Chapter 33: Rush

"Lin Fang?!!!" Gu Ji Bei's shocked voice was the first to break the atmosphere.

An incredulous expression painted his face as the younger ones looked at Gu Lin Fang with slight confusion.

Gu Ji Wan on the other hand was also shocked to see a younger looking Gu Lin Fan but when noticed the one standing beside him, He dropped the horse tail whisk in his hand.

This pulled Gu Ji Bei's attention to the man, He then proceeded to look at what Gu Ji Wan was staring at.

"Ji Hung!" He spat, he compared the two and was certain that, they were at least thirty years younger.

Gu Lin Fang turned his attention to the young ones and completed his counting, ' Eighteen, all original Gu clan members are accounted for.

I can now proceed'.

He looked at the two shocked Elders and said," there's much more to do than to stand outside under the sun with gaping mouths, Ji Hung..."

"I'm here!"

"You'll join them and follow Wei Fan, he'll show you all where to stay for now.

Don't get to comfortable though, we might be leaving here soon", He didn't even bother to look at the Gu clan members a second time as he gave instructions, "you will also clarify Ji Bei and Ji Wan on the things I told you last night".

A frown suddenly made it's way to Gu Ji Bei's face,"What..."

Before he could say anything, Gu Lin Fang glared at him while suppressing him completely with his cultivation.

Seeing the man's pale face as he struggles to stand on his feet, Gu Lin Fang stopped his actions and ignored him.

"Father, are you okay?"Gu Bei He who ran to his father's side, called out repeatedly.

Gu Yu Xing's eyes flashed as he thought of something, Fatty Zhu quickly whispers into his ears from behind.

'As expected, trash... can't even fight back like others of the same realm', Gu Lin Fang smirked ever so slightly and turned to Gu Wei  Fan, "Quickly lead them to their respective abode".

"As you order" the tall man bowed again, before gesturing towards the newly arrived clan members. Gu Ji Wan looks at Gu Ji Hung, only for the other party to shake his head for him not to speak on the matter.

The group quickly followed after the brown robed servant.

As soon as they left, Gu Lin Fang looked down at Gu Li Cheng, "Were you successful?"

Gu Li Cheng quickly cupped his fist and bowed, saying "Lord Uncle, I'm happy to say that, this one did not disappoint

I also came bringing news on the Lu and Wu clans".

With a nod, Gu Lin Fang looked at Gu Yu Xing and his cohort without a word.

Gu Yu Xing stepped forward immediately with a small bow, "Lord father, these are my comrades and disciple.

We've been working together for many years and sure they'd contribute greatly to your plans, as they now wish to swear allegiance to you".

Immediately, twenty plus men of different shapes and sizes, went down on their knees. They Kowtowed while roaring loudly, "Awed by your greatness and power, We humbly request to serve you.

If you ask us to cross rivers and lakes or climb a mountain of blades, we dare not frown..."

As they kept on speaking, the background slowly became silent.

His [Opportunist] personality was triggered as those swearing fealty were wrapped in gold Halos, different percentages were hanging over their heads except for one.

Although he wasn't able to tell what the gold Halos meant, he was sure not having one was a bad thing. So he marked the middle aged man that was just without a golden halo in his mind and said with a sneer, "Stand, I shall accept your allegiance but as for my trust?.

You have to earn it".

Immediately, a notification stating that he had just gotten +101 Notoriety points and some reputation.

He smiled at the news, as it meant he was once again closer to being a Boss.

He walked down the stairs slowly before stopping next to Gu Yu Xing while the others stood up.

His eyes locked with the moving pedestrians he could see outside the Mansion's gate, "We don't have much time, if we don't act fast, everything would be for nothing".

He glanced sideways at the solemn faced Gu Yu Xing and continued, "For now, our target would be Zhao Ye Ma. We'll target all their properties, kill anyone directly related to them and take over everything.

Anyone asks, say it's revenge for plotting to assassinate this old man.

Make as much noise as you can, Be as arrogant as you can be, I'll take responsibility.

Let {Iron Crow City} know the name Gu Lin Fang today.

I want to make that busy body, Zhao Ye Ma, unable to sit still.

Even the Zhao patriarch would have no choice but to let him out.

Find out the number of outside properties they have as well, do the same for the Kong clan.

Villages, mines, caravans and so on.

I need to stretch a bit".

Gu Yu Xing understood immediately, Gu Lin Fang was trying to spread his name quickly while seizing properties.

He chose to go after the peace loving Zhao patriarch, which was a perfect target to vent.

'But isn't this too rushed, we might not be able to hold on later!' with this line of thought, he said to Gu Lin Fang "Lord Father, I feel this would only make things difficult for us..."

"Yu Xing, It's not a problem to appear weak when you're strong but no matter what, You must always make yourself appear strong when you are actually weak. This will make your enemy cautious and even buy you more time" Gu Yu Xing mulled over Gu Lin Fang's words and his eyes flickered strangely.

"There's no time to lose, Just do as I say" He concluded.

"As you wish lord father, I know what to do"Gu Yu Xing says with determination all over his face.

Gu Lin Fang nodded casually and looked at the others, "Your performance will determine my response...I hope you can surprise me".

He calmly used the new {Situational awareness} on Gu Yu Xing and left a mark. this way he could get a glimpse of the situation around Gu Yu Xing during this operations.

He watched them leave with quick steps and decided to head to his study to hear about the news from the young man, " Cheng, follow me".

______________

On the way to the study, He listened to Li Cheng's report and his experience.

He was honestly impressed by the young man's performance, which exceeded his expectations.

Ideally, he was only hoping for him to scare the Kong's young Master before failing the mission, but surprisingly, He followed his instructions perfectly.

With that he fed Li Cheng some blood and used the system to start the bloodline awakening.

Now Gu Lin Fang was seated in his study, playing every possible route, this situation could take in his head.

And the outcome in all routes would be, him farming enough reputation to be a silver Boss in the Northern desert and developing more storyline quests  or side quests in {Iron Crow City} by tomorrow evening.

That way, he'll be completing his task and get acknowledged by the system before the official release date. He really didn't want to take chances with a possible failure.

'I'll need to make a quality puppet, for personal use.

The corpses in hand are all garbage, I'll use them to teach Li Cheng how to make them and also raise the level of Balki's Zombie refining by one, so I can open the next page'.

He then sneered while remembering Gu Yu Xing's earlier words, 'I really can't be like those MC's and deliberately hide my own strength, only for a random idiot to come find trouble with me, and then I'll expose my strength, so I can kill them in one fell swoop.

Isn't that a waste of your time and energy?'.

"Better Bash them all with full force from the beginning, I have a Pagoda to unlock and can't possibly give up the benefits of my body count"He tapped the table with a mischievous smirk as a sudden thought came to mind, "The body count increases as long as I am in someway connected to the reason why the victim died.

Why don't I make a fake treasure map and circulate it across the north, if possible further...."

The more he thought about it, the more the idea was sticking, "I'll need more information for this to work!".