Grand Elder Cangming threw his head back and laughed, the sound harsh and grating like iron grinding against granite.
“Look at them!” Cangming mocked, pointing his halberd at the four hundred and eighty newly hired workers. “Scullions, miners, and dirt-sweepers! Do you honestly believe a high salary and a silk uniform can turn sheep into wolves?”
“Wolves eat sheep,” Lin Mo replied calmly. “Modern corporations simply buy the forest and hire animal control.”
“Arrogant mortal ignorance!” Cangming spat. “The arena does not care about your corporate balance sheets! In the ring, only cold steel and pure bloodline matter! A peasant born to dig dirt will die digging dirt!”
Sect Master Xuanji stepped forward, his eyes gleaming with malicious greed. He smoothed his long silver beard, looking like a vulture sizing up a feast.
“Chairman Lin, if you truly believe in your worthless rabble, put your wealth on the line,” Xuanji challenged. “We wager the commercial tax deeds of Cloud-Mist Market! Ten years of municipal revenue, worth thirty million spirit stones!”
“Against what?” Su Wan asked, her gold pen hovering over her tablet.
“Against your company’s spatial vault and the freedom of those four hundred and eighty deserters!” Cangming bellowed. “One match! If your recruit loses, they return to our mines in iron collars, and you surrender fifty million stones to our thirty-six sects!”
