Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 272: Wishing I Could Give Him Two Slaps to Wake Him Up

“Bullshit!”

An old man on the platform slammed his hand down, his roar echoing through the hall. This was Fan Chong, City Lord of Near Abyss City and an ironclad ally of Lin Jianyuan.

“If Chairman Lin was truly some tyrant obsessed with power, why the hell would he have founded the Heavenly Abyss Alliance in the first place? Why establish this council and its rules of shared governance? Wouldn’t it have been a thousand times easier to just copy the Xia Clan of the Southern Region and crown himself emperor of a dynasty?”

Zhou Xiao, a councilor with the deceptive appearance of a carefree youth, immediately let out a sneer. “City Lord Fan, let’s not twist history. Everyone gathered under this banner because of the promise of shared governance.”

He leaned forward, a mocking glint in his eye. “Establish a dynasty? You think you had the muscle or the mandate for that back then? What, is shared governance suddenly unacceptable just because the council’s majority opinion no longer bends to the Chairman’s will? If you’ve got the spine for it, draw your swords and slaughter us all right now. Then the Heavenly Abyss Alliance can go back to being your personal echo chamber!”

Despite his frivolous demeanor, Zhou Xiao was no lightweight. He was the second strongest cultivator on the council, eclipsed only by Lin Jianyuan. Long before the Alliance existed, he had been a ruthless warlord carving up the Central Continent. He had always quietly chafed under Lin Jianyuan’s shadow, and he wasn’t about to let this golden opportunity slip through his fingers.

Lin Jianyuan took a slow, deep breath, forcibly shoving down the molten anger rising in his chest. “Enough! We are done arguing. I am still the Chairman of this Alliance. Until the fog of this war clears, my orders stand. A defensive posture is our only viable strategy. If any of you have a problem with that, you can file your complaints when my term expires!”

The moment the words left his mouth, a figure in the lower seats abruptly stood up.

“Chairman Lin. I formally object!”

The voice belonged to Xia Chengyan. It was clear and resonant, yet laced with an icy, alien detachment.

Lin Jianyuan looked down at the beloved disciple he had raised by hand, his eyes swirling with complex emotions. “Speak.”

Xia Chengyan swept his gaze across the packed hall, his voice carrying to the farthest corners. “You once taught me that a wise leader listens to all sides, while a fool blindly trusts his own shadow. So why are you now acting like a stubborn tyrant?”

He pointed an accusatory finger. “My five elite squads penetrated deep into the Western Region. They were isolated, cut off, and practically fed to the slaughter. I don’t understand! With the sheer military might of the Central Continent—even ignoring the Southern Region, we still have the Eastern Sea and the Northern Ridge at our backs! Why are we cowering behind a wall instead of marching out to eradicate the Hatred? Are you telling me the combined forces of three regions cannot crush a single Western Region?”

Lin Jianyuan stared at his disciple. The young man felt like a complete stranger. “Chengyan,” he said, shaking his head with profound sorrow. “You don’t understand the true terror of the Hatred. It doesn’t just kill; it erodes the very consciousness of a cultivator.”

He leaned forward, his voice desperate to make them see reason. “This isn’t some standard Sect turf war! The moment we overextend our supply lines, our own logistics and allied troops could be corrupted and turned against us. The entire front would collapse in an hour. The fallout would be apocalyptic!”

“That is nothing but your own paranoid delusion!” Xia Chengyan fired back mercilessly. “As long as we advance with discipline, carving out territory step by step, victory is inevitable! Even if it takes a century—a millennium! But if we turtle up like frightened beasts, when does it end? Master, wake up!”

“You—!” Lin Jianyuan swayed as if physically struck. Having his most cherished disciple publicly rip him apart was a devastating blow to his spirit.

Sitting beside Xia Chengyan, Lin Xiaozhu was practically grinding her teeth to dust. She usually considered Xia Chengyan a meathead whose brain was made of solid muscle. But right now, under the total control of the [Great Dream Evolution Art], the guy was suddenly a master orator, spitting absolute fire and twisting the knife with every word.

She was itching to jump up and slap him across the face twice just to reset his brain. But remembering Zhang Xian and Long Zhi’s grand scheme, she forced herself to swallow her fury.

Right on cue, Xia Chengyan nudged her with his elbow, the silent signal to follow his lead.

Lin Xiaozhu took two deep breaths, ruthlessly suppressing her nausea. She stood up, masking her face in a sheet of frost. “I believe Xia Chengyan’s words hold merit. The Chairman should be more open to the counsel of others.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Zhou Xiao enthusiastically led a round of applause, laughing aloud. “Look at this, Chairman Lin! Even your own hand-picked disciple and your own niece think you’ve lost your grip! It’s high time you took a long, hard look in the mirror!”

Sensing the kill, Councilor Sun stood up and cleared his throat, his booming voice demanding the hall’s attention. “Since Chairman Lin adamantly refuses to heed the voice of reason, I officially propose a motion to impeach Chairman Lin Jianyuan.”

Lin Jianyuan’s expression instantly darkened like a thundercloud.

Fan Chong slammed his fists onto his desk, his hair practically standing on end with rage. “Sun! What the hell are you playing at?!”

In the thousands of years since the Heavenly Abyss Alliance’s inception, the word ‘impeachment’ had never once been invoked. To use it against the founding father himself was a supreme, spitting insult.

Councilor Sun met his fury with a block of ice. “What am I playing at? The Heavenly Abyss Alliance does not belong to one man. I am exercising my rights under the Alliance charter. Every councilor is granted one impeachment motion per term. What exactly is the problem?”

His predatory gaze swept the room. “According to the charter, if three of the eight seated councilors second the motion, the impeachment proceeds to a floor vote by all councilors and delegates present!”

He finally locked eyes with Lin Jianyuan, his tone pressing and arrogant. “Chairman Lin. You don’t have a problem respecting the rules you wrote, do you?”

Lin Jianyuan stared at Councilor Sun. Suddenly, a terrifying, formless pressure erupted from his body, suffocating the hall. The air grew heavy as lead, choking the breath out of the weaker cultivators present.

Yet, Councilor Sun didn’t bat an eye. He stood his ground as if the crushing aura was nothing but a light breeze. “Well? Chairman Lin? Are you publicly rebelling against the Alliance charter?”

Lin Jianyuan’s gaze swept across the silent, watching hall. It finally landed on the hollow, emotionless faces of Xia Chengyan and Lin Xiaozhu. In that split second, it was as if someone had snapped his spine. All the fight, all the terrifying spiritual pressure, vanished like smoke.

He slumped back into his throne, suddenly looking incredibly old. “I have no objection.”

Instantly, Councilor Hu Hui and Zhou Xiao raised their hands. “I second the motion.”

“You treacherous snakes!” Fan Chong roared, pointing a trembling finger at them. “You planned this from the start! You are driving the Alliance straight off a cliff!”

No one cared about an old man’s howling. The floor vote commenced, and the grand hall erupted into a chaotic buzz of whispers and arguments.

“Damn, I never thought I’d see the day…”

“But Councilor Sun isn’t entirely wrong, is he?”

“A great general doesn’t always make a great king.”

“Still, you have to feel bad for Chairman Lin.”

“Feel bad? If he hadn’t botched the last five strategic calls, we wouldn’t be here!”

To ensure absolute ‘transparency’, the vote was conducted publicly. The voting weights were heavily skewed: a single councilor’s vote was worth twenty standard votes. Between the eight councilors (including the Chairman), they held 160 votes. The floor delegates held one vote each, totaling roughly 150 votes. Abstentions were discarded.

There was no suspense to be had.

Two councilors abstained. Four voted to impeach. The floor delegates heavily followed the council’s lead.

When the spiritual tally board finalized, the numbers glowed with brutal clarity: 160 to 70. With nearly a seventy percent majority, the impeachment was overwhelmingly ratified.

Lin Jianyuan, the architect and undisputed leader of the Heavenly Abyss Alliance, was unceremoniously stripped of his crown.

Watching her uncle’s posture visibly crumble under the weight of the betrayal, Lin Xiaozhu’s heart bled. But she kept her face a mask of stone, ruthlessly burning the face and name of every single person who voted ‘Yes’ into her memory. Regardless of their excuses, they were all now prime suspects on her hit list.

After a tense, fifteen-minute recess, a snap election was held for an Interim Chairman. To Lin Xiaozhu’s surprise, Zhou Xiao swept the vote. She noticed, with chilling clarity, that Councilor Sun and his faction didn’t look the least bit upset by this outcome.

The bloody, armed coup they had anticipated had been neatly sidestepped by political theater. Lin Xiaozhu let out a tight, silent breath of relief.

Stripped of his robes of office, Lin Jianyuan looked like a man who had lost everything—yet, paradoxically, he also looked like a man who had just set down a mountain he’d been carrying for a century.

He walked slowly down the steps, stopping in front of Xia Chengyan and Lin Xiaozhu. His voice was cracked and hoarse. “Walk with me, you two. I want to look upon the [Realm-Severing Light Wall] one last time. I’ll reinforce it tonight, before I hand over the keys.”

He turned slightly, his tired eyes finding Long Zhi. “Fellow Daoist Long Zhi. I would be honored if you joined us.”