Pi Zhishan was already an Earth-stage expert at so young an age; were the hidden families all such monsters? Luckily the two houses had now reached a working accord, and the mightier the Pi family proved, the higher the Xiao family's standing would rise with the tide!

"Of course, the experts of our Pi family will be stationed with you only to hold the fort and to keep watch. If you think to use them as house guards like Uncle Pi, that is out of the question!" Pi Zhishan gave Xiao Ben advance warning. The experts of the hidden Pi family could never take orders from the Xiao family!

"I understand, perfectly!" Xiao Ben nodded hastily. In truth he had never even dreamed of ordering the Pi family's people about, nor would he dare. He only said with an ingratiating smile: "But if someone comes to trouble our Xiao family..."

"Set your mind at rest on that score. If anyone troubles the Xiao family, our Pi family's experts will deal with it!" Pi Zhishan waved his hand. "What I mean by ordering about is using my Pi family's experts like servants. But when the Xiao family is in trouble, they will hardly stand idly by! After all, we are partners!"

"Excellent!" At Pi Zhishan's promise, joy sprang to Xiao Ben's brows! This was exactly the result he wanted. So long as the Pi family's experts would strike when the Xiao family met with trouble, that was enough. As for driving them like servants, that was unthinkable; the Xiao family would barely have time to enshrine them!

"Since that is settled, I will waste no more words." Pi Zhishan said coolly: "From now on everything rests on you. As for the experts, they will be in place within these two days. Now I must return to report to grandfather!"

"Young Master Pi, wait a moment, please..." Xiao Ben called Pi Zhishan back: "About business matters, are we to act on our own, or is there a designated line?"

"That does not matter. Anything that makes money will do." Pi Zhishan said indifferently.

"Hmm... then may I let word out that the Pi family is backing our Xiao family?" Xiao Ben nodded and went on asking.

This letting out of word was of the utmost moment. If the Pi family insisted on secrecy, then in practice their backing would be much weakened. To let others find out passively and to proclaim it openly produced results worlds apart!

If word went out that the hidden Pi family stood behind the Xiao family, those in the know would come of their own accord to seek cooperation with the Xiao family and offer every convenience, instead of the Xiao family having to seek others out and hint obscurely at its ties to the hidden Pi family, which others might or might not even believe.

"That goes without saying." Pi Zhishan smiled faintly and nodded assent. To this demand of the Xiao family the Pi family naturally agreed. What the Pi family was doing could never be hidden from the Hidden Families Arbitration Association, so rather than hide and cover, they might as well be open and aboveboard! In any case there was good cause, and no one could say anything against it!

"Good, then much trouble will be spared!" Xiao Ben nodded happily. In that moment he seemed already to see the Xiao family's bright future! Thinking that the great gathering of the families was close at hand, Xiao Ben smiled with delight. This time the Xiao family would not only avoid being squeezed out of the ranks of the families, but would climb a rung higher!

Whoever set himself against the Xiao family set himself against the Yu family!

Pi Zhishan and Pi Zhihai had come only to handle the negotiation. Pi Zhishan was first in line to inherit the hidden Pi family and naturally could not remain long with the Xiao family, while Pi Zhihai had merely come out to gain experience and see the world.

Pi Zhihai was a martial fanatic with little guile, yet the more so, the happier Pi Zhishan was. To have a younger brother with no scheming at heart and only thoughts of raising his strength, with no one to contest the seat of family head, and who could moreover add to the family's power, why not rejoice?

The moment Pi Zhishan and Pi Zhihai left, Xiao Ji and Xiao Ben burst into hearty laughter! The Xiao family had hope again! All their former worries vanished in that instant, and the Pi people had not even gone to glance at Uncle Pi in the hospital, from which one could see they felt nothing for him at all. At that, the Xiao brothers breathed easy!

Xiao Ben had feared the Pi family still bore a grudge over Uncle Pi and might one day rake up the old account and drag the Xiao family in, but now it seemed there was no need to worry. Only Xiao Ben felt a touch of unwillingness, for he had meant to avenge himself on Wei Zhao. After the Pi people came, the first thing he had meant to do was lead men back to Gu Pengzhan to press the debt, but now it seemed the Pi family cared nothing for Uncle Pi, and the chance they would help Uncle Pi settle scores was slimmer than slim...

But whatever else, the Xiao family's soaring rise had become certain. Xiao Ben turned to Xiao Ji and said: "Elder brother, in your name as head of the Xiao family, send word out at once that our Xiao family has won the backing of the hidden Pi family and is now seeking commercial partners on all fronts!"

"Good, leave it to me!" Xiao Ji thumped his chest and agreed roundly. Bragging was his favorite pastime, and besides, this time it was not mere bragging, but solid fact!

The news that the Xiao family had won the backing of the hidden Pi family spread like wildfire under Xiao Ji's deliberate trumpeting, and soon the great families had all got wind of it! Yet among these families, some were glad, some were gloomy, and some chose to look the other way at what did not concern them...

None were gladder than the Wu family. Wu Gonggao felt that his grandson Wu Chengtian had always been on good terms with Xiao Wangdao and Xiao Wangba, and now that the Xiao family was in power, the Wu family would in future share in some fitting benefit!

But after all, the glad were few and the gloomy were many!

The gloomiest houses were the Liu family and the Chen family!

The Liu family and the Chen family were both rather feeble houses. With the Xiao family propping up the bottom before, they had felt a sense of crisis yet still had room to breathe. But now the Xiao family had shot to the skies in one bound and become a house to rival the Yu family, so were not the Liu family and the Chen family left to bring up the rear?

The Liu family had no cultivators, while the Chen family had only Chen Yutian, a cultivator of the early Yellow stage. Though the old masters of the two houses held high standing in both business and political circles, they were after all old. While they lived it was all very well and they could trade on old ties, but once they passed away, the strength of the two houses would plummet in an instant!

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