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The famous scholars sat together again with worried expressions on their faces, none of them daring to look at each other. Sun Jinfang couldn’t believe it – within just ten days, almost all of the ten million catties of grain that they had obtained from the Xiao Family had been consumed. What was expected to last for twenty days was now just under a million catties.

Even if distributed at the lowest standard, this million catties of grain wouldn’t last more than five days. Sun Jinfang had no choice but to gather all the famous scholars of Xiling to discuss the issue of food supply. He had hoped that everyone would eagerly join the discussion, but instead they were all silent, only speaking up to express blame.

Feeling the increasingly quiet atmosphere, the manager of Return to Spring Hall, Liu, spoke: “Master Ou, Elder Nian! I think the mountain mining and the city construction should be held off until Tianjiao comes back. Each of you has an enormous appetite. In these ten days, just the labourers and craftsmen spent several hundreds of thousands of catties of grain.

The so-called labourers are mostly cultivators in the Mortal Realm. Even though they don’t have martial skills, using spiritual power to nourish their bodies can generate great strength. One person can match the strength of five regular people. The craftsmen of the Ou Family are in a higher realm, even they joined in mining the mountain. While spiritual energy can be replenished by breathing exercises, energy expenditure needs food. Although the food conversion efficiency of cultivators is higher, the amount of food consumed by those in the Mortal Realm and the higher realm is still five to ten times that of ordinary people.

Normally, no one would mind the martial artists using excess food, but at this time of food shortage, the scholars, who didn’t dare to eat their fill, watched as these craftsmen consumed a significant amount of grain, causing strong resentment.

The dissatisfaction of the crowd focused on Elder Nian and Ou Yu, hoping they would halt this unexpected consumption of grain. It felt as if the rapid depletion of ten million pounds of grain was their fault.

How could Elder Nian, who worked hard every day without having enough to eat, stand this? He erupted, “Are you speaking rationally, Liu?”

Furious Elder Nian, his face fiery red, pounded the table and stood up pointing at the crowd: “You’re the ones who was in charge of distribution, you dumped this on Master Ou and me! Tianjiao said as long as we build the city, we would not have to worry about food. Do you want to go back on your words? Nine million catties of grain are gone in ten days. I think you’ve been stuffing your own pockets when distributing the food!”

No sooner had Elder Nian spoken than his face turned pale, a pound hit his heart. Because after he had spoken his last sentence, the faces of everyone in the room darkened, more than a dozen murderous eyes focused on him, all filled with leathal intent.

“Young Nian Bo, how dare you insult me like this!” Manager Liu of Return to Spring Hall trembled with anger, pointing at Nian Bo’s nose, rebuked: “My hall has distributed 753,920 catties of grain in the past ten days. I sent members of the Liu Clan, over 300 managers and over 1000 helpers, none of these people got a grain of relief food, they all ate the food from Liu’s storage. Since you have so much disdain for the Liu Clan, I’ll return the task of food distribution

to you!”

There was nothing more heartbreaking than the slander against them after pouring in their enthusiasm and effort. If these scholars of Xiling really coveted some grain, they could just close the door and not care about the life and death of the people, they could find ways to go on smoothly with the saved food and some poor soil for farming. But they wouldn’t worry about running around for the people. The words spoken by Bo Nian in desperation had already hurt everyone’s heart.

Realizing that he had spoken out of his desperation, Nian Bo’s face changed, and he hurriedly said, “No, manager Liu, you listen….”

“Elder Nian.” Another Xiling scholar interrupted Elder Nian, saying coldly: “The Xue Family distributed one million catties of grain in the past ten days. Although our family members did eat relief food, it was because the Xue Family had given out all of our own stored grain before the disaster relief. You say I’ve been filling my own pockets! If you can find ten thousand catties of grain in the Xue’s storehouse, I’ll cut off my head and apologize to the starving and freezing people of Red Cloud Mountain!

“Mr. Xue, I…I didn’t mean that.” Nian Bo looked at the furious expressions of the people in front of him, anger flaring in their eyes, how could he not know that he had caused a disaster? Actually, he was just talking casually, how could he anticipate such a huge reaction from these people.

Facing the accusations, the hotblooded Nian Bo knew that he had to calm the crowd’s anger as soon as possible, otherwise the Nian family would be in danger.

“Crack!”

The sound of a finger breaking echoed in the council hall. Elder Nian had broken his little finger on his left hand and placed it on the table.

The bloody yet still twitching finger left everyone stunned.

“Hiss?? ” Nian Bo sucked in air, suppressing the quivering pain and

apologized to the crowd: “In a moment of desperation, I said something absurd. Consider this broken finger as my punishment and I ask for your forgiveness.”

People in the martial arts world are fiery and righteous. Nian Bo spoke sincerely, lowering the anger of Manager Liu and Manager Xue, but that didn’t mean this was over. Even among the famous scholars of Xiling, there were those who had long disliked Elder Nian. Especially when they were face to face accused of wrongdoing, not everything could be smoothed over by breaking a finger.

“Elder Nian agreed to Tianjiao’s request to mine the mountain and now you’ve broken a finger to flee from it. Truly impressive!” Ruan Tao glanced at the broken finger on the table and mocked coldly: “Since it’s a verbal offense, you should cut your tongue, it would also save us bad moods from listening to your rumors!”

As leaders of the shipbuilding industry, Ruan Tao and Nian Bo were always rivals, the members under their leadership would occasionally fight due to conflicts. Although Elder Nian lived in Xiling his whole life and had more resources than Ruan Tao, the disputes always ended with Nian Bo’s victory. Even though they both tried hard for the people of Xiling, the enmity between them would not be put aside because they had the same goal.

Nian Bo looked deeply at Ruan Tao, then at the crowd, no one stood up to speak for him, and a touch of sadness surfaced in his heart. In indignation, he said, “You’re right! I said something inappropriate. What use is having a tongue? I will cut it off today to apologize to you all!”

As he said, he opened his mouth and tried to bite his tongue. When he was about to do so, a soft and green spiritual force protected Elder Nian’s tongue, keeping his teeth from closing and making a metallic sound.

“I asked everyone here to discuss solutions, not to find someone to shift the blame.” Suddenly, Sun Jinfang, who had been quiet, spoke, attracting all the attention, “If we need to find someone to take responsibility, I am the one who was entrusted by Tianjiao to preside over the disaster relief. I shoulder all responsibility. The grain distribution points you mentioned, I have inspected them all, there is not a single problem. It’s just that there are too many people in need of help on Red Cloud Mountain, the situation is not your fault. It’s because I did not make an accurate judgement of the population. If Tianjiao pursues the matter, I will take full responsibility. So, for now, I hope that everyone can think about how to make a million catties of grain last for five days, until Tianjiao returns..”