Chapter 24: Gains
Xia Longwu replied indifferently, "No thanks. I know my path. I can see it very clearly. After a while, I'll pay the Allheaven Battlefield a visit and kill a king. With that kill, I'll be able to step into that realm. I'm different from you."
That rendered Zhu Tiandao speechless. He couldn't help but to curse inwardly. Was this guy trying to anger him?
"You really think you can do it? You won't be able to get them. The kings are all getting more and more crafty nowadays. The moment you step on the Allheaven Battlefield, they will join hands against you, severing your path forward. Also, the difference before and after stepping into that realm is very big..."
"I don't need you to tell me that." Xia Longwu did not really care about the advice he was being given. It wasn't like he had never seen an invincible expert before. His grandfather, the Great Xia King, was one such invincible expert.
Zhu Tiandao asked helplessly, "Are you not interested in what I have to say?"
"No." Xia Longwu turned and started leaving. "If your method works, you wouldn’t have been so weak. If your elder brother is still alive, he would probably have a higher chance to enter that realm. You...are too weak compared to your brother."
"I--" Zhu Tiandao was furious. "Kid, you're lucky you're only saying this to my face. If you try saying it at Great Ming, you'll get yourself beaten to death. Also, my elder brother was nine when he passed away. How are you sure that he could be better than me?"
"Because he is the first human to have ever entered the Great Strength Realm at nine years old."
"I--"
Zhu Tiandao had nothing to say. Yes, his elder brother was a genius who had reached the Great Strength Realm at nine. However, it was precisely his fast speed that had practically turned him into an example of what one shouldn't do.
Bathing in the blood of divines and devils, entering the Great Strength Realm in one day.
Firstborn of the Great Ming King.
Even now, there were more humans who knew his elder brother instead of him. Nevertheless, it still felt like he was being insulted hearing those words from Xia Longwu's mouth.
Xia Longwu was serious. "At least he has the courage to try. If you had entered the Allheaven Battlefield a hundred years ago to fight the myriad races, you would have probably become an invincible expert by now. I'm not taking your advice. You're not worth learning from."
"..."
Zhu Tiandao had nothing to say. Only after a while did he open his mouth, "You're making it sound so simple, Xia Longwu. I want to see if you’re really undefeatable before the war formations of the myriad races. That's the same as throwing your life away. As someone with a chance to step into the invincible realm, why are you insisting on throwing your life away? If you get yourself killed, who can Great Xia rely on? Your grandpa? Nobody even knows where he is!"
That caused Xia Longwu to pause slightly. He then said, "It doesn't matter. My second uncle is alive. He can always come back."
"Him? He's even weaker than me. At that time, your Great Xia will no longer be one of the three strongest prefectures."
"It's fine. Even if we are to fall, it won't be your Great Ming that will replace us."
"..."
Zhu Tiandao found himself incapable of communicating with Xia Longwu. He did not know whether he should laugh or cry. Seeing that Xia Longwu was about to leave, he hurriedly said, "Three years later, the Star Mansion will open. Great Ming has ten openings while you guys have twenty openings. If we join hands..."
"You're too weak. We won't be working with you guys."
"Xia Longwu!" Zhu Tiandao was infuriated. "I came from so far away. Is this how you treat a faraway guest? How is our Great Ming weak? Three years later, we will be sending our strongest generation to the Star Mansion. If you're unwilling to work with us, we'll have to talk business. According to the policy, you need to give me one divine race corpse for my assistance here."
"..."
Xia Longwu's expression changed.
"If you disagree, work with us."
Xia Longwu turned around and glared at Zhu Tiandao before cursing, "Shameless."
"How am I shameless?" Zhu Tiandao said helplessly, "We're proposing a cooperation. It's not like we're asking you to do all the work. Your Great Xia might be strong, but we're not weak either."
"Hmph!" Xia Longwu snorted coldly. After a while, he replied, "Fine. But if your people turn out to be too weak, I would rather give you a corpse instead. Weaklings are not worthy of working with us."
He then soared into the sky and flew away.
Looking at the departing figure, Zhu Tiandao stood there cussing for a while before smiling, "This kid...sigh, he's really strong."
Xia Longwu was indeed near that realm. They might seem similar in strength, but Xia Longwu was in a much better position. After all, Zhu Tiandao had been stuck at the same level since a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago, this kid wasn't even born yet! Each time they saw this kid, he would show considerable progress.
It was no wonder that he dared to take the risk and face five divine race experts in battle. As strong as the divine skywing race, this was still a disastrous defeat for them. Not only had they lost five super experts, they had even lost their Divine Skywing Sect.
...
Few people were aware of the situation at Great Xia City. Even fewer people knew about the deaths of the five divine race experts and the sect master. That was a matter involving only those at the highest ranks. Regular people would not be informed of such a matter.
Back at Nanyuan, the mayor, Liu Wenyan, and the other higher ups were discussing the cleaning up of the remaining cult members outside the city. That wasn't a matter Su Yu could participate in. At the moment, Su Yu was hiding at a corner with Chen Hao while checking their gains.
"Yu, are we rich?" Looking at the loot before them, Chen Hao asked in excitement, "Yu, why do these people walk around with so much valuables on them?"
"Those in the Myriad Race Cult trust nobody. They are also frequently forced to migrate to a new stronghold. It is only natural that they will carry all their valuables with them."
Su Yu wasn't too surprised. When it came to the Myriad Race Cult, killing their higher ups would sometimes grant a pitiful amount of loot. That was because the higher ups generally had a fixed residence. Those people were hidden very well in the Human Realm. That wasn't the case for the lower-ranked members. They had no fixed base of operation. They were always on the move, and killing them would generally net one all their belongings.
"Two cultivation methods, two martial techniques, five drops of unknown blood essence. We can easily learn more about the blood essence by asking around." The more Chen Hao spoke, the wider the grin he had.
“There's also a bottle of Body Forging Pills. Too bad there are only five pills left. They will be very helpful for Great Strength cultivators. Sixteen pieces of anping gold coins with a value of ten thousand anping dollars each...This is the first time I've ever touched a gold coin. My dad has some, but he never gave me any..."
Gold coins were quite valuable. Some of the Myriad Race Cult members didn’t keep too much money on them as it was quite inconvenient to carry all that money around. Thus, they would convert their money to gold coins for ease of carry.
As for bank cards, they were worried that their bank accounts would be frozen in the event they were discovered. Thus, Su Yu and Chen Hao had gained a decent number of gold coins after killing the two cult members. Sixteen gold coins could be exchanged for 160,000?dollars. In truth, for those in the Great Strength Realm, this wasn't a large amount of money. After all, it wasn’t cheap for them to cultivate.
"Yu, do we submit our loot to the city?" Chen Hao was clearly unwilling to do so. But he still asked, "According to the policy, all spoils of war need to be reported and submitted."
That was a reasonable policy. After all, there were more than one person participating in the battle.
"Submitting them..." Su Yu gave it some thought. "Let me think about it. Submitting our loot will basically tell them that we've killed two cult members. But we're so weak. How did we accomplish that? Hao, don't tell anyone that I was the one who had killed them. You know what I mean."
"Mhm..." Chen Hao nodded. He whispered, "Yu, why are you suddenly so strong? Those are Great Strength cultivators! I heard from the instructors that the cult members attacking this time are all at the seventh-stage Great Strength Realm and above. How did you penetrate their defense?"
"Don't ask. I won't tell you."
Su Yu's gaze landed on the two tiny black badges on the ground. Those were the badges of the Myriad Race Cult. To keep their identities hidden, the cult members would normally not carry these badges around.
But since this was a major operation, they were expected to pull out after it was completed. To make it easier to identify themselves to their people, they all carried these badges to the mission. That was how Su Yu and Chen Hao had come into possession of these badges. These badges could serve as the proof of their contribution during the battle.
After thinking about it, Su Yu tossed one of the badges to Chen Hao before picking a cultivation method, a martial technique, two drops of blood essence, and six gold coins from the pile and giving them all to Chen Hao.
"If you want to join a war academy, submit these. Use them to prove that you have killed a cult member."
Chen Hao grew excited, but his mood quickly deflated as he said, "Forget it. It'll be hard to explain myself. You were the one who had killed the cult members. They will investigate the claim if I report it..."
He wanted to join a war academy, but submitting these items would expose Su Yu.
Su Yu smiled, "It doesn't matter. It's not like Great Strength cultivators can't die. Of course, we definitely can't claim the kill for the second guy. I pierced his heart with my bare hand. It wouldn't be an issue to claim the first kill. With a saber, it won't be too surprising to make a kill by cutting harder. Just report the kill and claim that the enemy was careless and gave you the chance to make the kill."
"Yu, will this really work?" Chen Hao was nervous. "Why don't you claim the kill instead? I thought you wanted to join a war academy as well?"
"Me? I won't be needing this." Su Yu was indifferent. "I can kill Great Strength cultivators. Do you think it'll be hard for me to join a war academy? Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that I've broken through to the fourth-stage a few days ago. I can also feel that the fifth-stage is near."
"..."
Chen Hao felt like someone was stabbing his heart with needles. Was Su Yu telling the truth? That was too fast an improvement! But Su Yu was someone who had killed Great Strength cultivators. He had no choice but to believe those words.
Chen Hao gazed at Su Yu with an aggrieved look. Were all geniuses this crazy? But Su Yu had not been so crazy in the past.
Su Yu ignored Chen Hao. After putting away the rest of the items, he whispered, "You can claim the kill, but I need the merit points for it. Also, you still have about ten thousand dollars in your savings, right? I want all of them as well. Consider it a payment to purchase this kill from me. Do you understand me?"
"..."
Chen Hao had a pitiful look on his face. What a greedy fellow. This fellow had gained so many from the kills and was still trying to get his personal savings? It wasn't like he had gotten the money easily. It had taken him years to save all that money. Was Su Yu going to take everything he had saved all these years?
"Why are you looking at me like that? You'll be rewarded after submitting the loot..."
"But the reward will be in the form of merit points!" Chen Hao had a pitiful expression. Was Su Yu taking him for a fool? Su Yu had demanded for the merit points as well. That basically meant that Su Yu was going to wipe him clean!
"At the very least, you're getting a chance to join a war academy. Am I right? It's only ten thousand dollars. Between ten thousand dollars and a war academy, what's your choice?"
Chen Hao sank into confusion. He nodded blankly. Su Yu was right. It was completely worth it to exchange ten thousand dollars for a chance to join a war academy.
"Then it's decided. You can say that I helped you, but remember to claim that you were the one to make the killing strike."
"What if they check the wound and find out that it's something left by someone with more than a bit of physical strength?"
Chen Hao wasn't a complete fool. An expert could easily see a lot of details by inspecting the wound.
"Don't worry. I saw that they have gathered all the corpses to be cremated. Just wait until they're done before making the claim. At that point, there won't be anything left for them to inspect. What are you afraid of?"
"But..."
"Fine, why don't we forget it? I'm not the one desperate to enter a war academy here."
Chen Hao sank into hesitation.
"Fine. I'll do it. Don't worry, I won't betray you. If they're going to investigate, they can do it to me. What's so weird about me killing a cult member? I'm just that strong!" Chen Hao made his choice. He still wanted to enter a war academy. This was his best chance to do so.
Su Yu moved on from the topic. It wasn't likely that the school would conduct a detailed investigation on the claim. Of course, they would be doubtful. But with the corpse cremated and nobody else to claim their kill, the worst that could happen was the school paying a little more attention to Chen Hao. That was only a Great Strength cultivator, not an Infinite Strength cultivator. It wasn't impossible that a Source Opening cultivator could kill one by a stroke of luck. It really wasn’t that big of a deal.
"Ten gold coins, three drops of blood essence, five Body Forging Pills, one cultivation method, one martial technique..."
Su Yu was in a great mood as he tallied his gains from the day. Using a drop of blood essence, he had earned ten times the value in loot. He could finally stop worrying that he would use up all his father's money and starve. He needed to figure out what race the blood essence belonged to. Maybe they could help him activate more pages in his book.