Chapter 4540 — Shocking News
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"By all means, Young Hero Ling." It was rare to see Wei Zhao so grave. Qi Mingyuan and Qi Wenmo straightened at once, secretly wondering what news could possibly bear on the whole of the Southern Isle's seas.
"Word from inside the spirit beast clan. They are already preparing to levy a tax on every human cultivator in the Southern Isle's seas. When exactly it will begin is not yet known, but it's surely only a matter of time. So you had best lose no time in working out how to respond, or you'll end up as nothing but cannon fodder when the day comes." Wei Zhao warned them in dead earnest.
The news was truly too startling, and Wei Zhao did not mean to let it slip out carelessly. But neither could he simply stand by and watch the Qingtian Escort Bureau fare nothing. Even if he could not help much, a warning was always in his power.
"What? The spirit beast clan is going to levy a tax?" Qi Mingyuan and Qi Wenmo were instantly shocked. Astonishment was written plain on both faces, and they could not even keep a look of dread from showing. "How can that be? In a thousand years there has never been any precedent for such a thing!"
"There truly has been no precedent before this. But the spirit beast clan's seats of power underwent a great upheaval not long ago, and this tax proposal was put forward by the new thing that holds power, publicly, at the Spirit Beast Assembly. It cannot be a matter of idle promises—they must mean to go through with it in earnest." Wei Zhao explained.
"This news… it's simply too shocking…" Qi Mingyuan and Qi Wenmo sank at once into their broad armchairs, and it was a long while before they digested the shock and alarm Wei Zhao's words had brought. In truth, had the words not come from Wei Zhao's mouth, they would sooner have been beaten to death than believe the spirit beast clan could ever dream of levying a tax. Why, that was to provoke open war between man and beast!
To be sure, the human cultivators native to the Southern Isle's seas alone could never hope to stand against the mighty, overweening spirit beast clan in open confrontation. But that did not stop them from sending to human sects on other Cloud-Tier Isles for help.
The Southern Isle's seas were rich in resources, and above all they lay right next to a place of such natural endowment as the Southern Isle. So practically every great and famous sect on every Cloud-Tier Isle kept a branch or a stronghold here. The moment the spirit beast clan truly moved against their interests and thereby earned the anger of the many, then no matter how many or how strong the spirit beast clan's experts might be, they could forget about gaining the slightest advantage.
The human powers that suffered losses, added together, would be enough on their own to give the spirit beast clan a hard time of it, and given the balance of strength between the two sides, if the day of war truly came, it was hard to say at all whose head would fall.
Suddenly Qi Mingyuan rose to his feet and bowed to Wei Zhao from the waist, thanking him from the bottom of his heart: "Young Hero Ling, this is a message that saves lives. Without your warning, our Qingtian Escort Bureau might well have been the first unlucky wretch to be carved up. On behalf of the whole Bureau, Qi thanks you for saving us."
This was no idle scaremongering. Unlike before, the Qingtian Escort Bureau was now the flagship and overlord among the escort bureaus of the Southern Isle's seas, expanding its business at a furious pace. Almost every day some new stretch of sea was drawn into its domain, and in barely more than a month, the Bureau's escort ships were already making frequent appearances across every famous stretch of the Southern Isle's waters.