“So are you saying that Mother isn’t seriously ill at all; she was just misdiagnosed by all those quacks?” Zhou Qingkuang said with a tight-lipped expression.

“Mottled Vermilion Rash and Werewolf Splotches share very similar symptoms. It’s not surprising that the doctors made a wrong diagnosis,” replied Miao Changqing replied.

“But this mistake cost me a lot this time,” Zhou Qingkuang said angrily. “Send word that those doctors who misdiagnosed Mother are to be captured and beaten thoroughly for me. If you don’t have the ability to discern correctly, don’t be a doctor.”

Miao Changqing was stunned. “Young Master, those are the best doctors in all of Crane City.”

“So what?” Zhou Qingkuang tilted his head back arrogantly. “If they do a bad job, they should be punished for it. Is that not right?”

“......Yes, sir!” Miao Changqing agreed helplessly.

“Tell everyone to get prepared. Tomorrow morning, we depart for Swallow River. We’ve already delayed this matter for two months; I can’t wait any longer,” Zhou Qingkuang said as he straightened his clothes.

The next morning, Zhou Qingkuang had just finished his preparations for the trip and was about to leave when he heard someone yell, “Fire! The western side is on fire!”

What?

He lived on the eastern side!

Zhou Qingkuang was stunned and angry. He charged over, only to find his clan members already all gathered there.

Thankfully, the fire wasn’t burning very strongly. An Origin Qi Scholar used a transportation technique to move some lake water over, quickly dousing the flames.

Even so, the houses on the western side were all a big mess, including the one where Zhou Qingkuang lived.

“What the hell is going on? How did the western side catch on fire?” Zhou Qingkuang asked angrily.

“Young Master, a Fire Gopher appeared from who knows where and started the fire.”

“Have you found that Fire Gopher yet?”

“Not...... not yet.”

“Worthless trash!” Zhou Qingkuang howled angrily.

With this accident, Zhou Qingkuang’s trip was delayed once again. After all, the place he lived had been destroyed, and he needed to make new living arrangements.

Three days later, the Zhou Clan finally caught the Fire Gopher and killed it.

However, just as Zhou Qingkuang was about to leave, he caught wind of another piece of information.

Light had been spotted shining from a nearby forest, indicating that a treasure was about to appear.

A ruin from the Ancient Arcana Kingdom time period had been discovered in the small forest before, and the person who had discovered it had struck it rich. However, because the ruin was too old, the items that were once stored within were now scattered all over the place. Even now, there were many rumors that said that there were still many treasures left in the small forest.

Anything from the Ancient Arcana Kingdom, even if it was an item with no practical use, was a treasure worth saving. It was always potentially worth quite a bit of money.

As such, upon receiving the news, Zhou Qingkuang was forced to delay his trip yet again and see if there was any opportunity for him to find treasure.

This matter took up another half month’s time.

Half a month later, Zhou Qingkuang finally discovered the source of the light. He felt like crying as he picked up the golden crystal.

A golden crystal wasn’t a bad treasure. A complete one like the one he had found would be worth around a thousand Origin Stones. Unfortunately, Zhou Qingkuang had spent around five thousand Origin Stones to find it.

Zhou Qingkuang felt that he was incredibly unlucky. He had wasted another half month, not to mention four thousand Origin Stones.

He knew that there wasn’t much time left, so Zhou Qingkuang steeled himself to set out for Swallow River City no matter what happened. In the end, just before he left, he himself fell sick.

The doctors he invited this time did not misdiagnose him; they simply told him, “You’ve been poisoned.”

The poison was from the golden crystal. It was covered in poisonous liquid made from Corpse Spirit Flowers. Thankfully, there wasn’t too much of it; otherwise, Zhou Qingkuang would have been killed then and there.

Based on the doctor’s analysis, this golden crystal had probably been buried by its original owner, who had no way of removing the poison of the Corpse Spirit Flowers after accidentally getting it on the crystal. Unexpectedly, the light from the crystal could penetrate the ground, allowing Zhou Qingkuang to find and excavate it. The end result was that Zhou Qingkuang had fallen victim to the poison of the Corpse Spirit Flower.

Zhou Qingkuang felt like committing suicide by slamming his head into a wall.

Why did I insist on digging it up?

The poison from the Corpse Spirit Flower didn’t penetrate too deeply into his body, but even so, Zhou Qingkuang needed to spend half a month to recover.

After some calculation, he realized that three months had already passed. But just as Zhou Qingkuang was planning to set out for Swallow River City, he heard another piece of news: Gu Qingluo had left.

It wasn’t just Gu Qingluo; Gu Xuanmian, Gu Xuanchao, and a bunch of others had left as well.

In other words, there wasn’t any more point in him going to Swallow River City right now.

Zhou Qingkuang could only wait at home helplessly, stewing in his anger. He couldn’t figure out why the Gu Clan had suddenly sent all these people out.

It was obviously for the Flight Network.

In three month’s time, Su Chen had already roped in more than ten stockholders, including members from the Zhu Clan but also people from the Zhong, Liu, and Fang Clans, the other three largest clans in Swallow River City. By doing business this way, he had managed to snag them all at once.

Apart from just collecting their investment money, Su Chen also requested his stockholders to go out themselves to set up nodes to ensure the successful setup of the Flight Network. Large amounts of money exchanged hands as the Flight Station in Swallow River City began construction.

The first wave of Cloud-Soaring Dragon Boats had already been purchased and were on their way. Su Chen chose Prisoner Sheep as the beasts to control the boats. These Demonic Beasts were extremely powerful and could survive only on grass, making them extremely suitable for driving the boats. However, Prisoner Sheep were hard to tame, and at the moment only two clans had successfully trained Prisoner Sheep to listen to commands.

Su Chen was the third person to do so.

After twenty years of research, Su Chen now possessed a vast sum of knowledge. However, most of the time he did not choose to convert that knowledge into money.

However, scholar overlords could achieve immediate results whenever they did feel the urge to earn money.

The Three Yangs Medicine was a good example of this idea.

And so was the Beast-Taming Medicine.

Just like that, everything proceeded according to plan.

In the fifth month after Su Chen entered Swallow River City, he felt like it was time and ordered Iron Cliff to return.

“Why do I need to come back now? I still have many different tactics to keep him there,” Iron Cliff said.

“There’s no need. We’ll need to have an open fight with Zhou Qingkuang sooner or later, and now is probably the best time.”

“But won’t delaying it longer make it easier to prepare more beforehand?”

Su Chen laughed. “Of course not. The Flight Network and feeding stations are all under construction, and they have already invested their money. When their investments start producing dividends, that is the best time to pressure the Gu Clan for a decision. If we wait until the Flight Network is constructed, they might feel like nothing bad will happen even if they kick me to the side. But right now, if they kick me aside, they will lose all their investments. Even though they can forcefully seize the wine taverns, brothels, and other businesses to make up for their losses, they won’t be able to overlook the agreements I signed...... In any case, they will find that simply kicking me aside will be a very difficult thing to do. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they would decide to do that for sure, but it’s best for us to just avoid even giving them that opportunity.”

Iron Cliff said with delight, “Master is truly wise.”

Three days later, Zhou Qingkuang finally embarked on his journey to Swallow River City.

This time, no other accidents delayed his departure.

However, what he didn’t know was that a show was waiting for him at his journey’s end.