'Three Grade Six Mana Crystals for a Town Lord? That's a bit small,' Shang thought.
"How will we proceed now?" Shang asked as he faced the special Communication Crystal for the Temple of Blood.
"We are going the official route," the Territory Lord told Shang via the Communication Crystal. "We are going to investigate your power. Then, we will find out that you are obviously so strong that we would need to send a Peak Archmage to take care of you. Additionally, they must be good enough to hide from all the surveillance."
"In the end, we will find out that the price is obviously not fitting for such a mission and decline the mission unless they are willing to pay vastly more. We'll see where we go from there."
"Alright," Shang answered. "Contact me again with updates."
"We will," the Territory Lord said before cutting the connection.
Over the next couple of days, the mortal district became bigger and bigger, and the mortals began to become quite orderly.
No one would have expected that these people had been aimless beggars just a couple of weeks ago.
Eventually, all the teaching stopped, and the mortals were now effectively free to do whatever they wanted.
Did they want to increase the proficiency of their craft to learn more?
Were they fine with just living like this?
Did they want to change?
Yet, the decision most people made surprised Shang quite a bit.
They didn't care.
Food was no longer an issue, and they could finally do whatever they wanted.
They no longer needed to fear the guards to hunt for Mana Scraps.
Water was also abundant, and they even had access to better houses than they ever had.
All the stress of their lives evaporated over the next couple of days, and the mortal district transformed from a small town into a site for a huge festival.
Most of the smiths stopped smithing.
Most of the farmers stopped farming.
Most of the hunters stopped hunting.
There were still a few individuals of each profession that continued doing their job, but over the next couple of days, over 80% of people stopped working and learning.
They were in paradise!
But that was how things were supposed to go.
The agent had told Shang what the plan looked like.
Shang only watched the mortal district.
By now, a month had passed, and Shang paid the agents for their work.
Ten Grade Six Mana Crystals was a lot, but the company had done an amazing job.
As of this moment, the mortals looked like warriors after a battle.
But this time, the partying came before the battle.
Suddenly, Shang's Spirit Sense noticed something, but he specifically didn't look at the thing he had noticed.
Instead, he waited.
And a couple of minutes later, Shang focused on the thing he had noticed earlier.
Shang saw a cloaked and ethereal person with his Spirit Sense, and as soon as he actually saw their appearance, the cloaked person summoned some kind of emblem.
BANG!
The emblem exploded, scattering clouds of chaotic Mana in the surroundings.
After a while, the clouds vanished…
And the person was gone.
Shang knew who that person had been.
This was a Scout, a member of the Temple of Blood that was responsible for gathering more information on mission targets.
'Seems like the next step of the plan has been completed,' Shang thought.
Shang had noticed the Scout pretty quickly, but he had specifically stopped himself from looking at them in the beginning. After all, if he did, the Scout would realize that Shang's Spirit Sense had a range of 250 kilometers, which was insane.
Sure, the Territory Lord knew about these things, but that didn't mean that the entire organization should know about the size of Shang's Spirit Sense.
A couple of minutes later, the Territory Lord contacted Shang again.
"The Scout has brought back information. According to him, you have a Spirit Sense with a range of roughly 150 kilometers, and you have a terrifying perception. Due to all these new pieces of information, I would judge that we need to send a Sweeper, not a Named Agent."
"Additionally, because of the Security Agency, your strong senses, and obvious talent, not every Sweeper can fulfill the mission."
"The new price for your head is 600 Grade Six Mana Crystals."
Shang snorted.
600 Grade Six Mana Crystals?
He doubted that the three Guild Masters had such funds.
"Then, the problem is resolved," Shang said.
"It most likely is," the Territory Lord answered.
Shang nodded. "Thanks."
Then, he cut the connection.
More days passed, and the Guild Masters returned to complaining to Shang.
Yet, it was like they were talking to a wall.
It was impossible to get through to Shang.
As days turned into weeks, the Guild Masters became quieter and quieter.
They were still grumbling occasionally, but their respective Guilds had also already resumed operations by now.
What were they supposed to do?
They couldn't kill him. He was too powerful, and the Temple of Blood asked for a ridiculous sum of money.
Should they leave and change towns?
No, that would mean that they would need to start from scratch again and rebuild their company from the ground up in unfamiliar territory.
Should they protest?
They were already doing that, and it brought them nothing but frustration.
Stop operations?
They would become homeless while the Town Lord would keep making money.
There was nothing they could do except bite the bullet and accept their new circumstances.
And the problem with the three Guild Masters was resolved just like that.
Shang hadn't even needed to do anything except look at a guy once and ignore all the protests.
The Guild Masters didn't even dare to do anything underhanded to the mortal district. If they did and were found out, the Town Lord would have justification to banish them from the town and its territories.
That would be a death sentence since they were just Peak High Mages.
More days passed, and eventually, it was time for the mortal district to wake up from their dream of partying.
