Chapter 382: Chapter 381: A Newcomer Joins Heaven’s Court_1

“Do you want to come with me to Yanjiang County?” Lu Yang asked Meng Jingzhou.

Meng Jingzhou was clearly tempted, but he shook his head and refused: “I need to train my shadow, so I won’t go out yet.”

Meng Jingzhou felt that if Third Elder frisked his coursework and found that he had ignored his cultivation, he would most likely be in trouble.

The road to cultivation was fraught with danger, as this showed.

“Alright then.” Lu Yang pursed his lips, feeling a bit bored being by himself.

“Hey, Junior Sister Tao, over here.” At the foot of the mountain, Lu Yang saw Tao Yaoye not far away. Judging by her aimless pace, it appeared she had nothing to do.

“Senior Brother Lu, what’s up?” Tao Yaoye’s lips curled in a faint smile, very easy on the eyes. Her manner exuded beauty, promising that she would become an exceptionally graceful beauty in the future.

“Would you like to join our Heaven’s Court?” Lu Yang invited eagerly. As the young master, he needed to recruit more geniuses for the sect.

“You probably have not heard of Heaven’s Court. It’s currently the top sect in the world…”

“Sure.”

“Huh?”

Lu Yang paused, taken aback by Tao Yaoye’s quick agreement.

“Have you heard of Heaven’s Court?” Lu Yang wondered if Sixth Elder had told Tao Yaoye about it.

“Nope.”

“Then why did you agree so quickly?”

Tao Yaoye flashed a sly smile, blinking her eyes: “Would Senior Brother Lu deceive me?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, isn’t that settled then? Since joining Heaven’s Court is for my benefit, why would I refuse?”

Lu Yang was rendered speechless. He hadn’t considered it from this angle.

“So, what exactly is this Heaven’s Court?” Tao Yaoye asked curiously.

“It’s currently the top sect in the world. Our eight Elders and master are Heavenly Kings of the sect, Eldest Senior Sister is the Master, and I am the young master. We worship the omnipotent Bean Deity!”

Tao Yaoye chose to ignore the unheard-of Bean Deity, understanding why their master had been fretting about his title of Heavenly King recently.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Aside from us, there’s Meng Jingzhou, Li Haoran, and Li Haoran’s ex-daughter Qin Yanyan.”

Tao Yaoye looked puzzled, thinking the members of Heaven’s Court were rather complicated.

Why form Heaven’s Court? Was Lu Yang not satisfied with defeating the demonic sect and wished to replace it?

“Well, it started when Meng Jingzhou, Li Haoran, and I set out to catch ghosts…”

Lu Yang narrated the entire story, which left Tao Yaoye astounded.

True to his reputation, Lu Yang was quick-witted enough to devise a way to deceive the Nine Nether sect by creating a fake religion. This was far more proactive than infiltrating the Nine Nether sect as a spy.

“Our Heaven’s Court claims to be an ancient court, so we need to have a few geniuses to show for ourselves. Tao, you make a perfect candidate as an ancient genius.”

Tao Yaoye felt somewhat pleased, feeling acknowledged by Lu Yang.

“I’m about to meet the higher-ups from the Nine Nether sect. Will you come along?”

“Sure.”

…

Yanjiang County, Once More BBQ main branch.

The BBQ business was booming, expanding rapidly. The branches of Once More BBQ had spread to counties surrounding Yanjiang County.

If there were enough grills and fire pits, the BBQ shops would have sprouted everywhere, forming a chain industry.

The Nine Nether sect put a great deal of effort into setting up BBQ shops with the sect leader backing it vigorously. He even proposed to put a hold on their killings for a while; the current objective of the Nine Nether sect was to focus on opening BBQ shops.

This was much safer than using their sect members’ identity to borrow money.

The Master was so joyous that he would even laugh during his meditation sessions.

Vice Headmaster Shi was unaware of the sect’s near-thousand years of deficit and didn’t know why the Master had put their doctrines on hold, insisting that they focus on running the BBQ shop.

It might be that the Master was money-minded or perhaps there was some other reason.

He didn’t concern himself with the Master’s motives. Running the BBQ shop was his way to deal with the billion-dollar loan.

Even though he was at the Spirit Transformation stage, he wouldn’t be able to withstand heavenly tribulation every month. If he failed to withstand it even once, he would be doomed.

He was determined to make the BBQ shop scale up and prosper.

There were two key points to running a shop—having a secret formula and creating a good business environment.

The first point is self-evident; their BBQ shops’ success was built on their secret recipe.

There were many ways to achieve the second point, such as building a good relationship with the government office.

However, bribes were risky and untrustworthy. What if the officer who was bribed got caught? Wouldn’t their BBQ shop be doomed as well?

Vice Headmaster Shi altered his thinking. What the government needed were stability and order.

Their BBQ shop could help officials in catching criminals and punishing offenders.

Who could be more professional than the demonic sect when it came to crime?

Dealing with current crimes, which were a mere remnant of their past exploits, would be a piece of cake.

Of course, such things shouldn’t be done openly. It was better to operate covertly, leading the government to suspect it was their own doing, without any evidence.

This was the best scenario.

In this way, the government office would suspect that the BBQ shop was a covert industry of a righteous power.

Furthermore, the BBQ shop often punished the wicked and maintained stability.

Influenced by two such factors, the government was bound to be inclined to protect the BBQ shop.

The actual outcome validated Vice Headmaster Shi’s ideas. The order in Yanjiang County was unprecedentedly stable, the prisons were much emptier, and the government neither carried out periodic inspections nor implied anything.

When it was quiet at night and the main branch had closed for the day, the sect members tidied up the lobby and the backyard. Vice Headmaster Shi was bent over his desk, writing feverishly. He was documenting the lessons learned from running the shop in the past month.

“Master, the people from Heaven’s Court have arrived,” Huo Huashen reported respectfully. As the manager of the main branch, he was responsible for executing Vice Headmaster Shi’s policies.

Three days had passed since the notice was issued, and during that time, Vice Headmaster Shi had been waiting at the main branch.

“Headmaster Shi, it’s been a while!” Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye entered. “Your sect seems to be doing quite well; you need new grills and fire pits so soon.”

“Oh, not at all. It’s just luck.” Meeting Lu Yang, Vice Headmaster Shi was anything but arrogant. The man was the young master of Heaven’s Court and the personal disciple of the Bean Deity. He couldn’t afford to be negligent.

“And who might this be…” Vice Headmaster Shi looked at Tao Yaoye questioningly.

“She is also a member of our Heaven’s Court, Tao Yaoye. Her exceptional talent leaves even the Master and the Sect Leader full of praises.”

Vice Headmaster Shi looked at her with reverence: “So, you’re the genius Tao.”

Tao Yaoye kept her composure, but she was inwardly surprised.

She knew that Lu Yang was scheduled to meet the Nine Nether sect, but she hadn’t expected that they would be meeting the higher-ups so soon, and that they would be interacting on equal footing.

Was this Lu Yang’s usual circle of connections?

Inside the sect, he was interacting with the Elders, while outside, he was dealing with sect leaders, all at the Spirit Transformation stage!

Lu Yang and Vice Headmaster Shi were chatting amicably, seemingly unfazed by each other’s daunting statuses.