Chapter 330: Compensation
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Demon! Die!"
A member of the Horned Wing Tribe exclaimed as he rushed down.
"I'll kill you!"
On the brink of death, Ruan Junxian gave a cold look as he left his left arm in a vulnerable spot.
From his right hand, spiritual soldiers started to appear and entered the tribe member's chest.
"Chi!"
Blood spurted everywhere.
"It seems like you mutated people can bleed as well, and your blood is also red!"
Ruan Junxian was breathing heavily. The member of the Horned Wing Tribe fell and with its dying breath, it mumbled something. "Demon... I curse all of you!"
"It's the survival of the fittest! If you have the ability to curse me, I'll die with no regrets!"
Hearing the tribe member cursing at him, Ruan Junxian took in a deep breath. With another slice of his sword, he had beheaded the member of the Horned Wing Tribe.
"I believe this is the 3rd day since I have entered this secret place!"
Looking at the surroundings, he let out a sigh.
After becoming a Wu Zong, he had left Longhu Mountain. However, he did not return to his family, but instead, roamed the land in search of opportunities.
After leaving a region, he arrived at this county and had encountered something big.
The White Sun Star had fallen onto the surface of the region, directly altering the geographical features of it! A thousand miles of flatland had instantaneously transformed into a mountain range! In addition, there were scattered plots of spiritual land!
Naturally, the cultivators among the county would gather around the mountain range. They had engaged in a frantic search for resources and territory within the mountains.
He was competing with them as well. However, along the way, he started to encounter the mutated race.
"Or should I say... dream people! A new race created by a dream master in the Prominent Divine stage..."
Ruan Junxian's eyes widened. "Based on my investigations, the division ahead is defending a Divine Tree. The 'Qinghua Spiritual Fruit' which had grown on the tree was rumoured to be able to increase one's intellectual powers and increase one's magical proficiency. It is a well-known treasure of the dream masters! If I can obtain that fruit, I would be able to cultivate as a dream master!"
After seeing Elder Smelter's might, he started to doubt the path of cultivation of martial artists and spiritual knights.
In order to make a name for himself in Da Qian and to protect his family, there was only one thing he could do: become an all-mighty dream master!
No matter how high the cultivation some spiritual knights might be, the nature of their powers would still remain the same.
"In the past 3 days, I have caused chaos in the surroundings and have gone on a killing spree against this mutated race. They must be the most highly skilled things in the entire division... After their entire defence have been weakened, I will be able to take them on!"
Although he was injured, there was a burning passion in his eyes.
"4 days! I can spend another 4 days at most! Once the powerful organisations find this place and send their highly-skilled people, I would not be able to take anything for myself... I shouldn't be too greedy. After getting the spiritual fruit, I will leave immediately!"
Thoughts ran through his mind as a look of determination appeared on his face.
...
In the Dream Realm.
After recuperating, Fang Yuan started to communicate with the realm.
His figure appeared on the streets. It was illusionary and appeared weak.
"In the Dream Realm, one's appearance would be dependent on one's mental strength and spiritual will..."
He sighed silently before looking at his inscription plate.
On it, many messages were blinking. Most of the messages came from 3 sources: The Realm Alliance, The Ye Family sisters, and Liu Mengmei!
"The Ye Family sisters are fine? It seems that they are rather fortunate as well..."
After replying to their messages, he took a look at Liu Mengmei's messages. This lady was indeed conscientious. She claimed that she had already slowly reduced the Divine Lotus Sect's grudge against him and had already exchanged for the complete version of the 9 Smelting Technique. All that was left was for Fang Yuan to meet up with her to collect the recording.
Fang Yuan sighed as he thought about how she had helped him.
All that was left were messages from the Realm Alliance.
"Hehe..."
At the thought of the alliance, Fang Yuan chuckled.
Previously, Elder Smelter had sent him as a sacrifice by using a delivery mission as an excuse. This was infuriating for Fang Yuan.
"If they do not offer me any compensation of sorts, then it is not worth it to continue staying in the Realm Alliance!"
Although the agreement was to train him up and that he had benefited quite a lot from the hollow, the alliance was still too overboard in doing this to him.
As soon as he saw the person contacting him, he was surprised. "Who would've thought that he would represent the Realm Alliance to contact me!"
After a moment of silence, he replied to the message.
"Haha... Brother, you have finally returned! I've been worrying about you!"
Not long alter, a middle-aged man in green robes appeared. His body was surrounded by a colourful pill's essence. It was Feng Xinzi.
"Haha, I want to congratulate Brother Feng for finally achieving what you have wished for, which is the 4th Tier of Illusionary Divine!"
Fang Yuan greeted Feng Xinzi.
The person in front of him was Feng Xinzi, who had placed himself in isolation.
His spiritual aura had become much more mysterious than before, and the pill energy around him had a hint of spiritual property. It was obvious that he had already achieved a breakthrough and had entered the 4th Tier!
The 4th Tier of Illusionary Divine meant that one would be able to create spirituality and was a significant stage on its own.
After crossing this stage, Feng Xinzi would become one of the most powerful dream alchemy masters in Da Qian.
"Furthermore... he had achieved his breakthrough in a peaceful environment. However, I would need to risk my life outside. This is the difference in our predicaments..."
Fang Yuan silently sighed to himself.
There was a surging energy at Feng Xinzi's forehead. It seemed like after his breakthrough, he had an equivalent rise in his rank within the Realm Alliance. He not only had the increase in his level of rights but also had some unofficial rewards.
"I owe this to you!"
As Feng Xinzi spoke, he walked with Fang Yuan and both of them arrived at the Realm Alliance Mountain. Casually, he opened a small hall, boiled some water, prepared tea and invited Fang Yuan to sit. "All thanks to the alliance, I have advanced to become a 5th Leaf Cultivator and with that comes added convenience!"
Even if he did not reveal this to Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan would have found it out on his own and therefore, there was no need to hide.
As he poured a cup of tea for Fang Yuan, he smiled. "I was previously unaware of what happened at Changli Mountain Hollow. Fortunately, you are a lucky person. Not just that... you seem to have luck in other areas as well! The two beautiful sisters of Ye Family seem to be very interested in news regarding your whereabouts!"
Feng Xinzi smiled, teasing Fang Yuan.
Very quickly, his expression changed again. "To speak the truth... the Ye Family is a powerful family with a heritage stretching back to many years ago. Although they have fallen and have encountered difficulties, the two sisters are still worthy of being your wife. Which of them would you prefer?"
'Indeed... As one rises up the hierarchy, one would always talk about worthy of marriage. Are they for real...'
Fang Yuan remained calm. "I only helped them because they are also members of the alliance. I have no feelings for both of them. As for what had happened, what does the alliance intend to do?"
Hearing him, Feng Xinzi sighed.
At this stage, all of them would only talk about their interests and would not pay any attention to all that didn't matter. If he were to continue being hypocritical, Fang Yuan might just leave.
To make matters worse, Elder Smelter had also assigned him a mission of his own. This meant that Feng Xinzi was conflicted.
"Take this... as a rare opportunity! Of course... whatever is yours will be given to you by the alliance! The alliance will credit you with 1,000 contribution points and increase your level of rights by 1, advancing you to become a 3rd Leaf Cultivator. How's that?"
Feng Xinzi remained silent for a while before laying out the conditions.
"Alright!"
Fang Yuan nodded his head.
To think about it, what else could he do? If he were to remain unsatisfied and complain, he would turn the relationship with the alliance sour and his reward might even be reduced. He knew that there was a darker side to the alliance!
The only thing he could do was to remember this day and take his revenge in the future!
"Very well!"
Feng Xinzi let out a heavy breath. It was already considered good for him to treat Fang Yuan like this.
As for what would happen in the future, Feng Xinzi did not give any thoughts about it. Even if the person before him was a talent, he would still have to train for a long time before achieving the 4th Tier of the Illusionary Divine stage! To take things further, it would not be as simple as being talented for him to achieve the 7th Tier.
With the wave of his hands, a streak of message appeared in mid-air. It quickly flew into Fang Yuan's inscription plate and the transaction was automatically completed.
'Are you showing off?'
Seeing this, Fang Yuan rolled his eyes.
"Another thing..."
Feng Xinzi took a sip of tea from his cup and took quite a while before he could speak. "Brother, did you gain anything from the hollow while you were in it?"
"Hmm?"
Fang Yuan squinted his eyes. "Don't tell me the alliance wants a share of it..."
"This..."
Feng Xinzi let out a bitter laugh.
According to the plan, Elder Smelter would not care about the rice that Fang Yuan had taken.
However, no one knew that the tables would turn. With the involvement of the Imperial Court and a whole bunch of Sages taking things into their own hands to split up the treasures in the hollow, together with the self-destruction, the few elders including the Old Mother of Tianmu, Elder Smelter and the rest ended up with scraps of leftovers.
With this, they became jealous of the rewards that the alliance members had reaped from the hollow.
Although Elder Smelter did not care about the rewards which Fang Yuan gained, his faction had many other disciples jealous of the reward!
"Brother, please be assured that the Realm Alliance would not be so unreasonable!"
Feng Xinzi blushed with embarrassment, but he had to speak the truth. "Elder has stated that this time, how much you would like to trade would be up to you. However, a few disciples in the realm require their share of Yellow Grain Rice... Your goodwill will not be forgotten."
"If it is a trade, what am I trading it for?"
Fang Yuan rubbed his chin and appeared calm.
"They are all here!"
Feng Xinzi took out a piece of paper. After reading through a few lines, Fang Yuan started to snicker. "I don't seem to see the sincerity... if this is all, then I think there is nothing left to be discussed!"
"Brother, please don't be angry!"
Feng Xinzi knew that the people from the alliance were trying to take advantage of Fang Yuan. "You can lay out your conditions!"
"I will need a piece of spiritual land larger than 60 hectares and the spiritual energy there would have to be more concentrated than normal... Also, after finishing this mission, I would not want to be forced to accept another mission from the alliance for the next 10 years to come!"
After thinking about it, Fang Yuan quickly laid out his conditions.
"Spiritual land? Missions?"
Feng Xinzi was stunned for a moment before he started to smile. "If you dare to request all these, you must have quite a lot of rewards, right?"
"Not too much, but still acceptable..."
Fang Yuan reported a number.
"Alright!"
Feng Xinzi gritted his teeth. "We can give you the spiritual land, but it is too unreasonable for you not to accept any missions for 10 years, and the alliance would lose its reputation. I have a solution to this. I can assign you a guarding mission. These type of missions are extremely easy to fulfil and can earn you quite a lot. You can do this mission for 10 years while you cultivate in peace..."
"Alright!"
Fang Yuan's heart wavered. He did not see a mission of such a nature on the Realm Alliance's rock tablet before. It seemed like it was an under-the-table mission. "I am at Cloud Region. Assign me a nearby mission, as well as a nearby spiritual land!"
"Alright!"
Feng Xinzi quickly agreed. Fang Yuan nodded his head and went offline.
After a moment, Elder Smelter entered the hall. "How was it?"
"This person is rather smart. The number that he reported was close to our estimate. At most, he would keep a few catties for himself, and that is only human nature..."
Feng Xinzi took a bow as he reported.