Chapter 1067: Risk Assessment

"Buying insurance?" Fang Jin lifted the letter, tilting his neck as he scrutinized it for a long while, trying to discern some other hidden meaning from the words.

He found absolutely nothing.

"What does Senior Brother Dai mean by this? Is it some sort of secret code? It shouldn't be. This isn't exactly a covert operation, so why the cloak-and-dagger nonsense?"

Fang Jin suppressed the urge to submerge the paper in water or bake it over a flame; it was a perfectly ordinary letter, and Senior Brother Dai likely hadn't employed any cryptograms.

"So he really wants me to buy insurance for the sect?"

Fang Jin remained thoroughly mystified. He had merely written to inquire about the situation regarding Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, yet Dai Bufan had replied with nothing but a single phrase: buy insurance.

With a sheet of paper this large, could you not have written a bit more? Is your ink made of gold?

Though he failed to grasp the underlying intent, out of his sheer trust in Dai Bufan, Fang Jin dutifully made his way to the Jingzhou branch of the Falling Coin Chamber of Commerce.

The Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas was an orthodox lineage aligned with the imperial court, and Fang Jin's status was equivalent to that of an official of the principal third rank, granting him the authority to represent the sect externally. Coupled with his cultivation at the early stage of the Body Integration realm, his arrival prompted the branch president himself to come out and receive him.

"Brother Fang, do you mean to say you wish to purchase insurance for your esteemed sect?" The branch president was inwardly taken aback once he understood Fang Jin's request.

He had never heard of any mishaps ever befalling the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas, so why this sudden urge to buy insurance?

"What tier of compensation coverage does Brother Fang intend to purchase? We offer five grades here—A, B, C, D, and E. Generally speaking, Grade C is quite sufficient, covering sixty percent of damages. If you steel your heart, Grade B offers eighty percent, which is also viable. Seldom does anyone purchase Grade A..."

"We will take Grade A. A one-year premium to start. How many spirit stones will it cost?"

Fang Jin’s decisiveness caused the branch president to grow increasingly hesitant. He offered a placating smile and said, "Brother Fang, you know the regulations. The pricing is invariably linked to the level of risk. We must conduct an assessment of your sect's risk level over the past year before a price can be determined."

"Rest assured, brother, the results will be ready in a mere two days."

"Very well then."

After Fang Jin departed, the branch president dispatched seven of his most professional evaluation cultivators to the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas. These seven assessors were veterans of the Jingzhou branch, steeped in experience; had it not been for their deep attachment to this local office, they would have ascended to the headquarters long ago.

Sending these seven cultivators was a testament to the immense importance the branch president placed on the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas.

Two days later, the risk assessment report was compiled.

The branch president held the thick sheaf of papers, flipping directly to the conclusion on the final page:

"...The founding of the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas dates back twenty thousand years. During the tenure of a certain patriarch of the Daoist Sect who served as the Governor of Qingzhou, he used the pretext of a duel to relocate a prosperous neighboring city directly into the borders of Qingzhou. It was only then that the imperial court established the terrain restoration regulations and founded the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas..."

"...Throughout these twenty thousand years, the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas has suffered no foreign invasions, nor any internal strifes for power..."

"...The most significant recent development at the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas is that Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou of the Daoist Sect are temporarily residing there."

"Tales regarding Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou are countless within the martial world, with over a hundred varieties of storytelling scripts dedicated to them. However, according to our investigative findings, the vast majority of these tales were fabricated out of thin air by the Daoist Sect's master, Immortal Buyu, for publicity purposes. The real Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou have never actually experienced these stories."

"Although Lu Yang did attend the Sword Inquiry Grand Ceremony at the Shuzhou Sword Pavilion—during which the Pavilion suffered an assault by the Yingtian Immortal that reduced it to ruins, forcing the Shuzhou branch to pay out a compensation that became a textbook failure of commercial insurance in the past century—Lu Yang's presence bore no causal relationship to the attack on the Sword Pavilion. It was purely coincidental."

"Therefore, the arrival of Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou will not elevate the risk level of the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas."

"The conclusion is... an extremely low risk?"

The branch president frowned. This defied logic; if there was no risk, why on earth was Fang Jin buying insurance?

Yet, a risk assessment report could not be forged. Since the seven veterans unanimously agreed that the risk was negligible, then negligible it was.

Thus, Fang Jin smoothly secured the Grade A sect insurance at the absolute lowest premium possible.

...

During these past few days, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou scarcely had time to rest their feet. Every time they returned to the Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas, they were handed a fresh assignment and had to depart in a rush. They were entirely oblivious to the fact that risk-assessing cultivators had visited the sect, nor did they know that Senior Brother Fang Jin had so submissively followed advice and purchased insurance.

The two brothers had found the work rather amusing at the start, but gradually, the relentless, back-to-back labor left them utterly exhausted in both body and mind.

"How can this Sect of Moving Mountains and Filling Seas be this busy?"

"The imperial court is so stingy, refusing to dispatch more hands to this place."

Lu Yang shook his head, thoroughly disappointed by the administrative methods of Emperor Xia, the Prime Minister of their Great Bean Dynasty. It was a good thing they had arrived to offer volunteer labor; had they not come, one could only wonder what a chaotic mess the sect would have become.

"Forget it, look on the bright side. Perhaps the Great Xia is just as short-handed as our Great Bean Dynasty," Lu Yang consoled himself, his words demonstrating a loyalty to the Great Bean Dynasty so absolute that it could be witnessed by heaven and earth, and mirrored by the sun and moon.

However, Lu Yang held a unique status, possessing dual nationality. When the Immortal Fairy was present, he belonged to the Great Bean Dynasty; when the Eldest Senior Sister was around, he belonged to the Great Xia Dynasty.

At this moment, Lu Yang had transformed into a giant, bending over to plant saplings as though he were rearranging miniature potted landscapes.

First, he would use a single finger to bore a hole into the earth, then he would carefully pinch a young sapling, plant it into the hollow, pat down the soil, and water it. The entire process required a meticulous regulation of strength; a single lapse in concentration would ruin the endeavor completely.

"Sect Master Kong was entirely right. Constant practice beats any clever technique."

At the beginning, Lu Yang had been unable to control his strength properly, snapping the young saplings in two. Now, as long as he maintained his focus, the saplings remained perfectly unharmed.

But this was still not enough; he needed to reach a state where he could plant trees entirely at whim, exerting and withdrawing his strength with absolute ease.

Meng Jingzhou’s progress was much the same as Lu Yang's, both of them currently hovering at a stage where meticulous care yielded success, but a wandering mind spelt failure.

Once the trees were planted, the two still had to guide the mountains back to their original coordinates, which was likewise a delicate operation.

Given their prowess, simply shoving the mountains into place would have been no trouble at all, but doing so would inflict wounds upon the peaks that would be difficult to heal. Therefore, the two had to restrain their might even while shifting mountains.

"Finally, it's done. Where to next?" Lu Yang wiped away his sweat. Like a deflating balloon, his spiritual energy surged outward, and his physique gradually shrunk until he finally reverted to his original form.

Meng Jingzhou first commanded his manifestations to strip off their garments and fold them neatly before dissolving the illusory forms and stowing the clothes away.

"Why must dressing and undressing these dharma manifestations be such an tedious chore?" Meng Jingzhou found it incredibly inconvenient.

Lu Yang let out a sigh. "What does this prove? It proves that you shouldn't just look at those cultivators who manifest the Law Heavenly Phenomenon and think how majestic they appear in battle. In truth, once they revert to normal, every single one of them has to stealthily and honestly fold their own clothes."

This truly highlighted the merits of the universe within a sleeve, where garments could automatically expand and contract.

"The next stop is quite a distance away, I reckon it's about twenty thousand miles from here."

As they spoke, a violent tremor of spiritual energy erupted directly above their heads.

Looking up, they saw two cultivators of the Body Integration realm locked in fierce combat. It was unclear where they had flown in from, but they had traveled all the way to this airspace and ground to a halt.

The momentum of Body Integration cultivators was grand and terrifying; to ordinary mortals, it looked as though the apocalypse had arrived, leaving them trembling in sheer terror.

These two Body Integration cultivators possessed formidable martial prowess; every single strike threatened to tear through space, shatter mountains, and evaporate entire lakes!

Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou’s eyes instantly turned red with fury. It had taken them so much agonizing effort to restore this landscape, and if these two were allowed to keep fighting, how could anything possibly survive?!