Chapter 1491: Xu Liuyun (1/2)

Chapter 1491: Xu Liuyun [1. This surname Xu is the same as Xu Qing’s surname. Liu means “to leave behind” and yun means “cloud”]

During the last snowfall of winter on the fourth continent, the curtain opened on the sixth life of Meng Hao’s clone.

He was born into the prosperous Xu Clan, which owned lots of land and property in the region, and controlled numerous profitable businesses. Most of their income came from agricultural interests.

They lived in one of the large cities in the empire of the mortal world, which was situated next to a trade canal. They were fabulously wealthy.

A child born into a clan like that was destined to live a life free from adversity, and to always have everything he needed and wanted.

Thankfully, in this life, Meng Hao’s clone was not a silkpants like he was in his fourth life. He grew up into an intelligent young man who was quite prominent even as a youth. Soon, he began to assist his father in managing the family companies.

As time passed, and he grew older, he came to be in charge of all of the family’s business interests. He ran things well, but at the same time, began to develop a certain ferocity. It was a fierceness manifested, not toward his fellow clan members, but toward his business opponents.

He excelled at hostile takeovers, and soon all of the other businesses in the entire city had been swallowed up by his clan. Of course, an accomplishment like that couldn’t be made without a bit of killing. Soon, the hands of the clone’s sixth life came to be stained with blood.

Such methods were contrary to how his father preferred to do things, and in fact, went against the entire clan. However, he didn’t take such matters very seriously. He did things how he wanted to, and by the age of thirty, the Xu Clan had come to be the richest in the area!

Eventually, he came to realize that he should support the scholars and intellectuals among his clan, so he founded a college. As time passed, his support of the scholar class allowed him to influence the imperial court.

Soon, his plotting extended his network to encompass even the warrior class in the empire.

He married, but felt no attachment to his wife. It had been done as a form of business alliance, with the hope of sending the clan’s influence soaring to an even higher level.

And that was exactly what it did. By the time he was forty, the clan businesses were the most successful in all the lands. Over time, he expanded into many types of trade, and yet in the end, their foundation was always agriculture.

Under his leadership, the clan moved to the Imperial City, where they became the official Imperial merchants.

As the Imperial merchants, it was impossible for anyone to compete with them in terms of profits. Of course, in addition to the material benefits, there were other advantages to their new status.

By the age of forty-five, Xu Liuyun had reached the absolute pinnacle of his life. Numerous clan members had become officials within the current dynasty, and many of the scholars he had supported were now members of the government.

His entire clan had soared to incredible heights. Most people would likely be content to just enjoy the fruits of such labor. At first, he felt a bit confused about what to do next, but then, he realized that a storm was brewing.

That storm came in the form of a famine that had just taken grip on the land.

That winter, Xu Liuyun stood in a courtyard in the clan estates, looking at the snow falling out of the sky. Behind him were a few dozen members of the clan, standing there silently. Some of them were members of the Imperial court, some controlled powerful businesses within the Imperial City, and others were direct bloodline descendants of the clan who had been sent out to control other interests in other parts of the empire. There were even some powerful warriors present.

These were the people who controlled the power in the clan, and although it couldn’t be said that their reach stretched throughout the entire empire, they weren’t very far off from that.

Any one of them could be considered extremely prominent. And yet, as they looked at the man standing in front of them, their hearts were filled with reverence and awe. He was a man who, in the space of a few dozen years, had created an incredible storm of events.

Although he wasn’t well-acclaimed in the Imperial court, and was even looked down upon by the emperor, the prime minister, and many others, the important members of the clan all knew... the terrifying power he wielded when it came to wealth and profit.

After a long moment passed, the sixth life of Meng Hao’s clone, the man known to all as Xu Liuyun, finally spoke.

“This is an opportunity,” he said. “Perhaps the Xu Clan can take the next step, and actually come to control the entire empire. Of course, there is also the possibility... that we will be wiped out.” After another long moment, his eyes glittered with ferocity.

“Execute the operation!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, all of the Xu Clan's power, both within and without the Imperial City, was focused on one task. And that was... barricading off all of their farmlands from the public, in the middle of the famine!

It was a concept that, from the very beginning, seemed soaked in blood. Barricading farmlands in the middle of a famine carried the implication of driving up the price of grain goods to exorbitant levels, to the point where many people would be forced to sell their own properties to pay for food.

It would likely lead to many deaths because of starvation. Families and clans would be destroyed. However, among the ranks of the noble clans, the Xu Clan would have an incredible opportunity.