Sovereign of the Three Realms - Chapter 152

Chapter 152: The Dragonteeth Guard Trembles

“Feng Yan, take my card and visit the second personage of the Dragonteeth Guard, Vice Director Zhou. Tell him that all business between my Myriad Treasures Palace and the Dragonteeth Guard will be halted for three years. All business that they have entrusted to us is returned to them in full.”

The Dragonteeth Guard had extremely high expenses in feeding a million strong army. The stipend from the kingdom was enough to enable them to become strong and mighty, but was very difficult to help each member of the Guard earn money.

Therefore, the Dragonteeth Guard had their own ways to make money. All of the gains from the Guard’s cases didn’t have to be handed into the royal treasury. They were instead handed over to the Myriad Treasures Palace for sale or auction.

The income from this was much more rewarding than the funds from the kingdom and was the true source of wealth from the Dragonteeth Guard. It was a small gold mine for the Dragonteeth Guard.

If this bit of business stopped, all of the Dragonteeth Guard could only subsist on the stipend from the kingdom and could never enjoy the benefits of this gold mine anymore.

The benefits of this gold mine were practically a hidden rule for the Dragonteeth Guard. Once the benefits of this gold mine disappeared, the entire system of the Dragonteeth Guard would definitely fall into an uproar.

One had to say, Shi Xiaoyao’s actions were more ruthless and brutal than Elder Ning’s.

If one could say that Elder Ning had left a trace of a way to salvage the situation, then Shi Xiaoyao was an absolute demon when his ire was aroused. He would dare do the most outrageous things.

Not to mention that he had the authority and the right to. Even the head of the Myriad Treasures Palace, Zhuge Yan, wouldn’t say much about this decision.

After all, the face of a vice head had to do with the reputation of the Myriad Treasures Palace. Anyone who slapped the face of the vice head committed the same action as trashing the Myriad Treasures Palace’s banner. If they didn’t strike back, that would be the same as destroying their own banner.

The Dragonteeth Guard was the most powerful and strongest army within the capital.

They had much authority and all sorts of roles such as protecting the royal family, guarding the capital, and defending royal authority. They were also in charge of inspections, customs, general security, amongst others.

It could be said that if something had to do with matters of force within the Skylaurel Kingdom, no one would be able to make a move without the Dragonteeth Guard.

In addition, the Dragonteeth Guard didn’t fall under any jurisdiction. They were answerable to only the king himself. Only the king had the authority to command the general director of the Dragonteeth Guard.

Anyone else, even the sons of the king, wouldn’t do.

It could be seen from this how much authority the Dragonteeth Guard had.

Of course, the more power they head, that was only applicable to the various aspects of the kingdom. Having great power didn’t mean that they could blot out the sky with one hand. It also didn’t mean that they would have no favors to ask of anyone else.

The four great sites for instance, even the Dragonteeth Guard didn’t dare easily offend them.

The four great sites were part of the Precious Tree Sect’s power and answered directly to the Precious Tree Sect. Even the king gave a quite a lot of face to them in private, not to mention the Dragonteeth Guard.

Offending the four great sites meant even the foundations of the kingdom would possibly shake. His name was

The Dragonteeth Guard had a general director who was a trusted confidant of the king. Shangguan Yi was his name.

Shangguan Yi didn’t venture out often. Although his authority reached the heavens, but he almost never showed his face usually. He left many things for the three vice directors beneath him to handle.

At this moment, three out of four total general and vice directors had assembled.

Shangguan Yi had an urbane manner to him. He looked roughly forty years old, with some white hairs mixed in his sideburns, further offsetting his steadiness and maturity.

A pair of eyes like tigers and dragons was suffused with an uncommon light, giving others a feeling of being filled with vitality.

He leaned slightly forward, patiently listening to the complaints of the other two vice directors.

“General director, it isn’t that I didn’t try, just that I don’t know what madness has gotten into the Southern Palace. The equipment we ordered was to be delivered half a month ago, but they’ve suddenly said that they don’t have time to deliver the shipment. They also want us to pay in full what we owe them before noon tomorrow.”

The person complaining this matter was a stout, short middle aged man. He was one of the four directors of the Dragonteeth Guard, ranked number three amongst the vice directors, called Qi Tiannan. He was without a doubt the fourth greatest personage in the Dragonteeth Guard.

General director Shangguan Yi smiled faintly and put down the teacup in his hand. “Old Qi, has something gone wrong with our communication with the Southern Palace? Didn’t we say that we’d make up for the outstanding balance when our items are sold at the Myriad Treasures Palace and we receive the funds?”

The Dragonteeth Guard didn’t have any industry themselves and wasn’t allowed to participate in business. Therefore, their source of income, to a great extent, depended on their business with the Myriad Treasures Palace.

All sorts of spoils and stolen goods that they’d received would be given to Myriad Treasures Palace for them to sell.

This was the Dragonteeth Guard’s greatest source of revenue.

Qi Tiannan smiled ruefully, “General director, you know too that the Southern Palace has always been nice and polite when conducting business. I’ve went over this a hundred times and also don’t understand why all of it’s suddenly changed. I suspect that we’ve possibly offended them somehow?”

“Mm, according to my understanding, the Southern Palace wouldn’t just blow up like this. Old Qi, you must find Elder Ning and have a thorough discussion about this. If we’ve really offended them, we should offer gifts and apologize. We can’t have a dispute due to personal feelings.”

“Understood, I, Old Qi, know what to do given the general director’s orders.”

Shangguan Yi smiled faintly and turned his gaze to another balding elder. “Director Zhou, you don’t look too pleased. Has something happened as well?”

The balding elder was in an even higher position than Qi Tiannan. He was the second personage within the Dragonteeth Guard, Zhou Kai. His power was second to only general director Shangguan Yi.

One could tell that Zhou Kai was of the old guard in the Dragonteeth Guard from Shangguan Yi’s use of his title. Even Shangguan Yi treated him with some respect.

“Ai, general director. To be honest, I, Old Zhou, shouldn’t come pour my grievances in your ear. However, this matter was truly too unexpected and too serious. I had to come find you and discuss a response.” Zhou Kai also started pouring out his complaints when he opened his mouth.

“Oh? What matter is this?” Shangguan Yi was a bit surprised.

“I’ve just received a calling card from the Myriad Treasures Palace. A disciple said that he was here on Vice Head Shi’s to notify me that the Myriad Treasures Palace is halting all business with us for three years. All business that we’ve entrusted to them is returned to us. It’s really quite bizarre. This is really quite bizarre. The Myriad Treasures Palace has always been tempted by money. We do so much business with them and they earn ten percent commission. Do they think that’s too little?”

“It’s not a matter of money.” As the general director, Shangguan Yi possessed an exceptionally keen state of mind. His brow furrowed, “Something is very wrong here. The Southern Palace and Myriad Treasures Palace has always had an amicable partnership with us. Why did these two great powers change so drastically within the span of a day? Old Zhou, did that disciple of the Myriad Treasures Palace say anything else?”

“Nothing else, just that our partnership was temporarily halted and that our business was returned to us. I wanted to ask further but he paid me no heed and left.”

The three directors all had grave expressions on their faces. They’d realized that this was likely not an accident. Something must have gone wrong with the Dragonteeth Guard to offend these two great powers.

“Old Zhou, the person who has tied the bell is required to untie it. Shi Xiaoyao possesses an eccentric personality and requires his fur to be brushed in the proper direction. The more you get up in his face, the more stubborn he’ll become. Go, butter him up and find out where our Dragonteeth Guard has given offense to make him so angry?”

If it was any other powers, the Dragonteeth Guard would have no need to look to anyone else.

But, whether it was the Southern Palace or the Myriad Treasures Palace, they were all part of the Precious Tree Sect. The Dragonteeth Guard wanted to act tough to them? They didn’t have the right to.

At most, they were on the same footing and didn’t have to give each other face.

But, the others could ignore the Dragonteeth Guard, but the Dragonteeth Guard couldn’t afford to ignore them. To a greater extent, the operations of the Dragonteeth Guard couldn’t wean themselves off of the support of the four great sites.

So, even if they had to humble themselves, they would have to settle this matter.

One had to say, if their partnership with the Myriad Treasures Palace stopped, none of the others could digest the items they had.

Without the Myriad Treasures Palace, they wouldn’t be able to sell their items for a good three to five years.

However, how many years could the Dragonteeth Guard afford to wait? The Southern Palace were already knocking at the door to collect on their debts, to say nothing of anything else.

It was a leaky roof running into successive nights of rain.

“Great director, things are truly bad. Elder Fei of the Qingyang Valley just came to us in a huff. Your subordinate stopped him, saying that the director was in a meeting and wanted to ask him to wait a moment. Who knew that Elder Fei showed me a cold expression without another word, saying that to look elsewhere for the Full Moon Pill the great director asked him to refine. In addition, all pill partnerships that we have with the Qingyang Valley are all cancelled. In the future, when our Dragonteeth Guard handles cases, we must skirt past their territory. Otherwise, each person they catch will spent a lifetime in servitude.”

“What did you say?” At this moment, even the tremendously diffident Shangguan Yi was unable to retain his composure.

“Elder Fei was here? Where is he now?”

“He… he left.” The subordinate stammered.

“Useless thing, don’t you know to directly come in and make a report?” Shangguan Yi rarely lost his temper to hector his subordinates, but this time, he made an exception.

“I… your subordinate also said I would make a report, but he didn’t give me a chance to. He yelled out quite a few insults, saying our Dragonteeth Guard were white-eyed wolves, devoid of gratitude, even further…”

“Stop.” Shangguan Yi glared at him. “Dismissed.”

The subordinate saw that the atmosphere was quite off and didn’t dare linger. He hastily walked out.

All of these matters had happened one after another, crashing down onto the Dragonteeth Guard like one blow after another.

Shangguan Yi’s astute eyes were filled with confusion at the moment. “Both of you, do you see what’s happening? The coming events cast their shadow before them.”

Out of the four great sites, three of them had blown up at them in a short period of time. What did this mean? This meant that the Dragonteeth Guard had done something gravely wrong and really put their foot in it.

The other two vice directors also had looks of awkwardness on their face, their expressions filled with astonishment that they couldn’t voice. They were all shrewd people, how could they not see that something was greatly amiss here.

If only one of the sites blew up at them, that could be an accident. But three had completely turned hostile at almost the same time. There was great meaning in this.

Even if it was the Dragonteeth Guard had offended three of the four great sites at the same time, it wasn’t something that they could hold up against. They could run into overwhelming disaster with the slightest misstep.

If the three sites combined their strength to go against the Dragonteeth Guard, then even they would have heads rolling on the floor, with even their foundations upended.