Universe Infinite Canteen

Ma Lu was confident he could guarantee victory over Chu Qianyuan, and the answer lay with Chu Qianyuan himself.

According to his prior research, Chu Qianyuan was currently the most prestigious member of the Beggar's Sect, especially among the younger disciples, unrivaled in influence and idolized by almost all members of the sect.

If Chu Qianyuan had chosen to compete for the Gang Leader position earlier instead of assisting Yuan Xiaoyun, there would have been no suspense about the leadership.

In some ways, Chu Qianyuan was similar to Han Guangzhong; both men disliked being constrained by rules—one aspired to be a hero of Jianghu, and the other was devoted to the natural beauty expressed in mountains and rivers through painting and poetry.

Thus, defeating Deputy Gang Leader Jiang and Bai Baoyu wasn't difficult; the real challenge was persuading Chu Qianyuan to accept the proposal.

Ma Lu used a classic line from an old series here—"With great power comes great responsibility."

The greater the power, the heavier the responsibility.

Of course, Ma Lu's persuasion was merely a motivational boost; the main thing was that Chu Qianyuan had a change of heart.

The death of Yuan Xiaoyun had clearly influenced him greatly, whether it was to live on carrying his younger brother's wishes or to take on more responsibility actively to prevent similar tragedies. Experience more tales on My Virtual Library Empire

Chu Qianyuan was no longer as resistant to becoming the Gang Leader of the Beggar's Sect as he had been before.

As for Ma Lu, three months as the Gang Leader of the Beggar's Sect was enough to gather various secret medicine seeds using the power of the world's largest sect.

Staying in power any longer was pointless, and after three months, he would step down, not die; although he would lose the temporary position as Gang Leader, he would gain the permanent title of a venerated elder of the Beggar's Sect.

Moreover, the next Gang Leader would be his own senior sect brother, so his retirement package was surely going to be generous.

Ma Lu could still occasionally return to grab some benefits; he was quite satisfied with this arrangement.

After all, he had no solid support base in the Beggar's Sect; even with his unmatched Divine Technique and the strong backing of Chu Qianyuan, along with the so-called agreement, he couldn't outcompete his rivals through normal means.

On the surface, he was competing with Bai Baoyu and Deputy Gang Leader Jiang for the leadership position, but nobody cared about his short three-month term as an interim Gang Leader.

In everyone's eyes, Ma Lu taking the position was equivalent to Chu Qianyuan becoming the Gang Leader.

Sure enough, once he voiced this idea, all the disciples of the Beggar's Sect immediately became excited.

Unlike Ma Lu, a virtually unknown novice, Chu Qianyuan was widely supported in the Beggar's Sect, celebrated for his martial arts skills and character, and he was the former Gang Leader's disciple.

Now, aside from the staunch supporters of Bai Baoyu and Deputy Gang Leader Jiang, everyone else was standing with Ma Lu.

Even Guardian Shi and his son, seeing the unfavorable trend, also upheld the investment principle of not putting all eggs in one basket by stealthily sending one of their own to Ma Lu's side, leaving only one person still with Bai Baoyu.

Bai Baoyu and Deputy Gang Leader Jiang exchanged glances, seeing the look of resignation in each other's eyes.

They knew the tide had turned and didn't wait for the final results; they both bowed to Ma Lu, congratulating him on becoming the new Gang Leader of the Beggar's Sect.

Gu Qingyi watched the drama unfold with great interest.

She had never imagined that the seemingly foolish man she had met in the Ruined Temple, who didn't even know how to play cards, would one day become the Gang Leader of the largest sect in the land.

Initially, she had stood by Ma Lu's side alongside Chu Qianyuan, but as more and more people came to congratulate him, she too was pushed to the side.

However, seeing Ma Lu at this moment, he was clearly basking in his success, surrounded by people, and smiling non-stop.

Gu Qingyi noticed several young girls squeezing towards him, and it somewhat annoyed her.

Yet she saw Ma Lu suddenly excuse himself with a bow to the crowd, then headed towards her.

Gu Qingyi kept a straight face, not really wanting to deal with him, but Ma Lu had already leaned over, whispering close to her ear.

Yuan Mei saw Ma Lu's lips nearly touching Gu Qingyi's ear.

Whatever he said caused Gu Qingyi's ears to turn red. Initially hesitant, she eventually nodded shyly.

A sense of foreboding suddenly surged in Yuan Mei's heart, and she quickly pushed away the person in front of her, hurrying over.

"Miss Third, what did that guy just tell you?"

"Ah, nothing, nothing..."

"Really nothing?" Yuan Mei was skeptical. "Then why is your face so red?"

Gu Qingyi felt somewhat helpless. "Because he's doing something shameless and dragging me into it."

"What?!" Yuan Mei burst into anger. "I'm going to slaughter that little rascal!"

"Uncle Yuan, what are you thinking? Ma Lu, Ma Lu just told me that he had already declared in front of everyone that I recovered the Lotus Bowl. He asked me not to forget to demand benefits from the Beggar's Gang. He also said..."

"He said what?"

"Now that he's the Gang Leader, he can give me a bigger reward, and we'll split it equally later."

"......"

"This kid really is shameless."

"Uncle Yuan, don't say that about him," Gu Qingyi, although she herself had called Ma Lu shameless, couldn't bear to hear others speak of him that way and hurried to defend him.

"He needs the money and secret medicine for a reason, and regardless of how strapped for cash he was before, he always shared the reward silver with me and never did anything dishonest."

"I think this is what dad meant by 'a gentleman loves money and takes it in a proper way.'

This time, Yuan Mei didn't say anything else, just looked at Gu Qingyi with a sense of helplessness.

A moment later, he added, "Miss Third, now that things here are settled and you've proven yourself, the Sect Leader will probably hear about what happened here soon. Don't you think it's time to go home? We can leave together."

"Uh," Gu Qingyi instinctively glanced in Ma Lu's direction, but quickly diverted her gaze and steadied her mind.

"Uncle Yuan, let's go our separate ways for now. Once I've handled everything here, I'll head back."

Yuan Mei wanted to say more, but the mute giant behind him patted his shoulder and nodded at him.

"Well, since Old Wen agrees, let it be so."

Ma Lu himself didn't know exactly what he had been up to, but he was busy meeting people and accepting congratulations from various groups.

He met a whole lot of people, but didn't remember many names. However, he received quite a few congratulatory gifts, and that was with most people not having had the time to prepare.

Aside from a host of Elders and Helmsmen from the Beggar's Gang, masters from various other Sects who came to support him also gave him many valuable gifts.

No wonder past leaders loved throwing banquets; it really was lucrative.

Of course, the most lucrative was the congratulatory gift from the Heavenly Dragon Sect the next day, which included three thousand jin of rare secret medicine and seeds for about forty different kinds of secret medicine.

Especially the latter part, which was precisely what Ma Lu needed most right now. With these seeds, he would be able to grow his own secret medicine in Desktop Farm.