The main hall of the Yunzhong Garrison Command.
Zhang Yuhe sat at the head of the table, with Qian Lingling carefully serving him from behind.
Seated below were the heads of various families: Qian Weiguang, head of the Qian family; Sun Pengcheng, head of the Sun family; Li Jiuming, head of the Li family; He Chifeng, head of the He family; and Mingyuefei, head of the Fengxin Tower.
Everyone stared silently at the teacups in front of them, but secretly they were all cautiously trying to detect Zhang Yuhe's presence.
Now Zhang Yuhe has learned his lesson; he has long since concealed his cultivation level, keeping his aura at the early Nascent Soul stage.
Unless one encounters someone with a higher level of cultivation, it is difficult to discern their true nature.
Zhang Yuhe's eyes swept over the crowd, finally settling on Mingyuefei, the owner of Fengxin Tower, at the very back.
The woman was stunningly beautiful, but that wasn't his main focus.
Zhang Yuhe, however, felt that the woman's aura was somewhat strange.
Despite appearing to be only at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, he could clearly sense a powerful aura hidden within this woman.
Although it's not immediately clear what's going on, it's obviously not the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
"This woman is not simple."
Zhang Yuhe quickly reached a conclusion.
Ming Fuqian clearly misjudged the situation.
Ming Fuqian had told him that among the five forces, Fengxin Tower was the weakest, with only its leader at the early Nascent Soul stage.
However, in Zhang Yuhe's view, the most dangerous person was actually this woman named Mingyuefei.
Zhang Wuji's mother was right after all; beautiful women are the most deceitful.
Apart from Mingyuefei, the owner of Fengxinlou, the others were nothing special.
The heads of each family are all at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
Of course, as the head of the family, their strength is not necessarily that of the strongest in the family.
In fact, there are quite a few Nascent Soul cultivators in each family, and there may even be Deity Transformation cultivators hidden among them.
After sizing each other up, Zhang Yuhe cleared his throat and spoke.
"I have just arrived in Yunzhong Prefecture to take up the post of garrison commander. Today, I mainly want to meet everyone so that we can look out for each other in the future."
"You're too kind, sir. As the representative of the Dao Sheng Sect, you are stationed in Yunzhong Prefecture, which is exactly what we rely on. If you need anything, please feel free to give us your orders, and we will definitely handle it properly."
Qian Weiguang smiled and squinted his small eyes, immediately responding politely.
"Yes, yes, whatever your orders are, we will all do our utmost."
The other four responded one by one.
Looking at everyone's expressions, Zhang Yuhe couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't.
But none of that mattered to him.
Saying nice things a thousand times is useless; the key is to take actual actions.
Zhang Yuhe picked up his teacup, took a small sip, and then continued.
"It's like this, as you can see, there aren't many people in my naval base. I'd like to borrow some manpower from you all to serve at the naval base. How about that?"
"Let me make this clear first: those who come to serve me don't get paid. I have no money."
Zhang Yuhe deliberately sounded arrogant and ignorant in his tone, wanting others to look down on him and lower their guard so that he could get things done more easily.
If these people keep an eye on him every day, he'll never get anything done.
Although he originally didn't have any specific goal, he thought that coming here was just a change of scenery for his cultivation.
But whether he wants it or not is another matter entirely.
This Cloud Palace is no simple place; he doesn't want to fall into a trap he can't get out of.
Therefore, before engaging in cultivation, one must sort things out and, ideally, eliminate any threats in advance.
Although we don't have any clue yet, that's okay, we have to take it one step at a time.
As soon as Zhang Yuhe finished speaking, He Chifeng spoke up calmly.
"No problem, I will arrange for someone to come to the garrison tomorrow. However, the cultivation levels of our He family members are not high, most of them are only at the Qi Refining stage. I hope you won't mind, sir?"
Hearing this, Zhang Yuhe was speechless.
You're trying to fool me. The He family has been established in Yunzhong Prefecture for tens of thousands of years, and their influence extends to dozens of cities.
There are hundreds of thousands of cultivator disciples in the family.
You told me to send a few Qi Refining cultivators over?
Who are they looking down on?
Zhang Yuhe said calmly.
"I won't force you to become a Qi Refining cultivator; I was just saying it casually."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at the other four people, and when he saw Li Jiuming...
Li Jiuming immediately stood up and said politely.
"Alas, our Li family has declined drastically in recent years. Sir, how about I arrange for a few Foundation Establishment disciples to come and serve us?"
"never mind."
Zhang Yuhe responded calmly, then glanced at the remaining three people.
Qian Weiguang immediately stood up, still smiling with his eyes narrowed, and spoke.
"It is our honor to serve you, sir. Tomorrow I will select five Golden Core disciples from my family."
Zhang Yuhe nodded.
Sun Pengcheng, who was behind him, echoed the sentiment.
"Five Golden Core Realm cultivators will be sent over tomorrow."
"good."
Zhang Yuhe finally turned his gaze to Consort Mingyue at Fengxin Tower.
He couldn't quite figure this woman out; he needed to be careful.
Mingyue Fei slowly stood up, her figure graceful and her voice gentle.
"We at Fengxin Tower really don't have many people. If you don't mind, sir, how about I come to the garrison headquarters as a servant?"
"Alright, let's stop here for today."
Zhang Yuhe served tea and waved to signal. The five people below exchanged glances and then walked out of the council hall one after another.
After everyone left, Zhang Yuhe tapped his fingers lightly on the table.
He called them here today partly because he needs more manpower; he really is short-handed.
However, this is not the main purpose.
If he really wanted to find people, he only needed to post a notice outside the town garrison, and plenty of people would come to apply. He wouldn't necessarily need to ask these local bullies for people.
Zhang Yuhe's request for personnel was merely a way to gauge the attitudes of all parties involved.
Ming Fuqian is right, there is indeed something very wrong between the He and Li families.
Logically speaking, when Dao Sheng Sect's inner disciples go out to guard the area, the local forces should at least show great respect, if not fawn over them.
After all, there is no future in going against the Dao Sheng Sect.
As a local garrison commander, Zhang Yuhe will stay in Yunzhong Prefecture for a hundred years.
He can sow discord between the He and Li families whenever he wants. Aren't those two families worried?
However, judging from the arrogance of the He and Li families, they clearly did not take him seriously and were not afraid of him causing trouble in the future.
He only wanted to borrow some manpower, but both companies refused so firmly.
For someone to be arrogant, they must have some merit.
The two companies' apparent strength is just so-so, not enough to make them arrogant.
In other words, these two families have powerful backers or influence, which is why they dare to be arrogant in front of him.
Could it be that an elder from the Daoist Holy Sect is backing them up?
Or is it something else?
"This is a bit tricky."
Zhang Yuhe fell into deep thought.
...
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