Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

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While Kai was processing the weird rumors about him, Old Lao who was standing quietly beside him raised his hand and spoke. "Miss Lee, with all due respect, it sounds to me that the Lee family has already been marked by the other major families. If my Master agrees to this, then he is essentially making himself the enemy of all other families in the city. What reason would constitute my master taking this much of a risk?"

Kai nodded his head in agreement. His train of thought was similar to Old Lao's. No matter how much they were willing to pay, doing this would essentially mean Kai was going up against all the powers that wanted a piece of the Lee family.

"My Lee family owns various businesses, however, our auction house is by far the most profitable. We are willing to extend 5% of these profits to you under the condition that the properties remain under the name and care of the Lee family..."

"5%...?" Kai was inwardly disappointed. Do they want him to risk his life for a measly 5%?

"Yes, unfortunately, the rest is needed to continue maintaining the auction house and the Lee family, however, your monthly income would be upwards of over 50,000 gold coins on average".

Mei Lee had noticed Kai's disappointed look and decided to add in the actual figures to get his attention. 5% was only really just starting point of the negotiations. She had already received approval to go as high as 20% if needed.

Kai's jaw almost dropped to the ground. The profit alone was 50,000 gold coins which was a ludicrous number to him. With that kind of money, Kai could buy [Grade-3] items and gear like they were candy and create D-Rank manuals all day. This would single-handedly fix all his money problems...However, the risks were just as great, if not greater than the offered rewards.

Kai looked over to Old Lao who seemed to be making calculations in his head. When he was done, he turned to Kai with a slight frown. Kai sent him a telepathic link using [Dragon's Whispers].

"What do you think Old Lao?"

"This is indeed a lot of money but..."

"but?", Kai asked curiously

"...I wouldn't dream to estimate Master's power. Are you confident in battling against every powerful family within Huang City?. I know we three disciples of yours wouldn't stand a chance at this point. In such a conflict, we would likely get captured and be used against you as bargaining chips..."

Kai saw the serious look in Old Lao's eyes and felt his feelings through the Sub-Core. He was feeling a sense of shame and regret, likely due to his current lacking power.

"Hmm, if this will put you three in danger, then it's really not worth doing. We have other means of making money anyway"

Old Lao nodded his head in silence, then his eyes brightened up for a split second..."Master, I believe we can still gain some benefits from this situation..."

Kai was excited at the prospect of still being able to gain benefits and instructed Old Lao to explain in detail.

"Well, we have two options here. If the Lee family is to perish anyway, then we can choose to join the other factions and claim a small portion of the spoils for ourselves. Alternatively, we can help the Lee protect a portion of their estate that the other families are not interested in. The Auction house is out of the question since many powerful families will likely be targeting it, but we could protect some of their lesser-known interests in exchange for some gold"

Kai was intrigued by the somewhat sinister ideas. He always thought Old Lao was a goody goody, but this somewhat changed his perspective of the old man a little.

"I like it!", Kai thought. "Let's probe for some more information and see what other businesses they have. We'll decide which option we go with later since both options are in our favor anyway."

"...", while the two were talking telepathically, Mei Lee sat there in silence, watching Kai and Old Lao's expressions change sporadically.

"Miss Lee..." Kai suddenly spoke, breaking the awkward silence.

"Unfortunately, my hidden backers will likely not agree to this. Your Lee family businesses are just not valuable enough to them. Instead, why don't we try to preserve some of your family's lesser-known businesses that can be well hidden?...

Mei Lee felt her soul leave her body when she heard this. His backers thought a revenue of 50,000 gold a month was 'not valuable enough?'...

The Lee family head had given her strict instructions to come to an agreement with Kai that got his backer's protection while keeping the family assets under the Lee family name. As long as it was like this, then the Lee family could rise once again, buy what Kai was suggesting was to abandon the heart of the Lee family and take refuge behind the lesser-known businesses. Doing this would be equivalent to giving up on the entire Lee family!.

"Well, what do you say Miss Lee?", Kai asked again as he took a sip of his tea. As bad as it sounded, his suggestion would at least help the Lee family keep a small portion of their businesses. Most of the risk would also be mitigated.

"...We do have some lesser-known clothing and armor crafting stores. These were created by my uncle to facilitate his expansion into crafting. He had hoped that crafting could rekindle the Lee family, however, craftsmanship requires time and effort to learn so not many in the family are proficient enough to make it a family business..."

"That sounds perfect. What is the current monthly profit for these clothing stores?", Kai asked curiously.

"The armor and clothing store has average profit margins but the time and effort it takes to gather and process the resources make it expensive and time-consuming. Currently, the monthly revenue is 10,000 gold with 2000 of that being profit. This is after a portion has been re-invested for wages, new materials, and maintenance..."

"Hmm", Kai thought about it and figured it wasn't too bad. 5% of the 2000 gold profit would be 100 gold per month. This was still a massive sum to the current Kai and he doubted that many would make themselves his enemy for a simple clothing store.

"I'll have to discuss this with our family head first, I hope you understand..."

"No problem, take your time", Kai said as he offered her more tea.

They discussed a few other topics and agreed that Mei Lee would pick Kai up the following afternoon and take him to the auction.

When Mei Lee left, Kai and Old Lao discussed other potential business ideas and opportunities. Kai also explored the potential costs of running his own sect.

Unlike most sects that needed a constant supply of expensive materials to cultivate talented individuals, all Kai really needed were extra slots on his core to make new sub-cores.

Overall, Kai figured that his start-up costs would be drastically less when compared to other sects. However, at the end of the day, Kai acknowledged that he still needed to be powerful before he tried establishing his own sect.

Had Kai been more powerful, then he could have just accepted the Lee family's initial proposal and made over 50k gold a month instead of reducing it to 100 gold a month. Or if he were to be extreme, Kai could have just as easily taken over the entire Lee family and thus taken all their profits for himself.

Better still, if Kai had enough power to subdue the current rulers of Huang City, the Twin-Lion's sect, then he could have taken over the entirety of Huang City with little to no resistance. Meaning all the taxes of all the families living in the city would all come to him.

Kai had not noticed it yet, but his ambition was steadily growing as his power and confidence grew.

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