Ji Honglei hurriedly followed behind Xiang Shaoyun as she thought, He still failed to escape me. This is great! She was confident that Xiang Shaoyun had probably fallen for her and that that was why he had selected her to be his butler. Her imaginations went wild at this assumption.

The two arrived at the grand hall. There, Xiang Shaoyun went straight to the point, "Are you willing to serve as my butler?"

Ji Honglei agreed without hesitation, "Yes." A bewitching look appeared on her face as she said, "I can be the butler, and I can also be your maid."

She then approached Xiang Shaoyun and pasted her voluptuous body against him. She had suffered many years of loneliness. Now that a man had caught her eyes, she did not wish to let go of him.

Xiang Shaoyun showed no reaction. "You're decent, but I don't like to gossip. Go to your own seat."

"Didn't you appoint me as your butler so I can warm your bed for you? Why keep pretending to be a gentleman, my dearest little ancestor?" said Ji Honglei coquettishly.

Xiang Shaoyun's voice turned solemn as he barked, "If you're going to continue acting like this, feel free to get lost."

Nowadays, Xiang Shaoyun wouldn't be so easily attracted to a woman. In fact, his mind was thinking about the Holy Hall at this moment. When Ji Honglei saw that Xiang Shaoyun was serious, she no longer dared to mess around. She went to her seat obediently and thought, What a fake gentleman.

"I need some manpower here. Make the selection for me. You will be in charge of this place from now on. If you're confident, run it well. If you're not, you can leave immediately," said Xiang Shaoyun seriously. "Also, I'll only be staying here for business."

He was making it clear to Ji Honglei that she wasn't hired because he was attracted to her. Ji Honglei understood what he was trying to say. Her expression dimmed as she thought, Is he looking down on me? Or had he simply selected me out of pity?

"Are you unwilling?" asked Xiang Shaoyun with a frown when she remained silent.

"No, I-I'm willing," answered Ji Honglei.

She had been harassed too much over the years. A backer like Xiang Shaoyun wouldn't be come by easily, and she didn't want to give it up. More importantly, she wanted to try making this backer like her.

Regardless of his current feelings for her, she had to first ensure she could stay here. Only then would she have more chances to approach him. One ought to admit that she was aiming rather high.

"Um. You can proceed to pick the servants. Feel free to pick a room for yourself. When I'm not around, you can freely use the cultivation resources available here," said Xiang Shaoyun with a wave of his hand.

Ji Honglei left the hall and started recruiting servants for the residence. She took only three days to thoroughly organize the residence. Xiang Shaoyun's daily life was taken care of flawlessly. It was becoming apparent that Ji Honglei was a very meticulous woman.

Naturally, Xiang Shaoyun felt smug over his choice of recruiting her. 

One day, he went looking for Xiang Youjing. It was time for him to leave.

"Overlord, why did you come here personally? You can just summon me," said Xiang Youjing courteously.

Xiang Shaoyun flashed him a bright smile and said, "One doesn't visit a temple without a cause. This time, I'm here to inform you that I'll be leaving, first elder."

"Uh, Overlord, this is your home. Where are you going?" asked Xiang Youjing, slightly stunned.

"Be that as it may, my father's sect is still waiting for me to run. Enemies surround it on all sides, and I need to return and look after it personally," said Xiang Shaoyun.

Xiang Youjing gave it some thought before saying, "Our clan members have been going to the outside world in recent years. Are you willing to merge the sect with the clan, making it some sort of point of contact between the clan and the outside world?"

Xiang Shaoyun refused without hesitating, "Absolutely not. If I agree, things will only become troublesome in the future. However, I wouldn't mind connecting the two through teleportation formations to open up communication. What do you think?"

As a whole, the Xiang Clan was no weaker than the Holy Hall. Thus, Xiang Shaoyun was thinking of making use of the clan to protect the sect. In any case, he would repay the clan in the future when he becomes as strong as he was in his previous life.

If he was a pure lightning cultivator, regaining that level of strength would be easy. After all, with the experiences from his past life, he could advance rapidly. However, his cultivation of nine powers was dragging down his cultivation speed.

"This..." Xiang Youjing hesitated, not knowing what to say.

"What misgivings do you have?"

"This is a big decision. We need to wait for the patriarch to decide on it. What do you think?" asked Xiang Youjing.

This was too major for a first elder like him to decide by himself. He needed the patriarch's permission before making such big calls.

Xiang Shaoyun found Xiang Youjing's response reasonable and said, "What if I need something from the clan?"

"What do you need, Overlord? If it's not too hard to get and the clan has it, there won't be any issues," said Xiang Youjing.

Xiang Shaoyun did not hold back and listed out several important materials such as void stones and spiritsense stones.

These materials were considered rare for many organizations, but the Xiang Clan wouldn't have too much trouble gathering them.

Unsurprisingly, Xiang Youjing said, "These materials can probably be found in the clan. But I'll need about two days to gather them all."

"I'll be relying on you, senior brother," said Xiang Shaoyun.

"Are you going to construct teleportation formations with these materials?" asked Xiang Youjing.

Xiang Shaoyun nodded and said, "That's right. The sect is still too weak. We need to look for some backers so that we won't be swallowed whole by a bigger fish."

"Are you in some sort of big trouble, Overlord?" asked Xiang Youjing.

"Have you heard of the Di Clan?" asked Xiang Shaoyun.

"Di Clan?" Xiang Youjing muttered doubtfully. He shook his head and said, "No."

"They are probably a hermit clan like us. They might even be descendants of some royal clan. Otherwise, they wouldn't dare to use the surname Di," said Xiang Shaoyun with a heavy expression.

In the past, Xiang Shaoyun had never considered Di Batian's background. Now that he gave it some thought, he found that Di Batian might also very well be a member of a hermit clan. In his past life, he had heard a little about a clan known as the Di Clan, but he was unsure if it was the same clan.

The Di Clan he had heard of was the royal clan of a ruined nation, and it was an extremely powerful clan. If Di Batian was really from that Di Clan, the Ziling Sect might be their first target when they leave seclusion. This was why he was in such a rush to search for backers.

"A royal clan? Things will get really thorny, then," said Xiang Youjing with a sigh. "I will send some people to protect you when you leave. With your current strength, you won't be able to deal with enemies of that level."