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Over the past millennium, the martial arts world has flourished, weaving a fabric of distinguished clans. Yet, those families intent on settling scores through extreme measures often vanish to the pages of history. The surviving martial arts families have discovered that the key to long-term success lies not in battle retribution but in diplomacy and relationships.

Military power only provides the basic protection. To extend lineage longevity, the clans must balance force with flexibility.

Force signifies the uncompromising pursuit of clan interests. This is especially notable when it involves their core martial techniques, magical art forms, vital resources, and territory. Any aggression against these interests leaves no room for ambiguity. If anyone dares to reach out a hand, the clans are prepared to sever it, regardless of the domineering force behind it.

Meanwhile, flexibility implies that clans stop short of total destruction. Even when faced with sworn enemies, there is rarely an extermination among clans. For example, in Tang Clan’s task of territory expansions, many claimants are newly established young nobles striving to own their own domain. They would raise their own forces to conquer existing territories such as villages and townships.

Taking command is straightforward. It simply involves removing the current ruling class and promoting another group to their position. For bottom-tier commoners, it amounts to a change in rulers and regulations, with no significant differences in essence.

However, for the incumbent rulers, this is a matter of life and death. Over the past few millennia, very few rulers have been known to surrender without a fight or to change insignia without bloodshed.

Within the realm of warfare, nobody can claim absolute certainty of victory. Winners usually do not resort to absolute destruction. For instance, should young nobles lead soldiers and be captured after a failed assault, the victors do not immediately execute the captives. Instead, they extend a missive of surrender to captive families, offering them to negotiate a ransom.

Even for an illustrious Tang Family, upon receiving such messages, they would send representatives courteously to negotiate compensation and arrange the retrieval of captives. This is the common practice among nobility and rich clans.

Unless the demanded ransom couldn’t be negotiated or in dealings with bands of thieves, most of the time, there are few cases of fallen nobility being executed during a war.

This is the task Mi Jing now faces. He must protect Mi Chu’s life and admit severe defeat in this mortal combat. Tang Luo’s prospective terms for ransom seem justifiable.

Though Mi Chu does not currently fall into Tang Luo’s hands, anyone can see that he has already lost. Not only does he falter in personal power, but he also suffers humiliation by losing control over his beast, tasting defeat. Ml Jing knows that public sentiment towards Mi Clan is currently at its worst. Thus, he did not hesitate nor negotiate on the matter of ransom. He straightaway asks Tang Luo to name his price.

Clans have deeply ingrained this traditional method of negotiation into their nature, leaving no room for suspicion he plainly said, “I appreciate your understanding and reasonableness, Young Tang. Please name your price.” At Mi ling’s statement, Mi Chu, whose head has been lowered since the start, shivers, clenching his fists hard without looking up. Who wouldn’t be aware of the surging hatred within him?

Chu, who was once the darling of Xiling, has now fallen to the point of needing to pay a ransom for his life. The spectators’ whispered comments seem to slap him in the face.

The thousands of beast souls inside him seem to roar in a blood-thirsty frenzy, boiling and burning in his organs. A suffocating sense of gloom in his chest nearly strangles his breath. He dare not lift his head, not because of fear or shame, but out of fear of the uncontrollable slaughter that could ensue. His chest feels like it’s about to burst!

If they could hear Mi Chu’s inner voice, these spectators would call him incredibly weak-hearted. But they weren’t mocking. They found themselves enthralled by Tang Luo’s suggestion of “buying a life”.

Spectators, who relish the excitement, are eager to know how much Chu’s life is worth as one of Mi Clan’s twin jewels. After all, for these young masters and ladies who grew up in peace, ransom demands are things they only occasionally heard at their elders’ dining tables. As such, the unfolding events are like a story playing out right before their eyes, stirring up heated discussions among them.

“I bet it’s at least a few hundred million.”

“A few hundred million? It’s at least a billion, after all, it’s Chu we’re talking about!”

“Humph, you’re all ignorant! A single beast is worth more than a billion gold. Do you think a prestigious Beast Soul Blood lineage holder would be equal to a beast? In my opinion, it should be at least ten billion before the newly acclaimed top son of Xiling would ease up.”

Everybody whispers, making their guesses. However, most agree with the final conclusion of Wan Man, a top-ranked young man among other nobles. Besides few top metamorphosis heroes who have the title of Celestial Being, among the other young masters, Wan Mann, who came from a large family has the best potential. At a young age, he has already started to deal with some of the family business and industry. His judgments were convincing and are expected to be close to the truth.

However, they have underestimated Tang Luo for if he just wanted to earn some pocket money today, he would have opened with ten billion or twenty billion. Mi Jing would not even quibble. But how could he achieve his goal that way?

Ever since he knew that war would arise in Xiling, he wrote a kill list during his shut-in phase, which included names of Mi Family’s younger generation. Mi Chu’s significant name was at the very top of the list. Now that Mi Chu has conveniently delivered himself, how could Tang Luo not seize the chance, especially after a night of plotting?

“One hundred billion!” Tang Luo said to Mi Jing indifferently, “This can be in the form of gold, supplies or martial arts techniques. This is the price of his life.”

With a hand still pointing at Mi Chu, all of Jianglin gasps. The disbelief in everyone’s eyes was visible as they stared at Tang Luo.

A ransom of a hundred billion? That’s an absurd joke!

“Ha.” Mi Jing burst into derisive laughter, sneered, “In my forty years of experience, I have never heard of such an outrageous demand. Perhaps Young Master Tang should cool down, and then a representative from the Mi Clan will get in touch. Excuse us.”

With that said, Mi Jing intended to leave with Mi Chu, not wanting to waste time on Tang Luo’s nonsensical ramblings.

A clan’s assets consist of many components, with cash always being the most minor part. Primarily, assets are demonstrated in martial art techniques, the number of spiritual beasts, clan warriors, and mining resources.

However, a hundred billion demand, no matter how it is paid, challenges Mi Jing’s fundamental cognition. One should know that if a clan’s assets are to be fully liquidated, it would be around two to three billion at most, built up over hundreds of years. Tang Luo’s initial demand is one-third of a distinguished clan’s total assets, how could he accept it?

Not to mention him, even hearing the demand for a hundred billion, the Martial Ancestor Tang Qian, father of Tang Luo, was somewhat dazed. He turned his head and looked at Tang Luo, who appeared calm, feeling surprised in his heart.