Chapter 527 - 524: Building a Restaurant

"What do you mean?"

The Immortals were enraged. They had already swallowed their pride and handed over all their wealth, yet Mo Qi still had no intention of letting them go.

This was beyond mere humiliation; he was grinding their faces into the dirt!

This was the last straw!

But feeling the dense fluctuations of the array around them...

’...maybe we should just endure it a little longer.’

"Are you messing with us?"

Mo Qi flicked his finger and chuckled. "From the very beginning, I said you were paying to ransom your lives. Now you’re safe, and I won’t kill you. But I never said I was going to let you go."

"If you want to leave, it’s simple: pay a ransom for your freedom."

Since he had already offended them so thoroughly, Mo Qi didn’t mind taking full advantage of the opportunity to maximize his gains.

"You’ve gone too far!" He Jincheng roared. "You’ve already squeezed me dry! Where am I supposed to get the money to ransom my freedom?"

Mo Qi laughed. "That’s where you’re wrong. You might be out of money, but the families and factions backing you aren’t."

Only then did everyone understand Mo Qi’s true scheme.

He wasn’t just content with squeezing them dry; Mo Qi was going to extort their families, too!

"Kid, do you have any idea what you’re doing? You’re playing with fire!"

Mo Qi shrugged. ’Playing with fire?’

’He’d already dared to kill people. What was a little extortion on top of that?’

"Alright, cut the crap. I know you all have special channels to communicate with your families. I don’t care how you do it. All I know is, you have three days."

"Within three days, have your families bring a sufficient ransom to retrieve you. Once time is up, if you haven’t been ransomed, I’ll assume your families have abandoned you."

As he spoke, Mo Qi looked over at Xiao Zhang. "Hey... you’re Xiao Zhang, right? Does your Demon Sect happen to deal in the slave trade?"

Xiao Zhang nodded hastily. "Yes, Master, we do."

Mo Qi shifted his gaze back to the people inside the array. "You heard him. If you’re abandoned, I’ll have no choice but to sell you to the Demon Sect."

Xiao Zhang was sharp and immediately played along. "Heh heh. Don’t worry, Master. Our Demon Sect has no shortage of clients interested in these so-called Righteous People. I’m sure we can fetch a high price."

The people in the array were both frantic and furious, but utterly helpless.

Once they fell into the hands of the Demon Sect, their fate would be worse than death.

"How much is the ransom?" someone couldn’t help but ask.

Mo Qi replied, "Don’t worry, I won’t be unreasonable about the price. We’ll just use the value of the assets you just handed over. As long as the ransom isn’t less than that, you’ll be fine."

The people in the array were speechless. "..."

’You call that "not being unreasonable"?!’

Regardless of their Cultivation level or how selfish they were, the vast majority of Cultivators kept their entire fortune on their person.

It was the only way they felt secure.

As a result, many of them possessed fortunes that were anything but small, especially the Immortals and the Young Masters and Young Clan Leaders of various families.

The wealth they possessed was simply staggering.

Paying a ransom no less than their entire net worth would be a bitter pill for even their families to swallow.

"The time has come to see how much you’re truly worth to your families!"

...

On this day, the entire North District Envoy Hall was shaken to its core, and utterly enraged.

Someone had the audacity to challenge a titan, simultaneously extorting a hundred of their Sub-Palaces!

This wasn’t just simple extortion; it was a blatant slap in the face.

This talk of an "invincible array"... Without seeing it with their own eyes and experiencing it firsthand, few believed the reports, even after the news spread back to them.

Besides, no matter how powerful the array was, it had been set up by a mere Vajra Realm Cultivator.

Every Sub-Palace of the Hall of Envoys had a legacy stretching back tens of thousands of years.

This profound heritage gave them immense confidence.

"How audacious! How arrogant! Send the order! Aside from essential personnel stationed at headquarters, all other Immortals will follow me to the Desperate Mountain Range!"

...

"My old friends, we haven’t shown our faces in thousands of years, and now someone is shitting on our heads. It’s time we took a little stroll!"

...

"Awaken the Ancestors! We march to the Desperate Mountain Range!"

...

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Only the blood of our enemies can wash away this disgrace!"

...

"Hmph. An array? Grab our gear. Let’s go see what it’s all about!"

And so, the North District Envoy Hall launched its second wave of attack on the Desperate Mountain Range.

This wave was even swifter and more ferocious than the last.

The Demon Sect had also received the news.

"Interesting," the Sect Leader of the Demon Sect, Xiao Zhengheng, murmured, his eyes narrowed as he listened with great interest to the intelligence from his spies.

"He borrowed the power of the Master of the Desperate Mountain Range, used an array to escape a hopeless situation, and completely turned the tables. His mind is meticulous, his methods are superb. The boy is a true strategist!"

"He dared to kill an Immortal and openly extort those hypocrites. That takes courage!"

"But he’s still too young. He doesn’t know when to stop. While those people from the North District are of questionable character, they certainly don’t lack for power."

"The Desperate Mountain Range may restrict Cultivation, but many special Magical Artifacts and other items can be activated without significant power."

"Breaking his array won’t be difficult."

"Barring any surprises, he won’t be able to withstand this assault. He’ll meet a miserable end."

"But Zhang’er and the Demon God Grand Ceremony still need him."

Xiao Zhengheng closed his eyes, his finger tapping a steady rhythm on the table. TAP... TAP...

After a long moment, he opened his eyes. "Send the order: the plan is unchanged. Everyone is to follow Zhang’er’s lead!"

...

Back in the Desperate Mountain Range, the captives, who had thought they could simply wait for their ransoms to arrive and then leave peacefully, found Mo Qi testing their limits once again.

"You want us to chop wood and build a house for you?!"

Mo Qi shook his head. "Not a house. A restaurant."

That’s right. Mo Qi wanted this group of people to help him build a restaurant!

And he wanted to build it right here, in the Desperate Mountain Range.

This was the plan he and the Pig Emperor had come up with.

There was still a year until the Demon Spirit Battlefield opened, and given the North District Envoy Hall’s hatred for him, he obviously couldn’t leave the confines of the Desperate Mountain Range.

So, at the Pig Emperor’s suggestion, Mo Qi decided to temporarily open the "Uncle Niu’s Kitchen God" restaurant here in the Desperate Mountain Range.

For one, it would mean returning to his old trade; after all, being a chef was his true profession.

For another, it would give him a place to settle down so he wouldn’t have to sleep out in the open.

Finally, it would also be a convenient way for him to acquire the Spiritual Objects he needed from others.

Mo Qi wasn’t worried about a lack of customers. The allure of Medicinal Cuisine was irresistible.

Leaving all else aside, just for the ability to repair a shattered Dantian, Mo Qi was confident that countless people would be scrambling over each other to become his patrons.

"We’ve already arranged for the ransom! You promised us our freedom! You have no right to make us work for you!" someone said defiantly.

"Kid, we admit your skill with arrays is profound, but we are Immortals! You should show us the respect we are due!"

Mo Qi laughed. "What good does arranging the ransom do? Until I have it in my hands, your freedom belongs to me! That means you’ll do whatever I tell you to do!"

"Forget it, kid! We’re not building a restaurant for you!"