Chapter 1099 — A Cooperative Relationship

"Since that is the case, I will not waste my breath on you. All the same, the Xiao family's present position is hardly a strong one — and even if you are willing to take responsibility, what have you got to take it with?" Pi Zhishan looked Xiao Ji and Xiao Ben up and down and said coldly, "As things stand, what has the Xiao family got to put on the table, beyond the two Mr. Xiaos' worthless lives?"

"Boy, you go too far! My Xiao family may have fallen on hard times, but it is not for the likes of you to sit in judgment on us! True, it was my wife Gou Huli who ran Uncle Pi down — but what has that to do with my Xiao family? When they are bent on convicting you, they never lack for a charge! Kill me or carve me up, as you please — here I stand, Xiao Ji. What can you do to me?" Xiao Ji was a hot-tempered man, and Pi Zhishan's barbed words set him off on the spot.

"Big brother!" Xiao Ben was thrown into a panic; their eldest brother's temper was just the sort to ruin everything.

But before Xiao Ben could get a word out, there came a sharp crack. The next instant, half of Xiao Ji's face was swollen high, the teeth on that side had come loose, and he could only mumble without making himself understood. Yet neither Xiao Ji nor Xiao Ben had seen whether it was Pi Zhishan or Pi Zhihai who had struck — or whether, indeed, either of them had lifted a hand at all...

Only now did Xiao Ji remember that the two young men before him, for all their youth, were fighters every bit as formidable as Uncle Pi.

At the thought, a chill crept over him — and when he recalled that scene at the gate, Pi Zhihai shattering the stone lion, his heart nearly stopped. Hot-tempered though he was, he was no fool. The moment he saw the crux of the matter, an embarrassed look came over his face.

"I'm sorry, young masters Pi... I... I spoke out of turn..." Xiao Ji clapped a hand over his swollen cheek and mumbled sheepishly. He was thoroughly cowed.

"That was a lesson," Pi Zhishan said lightly. With a man like Xiao Ji there was no point in anything but a beating; otherwise the talks ahead would go nowhere. Now that Xiao Ji had submitted, Pi Zhishan saw no need for further words. "Xiao Ji, you are a brute, and I will not hold it against you. But Xiao Ben, you are a clever man — tell me, what does your Xiao family still have to offer us as compensation?"

"That... we truly have nothing..." Xiao Ben had no wish to admit it, but the fact was the fact. The Xiao family's decline stood before them for all to see; no wonder Pi Zhishan spoke as he did.

"I never dreamed the Xiao family had sunk this low — and one of the great families at that. Where is the bearing of a great house in any of this?" Pi Zhishan frowned, sizing up the state of the villa, and clicked his tongue. "I wonder whether the family's decision was right or wrong — choosing to cooperate with the pair of you useless wretches..."

Cooperate? At Pi Zhishan's seemingly careless words, Xiao Ji and Xiao Ben both gave a start. Could it be that the Hidden Pi Family had come this time to seek a partnership with them? If the Hidden Pi Family truly meant to work with the Xiao family, then did the Xiao family not still have hope?

At that, Xiao Ben hurriedly asked, "Eldest Young Master Pi — do you mean... you wish to cooperate with our Xiao family?"

"It is only a preliminary inclination at most. Whether we can work together will depend on how you perform and what you choose to give up," Pi Zhishan said evenly.

"Please go on, Eldest Young Master Pi!" Xiao Ben was overjoyed. So long as the Pi family was willing to partner with them, the Xiao family would not go under — it might even have the chance to rise in a single bound to the foremost rank of the great families! So whatever it took, he would bring the Pi family into partnership with them, no matter the price.

"Do you know the relationship between the Yu family and the Hidden Yu Family?" Seeing how quickly Xiao Ben took the point, Pi Zhishan nodded in satisfaction.

"Naturally we do. Were the Hidden Yu Family not standing behind them, the Yu family could never have become the foremost great house!" Xiao Ben's heart gave a leap. Could it be that the Hidden Pi Family meant to help the Xiao family become a great house such as the Yu family? Xiao Ben was beside himself with excitement.

"If our Hidden Pi Family were to back your Xiao family, how far could you go? In other words, how much could you bring us in return?" Pi Zhishan had at last come to the heart of his business.

The Pi family was indeed a Hidden Family, it was true — but under the articles of the covenant drawn up in those years, Hidden Families were forbidden to meddle in the affairs of the secular world. That is to say, beyond devoting themselves to quiet cultivation, they could not go about making money in the mortal realm with any fanfare.

The Hidden Yu Family, however, had taken an indirect route: they had gained direct control of the Yu family in the secular world and turned them into an instrument for their own profit. The secular Yu family, leaning on the strength of the Hidden Yu Family behind them, became the leading house among the great families; and the Hidden Yu Family, fed by the vast sums the secular Yu family remitted them every year, grew ever greater.

The Yu family's case was a matter of chance, something no other great family could replicate — after all, the Hidden Yu Family and the secular Yu Family had originally been two separate clans, and only later secretly re-established contact. That device of circumvention, too, was not one others could copy.

Nobody else could conjure a secular branch out of thin air, so all they could do was watch the Yu family rake in money and remain helpless. The old covenant had never been a mere ornament; to offend those who witnessed it was no joke.

It was only that over the years the covenant's witnesses, together with those Heaven-tier masters, had all vanished, and the covenant restraining the Hidden Families had lost much of its former force. Recently the Hidden Zhao Family had begun to stir, setting up an illegitimate son, Zhao Qibing, to rake in money in the secular world.

Of course, no one yet dared to tear up the covenant brazenly and in the open — but an indirect approach was perfectly acceptable. Look at the Yu family: they had been raking in money for years, and had anything ever come of it?

So the Hidden Zhao Family let Zhao Qibing make money in the secular world, dressing it up in fine words — Zhao Qibing was the Zhao family's illegitimate son, his bloodline impure, and therefore he could not be allowed through the Zhao family's gates. Of course, impure blood was still Zhao blood, and it was only proper that the Zhao family should lend him a measure of help.

But anyone with eyes could see that the money Zhao Qibing raked in out in the secular world went straight to the Hidden Zhao Family.

And so, with the Yu family and the Zhao family as precedents, the other great families could no longer sit still. One after another they cast about for means and pretexts to enter the secular world and make money. These Hidden Families, for all their high standing in the martial world, had no money to speak of.

Even without living extravagantly, the purchase of heavenly materials and earthly treasures every year was no small expense; and even if they bought none of those, there were still all those mouths to feed.