How Much For Your Soul?

Chapter 10

"Four years! The little shit is off enjoying himself while my Sacred Family is suffering for it!" Shen Hong yelled angrily, smashing the teacup he was holding on the floor.

He had really made a mess of the situation, thinking back to that fateful day four years ago. As if it was a prophecy spoken by Shen Yue, Shen Fei had turned out less than desirable. He should have just let the little shit into the restricted library, he ended up getting in there anyway! Shen Hong had a sneaking suspicion that his ability to remember a third of the books read was understated.

Since that fateful day, things had not gone favourably for the patriarch. Waiting six months for his stubborn, bastard child to return, he realised that he had already soured the relationship between them too much for Shen Yue to rejoin the Family willingly. With no other choice, he informed the Dark Guil of the child's abilities and the situation.

That was when they began losing experts, Sacred Family even lost a black-gold elder! The only conclusion they could come to was that Ye Mo had taken an interest in the child and decided to protect him. After repeated failures, word came from the Demon Lord to keep an eye on him and that he would act personally when the time was right.

He had hoped to use Shen Xiu to lure the brat home, but that had also ended in failure. Luckily Shen Xiu was quite naive and believed him when he threatened to have the child killed if she associated with him. The little shit had flat out told her to 'dump that failed family' and told her to join his! Without his threat, he was not sure if she would refuse!

He could only bide his time and continue on with his other plans, the child would end up in his hands sooner or later! He had already crippled the Winged Dragon Family, extorting a betrothal for his useless son and forcing them to sell off their property. He had managed to buy twenty-five percent of it, but he was sure they sold at least eighty percent. Shen Hong failed to find out to who bought it.

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He would have prefered a betrothal to Ye Ziyun for his son, but that wayward little annoyance had disrupted his plans again! With the number of times Shen Yue was invited to the City Lord's manner on a 'play date' it was easy to see that Ye Zong had plans to marry her to him.

With Ye Rou still alive Ye Zong had been insufferable! Even inviting Shen Hong as the guest of honour to his banquet for his wife's recovery! Luckily he had killed off any loose ends connecting him to that incident, and Ye Zong was too oblivious to see the book on poisons as a connection.

It galled him that it was his own son that was destroying his plans, if only he had brought him to his side to rule instead of thinking he was a tool to be used, he was too used to being disappointed in his subordinates to think of them as an equal. Turning his thoughts to other sinister plans, he did his best to forget his greatest mistake.

Shen Yue, on the other hand, was living the dream! Just before his tenth birthday, he woke up with a morning glory! He was so excited that he yelled out for his head maid, Su Mei to come and 'solve' his problem. Luckily, Su Mei was more than happy to 'attend' to his issue, apparently being a ten year old made no difference in her eyes. Pedophilia not really being a thing in a world where it was common for thirteen-year-olds to marry and start a family.

Since then Shen Yue had 'deepened' his relationship with Su Mei, and he now considered her as 'his woman'. Other than his love life, his plans were proceeding as planned.

The Brotherhood had blown out to over a hundred members, and the Alchemy Association had disbanded. Unable to make a profit since all their pills were inferior to the Immortal Elixir Guild, they had no choice. The Heavenly Crafting Guild had absorbed five more blacksmith shops into their guild, however birds die for food, and humans die for money.

The Secret Treasure Pavilion had forgotten the lesson they were taught, once again soliciting a new smith for enchanting techniques. Shen Yue was not sure what was going on in the treasure pavilion because with the patterns copyrighted, they would be unable to use them anyway. Still, they were harshly reminded that the Heavenly Crafting Guild did not tolerate betrayal.

The blacksmith's head was delivered to the Guild's shop with another note to 'work hard', causing the veteran smiths to shake their heads in pity and the new ones to place more importance in their oaths. The Secret Treasure Pavilion mysteriously burnt to the ground that night. Curiously, when sifting through the ashes, they were unable to find any remnants of any items sold in the shop. Only a few of their guards' burnt bodies were found.

The Heavenly Fate Plateau had become a thriving community. With plenty of food provided by Shen Yue and their crops once they matured, the peoples' health was much improved. This caused a tremendous increase in children born and Shen Yue was praised even after robbing them of all their possessions.

The warriors were decked out in equipment produced by the Heavenly Crafting Guild and were now able to clear all demon beasts around their plateau. The materials were sold to the crafting guild at market price, gifting him with more cash. The Maids were moved to his Family lands to serve in his mansion. He held off opening up the black spring cave, wanting to wait until he was able to cultivate to benefit fully from it.

The other thing that brought him joy was his new Family lands. The whole of Glory City was talking about the emergence of a new major Family with the patriarch being a child! The 'Runaway Prince' saga continued with a new chapter, and he became the most desirable candidate for marriage before he even physically matured! Thanks to his fame, it was easy hiring from the populace to work his estate.

Unlike other families that gave them a share of the total crop, only leasing them the farm, Shen Yue chose to pay them an annual salary. Shen Yue solely hired families and gave them a huge salary of five thousand demon spirit coins a year. This was a tremendous sum on par with a bronze rank soldier in the City's army! His generosity only fueled his fame making it impossible to compare him to the canon Shen Yue.

Shen Yue did not plant Purple Haze Grass at his Family estate, instead choosing to clear a vast area of the Infinite Forrest around the Heavenly Fate Plateau. With it needing three years to mature he would have quite the stock to sell once he got the recipes from Nie Li. He was hoping to hide his identity from the Earth slapper, transferring her and Nie Li's attention to the mysterious masked man in charge of the Celestial Brotherhood.

Thinking of Nie Li made him remember Su Mei's request for a weapon. She prefers close range fighting, and with her Abyss Tiger, she loved to get up close and personal. Using his cheat library to search for a suitable weapon he came up with something he had missed! Su Mei, being a 5-star ranked legend was sent for some practical training.

After having his personal blacksmith make him a duplicate set of items according to his descriptions from the manhua, he gave Su Mei the mission of pillaging the Heavenly Marks Family treasury once again. This time Shen Yue coveted the soul weapon katar and an enigmatic black pearl that was never mentioned after Nie Li obtained it. With a joyful scream and a quick embrace, Su Mei rushed off to prepare for her trip outside.

With no unexpected problems, she returned the next night complaining that her new weapons were not very impressive. Su Mei soon changed her mind after he showed her how to fix them.

Su Mei manipulated her soul force to continually refine the set of katar, changing the shape slightly to suit her needs. Slowly, the rust stains on the katar disappeared. The pair of katar began to emit a dazzling lustre, bursting into light particles and being absorbed into her soul realm. Su Mei made sure to thank Shen Yue repeatedly that night.

A very exhausted Shen Yue walked into his meeting room the next morning. Even though he had trained his body, it was no match for Su Mei's stamina. Addressing the assembled guards, he laid out his plans for the next couple months. It was time to conquer the Abyss Prison Realm.