Chapter 654: Protection Fee? Reverse Snatching

Back in the courtyard, when Gui Wu saw Xiao Chen making a move, he thought that Xiao Chen would be hard to deal with. So, he made more preparations.

After handing over the Inferior Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls, Xiao Chen walked forward expressionlessly without saying a word.

A person beside Gui Wu smiled and said, “Big Brother, how is this fellow difficult to deal with as you said? How powerful can a person from the Sky Dome Realm be?”

Gui Wu looked at the Spirit Gathering Pearls in his hand and said coldly, “He is rather tactful. Now, I am lacking a chicken to kill to warn the monkeys.”

[TL Note: Lacking a chicken to kill to warn the monkeys: This means not having an individual to punish as an example to the others.]

After that, Gui Wu turned his head and asked, “How many Spirit Gathering Pearls have we collected in total?”

Someone immediately counted their spoils and replied excitedly, “There are a hundred people in the residential area we control. That is a total of five hundred Spirit Gathering Pearls.”

When Gui Wu heard this, he shook his head and said, “It is still not enough. The original five big factions control at least three or four hundred people in their residential areas. Even that group of fools from the battle realm controls at least two hundred people.

“Of the current seven big factions, we are the weakest. We have to collect more next month. Everyone will have to hand over seven Spirit Gathering Pearls. Otherwise, we will end up getting pushed out.”

---

At Xiao Chen’s room, Zhuo Yushi said somewhat happily, “Xiao Chen, fortunately, you did not take action against them. Otherwise, the consequences would be dire.”

“What do you mean?” Xiao Chen asked.

Zhuo Yushi took a sip of tea and replied, “The practice of collecting Spirit Gathering Pearls has always existed. In the past, our residential area was controlled by Lan Feichen, who was ranked fifth in the inner sect.

“Half a month ago, Gui Wu led a group of people and fought with him. The result is unknown, but after that, Lan Feichen handed over our residential area to Gui Wu.”

Xiao Chen frowned slightly and said, “Lan Feichen would not give up a portion of the area he controls for no reason. This Gui Wu is not simple.”

Zhuo Yushi explained, “Gui Wu has a big backer. He is the grandson of the Sect Leader of the Spirit Sea Realm’s Supreme Sky Sect branch. According to rumor, he brought millions of Superior Grade Spirit Stones. After he consumed the Quintessence Gathering Pill, he consumed many other natural treasures and recultivated to peak Inferior Grade Martial Monarch.”

The two chatted for a while longer, and then Zhuo Yushi took his leave. Only after that did Xiao Chen reveal a gaze filled with killing intent.

“It is not that easy to obtain my Spirit Gathering Pearls,” Xiao Chen muttered to himself.

Xiao Chen used his remaining time to continue refining his Quintessence, sitting cross-legged on the prayer mat.

Drawing on his prior experience, he refined his Quintessence at a much faster rate. After ten more days, all ninety-nine of his drops of Quintessence had turned into a deep purple, becoming smooth and glossy like pearls.

While sitting on the prayer mat, Xiao Chen opened his eyes. The glow in his eyes was withdrawn, looking ordinary. However, when one paid more attention, his eyes gave the impression of limpid autumn waters, deep and unfathomable.

He held out two fingers on his right hand and sent out a strand of purple saber Qi from his fingertips with a thought.

Xiao Chen’s saber Qi was like lightning, disappearing in a flash. It silently pierced through a vase on the wooden table, and it continued through the wall, shooting out of the room.

He stretched out his hand, and the vase flew into his grasp.

This vase was porcelain. It would shatter with a gentle blow. In the past, given Xiao Chen’s strong Quintessence, the wind from his attack would have smashed the vase even before the attack reached it.

However, now, even though the might of the saber Qi formed from Quintessence had not diminished, it pierced a smooth hole in the middle of the vase.

Those who did not see Xiao Chen attack would think that the vase originally had a hole in it.

After casually playing with the vase, Xiao Chen smiled and waved his hands, replacing the vase in its original spot.

“The purity of my Quintessence now is probably no weaker than Gui Wu’s after he used his Quintessence Gathering Pill.”

Now, Xiao Chen was confident of a sixty percent chance of victory against Gui Wu. However, Gui Wu did not operate alone; he still had six or seven lower-realm geniuses only slightly weaker than him.

I have to consume the Quintessence Gathering Pill and refine my already very pure Quintessence once more. Only then would I not be afraid of them surrounding me.

Xiao Chen had never been weak in terms of Martial Technique. He had his self-comprehended Four Season Saber Technique and Return of the Azure Dragon, which he could already unleash at eighty percent of its might.

He was fully confident that his Martial Techniques were much better than Gui Wu’s.

All he lacked was accumulation, his accumulations of Quintessence. Once he completely refined his Quintessence, no one within Inferior Grade Martial Monarch would be his match.

By then, when Xiao Chen went to seek trouble with this group, he would not be at a disadvantage. They had to pay the price after taking his Spirit Gathering Pearls.

Right now, Xiao Chen was still in the middle stage of Inferior Grade Martial Monarch. Using the Quintessence Gathering Pill now would be a waste.

However, he still had more than a hundred Inferior Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls. As long as he was willing to use them, he could advance to peak Inferior Grade Martial Monarch in a week.

“I should cultivate slowly for now. There are another five days till the end of the month. I should go take up a sect mission first.”

Xiao Chen had to undertake a sect mission. Otherwise, he would not be able to remain in the inner sect. This was the iron-clad rule of the Supreme Sky Sect; he did not dare to break this rule.

When Xiao Chen went past Zhuo Yushi’s room, he checked it with his Spiritual Sense. He found that the room was empty; Zhuo Yushi was not there.

This was not a problem for Xiao Chen. He casually found someone and asked them politely, finding out how to go to the Mission Hall.

After an hour, Xiao Chen arrived at the Mission Hall. As it was getting close to the end of the month, many people had come here. Chatter filled the place, making it very noisy.

After waiting for a while, Xiao Chen finally reached the counter. He received a stack of papers and started to look through them carefully.

The missions were all lumped together, undifferentiated into ranks. The missions with high rewards came with high risk. Normally, no one would overestimate themselves and take a job they could not complete.

Failure merited a corresponding punishment. The missions with higher rewards had harsher penalties for failure.

With such rules, it eliminated the problem of some people picking high-reward missions in the hopes of succeeding by luck.

“This is an escort mission. Haining City’s City Lord’s Residence needs to escort a batch of resources to pay a tribute. It is not dangerous, but it takes a long time, and the reward is low.

“There is also a mission for collecting materials from Spirit Beasts. It was issued by an Alchemist from our sect, and the rewards are high. However, the conditions are very demanding. Not only do the materials have to be completely intact, but they also have to be very fresh. Who in the world can achieve that?”

Xiao Chen looked carefully for a mission that suited him. However, he could not find any that satisfied him. Either the rewards were too low or the conditions were too demanding.

Hey, killing loose cultivators? Xiao Chen’s eyes lit up as he pulled out a mission from the stack. This page spoke about a city at the edge of the Supreme Sky Province.

Recently, a batch of loose cultivators—all Inferior Grade Martial Monarchs—had robbed half of the four great clans in that city, moving as swift as the wind.

Not only did these loose cultivators rob these clans of all their wealth, but they also killed everyone in those clans, man, woman, young, and old. Their victims all had their chests and bellies split open, alarming everyone in the city.

The objective of this mission was to kill this group of loose cultivators. The reward was a thousand contribution points and fifty thousand Superior Grade Spirit Stones.

Xiao Chen smiled faintly and held up this mission in his hands. He said, “You are the one.”

This mission would allow Xiao Chen to evaluate his own progress and obtain a reward. It was like this mission was tailor-made for him.

The Supreme Sky Province was vast and boundless. Just this one province was several times larger than the Tianwu Continent’s Great Jin Nation.

Within this province, there were nine large cities, hundreds of middle-sized cities, and thousands of small cities. Dingshui City was one of the small cities.

Dingshui City was by the border between the Supreme Sky Province and White Feather Province. The White Feather Province was similarly vast, and the Rank 8 sect Rising Sky Pavilion ruled over it.

If the Rising Sky Pavilion were elsewhere, given their strength, they would definitely be the tyrant of their region.

However, the Supreme Sky Sect was too close. As the saying goes, “A mountain cannot contain two tigers.” There could only be one tyrant in each region. Thus, the Supreme Sky Sect constantly suppressed them, stealing all their thunder.

Supreme Sky City was very far from Dingshui City—a few million kilometers away. The suppression from the Kunlun Realm’s rules reduced Xiao Chen’s speed by more than twenty percent.

If Xiao Chen were to rely on himself to fly over, even if he flew day and night without eating or drinking, he would take at least a month to make a round trip. Clearly, that would not be worthwhile.

Fortunately, the transportation formations that were very rare in the Sky Dome Realm were not rare at all in the Kunlun Realm.

These transportation formations were Immortal Cultivation secrets that were not passed on. After several seniors of the Kunlun Realm spent several thousand years of research, they had made some headway.

These seniors were able to replicate the effect of the transportation formations. However, these did not achieve a perfect duplication, and the cost was very high.

Even with the Supreme Sky Sect’s wealth, they only laid down such formations in the nine large cities of the Supreme Sky Province, as well as within the sect itself—a total of ten.

However, even so, those formations made travel much more convenient for cultivators. Xiao Chen only needed to be sent to Sky Mound City via one such formation and then continue on a flying Spirit Beast. He would be able to reach Dingshui City in five days.

After Xiao Chen accepted the mission, he did not waste any time. He immediately turned towards the Transportation Plaza. Just when he was about to head over, someone called out to him to stop him.

“Brother Xiao, you are here to accept a mission as well?”

In the very crowded Mission Hall, Zhuo Yushi quickly headed over to Xiao Chen with a joyful expression and a group of people.

Xiao Chen turned his head to look and discovered that Zhuo Yushi’s Quintessence was now withdrawn, and he had fallen from late-stage Inferior Grade Martial Monarch back to early-stage Inferior Grade Martial Monarch.

However, Zhuo Yushi’s aura was much sharper than before. Compared to half a month ago, the difference was like night and day.

Clearly, Zhuo Yushi was very satisfied with his cultivation. As he walked, Xiao Chen could feel him exuding an indistinct self-confidence.

However, when Zhuo Yushi saw Xiao Chen’s cultivation, he was tremendously astonished. Xiao Chen now did not leak any aura; there was no trace of it. Xiao Chen’s cultivation was unfathomable like a pool of limpid autumn water.

Xiao Chen was clearly only a middle-stage Inferior Grade Martial Monarch, but the purity of his Quintessence was much stronger than Zhuo Yushi’s.

That is not possible. If Xiao Chen consumed the Quintessence Gathering Pill, his cultivation should have regressed to early-stage Inferior Grade Martial Monarch. How come his cultivation is much higher than mine?

Could this be the result of a Superior Grade Quintessence Gathering Pill? That is the only possibility.

“Xiao Chen, you already consumed your Superior Grade Quintessence Gathering Pill?” Zhuo Yushi asked.

Xiao Chen was slightly upset when Zhuo Yushi revealed in public that Xiao Chen had a Superior Grade Quintessence Gathering Pill.

However, he understood Zhuo Yushi’s personality. He knew that Zhuo Yushi was a blabbermouth and had not done so on purpose. So, Xiao Chen did not lose his temper. He simply nodded. “You could say that.”

When the group of people behind Zhuo Yushi heard that Xiao Chen used a Superior Grade Quintessence Gathering Pill, a strange look unconsciously appeared in their eyes.

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