The inner hall of the Wudong Sect was sealed.
Only the sect leader, the core elders…
and Ma Choasung were present.
Jade tablets were scattered across the table—
annual accounts, sub-sect data, inn records, medicine halls, escort teams.
Wu Zhenghai took a deep breath.
"Recalculate it,"
he said.
Ma Choasung replied with just one line—
"In three layers."
---
Perfect Calculation – The Hidden Wound
It took the entire day.
By sunset, the final number appeared.
Annual loss due to miscalculation, corruption, and inefficiency:
👉 3,000 gold coins.
The hall went breathless.
Three thousand gold—
enough to sustain a mid-level sect for an entire year.
"This… this is impossible,"
one elder said.
Ma Choasung answered calmly—
"Something is only impossible
when numbers lie.
Here, the numbers are telling the truth—
the people were wrong."
Wu Zhenghai's eyes darkened.
In that moment, he decided—
> This man cannot remain just a guest.
---
The Sect Leader's Decision
That night, Wu Zhenghai summoned Ma Choasung privately.
"Are you from the Central Plane?"
he asked.
"No,"
Ma Choasung replied directly.
"I only want to survive."
Wu Zhenghai was silent for a moment.
Then he said—
"The Wudong Sect wants you."
A beat.
"I want to betroth you to my daughter."
---
The Shock
Wu Xinyue froze.
The elders exchanged looks.
Ma Choasung didn't answer immediately.
He only said—
"I do not refuse."
The hall fell into an even deeper silence.
"But I have conditions."
---
Li Tian's Offer (Manhua-Style Deal)
Ma Choasung began speaking calmly—
like a business negotiation.
1. Access to Cultivation
Wudong Sect training
Qi fundamentals
Body refinement techniques
2. Business Permissions
Legal rights within Wudong Sect territory
Fuel, food, medicine, and trade
3. Profit Sharing
30% to the Wu Family
70% to Ma Choasung
The elders gasped.
"Isn't that too much?"
one elder said angrily.
Ma Choasung raised his eyes.
"The 3,000 gold loss was also too much,"
he replied calmly.
---
Final Exchange – A Dangerous Proposal
Ma Choasung placed his final card on the table.
"In exchange,"
he said,
"I will give the Wudong Sect—"
A perfect arithmetic system
Statistics and forecasting manuals
Loss-detection methods
Resource optimization models
"And yes,"
he added,
"all of this will belong exclusively to the sect."
The hall fell silent again.
In Wu Zhenghai's eyes,
there was no sword—
only vision.
---
Decision
"Deal,"
the sect leader said.
Wu Xinyue looked at Ma Choasung—
for the first time without anger,
without pride—
only curiosity.
---
End Panel
An engagement jade token rests on the table.
Beside it—
the first handwritten draft of an arithmetic book.
Caption:
"In Murim, marriages are formed through ties…
but true engagements are forged through power."