The backlash didn't come as threats.
It came as absence.
No merchants on the nearby roads.
No wandering cultivators passing through.
Even the birds seemed… selective.
Lin Chen noticed it by the third day.
"…They're isolating us," he said quietly.
Zhao Feng frowned. "Master, is that… allowed?"
Lin Chen smiled thinly. "Very."
---
> System Update:
Soft Suppression Detected
Methods:
– Trade avoidance
– Information blockage
– Social pressure
Severity: Mild (Escalating)
Lin Chen leaned back.
"So this is the civilized version of bullying."
---
Little Green held up a sign:
THE SOIL STILL LIKES US
Lin Chen nodded. "That helps."
---
The disciples began to feel it.
Cultivation resources grew harder to acquire.
Messages sent to other sects went unanswered.
Rumors trickled back—twisted ones.
"Azure Cloud Sect hoards land fortune."
"Azure Cloud Sect manipulates villagers."
"Azure Cloud Sect thinks it's above Heaven."
Lin Chen choked on his tea at the last one.
"…I never said that out loud."
---
That night, Lin Chen stood at the mountain's edge.
Isolation was dangerous.
Not immediately.
But slowly.
A sect without exchange became stagnant—or desperate.
Neither option appealed to him.
---
> System Prompt:
Countermeasures Available:
1. Display Strength (Provokes Conflict)
2. Capitulate Partially (Loss of Autonomy)
3. Create Alternative Network (High Effort, High Reward)
Lin Chen smiled.
"I always hated simple choices."
---
The next morning, Azure Cloud Sect changed tactics.
They didn't go outward.
They went downward.
Lin Chen instructed the disciples to assist nearby villages—not with miracles, but with methods.
Soil rotation.
Water channels.
Basic formations that anyone could maintain.
No contracts.
No worship.
Just teaching.
---
The effect was immediate.
Villages prospered.
Word spread—not through sect channels, but through people.
> Influence Type Shifted:
Elite-Based → Grassroots
Lin Chen felt it settle into place.
Steady.
Durable.
Uncomfortable for those above.
---
Little Green posted a new sign at the gate:
WE DON'T SELL DIRT
WE TEACH FARMING
Lin Chen nodded in approval.
---
Within weeks, traders quietly returned.
Not big ones.
Small ones.
Independent ones.
The kind that didn't want protection—only opportunity.
Lin Chen welcomed them.
Carefully.
---
From a distant mountain, a figure watched through a water mirror.
"A sect that refuses control…" the man murmured.
"…and builds loyalty instead."
He smiled coldly.
"That won't be tolerated."
---
Back at Azure Cloud Sect, Lin Chen felt a chill.
Not fear.
Recognition.
"Alright," he said softly.
"So that's the next price."
The land remained steady.
The sect stood firm.
And somewhere, the game quietly shifted
—from isolation
to inevitability.