Chapter 204 (Part 2): Hua Jian's Rapid Progress

It was time for the Cultivators of this world to experience the frustration of buying a gun for 1 million Spirit Stones that was only worth 500,000!

“This idea came from me too. If you want to curse, curse that fox spirit Huaxinhu.”

“You agreed?”

“Of course, it makes calculations easier. It takes two to tango.”

Anyway, the Auction venue had started construction, and it was time to announce these messages.

……

A lot happened that day. First, after hearing Hua Jian’s story about Linglong, Qian Feixue couldn’t help but exclaim, “This can also be a twist of fate.”

Second, at the Temporary Camp outside Frozen Winter City, Cultivators saw a massive ice building begin to rise from the center of the camp.

At the same time, Wanhuagu finally announced the Starting Price for the Secret Realm Entry Quotas.

That naive number made many of the mediocre Demonic Cultivators gasp.

Those slightly more powerful Cultivators thought the Starting Price was reasonable.

If they really fought their way in, the injury rate for these Cultivators would be quite high.

This almost immediately sparked dissatisfaction among the Cultivators in the camp, but soon Wanhuagu Cultivators stepped in and skillfully suppressed the anger of these Demonic Cultivators.

The reasons they gave were roughly: entering the Secret Realm could yield valuable Treasures; after Wanhuagu collected the money, they would invest most of the Auction proceeds into the Secret Realm construction to provide a better exploration environment; and so on.

Moreover, Wanhuagu only set a Starting Price.

Those who were determined to get a spot would bid extremely high, which would make those who couldn’t afford it or thought it wasn’t worth it back off, reducing unnecessary casualties!

Wanhuagu’s explanation made it sound noble and righteous. These words could only fool stone-headed people.

To dismiss everyone? The Demonic Cultivators in the camp were grinding their teeth, but they could all afford the price.

Wanhuagu’s intelligence work wasn’t for nothing.

The Starting Price they set was carefully calculated to hit right at the psychological baseline of these Cultivators, maximizing the extraction of resources from them.

As for the highest-tier quotas, those would sell easily. Securing them early was definitely worth looking forward to.

These Starting Prices targeted the low-level consumables, aiming to dig out enough Spirit Stones from these people.

To achieve this goal, Wanhuagu thoughtfully set the Starting Price lower than their estimated value, giving the illusion that winning a spot would guarantee a huge profit in Spirit Stones.

With Premiums, there must also be False Accounts, right?

Huaxinhu truly deserved to be Wanhuagu’s carefully cultivated big villain, learning all kinds of wicked ideas without a teacher.

Soon after Wanhuagu announced the details of the Secret Realm, the Tianmomen group also learned this news.

Casually tossing aside the corpse with unblinking eyes, Youye listened to the scout’s report and couldn’t help but fiercely criticize Wanhuagu’s shamelessness.

“Don’t need Spirit Stones? Have some shame! She thought there was no Sect in this world that loved Spirit Stones more than Wanhuagu! How many Spirit Stones do we have?”

“Uh, right now we only have enough to fight for one highest-tier quota. But to ensure an advantage, I think we need to win at least two such quotas,” a Tianmomen Cultivator replied.

Youye frowned. They had robbed several groups of people, including some filthy rich Cultivators.

Why did they have so few Spirit Stones? Could someone have embezzled the operation funds?

With a cold gaze sweeping over the Tianmomen group, Youye asked coldly, “Only this much? That can’t be right.”

“You may not know, but many Cultivators’ Storage Pouches have Soul Seals placed by high-level Cultivators. It’s hard for us to open them,” the Tianmomen Cultivator hurriedly explained, feeling a chill under Youye’s stare.

This was because they really had no other choice.

They couldn’t retrieve these treasures.

The storage pouches used by low-level cultivators were basically all sealed with Soul Seals by Received Quantification Stage cultivators. Among them, they didn’t even have a single Received Emperor, let alone a Ling King. Wanting to crack those formations…

That was impossible. If they called the Dragon Venerable for such a trivial matter, then they would really die!

Hearing her subordinates explain this, Youye was stunned for a moment. These past few days, she had indeed only focused on robbing, forgetting to first make the robbed victims open the seals on their storage pouches.

Thinking back now, she had indeed made some mistakes.

“Before we kill them from now on, first force them to open the seals on their storage pouches, understand?”

“I understand. Then how should we dispose of these storage pouches?”

This question made Youye’s expression gradually twist. In this world, the merchants who handled such things would stab you in the back. Such things really existed.

After all, the people they found on the demonic path were also demonic cultivators—demonic cultivators with extremely low credibility.

Youye searched left and right in her mind, and finally thought of a faction that made her somewhat incredulous: Wanhuagu.

You really have to say, although Wanhuagu was a major demonic sect, their Tianmomen was also a major demonic sect.

As fellow major sects, they at least had some face to lose.

Moreover, Wanhuagu was also the host of this Secret Realm Competition. They shouldn’t embezzle their assets.

After all, these things would end up in Wanhuagu’s pockets anyway.

Thinking this way, Youye even had the illusion that she might be freeloading from Wanhuagu.

“Hey, I can actually freeload Wanhuagu’s services?” She curled her lips and shared her thoughts with the other cultivators beside her.

After hearing this, the cultivators nodded one after another. In this situation, they really had no choice but to treat a dead horse as a live horse and seek help from Wanhuagu.

“At worst, we can let Wanhuagu charge a bit more processing fees. But this is a major sect with credibility!”

“However, I heard that the temporary camp isn’t peaceful either. We need to be careful that someone might have malicious intent toward us,” a cultivator reminded quietly.

Youye nodded in deep agreement. “Right, so here’s the plan: I’ll go with a few of them to the camp to find Wanhuagu. You all stay outside the camp. If you notice anything unusual, immediately rush into the camp to rescue us.”

“You want to take the risk yourself? This is somewhat…” Upon hearing that Youye would personally go to deal with Wanhuagu, the other Tianmomen cultivators immediately dissuaded her with some unease.

They were following Night as underlings. If something happened to Youye, they might as well be dead.

This meal ticket absolutely could not have an accident. That kind of dangerous place—it would be better if Youye didn’t go.

“It’s fine, I have my own ways to protect myself. The rabble over there can’t hurt me.” Youye interrupted the others’ persuasion with a confident expression. “Besides, Wanhuagu also cares about face; they won’t let anything happen to me on their turf.”

Youye was very confident, and her confidence was indeed correct.

Wanhuagu had been hoping she would come. When Youye brought people to knock on their door the next day, she was surrounded by several Wanhuagu girls, afraid that Youye might be robbed on the way.

When they arrived at the meeting place, the people greeting them were quite heavyweight: Huaxinhu and Huaxinrui—the top two figures of the entire camp were both present.

No, not only that. Judging from Huaxinhu’s gaze, at this moment Huaxinhu might not be treating her as an enemy, but as a Saintess lady far away in Frozen Winter City.

“Please sit, please sit. I didn’t expect a distinguished guest to visit today. I’m truly flattered.” Huaxinhu raised her hand and guided Youye to sit down with a very fluent voice.

Youye’s gaze grew even more strange. This time, Huaxinhu showed no sign of—it was impossible to determine whether Huaxinhu was hiding her true feelings or genuinely this enthusiastic.

You could only discern a bit from her demeanor. And the one who could make Huaxinhu say such words directly could only be Hua Jian possessing her body.

I didn’t expect that in just a few days, Hua Jian’s skills had improved so quickly. Truly impossible to guard against.

“Miss Hua Jian is even more… astonishing than a few days ago.”

“Oh my, I’ve been recognized? I thought I was acting quite well.” Resting her chin on her hand, Huaxinhu replied with a grin.

Are you even acting? Youye took a deep breath and didn’t continue to argue with Hua Jian on this topic. She had come for business.

“I have some storage pouches. Do you have a way to help me open them?”

“Oh, these are the results of your highway robbery these days. If you ask me, your Tianmomen is really stingy. You won’t even spend a little money yourself and resort to robbing innocent passing cultivators.” Hua Jian sighed, her voice heavy with contempt.

Huaxinhu was beside them with her eyes closed, but her two fox ears were perked up, apparently very eager to hear the gossip between the two.

As for the storage pouches, that was not a problem at all. She, Huaxinhu, had ways to pry them open.

Even Hua Jian had the potential to pry open pouches across ranks, but to reach Huaxinhu’s level, Hua Jian would still need a long time of training.

“Just clearing out some competitors in advance. Just tell me directly, how much compensation do we pay for you to help?”

Hua Jian did not answer, but turned her gaze to Huaxinhu.

‘To be honest, I’m not very clear about the rules here either. For this kind of thing, it’s better to let an old hand set the price.’

“She came here to negotiate a new deal with Youye. As for the storage pouches, let Huaxinhu handle it.”

Feeling Hua Jian’s gaze, Huaxinhu slowly opened her eyes. “Tianmomen is an old friend of our Wanhuagu. Let’s follow the old rules.”

On the demonic path, there was also a common market price for helping pry open storage pouches.

Generally, it was a 20-80 base amount. If the value of the items in the pouch exceeded this base amount, the fee would rise accordingly.

In general, it was roughly a 50-50 split, with the pouch opener getting half of the treasures.

This price was very fair. You know, if you didn’t open the pouch, you would eventually have to find another demonic cultivator to help unlock it.

And at that time, who could guarantee that the other person wouldn’t embezzle after unlocking it?

That could only be said as good luck, and it was usually a case of black eating black.

Where would you find a helper?

This 50-50 split was already the best outcome.

Some bad-tempered ones would even propose a 70-30 split, and the cultivator seeking help would have to accept it.

“But…” Huaxinhu drew out her voice, making Youye, whose expression had just relaxed, tense up. “The original owners of these storage pouches had all planned to come here. Your robbery saved our Wanhuagu a lot of trouble.”

“I don’t have any problem with those words. Wanhuagu originally didn’t need to force-open these storage pouches. They only needed to wait for those cultivators to offer up the spirit stones inside.”

“But Tianmomen interfered like this, forcing Huaxinhu to personally deal with the Soul Seals on these pouches.”

“For this effort, Tianmomen can’t avoid compensation, can they?”

“I won’t be too much of a lion. Sixty percent.” Huaxinhu held up one finger, indicating she wanted one extra ten percent.

This made Youye’s expression turn a bit ugly. And this was not being a lion?

This was just price gouging on the spot!

“Sister Xinhu, you shouldn’t make things difficult for Miss Youye. Their Tianmomen is so poor that they wouldn’t resort to such disgraceful highway robbery otherwise.”

Seeing this, Hua Jian immediately cut into the conversation, starting to set a trap for Youye.

“The extra ten percent you’re asking for—what difference is there from asking for their lives?”

Youye’s expression grew worse. Was Hua Jian really speaking for her? She couldn’t believe it.

This was clearly cursing her to her face!

“You…”

“So we’ll forget that ten percent. Here’s an idea: cracking these storage pouches takes some time, and Miss Youye is quite busy with highway robbery outside. Why not just store all the contents of the pouches here with us? Whenever you need to use something, just write a note.”

Hua Jian interrupted Youye’s words and quickly stated her idea.

“Still a 50-50 split, but all the contents of the pouches will be kept by Wanhuagu and credited to Tianmomen’s account. When Tianmomen needs to use something, they can just draw from the account.”

“This…” Youye instinctively felt something was off. She felt that Hua Jian wouldn’t be that kind.

“If Miss Youye doesn’t accept my proposal, then continue talking with Sister Xinhu.” Hua Jian didn’t seem to really want Youye to accept this suggestion either.

As for Huaxinhu’s reaction, it was even more obvious.

Although she didn’t say a word, her gaze first at Hua Jian, then at Youye, seemed to say: “You little one, why are you turning your elbows outward?”

‘Could there really be no trap? Is Hua Jian genuinely being kind to me this time?’

‘Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could Hua Jian be that kind of person? I, Youye, don’t believe that Hua Jian is a pure-hearted good girl.’

‘There must be a scheme in this!’

‘But where is the scheme? Wait, if we follow Hua Jian’s method, wouldn’t the value of the items in the pouches be up to Wanhuagu to decide?’

Then Wanhuagu could arbitrarily slash the prices, and their Tianmomen would have no place to appeal.

So the trap was here! Youye suddenly understood.

“How do I know you won’t secretly undervalue the items in the pouches? Unless… you open the pouches in front of me, and then we appraise the value together. Do you dare?”

“Sure, what’s there to be afraid of!” Hua Jian agreed extremely readily.

…She agreed that easily?