28 Unauthorized Bribes

Hai hai! It's Tai- t- *cough* It's Clone Pro #1 here! I'm currently heading off all alone on my diplomatic mission to one of the four great clans of the capital city, the Miao Clan. What are the four great clans you ask?

Well, each large empire requires lots of resources to run, and manpower is a large part of it. So, usually the rise of a new empire means a need for manpower. The royal family usually enlists sects or families of cultivators who support their rise to power, then those families are granted the title of "great clan" along with some authority below that of the royal family. Usually the royal family doesn't enlist too much families because it would be hard to control all of them, so four is the usual amount. So the four great clans of the this city are Miao (sound cats make), Mau (Cat), Yumao (Feather), Maosha (Cat litter). Just by their names you can tell they're related to cats, and anything related to cats means Hu Jia. So, they probably were part of the army that slaughtered my Xiong family. So obviously, they are on my list of targets.

Each of these four great clans have many cultivators and they are usually very arrogant, not wanting to be under the authority of others. But they can be suppressed with power, such as by the Hu Jia. Who is the Hu Jia? Well, with my current intelligence, I only know that Hu Jia is the royal family of another empire. My main body probably has more info though, so I'll leave it to him to explain later. As for the other empires, there's the Xiong, now the Fu empire. Then, there's the Ying and Hua empire. Then all four of these empires are ruled by the Super Sect which my main body has a bit of info on, probably. This makes up our Xian Xiafan Continent. There are 3 other continents out there, but I don't think even my main body has much info on them.

So what am I doing on this diplomatic mission to the Miao Clan? Well, with someone as handsome and powerful as me, obviously, the Miao Clan will fear me destroying them. Hence, when I go there, they will offer bribes to me so I give them a chance. Of course they won't do it openly. So, I'll help them by collecting the bribes from their treasure coffers personally. That way, they don't have to worry about them not reaching my hands. My sis Mei also told me that each of the four great clans and the royal family have a special treasure that they guard like its their lifeline. Of course the Miao Clan will also offer that to me as bribe as well. For the other great clans, the other clones can only retrieve that bribe if they can get pass the clan's test of all the mechanisms they installed to prevent nasty, little thi- diplomats like us from getting our hands on it. However, Miao Clan decided to put that treasure in their treasury with everything else. They decided to have all their guards focused on one place. So, besides the fact that my main host not having enough Qi to summon an extra clone, there is also the fact that I'm simply on a suicide mission because the main host does not expect me to retrieve any bribes.

Right now I'm outside the gates of the Miao Clan mansion, which is pretty much like those whatnot something Fu (mansions of nobles) you see in Chinese wuxia/ancient time dramas. There's two cultivators guarding the gates, and it doesn't seem I'll get passed them bouncing in at night, let alone in broad daylight. Of course, since my sis Mei was able to get info about the clan, there obviously is an easy backdoor to slip in. Sis Mei said that there is a backdoor installed into the walls of the side opposite of the front gate. Of course, the backdoor looks just like the wall so that the Miao Clan won't discover and fix it. So let's head on back there. On my way back, I noticed a hole that seems to be a doggy hole. Welp, which idiot will ever use that? Not me, I've got a backdoor to use.

Now that I am back here, there's just one big problem. No, it's not that the backdoor was removed or fixed, it's just that I can't open it. Remember, I'm a slime that can't even harm weak brats in the slums, and that's my main body, now I'm a halved stat clone. At least Mr.Aura didn't let all my hopes down. He wrote a doggy hole for me to crawl through, but I'm pretty sure there's a better idea... definitely not going through that!

---Hours later, at dusk---

I can't believe Mr.Aura didn't give me any way out! Is the only way in seriously through that hole in front of me?! Breathe in ... it's a hole ... breathe out ... it's just a hole. Let's do this, I'm going to crawl through the backdoor I personally made. *crawl* *crawl* I'm in! I'm a genius! Sis Mei would be proud I could make a backdoor like that. Huh what's that noise? Sounds like jingly chains ...

Behind me, in crawls a dog with a collar. It stares at me with its confused eyes, took a sniff, looked at the hole it crawled through, then nodded like it understood something and scampered away.

F***! Even a dog treats me as a dog! ARGGG!!?!?! #&!@! (╯°Д°）╯︵ ┻━┻

---A couple hours later---

It's already night time, maybe it'll hit midnight soon. Too bad I don't got a clock. I think it's time to start collecting bribes. With the amount of bribes I'll receive, it doesn't matter what I crawl- *cough* Let's not revisit that. Let's head to the treasury first, and think of a way to sneak in. If I can't, I'll just pop before I am discovered.

When I made it to the predetermined location of the treasury that sis Mei told me about, I hid behind a tall rock. Through observation of the situation, I noticed that I won't even be able to get close. The treasury is a large store house in the middle surround by four layers of box-like wall with each wall having only a single doorway in one of the different directions (N/S/W/E). Between each layer of walls, there are constant cultivators patrolling in pairs, with at least 4 pairs per layer to cover all sides of each wall. There are probably many hidden mechanisms to prevent anyone from entering each layer as well.

Yup, I ain't making it through that. Time to go pop-

"Eh? Young master, what's that?!"

I froze. F***. Of course I get discovered.