The silence in the great hall was a different beast now. Gone was the sharp, brittle tension of imminent violence, replaced by the deep, heavy quiet of a boardroom after a hostile takeover. The scattered remains of the feast on the long table were like the debris of a battlefield, a testament to a conflict that had been won not by swords, but by ideas.
Zhao Lihua sat at the head of the table, her posture ramrod straight, her face a mask of regal composure. But I could see the furious calculations behind her eyes. She was a queen on her own chessboard who had just watched a new, unknown piece move in a way she didn't think was possible, toppling her knights and pinning her king in a single, elegant maneuver. She had not been defeated; she had been outplayed. And for a woman like her, the distinction was everything.
I retook my seat, and gestured for Mengue and Chixi to sit as well. Not behind me, but beside me. We were a delegation now, not a master and his servants. Mengue sat, her back straight, her earlier nervousness replaced by a quiet, fierce pride in the man she had aligned herself with. Chixi remained standing, a step behind my chair, her role unchanged: the silent, deadly guarantor of my physical safety.
"An empire," Zhao Lihua repeated the word, letting it hang in the air between us. "A bold claim from a man who, an hour ago, was at my mercy."
"An hour ago, you thought my life was the asset in question," I replied smoothly, meeting her gaze without flinching. "You were mistaken. My life is irrelevant. My knowledge is the asset. And it is an asset you cannot afford to liquidate."
I pushed aside the scattered plates in front of me, creating a clean space on the polished wood of the table. "Let me paint you a picture, Matriarch. Not of a mining operation, but of a true dynasty. We will begin with what I call 'The Zhao Standard'."
I used my finger to draw a small circle on the table. "This is your current operation. You dig up ore, perform a basic refinement, and sell it. It's a single-product business. It is vulnerable, as we have demonstrated."
I then drew a much larger circle around the first. "Now, imagine this. We don't just sell ore. We create a vertically integrated conglomerate. We use my geological survey techniques to map the entire mountain. We know where every vein is, its quality, its depth. We don't just mine; we manage the resource for perpetual yield. We build a new, high-efficiency refinery based on principles of thermodynamics and alchemy that I can provide. This refinery will produce Ironwood of a purity the world has never seen. We will call this product 'Zhao Celestial Iron'. We will brand it. We will make it a legend."
Zhao Lihua's eyes, which had been cold and guarded, now held a flicker of genuine, avaricious interest. I was speaking her language: not just profit, but legacy.
"This 'Celestial Iron'," I continued, "becomes the foundation. We don't sell it to just anyone. We use it to build our own forges, the most advanced in the empire. We will hire the best blacksmiths and inscription masters, and we will equip them with techniques they've never dreamed of. We will create a line of artifacts—swords, armor, constructs—under the 'Zhao Celestial Forged' brand. These won't just be weapons; they will be status symbols. Every king, every sect master, every powerful cultivator will desire one. We will control not just the resource, but the entire high-end artifact market that depends on it."
I drew another, even larger circle. "But that's just the second level. The spirit vein itself is the true prize. It emits a constant, powerful stream of pure Earth-elemental Qi. Why are we letting all that energy dissipate into the air? We will build our new headquarters directly over the heart of the vein. We will construct a cultivation chamber, an array that focuses this energy. It will become the single best place on the continent to cultivate Earth-elemental techniques. We will not just sell weapons, Matriarch. We will sell power itself. We can lease access to the chamber. We can use it to train our own loyal army of elite cultivators. We can use it to attract and bind powerful allies to our cause."
I leaned back, letting the scale of my vision sink in. "You have been selling stones. I am offering you the chance to sell the mountain itself, piece by piece, forever. That is the empire I offer you. An industrial, technological, and cultivation superpower, built on a foundation of knowledge that only I possess."
The silence that followed was absolute. Mengue was looking at me, her mouth slightly agape, completely mesmerized by the sheer audacity of my vision. Chixi, for her part, had a strange look on her face, a mixture of awe and dawning horror at the scale of the ambition she had been tasked with overseeing.
Zhao Lihua was the first to recover. She did not look excited or overwhelmed. She looked like a predator that had just seen a glimpse of a vast, new hunting ground.
"Your vision is… grand," she conceded, her voice a low purr. "And your confidence is absolute. But a vision is not a business plan. You speak of techniques and principles you alone possess. This makes you both an invaluable asset and an unacceptable liability. If you are the single point of failure, then my entire 'empire' rests on your continued health and loyalty."
She had, with her usual sharp pragmatism, identified the core problem. "Therefore," she continued, "a partnership, as you call it, is out of the question. I will not cede a single shred of control over my family's legacy to an outsider, no matter how clever he is. I will, however, offer you a position. You will be the Chief Architect of this… grand vision. You will be given resources, manpower, and a laboratory to develop and implement these ideas. You will have a handsome salary and a generous share of any new profits generated by your methods."
She leaned forward, her eyes glittering like obsidian chips. "In exchange for this unprecedented opportunity, this backing of the full Zhao family resources, you will swear a soul oath of loyalty to me and accept my authority. You will serve the interests of the Zhao family, and me, absolutely. You will be my asset, Lu Bing. My brilliant, valuable, and wholly-owned asset. That is my offer."
It was a brilliant counter. She was offering me everything I needed to get started, but the price was my freedom. She saw a wild, dangerous dog with a unique talent, and she was offering it a golden kennel and a diamond collar.
'Oof, the classic golden handcuffs play,' the Author noted. 'She's offering him a corner office in his own prison. Tough negotiation tactic. Let's see the rebuttal.'
I smiled, a slow, easy smile that seemed to infuriate her. "An excellent offer, Matriarch. Generous, clear, and perfectly designed to protect your interests. It is also, unfortunately, completely unacceptable."
Her eyes narrowed. "You dare refuse?"
"I am not refusing," I clarified. "I am renegotiating. You are correct. I am the single point of failure. That is my leverage. A slave cannot innovate. An asset in a cage will not dream of empires for you. Fear is a poor motivator for the kind of creative genius I am offering. You do not want a Chief Architect. You want a co-conspirator. You want a partner who is as invested in this dynasty's success as you are."
I pushed a single, untainted wine glass to the center of the table. "So, here is my counter-offer. We form a new entity, a council to oversee this project. You and I will be its two heads. A diarchy. All decisions will be made jointly. I will not swear an oath of servitude, but I will swear a blood oath of loyalty and partnership to you, and you to me. An oath between equals."
"Equals?" she scoffed. "You are a Qi Crystallization whelp. I am a Golden Core Matriarch. We are far from equal."
"Are we?" I challenged, my voice dropping. "Your cultivation is powerful, but your thinking is limited by the world you know. My cultivation is weak, but my mind is a weapon you cannot even comprehend. My theories are not limited to geology, Matriarch. They extend to cultivation itself. I can give you something far more valuable than a few extra stages of cultivation. I can give you a breakthrough."
This was the gamble. "I have observed you. I saw it when you pinned your son. The immense power, yes, but also the instability. The faint, almost undetectable tremor in your Qi control. Forgive my presumption, but it strikes me as the hallmark of a system reaching its operational limits. It is a phenomenon we studied in my homeland—a power plateau."
I was treading carefully, framing my insights as educated guesses based on observation, not as infallible truths. "You are at the peak of the Golden Core realm, are you not? Stage Nine. And you have been there for… a long time. My hypothesis is that your method of cultivation, while effective, is inefficient. It's like a powerful but poorly designed engine. It generates immense power, but also immense waste heat and internal stress—the 'impurities' and 'instability' cultivators speak of. You have reached a point where simply forcing more fuel into the engine will only cause it to break. This is why you cannot break through to the Nascent Soul realm."
Every word was a careful probe, a theory presented for her consideration. But I saw from the sudden, sharp intake of her breath and the tightening of her hands that my hypothesis had hit the bullseye. I had identified the flaw in her perfection, a secret frustration she likely hid from the entire world.
"The principles I am developing are not established facts here," I admitted, a show of intellectual honesty. "They are experiments. But my theory is that cultivation can be optimized. I believe that by applying principles of resonance, thermodynamics, and bio-feedback, we can fundamentally change the efficiency of Qi refinement. I propose we work together to develop a new cultivation method, tailored specifically for you. It's a gamble. It might fail. But if it succeeds, it will not just help you break through to the Nascent Soul realm; it will ensure that when you do, your foundation will be so solid, so perfect, that your future potential will be limitless."
I leaned back, my trap laid. "So, that is my final offer. A partnership of equals. I offer you my knowledge—a key that might unlock both an empire and your own personal apotheosis. In return, I want your trust, your resources, and your absolute loyalty as a partner. Not a master."
The hall was silent for a full minute. Zhao Lihua stared at me, her face a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. I had offered her not a guarantee, but a compelling, logical possibility that spoke directly to her deepest, most secret ambition. She was a powerful woman who wanted to be more powerful. It was the core of her being.
Mengue, sitting beside me, played her part perfectly. "Matriarch Zhao," she said, her voice soft and sincere. "I have only known the Master for a short time. But I have seen him turn a hopeless situation into a victory. I have seen him defeat a monster with a word. He sees things no one else can see. He is offering you the future. I hope you are wise enough to take it."
Her simple, heartfelt testimony was more effective than any threat. It was a human validation of my almost supernatural claims.
Finally, Zhao Lihua took a deep breath. She looked at me, and for the first time, I saw not a matriarch or a warrior, but a woman who was tired of being stuck, tired of carrying her family's burdens alone, and who was being offered a hand from a completely unexpected direction.
"You are either the most brilliant man I have ever met, or the most convincing madman," she said, her voice raspy with emotion. "A blood oath. On what terms?"
"Simple," I replied. "We swear to never willingly harm one another, to work for the mutual benefit of our enterprise, and to protect each other from all outside threats. An unbreakable alliance of two."
She considered this, then gave a sharp, decisive nod. "Very well. I accept your terms, partner." She stood up, a new, dangerous energy radiating from her. "But my trust is not given freely. It must be earned, every day. You will deliver on your promises, Lu Bing. You will give me my breakthrough, and you will give me my empire. If you fail…"
"If I fail," I finished for her, standing to meet her, "then I am sure a woman of your resourcefulness will find a way to make me regret it. And I would expect nothing less."
We stood across the table from each other. The negotiation was over. The alliance was forged.
Suddenly, a side door to the hall burst open. A frantic-looking servant rushed in, his face pale with terror. "Matriarch! It's the Young Master! He… he's taken the girl, Fengue, and he's gone to the Blighted Tunnels in the old west mine! He left a note! He says if you side with this outsider over your own blood, he will take his own life, and hers with it!"
Zhao Lihua's face, which had just softened with the promise of a new future, hardened into a mask of pure, cold fury. My minor protagonist, my stepping stone, had just made his last, desperate, and incredibly stupid move. He couldn't win the game, so he had decided to flip the entire board.
I looked at my new partner. "It seems our first act as a diarchy," I said, a grim smile on my face, "will be a bit of… internal conflict resolution."
The game was afoot, and it had just gotten a great deal more complicated.