Volume 1, Chapter 151: Yang Hui Cannot Survive

The Spiritual Master Exchange Conference finally concluded after lasting a full month.

Although the interactions among the upper echelons of the various associations were fraught with undercurrents, most of them were quite satisfied with this exchange convention.

Lately, whenever Chi Xingwan saw Xu Hengyang, she would find him smiling with his eyes narrowed into slits. Xu Hengyang made no secret of it, telling her directly, "Xingwan, we've had a bumper harvest this time. We've exchanged for many treasures from the other associations."

The core of the exchange convention was actually the resource swapping among various associations. Although China was vast and rich in resources, the world was enormous, and there were still many materials that other countries possessed while China lacked them.

Having exchanged for the items he desired, Xu Hengyang was happy enough to momentarily push the annoying nation of Micheng to the back of his mind.

However, his joy did not last long before his assistant walked in with a complicated expression. "President, Mr. Smith, the leader of the Micheng spiritual master delegation, requests an audience."

Xu Hengyang's face instantly fell. "Show him in."

Chi Xingwan did not evade the situation; since Xu Hengyang did not signal for her to leave, she stayed put.

Mr. Smith walked in, completely unconcerned about whether Chi Xingwan was present or not, and directly stated his purpose: "President Xu, I am truly sorry. Although the exchange conference has concluded, our Micheng spiritual masters will need to stay in China for a little longer."

Xu Hengyang exchanged an obscure look with Chi Xingwan and asked, "I wonder if something has happened?"

Mr. Smith sighed. "Actually, one of our spiritual masters was a bit careless while on a mission."

The excuse he offered was that a spiritual master from Micheng, while accompanying Chinese spiritual masters on a mission, had been accidentally contaminated by a grievance-imbued artifact. Their mind and spirit had suffered a shock, and they were currently in no condition to endure the fatigue of travel. It would be best for them to wait until they had fully recovered before setting off.

"China truly has a profound history. Our spiritual masters rarely come into contact with millennia-old grievance artifacts. Fortunately, it didn't affect the mission this time, but I still wish to apologize to you on his behalf."

Xu Hengyang said in a muffled voice, "Mr. Smith, there is no need for you to apologize. This is something none of us wanted to see."

Mr. Smith immediately replied, "It was ultimately due to our spiritual master's carelessness. We will bear the ensuing food and lodging expenses ourselves."

Xu Hengyang thought for a moment and said, "The number of spiritual masters you brought this time is not large; there is no need to waste money staying at external hotels. You might as well move into Evernight Street. It will also be convenient for our physicians to tend to the contaminated spiritual master."

Mr. Smith frowned swiftly. Not giving him a chance to refuse, Xu Hengyang immediately instructed his assistant, "Have the guesthouse next to the tower cleaned up. Our friends from Micheng will be staying there."

"In that case, on behalf of everyone, I thank you." Having neither the opportunity nor any reason to refuse, Mr. Smith had no choice but to agree.

After he left, Chi Xingwan remarked, "They really found a way to stay."

Xu Hengyang sighed. "I didn't expect him to be so ruthless. To stay in China, he actually allowed one of his subordinates to be contaminated by a grievance artifact. That is certainly not a pleasant experience."

Neither Xu Hengyang nor Chi Xingwan doubted the matter; one of the Micheng spiritual masters must have genuinely been contaminated. Lying about something like this would be seen through at a glance.

It was simply a pity for that spiritual master. Being contaminated was deeply unpleasant, suffering both physically and mentally, and even if cured, it might leave sequelae that would impact their future advancement.

"So this was their purpose in asking to go on missions with us all along," Chi Xingwan said, "they even used Michelle as a smoke bomb."

Xu Hengyang replied, "No matter what they intend to do, once they move into Evernight Street, everything will be under our watchful eyes. Whatever tricks they want to pull, they will eventually expose themselves."

Chi Xingwan nodded. Remembering the frustrated expression on Mr. Smith's face when he left just now, she felt that their Association President was still a cut above.

"Xingwan, do not get involved in this matter. Try not to come to Evernight Street recently if you have nothing to do," Xu Hengyang instructed.

"Understood."

With a brief thought, she knew what Xu Hengyang was considering. It was nothing more than fearing that whatever trouble Micheng stirred up might be so great as to harm the entire association, and keeping Chi Xingwan safe would at least preserve some foundation.

Yet Chi Xingwan felt he was overthinking it. Although Micheng's spiritual masters were insidious, she had seen plenty of insidious sects in her past; Micheng's spiritual masters were still far from comparable to those ancient sects from three thousand years ago.

Even so, she obeyed and hardly ever set foot on Evernight Street from that day onward.

After a few days of leisurely living, Chi Xingwan received a phone call from Qiao Yang.

Yang Hui had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and no longer had any chance of treatment.

Chi Xingwan immediately went to the Qiao family residence to find Qiao Yang. Upon meeting, Qiao Yang told her, "It was only diagnosed yesterday. Chi Zhenghua and Yang Jing already know. Now, Yang Hui is completely useless."

"How is the situation now?" Chi Xingwan asked.

Qiao Yang said, "Yang Jing begged for leniency, so Chi Zhenghua dropped the lawsuit. The court also showed human sympathy; since he is a dying man anyway, they released Yang Hui to go home. The doctor says he has at most within a month left."

Chi Xingwan said indifferently, "With this, Chi Zhenghua's retreat route is cut off."

"Exactly. Therefore, I want to move the plan forward. I wonder if you are ready on your end?"

Chi Xingwan replied, "I can take action at any time."

Yang Hui was the creator of the secret sauce recipe for First Pavilion. He was originally the director of First Pavilion's sauce factory; although there were many employees in the factory, the formulation of the secret sauce had always been handled personally by Yang Hui, and no one else knew it.

Chi Zhenghua had already found a replacement for Yang Hui abroad, but that person was currently being stalled by Qiao Yang's maneuvering.

Qiao Yang's original plan was to wait until Yang Hui was formally convicted and imprisoned before letting that person return to the country, and then have Chi Xingwan destroy the secret recipe. By then, no matter how capable the newcomer was, without the recipe, they wouldn't be able to make any waves.

Meanwhile, Yang Hui, the only one who knew the recipe, would already be in prison. Given Yang Hui's hatred for Chi Zhenghua, even if he still remembered the recipe by heart, he would never tell Chi Zhenghua, plunging First Pavilion into dire straits.

Now, seeing that Yang Hui was failing fast, there was no need for Qiao Yang to continue holding back that person, and the plan could be advanced.

Leaving the Qiao family estate, Chi Xingwan returned to her room in the Xiao family residence. She unrolled a sheet of xuan paper, retrieved her spiritual brush from her inner universe, and wrote the character "Chi" on it.

The moment the final stroke landed, the character "Chi" came to life, leaping off the paper stroke by stroke and dancing around Chi Xingwan.

"Go," Chi Xingwan said softly.

The character drifted out through the window, floating all the way to Chi Zhenghua's office in the Chi Group building. It danced around the office for a circle before finally coming to rest on a decorative painting hanging on the wall.

The flat characters squeezed in from the edge of the picture frame. Behind the painting, embedded in the wall, was a safe, concealed by the artwork.

The character squeezed inside the safe, finally coming to rest on a scroll, wriggling stroke by stroke into the scroll itself, and lay dormant in the middle of the scroll as if fast asleep.

Meanwhile, the Chi household was bustling with activity. Yang Jing had wept herself to fainting spells multiple times over the condition of her younger brother, Yang Hui.

In a place where she remained unaware, the love gu that Pan Shuyun had planted within her own body had finally matured.