Shu fixed his posture and said with a sigh, “Seems like I haven’t been keeping strict enough of an eye on Merchant Hall. Ai ai….. Seems like my eye for discerning people seems to be getting rusty.” As Shu shook his head, Jack just nodded his head. He didn’t blame Shu by any means but rather he agreed to his words.

The bigger an organization grows, the harder it is to keep it in order. Throughout the history, there have been countless Clans and Sects that have fallen due to their Clan becoming too fragmented. Each Faction wants to rule the Clan or Sect but as the end result, they will only be ruling over a mountain of corpses. Jack saw an empty chair next to Shu and pointed at it and said, “Grab a chair and come drink with us. You have had a long day behind you.”

Shu was startled by Jack proposition and he involuntarily tried to remember when was the last time he went to a pub or sorts to have a drink and merrily chat with others. As he tried to remember, he shook his head with a helpless face, it had been far too long. He was one of the Core Founders of Dragon Cross and ever since Dragon Cross was founded, they had not had a moment to relax like this.

He was either cultivating or managing the Sects finances. Merchant Hall was the place that dealt with all transactions of the Sect. They also regulated how much support each member gets from their monthly or yearly contribution. This all required a lot of work and even though most of the work was done by the people under him, he was the person that gave the final yes or no.

Shu grabbed the chair Jack talked about and went to sit next to him. He was in a bit of an awkward position but as Jack poured some wine to him, Jack said, “Take it a bit easy. It should not be hard for you to find a few dozen good talents worth cultivating to take up your mantle.”

Shu took a sip as the surrounding people’s faces changed when they studied him more closely. The Five Founders of Dragon Cross was renowned people and even if people had not seen them in person, they had seen a picture of them. Also, coupled with what he had said until now, it was very easy for everyone present to realize that the person sitting at the same table as them is one of the true experts of their Cosmos.

Everyone tensed up upon realizing this and some even started fidgeting a bit, unable to stay calm. If Shu gave an order for them to die, they would die without a doubt. Seeing the fidgeting and uneasiness in the people that had been merrily chatting and drinking with Jack until now, Shu sighed.

He had found Jack a few hours ago actually but when he saw how merrily he was drinking and chatting with everyone, he felt wrong to disturb him. After a long time of hesitating, he finally entered the room but he did not expect Jack to invite him to drink with everyone else.

Shu let out a breath as he quietly shook his head, “Seems like Dragon Cross disciples have lived at peace for far too long….” As Shu opened his mouth, the people sitting across from Jack tensed up. However, when the words left Shu’s mouth, they were startled a bit.

One of them subconsciously asked, “What do you mean by that?” Only after asking the question did he realize what he had done and immediately started sweating quite extravagantly. Before he could say anything more, Shu let out another sigh, “What I mean is that the people from Dragon Cross have not had any hardships as of late. Dragon Cross is prosperous, the number of people that dare to pick a fight with it can most likely be counted on one hand.”

He took a sip of wine as he continued, “This has made them feel as though they are the Emperors of Heavens. Every subsequent generation of disciples becomes more and more arrogant and condescending towards other.” Jack thoughtfully looked at the wine in his cup.

He had been a part of Hidden Dragon previously and he knew exactly how arrogant the sect disciples had become. Once a year, Dragon Cross accepted new disciples, whether from within the Sect or from the outside world. At the admittance site, he had seen countless people that had been born inside the Sect look down upon those that had come from the outside.

This orchestration even continued when they were admitted to the Sect. Those from the outside however looked meek and submissive inside the Sect but kept throwing their weight around outside the Sect. The only reason Dragon Cross has managed to exist this long was because Hidden Dragon did their utmost to clean the house of these kinds of people.

Depending on the severity of the crimes, the punishment varied from simply a week of imprisonment to even execution. Of the newly admitted disciples about 70% of them will be punished in accordance to the rules in their first year. This number was astronomical if you take into account that Dragon Cross was an enormous Sect that accepted nearly 10 000 people each year.

Out of the ten thousand people admitted, about seven thousand get punished in accordance to the rules in the first year, this made it obvious that Dragon Cross did not have much choice than to focus more of their attention on the people that didn’t get punished or investigated for committing a crime.

Shu took another sip as he had a nostalgic look that seemed to peer into the past in his eyes, “When we just founded Dragon Cross, except for Master, everyone else was either a farmer or a minor official in a Minor World. Our World was divided into three continents and ours had just lost it’s Protector. Our only choices were either death or slavery.”

Shu swirled the wine in his glass as he continued, seemingly in trance, “When I met Master, we were surrounded by a legion of Sect Disciples that wanted to enslave us. Suddenly, Master appeared out of thin air and saved all of us as he dominated all over the others with an overwhelming strength. We he had killed all those Sect Disciples, he turned to leave but after us pleading and willingly giving a Bloodline Oath, he decided to take us under his protection.”

Shu let out a laugh as he said, “He had no intention of founding a Sect, much less ruling over it. He laid down many Formations Array’s and gave us enormous amounts of resources and Arts. As we grew, through bloodshed we earned our spot amongst the supreme powers of Minor Worlds, then Upper Worlds and finally, after dozens of thousands of years later, we became a supreme power of the Ascended World.”

He swiped a glance of everyone present before continuing, “Even though everyone calls us the “Five Founders”, me and the other three can never hold a candle to Master’s contributions. In times of war, he stood at the very front and led the charge, in times of peace, he rules over the Sect with a strict iron fist.” As he let out a bitter laugh, it was obvious how much Shu thought he owed him. When the other’s in the pub learned from Shu about how Dragon cross came to be, they all slightly eased up.

Dragon Cross was acknowledged as the number one Sect in their Cosmos. No Clan or Sect could win against them in a direct fight or an indirect one. The rumours of Blood Immortal Conclave being destroyed by Dragon Cross had spread far and wide. A lot of people sighed to themselves about how idiotic the Blood Immortal Conclave had been. It wouldn’t have been hard to fight with any other supreme power of the Ascended World. At least they would have a chance but they directly tried to pick a fight with Dragon Cross.

The end result was their complete and utter obliteration with a few of the remnants scattering to the wind. However, those few remnants will soon be uprooted as well because Hidden Dragon’s ability was famed in the entire Cosmos. After Shu had talked this far, everyone present had loosened up and realized that Shu will not sentence them to death for talking. The overbearingness of big Sects and Clans was deeply rooted into all of the regular peoples minds.

After everyone had loosened up, they also started asking some questions or talking about some other things. Soon the stifling atmosphere disappeared and the atmosphere turned merry again. They drank and talked until morning and when the first rays of light came through the pub window, the sight was quite funny to look at. Many people couldn’t bear the combination of exhaustion of working all day and drinking.

They had all slowly fallen to sleep land where they sat and currently, Jack, Shu and the old lady from before were the only ones looking over the funny sight of people having drunk themselves to sleep. How many times in your life would you have the chance of drinking and talking with a person that stood at the top of the Cosmos?

Jack ate some breakfast that the old lady had prepared and then followed Shu to the Manor. Last night, Shu had caused quite a bit chaos there and even though the servants worked through the night, they still hadn’t finished cleaning the entire place up.

As for the father son pair, Shu had said that they will be demoted by several ranks and all of their wealth they had accumulated had been confiscated and put into the City Treasury or to be more precise, Jack’s Treasury. Even the four Origin Realm Experts had been called back to the Sect for a thorough investigation. Shu did not leave anything up to chance because Jack’s importance to the Sect was equal to his and other Ancestors for some reason.

It was obvious from the vast amounts of resources given to him by the Sect and also this kind of authority and security surpassed any other City Lord. Even the City Lord of Dragon Cross City did not have as much authority and resources as Jack was given. When Jack asked Shu about it, Shu dodged the topic with a usual, “You will understand the reason behind it when you grow stronger.” Although it left Jack puzzled, there was nothing he could do.

If Shu and the rest did not want to speak of it yet, all he could do was wait until the time was right. After seeing the full list of the Treasury, Jack’s jaw nearly fell to the ground. Shu grinned as he said, “Until now, Merchant Hall Master’s had been the ones that filled in the position of City Lord. The resources still flowed into the Treasury but there was not a City Lord to spend them. Although the two from before did expend some resources, the confiscated wealth made up for it and even surpassed it.”

Shu then looked at Jack seriously and asked, “Do you want a grand ceremony or a small one?” Jack looked at Shu and unwaveringly answered, “Small one!” Everyone was different and some people want to flaunt their new position by holding a grand celebration while other’s were more reserved. Some just spread the word that they became the City Lord but held no celebration what so ever. Jack honestly didn’t want any celebration either but Virbeth was a Major City, so he had to hold a celebration.

So since he had a choice, he chose the small scale celebration with each Clan and major power in his jurisdiction sending one or two representatives.

Shu nodded his head and immediately left Jack to familiarize himself with his new home as he went to set up the celebration.