Lin Fan clutched the "cooperation plan" from Mr. Mo, as if holding a branding iron—scorching hot, yet he could not bear to drop it. The plan meticulously outlined a trade route leveraging the Flowing Cloud Sect's channels to sell surplus herbs from the Lin family to the Southern Region, while acquiring scarce cinnabar from the North. If successful, it would significantly alleviate the Lin family's financial strain.
He immediately convened a secret meeting in his study with his most trusted advisors, his cousin Lin Feng, and Chief Guard Wang Jiaotou.
"...What are your thoughts on this plan?" Lin Fan passed around the document, scanning the room with a scrutinizing gaze.
The advisors read carefully and discussed in hushed tones. Soon, they split into two factions.
The conservative faction, led by a seasoned advisor, conceded the plan seemed feasible but highlighted its risks. The critical steps—establishing sales channels in the South and securing cinnabar in the North—depended entirely on Lin Feng's trade networks and Wang Jiaotou's armed escort. The risks were overly concentrated. "Young master, this plan places our family's fate in others' hands. Should anything go wrong..." The advisor left the sentence hanging, his anxiety evident.
The more radical faction argued this was the Lin family's only hope. "Great wealth comes from great risk! Mr. Mo's olive branch may not signify total hostility. Perhaps he merely seeks a share of the profits. If we weather this storm, we might yet make a comeback!"
During the debate, someone muttered, "If young master Lin Feng or Chief Guard Wang... harbor any disloyalty, or fall short in their abilities, and something goes wrong along the way..."
Though spoken softly, the words worked like a curse, embedding a venomous thorn in Lin Fan's already suspicious mind. Involuntarily, his gaze shifted to Lin Feng and Wang Jiaotou, seated at the table.
Lin Feng, young and astute in business, managed the family's external trade routes and was one of Lin Fan's few reliable allies within the clan. Wang Jiaotou, a long-serving Lin family elder with early-stage Divine Sea cultivation, was renowned for his unwavering loyalty, his body scarred from years of service.
Under normal circumstances, Lin Fan trusted them implicitly. But now, under the immense pressure of potential family ruin and the looming shadow of Mr. Mo, that trust began to waver. As he reviewed the plan, he grew increasingly convinced that the critical junctures were like swords hanging over his head, wielded by Lin Feng and Wang Jiaotou.
"Why did Mr. Mo specifically demand Lin Feng and Wang Jiaotou? Is it mere coincidence, or has he already bought them off in secret?" Once the thought took root, it grew like wildfire.
The Netherworld Palace's operations provided "evidence" to fuel Lin Fan's doubts.
Targeting Lin Feng: The Ghost Physician himself crafted a falsified record crystal using masterful disguise and photography spells. It depicted Lin Feng in a clandestine meeting at a hidden teahouse with a steward from the Mo Residence, "accepting" a bag of spirit stones. The profile and back of the "Lin Feng" in the image were strikingly lifelike, easily recognizable to those familiar with him. Simultaneously, several of Lin Feng's most profitable trade routes were precisely attacked by a "mysterious force" over a few days, resulting in catastrophic losses. The attackers seemed intimately knowledgeable about Lin Feng's guard arrangements and routes.
Targeting Wang Jiaotou: The Netherworld Palace spread rumors within the Lin family and its affiliated forces, claiming that Wang Jiaotou had received a significant favor in his youth, likely from Shen Mo, who had fallen off a cliff three years prior. This claim was fabricated based on Shen Mo's vague childhood memories and was difficult to verify. Subsequently, during a staged "failed assassination" attempt on Lin Fan (carried out by Netherworld Palace experts), the assassin was "captured" and, after enduring brutal torture (a performance for Lin Fan's benefit), "confessed" under duress that Wang Jiaotou had ordered the attack with the intent of kidnapping Lin Fan as a "token of allegiance" to Mr. Mo.
These "evidences" were not flawless. Under normal circumstances, Lin Fan, with his shrewdness, might have spotted the flaws. But now, battered by successive setbacks and consumed by fear, he was highly paranoid and chose to believe the "clues" pointing to betrayal.
Lin Fan's probing and coercion began.
First, he summoned Lin Feng privately, his words laden with innuendo as he repeatedly interrogated him about the details of the trade caravan attacks. Under the pretext of "strengthening centralized management," he abruptly revoked Lin Feng's control over several key trade routes. Feeling deeply wronged and untrusted, Lin Feng defended himself vigorously, which only deepened Lin Fan's suspicion of his guilt.
Next, citing the need to "enhance security within the residence," Lin Fan reassigned Wang Jiaotou from his core guard position to oversee an insignificant family warehouse. Wang Jiaotou, straightforward and forthright, accepted the transfer in silence. However, the disappointment and dejection in his eyes merely reinforced Lin Fan's belief that Wang was masking his complicity after being exposed.
The fissures of distrust widened relentlessly.
The Lin family's final batch of crucial goods—virtually the last hope for the family's recovery—comprised a priceless trove of "Condensation Pills" ingredients and a stockpile of spirit stones. These needed to be urgently transported to a neighboring city to secure the desperately needed funds. Lin Fan ultimately decided against using Lin Feng's trade channels or entrusting the escort to Wang Jiaotou. Instead, he personally selected a group of subordinates he deemed absolutely loyal and took charge of the convoy himself!
The route was planned exclusively by him, known to no one else.
However, as the convoy reached a treacherous spot called "Falcon's Demise Gully," it was ambushed by a host of black-clad assailants lying in wait! Their strength was formidable, their tactics ruthless and precise, with the货物 as their explicit target!
Though Lin Fan fought valiantly with his late-stage Body Tempering cultivation, slaying several assailants, their numbers were overwhelming and their coordination flawless. His loyal escorts suffered devastating casualties, and the goods were plundered entirely! He himself sustained severe injuries and was left in tattered disarray.
In the chaos, Lin Fan caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure resembling Lin Feng on a distant cliffside, engaged in hushed conversation with the black-clad leader (in reality, a Netherworld Palace expert in disguise). This sight obliterated the last shred of Lin Fan's sanity!
The bloodied and frantic Lin Fan stumbled back to the Lin residence, disregarding his injuries, and stormed into the council hall. At that moment, Lin Feng and Wang Jiaotou were deliberating with other elders on a response to the crisis.
"Lin Feng! Wang Mang! You traitorous curs!" Lin Fan's voice, raw with fury and pain, rang out as he pointed accusingly, "How dare you collude with outsiders to plunder our own family's goods! I'll have your lives!"
Without a word of explanation, he channeled his true energy and launched a reckless attack on Lin Feng and Wang Jiaotou!
"Brother Fan! Have you lost your mind?!" Lin Feng, a mix of shock and rage, parried the assault while crying out in anguish, "I swear to the heavens, if I ever harbored ill intentions toward the Lin family, may I be struck by lightning and meet a gruesome end! I am willing to undergo the Soul-Searching Technique to prove my innocence!" (The Soul-Searching Technique carries the risk of damaging the spirit.)
Wang Jiaotou offered no defense. Instead, he tore open his shirt to reveal the grotesque scars on his bronzed skin—twenty-seven in total, all sustained in service to the Lin family. Tears streamed down his weathered face as he lamented in a voice heavy with sorrow, "Lin Fan! For forty years, I have bled and toiled for the Lin family! These scars are my testament! Today, because of a few slanderous words from outsiders, you would slaughter this old man?! Hahahah... Well done! Bravo!"
The scene left the elders of the Lin family utterly disheartened.
Ultimately, several senior elders intervened, and a guest elder neutral in the conflict and proficient in soul techniques performed the Soul-Searching Technique on Lin Feng. The results confirmed Lin Feng's innocence—his memories were clear, with no evidence of collusion with Mr. Mo or betrayal of the Lin family!
The truth was revealed! However, the rift was irreparable. Once trust is shattered, it cannot be mended.
Lin Feng spat out a mouthful of blood—not from physical injury, but from the chilling blow to his spirit! He kowtowed three times before the ancestral tablets of the Lin family and vowed, "Today, I sever all ties with the Lin family and shall never set foot in Qinglan City again!" With that, he turned resolutely and departed, his figure forlorn.
Wang Jiaotou silently dressed, placed the token of his position as Chief Guard on the ground, and bowed to the elders without a word before striding away. The spine that had stood straight for forty years now appeared slightly hunched.
Two pillars of support for the Lin family—one disgraced, the other departed.
The Lin family suffered not only the loss of its last goods and liquidity but also its unity and backbone. Both its strength and cohesion were dealt a devastating blow.
Lin Fan stood despondently in the center of the empty council hall, surrounded by gazes of anger, disappointment, indifference, and fear. He felt himself become a true孤家寡人. It was only then that he vaguely realized he might have fallen into a meticulously orchestrated trap by Mr. Mo from the very beginning! The goal was not merely to destroy the Lin family but to isolate him, Lin Fan, to make him taste the agony of betrayal by those he trusted.
"Mr. Mo!" Lin Fan hissed the name through gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot and filled with venomous madness.
Within the Mo Residence, Shen Mo calmly observed the Lin family's chaos through a water mirror. "Palace Lord, why not seize this opportunity to annihilate the Lin family once and for all?" Shadow inquired, puzzled.
Shen Mo lifted a cup of tea, sipped it gently, and his eyes turned as cold as frost. "Death is too merciful for him," his voice was utterly placid. "I want him to experience every pain I endured: betrayal by those he trusted, abandonment of all he holds dear, and the helpless despair of watching his cherished world crumble piece by piece."
He set down the tea cup, his gaze profound and dark. "Pass the word. Proceed to the next phase. Deliver our young master Lin a lavish 'engagement gift.'"
He would make Lin Fan plummet into the abyss at the very moment he thought he had reached the pinnacle!
Lin Fan locked himself in his room, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, his appearance disheveled. At this moment, he received a letter from the Flowing Cloud Sect, penned by Qin Yao. The tone was indifferent, urging him to stabilize the family situation promptly and mentioning her impending visit to Qinglan City. Her words seemed to betray an unusual interest in the enigmatic Mr. Mo.
Reading the letter, Lin Fan felt no solace, only an unprecedented weariness and bone-chilling panic. It was as if an invisible hand were pushing his life toward an inescapable demise.