by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“Does sir want a place to rest? Our rooms are very clean, and the price is exceptionally cheap. Come and have a look!”
Long Chen was in the midst of walking when a small door opened, and a girl appearing thirteen or fourteen years old shyly peeked out.
This girl couldn’t count as beautiful. She was extremely thin, and her complexion was an unhealthy yellow color. It was clear that she had some malnutrition problems. But her eyes were extremely lively, and they made people feel pity for her.
“It sounds like you’ve been waiting to say those words for a long time.” Long Chen laughed. His words were said extremely stiffly.
This girl had only summoned the courage to come out when she saw someone was passing. But then seeing Long Chen’s evil smile, a trace of panic filled her.
“I… I…” The girl clenched her robes, afraid to say anything.
Long Chen couldn't help laughing. It seemed his new face had ended up scaring her. “No need to be afraid. I’m not a good person, but I’m not a bad person either.”
Long Chen hadn’t changed his voice. It was still very magnetic, and it made her relax slightly. “Does sir want a place to rest? Our rooms are very clean, and the price is exceptionally cheap. Come and have a look!” She repeated her words, hope appearing in her eyes.
“Yes, now it sounds better. Your words don’t sound as stiff as before. In recognition of your advancement, I’ll agree to take a look. But let me say this first, if it’s not satisfactory, I won’t be staying there.” Long Chen laughed.
“Yes, yes, please enter!” The girl hastily led the way with delight.
Long Chen walked in through the gate and took his first look at the inside. How was this an inn? It was clearly a small farmer’s yard. There was a two-story wooden house. The farming tools hadn’t even been put away, and Long Chen even saw the head of a hoe and sickle behind a wooden plank.
But this place was very tidy. Entering the house, he walked up to the second floor. The girl opened up a door, revealing a bed. And then... there was nothing else, not even a table. It could not be more simple.
There were sheets on the bed, and they were very orderly, but they were clearly not new. However, they had been cleaned very well, and Long Chen could still smell the scent of the sun. The sheets had most likely been hung and dried outside, and he did like that kind of feeling.
Looking out of a very small window, he saw a small pond with a small boat floating on the water. It wasn’t a bad picture.
“Are you satisfied? If there’s anything you’re not happy with, just ask and I’ll do my best to fix it!” said the girl worriedly.
“It’s not bad. It’s very simple and charming. Lying on the bed, you can even count the stars.” Long Chen nodded.
“Aiya!” The girl followed Long Chen’s gaze and blushed. There was a plate-sized hole in the roof that she hadn’t noticed before.
“Sir, please wait a moment! I’ll immediately go fix it!” She was just about to go find a ladder.
“It’s fine. It won’t rain for a few days. This kind of sunroof is not bad. If you block it, it’ll just look like an eyesore,” said Long Chen.
“Sir, you… really are interesting.” Following Long Chen’s jesting, the girl was no longer as nervous as before.
“How much is this room?” asked Long Chen.
An embarrassed look crept over the girl’s face. Gulping, she stuttered, “How about… one silver… for one day?”
“One silver a day?” Long Chen frowned.
“Ah, if you think it’s too expensive, we can discuss it!” The girl jumped in fright, afraid he might leave.
“Within the expensive territory of the Pill Yang Prefecture, that price is way too low!” laughed Long Chen.
Hearing that Long Chen wasn’t mad about the price, the girl was extremely grateful. She sadly explained, “My grandpa saved up for many years in order to buy this property. We hoped to turn it into an inn to make some money. But my grandpa is old, and his eyes have become diseased, so there’s no way for him to do any manual labor. I hope to run this inn well enough to provide for my grandpa. Hehe, you’re our first guest.”
The girl couldn’t conceal her excitement. Pulling Long Chen into her inn made her extremely happy.
“Xiao Cui, let our guest eat!” An elderly voice rang out from below.
“Come, come, let’s go eat!”
Long Chen followed the girl to the first floor. He saw an elder standing beside a table, twisting his head to hear. He was blind.
“Here we have some simple food and tea for our guest. Please don’t be courteous.” The elder bowed to Long Chen.
“Sir is too formal. I’m no noble person, and simple, coarse food is what I’m used to,” said Long Chen politely. Sitting down, he saw that there were only some vegetable dishes. There was no meat. The soup was a simple cabbage and tofu soup that didn’t smell too bad.
Long Chen saw that when the girl portioned her soup, she took mostly the cabbage, but the serving she gave him had quite a bit of tofu. He couldn’t help sighing inside. No matter how flourishing the city was, there were always people struggling to survive on the lowest level, struggling just to have food to eat.
“So you aren’t someone from Pill Yang Prefecture? Why did you come here?” While eating, they chatted with Long Chen, finding him to be friendly and easy-going.
“Hehe, I just came here so I could fill up my stomach. Tomorrow, I’ll go find some work to make some money.” Long Chen smiled.
“Big brother, is that one silver a day too expensive for you? You can stay here until you have the money to repay us,” said the girl. She was now much closer to Long Chen.
“Hahaha, that’s just some pocket change. Don’t worry, my current employer is extremely rich. When the time comes, I’ll make an investment and build you a huge inn, and Xiao Cui can be the boss,” said Long Chen.
This grandfather and granddaughter might have it extremely hard in this place, but they were still very kindhearted. Long Chen hadn’t encountered such simple and honest people in a long time.
“Xiao Cui, starting tomorrow, go buy some more meat. This big brother of yours is rather gluttonous.” Long Chen threw a sack of money to Xiao Cui. Inside were over a hundred gold coins. It had been a long time since Long Chen had ever spent such things.
“Heavens, this much?!” Xiao Cui jumped. She had never seen this much money. Even just buying this little courtyard had only cost a few dozen gold coins.
Long Chen laughed. This child was too thin, and she was still in the midst of growing. She needed some more nourishment. Long Chen returned to his room and slept for a night. The next day, he directly set off for the treasure tower region. It was time to get down to business.
Chapter 652 Registration
Refreshed from a night’s sleep, Long Chen went directly to the treasure tower region. That was the core region of Pill Yang Prefecture.
“Scram! If you don’t want to die, then get out of the way!”
Suddenly, rumbling came from behind him. A huge carriage was speeding in his direction and was about to crash into him.
It was a Six-Horn Bull, an early Xiantian Magical Beast. It was three hundred meters long, and it was pulling an extremely imposing carriage without any restraint.
This was an official path set by the Pill Tower, and ordinary people wouldn’t even dare step onto it. Long Chen had originally been at the side, and he wasn’t at all in the way of someone rushing down the street. But the bull was still rushing straight toward him, so its master was obviously thinking of intentionally killing Long Chen.
“Fuck, as expected, no matter where I go, I run into idiots.”
BOOM!
Long Chen extended a single hand and caught one of the bull’s horns. It immediately came to a sudden stop.
However, while the bull had stopped, eight figures shot out of the carriage from the inertia. They let out startled cries as they shot through the carriage and tumbled across the ground
.
“Where did this blind idiot come from?! Do you want to die?!” A white-robed man crawled up from the ground and roared at Long Chen.
He had only just finished shouting when the sky darkened. A huge bull along with a carriage came smashing down on him, which caused him to turn green in fright. Those people immediately scattered.
The Six-Horn Bull fainted from the collision, and the grand carriage was blown to pieces. A powerful qi wave sent all those people flying.
“Bastard, you are courting death! If you have any guts-”
POW!
A large hand viciously slapped across that person’s face, directly breaking his jaw and making him vomit blood.
“Try to keep your mouth cleaner.” Long Chen icily stared at them, not able to understand why these idiots would want to kill him.
He hadn’t released any of his aura, and he seemed just like an ordinary person. Was this a case of indiscriminately attacking anyone they saw?
If it was that they found him displeasing to look at, Long Chen could accept that. But it was his back that had been facing them. Could it be that his back was also displeasing to look at?
“Who are you?! How dare you block Pill Tower’s disciples from registering! Don’t you know that only disciples registering with the Pill Tower can walk on this path?!” raged one of them.
They were all Xiantian experts, but their auras were exceedingly weak. Now that one of them said this, Long Chen understood.
These people were alchemists, and alchemists had weak physical bodies just like soul cultivators. When they went out, they either used a carriage or a flying Magical Beast. It was no wonder just a single collision made them appear so miserable.
“This path is a route only disciples registering with the Pill Tower can use, so that’s why when you saw me walking on the side of the road, you wanted to kill me? Because of the rule that only registering disciples can use this path, even if you kill someone breaking the rule, it’ll be fine? So directing your Magical Beast to crash into me was for amusement?” sneered Long Chen.
“So what?! This is Pill Yang Prefecture, and all the rules are set up by the Pill Tower! You broke the rules, so even if we kill you, you deserve it!”
Pow!
That person’s vision darkened as a hand slapped across his face. Long Chen disliked this kind of person, who failed to be pretentious but then continued acting, the most.
That person was sent flying by Long Chen’s slap, vomiting blood. He crashed into several people and then fainted.
These people were both startled and furious. They hadn’t expected that anyone would dare so publicly go against the Pill Tower in their territory.
“Idiot, if you can walk this path, then I can too. If you want to push me again, I’ll slap all your teeth to the ground.” Just like that, Long Chen strutted away.
Those people were still dizzy from being struck. Suddenly one of them asked, “He’s also someone who came to register?”
“So what! Damnit, whether or not he’s registering, we’ll definitely get him back for bullying us! Look at that coarse brute, he might be physically strong, but he’s definitely trash at alchemy! When the time comes, we’ll play him to death!” said the first one who had spoken with Long Chen.
“Brother Ba, your mount has passed out, and it seems that its injuries are heavy. What do you want to do with it?” asked one of them.
“What can we do? That useless beast. Kill it, and tonight, I’ll treat you to beef.”
These people staggered up. Another one of them opened their spiritual space and released a Blackrock Devil Leopard.
Although they weren’t Beast Tamers, their Spiritual Strength was exceedingly powerful, and controlling a steed was no problem. They jumped onto the leopard’s back and continued on their way.
But sitting on a leopard’s back was definitely not as comfortable as sitting in a carriage, especially with eight of them. Furthermore, it was a bit embarrassing. However, their ability to be pretentious had already been destroyed by Long Chen, and they could only travel like this.
When they once more encountered Long Chen along the path, they deliberately detoured around him. Only once Long Chen was far in the distance did one of them arrogantly shout, “Brat, just wait! Once we get to the Pill Tower, I’ll properly humiliate you!”
Long Chen’s expression sank and he raised his foot as if he was about to give chase. Those people shrieked in terror and whipped the leopard, fleeing for their lives.
“Damnit, is it that they’re unlucky, or that I’m unlucky? How do I keep running into idiots like these?” Long Chen was speechless.
At the same time, he was filled with confidence in this operation of his. The Pill Tower was definitely a livelier place than anywhere else. That was because Long Chen saw that these alchemists were all idiots who considered themselves greater than anyone else and liked to look down on others.
On the way, he encountered dozens of carriages carried by Magical Beasts that shot by like lightning. There were several times when they got close to Long Chen, wanting to frighten him, as if seeing Long Chen’s face contorted in fear was an exceptionally amazing thing. But Long Chen ignored them.
Other than that first wave, the rest weren’t so senseless as to really go kill an unarmed and defenseless weakling.
Their luck was not bad. If they had tried to kill Long Chen, their ending would be no better than the previous people.
The thing that surprised Long Chen was that these people were all Xiantian experts, and the flame energy fluctuations coming from them were extremely strong. They had to be powerful alchemists.
From that appearance, it seemed they were all Pill Emperors. Originally, Long Chen had been planning on concealing his alchemy arts to the Pill King level, but now it seemed he didn’t need to.
After over two hours of travel, a huge city gate appeared in front of him. Those people in carriages all descended far away from here and walked over. They took out their identity badges at the inner city gates.
Many guards were carefully going through people’s badges before letting them through. When it was Long Chen’s turn, he gave them the tablet that grandmaster Yun Qi had entrusted to him.
When the guard saw Long Chen’s badge, his pupils shrank slightly. He examined Long Chen, but he didn’t say anything, and he let him through.
That discovery startled Long Chen. Was his badge different from other people’s? But before he could figure it out, he was swept up by the crowd.
Long Chen hadn’t expected for there to be this many people. There were actually hundreds of people already. He saw a great deal of excitement on their faces, as if this registration was something they had been looking forward to for a long time.
He suddenly felt that something was wrong. It seemed this tablet wasn’t like he thought it was. There were no Pill Kings present. They were all Pill Emperors.
Following the crowd, he eventually reached a large group of over a thousand people. There were young and old, large and small.
There was a black stone thirty meters tall ahead. Ancient runes had been carved into the stone, and Long Chen didn’t know what it did.
In front of the black stone was an elder with a brush who was conducting some sort of registration.
“Name?”
“Zhu Deyong.”
“Origin?”
“Yi Prefecture’s alchemy guild.”
“Take the test.”
After recording this information, he emotionlessly pointed to the stone. There was a small set of stairs for people to walk up to it.
When that person reached the stone, its countless runes lit up, bathing that person in light. Ancient characters appeared on it.
The elder nodded. “Eighty-seven years old meets the standard. Next is the strength of your soul. Press your hand on the red button and send in your Spiritual Strength.”
The registrant listened and placed his hand on the red button. A small portal appeared in front of him
. That wasn’t a true portal, but just something for him to send his Spiritual Strength in.
Buzz… A line of words appeared on the stone.
“First tier Xuan class. Disqualified.”
The elder drew a large ‘x’ over. That person could only sadly leave.
Following that person’s failure, quite a few people’s hearts clenched. Another person went up to take the test.
Ten people took the test in a row. There were five fails and five passes. Long Chen saw that the requirements were that you had to be under one hundred years old and have reached the Earth class in Spiritual Strength.
Furthermore, if you passed, you would be given a ranking based on your age and soul energy. So far, the only rankings he had seen were Acceptable and Excellent.
As time passed, some failed and left. Suddenly, Long Chen saw a familiar figure. Wasn’t that the fellow he had viciously slapped?
This person also saw Long Chen lined up behind him. His group had long since started pointing at him with disdainful and provocative expressions. After being taught a lesson by Long Chen, they were planning on getting revenge here.
In his group, several people failed in a row. This test was not the same as their ordinary tests. They had passed the ordinary tests, but now that they came here, they were still washed out.
“Name?” asked the elder again.
It had finally come to the turn of the person Long Chen had slapped. He confidently replied:
“Gou Jiba.”[1]
The elder’s expression immediately sank, and he slapped that person across the face. “Fuck your mother! How dare you waste my time!”
[1] Sounds the same as dog penis.
Chapter 653 First Tier Heaven Class
That person let out a miserable cry as he was slapped into the stone wall behind him. He fainted, causing a burst of startled cries.
Gou Jiba? He was definitely looking for a beating. Otherwise, why would he state such a name? Long Chen was speechless.
“Senior, brother Jiba wasn’t trying to waste your time. His name really is Gou Jiba. His father is the illustrious Gou Ridi,” explained someone hastily.
