Triumph

Clearly, even if every chief of a city, town or valley in the Stonecrest region had some sort of connection with the Purple Mist Sect, none of them could be said to be in a very similar situation like Qai in whom the Emperor Void had publicly shown his interest.

Everyone waited for Qai to speak up, but it was the a Han Valley elder who broke the silence.

"No wonder you were confident to suggest the sect from the start," the elder remarked.

"Well," Qai shyly replied. "I can't guarantee that the Emperor Void would accept our offer.. but.."

"But what!?" The elder quickly interrupted.

"But at least I can warrant that l'll personally see the Sect Master to raise your request," Qai said.

Qai was willing to do it for two reasons: first, he felt that he gained too much from the Han Valley so he wanted to extend a bit of his help; secondly, he hadn't seen the Sect Master for a while so he wanted to keep his promise of visiting the emperor.

"How about this," Qai said as he faced the Han Valley chief.

He paused for a moment to get everyone's attention before he said another word.

"Let us tell them that you are willing to initially give a third of today's haul of 'spirit stones' and in addition you could offer them to levy five percent of the regular harvest," Qai suggested.

It should be remembered that Qai had also pocketed a third of the 'spirit stones'—that would mean that what would remain in the hands of the Han Valley would be the last third portion.

Murmurs started to echo among the present Han Valley elders as they shook their heads but Chief Xing Yi urged them to keep quiet.

"Hmmn," the chief uttered. "If that is what would be amenable to the Sect Master, then we must be willing sacrifice this much.."

Before the Han Valley elders could even start to disagree, the chief quickly followed up her words.

"Otherwise," she added, "..we might run the risk of losing the river altogether."

That statement settled the indecision in the eyes of the Han Valley elders. They couldn't agree more with it—it was just that they can hardly look at the bright side in the beginning since they were talking about such fortune this time.

"If that settles it..," Chief Xing Yi added, "..then we have to head back to Han Valley quick.. I'm pretty sure the participants are eagerly waiting for us."

Everyone nodded and started to move.

Right there and then, 'The Hunters' Plateau' team members mounted their demonic beasts while the Mo Clan elder summoned his 'Spirit' Python and asked all the others to hop on.

The Han Valley elders were at first very hesitant to mount but when they saw that the chief herself jumped on to the back of the huge snake, everyone else followed suit.

****************

Few moments later, Chief Xing Yi and the town elders together with the Mo Clan and 'The Hunters' Plateau' teams arrived at the gates of Han Valley.

At the sight of the group, the cultivators and spectators immediately gathered in order to greet the approaching group.

And from that spot, the Han Valley chief gathered her strength and urged everyone to listen by releasing her half-step emperor aura as she was about to make her announcements.

"Greetings everyone," she exclaimed.

Even if the participants were trying to be attentive to show some respect to the chief, their faces were already showing signs of salivating to their rewards.

"I have some great news to announce to all of you," Chief Xing Yi added.

The crowd started to murmur some cheers in anticipation of the great news.

"First..," she said. "I would like to thank everyone on behalf of our Han Valley in helping us in our cause to exterminate the bandits.."

The chief especially took a glimpse at the area where the Mo Clan and 'The Hunters' Plateau' teams stood.

"Second, I would like to announce that event was a success," Chief Xing Yi quickly added. "And after we successfully exterminated the bandit Boss Jing, it was very fortunate that we found a cave where the bandits hid their treasures.

All the participants started to have glow in the in their eyes and anticipated what the Han Valley chief meant by revealing it to them.

"We understand..," the chief went on, "..that what all of us gained from the spoils could be said to be just enough for us.."

She, then, intentionally paused and took a deep breath before she made the announcement.

"Thus..," she said with a smile, "..we decided to waive our earlier agreement of taking a portion of your loot."

The participating cultivators loudly cheered at the declaration of the Han Valley chief.

"Instead..," the chief uttered with a gesture of her hand urging everyone to listen, "we would distribute the promised additional reward from the treasures we hauled from the cave."

The pronouncement made the participants even more delighted.

Actually, the Han Valley would still gain a lot since it would only dole out only less than half of the treasures found in the cave. The remaining of which plus the mining site and a third of the harvested 'spirit stones'—the Han Valley indeed end up victorious.