Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 475: The Harmony of the Situation
"Mr. Murong, you're welcome." Huo Ming thought for a moment, then took over the words from Murong Shu, clasped his fists and said in return, "I've heard of your great name for a long time, and seeing you today, I can see that you are indeed a man of extraordinary bearing. It is my great honor to have the opportunity to meet and interact with you."

After paying his respects, he slowly lowered his hands and continued, "Regarding what you just said about 'trouble'... I, Huo, am not talented enough to say a few words."

He paused here, looked around, and then said, "Although Cangzhou is not as prosperous as Jiangnan or the capital, we are the most martial arts-loving place here.

“I dare not say that all of you present here today are here, but I believe that the vast majority of you are knowledgeable people who understand reason and the general situation… Naturally, you still have some tolerance and some hospitality.

"Mr. Murong, if you have anything you want to say or do right now, you can speak frankly.

"Both sides, including everyone present here... should discuss and work it out, and never hurt the harmony."

As soon as he finished speaking, the spectators around him nodded and whispered in agreement. The noise that had just been suppressed by Murong Shu suddenly rose back a little, and the atmosphere on the scene eased a lot.

Otherwise, how could Master Huo build a sect that is among the top ten in the martial arts world after only 20 years of entrepreneurship? Can this be accomplished with martial arts alone?

Compared to Murong Shu's domineering attitude just now, Huo Ming's reply was obviously much gentler, but his effect of controlling the situation was undoubtedly better - not only did he perfectly pick up the words handed over by Murong Shu, he also calmed the innate hostility of many people present towards Murong Shu, an outsider, and all he used were nothing more than a few empty words like "know the big picture, be tolerant of others" to flatter him.

His last sentence, "don't hurt the relationship", can be said to be the tone he hoped for at the very beginning of the negotiation. Now it depends on whether Murong Shu accepts it.

"Oh?" After hearing Huo Ming's first words, Murong Shu immediately thought to himself, "What a great Huo Ming! He is not only the king of boxing, but also a hero among men... I thought the negotiation would not be too difficult this time. After all, with the current power of our Murong family, even if we give in a few steps and share some benefits with these local sects to pave the way, this matter can still be accomplished... But I think that Sect Leader Huo is not someone who can be suppressed by money. If he wants to fight with me for the hosting rights, it's hard to say..."

Huo Ming didn't expect that the more generous and friendly he appeared, the more difficult Murong Shu felt the negotiation would become.

If Shao Dejin was allowed to represent the Cangzhou martial arts community to negotiate this matter today, the process would probably be this: Shao Dejin would be polite at first, and then immediately start bargaining in a roundabout way, and then he would come up with a pretext, and the essence of this pretext was to let the Murong family pay a little "hosting fee". After the fees were confirmed, Shao would take a kickback of about 50%, and then distribute the rest to other local sects, and then the matter would be settled.

Murong Shu was not afraid of such a development at all, and was even happy to see it... Because for the current Murong family, money is a relatively cheap resource, and talking to them about money is just simplifying things.

But what is Huo Ming talking about now? He is not talking to you about the "knife-slashing" matter, but discussing "the truth" with you, "getting to know you", "discussing things with you"... This is complicated.

Murong Shu's brain raced during those few seconds, and he thought a lot before he replied, "Master Huo is not only a local hero, but also a gentleman. I admire him." He also used a flattery to cushion the situation, and then continued to talk about the matter, "As you said, since everyone here is a wise and sensible hero, I will not lie in front of real people, and will tell you a few words from my heart..."

He paused here, looked around, and then spoke in a serious tone, "Thinking of my Murong family, we have experienced ups and downs for hundreds of years. Although we dare not call ourselves the pillars of the martial arts world, we have made contributions over the years... I won't talk about the distant past, but the last time my Murong family was nearly wiped out was when we defended the Central Plains martial arts world against the foreign enemy 'Wanyuan Sect' more than 50 years ago... I think all of you here know a thing or two about this..."

There was nothing wrong with what Murong Shu said. It was true that only one or two percent of the people present had heard of this incident, and many of them had heard it from their parents or even grandparents. As for the specific circumstances of the incident, they probably only knew one or two percent out of ten, which could be said to be truly "knowing a thing or two".

But... even if Murong Shu said that the Wanyuan Sect took the initiative to attack their family, as if they took the initiative to jump out and become the first barrier of the Central Plains martial arts world, you cannot deny that they did serve as a shield for the Central Plains martial arts world, and bought some time and intelligence for their fellow martial artists, and they also paid a very painful price (in that incident, Murong Shu's previous generation had more than ten people, but only two were left, and one was even disabled. Of course, these two are now dead. It can be said that the Murong family did not recover until Murong Ji's generation), so that they were in a state of decline for the next forty years.

Therefore, it is completely reasonable for Murong Shu to start with this statement and establish the character of the Murong family as "we have shed blood for the Central Plains martial arts world."

"In the past few decades, our Murong family has certainly fallen into decline, but we have never complained about the world, let alone done anything to harm the martial arts world. It was not until ten years ago that I cooperated with others to establish the 'Huan Yi Pavilion' and revitalized our family business, and we have achieved the current situation..."

In this paragraph, Murong Shu cunningly glossed over how he "cooperated" with the civil service group in the court.

However, he also knew that he couldn't avoid this topic, so he used this to talk about the matter in the opposite way: "I know that many people now think that our Murong family is involved in the officialdom and is no longer a pure martial arts family. I also understand that no matter how much I explain, I can't convince everyone.

"Therefore, I dare to hope to host the next Young Heroes Conference and make my humble contribution to the martial arts world. I hope to show you all that my Murong family is still a part of this martial arts world with all of you."

His tone was a bit high, but it was necessary. Anyway, he put his motives for doing this on a moral high ground that others could neither confirm nor disprove, and then it would be a lot easier to talk about other things... Even if the deal failed, he would still be invincible.

Of course, when negotiating, you can't just talk in a high-profile manner. After that you still have to get down to earth before you can move forward.

Therefore, Murong Shu's next words returned to this "land": "And the reason why I chose Cangzhou as the venue for the conference is because it is adjacent to the Bohai Sea in the east, Beijing and Tianjin in the north, has flat land, and has four distinct seasons... It is a heroic land with beautiful scenery and talented people. I have no other ideas, and it is impossible for me to be disrespectful to the local heroes..."

Having said this, Murong Shu looked at Huo Ming again: "Since we have come to this point today, I might as well speak frankly... If Sect Master Huo or the heroes present here have any misunderstandings about me or the Murong family... or have any opinions or conditions about us hosting the Young Heroes Conference... you can raise them, and I will respond to them one by one without any ambiguity."

After the words fell, there was another round of discussion among the people present. Many of them were actually somewhat convinced by Murong Shu, because the words of the head of the Murong family at least sounded quite sincere.

Of course, their opinions are not very important. Many of them are fence-sitters to begin with, and they just have a little resistance to "outsiders" taking charge of this matter. If you really ask the Baquan Sect to do it, they won't be happy about it.

So in the end, the person who can and should speak is still Huo Ming, or the Ba Quan Sect; after all, the reason for today's negotiations is that the Ba Quan Sect is ostensibly going to "compete" for the hosting rights, and whether Huo Ming gives in is the key.

What is Huo Ming's state of mind at this moment?

Let’s put it this way…he was ready to pop the champagne at halftime.

According to Huo Ming's meaning, he only needs to say a few more sentences like "So that's how it is, I misunderstood you", "Of course I trust Mr. Murong, I'm totally confident leaving this matter to you", "Mr. Murong is a man of great benevolence and justice, and has devoted his life to the martial arts world. Anyone who dares to make things difficult for you again will be making things difficult for my Baquan Sect"... After saying this, he can fast forward to the part where everyone is going to have a meal together.

But who would have thought that just when Huo Ming was about to proceed along this path...

"Since Mr. Murong said that everyone can ask any questions, I would also dare to ask a question." A very distinctive voice suddenly sounded.

Swish, swish, swish, everyone's attention was instantly attracted to him. Upon seeing this person, who else could it be but Sun Yixie?

Other people's words may be considered abrupt or overestimating one's own abilities, but when this "Dongxie" speaks, everyone cannot take it lightly.

When Brother Sun said this, Murong Shu had already confirmed in his heart that Shuang Xie was a member of the Ba Quan Sect, and he secretly sighed: It seems that compared to my son, Huo Ming's last disciple Lei Buji has a closer relationship with these two brothers.

But on the other hand, Huo Ming was confused. He thought: Aren't you "Eastern Harmony and Western Poison" invited by Murong Shu? As for what Murong Shu said... I didn't mention anything, why are you asking? Did I misunderstand something?

So, what are the plots of Sun and Huang, who came here to watch the fun?
This has to go back to a moment ago, when Murong Shu hadn't finished speaking yet...

At that time, Sun Huang only listened to the beginning of Murong Shu's speech, and he already knew that the following content was almost exactly what they had expected.

However, the two of them were unaware of the account in Huo Ming's mind, nor could they calculate it, so, from the perspective of Shuang Xie, the next step would be "Huo Ming's turn", and then the two sides would start all kinds of competition and tug-of-war.

Then they didn't need to wait for Master Huo to say anything else, and could just start implementing the strategy they had just decided.

"Hey, hey, Master Shao, don't you think the head of the Murong family is bragging a little too much?" Sun Yixie turned his head to the side when Murong Shu was halfway through his words and whispered to Shao Dejin who was not far away from him, "Who hasn't made some contribution to the martial arts world? They were clearly attacked and survived, but they can still brag as if they have done something great. People who don't know would think that it was not Wudang who drove away the Wanyuan Sect, but them."

At this moment, Shao Dejin had basically no suspicion towards Sun Huang and Sun Yixie, especially because after Sun Huang persuaded Shao Dejin and the abbot to leave, Sun Yixie immediately launched a series of offensives to flatter Shao Dejin and establish a relationship with him...

Brother Sun not only denounced the abbot's words and deeds in front of Shao Dejin on the spot, asking Master Shao not to bother with such people, but also said that thanks to Master Shao's reminder, he must be on guard against Lin Yuancheng in the future.

Then, in order to avoid being suspected by the other party due to his excessive enthusiasm, Sun Yixie said goodbye after the first wave of words and went back to chat with Huang Donglai and Lei Buji.

But after a while, when it was time to choose seats, Sun Yixie deliberately sat next to Shao Dejin, whispering and chatting with him from time to time, appearing to be very familiar with him.

As we said before, Shuangxie is the focus of the whole audience. With Brother Sun's operation, Shao Dejin also benefited from it.

People like Lao Shao, who enjoys the "admiring" looks from those around him and the flattery from Brother Sun, the fishmonger, are very happy. He soon becomes a little flattered and quickly develops a liking for Sun Yixie.

At this moment, Sun Yixie whispered this to Murong Shu while he was speaking. Shao Dejin, who was already a little too proud of himself, did not act out and directly responded, "Humph, isn't it... Such words of seeking fame and reputation, flattering himself, are a pity that he said them so righteously."

"That's right. If you ask me... these are all empty talk. Don't they just have some filthy money? This isn't a competition for business, so what's the point? In the past, those sects didn't have that much money, but didn't the Young Heroes Association still make it all the way?" Sun Yixie continued to tease Shao Dejin, "After all, we in the martial arts world still have to rely on strength to speak in the end. I'll go ask him later and tell them to stop talking. Let's see if they dare."

"Hiss..." Shao Dejin pondered for a few seconds after hearing it, and then said, "My dear nephew (his way of addressing Brother Sun had changed after this period of communication), are you... sure? Although Murong Shu is famous for his gambling skills, his martial arts skills are probably not low either."

"Hey, I didn't say I was going to challenge him in a duel." Sun Yixie said, moving a little closer, then raised his hand and whispered in Shao Dejin's ear for a while.

Shao Dejin listened, nodded repeatedly, and a smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

After hearing this, he smiled and said, "Oh? If your plan can really be implemented, it would be quite interesting. Who will win at that time... is still unknown."

Sun Yixie took a look and thought, okay, this guy has taken the bait, so we can move on to the next step.

It was at this time that Murong Shu finished his speech, and ended with "Everyone can put forward opinions and conditions at will."

So, Sun Yixie took advantage of the situation and stood up before Huo Ming could respond...