Longevity starts with dual cultivation

Chapter 306: Contract Spirit
The former headquarters of the Qin family.

As there were still some follow-up matters that had not been dealt with, Shangguan Qingying did not return immediately and remained here with Ling Changqing.

So the envoys from each family met the real owner without much effort, but they soon regretted it and even wished they had never been there.

In the council hall.

In the middle of the high platform, on a large and gorgeous jade chair, the peerless Shangguan Qingying, dressed in an intricate and gorgeous bright yellow palace brocade dress embroidered with a phoenix pattern of the sun and the moon, and a phoenix crown and golden hairpins, sits upright, with a majestic and powerful aura.

On her left sat a beautiful young man with red lips, white teeth and purple clothes. His dark eyes indifferently glanced at the envoys present.

On both sides below, there were more than ten Yuanying Zhenjuns sitting. They were dressed differently and there were men, women, young and old, but their faces did not look very good.

Originally, they were planning to join forces to go to the door and put pressure on her, but after meeting the female head of the family, they found out in disbelief that Shangguan Qingying, who usually behaved in a low-key manner and did not show off her abilities, was actually already a powerful person at the Spiritualization Realm? !
How can this be fixed?
At this point, let alone forcing the Zhao family to give up the idea of ​​​​annexing the Qin family, they could not even guarantee the safety of their own foundation.

Originally everyone lived their own life. Although there were conflicts and disputes from time to time, as well as alliances and wars, overall the life was peaceful.

However, now, a ferocious beast that is difficult to resist suddenly appeared near their territory. They can neither defeat it nor move it away. What else can they do?
"...Fellow Taoists,"

Shangguan Qingying opened her red lips slightly, and her melodious and pleasant voice echoed throughout the hall:

"Our Zhao family only wants to eradicate the family rebellion and regain the territory and interests we lost in the past. We have no other wishes.

As for the future, as long as you don’t deliberately cause trouble, the Zhao family will not have any extra thoughts about your foundation, so I hope you won’t make too many associations.”

This is the attitude of the Zhao family. No matter what the surrounding forces think, they can no longer influence the will of the Zhao family’s top leaders, let alone stop it.

The world of cultivating immortals is a time of great contention, strength is the most effective bargaining chip, and nothing else will work.

The envoys below looked at each other, and finally a handsome middle-aged man in a white robe stood up and spoke in a gentle manner:
"We naturally believe what Patriarch Shangguan said. The Qin family was originally the rebel against the Zhao family. Now that everything is returned to its original owner, it is only natural!

However, the Zhao family is already a newly promoted divine power, and in the future, they should also take on more responsibilities and obligations for the stability and peace of the surrounding situation! What does the head of the family think? "

It is impossible to force the Zhao family to make concessions, so this guy wisely ignores this matter and starts to consider the safety of his own foundation.

Ling Changqing glanced at him and recognized the middle-aged man as Zhong Yantian, the deputy headmaster of Haoyun Peak. His current cultivation level is the early Nascent Soul stage, and he has little potential left. It is still unclear whether he can reach the middle Nascent Soul stage in his lifetime.

Haoyun Peak currently has two Yuanying Zhenjuns in charge, and its strength is comparable to that of the former Qin family. Moreover, its territory is adjacent to the Qin family, which is now the Zhao family's territory.

Therefore, it is not difficult to explain why Zhong Yantian is so nervous and wary of the Zhao family. If the Zhao family wants to expand outward in the future, Haoyun Peak will definitely be the first to bear the brunt and will be completely unable to resist.

Shangguan Qingying lowered her eyes slightly and said indifferently, "I wonder what Daoist Zhong has to say?"

"It's simple,"

Zhong Yantian said in a deep voice: "All of us are willing to serve the Zhao family as our master and become its vassal forces. I wonder what the Shangguan family thinks?"

Ling Changqing's eyes flashed slightly, and he instantly understood what the other party meant.

The envoys planned to exchange the safety of their own foundation for the price of becoming a vassal of the Zhao family.

Although the name of a vassal force is not nice and it will lose some interests and autonomy, it can at least ensure the stable inheritance of its own foundation and will not be targeted by other major forces day and night.

As long as they can convince the Zhao family to accept this matter, with this relationship, when the Zhao family needs to expand outward in the future, Shangguan Qingying will not be able to tear her face off and attack them.

"Are you serious?"

After a moment of silence, Shangguan Qingying slowly asked, "Are you all able to accept the responsibilities and obligations that a vassal force needs to bear, as well as the resources it provides to the master?"

In addition to the title, the resources that the vassal forces need to pay are also not a small amount. And once the master wants to go to war, the vassal forces must also contribute manpower and resources and cannot stand idly by.

As for the amount of resources offered each year, it needs to be jointly agreed upon by the master and the vassal forces. The amount can vary and there is no quota.

Some overbearing and greedy powers are extremely cruel in exploiting and oppressing their vassal forces, almost treating them like slaves.

In the world of cultivating immortals, every year there would be certain vassal forces that could not bear the oppression and would unite to rebel against the dominant power.

However, if the master is magnanimous enough, or the vassal is strong enough, then this kind of resource offering is only symbolic, and the amount is almost negligible.

"us……"

Zhong Yantian hesitated for a few breaths and whispered, "We have unanimously agreed to hand over 10% of the sect's or family's annual financial income to the Zhao family as offerings!
As for other obligations, the specific terms can be discussed later, what do you think, Master?"

A 10% contribution of resources is not much and is considered to be average.

Of course, there is still a lot of room for maneuver. After all, the Zhao family is not clear about the actual income of these forces. At most, they can only have a rough estimate.

Moreover, for the Zhao family, this is not the point. It is hard to say whether it is good or bad for the future development of the family to easily accept such a group of vassal forces.

"This is a serious matter... Please allow me to think about it and give you a reply in two months, okay?"

Shangguan Qingying was silent for a while, and finally said this.

From the perspective of the Zhao family, they had no intention of letting them off the hook. Wanting to preserve their own foundation? It was impossible without paying a heavy price.

"Then, we will wait for good news!"

Zhong Yantian also understood that such a matter was of great importance and could not be settled in just one or two meetings, so he agreed.

Then, he presented a gift on behalf of all the forces present. It was a set of top-grade magical flying swords, five in total. It was quite valuable, so Shangguan Qingying did not refuse.

Finally, Ling Changqing, on behalf of the head of the family, escorted the envoys out the door and chatted with them on the way.

They were very curious about Ling Changqing's identity. The real bone age of this beautiful purple-clothed boy should not be very old, but he was already in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul? How good was his spiritual root aptitude?
And there is also the relationship between this young man and Shangguan Qingying. Originally, I thought he was the son-in-law of the patriarch, but now it seems that is not the case?

However, in response to the intentional or unintentional probing questions from the special envoys, Ling Changqing remained vague and never gave a positive response.

A moment later, in the square in front of the family headquarters, Ling Changqing watched these envoys board the Tianzhou ship and take off into the air.

As for how they would form alliances and cliques to expand their influence after returning, Ling Changqing didn't care much.

For the Zhao family, all conspiracies and tricks are meaningless. These Nascent Soul forces have no better choice than to unconditionally submit to the Zhao family.

When he returned to the meeting hall, the beauty was no longer on the platform. Ling Changqing didn't care and went to the inner study room. As expected, he found Shangguan Qingying waiting for him there. She had changed into a thin and transparent dress, a bright red tube top with gold patterns, and her snowy and dazzling cleavage was bottomless.

"what do you think?"

Seeing Ling Changqing lock the door, then come over and hold her in his arms with ease, Shangguan Qingying rolled her eyes at him coquettishly and asked softly.

Ling Changqing hugged the beautiful woman's plump and charming warm body and began to do mischief to her, saying:

"I don't care about this. You can arrange it however you want. Anyway, the family will definitely expand its territory in the future. As for which specific target to attack, it doesn't seem to make much difference to us."

"There is still a difference,"

Shangguan Qingying's soft and elegant voice had a little more ripples. She gently pressed down Ling Changqing's hand that was inserted into her gorgeous skirt and said:

"These forces happen to surround the three sides of the family's territory, and not far to the east is the border of the Shengyu Immortal Dynasty. It is obviously not suitable for expanding the territory, so this matter must be carefully considered..."

To the east of the Zhao family's territory, separated by more than a dozen forces of varying sizes, is the border of the Shengyu Xian Dynasty, and these forces are all vassals of the Xian Dynasty.

Therefore, it is definitely not appropriate for the Zhao family to take action in this direction, and they can only consider the other three directions.

If the Zhao family agreed to surrender to these forces headed by Haoyunfeng, their future development plans would inevitably be directly affected and would no longer be as easy and convenient as expected.

Even if some new territories are seized, if they cannot be integrated with the Zhao family's existing territories, there will inevitably be a lot of trouble in managing and operating them.

"In that case, just reject them directly!"

Ling Changqing didn't care. At this point in time, the strategic initiative was completely in the hands of the Zhao family, and the opinions of the top leaders of the surrounding forces were not important.

After all, vassal forces still have a certain degree of independence and autonomy, and their internal affairs are not interfered with by the overlord power. How can this be better than directly annexing them and letting the overlord power have full control?

"However, the family currently has limited manpower, and it is not suitable for large-scale external expansion. We have to wait at least another 20 to 30 years."

Shangguan Qingying said with a frown.

Apart from her, a powerful spirit-transforming expert, the Zhao family's overall strength now still belongs to the category of senior Nascent Soul forces.

The number of Yuanying Zhenjun, Jindan and Zhendan cultivators have not yet reached the level that a Shenhua force should have.

In short, even if the Zhao family has taken down several Nascent Soul forces now, they will not be able to allocate enough manpower to control the newly acquired territories and implement effective governance.

If the surrounding Yuanying forces knew that they could not escape their fate of destruction and were determined to unite to fight against the Zhao family, then Shangguan Qingying would also be in a difficult position. After all, she was alone and could not take care of all directions.

If the Zhao family could have two powerful gods, it would be much easier. One would stay at the family headquarters, and the other would fight outside, which would solve most of the problems.

"So... why not agree to them now, and then consider this matter when the Zhao family has accumulated enough backbone forces in the future?"

Ling Changqing said that it was nothing more than a delaying tactic and it did not cause any psychological problems for him.

Don't think that you can sit back and relax after signing the treaty. Whether in his past life or this life, Ling Changqing has never seen a treaty that is permanently effective and never destroyed.

A truly strong person, or a sufficiently powerful force, will never be bound by these paper agreements.

As long as the expected benefits are greater than the costs, or as long as one side feels that it has suffered a loss, then the treaty will inevitably be torn up.

The spirit of contract = the spirit of breaking contract.

This was the case in the previous life, and in the world of immortal cultivation which is in the midst of great strife, this situation is even more common.

"Okay, I'll follow my husband's wishes."

Shangguan Qingying spoke softly. She was certainly not the kind of naive and innocent girl who would regard something like a treaty as more important than anything else.

As the head of the family, the interests of the family always come first.

As for the influence of reputation, no one in the world of immortal cultivation takes it seriously.

After talking for a while, Ling Changqing could no longer hold back, and took off Shangguan Qingying's clothes with ease, and then began to practice...

The beautiful woman's face blushed as bright as a rosy cloud, and she cooperated reluctantly. At the critical moment of the battle, she did not forget to call Zhao Wanyi, who was watching silently in the corner, to come and help, thus stabilizing the precarious situation on the battlefield.

Hundreds of thousands of miles away in the Zhao family's territory, Zhao Wanqing, who was busy in the study, trembled slightly. Her beautiful face, as white as snow, instantly turned red and she spat secretly.

The subtle induction between the twin sisters made it easy for her to understand what her elder sister was doing with her husband at the moment. Maybe even Shangguan Qingying...

This happened in broad daylight. It was absolutely ridiculous!

Zhao Wanqing thought bitterly, but with Ling Changqing's usual unscrupulous behavior, this kind of thing was commonplace.

More than ten days later, when the affairs here came to an end, Ling Changqing and Shangguan Qingying returned to the Zhao family headquarters together, leaving Zhao Wanyi here to continue on duty.

She is now in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm, and with the assistance of Qin Zhongqi and Qin Zhongyuan, two Nascent Soul True Lords whose spirits have been imprisoned, she is able to ensure peace in the territory.

Obviously, Zhao Wanyi was a little unhappy, because this meant that she would not be able to practice dual cultivation with Ling Changqing for a long time.

Fortunately, Shangguan Qingying had promised her that she would be allowed to go back to accompany Ling Changqing in a year at most, which made her change her anger into joy.

When they returned this time, all the remaining resources in the Qin family's warehouse had been packed up and taken away by Shangguan Qingying, in addition to hundreds of carefully selected female slaves from the Qin family.

They are both of outstanding character and figure, and can be used as Ling Changqing's maids in the future, doing relatively easy work, but it is unlikely that they will be able to become concubines, unless they are particularly favored by him.

After returning to the family headquarters, Shangguan Qingying immediately began to get busy. Her first task was to arrange a new batch of selection and training plans for new family members.

For all forces in the world of immortal cultivation, this is of utmost importance. It concerns the future rise and fall and survival of the family or sect, so they must act with caution.

Of course, the Zhao family's plan to select new people was mainly to fill Ling Changqing's circle, but Shangguan Qingying had never told others about it.

Compared to her own hard practice step by step, the woman who followed Ling Changqing's cultivation level improved at least ten times faster. Is there any need to hesitate about which choice to make?
As long as he helps, it won’t take long before the Zhao family has a large number of female cultivators at the foundation-building and core-forming levels, which can significantly enhance the overall strength of the family.

(End of this chapter)