Chapter 50: Cleansing the Chu Family’s Inner Dirt
“We’ll speak off to the side.” Chu Mu said to Qin Menger.
Qin Menger nodded her head and recalled her Flame Bird. She ignored the deliberate provocation of Chu Ying and followed Chu Mu.
“Chu Mu, if you don’t train, where will you run?!” Chu Ying was so angry her face was flushed red. Previously, when this eldest young lady had brought Chu Mu trouble, Chu Mu had kept a standoffish attitude. Presently though, Chu Mu acted as if his eldest cousin was nothing but air!
“Sister Menger has recently been coming over here very often. It’s like the past where she would always follow that kid….” Chu He glanced at Chu Mu and Qin Menger, who had walked to the side and slowly spoke.
Chu Xing nodded his head and said: “They’ve had a good relationship since they were small. Way back then at the beginning the two families planned on…”
When he spoke to this point, Chu Xing suddenly stopped. He became aware that there was no need to mention these matters, and the only thing he did was raise the corners of his mouth.
“Hmph, isn’t it just a matter of marriage? What’s so alarming about it? If I knew that my fiance had lost a soul and had been missing for four years, I would have already broken all ties with him!” said Chu Ying.
“Younger sister, you can’t be so overbearing when dealing with people. Can’t you see sister Menger has always cared about Chu Mu? When news of Chu Mu losing a soul spread, she was still very good towards him. If Chu Mu is really able to marry such an excellent wife…” as Chu Xing spoke, he let out a bit of envy.
Qin Menger naturally had a beautiful character. She always gave others a feeling of refined, quiet elegance that many people enjoyed. This included Chu Xing, but he knew that Qin Menger had always enjoyed being next to Chu Mu and probably liked Chu Mu, so Chu Xing didn’t harbor any delusional thoughts.
“How is she good? Hmph, older brother only knows how to praise others!” in a fit, Chu Ying aggressively turned around and left. She recalled her Red Bird, not wanting to train anymore.
……
Chu Mu and Qin Menger didn’t walk far. They stopped off to the side to talk, but Chu Mu’s hearing was exceptionally good, and he could hear the conversation between those few.
In reality, Chu Mu also knew that if there weren’t any mishaps, Qin Menger and himself would be married when he turned 20. However, Qin Menger was chosen by the Luo Region Sect and Chu Mu himself was forced down to Cyan Nightmare Island. Over these four years, the two of them had changed a bit, and many barriers had now formed in between them. Chu Mu wouldn’t regard the marriage his family arranged for him in the past as the same thing; moreover, this marriage should have already been undone in the past.
“Has there been any news?” asked Chu Mu as he looked at Qin Menger.
“Yes, I can probably be very sure. I truly didn’t expect the Chu Family’s continuous decline in these past few years has always been because of them…” whispered Qin Menger.
“In the past, I felt that it wasn’t right. As expected, it was them.” a sneer rose on Chu Mu’s face.
The decline of the family was not always because of human sabotage. Instead, it was vermin eating away at the inside of the family. Chu Mu was able to understand this simple concept. The Chu Family caravan’s route had been known by the Yang Family. Then, someone had tried to destroy the territory at its weakest point. Now, with the Recommendation imminent, Chu Yi had suffered a wound. These all seemed like careless incidents, but if one were to connect the word “traitor” to these incidents, then these incidents would no longer seem as innocent.
Previously, Chu Mu had obtained some information regarding the Chu Family from He Lang. Many things that should not have happened had occurred in a very mysterious manner. Furthermore, he could feel that the Yang Family and Zhou Family were well aware of these Chu Family incidents...
Chu Mu hadn’t exhibited his full strength in the family yet precisely because he had surmised this to be a possibility. If he had let the Yang Family and Zhou Family know his strength earlier, then they definitely would have taken corresponding measures and use various crafty plots.
The Nightmare Palace could only obtain a limited understanding, so Chu Mu intentionally had Qin Menger use her Qin Family information resources to thoroughly investigate and understand this matter.
The Qin Family had been affluent for tens of years and through various trade dealings, they had very deep connections with the Chu Family. If they were to thoroughly investigate, then they definitely would be able to find a few fishy trends within Gangluo City’s four great families.
As expected, Qin Menger brought back to Chu Mu a traitor; moreover, information on who the traitor was.
“What do you plan on doing?” Qin Menger quietly asked. If a traitor were to appear within the family, the difficulty of finding out who it was was one thing, while trying to remove him or her was even harder. In the event that the traitor still had a lot of authority, it could still involve the entire family’s interests. There were many times when one could be 70-80 percent sure, but he or she had to feign that they didn’t know.
“There are some things that, if they should be removed, they must be removed.” indifferently said Chu Mu.
“If you are to dispose of them… no matter what they say, it’s still your….” Qin Menger stared at Chu Mu and suddenly felt that Chu Mu had truly changed a lot. If it was the Chu Mu from the past, he definitely could not have done this.
“After the Recommendation, I will leave this place. Thus, I must thoroughly clean the affairs here.” said Chu Mu. Qin Menger also felt that Chu Mu was a relatively trustworthy person. Moreover, she already knew his identity, so Chu Mu didn’t have to avoid his matters of dealing with the Chu Family.
[1.TL: Typo by author. He says 自己 - myself - when it should be 他 - him)]
“Leave this place?” Qin Menger’s clear pupils stared at Chu Mu.
“Yes.” Chu Mu nodded his head before walking towards the training field.
Qin Menger looked at Chu Mu. For some reason, she felt that the Chu Mu from four years ago, compared to the Chu Mu four years later, was a completely different person. From start to finish, he wore an ice-cold facade that made it hard for others to approach him. He was wise and farsighted, cold and detached, calm and collected, and was hardly emotionally moved… the only thing from Chu Mu that Qin Menger still felt was familiar were the emotions that his eyes revealed when he looked at soul pets...
……
Late at night, next to the old family master Chu Ming’s room, Chu Mu stood in front of the window wearing white clothing. His gaze was fixated on the stretching mountain in the distance.
Next to Chu Mu was the family head Chu Ming. Chu Ming was wearing a nightgown and his pale white hair fluttered in the wind coming from outside the window.
“You have something you want to tell grandfather?” Chu Ming looked at the entirely different temperament of Chu Mu compared to four years ago and slowly spoke.
“Yes, I’m sure grandfather has already sensed it but hasn’t dared to make sure. Or perhaps you’ve always been hesitating.” Chu Mu didn’t equivocate.
Chu Mu had originally wanted to use Nightmare Palace assassins to resolve the inner dirt within the Chu Family. However, he ultimately renounced this option. Chu Mu felt that a family, if it needed to rely on the forceful intervention of external members to fix its problems, would never be able to take a turn for the better. Only by resolving the problems from the ground up, and changing things from a subjective point of view, would change happen.
“The Recommendation is about to arrive, and I planned on cleaning up this matter before the Recommendation. Alas…” Chu Ming sighed and looked outside the window; it was a while before he spoke.
“Your arrival has also made me firmly decide. Okay, I think it’s time that I renounce the family head position. If a person has grown old, he will always be have too many apprehensions towards too many things.”
Chu Ming’s words made Chu Mu a bit surprised. He looked at the old man, and after a while, a trace of agony rose on his face. It seemed that not using Nightmare Palace’s assassins was the correct decision.
“Afterwards, your eldest uncle will be in charge of the family’s internal and external affairs. Your eldest uncle does things efficiently, and he will understand how to resolve the internal family affairs…” murmured Chu Ming. Clearly, he had already known in his heart, but even now, he was still a bit hesitant.
Seeing Chu Ming’s gloomy appearance, Chu Mu knew that it really was hard for Chu Ming to come to this decision. After all, that person had made a lot of contributions for the family...
“Go back and rest. Give your grandfather some alone time.” Chu Ming waved his hands, indicating for Chu Mu to go back.
Chu Mu nodded his head. Since Chu Ming had already come to a decision, Chu Mu had nothing to worry about. It would be more appropriate for Chu Ming, as the family head, to resolve this issue...
……
Over the next month, Chu Mu continued to raise the Mo Ye and Night Thunder Dream Beast’s strength. Although Chu Mu would show up on the Chu Family’s training ground, he felt that practicing techniques and training strength wouldn’t increase a soul pet’s strength as fast as a real battle.
Therefore, in this month, Chu Mu had spent most of his time in the Broken Forest. Using the purest types of fights and an enormous sum of resources, he quickly increased the Zhan Ye’s fighting strength.
In this month, the Chu Family was still busy with their networking, their economic situation, their prestige, and their strength. It seemed not to differ too much from the previous Recommendation a few years ago, but the internal members of the family could clearly feel that a slight change was occurring in the family.
This change wasn’t extremely obvious, but a few people who had a relative understanding of the family system were able to perceive it.
The few principal industries of the Chu Family’s business were gradually taken over by Chu Tianheng, and the Chu Family Guard completely fell into Chu Tianheng’s hands as well. The Chu Family servants were assigned to Chu Tianheng’s command, and Chu Tianjue’s power was diminished in this short period of time.
As the Recommendation approached, the Chu Family people abruptly discovered that in one night, the factions under Chu Nan’s banner suddenly withdrew from the important Chu Family industries. They were sent to a rather remote subsidiary city, and were only in charge of a small portion of the Chu Family’s industry.
At this period in time, everyone could see that a great shuffling of cards was occurring in the Chu Family in a short amount of time. The ⅓ of the industry that was originally controlled by Chu Nan suddenly declined, and the economy of the Chu Family once again took a heavy fall...
The Chu Family was already walking at a low point, and the great shuffle this time ended up dealing a heavy blow to the Chu Family. Many people did not understand why the Chu Family was conducting an extremely unsensible reorganization of the family.
……
“The fundamentals of the Chu Family’s major problem have been resolved. There still remains a few leftover stains that will be cleaned out one speck at a time. However, creating such a large fuss while resolving the issue will also bring huge problems. If we don’t manage to reimpose Chu Clan’s imposing manner through fighting at this time’s Recommendation, our family will be on the verge of the significant crisis of collapse!”
“Therefore, the entire family’s fate is in the hands of you five. You absolutely cannot let the family down!!”
The new family head Chu Tianheng’s voice deeply resonated in the ears of the five Chu Family children participating in the Recommendation!
Authors note: He got sick from his stupid mistake last time. But it’s only a small sickness.
(Author's note: He got sick from his stupid mistake last chapter. But it’s only a small sickness.)