STARTING MY CULTIVATION WITH TIME MANAGEMENT

Chapter 810: Chapter 47: Scheming

Long Long was very satisfied with his perceptiveness.

After all, those with developed muscles should fight, those with clever minds should command; this is what specialization is.

As for those who clearly lack wisdom, yet because of a high Cultivation Realm are elevated to positions they are not competent in—Long Long has always despised such matters deeply.

For example, the group of bird people, led by Elder Kong Ping, who out of jealousy for his commanding talent are unwilling to follow his orders, bear in mind, I’ve remembered all of you!

Let’s set aside the older ones for now and deal with these younger ones first.

Long Long’s gaze turned to the crowd, seeing the Feathered Clan Cultivators showing nervousness, unease, fear, and anxiety with various expressions.

He suddenly smiled and said:

“There’s no rush to finalize the list; let me first get to know everyone.”

Everyone was dumbfounded.

In such a critical time for escape, and you’re saying you need to get to know each person before deciding who stays and who leaves, are you out of your mind?

Although everyone thought this way, no one dared to challenge him directly; they could only manage forced smiles.

If anyone questioned him and then ended up being assigned to “stay and guard Yuanjiang City,” who could accept that?

Long Hu silently observed this and suddenly had some inspiration:

The Feathered Clan’s xenophobia and unreasonableness were something she had known ever since she and Long Long passed through South State. The Red Feather Arrow given by Feng Yan would be effective if held by the Feathered Clan, but in the hands of the Dragon Clan… encountering someone as obstinate as Elder Kong Ping, he would definitely claim it was stolen and no one could do anything about it.

Similarly, these Feathered Clan Cultivators from Yuanjiang City, originally wouldn’t take the three persons seriously.

But now, Long Long could manipulate them at will for three reasons:

First, naturally, because it’s a special period, everyone is thinking about how to escape, so they don’t have time to oppose him.

Second, Long Long’s ability to bypass multiple blockades, ultimately reaching the isolated Yuanjiang City, had given these Feathered Clan Cultivators a lot of confidence.

If there were only these two points, it would only mean that Long Long had the capital to communicate with these Feathered Clan Cultivators on an equal basis. They might listen to his suggestions; but to dominate them like now was absolutely impossible.

The most important thing is the third point: he could decide everyone’s “stay or leave.”

To leave, if they managed to escape, of course, there would be no more danger; to stay, whether or not more reinforcements will come, or whether they can succeed if they do come, is unknown, with risks truly terrifying.

Originally, the power to decide who stays or leaves was in the hands of the city’s guarding General Qiu Ying, but Long Long saw that this general had no ambition for power, only thinking about saving as many as he could. Therefore, Long Long cleverly used his words to strike, making the other party willingly choose to capitulate and give up, thus taking the power to decide “stay or leave” into his own hands.

With this power, all Feathered Clan Cultivators, in order to get into the first batch of evacuees, had to try their best to please him.

And this kind of pleasing, if managed properly, would subsequently form a kind of mental inertia—what is often referred to historically as “prestige.”

Long Hu, silently pondering alone, joins Qin Lie and Long Long in finding a small hall in the nearby city guard’s office, starting to receive the queueing Feathered Clan Cultivators.

Every Feathered Clan Cultivator had to introduce themselves, stating their life, Cultivation Realm, and their general combat capabilities.

Again, under normal circumstances these pieces of information are privately sensitive details, ones that would cause individuals to become defensive if questioned. Now, as everyone is competing to be selected for the first batch of evacuees, they can only obediently report to Long Long, not daring to make any false moves.

Thus, detailed situations of all four hundred and twenty Feathered Clan Cultivators in the city were now under Long Long’s control.

Next, Long Long did something that greatly infuriated the Feathered Clan Cultivators:

He publicly announced that he was going to close the door to study the list.

If this topic were not brought up, everyone would only feel slightly alarmed; yet, this person deliberately made it clear by saying, “researching the list,” which made everyone too nervous to just sit and wait, leading them to take action in order to save themselves.

The most common idea that came to people’s minds was naturally a classic traditional essence of the culture: giving gifts.

A massive line of gift-givers formed outside the city guard residence, looking much like a checkpoint, but everyone was quickly dismissed without success.

When Long Long said “shut the doors to research,” it meant truly shutting the doors – no knocks would be answered, the same went for Qiu Ying.

Since the main hosts refused to accept gifts, everyone tried their best to bribe the messengers.

Qin Lie maintained a stern expression, refusing to accept any gifts. However, some utterly shameless people would shove the items through the door crack and immediately fly away, leveraging the Feathered Clan’s swift speed to vanish into some alley before one could blink.

Unable to immediately return the items to their owners, Qin Lie found the Magic Artifacts and Elixirs quite troubling and decided to consult Long Long on what to do.

On his way, he encountered Long Hu, who, after hearing his complaints, suggested:

“You can just give everything to Qiu Ying and have him distribute the items back to the original givers. He’s familiar with these Feathered Clan cultivators, and we are not!”

“That works?” Qin Lie wondered, “But what if the original owners cannot be found?”

“How could there be no way to find the original givers?” Long Hu laughed, “If they didn’t leave their life essence in the gifts, how would we know who sent them? What’s the point of such bribery then?”

Finally understanding, Qin Lie packed up everything and handed it over to Qiu Ying.

Qiu Ying nearly had a meltdown when he saw the quantity: he knew a lot of people were trying to bribe Long Long, but he hadn’t expected there to be so much. How could he possibly manage to return each one? He immediately notified everyone to come and claim their items.

When people heard their items were with Qiu Ying, they panicked at once.

Had the items been with Long Long, whether or not he appreciated the gesture, there would’ve been some peace of mind—the last thing anyone wanted was to be seen as the only person who hadn’t given a gift, which could be fatal.

But with the items in Qiu Ying’s hands, it became a matter of character.

Qiu Ying’s character was deemed reliable by those who knew him, but who could guarantee it? What if he saw something nice among the items and kept it for himself, simply claiming that Long Long’s gifts didn’t include it? The owner would have to swallow the loss, unable to confront Long Long about it.

Thus, within an hour, the items were miraculously cleared out completely, which was a sight to behold.

The items were reclaimed, but what about the list?

Everyone helplessly discovered that after all the twists and turns, they ended up back where they started.

What could be done?

Before Long Long announced the results, there was absolutely nothing the crowd could do but wait for the outcome.

However, Long Hu didn’t have this worry; she was currently pestering Long Long, clamoring to see the finalized list he had produced!

“Is there any pattern to this?” After holding the list for a long while, Long Hu couldn’t resist asking.

In the two-thirds of the evacuation list, High Rank Cultivators, Low Rank Cultivators, older cultivators, younger cultivators, even male and female cultivators—were all in a relatively balanced proportion.

There was no specific group of cultivators who were mostly slotted into either evacuation or stay behind—making it seem as if who stayed and who left was randomly chosen by egalitarianism.

“Of course, there is.” Long Long replied, “Look at the remarks.”

Long Hu then closely examined the remarks, and at the very top of the stay behind list, she noticed a line of small text:

“Extremely adept at Wind Escape, the fastest at fleeing.”

Source: .com, updated on Novlove.com

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