Forced Compensation

Lin Feng looked at the frozen imperial delegation. At this point, most of them were dead. Many of them had fallen to Mei's retaliatory attack, and Lin Feng hadn't cared all that much. Now, he was a bit regretful though.

All those people would have been able to make some purchases and help him work to upgrade his shopping mall and heal Mei. The group that had been somewhere around fifty or sixty people had already dropped to twelve people, and nearly everyone below the upper stages of Foundation Establishment had died.

Lin Feng recognized Yang Wen amongst the survivors and made a grabbing motion with his hand. Yang Wen's frozen form was dragged through the air toward Lin Feng before being allowed to move again.

"Senior Lin! I didn't know! I had nothing to do with Yu Qingwei and his attack!" Yang Wen dropped to his knees. "I tried to stop him!"

Lin Feng scowled. What a useless man.

"Shut up. Tell me who these people are and why they should live."

"These are visitors from the imperial capital. They wanted to come and experience the wonders of Senior Lin's shopping mall!"

"Is it common practice for visitors to attack their hosts in Great Yan?"

Lin Feng's question made Yang Wen's voice catch in his throat due to how terrified he was.

"…No, Senior Lin."

"Who is in charge of this group? Are they dead?"

"No, Senior Lin. Master Zhang is the leading imperial official." Yang Wen stiffly turned and pointed out Zhang Fei.

With a wave of Lin Feng's hand, Zhang Fei was also pulled forward and deposited in front of Lin Feng before being freed to talk.

Zhang Fei immediately kneeled on the cracked and dirty ground, not daring to even look at Lin Feng's feet.

"Little Daoist Zhang Fei greets Senior Lin. Yu Qingwei and Shu Ping acted on their own. They deserved to die."

Most people familiar with Zhang Fei would be astounded if they heard or saw him now. Yang Wen didn't even blink though, he only felt relief that there was someone else there to answer Lin Feng's questions.

"Why are you here?"

"The Emperor of the Yan Dynasty has charged this one with investigating the situation here, Senior." Zhang Fei didn't dare to lie.

"Does investigating the situation involve destroying my house and trying to kill my little sister?"

"No, Senior, Yu Qingwei acted on his own. It was never our intention to-"

Lin Feng scoffed as Zhang Fei again tried to push off responsibility to a dead man. He wasn't going to let them off that easily.

"Intention or not, is Great Yan not responsible for the actions of its officials? For the son of a duke?"

Zhang Fei felt very stifled after Lin Feng spoke. The responsibility of Great Yan? Zhang Fei would rather take responsibility himself than have the Yan Dynasty be responsible.

"Senior Lin, Yu Qingwei was here at the request of his father. He hoped his son could see more of the world."

"A representative of Great Yan has come to my home and destroyed it. Do I not deserve compensation for this?"

Zhang Fei stayed silent, recognizing that what he said didn't matter any longer.

Lin Feng had already decided that Great Yan would be helping him expand his shopping mall. Either they would agree to help him get customers and a new store, or Lin Feng didn't see why this group of people needed to ever leave this valley.

"Great Yan's official has destroyed my house and burned the surrounding forest in an unprovoked attack. The culprit may have been punished but I will not be satisfied until the surrounding area is repaired and a road is built to my mall through the mountains."

Lin Feng thought about stopping with those demands alone, but, after some thought, he decided to push further.

"Great Yan must also send 500 people to buy something at my shopping mall."

A road may help Lin Feng in the long term, but he wanted to heal Mei quickly. Great Yan could sacrifice their wealth to make it happen. It's only right that they pay for the treatment of the injuries they caused.

Lin Feng had never told anyone that he was more or less trapped in this valley, so he would let the Yan Dynasty imagine what he would do if he was left unsatisfied.

Zhang Fei's grimaced. He was still kneeling in the dirt, staring at the ground, not daring to look up. Building a road and repairing the surrounding area was not particularly difficult for the imperial court, but spending 500 spirit crystals was a painful prospect for the Yan Dynasty.

It wasn't a matter of wealth. The problem was that spirit crystals were just that rare! The Yan Dynasty had the money but not the crystals.

When the Yan Dynasty formed, Great Xia let them form their own country largely because the Yan Dynasty only claimed those lands that no one cared about. Few people had ever found trouble with Great Yan simply for the fact that there was nothing to gain.

Great Yan simply couldn't buy many spirit crystals, regardless of how much money they had to spend. Great Yan's territory didn't produce enough.

Zhang Fei did not want to agree but he didn't dare imagine what would happen if he didn't. Spirit crystals could be replaced, but angering Lin Feng any further might lose them cities.

"I will follow Senior Lin's arrangements."

"Good."

With that, Lin Feng walked away with Mei, back into the shopping mall. The sliding glass door was already repaired from when Lin Feng had broken it earlier.

A moment later, after Lin Feng disappeared inside, the surroundings finally started moving again.

The fire surged before dying away completely. People collapsed to the ground sobbing, and Zhang Fei and Yang Wen slowly got to their feet.

They uneasily looked at each other as the final few standing walls crumbled around them.

——

In the Yan imperial capital, Emperor Ming was listening to reports from a number of palace officials when a light flashed across the sky.

Emperor Ming looked impassively at a jade slip that appeared in his hands. For Zhang Fei to send information back in this way could only mean that something had gone wrong.

"Leave us."

The palace officials bowed and quickly left the emperor alone. These officials knew that anything that came to the Emperor through a jade slip was not something they could afford to involve themselves in.

Once everyone had left, Emperor Ming finally let a small amount of worry show on his face. He injected some spiritual power into the jade slip and viewed its contents. His lips thinned with displeasure as he understood what had happened. Calling for a eunuch, he gave his orders.

"Send a message summoning Duke Yu to the palace. Have the Three Lords and Nine Ministers come see me immediately."

The eunuch was startled by such a decisive order and hurriedly went to fulfill it. The Emperor did not seem to be in a good mood.

The Emperor sat back with a sigh and heavy heart as he waited for the court officials to arrive. He would need to take into account a Great Yan without a Duke Yu in his future plans.