Daily life of a cultivation judge
Chapter 1188 - 1188: Someone I can deal with (1)

The last talisman was the one that contained Li Gang's information. Just like with the first two talismans, the details were thin, which was to be expected, given the short window the Flying Shadow Hawks had to work with. Not to mention, Li Gang was considered a small fry, so not much manpower would be allocated to dig deeper into his background.

Neither his personal strength nor his influence was particularly eye-catching, at least by the Order's assessment.

Another organization might view it differently. After all, Li Gang was a quasi-palace realm expert with a shot at becoming one of the future successors of the Vast Blue Sky Merchant Company, if things went as he hoped. To other factions, his cultivation level and his identity as a branch chief in a prominent merchant company would make him someone worth noting.

But that wasn't the case with the Order, given the scope of their attention.

With the entire continent as their field of investigation, Li Gang simply didn't rank high enough. The continent had no shortage of quasi-palace realm experts or ambitious individuals trying to climb the ladder of powerful organizations.

Even his superiors, the Vast Blue Sky Merchant Company founders, barely made the cut, and the reason they even did so had less to do with their late-stage palace realm strength and more to do with the treasure that overturned their fortunes by giving them that strength in the first place.

To the Order, information related to that treasure mattered far more than the entire history of the Vast Blue Merchant Company or its members.

So, even getting something about Li Gang, thin as it was, Yang Qing felt appreciative. He knew someone from the Flying Shadow Hawks had definitely gone out of their way to obtain that information for him. Adding on to that, to his delight, the report actually even gave him what he needed, which was a sense of who Li Gang was. That alone filled him with even more gratitude toward the member who had procured it.

Making a silent note to repay the favor should the opportunity arise, Yang Qing turned his focus to analyzing Li Gang's file.

Even without reading it, based on what little he already knew, Yang Qing had expected Li Gang to be a highly ambitious individual. The report simply confirmed just how much.

As far as ambition went, Li Gang was definitely up there. Though if Yang Qing were to investigate other merchants or heirs to prominent organizations, Li Gang's level of ambition wouldn't exactly be an outlier amongst them.

That said, having a clear understanding of Li Gang's ambitions still proved to be incredibly useful to him, especially given that he was about to meet with him in a few hours.

When it came to negotiations and dealing with people, Yang Qing felt there was no better kind of person to deal with than someone with ambition—or, more generally, someone who had needs or desires. You could always find a middle ground with them. Ascetic types, on the other hand, who had neither needs nor desires, were thornier to negotiate with.

It was the same reason he didn't mind the Order much. He knew exactly what kind of greedy, stingy, and exploitative beast it was. And because he understood that, he knew how to play by its rules to get what he wanted.

Of course, more often than not, things didn't go as planned, but nonetheless, Yang Qing had a few notable wins here and there. More importantly, he always knew what to expect with the Order.

For example, the more generous they were, the more demanding the job they handed him would be. Like being a temporary branch chief for a branch situated in a forest teeming with powerful spirit beasts, and a kingdom on the verge of insurrection. Not to mention, the only reason he was even standing in was because the previous branch chief—and all his subordinates—had just been attacked by two powerful palace realm spirit beasts and members of an insidious, infamous organization.

The Order was predictable that way.

And when it came to Li Gang, Yang Qing found that same sense of predictability. He didn't know the merchant personally, but Li Gang's ambitions gave him plenty to work with. After all, Yang Qing was ambitious himself, though the reasons behind their respective ambitions were different.

From what Dong Ping had told him earlier, he already knew that Li Gang hailed from the Yue State, the nation formed from a coalition of fourteen sects. Beyond that—and the fact that Li Gang was a branch chief vying to be a successor within the Vast Blue Merchant Company—Dong Ping hadn't revealed much more.

This new report from the Flying Shadow Hawks, however, filled in those gaps, especially when it came to Li Gang's background.

Li Gang was a member of the Li family, a clan that had subordinated itself to one of the fourteen sects that founded and ruled over the Yue State.

The sect in question was the Azure Bamboo Sword Sect, which, when ranked among the fourteen sects, could be considered in the top five in terms of power. They had four late-stage palace realm experts within their ranks, and over a dozen more at the lower stages of the palace realm.

It went without saying that, due to both their strength and their long-standing history as one of the founding sects of the Yue State, the territory under their control was vast. The number of organizations that had subordinated themselves to the sect wasn't small either.

Among those many subordinate groups, Li Gang's clan was considered top-tier. They boasted five early-stage palace realm experts, one of whom was Li Gang's own grandmother.

While their strength paled in comparison to the fourteen founding sects, it was still significant when viewed against other subordinate organizations. Because of this, they were widely considered one of the arms of the Azure Bamboo Sword Sect, handling many affairs on the sect's behalf. This gave them not only a high standing among fellow subordinates but even a level of recognition among the lower-tier founding sects themselves.

Those sects weren't afraid of them, of course, but they gave them face out of respect for their close affiliation with the Azure Bamboo Sword Sect, which sat firmly among the upper echelon of the fourteen sects.

Given his clan's standing in Yue State—and the fact that one of its leading figures was his grandmother—all of this would have made Li Gang royalty.

He was a scion whose background could have guaranteed him a smooth and comfortable path in life, and yet, Li Gang had shown no hesitation in leaving it all behind to forge his own way. He chose instead to join the Vast Blue Merchant Company and carve out a future for himself as a merchant.

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