After comforting Qiu Yu, Zhou Xingdou left the Finance Hall and refused her request to come with him, but told her to wait for him at the Zhuxing Palace that evening.
Upon hearing Zhou Xingdou tell her to wait for him at the Zhuxing Palace that night, Qiu Yu was overjoyed and stopped trying to follow him, instead obediently handling the finances of the Xingtian Alliance.
As Zhou Xingdou walked out of the finance hall, he glanced at Yuan Tian indifferently. In his opinion, with Yuan Tian's intelligence, he shouldn't have done something as foolish as giving the Tianbei Sect an advance of fifty years' worth of salary.
Yuan Tian also noticed Zhou Xingdou glancing at him, and awkwardly lowered his head.
However, Fahai, seeing the outsiders around, spoke up:
“Master, Yuan Tian is actually innocent in this matter; on the contrary, he has done a good job.”
Zhou Xingdou nodded. Even if Fahai didn't say anything, he understood that the matter was not that simple. He was just waiting for Yuan Tian to explain.
Princess Iron Fan also provided an explanation at this opportune moment:
"Your Majesty may not know this, but when the Star Alliance was first established, it was not as harmonious as it is now. There were frictions and disagreements among the various factions, and the entire Star Alliance was in chaos. At that time, many people had grievances against the Star Alliance's system of handing over power."
The most vocal protester was the Holy Hall Master of the Heavenly Stele Holy Hall, who claimed that they had once been vassals of the Zhou family, and not only did they not have to hand over their spirit stones, but the Zhou family would also give them a lot of rewards. He also said that Yuan Tian had come to collect spirit stones several times, but he had cursed him away each time. He even tried to incite other Holy Halls to protest.
Moreover, it seems that the Master of the Heavenly Stele Holy Hall once followed the Lord's father and even saved his life, so we cannot forcefully suppress him.
Zhou Xingdou narrowed his eyes slightly. Princess Iron Fan's words gave him a somewhat unpleasant impression of this Holy Hall Master of the Heavenly Stele Sect, and even a hint of murderous intent.
But then he thought about it again. At that time, the Star Alliance had just formed and had not yet reached a unified consciousness. They were still living in the mindset of different sects, and there was no real Zhou family member in charge. Moreover, it was normal for these Zhou family members to resist when it came to the interests of their own sects. He could not let this matter make him want to kill.
Moreover, if this person had followed his father and saved his father's life, then he was his uncle.
Zhou Xingdou suppressed his murderous intent and asked:
"Then what?"
"Then Yuan Tian came up with a plan. The Heavenly Stele that guarded the Heavenly Stele Sect had been damaged before, but because there was no way to make it, it had been unable to be rebuilt."
Then Yuan Tian asked Master Yuchi to draw a fake blueprint for the Heavenly Stele and designed it to be obtained by a disciple of the Heavenly Stele Hall. When the head of the Heavenly Stele Hall got the blueprint, the weapon refiners in the hall deduced that it was feasible, and he was overjoyed and prepared to reforge the sect's Heavenly Stele.
However, the materials for forging the Heavenly Stele in the blueprints were extremely expensive. The Heavenly Stele Sect was already very poor, otherwise they would not have protested against the Star Alliance's system of handing over materials. So Yuan Tian took the initiative to approach the Heavenly Stele Hall Master and said that he could receive an advance on his hall salary.
Thus, the main force of the Heavenly Stele Temple, defying public opinion, advanced fifty years' worth of salaries for the entire temple and borrowed countless sums from other temples to gather the materials needed to forge the so-called sect-protecting Heavenly Stele. In the end, they forged a lump of dung, incomparably hard and as heavy as a divine mountain, yet not even qualifying as a treasure.
At this point, Princess Iron Fan chuckled, and Stephen Chow couldn't help but laugh.
By pooling the power of the entire sect and incurring countless debts, he ultimately forged a dung-shaped mountain that was even less valuable than a treasure, which made him feel somewhat sorry for the Heavenly Stele Holy Hall Master.
Zhou Xingdou shook his head and laughed:
"In this way, everyone in the Heavenly Stele Hall will resent that Holy Hall Master. Moreover, since the Heavenly Stele of the Sect has failed to be forged, other creditors will definitely come to collect their debts immediately. The Holy Hall Master of the Heavenly Stele will be too busy running away to avoid his debts to have any mood to protest against the system."
Princess Iron Fan nodded and smiled:
"Yes, the Holy Hall Master of Tianbei ran away overnight. Without the Holy Hall Master who saved the master's father, and with fifty years' worth of salary advanced, Tianbei Hall is too busy trying to appease the Finance Hall to even protest."
Moreover, Yuan Tian had already shown kindness by giving the Tianbei Temple an advance of fifty years' worth of salary.
Later, Yuan Tian was dismissed from his post by the Grand Mistress, which moved the Heavenly Stele Holy Hall even more, and they respected him extremely. Even now, Yuan Tian and the Heavenly Stele Holy Hall have an excellent relationship. Just now, the Grand Elder of the Heavenly Stele Hall did not see Yuan Tian, otherwise he would definitely have pulled Yuan Tian aside to ask him how he was doing.
So sometimes when Qiu Yu can't collect the money from the Heavenly Stele Temple, he sends Yuan Tian to collect it. Once Yuan Tian goes, the Heavenly Stele Temple will sell everything they own to hand over their share.
This made Zhou Xingdou think more highly of Yuan Tian. Although he had lost a huge amount of resources and given them to the Heavenly Stele Hall Master in advance, it was just a matter of overdrawing the Heavenly Stele Sect's future money.
Moreover, in the early stages of an alliance, eliminating unstable factors is more important than resources. Besides, with the Zhou family's treasury, these resources are just a drop in the ocean, and it's worth it to exchange them for stability.
"Yuan Tian, you did a great job."
Zhou Xingdou praised Yuan Tian, and although Tian Yin and the others were involved and had always known about the matter, they still looked at Yuan Tian with admiration when the old story was brought up again.
"Young Master, you flatter me. This is all thanks to your excellent teaching. I was only able to come up with such a brilliant plan by learning from your ideas. It's a pity that if you, Young Master, were a hundred times wiser than me, you would surely have devised an even more ingenious plan. I have the utmost respect for you, Young Master, and I wish I could stay by your side every day to learn from your wisdom..."
Yuan Tian launched into a long, effusive flattery, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his lips.
After Zhou Xingdou had grown tired of listening and, surrounded by Zhou family servants, walked away elsewhere, Fahai couldn't help but ask Yuan Tian:
"Why don't you just tell me yourself? You sent me a telepathic message asking me to exonerate you, and now you're troubling the Iron Fan Mistress to explain?"
Yuan Tian rolled his eyes at Fahai:
"Bald monk, what do you know? If I bring it up myself, it would be seeking credit. If the young master thinks I'm being arrogant and asking for rewards, then things will go wrong. Only by having someone else say it can I show my loyalty and silently bear the criticism for serving the young master..."
Fahai was initially angry at being called a bald monk, but after listening to Yuan Tian's explanation, he listened intently and nodded repeatedly.
Yuan Tian looked at Fahai and chuckled:
"When it comes to how to treat superiors, you bald monk, you are still far from being a good match."
Having said that, Yuan Tian chased after Zhou Xingdou's departing footsteps and hurriedly called out:
“My noble, wise, and benevolent young master, wait for your foolish subordinate, me.”
Fahai watched as Yuan Tian, disregarding his semi-emperor status, chased after him, and shook his head with a sigh:
"I am far inferior to Yuan Tian..."
As Zhou Xingdou walked forward, a smile appeared on his lips. How could he not have heard what Yuan Tian and Fahai had just said? Or rather, Yuan Tian did not hide anything, meaning he would not deceive his young master, Zhou Xingdou.
Master Wei also made no attempt to hide the admiration in his eyes for Yuan Tian:
“Yuan Tian, that sycophant, is quite shrewd. If he hadn’t already been a member of the Divine Martial Sect, I would have wanted to take him as my disciple.”
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