by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“Tch, you gave them a knife and then pointed them to other people’s heads. What kind of food are you expecting? Hmph, the only food you’re getting is pig heads!”
“A master can open the gates, but cultivation depends on the person. The Dao is limitless and depends on each person’s comprehension. Take me for example. I’m unlucky, and I have to fight for everything I get. However, I’m luckier than them, in that although I come from poor origins, I have a warm mother and a heroic father. They didn’t try to brainwash me. They gave me a blank sheet and let me paint what I wanted. As for these people, there’s already no saving them. They’ve been brainwashed by their so-called Corrupt God. They don’t even have their own thoughts. Not conning them would be letting down their years of brainwashing. I should tell you, the Corrupt path’s fellows are all very perseverant. They’re vicious to others and vicious to themselves. That’s why you should just watch. A shocking amount of money is about to come in.”
As Long Chen predicted, on just the second day, he received his first receipts. There were ten million spirit crystals, but it was just a start.
The first Elder who came to give him a spatial ring immediately rushed off after handing him the money. By the third and fourth days, Long Chen was barely keeping up with recording how much they had earned. He was making so much that he was almost tired of recording it all.
As Long Chen kept track of the money, the new sect leader kept track of the rankings. By the seventh day, Long Chen had taken in four hundred and eighty million spirit crystals.
“Fuck, I didn’t expect that the Corrupt path to be so rich!”
Long Chen was shocked inside, but he didn’t show it. He simply continued increasing the pressure on the Elders, saying that they could use the sect’s divine item as collateral. If the other side didn’t believe it, they could come to the Evil Spirit Sect and he would personally speak with them.
Once Long Chen threw that into the mix, there were dozens of new loans approved, and his wealth leaped to nine hundred and thirty million spirit crystals.
After another three days, Long Chen found that this was about the limit. The Evil Spirit Sect’s movements had not gone unnoticed. Although they had carried everything out secretly, there was no way such large movements could be made without raising suspicion. Long Chen was sure that it wouldn’t be long before people would come to investigate.
At this time, Long Chen made the wisest decision. On a moonless, stormy night, he patted his butt and left.
The disappearance of their patriarch went unnoticed for three days before all the Evil Spirit Sect’s experts were thrown into a panic.
It was just at that time that the Corrupt path’s higher-ups from the Central Xuan Region came to investigate. Clearly the Evil Spirit Sect’s movements had been reported by others.
This investigation revealed that the patriarch had vanished. As for the story Long Chen had come up with about creating countless half-step Netherpassage experts, it was also exposed.
The entire Eastern Xuan Region’s Corrupt path went crazy. Only at this time did they realize that they had been tricked.
Practically, all the Corrupt sects in the Eastern Xuan Region had loaned money to the Evil Spirit Sect. When the Central Xuan Region’s experts came to investigate, they were stunned to find that all this money had been whisked away by the patriarch.
Many people were now holding IOUs in their hands and had no idea who they were supposed to find to get the money. All the Evil Spirit Sect’s money had vanished as well.
The entire Corrupt path was enraged. Ever since the Corrupt path had been established, they had never encountered such a thing. The higher-ups were infuriated and went all-out to find Zhao Mankun.
Unfortunately for them, Long Chen had long since disguised Zhao Mankun’s body and headed off to the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect.
When he was close to the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect, he took out his Yuan Spirit and burned Zhao Mankun’s body to ashes with the Heaven Incinerating Flame. He left behind no traces.
Later, the Corrupt path’s higher-ups asked Heavenly Fate Island to calculate the fate of Zhao Mankun, only to find that he had long since died. After a careful analysis, they found that he had been dead even before he had come out of seclusion. The Corrupt path was shocked.
No matter how amazing Heavenly Fate Island was, they could only read the fates of living people. Dead people, especially matters relating to the Netherworld, couldn’t possibly be calculated.
In the end, this matter was added to the ranks of the four mysteries of the Corrupt path. Even countless years later, no one managed to figure this mystery out.
However, due to the patriarch, one of Pill Valley’s Grand Elders had been killed. As for how Pill Valley and the Corrupt path settled that bill, only they knew.
...
Long Chen took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. The old man was sitting calmly in front of him. Their palms were still pressing against each other. The old man’s eyes were still closed, and his aura had vanished. It was like he had died.
“Old man, you have to come back.”
Long Chen made a prayer inside. The Netherworld was truly dangerous. The slightest mistake would cause someone to lose their life.
Long Chen carefully retreated from this place. This was a private room, and the Heaven Splitting Blade was protecting it. There was even a formation outside isolating it. This was the safest place in the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect.
Long Chen exited. The bosses were guarding the entrance and immediately began to ask him what had happened. “Little fellow, what happened? How did your Yuan Spirit come from outside?”
Long Chen’s movement arts might be able to conceal his Yuan Spirit from the regular disciples, but there was no way he could have snuck into this room with the seven bosses guarding it. Long Chen hadn’t explained at that time and had entered to return to his body before saying anything.
Now that he came out, the seven bosses crowded him. The matter of Long Chen entering the Netherworld was only known by them. Not even Bao Buping and Chang Hao were told.
It wasn’t that they didn’t trust them, but that the two of them were still young. They weren’t experienced enough, and who knew what would accidentally come out of their mouths?
“Everything went smoothly.”
Long Chen didn’t dare to tell them everything. All he said was that he and the old man had gone through everything up to the Gates of Hell smoothly. On the way back, he had encountered someone from the Corrupt path called Zhao Mankun, slain him, and then entered his body through his gate. He gave a simple explanation of what he had done in the Corrupt path to con money.
Whenever he wanted to mention what exactly happened in Purgatory, Long Chen felt a faint sense of unease, so he didn’t mention it in the end.
This kind of unease didn’t stem from himself, it was unease for the seven bosses. He now realized at least one restriction binding him, the existence known as karma. If he told them about everything, it would very likely harm them.
“Hahaha…”
“Little fellow, you have some talent…”
“The Corrupt path really has been conned…”
The seven bosses cried tears of laughter when they heard about how Long Chen had conned the Corrupt path. It was definitely satisfying. Perhaps only someone like Long Chen would think of such a con.
“This is even better than hacking them with a blade,” praised the fourth boss. Although Long Chen’s con wouldn’t cause the Eastern Xuan Region’s Corrupt path to collapse, it could count as at least giving them a serious blow. The new disciples would definitely end up falling far behind the others. Money really was the most frightening thing.
“Hehe, the Xuantian Dao Sect needs money to rebuild. I had no choice!” Long Chen laughed mischievously.
“Don’t let it get to your head. Hurry and go back. You’ve been in seclusion for two months. The day before yesterday, I heard that the Xuantian Dao Sect
’s construction already came to a stop. They probably ran out of money,” said Boss Bao.
“Alright, then I’ll leave for now.”
Long Chen said his goodbyes to the bosses. Without saying goodbye to Chang Hao or Bao Buping, he began rushing over to the Xuantian Dao Sect.
Chapter 1615 A Pageant
Only now did Long Chen learn that it had been two months in the outer world since he had entered the Netherworld.
By the time he returned to the Xuantian Dao Sect, the basic shapes of the buildings had come into being. Many majestic mountains were already supported by formations. Although they were still barren, things were starting to take shape.
However, when he returned, he only saw a portion of experts still working. The construction in many places had stalled.
“Long Chen, this goal of yours really is too big.” Li Tianxuan looked at Long Chen with a complicated expression.
As the Xuan Master, reconstructing the Xuantian Dao Sect was his responsibility. However, Long Chen’s plans for the reconstruction were too grand.
Only once the construction began did they realize that the cost would be even greater than what they had estimated. There was not one area that didn’t need more money.
Just laying down this basic foundation and finishing the cultivation and training areas for disciples had taken up as much money as the savings of any supreme sect.
Finishing the training grounds could temporarily steady the hearts of the new disciples. Although they were geniuses amongst geniuses, if their treatment in the Xuantian Dao Sect was so bad that they couldn’t even train, their morale would drop. Then reconstructing would be even more difficult.
The first thing they had done was to build the training grounds and lay the basic framework for the rest. Although some parts looked grand already, they were empty inside. The true money-burning areas involved the grand formation.
Just building what was essentially an empty shell had used up all the money Long Chen had ripped off of Pill Valley and the money he had borrowed from Zheng Wenlong.
The Xuantian Dao Sect’s original savings had also been tossed into the construction. However, they weren’t even halfway done. In fact, Li Tianxuan estimated that they were only thirty percent of the way through. That was why he said that Long Chen’s goal was too big.
Worst of all, even Li Tianxuan, the leader of the sect, couldn’t do anything about it. He could only hope for Long Chen to make more money. That was truly embarrassing.
“Hehe, in my view, any problems that can be solved with money aren’t real problems.” Long Chen handed Li Tianxuan a spatial ring.
“How… how do you have this much?!” Li Tianxuan gasped.
Long Chen didn’t hide what he had done. He told Li Tianxuan about how he had gone to the Netherworld with the old man and then ended up causing a bit of trouble in the Corrupt path. He concealed certain portions just like he had with the seven bosses.
“You actually went to the Netherworld?!”
Long Chen explained the situation outside the Netherworld’s Gates of Hell. He didn’t feel any sense of unease when speaking of those things, so he felt that there shouldn’t be any karma.
“Little fellow, you really were vicious.” Li Tianxuan looked at the almost one billion spirit crystals in the spatial ring with admiration.
Long Chen not only had heaven-shaking combat power, but his money-making abilities were also heaven-defying.
“Is Wilde alright?” asked Long Chen.
“His body seems to have reached a full state. However, it seems it will still be some time until he wakes up.”
“Alright then. Xuan Master, I’ll leave the matter of reconstructing the sect to you. This money should be enough for now, and after a bit more time, Zheng Wenlong should be sending over more money. Although it still isn’t enough, it should alleviate some of the urgency. Again, just leave the matter of money to me. I’m going to go see my brothers.”
Long Chen said goodbye to Li Tianxuan and went to the mountain belonging to the Dragonblood Legion. All the other mountains were barren, and the formations supporting them hadn’t been finished yet.
However, the Dragonblood Legion’s mountain was already flourishing with greenery. Dense spiritual qi circulated around it. There was clearly a powerful formation at work. The density of spiritual qi in the air could almost suffocate a mortal.
This mountain was still called Crouching Dragon Mountain, and only the Dragonblood warriors could enter. This was a land belonging solely to them.
The cultivation caves were all of the highest possible level, and there was an independent transportation formation that allowed them to go directly to the central plaza. This was the unique privilege bestowed solely to the Dragonblood Legion.
Li Tianxuan’s actions were very smart. This was an era where the strong were worshipped. Long Chen and the Dragonblood Legion were the symbols of the Xuantian Dao Sect.
Li Tianxuan made them into stars shining in the bright sky, existences others would have to look up to. He did this not to incite other people’s jealousy, but to increase their worship for them.
Long Chen and the Dragonblood Legion’s rise was a legendary story. He had to maintain a mystical feeling around them to effectively keep the other disciples in high morale.
“Boss, you’re back!”
As soon as Long Chen appeared on Crouching Dragon Mountain, a Dragonblood warrior let out a startled cry, and the rest of the warriors surged out of their various residences like a swarm of bees.
“Hahaha, good job. You’ve all reached the mid Soul Transformation realm. This speed really is shocking.” Long Chen was truly shocked when he sensed their auras.
The majority of the Dragonblood Legion had reached the fourth Heavenstage of Soul Transformation. Gu Yang and the others had even reached the fifth Heavenstage. As for Long Chen, he wasn’t even at the first Heavenstage. During this time, he hadn’t had any time to cultivate, so his cultivation base had stagnated.
“Each of us has our own soul nourishing formation in our caves. Even when we sleep, we continue to get stronger. How could we not be fast?” said Li Qi excitedly.
They clearly felt very glorious with the special treatment the Xuantian Dao Sect had given them. This was a symbol of their status.
Soul Transformation experts mainly cultivated the Yuan Spirit. The main component of the Yuan Spirit was Spiritual Strength, so soul nourishing formations and pills were must-haves for them.
Li Tianxuan had built the best possible soul nourishing formations for the Dragonblood warriors. Even throughout the entire continent, they were top level. That was the power of money.
Even without soul nourishing pills, just cultivating in their caves allowed them to progress rapidly.
Of course, this kind of rapid pace would only occur at the start. Their speed had dropped after reaching the mid stage, and by the late stage, their pace would be much slower.
“Are the new fellows still obedient?” asked Long Chen.
“Everything’s well. The majority are courteous, and even if they challenge us, they do it with the attitude of learning. Some thorns became obedient after a few beatings. As for the few who liked causing trouble, after a few bashings, they couldn’t bear it anymore and left,” said Gu Yang.
There was an immense number of geniuses that had joined recently. Those geniuses had previously liked to look down on others. Some people who felt that they would be amazing existences in the Xuantian Dao Sect, second only to Long Chen, realized that they were nothing here after a few beatings. They then decided to leave. Perhaps that was a case of rather being the head of a chicken than the tail of a bull. Being in the Xuantian Dao Sect was truly a blow to arrogant geniuses.
However, the absolute majority stayed. The cultivation conditions here were much better than where they had come from. Furthermore, they could exchange pointers with true experts. That allowed them to progress at the fastest speed.
Furthermore, another importan
t factor was the Xuantian Dao Sect’s potential. The scale at which it was being rebuilt was shocking. If the disciples had such excellent treatment while the sect was still being built, what about once it was finished? The people that left were viewed as fools by the ones who stayed. They were the typical short-sighted people.
Xuantian Dao Sect had the best training grounds, the best resources, and the best geniuses to exchange pointers with. What place could be better than here?
“That’s good. In a new batch, there are always going to be a few arrogant and toxic people that need some wearing in. However, don’t worry about it. Our Dragonblood Legion isn’t taking in new people, no matter how good their talent is. Right now, your first goal should be to work on your cultivation. Maintain that feeling of crisis and urgency. None of us have any idea when the next battle will start. We have to stay on guard,” said Long Chen.
“Boss, is there anything for us to do? Some brothers are feeling bored lately after having their power rise and only being able to play around with a bunch of brats. How about you bring us for a stroll through the Corrupt path?” asked Gu Yang suddenly.
Long Chen’s lip curled. “Guo Ran, you little brat, why are you making Gu Yang the villain?”
Before Gu Yang had spoken, Guo Ran had stood behind him and poked him several times. Although it was out of Long Chen’s sight, Guo Ran’s actions couldn’t escape Long Chen’s spiritual perception.
“Hehe, boss, these words are hurtful. I had Gu Yang say it because other than you, he is the brightest, most dazzling existence in the Dragonblood Legion. Only Gu Yang’s brilliance can stand shoulder to shoulder with you,” laughed Guo Ran. Everyone looked at Gu Yang’s bright and shining head and laughed.
Gu Yang awkwardly rubbed his bald head. However, he wasn’t angered. His bald head was natural and it was his trademark. No one else had this kind of luster. This was his pride.
“Focus on cultivating. Did you think that just because there’s no movement from Pill Valley, the ancient races, the Corrupt path, the ancient family alliance, the Righteous sects, the Bloodkill Hall, and the Xuan Beasts that they’ve let this go? Stop dreaming. Although I don’t know what they’re up to, it’s obvious they’re just waiting for a chance to eliminate us. The initiative is now in their hands. What we have to do now is work hard on cultivating and accumulate our own trump cards so that we aren’t slaughtered when the time comes. Don’t be deceived by how much stronger you’ve grown. Our enemies are getting stronger too. Furthermore, our enemies won’t follow any rules. They’ll use any means necessary as long as it means we die. We don’t have that much time to waste on having fun. Go back and do what you have to do.”
