After resigning together with Claire, following the requirements stipulated in the acquisition contract and the laws of Country U, today he would bring his plenipotentiary representative to the Douglas Law Firm. When Mu Lin called Douglas to inform him, he hoped Douglas would notify all the executives of the firm that a new financial director would be appointed. Thus, Mu Lin arrived at Douglas’s office accompanied by Claire and the two lawyers.
Upon seeing Claire, Douglas froze for a moment, but quickly replaced his surprise with a natural smile. “Daniel, is this your plenipotentiary representative? Haha, she’s the prettiest accountant in our firm. You’ve really found a great assistant!”
“Yes,” Mu Lin replied. “According to our country’s laws, after my authorization, Ms. Claire Lasser will be my plenipotentiary representative.” He handed the power of attorney to the lawyer, who then passed it back to Claire.
Then Mu Lin took out another document and said to Douglas, “According to the acquisition contract, I won’t be managing the company directly. My authorized agent will serve as your assistant and financial director. Here are the newly added conditions: for expenditures under 500,000, you can approve directly but must note the reason. For those under 1,000,000, you must consult with the financial director before deciding whether to approve. For expenditures under 5,000,000, you must report to my authorized representative and obtain approval. Does Mr. Douglas have any objections?”
Douglas considered for a moment and then readily agreed and signed. Seeing Douglas’s demeanor, Mu Lin knew there was still something unresolved. Recalling that recently, people had been inquiring about him around his apartment complex, he figured out what Douglas was planning and decided to give him some peace of mind.
“Mr. Douglas, as you know, according to our agreement, this acquisition must remain strictly confidential. Therefore, I won’t be attending the firm’s meeting. You can announce that, due to Claire securing new investment, you have rehired her and promoted her to your assistant and financial director.”
After saying this, Mu Lin left the lawyers to handle the procedures with Claire and returned alone to his apartment. He knew that Claire would be busy with the firm at night and wouldn’t bother him, which was exactly what he wanted.
Tonight, he planned to visit Douglas’s residence to investigate and eliminate the threat in its infancy. Mu Lin’s principle was simple: if you play fair, I’ll play fair with you. But if you resort to underhanded tricks, well…
As he left his apartment building, Mu Lin noticed a car tailing him. Using his spiritual awareness, he discovered that the people in the car were armed but had no valid identification. He realized they were from the underworld.
He led them to a secluded area. Suddenly, the car accelerated, overtook him, and stopped. Before the men could get out, Mu Lin had already knocked them unconscious with his spiritual energy. He got into the car and woke one of them up. Since the opponent was from the underworld, they should be prepared to die. If not, it was their own fault. Without hesitation, he used a soul-seizing technique on them to extract the information he needed. The consequence of this technique was that the victims would become mentally incapacitated.
Then, he disguised himself as one of them and drove away. He did this because surveillance cameras were everywhere in the big cities. At an open area, he threw the unconscious men out of the car. Whether they lived or died would depend on their luck.
After changing his appearance again, Mu Lin used his “Flying on Land” technique and headed to the suburbs. This was Douglas’s villa outside the city, not one of his two known properties, but rather the family’s main base.
Tonight, Douglas had planned to kidnap him and bring him here. Thinking about it made Mu Lin angry. He had wanted to conduct business honestly, spared Douglas’s life, and even paid an additional 12 million. Yet Douglas had the audacity to plan his kidnapping to force him to sign an asset transfer agreement and then dispose of his body. Well, Mu Lin had his own plans.
After sneaking into the residence, Mu Lin scanned the area with his spiritual awareness. Without hesitation, he knocked out everyone he encountered, quickly clearing the courtyard of henchmen. Then he quickly approached Douglas’s house.
It was a three-story building. Mu Lin used his spiritual awareness to check the upper floors, finding only a few people. When he scanned downward, he discovered a hidden basement with three levels. Thinking for a moment, Mu Lin took out a few talismans and first set up an “Imprisoning Dragon Formation” to prevent anyone from escaping—allowing entry but not exit.
Then he set up a “Gathering Energy Formation” to prevent any energy from leaking out, effectively blocking mobile phone signals. He also cut all the telephone lines, effectively turning the courtyard into an isolated island. Then he leapt up to the third floor and entered through an open window, planning to clear the house from top to bottom.
From the outside, the house looked like an ordinary residence, and the interior was similarly unremarkable, except for the numerous oil paintings on the walls. However, all the paintings were fake. Mu Lin shook his head, thinking how low-class Douglas must be to use forgeries to pretend to be sophisticated. No wonder he was involved in such despicable activities.
Tonight, Douglas was conducting business, so the women in his family were not in the house. According to the conversations Mu Lin had overheard, there were only a few henchmen on the third floor. Using his soul-searching technique, he had already obtained detailed information about Douglas’s family, including their portraits.
After clearing the third, second, and first floors, Mu Lin moved all the unconscious henchmen to the living room. This was to prevent anyone from entering the courtyard while he was in the basement and discovering the situation. Although Mu Lin’s spiritual core had reached the middle stage of the middle realm, his spiritual awareness could only penetrate ten meters underground. Going deeper would consume a significant amount of spiritual energy.
He didn’t want to waste his spiritual energy on useless tasks. The first basement level was a garage. Following a hidden layer, there was a secret door guarded by two men, likely waiting for news. Since the door could only be opened from the inside, there were no more guards. It seemed that the Douglas family had been developing here for over a hundred years for a reason. Their caution alone justified their reputation.
Mu Lin used his spiritual energy to knock out the two guards and then opened the door, entering the second basement level. As he descended, he used his spiritual awareness to scan the area—not out of caution, but out of habit. Every time he entered an unfamiliar place, he first scanned before proceeding.
Once, Mu Lin discovered a cultivator’s cave dwelling. He had only scanned from the surface and nearly got trapped in a cleverly designed formation on the way. Fortunately, Mu Lin had already reached the middle stage of the spiritual core and had enough spiritual energy to locate the switch and free himself. This seven-day ordeal had instilled this habit in him.
After scanning, Mu Lin discovered an escape tunnel on the third basement level. Following the tunnel, he found it was over 400 meters long, leading directly to the basement of an ordinary household. It seemed the family was unaware of the tunnel. The basement was filled with clutter, and escaping through it would take some time, rendering the escape tunnel useless. Whether Douglas knew about the tunnel was unclear, but years of comfort might have made him forget about it.
Mu Lin didn’t care. He extended his spiritual energy and first locked the door. The second basement level had several rooms filled with light firearms and some heavy weapons—standard military issue. Mu Lin hadn’t expected the gang to have so many weapons. He confirmed the rooms, and since everyone inside was unarmed due to being in the basement, it saved him a lot of trouble.
After clearing the second basement level, Mu Lin entered the third basement level. Here were Douglas and his two brothers, four cousins, three sons, eighteen nephews, and some henchmen. In short, the main strength of the Douglas family was gathered here.
Mu Lin’s original plan was to eliminate the Douglas family. However, seeing this room, he had his first thought of planning to occupy this place for cultivation retreats. He understood that although he had chosen to cultivate in the mundane world, he still needed a good place for retreats.
Wealth, companions, techniques, and location—these four elements all required money, so wealth was the most important. Next was companions. Mu Lin thought to himself that he didn’t need a cultivation partner for dual cultivation at the moment. In fact, the purpose of a cultivation partner was not only for dual cultivation but also to avoid drawing attention from the mundane world. In the past, when there were many cultivators, a considerable number of them, lacking ways to make money, allied themselves with the government. Therefore, the mundane forces were also quite powerful. The third element was the cultivation techniques, and the last was the cultivation location.
This was the principle followed by past cultivators. With wealth, one could buy cultivation partners from small sects and techniques from large sects. With money, anything could be bought. It seemed that the past cultivation world was not much different from the mundane world today. As long as one had money, anything could be purchased. Since he intended to occupy this place, he couldn’t draw attention from the mundane world. He had just arrived here and hadn’t yet understood the situation of the underworld. If he drew the attention of Douglas’s allies, it would be counterproductive. If these people kept coming to attack him every day, it would be annoying. There were thieves who committed crimes for a thousand days, but there were no people who could guard against thieves for a thousand days.
This book was first published on Qidian.
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