Instantly, the entire meeting room was covered with a powerful aura.
Niu Feng had never come face-to-face with this aura before, but he was still equally terrified and shivered.
As for the two Leaders of Chuanyun Stronghold, their legs and stomachs were churning from fear.
If chairs hadn't supported them, they would have collapsed onto the floor by now.
As for Xu Yuanming, he felt that he was no longer facing a human being, but a terrifying and ferocious wild beast.
The impact of the frightening aura made his heart start to tremble.
Craaaack…
The chair under him suddenly fell apart.
Xu Yuanming immediately reacted and got up from his seat with a start.
CRAAACK!
Once Xu Yuanming stood to his feet, the entire chair instantly gave way and was in pieces all over the floor.
At this moment, that powerful aura disappeared in an instant, so everyone else in the meeting room started to pant heavily.
Xu Yuanming continued standing where he was and did not know what to do.
He looked at how Qin Shujian was just seated without moving an inch, and he did not know what he should say.
At that moment, he even felt the illusion of coming face-to-face with something that was deeply terrifying.
It seemed as though the other party just needed to exert a little force in his finger and he would be squashed to death quickly.
"Mr. Xu, do you think Liangshan Stronghold is good enough or not good enough yet?"
Qin Shujian smiled faintly and asked playfully.
Xu Yuanming snapped out of his daze and tried to look calm, "It's enough!"
Since it had come to this, Xu Yuanming tried to suppress the fear and uneasiness welling in his heart as he looked at Qin Shujian respectfully, "But there is one thing I would like to ask. Could I ask exactly which level Chieftain Qin is at right now?"
Qin Shujian was definitely a powerful one.
But he needed to know very badly exactly which level Qin Shujian had reached.
This sort of curiosity Xu Yuanming was just unable to contain it.
"Martial Entry-Level Nine," said Qin Shujian very gently.
What?!
These words sounded like a thunder crash as it struck Xu Yuanming, Niu Feng and the others' hearts.
Martial Entry-Level Nine!
It did not matter whether it was Xu Yuanming or Niu Feng.
Neither of them had ever thought that Qin Shujian could be a powerful fighter at Martial Entry-Level Nine.
Level Five of the Martial Entry-stage was a barrier in itself.
Once you could get past Level Five, then you would metamorphosize when you reached Level Six.
And after that, each time one leveled up, your very nature would change.
Among all the high-level fighters in Messy Stone Forest, not a single one had reached Martial Entry-Level Nine--not even the most powerful Messy Gold Mountain.
At best, they had Martial Entry-Level Six fighters. It wasn't even possible for them to have a Martial Entry-Level Seven.
But a Martial Entry-Level Nine fighter, this man could beat powers like Mount Mingai and Chuanyun Stronghold soundly all by himself.
That was how frightening a powerful fighter was.
Niu Feng only had suspicions that Qin Shujian was at Martial Entry-Level Eight. He had never imagined that Qin Shujian wasn't merely at Martial Entry-Level Eight and was actually someone who had already reached Martial Entry-Level Nine.
Even though Xu Yuanming and the rest were in deep shock, Qin Shujian kept a calm expression on his face.
Of course, he had his own plans for admitting his real current level so easily.
Firstly, as a Martial Entry-Level Nine fighter, he was pretty much invincible in Messy Stone Forest. So even if Xu Yuanming and the rest knew about it, nothing terrible would happen. Instead, it would make them even more fearful and reverent towards him, and they would think twice before trying any tricks.
As for the second reason, Qin Shujian was still looking at his Life Value points that were still increasing.
As long as he had sufficient Life Value points, reaching Martial Entry-Level Nine and Martial Entry-Level Ten was just a matter of time. And it wasn't impossible for him to go beyond the boundary of Martial Entry-Level Ten either.
His Life Value points had already hit 500.
Qin Shujian believed that it wouldn't take long.
He would soon be able to reach the maximum of the Martial Entry stage.
When that happened, Xu Yuanming and the rest would continue to think that he was at Martial Entry-Level Nine.
That was how ordinary people behaved.
They would never be able to understand the joy of being someone who could cheat the system.
After finding out that Qin Shujian was a powerful fighter at Martial Entry-Level Nine, Xu Yuanming extinguished even the tiniest thought of revolting in his heart and immediately bowed as low as he could.
"Xu Yuanming greets my new Chieftain!"
After that, the messages from the system started to refresh themselves accordingly.
"Chuanyun Stronghold has become part of Liangshan Stronghold!"
"As Xu Yuanming has surrendered willingly, Chuanyun Stronghold will automatically become part of Liangshan Stronghold. The conditions for leveling up are insufficient, so Liangshan Stronghold remains a Level 1 Affiliation!"
"You have obtained 317 silver pieces!"
"You will receive 300 Life Value points!"
"85 Mountain Thieves have been absorbed by Liangshan Stronghold. They will automatically be converted to Mountain Bandits."
The information was about the same as Mount Mingai.
Once Xu Yuanming surrendered, it meant that all of Chuanyun Stronghold would automatically become part of Liangshan Stronghold.
But there was something that made Qin Shujian feel a little sad about it.
He had absorbed Mount Mingai and Chuanyun Stronghold one after another, but Liangshan Stronghold remained a Level 1 Affiliation and couldn't reach Level 2.
"The difference between reaching a Level 1 Affiliation and a Level 2 Affiliation is a lot more difficult, but the biggest problem is that Mount Mingai and Chuanyun Stronghold aren't powerful enough!"
That was Qin Shujian's guess.
Starter Village #10021 back then had a Martial Entry-Level Eight NPC around.
If the number of experience points, each affiliation differed despite being at the same level.
Then Starter Village #10021 was definitely way higher in points compared to Mount Mingai and Chuanyun Stronghold.
After all, the most powerful one among their Mountain Thieves was only at Martial Entry-Level Five.
However, it wasn't as if there was nothing to celebrate either.
Those 300-odd silver pieces were considered everything Chuanyun Stronghold had, and Qin Shujian just glanced past it.
The thing that caught his attention the most was the 300-odd Life Value points and those 85 Mountain Thieves, or rather, the 85 new Mountain Bandits.
This trip to Chuanyun Stronghold did not see any bloodshed at all, so he had managed to preserve Chuanyun Stronghold in its entirety.
These 85 new Mountain Bandits and the 50-odd Mountain Bandits from Mount Mingai.
After adding them up, he now had around 130 or 140 Mountain Bandits.
Before acquiring Mount Mingai and Chuanyun Stronghold, the total number of Mountain Bandits in the Liangshan Stronghold was around 130 or 140.
In other words, in just a short period, Qin Shujian had doubled Liangshan Stronghold's population.
On top of that, he now had two Martial Entry-Level Fives joining the team, as well as all the Leaders from both camps. After giving it a quick count, the current ability of Liangshan Stronghold had gone up by quite a fair bit.
He looked at how Xu Yuanming was bowing very deeply and used both hands to help Xu Yuanming up as he said with a faint smile, "From today onwards, you will be an Elite Leader of Liangshan Stronghold."
"Thank you, Chieftain!" Xu Yuanming had just straightened himself up, but now he bowed again to thank Qin Shujian.
This time, Qin Shujian did not help him up and just accepted his deep bowing.
On the other side of the table, Niu Feng remained expressionless.
He had initially hoped that both sides would fight and then Xu Yuanming would die on the spot at the hands of an enraged Qin Shujian, but that did not happen.
He had a lot of contempt in his heart for how Xu Yuanming was so afraid to die.
Since he was also a powerful affiliation in Messy Stone Forest, Niu Feng suddenly felt that it was shameful of him to have considered Xu Yuanming to be on par with himself.
Niu Feng had been unafraid of someone more powerful and had been willing to sacrifice a few dozen brothers along the way.
And he only had no choice but to surrender to Qin Shujian in the end because he wanted to protect Mount Mingai's legacy.
One was a person who tried to resist and had to give in because he had lost some brothers along the way.
The other was a person who did not even dare to attack and was too afraid to die, so he quickly bowed his head in defeat.
After comparing himself to Xu Yuanming, Niu Feng started to have a tinge of superiority when he looked at Xu Yuanming.