"Ah! He's emerged from seclusion?" the First Elder exclaimed in surprise. He hadn't forgotten the significance of Lin Yao's emergence from seclusion; there weren't many things that would be on the minds of a Heavenly-level expert. Lin Yao's condition was definitely the top priority, because his condition was related to the future of the Yi family.
"So you mean... you can..."
Lin Yao knew what Elder Yi Potian wanted to ask, and answered directly without needing to ask, "Yes, I can now deal with Heaven-level experts again."
Seeing the other person's eyes change dramatically, revealing a sense of eagerness, Lin Yao quickly added, "Well, let's make this clear first, I can't spar with you without holding back. If I use that move, it's a fight to the death, a mutual destruction, and I'll be the one who survives. It's hard to control the outcome."
Lin Yao blocked Elder Yi Potian's idea with his words. He knew that Heaven-level experts were lonely and had a clear urge to improve their understanding and realm by fighting against people of the same level.
However, Lin Yao could not cooperate because he was unsure of the exact level of sensitivity that a Heavenly-level expert could have to the grass. It was impossible to sense it outside the body, but if it entered Yi Potian's body and allowed the other party to sense the grass's tendrils, wouldn't that risk exposing the grass?
Therefore, Lin Yao did not intend to use the grass to test the Heavenly-level experts. He would either kill the opponent directly in a real fight or hide his strength. He would not make any other choice.
"Sir, you go ahead and attend to your business. I'll arrange for men to come immediately. This time, we must seek justice at the factory. They actually sent people to kidnap you!" Elder Yi Potian's expression turned serious, and a fierce glint appeared in his eyes. "It's time for the Yi family to settle accounts for the humiliations they've suffered over the decades. Just the Jiang family alone has lost 359 members. I remember that number very clearly!"
Lin Yao didn't know what to say. He didn't understand the struggles and hatred between powerful families, but the sheer number was already alarming. He just needed to help the Yi family attack the Jiang family; nothing else mattered.
Several days have passed. Dealing with the Jiang family is no small matter. It involves personnel deployment, intelligence analysis, the distribution of the enemy's strength, the equipment of our own targets and attack and retreat plans, and countermeasures for any possible emergencies, etc.
After all, the five provinces south of the Yangtze River are the Jiang family's territory. If the plan is not detailed and thorough, the Yi family may suffer heavy losses. The Yi family, which has just risen again, cannot afford such losses.
Lin Yao occasionally participated in the Yi family's planning and strategy, and also offered his own opinions.
The eighth plan, designed based on Lin Yao's opinion, was clearly carried out on the basis of the Yi family's complete trust in Lin Yao's abilities, because if Lin Yao's abilities, such as poisoning, were not up to the level he described, the Yi family's losses would increase exponentially.
The original plan was either to simultaneously target the Jiang family's branches in the five southern provinces, whose members were mostly rising stars in the military, politics, and business, and who were securing real social power for the Jiang family; or to concentrate efforts on attacking the Jiang family's headquarters, wiping out all the experts stationed there and directly crippling its foundation.
Both plans carry significant risks. After all, the Jiang family has been operating for decades, and their main strength lies in their exceptional expertise in unorthodox methods.
In terms of force, the Jiang family used every available external aid to enhance their personal strength, employing traps, mechanisms, poison, firearms, and even explosives—they spared no effort.
Every member of the Jiang family is trained in psychology and Machiavellianism from a young age, enabling them to apply these skills comprehensively. This is why the Jiang family is one of the few aristocratic families that has wielded considerable power in officialdom. Other aristocratic families only participate in the power struggles within the military, and their control over officialdom is limited, achieved only by supporting members of other families.
Of course, the Jiang family's influence is limited to the five southern provinces. If they want to interfere in other regions, even if the officials they support are transferred to other regions, they will definitely face obstacles from all the powerful families, and may even cause these officials transferred to other places to meet with accidents.
The military power in the five southern provinces was basically controlled by the Jiang family. The Jiang family's control over the officialdom was slightly weaker. The highest-ranking figures in each region were definitely not members of the Jiang family or people they supported. This was also a way to avoid the emergence of modern warlords. However, there were also members of the Jiang family and officials they supported in the second, third, or other powerful positions in each region.
In Lin Yao's own opinion, Plan No. 8 was the most suitable and had the least risk. However, it was not appropriate to demonstrate the method of releasing poison on a large scale to Elder Yi Potian, because such methods would definitely have a serious impact on cultivators.
With more free time, Lin Yao spent more time at the Minhong Pharmaceutical Factory, and when he returned to the clothing factory, he would start refining pills. Now that Xiaocao was protecting him, he didn't have to worry about being weak after refining pills, so batches of various pills were produced and produced, consuming countless medicinal herbs.
Most of them are super pills. Lin Yao is now looking down on ordinary pills. Since the consumption of raw materials has not increased much, refining super pills has naturally become the first choice. Ordinary pills are only used for giving away and selling to others.
The "Year-Round Pills" that Xiaocao had saved were a set of forty-nine pills. Lin Yao gave one pill each to his grandparents. The effect was amazing. The two elderly people, who looked like they were in their sixties after taking the super "Life-Giving Pills", suddenly looked like they were in their fifties. They looked like their father Luo Jimin's older brother and sister-in-law, or older sister and brother-in-law.
Father Luo Jimin and mother Lin Hongmei dared not take it for the time being, because they were worried that this elixir with amazing anti-aging effects would turn them into people in their twenties, which would be very embarrassing, or even too outrageous.
Lin Yao couldn't guarantee the exact effects, but he found that his grandparents' physical functions had indeed recovered to the state of someone around fifty years old, and even more so in some aspects. So the "Year-Round Pill" was still kept with Xiao Cao, with forty-seven pills remaining.
Although he seemed to have plenty of free time, Lin Yao was actually very busy, extremely busy.
Aside from spending time with his grandparents and occasionally keeping an eye on Minhong's affairs, Lin Yao was busy refining pills, recovering his true qi after refining pills, nurturing the pseudo-pill fire, and even more busy absorbing poison gas in preparation for the battle against the factory owner.
For martial artists with true qi, the effects of ordinary poisons are greatly reduced. Not only are they slow to work and weak in effect, but they can also be forced out of the body by martial artists with a certain level of skill. Therefore, Lin Yao had another task: to conduct experiments on the elders and disciples below the level of elders of the Yi family to see which poisons were more harmful to martial artists.
Fortunately, all the members of the Yi family trusted this young man completely and were eager to test the poison on themselves, as if they were trying out a medicinal pill.
It seems that the rumors that Lin Yao's chosen test subjects would receive great benefits have spread throughout the Yi family, causing the increasingly bustling garment factory to see a scramble for test slots.
The results of the experiment showed that naturally formed biological poisons were most effective against martial artists. Natural toxins in plant pollen sap, various cold and hot toxins in animal venom glands, and blood, flesh and bones were the key poisons that Lin Yao collected in large quantities. The Yi family also worked very efficiently to purchase these poisons from all over the country and transport them to Chengdu for Lin Yao to absorb. As a result, light smoke often appeared in the sky above the clothing factory, which was the burning of medicinal waste after the poison gas had been absorbed.
Squeezing out a little time from his busy schedule, Lin Yao began cultivating his own Gu worms according to the Gu-raising experience he had learned from Dika. He discovered that these Gu worms were mostly different from what Dika had described, and their strength had greatly increased during each corresponding Gu-raising period.
Lin Yao didn't have time to think about this situation carefully, so he just let it exist and only carried out routine training.
This routine daily training workload is also very large. After all, no one is as strong as Lin Yao, who has raised 127 kinds of Gu worms in his body. Some Gu worms have dozens or even hundreds of offspring, because there is only one mother worm and a huge number of offspring.
Lin Yao felt that he had a fulfilling time, balancing work and rest. He would sneak away to the pharmaceutical factory to enjoy family time, and then immediately start working again when he returned to the garment factory. Time passed day by day in this busy life, and the day to launch the revenge storm was approaching. It was the end of 2010.
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Chapter 270 The Jiang Family (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
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The late autumn in Changdong is still very hot. This southern province of China has not been affected by the cold wave. The cold wave that traveled a long distance from Siberia or somewhere else became very weak after passing through many provinces, and thus contributed a few autumn rains and rainstorms to this large southern province.
The people of Dong Province really like this cold front because it's refreshing. Even the icy rain feels comfortable to them, unlike the warm, damp, and oppressive rain of normal weather.
Lin Yao followed Elder Yi Potian and his group to Changzhou, which was not far from the Jiang family's headquarters. Therefore, Elder Yi Potian brought almost all of the most important elders according to their strength.
Yi Yang, the head of the Yi family, led other elders and disciples who had not been granted the title of elder but had already advanced to the mid-stage of the Earth level to operate in the other four of the five southern provinces. They mainly attacked the Jiang family's local leaders, as these were also considered experts, most of whom had the strength of the early stage of the Earth level.
In terms of the number of people who have reached the initial stage of the prefecture level, the Yi family is no weaker than the Jiang family, with 357 people, which even exceeds the 151 people publicly announced by the Hong family, which ranks second.
The number of Yi family members at the mid-level of the Earthly Realm has increased from sixteen to twenty-one, approaching the twenty-three publicly announced by the Hong family.