"You..." Bei Fangjian paused, stunned by the words "Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect". If Mo Wuji hadn't approached him so stealthily, he would have exploded in fury.

Fortunately, he quickly calmed down, knowing this was no time for anger. "I am Bei Fangjian, the twenty-sixth prince of the Minghan Empire. Even if you are the Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, you cannot simply barge into my hall."

Mo Wuji chuckled, then suddenly reached out, grabbing Bei Fangjian and tossing him onto the ground. Then he heard Mo Wuji say, "The emperor of the Minghan Empire sits here? This isn't even the Minghan Empire. This is Heavenly Peak, which belongs to the Heavenly Secrets Sect."

Bei Fangjian struggled to his feet, just in time to see Mo Wuji sitting in his seat. He trembled with rage and was about to call for guards when he caught a whiff of blood. He instinctively turned to see that the two immortal masters under his command lay headless on the ground. As for the rest of the guards, they didn't seem to have reacted yet.

Perhaps his guards placed too much faith in the immortal masters. With immortal masters around, they didn't feel the need to do anything.

Bei Fangjian took a deep breath and cupped his fists at Mo Wuji. "Since you are an immortal master, why provoke my Minghan Empire?"

Mo Wuji chuckled. "What is the Minghan Empire?"

Bei Fangjian was momentarily speechless. The man clearly held the Minghan Empire in contempt. How could he use the Minghan Empire to threaten him?

"What do you want?" Bei Fangjian wished he could kill Mo Wuji on the spot, but he had to suppress his anger. He couldn't cultivate, and had ordinary roots, but he had seen too many cultivators to feel any sense of mystery about them.

Mo Wuji looked at Bei Fangjian and asked, "Now can you tell me, is this your hall, or what?"

How could Bei Fangjian not realize that this man was here to cause trouble? Though he didn't know why Mo Wuji was so bold, he could only answer honestly, "This is Heavenly Peak, a secondary peak of the Heavenly Secrets Sect."

"Not bad. Since it's a secondary peak of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, why are you here?" Mo Wuji tapped the table in front of him.

Bei Fangjian replied again, "Immortal Master must be new to the Heavenly Secrets Sect and unaware of the situation. I leased Heavenly Peak from the Heavenly Secrets Sect. Everyone in the Heavenly Secrets Sect knows this."

"Oh? How much rent?"

"The previous Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect was very generous and didn't specify a rent. He meant we could pay whatever we wanted."

"And did you pay anything you wanted?"

"Not yet."

"Very good!" Mo Wuji slammed the table. "The former Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect was generous and let you pay whatever you wanted, but I am the current Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, and I am not so generous. Today, I've come to collect the rent."

Bei Fangjian asked in surprise, "You... asking me for rent?"

He swallowed the word "dare" that he was about to say. The situation was against him, and he had no choice.

Mo Wuji didn't answer him, but instead said to Pu Qian, "Pu Qian, go and slaughter everyone on Heavenly Peak, leaving no one alive. Oh, and except for this esteemed prince in the main hall, leave two people to help the prince dress."

"Yes!" Pu Qian said, sending out more than a dozen gusts of fist wind, before turning and leaving the hall.

Only after Pu Qian had gone a good distance did more than a dozen screams of agony come from the main hall. More than a dozen guards standing on either side, who had been unsure of what to do, vomited blood and collapsed. Only two remained standing, their faces ashen and still in shock.

Only now did Bei Fangjian realize what kind of person he had encountered. Compared to the gentle previous Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, this was a god of slaughter. His methods were even crueler than those of the twenty-sixth prince.

Screams came from outside one after another, and Bei Fangjian's face grew even paler, his legs starting to tremble.

"Oh, right, I killed your younger brother, Bei Tianyu." Mo Wuji said casually.

Mo Wuji's words finally shattered the last bit of hope in Bei Fangjian's heart. If he even dared to kill Bei Tianyu, would he dare to kill him, the twenty-sixth prince?

"Immortal Master... let's talk this over. However much rent you want, I will find a way to get it for you..." Bei Fangjian tried to make his voice calm and smooth, but he couldn't. Even he could hear the tremor in his voice.

"That's more like it. Who ever heard of renting a place without paying?" Mo Wuji said with a smile, walking down from his seat. "Let me calculate. I won't count how many years you've rented it. Too troublesome. Let's just say you rented it for a year."

Bei Fangjian felt a sense of relief. It was good he was only calculating for one year. Even if the rent was high, he could handle it.

"The rent is one hundred million gold coins..."

Hearing Mo Wuji say one hundred million gold coins, Bei Fangjian completely breathed a sigh of relief. One hundred million gold coins was indeed a terrifying number, but he had made a fortune here over the years, destroying too many ordinary merchant families, and his profits far exceeded one hundred million gold coins. He could agree first, and then slowly find ways to deal with him after returning to the Minghan Empire.

Mo Wuji deliberately paused before continuing, "About one hundred million gold coins a day..."

One hundred million gold coins a day? Bei Fangjian was completely dumbfounded. Even if he sold himself, he couldn't gather hundreds of billions of gold coins.

"Immortal Master, though I can agree, I really can't gather that much gold." At this point, the panic in Bei Fangjian's heart disappeared.

Mo Wuji's killing intent surged, pressing down on Bei Fangjian as he asked, "How much can you take out?"

Before Bei Fangjian could answer, Pu Qian's voice came from outside the door, "Sect Master, everywhere except this main hall has been completely slaughtered."

Bei Fangjian shuddered again and quickly said, "I can gather six hundred million gold coins. This is all the gold I can take out. Even if you kill me, I can't gather any more."

After speaking, Bei Fangjian looked at Mo Wuji uneasily. At this moment, he regretted why he had come to the Heavenly Secrets Sect to rent a peak.

"Then six hundred million gold coins it is. As for the rest of the gold, you can help me find people to offset the debt. I need all kinds of construction talent. If you bring too few people, and they aren't professional enough, the debt won't be reduced. Can you do it?"

As soon as Mo Wuji finished speaking, Bei Fangjian quickly bowed and said, "Immortal Master, I can definitely do it. I guarantee I will complete the task the Immortal Master has given me."

Mo Wuji nodded and took out three black pills. "These are three pills that I have researched myself. After you gather the gold coins and people and send them here, I will give you the antidote. Remember, you only have three months. If the things haven't been sent to Tiankou Town in three months, then you don't need to send them. Because by that time, you will die a horrible death."

Bei Fangjian felt a sense of relief. His Minghan Empire even had Rank 3 Human Pill Refiners. Was he afraid of this pill poison? He quickly replied, "I guarantee to send the things the Immortal Master needs to Tiankou Town within three months."

Mo Wuji chuckled. "Do you know why I gave you three?"

Bei Fangjian looked at Mo Wuji blankly.

Mo Wuji pointed at the two remaining guards behind Bei Fangjian and said, "The other two are for them to take, as test subjects for you to detoxify. Oh, I also want to tell you that anything used to detoxify will immediately cause your whole body to rot and die. I believe you won't do a third experiment after trying it twice."

Bei Fangjian felt a chill run down his spine. The other party seemed to know his every thought. But even with the threat, he had to go back and try it out. Weren't there two test subjects?

"I won't try to detoxify. I will definitely send the Immortal Master's things and then ask the Immortal Master to detoxify." Bei Fangjian quickly replied.

After speaking, he took a pill and gave the remaining two pills to his guards. The current Sovereign of the Heavenly Secrets Sect was completely different from the previous one. He didn't dare bet his life.

"Since that's the case, why haven't you scrammed?" Mo Wuji said coldly after seeing Bei Fangjian take the pill.

"Yes, yes..." Bei Fangjian quickly left Heavenly Peak with the two survivors.

...

An hour later, the sixteenth prince of another secondary peak of Heavenly Peak, Bei Sen, left the Heavenly Secrets Mountain Range in a hurry with two servants, his face as pale as Bei Fangjian's.

As for his Minghan Heavenly Commerce Alliance, it was wiped out by Mo Wuji.

"Sect Master, will letting these two princes go cause the Minghan Empire to send experts over immediately?" Seeing that Mo Wuji let Bei Fangjian and Bei Sen go for the sake of gold coins, but still killed Bei Tianyu. Pu Qian asked.

Mo Wuji smiled. "It would be a problem if we didn't let them go. These two are afraid of death. Before they completely detoxify, they won't tell anyone about this. During this time, everyone should cultivate in seclusion and improve their cultivation. I also need to break through to the Yuan Dan Realm."

Bei Sen and Bei Fangjian were ordinary mortals without spiritual roots. If these mortals were content with being ordinary, they wouldn't have come up with the idea of becoming bandits and forming commercial alliances. This showed that they were unwilling to be ordinary. Only those who are unwilling to be ordinary are unwilling to die casually. Therefore, Mo Wuji wasn't worried that the Minghan Empire would attack him during this time.

As for Bei Tianyu's death, it was to tell Bei Fangjian and Bei Sen that princes were just as killable in his eyes. He believed that Bei Fangjian and Bei Sen would try to cover it up in the short term and would definitely not reveal it until their poison was removed.

...

Heavenly Peak was the main peak of the Heavenly Secrets Mountain Range and the location of the Heavenly Secrets Sect.

However, the current Heavenly Peak was a mess, with traces of lightning strikes everywhere, and the main hall was dilapidated.

Mo Wuji and the others stood before Heavenly Peak, speechless.

After a long time, Mo Wuji said, "I will place the spiritual vein under Heavenly Peak now, and then set up a Spirit Gathering Array. Pu Qian, temporarily take over Nie Zhengnong's affairs and let him come back after he advances to the Yuan Dan Realm."

He had many things to do, not only to break through to the Yuan Dan Realm himself, but also to help Nie Zhengnong and Sang Yiping break through to the Yuan Dan Realm. At the same time, he had to plan how to build the Heavenly Secrets Sect and Tiankou Town, and even set up a defensive array for the Heavenly Secrets Sect.
(First update, asking for monthly ticket support~)