Lin Feng
"I have three career pathways. Knowing you though, I can confidently say that you won't be interested in the first two of those career pathways. Both of them involves you making a major change towards an administrative role. The government psychologists and analysts have already concluded that you won't be keen on any administrative roles after your short time managing Blood Refining Cult. However, the big bosses still felt that an offer still need to be made. The Americans, Russian and Europeans are all aggressively expanding their colonies in the lower realm. This is one race the country is not willing to fall behind. The opium wars were one of the biggest humiliations in history and the government will stop at nothing to make sure history does not repeat itself. We need to have as many colonies as the other major countries out there. "
"It is ok. I'm not cutout for a administrative role. Too much working behind a desk and not enough action." Lin Feng interrupts before Yang Wenming can elaborate more.
"You sure about that? The government is offering a very big carrot if you are willing to take up the offer."
"Don't tell me what the big carrot is. I don't want to second guess my decision."
"Off course." Yang Wenming couldn't help smirking before revealing the third career pathway. "The third option is for you to continue down the law enforcement pathway. You will be the head of law enforcement at one of the branches the government will soon be establishing in the lower realm. These branches will be a joint venture between Immortal Ascension Pavillion and governments on Earth that has the means to do so. Although the branch won't be located in a deviant sects-controlled world, you will still have to reign in your sense of justice to a certain extend since we will be running a black market. This can't be help. The deviant sects are the biggest slave traders in the cultivation world. Even those slave traders that seems more legitimate on the surface have ties to the deviant sects. We will be cutting off a huge source for slaves if we operate a regular market. More importantly, have you ever heard of any orthodox sect that have an unending desire for slaves?"
Lin Feng quickly defend himself. "I can think of the bigger picture, ok? We are after all spending our own money for the great cause of emancipation. Sure, the freed slaves are contractually obligated to work for us for a number of years but with the sect's intervention, the contractual obligation wouldn't be too harsh."
"The maturing of space technology has worsened the need for population and labor force. Space station, terraformed planets and moons. All of these needs to be inhabited. Sect Leader Maximus has made it clear all the unclaimed star systems out there is for the taking as long as all the gains we have made in space technology remain a secret. After that, you can easily guess that all local sovereigns will guard their population with jealousy. Their need for population will be equally great and we will have to pay a far heftier price for any new migrants."
"The sect can still keep all Earth cultivators in check during
"That's easy. We just delay open beta as long as we can." Lin Feng voices out his own idea.
"There is a limit to that you know?" Yang Wenming quickly puts a stop to Lin Feng idea. "All the experts are in consensus that three or four Earth years is the maximum we can keep things a secret. After that, there is no guarantee that even those that has pass the sect or governments vetting wouldn't go rogue. It is a race against time."
"Expanding territories in the lower realm is a slow process. You have experienced that first hand. Setting up a foothold is the easy part. Defending and expanding it is where problems began to arise. Even with the country's resources, the Blood Refining Cult has plan things out with extreme caution and take its time to expand. That's why the government is now shifting its expansion policy to all the free star systems out there. We can proudly say not many countries can rival us when it comes to building mega infrastructures in record time, but the people needed is a different story. Population don't just appear out of thin air. It will take at least decades for the country to double the population it has in the lower realm. And that isn't even feasible in the first place due to the small population base we currently have. The only solution is to increase the pace of us acquiring migrants from the rest of the lower realm. This is the only time we can acquire migrants with impunity when those local sovereigns still don't value their mortal population. Like you rightly phrase. It is in the great cause of emancipation. Except for criminals, all the new migrants are now experiencing a much better quality of life than before."
"The sect's immediate goal is to build hundreds of new black markets in the lower realm. Under the collaboration, the country gets to keep half the slaves that are transacted in the black market operated by us. As a bonus, any clans we can discreetly persuade to migrate over will be exclusively ours. The country is already working on this avenue and your cousin is part of the plan."
"What plan?" Lin Feng asks out of concern. Unlike the rest of Earth cultivators, Lin Fu no longer gets another chance at resurrection. "What have you got him involved in. It won't be anything dangerous right?"
"Nothing dangerous. You know that your cousin's wife come from a respectable clan in the lower realm. The Shangguan clan has a lineage that goes back tens of thousands of years, making their clan far more established, powerful and larger than any of the prominent families or clans we have on Earth. After in-depth investigation, the government has concluded that their reputation is well deserved and it will be a safe bet having them as a working partner in the lower realm. Lin Fu and his wife is to establish a foothold in a mortal village near Shangguan clan territory before initiating contact. The village will be located somewhere in between Shangguan clan's territory and the black market our country is setting up. Given the village's strategic location, Lin Fu can slowly grow the village into a transit hub for all businesses flowing from Shangguan clan territory direction towards the black market."
"Hey, you already have my cousin setting up a settlement for the country. Why would the government want me to setup another settlement as well? Our family's resources will be spread thin maintaining two settlements." Lin Feng questions his best friend.
"It's going to be precarious but your family has more resources than most due to Bai Xue business acumen. The government in collaboration with the sect will be setting up sixteen black markets spread across the more important worlds in the lower realm. Given what the sect has to offer, all sixteen black markets will be thriving and all surrounding settlements will benefit from the incoming business traffic. Won't you say it will be a waste that we don't claim all surrounding territories for ourselves? We have thousands of Chinese cultivators but vetting the civilians takes time. We still have a very short list of cultivators the government can trust to operate in the lower realm without causing any major problem in the long term. Vetting retired officials and military is way faster but all those cultivators will only get diverted to setting up more black markets. The settlements are less important than the black markets since it is one of our government most important source to more population."
"In any case, Lin Fu will be safe. The Shangguan family might be a lower realm clan but it is publicly known fact that the clan have three forth major realm cultivators. With the benefit that Lin Fu can bring to the Shangguan clan, they will protect him from other local sovereigns. Since you are picking the third option, Lin Fu can rely on your backup as well. The head of law enforcement for that black market branch near his settlement will be under your watch. However, we will be loaning you out to the sect for a mission first. That black market branch you will be in-charge of is still under construction."
"As you know, less than half of the sect's disciples made it back to the headquarter. That doesn't mean that all of those disciples had got themselves killed by the sect's enemy. Given the circumstances back then, a fair number of disciples especially those in the lower realm are forced to lay low and concealed their identity waiting for an opportunity to return or rescued. The sect knew this because these disciples' life lamp that failed to make it back are still burning. It would have gone out if those disciples are dead and after more than two thousand years, the sect still have quite a few cultivators in the fifth major realm or higher surviving out there."
"Using those life lamp as a guide, the sect can only divine their rough location. You will have to masquerade as a merchant caravan and do the groundwork investigation yourself. Given how long these surviving disciples managed to hold out, finding them won't be an easy mission. At the same time, you need to be careful. Your whole team will most likely end up dead if you accidentally attract the sect's enemy attention instead."