Back when they had left the city through the south gate, everyone had been valiant and high-spirited. They had lined up in a grand formation and looked like a pack of tigers and wolves. Now that they had returned, not only were there only 20% of them left, but they all looked exhausted and their armor was tattered. It was obvious that they were defeated soldiers.
When they had left the city, many passersby had praised them. But now that they had returned, they were whispering and pointing at them with disdain.
No matter what the passersby said or looked at them, it didn't affect the mercenary team much. Everyone only cared about the mockery and ridicule from the other two brigades and the butler's attitude.
However, everyone knew that the butler could only blame Guan Yichuan. It had nothing to do with ordinary mercenaries like them.
As soon as the mercenary brigade returned to the camp, Guan Yichuan was called away by Guan Yiyuan.
Miss Jing knew that Guan Yiyuan had invited Guan Yichuan into the butler's courtyard on the orders of the Guan Family Head.
Guan Yichuan was now under Miss Jing's control, just like Guan Yiyuan. His memories that he shouldn't have had had been erased by Miss Jing. When they went to the butler's courtyard to meet the Guan Family Head, the two of them wouldn't say much to avoid giving themselves away.
Four hours later, Guan Yichuan and Guan Yiyuan returned to Wildfire's camp.
Two days later, Guan Yiyuan announced in front of all the cultivators of the Flowing Fire Mercenary Band that Guan Yichuan had been punished for the failure of the previous mission. Guan Yichuan was fined ten thousand years' worth of salary and stripped of his position as the Deputy Leader of the Flowing Fire Mercenary Band. Xiao Lingyu, who had been wrongly accused by Guan Yichuan previously, replaced Guan Yichuan as the Deputy Leader.
The reason why Xiao Lingyu was made deputy commander was because he valued Xiao Lingyu's strength as a Divine Lord. Secondly, it was to appease the mercenaries who didn't have a Divine Lord surname. It was also a good gesture to the other mercenaries who wanted to join Wildfire.
The Steward's punishment of Guan Yichuan was naturally lighter. Although everyone discussed this in private, they could understand. After all, this mercenary group belonged to the Steward and Guan Yichuan was a direct descendant of the Steward. It was impossible for the Steward to heavily punish a Divine Lord descendant because of a single mission failure.
After all, mercenary groups couldn't guarantee that they would succeed every time they went out to carry out a mission. Any mercenary group was allowed to fail a mission.
Moreover, the Steward had left Guan Yichuan in the Wildfire. This also meant that the Steward still had more Divine Lord powerhouses in the Wildfire than outsiders.
The butler did not know that Guan Yichuan and Guan Yiyuan had been controlled by outsiders. In the following days, he allocated a lot of God's Stones to help Wildfire expand their team. They recruited nearly eight hundred people to make up for their previous losses.
Of course, the steward wouldn't easily let go of the group of cultivators who obstructed Wildfire's mission. The steward's spies and disciples who were good at investigation were all sent out, hoping to find some clues.
Wildfire didn't accept any missions for the time being. Under Miss Jing's instructions, Guan Yiyuan began to organize and train the three thousand people in the mercenary group, mainly to improve their teamwork.
The results of training in the camp were minimal, so Guan Yiyuan personally took action and led everyone to the Floating Cataclysmic Mountain Range to fight with the monster beasts.
Guan Yichuan, who had made a mistake not long ago, was brought along by Guan Yiyuan every time. It was said that this was to improve Guan Yichuan's combat skills and leadership skills, but in reality, Miss Jing had deliberately kept Guan Yiyuan and Guan Yichuan away from the steward so that they wouldn't reveal any flaws.
One day, Miss Jing said to Xiao Lingyu and the others, "We have to hurry up and take action against Guan Yishan. He and Guan Yichuan are siblings, so he'll notice the change in Guan Yichuan sooner or later."
"That should be easy. With Guan Yichuan's cooperation, taking down Guan Yishan will be easy," Xiao Lingyu said confidently.
Miss Jing didn't know how Xiao Lingyu had so easily taken down Guan Yichuan last time, but she didn't doubt that Xiao Lingyu could do the same. Although Guan Yishan's strength and temperament were slightly stronger than Guan Yichuan's, it wasn't by much.
When it was Guan Yishan's turn to go out for training, Guan Yichuan suddenly said to Guan Yishan, "Big Brother, I have something to say to you."
Guan Yishan had been chatting with his subordinates, but when he heard Guan Yichuan's serious expression, he nodded and left with Guan Yichuan.
Guan Yishan had always felt that his younger brother had become a different person after failing the mission. Previously, he thought it was because his younger brother hadn't walked out of the shadow of failure, so he didn't take it to heart, but recently, he felt that there was something wrong with his younger brother.
It was because of this suspicion that Guan Yishan didn't feel that there was anything wrong with his younger brother's conversation with him this time. He even felt that his younger brother should have talked to him earlier.
What Guan Yishan didn't expect was that his younger brother would lead him to a secluded place and launch a sneak attack on him.
"Are you crazy?!"
Guan Yishan shouted as he spat out a mouthful of blood after being heavily slapped by a palm.
Guan Yichuan didn't answer Guan Yishan's question. At this time, Xiao Lingyu and Guan Yiyuan appeared at the same time. With the three Divine Lords joining forces, Xiao Lingyu didn't even need to use the Saint artifact Yin Yang Mirror to easily subdue Guan Yishan.
After Miss Jing familiarized herself with Guan Yishan and took control of him, the brigade returned to Duhu City.
At this point, although Wildfire still belonged to the Guan Family in name, it actually belonged to Xiao Lingyu and the others.
The Guan Family was unaware of this and continued to vigorously support the development of Wildfire, continuing to invest a large number of divine stones into Wildfire.
Wildfire had just started and would need a long time to break in before it could display its greatest fighting strength, so the Guan Family wasn't in a hurry.
From the information the Guan Family Head had divulged to Guan Yiyuan, it could be seen that the Guan Family didn't expect Wildfire to earn a lot of divine stones for them in a short time. They only wanted to build Wildfire into a powerful private army and clear away obstacles for the Guan Family's future development.
Guan Yiyuan and his brothers were all under Miss Jing's control. They were more united and had a tacit understanding with each other, which had a great positive effect on the development of Wildfire. This also allowed the various teams of the newly formed mercenary group to work together more smoothly.
However, what surprised everyone was that the news of the Flowing Fire Mercenary Group's failure in their mission had somehow spread. Everyone in the city was talking about it, and most of them were talking about the butler.
From all the news, it could be seen that the three old families of Duhu City were creating public opinion in order to obstruct the Guan Family's development.
The Guan Family was already prepared for this, so they didn't take it to heart.
However, another piece of shocking news soon followed. The Qi Clan, one of the three great clans of Duhu City, claimed that a cultivator that the Qi Clan was hunting was hiding in the butler's Flowing Fire Mercenary Group. Moreover, he was the vice leader of the mercenary group.
The person the Qi Family was referring to was naturally Xiao Lingyu.
The Qi Family wanted the Guan Family to deal with Xiao Lingyu so that they wouldn't ruin the friendly relationship between the Qi and Guan Family.
The Qi Family and Guan Family didn't have a friendly relationship, so it was clear that the Qi Family was pressuring the Guan Family.
This was a very normal matter and the Qi Family wasn't lying. Xiao Lingyu was indeed the Qi Family's enemy, but the cultivators of Duhu City all believed that the Qi Family was purposely trying to bully the Guan Family.
The vice commander of Wildfire was a high ranking member of the Guan Family. Although Xiao Lingyu wasn't of the same surname, the Guan Family was obligated to provide protection. Otherwise, the other cultivators in the Guan Family would lose confidence and dependence on them, which would be detrimental to the Guan Family's long-term development.
"Senior Xiao, you have a connection with the Qi Family?" Zhang Hai asked in surprise.
"It was a long time ago. I didn't expect the Qi Family to hold a grudge. Haha," Xiao Lingyu said perfunctorily.
"The Qi Family isn't to be trifled with. I hope they're just putting on a show this time," Xiong Meng said worriedly.
"That depends on the Guan Family's attitude. If the Guan Family is stubborn, the Qi Family won't make a big fuss. After all, the Guan Family isn't a pushover," Miss Jing said calmly.
After gaining control of Guan Yiyuan and his brothers, Miss Jing had a better understanding of the Guan Family. She knew that although the Guan Family had come to Duhu City in a low-profile manner, their overall strength wasn't weak. Moreover, the Guan Family had the City Lord's support.
What surprised Miss Jing was that although the Guan Family insisted that they wouldn't hand over Xiao Lingyu, the Qi Family continued to pressure them through various channels.
Guan Yiyuan was invited to the Guan Family's courtyard by the head of the Guan Family. After all, he was Xiao Lingyu's superior in name and had a certain amount of authority in this matter.
"The Guan Family is prepared to compromise because the City Lord's Manor has just sent someone to inform the head of the Guan Family that the Guan Family doesn't need to protect Brother Xiao."
Miss Jing said to everyone in the living room of the suite Xiao Lingyu and the others chose. "Although the Guan Family won't hand Brother Xiao over, they'll declare that they won't interfere with the grudge between the Qi Family and Brother Xiao. In other words, if the Qi Family makes a move on Brother Xiao, the Guan Family will turn a blind eye."
"What's the big deal? At most, we'll just hide in the city and this camp. I don't believe the Qi Family will dare to send experts to assassinate us!" Zhang Hai said nonchalantly.
"But we can't just hide in the city forever, right?" Xiong Meng frowned.
"We can't be hasty about this. Let's take one step at a time and see how things develop," Miss Jing said calmly.
A few days later, just as Miss Jing said, the Guan Family announced that they wouldn't provide Xiao Lingyu with special protection, but they wouldn't allow any family or faction to make a move on the Guan Family.
Just as Zhang Hai said, Xiao Lingyu and the others didn't leave the city for a while and stayed in the Wildfire's camp.
Xiao Lingyu and the others could keep their cool, but someone from the Qi Family couldn't.
One day, a cold-looking cultivator holding a sword came to the Wildfire's door with a strong killing intent.
"Xiao Lingyu, do you have the guts to come out and fight?" the cultivator shouted loudly. His voice was so loud that it shook the stone building.
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