known throughout the entire Pulao Kingdom.
Many celestial clans and families have warned their members not to anger him.
Everyone knew about what happened on the Soaring Clouds Ship, especially how he managed to blackmail the Golden Core Sages on board.
However, the funny thing was that there indeed existed a crime for disrespecting the Master-Uncle among the celestial clans.
It was even logical for Chen Jingzhai to wipe out the entire Liu family, at least much more logical than killing the disciple of a celestial clan.
Not only the celestial clans, but even Pulao Kingdom didn’t think what Chen Jingzhai did was wrong.
Also, the members of the Liu family did not hate Chen Jingzhai for what he had done. Instead, they blamed it all on Liu Mingke.
Everyone was taught ever since they were born to respect those from the celestial clans.
“Damn. What a waste!” Chen Jingzhai cursed and absorbed the Golden Core Sage into the Grotto-heavens.
“Where is he now?” Jiang Lin curiously asked.
“I’ve locked him inside the space of my magic treasure,” Chen Jingzhai answered. “As for the rest, give the ladies some work on the ship and kill the men.”
As soon as he finished saying that, he immediately absorbed the 20 men into the Grotto-heavens.
The females of the Liu family immediately bowed to thank Chen Jingzhai for his generosity.
That didn’t faze Chen Jingzhai.
He was no longer a mortal but a cultivator.
A cultivator was one who pursued the path to become a celestial and was not tied down by the restraints of a mortal anymore.
He was not generous nor kind. If he were, then he would not need to cultivate anymore.
Countries and kingdoms meant nothing to a cultivator. The only things that mattered to them were resources and food.
One’s strength could determine whether what one did was right or wrong.
Chen Jingzhai had experienced that very early on, that he had already forgotten the morality of his past life.
His four gorgeous maids and eight female servants were in charge of helping the 24 female cultivators settle down.
Among them, 12 were in the Foundation Establishment Plane, and the other half were in the Meditation Plane.
Chen Jingzhai did not do anything to prevent them from escaping, as he wasn’t worried that they would try to do that.
He was sure that they would not resist, and they even showed respect to his four maids.
The ship quickly became lively.
Since the ship was filled with females, even the air smelled good now.
The maids gave them different jobs once they had settled down.
The interior of the tower was huge. Other than the silkworm incubation room, there were also herb gardens where trees and herbs were planted.
Chen Jingzhai had built these rooms so that his maids would not get bored.
He would let them handle all the stuff, as he didn’t want to be troubled with trivial matters.
He sat on the bow of the ship and drank with Jiang Lin.
The disciple nephew had sobered up the day before.
However, because Chen Jingzhai was in Seclusion Training, Sage Qing Mu was unable to contact him, and he had to contact Jiang Lin instead.
The disciple from Wine Celestial Peak flew all the way to Pulao Kingdom to retrieve the remaining members of the Liu family from Sage Qing Mu.
“Ever since the celestial clans scattered the Dragon Qi 1,000 years ago, the kingdom and the clans have agreed that the disciples of the clans are not to kill any mortals outside of the mountain,” Jiang Lin explained.
“So, I’m the one who broke the agreement?”
“No. Not really. You weren’t the one who killed them anyway.” Jiang Lin grinned. “Also, the kingdom wouldn’t mess with you unless it would directly affect the Battle of Dragon.”
“Why should I care what the outcome of the battle is?” Chen Jingzhai curiously asked.
“Because a stable Pulao Kingdom will benefit the celestial clans a lot. Just the amount of aspirant cultivators they send to the clans every year is more than enough.”
“I see. You’re right.” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “Oh, right! I only see a handful of clans joining the exploration this time. Why’s that? Or is it that they will join us at a later date?”
“No.” Jiang Lin took a sip of his wine. “It’s still a Spirit Cave Residence, after all. Not every clan has the right to participate. They’ll have to get invited by three overseas clans.”
Since Spirit Cave Residences were rare, it meant that exploration to one would be very rewarding as well.
If the overseas clans were willing to share it with Pulao Kingdom, then it would mean that they were showing their hospitality and their intent to work together with the kingdom.
A lot of trades between clans were involved in it, and Jiang Lin didn’t know much.
However, he did know that only the Luo Sheng Sword School, the Soaring Clouds Clan, the Serenity Hollow Clan, the Will Celestial Clan, the Mystic Evil Clan, and a few other clans were invited.
Some of the invited clans had yet to send the disciples to the Eastern Ocean, while those that weren’t invited were either not acquainted with the Great Three Overseas Celestial Clans or even had disputes with them.
“I see. Then we don’t have to wait anymore.” Chen Jingzhai laughed. “Let’s head to the Eastern Ocean right away. We might even run into Chu Jingsong.”
“Let’s go!” Jiang Lin nodded.
