ASER - Chapter 112
Chapter 112: 404
The atmosphere was probably too awkward; the scheming Li siblings almost couldn't maintain their composure. Moreover, this Brother Zhao Ritian had mentioned "saving so many people"... The speaker might have been casual, but the listeners took it to heart. Zhao Guang proactively thanked A'Diao several times for saving their lives, which also served to change the subject.
A'Diao smiled faintly. "You're too kind, it was just a small effort."
Zhao Guang's demeanor and upbringing were much better than those of the scheming Li siblings. He proactively asked A'Diao for her contact information and frankly stated that his family would surely prepare a generous gift of thanks, earnestly hoping she wouldn't refuse, and so on.
Seeing Zhao Guang express himself this way, the Li siblings naturally wouldn't fall behind. They politely and kindly expressed their thanks, and similarly stated they would offer a generous gift.
Regardless of whether it's hypocritical or not, I'll just see how many benefits you actually give me then.
A'Diao appeared casual, looking like a disciple from a powerful clan with ordinary looks but an extraordinary demeanor. She didn't seem to regard the Li Clan or the Yue Clan very highly, which further led people to believe her origins were extraordinary.
Indeed, able to kill those of higher ranks before even reaching Forbidden Master level, and even withstand an attack from a Transcendent Upper Rank without dying—such a person must come from a prominent noble clan in the northern capital, Kyoto, or some hidden faction.
"Regardless of his origins, Brother Zhao is a dragon among men." Chen Hua, seeing his young master being put in an awkward position, offered a few polite words and changed the subject.
A'Diao: "Are you saying I'm androgynous? No wonder my elders always say I'm hesitant and effeminate when I do things."
Dragon among men = androgynous?
No, no, no, Brother, you are heroic and dashing, exuding an aura of dominance, full of manliness.
Not effeminate at all, really!
Li Zhaowu didn't engage in social interaction, but observed secretly from the side, thinking to herself: Judging by the meaning behind this Brother Zhao Ritian's words, it seems like he's really been PUA'd by his family since childhood. He appears to act frivolously, yet he always reveals a hint of low self-esteem.
Then how formidable must his family be?
This person said nothing, yet it seemed like he said everything.
He must have an incredibly strong background, and he definitely comes from those places in Kyoto.
Absolutely!
Then this person is definitely worth winning over.
Although he's a bit older, not handsome, and his family sells cemetery plots... it's still acceptable. It's a lucrative industry. It just depends on my methods next.
From Li Zhaowu +155555!
A'Diao: "?"
No, wait. I said I was androgynous, why are you suddenly giving me so much Mental Power?
Is it goodwill or ill will?
You're a pervert.
Unlike these people who had to stay behind to clean up the mess and collect bodies—for example, to go and grab other benefits left in the lairs of the two bird BOSSes, such as the corpses of Level 3 and 4 Sea Martial Falcons.
But A'Diao didn't participate. She boarded the airship, and it departed.
Watching the airship leave, Zhao Guang lowered his eyes. When he was alone with Elder Zhao, the latter had already had his family assistant search for some information.
"The cemetery real estate sector is indeed highly profitable. Many top financial groups are involved, so it's not easy to determine this person's background. But either he's just spouting nonsense to annoy people, or he really comes from a family in this gray industry—looking at his innate skills, it doesn't seem like empty talk."
Zhao Guang nodded. "Not yet at the Forbidden Master level, yet his Daoist art initiation speed is so fast. There must be only two reasons: either he was born with many meridians and has opened quite a few, or those techniques are his innate skills, requiring not many hand seals to initiate. I have heard my father mention some hidden families, especially Daoist ones. Some made their fortunes through dealing with corpses and funerals. Firstly, they make a living this way; secondly, their Daoist arts are rooted in this."
Elder Zhao gave a wry smile upon hearing this. "Funerary-type skills? It doesn't sound pleasant to say, but those with such talents are all top-notch, every move lethal. Isn't there one in Qingzhou as well? His opening moves send people to their deaths. Exceptionally talented, only A-rank, yet he makes many Forbidden Masters tremble with fear at his name, ranked as one of the two marvels alongside that person from Qingzhou Academy. It seems his family is a leader in the funeral service industry."
Zhao Guang didn't feel that much jealousy, because he was of the mental type and was stable in this area. But considering Qingzhou's dominance, Yunzhou...
"What do you think of that Duan Fei?"
Elder Zhao lowered his eyes, a glint in them. "He was hiding his true strength. He has gravity rings on him, probably put there by Yunzhou Academy."
At this time, the Li siblings found some Sea Martial Falcon corpses, extracted some venom, and prepared to investigate.
That sneaky thief was too infuriating; they were truly unwilling to let it go.
A'Diao wasn't afraid that the Sea Martial Falcon venom would expose anything, because she had only used this venom on He Luo. But at that time, He Luo was sealed in a coffin, and his body was burned beyond recognition by her. The venom had long since mutated and evaporated. Not to mention that she would dispose of the body; even if she handed it over after looting the spoils, the other party wouldn't be able to find anything.
That's why it was cremation and not burial.
Toilet: "Those two from the Li family are quite scheming. They were probably waiting for you to reveal a flaw before."
A'Diao: "A family like the Li Clan, if it can produce a collateral branch member like Li Yuanshu, can naturally produce similar direct descendants."
She didn't particularly harbor much ill will towards the Li Clan.
Those who were rampant and fierce in the secular world—whether they were hypocritical scholars or true ruffians—it didn't matter. As long as they didn't offend her or pose a threat, she could chat and laugh merrily with them.
Educating the common people was the job of Tathagata and Guanyin.
However, her reason for fabricating the identity of Zhao Ritian wasn't out of thin air. The cemetery industry was indeed a rather obscure sector within the realm.
Highly profitable and controlled by powerful clans, but not brought out into the open. There were also some Daoist sects involved, making the waters incredibly deep. The Li Clan wouldn't be able to find out anything significant.
And no matter what identity she fabricated, her actions would inevitably carry these characteristics. If she didn't create a suitable identity, people would inevitably connect it to her true self in the future. Although the power levels of the two identities were vastly different, it couldn't stop perceptive people from making connections—what if she encountered Qu Jiangnan and Jiang Zhou in the future? Those two were both shrewd individuals and knew a bit about her. If their expectations of her were even slightly higher, suspicion would arise.
So A'Diao had to first set up a vague cover story for this identity. Whoever wanted to read into it could do so; the specific details would depend on their own imaginations.
Toilet: "So they clearly knew He Luo's secrets, yet they didn't ask you to hand over the body?"
A'Diao raised an eyebrow and chuckled lightly.
How could she possibly hand over the body?
Firstly, she had been suppressing bandits before, waiting for the Patrol Army to arrive, and didn't know about the situation in the fog layer; she only went there later. So she couldn't know about He Luo and Mysterious Person A. Even if she killed He Luo, it had to be treated as a normal case of killing for spoils. She couldn't rashly take out the body and say this person might be related to this matter.
Secondly, the spoils from the body hadn't been fully looted yet. Why hand it over? Would the Patrol Army return He Luo's legacy to her?
"Don't forget what the Li Clan did in Danzhou. This matter is well-known in Danzhou official circles. I don't believe no one in the other four provinces knows. It's not mentioned because there are many powerful clans doing such things, making it impossible to investigate thoroughly. But having done it themselves, and then shamelessly reporting He Luo—if He Luo and the Bandit Alliance, in a fit of desperation, dug up their dark history, they would lose face completely and get themselves into a stinking mess. So the two siblings would absolutely not mention a word; they wish this matter had nothing to do with them."
Anyway, this matter was considered settled. It was just that Mysterious Person A escaping was a bit troublesome. It was unknown what risks there were on the coastal side; after all, the real secret hasn't been fully uncovered yet.
She could only hope the Qingzhou Patrol Army would be more effective and uncover the secret sooner.
Before that, she also had to prepare to deal with that Mysterious Person A.
What if the latter tried to do something to her in the coastal area... Ah, so annoying. Let's count the spoils and develop a bit first.
In this world, only milk tea, delicious food, and treasures could make her happy.
First, the spoils from annihilating ten to twenty bandit lairs: 3500 Level 3 Spirit Cores, 70 Level 4 Spirit Cores (one Level 4 = 3000 energy points), 5 Level 5 Spirit Cores (one Level 5 = 20000 energy points), 60 Spirit Plant Bodies, 40 Forbidden Items, and a pile of other miscellaneous spoils.
What good things could these bandits have? A'Diao calculated everything by value; the specific value was about 2 billion. If these Spirit Cores were converted to energy points, it would be about 610,000, as the 5 Level 5 Spirit Cores alone were worth 100,000 energy points.
Spoils from the Sea Martial Falcon BOSS's lair: Great Spirit Gate (worth 100,000 energy points, but can grow; not directly absorbed, to be cultivated for personal use), Xun Spirit Pupil (valued at 5 billion, priceless with no available market), 1500 Sea Martial Falcon eggs (3 million star coins each, total value 4.5 billion).
He Luo's legacy: 15 Level 5 Spirit Cores, 3 Spirit Plant Bodies, 2 Forbidden Items, cards and other miscellaneous assets (worth tens of millions, negligible), 100 Skeletal Remains.
To be honest, A'Diao originally had some expectations for He Luo's legacy, but seeing its contents, she was momentarily disappointed yet also pleasantly surprised.
Originally, as the ostensible leader in charge of the Bandit Alliance, even if he didn't have vast resources on hand, it at least shouldn't have been this shabby. True, 15 Level 5 Spirit Cores were quite impressive, but firstly, he was a leader, and secondly, a Forbidden Master. This amount of legacy was shabby, wasn't it?
But A'Diao quickly realized it wasn't that He Luo was shabby; rather, it indicated that the person suppressing He Luo had already taken away most of the profits tributed by the Bandit Alliance in their last contact. And He Luo, as a Forbidden Master, also needed to consume a lot of resources to maintain his cultivation expenses... Her being able to get benefits from the fog layer lair was because she timed it just when those people hadn't yet handed over the profits; otherwise, the gains might have been even lower.
And the 100 Skeletal Remains were very likely the benefits given to He Luo by the other party.
For He Luo, were 100 Skeletal Remains better than those vast Spirit Core resources?
Not necessarily better, but those resources didn't entirely belong to him in the first place. He was just a worker; the Spirit Core resources weren't his wages, the 100 Skeletal Remains were.
Previously, the compensation given to Jiang Zhou by the powerful Baili Family was only 50 Skeletal Remains. So, by comparison, 100 Skeletal Remains as payment for He Luo's "undercover" role was quite substantial. But inferring from this small detail, two things could be deduced: first, Mysterious Person A, who paid He Luo's "wages," must hold a considerably high social status to possess resources like Skeletal Remains. Second, if the other party could use precious Skeletal Remains as wages, then the economic income of their Bandit Alliance organization must be an enormous sum.
"Strange. Robbery and killing alone couldn't generate such huge income. The wealthier the cultivators, the harder they are to deal with, especially since their airship standards would be higher, meaning they wouldn't necessarily suffer air disasters—just like me. Then their income would have a ceiling... unless they earned another large sum of money through those cultivators who were captured alive and transferred away."
"Ah, so there's a human trafficking organization in the Southern Sea Region? What kind of organization needs live cultivators? So deranged and cruel, quite terrifying."
"But that Mysterious Person A must be incredibly wealthy. All the wealth is on him! Damn it!"
A'Diao had her speculations, but she wouldn't eagerly report such findings to the Patrol Army. If they didn't even have this level of investigation and interrogation capability, there wasn't much to expect from them.
Shaking off these distracting thoughts, A'Diao began to allocate resources.
Previously, Toilet's energy points had increased to over 190,000. Reaching Level 9 required a full 500,000 energy points. Now, A'Diao raised it to exactly Level 9 in one go. Then, she fed all the remaining Level 4 Spirit Cores to the Great Spirit Gate, causing it to grow significantly. The frequency of releasing Spiritual Energy increased a lot; it was originally comparable to ten Medium Spirit Gates, and now it was directly comparable to fifteen.
The Great Spirit Gate was naturally not as permanent and enduring as Toilet, but A'Diao's purpose in developing it wasn't just for Spiritual Energy. She had read in ancient texts from Daoist temples that during the First Era, the strongest experts and top sects all had an extremely powerful technique called Spirit Plant Body / Spirit Gate Array, generally used for a triple effect of body/mountain protection, recovery and recuperation, and as an energy source.
Since A'Diao had a BUG like Toilet that could absorb Spirit Gates, she naturally had to consider the future. Moreover, she was ambitious. Her foundation started with the Great Spirit Gate, and she was willing to spend resources to cultivate it—everything was for the sake of the future.
As for the 20 Level 5 Spirit Cores, she kept them all, planning to use them later on Level 6 advanced talismans to increase their power, ensuring every strike would be a decisive blow.
A'Diao then maxed out the unused Uncontrollable Emotions Gift Package and looked at Toilet's current attributes.
Level: 9 (Current Energy Points 0/2,000,000, needs 2 million energy points to reach Level 10. Note: Level 9 provides 500 cubic meters of storage space; Level 9 can automatically absorb ambient Spiritual Energy to upgrade all exchanged skills by +3 levels.)
Mental Power: 3,000,000.
Synchronized Spiritual Energy Release: 2000 wisps.
Exchanged Skills:
1: Little Fist Pummel You to Death (lv13)
2: Eye-Shredding Gaze (lv13)
3: Talisman Mastery (lv13)
4: Innate Talent Mastery (lv13)
5: XXX Turn into a Pig (lv13)
6: True Body Armor (lv13)
7: Uncontrollable Emotions Gift Package (lv13)
Also Skills 101, 202, 303... all maxed out and finally at lv13.
Exchangeable Skills:
1: Intermediate Cursed Speechcraft Blind Box (Randomly awakens a speechcraft curse skill, contents are as the name suggests. Costs 1 million Mental Power to exchange once, 500,000 Mental Power to upgrade once.)
2: Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals 404 Array (A large-scale group offensive array. Within this array, after using the Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals Daoist Art, it can enhance the power of the summoned soldiers' armor and their ability to recover vitality. Specific consumption is calculated based on the degree of soldier and general attrition, using Mental Power and one's own Spiritual Power. Exchange requires 30 million Mental Power, use once requires 5 million Mental Power, subsequent consumption is calculated separately, upgrade once requires 10 million Mental Power.)
3: Mental Power Will Cultivation Method Volume 2 (No exchange needed, can be directly imparted by Toilet via enlightenment.)
Not many skills, but the fewer, the more exquisite.
The 404 Array indeed made A'Diao's eyes light up, but seeing the Mental Power cost made her vision go dark.
Now it was clear why A'Diao had maxed out the unused Uncontrollable Emotions Gift Package. She didn't want to open the blind box, and she couldn't afford the 404 Array, let alone use it. It was better to max out the gift package skill to increase its power.
Toilet delivered a heart-stabbing blow: "The most important thing is, you don't even know the 《Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals Art》."
A'Diao felt that if she were given an actual toilet now, she could definitely cry until she fainted.
It's too hard.
She really wanted the 404 Array, but like Consort Hua wanting a child, she just couldn't have it.
The Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals Art was an advanced Daoist art that many Forbidden Masters couldn't learn. Currently, Qu Jiangnan and the Principal naturally hadn't taught it either, and A'Diao didn't know if they even knew it. After all, this art wasn't a common Daoist art but belonged to the top-tier arts of the unconventional type; in the First Era, it was a secret technique of some sects.
Ask Qu Jiangnan and the Principal? Wouldn't that be giving herself away? Besides, the probability of them knowing it was very, very low. Even if they did, A'Diao wouldn't have the face to ask them to teach her for free.
She still had to rely on herself.
Is there anything in this world that money can't do? If there is, it must be because there isn't enough money.
So A'Diao entered the Huayao Trading Company. Sure enough, she found the 《Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals Art》 inside.
Mainly because the price was too conspicuous.
"5 billion."
A'Diao had a bitter expression, her "paws" hesitating back and forth a few times.
Toilet: "What are you hesitating for? You haven't sold your things yet. There's no money in your account. It's useless even if you select it."
Uh, right, she almost forgot.
A'Diao contacted the big boss of Huayao Bank and arranged a time for selling and delivering the goods.
Actually, A'Diao could have negotiated with the other party to barter and get the 《Appoint Soldiers Summon Generals Art》 first. But doing so would expose information, and A'Diao was unwilling to take such a risk.
Afterwards, A'Diao looked at Toilet's attributes and thought to herself that the free Mental Power Will Cultivation Method Volume 2 was still the best.
She pretended to comfort herself: "These skills are ultimately external. Only cultivation level and aptitude are the true path. When I reach peak double A-rank, I'll start consuming these Skeletal Remains to break through the Forbidden Master threshold, simultaneously learn Volume 2, and dig out some of that 'coal briquette' in my spiritual body. Hmph hmph, my Mental Threads will then be able to split even more. Just wait until I become a Forbidden Master; I'll dominate the martial world with spirit attachment via mental power!"
Toilet: "Aiyo, you're quite the rhymer."
Toilet: "That's true. Then I'll give you the enlightenment impartation first. Sit tight."
A'Diao: "..."
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