Chapter 298

An unprovoked disaster?

Li Rui looked at Nie Siming, who was galloping away, and shook his head with a smile.

He also understood why Jiang Linxian would do this.

It was nothing more than helping him build momentum in the Marquis's Prefecture.

Otherwise, he really thought he could easily become an instructor for the Marquis's Prefecture and sit in Marquis Yuan's carriage; it was all because of the groundwork laid long ago.

But gaining fame also meant bearing the backlash that came with it.

With Marquis Yuan pressing down, although Nie Siming didn't like him, there wouldn't be any life-threatening danger.

Since it had nothing to do with life or death.

Then it was all a small matter, especially compared to what he had gained.

Just suffering a little anger.

And didn't you hear? Nie Siming would only act after he broke through to Primordial; such a particular, principled enemy was hard to find even with a lantern.

Cao Wei walked to Li Rui with a smile: "Brother Li, it's fine; if you can really break through to Primordial, it's worth it even if you get beaten up."

Li Rui didn't get beaten up many times.

He naturally had to cherish it.

Li Rui deeply agreed:

"Brother Cao's words make sense."

If getting beaten up could make one a Primordial, he could even ask to be beaten twice.

After all, the reward was too great and the cost too small; he was worried it was fake.

Qinghe City, East Market Demon Pen.

As more and more people did demon beast business in Qinghe, the Trade Office specifically set up a Demon Pen in the East Market to detain demon beasts.

"Keep your eyes open; know what should be provoked and what shouldn't."

"Don't distinguish the danger coefficient of demon beasts by their appearance."

"Otherwise, you will die very miserably."

It was time for the Demon Pen to take in new people again.

Generally speaking, the old hands would explain the rules clearly to these newcomers; it wasn't that they were worried these people would steal the demon beasts, but that people disappeared from the Demon Pen every once in a while.

Later, it was investigated that they were all swallowed alive by the demon beasts.

The Demon Pen didn't want to lose another sum of silver for no reason.

Although the old hands at the Demon Pen only talked for about a quarter of an hour and then left, leaving only a few new Demon Pen laborers staring at each other.

It wasn't that they were irresponsible.

But the old hands at the Demon Pen all knew that saying more was useless.

Whether one could survive depended on comprehension, or luck.

"Let's go, it was said that the Demon Pen must be cleaned up tonight, otherwise the first day's wages will be gone."

Upon hearing about wages.

The teenagers all became excited.

The Demon Pen was dangerous, but the pay was extremely generous; otherwise, how could they squeeze their heads to come to the Demon Pen knowing the danger?

In a corner the teenagers hadn't noticed.

A red-haired fox that looked harmless slowly raised its head.

"Lord Li, see if the share of the Demon Pen can be increased again."

"You also know that people often die in this Demon Pen, and the pension silver is not a small expense."

In the Trade Office.

Yan Zhongxing looked at Li Rui with a smile.

Now the Demon Pen had become the main source of income for the Trade Office, and Li Rui occupied a full forty percent of the demon beast business in the city.

Most of the management fees for the Demon Pen were paid by the Tiandi Alliance.

Which was paid by Li Rui.

As an official of the Ministry of Revenue, he naturally knew to be polite to the big gold master, not to mention that Li Rui, like him, was a Fifth-Rank official.

Li Rui laughed: "Lord Yan, business is business; the Tiandi Alliance has already paid quite a bit, and you know I'm an honest person, I don't earn much; why not ask other families."

Yan Zhongxing rolled his eyes secretly in his heart.

Honest?

Don't earn much?

Others might not know, but how could he not know? If we talk about this demon beast business alone, the Tiandi Alliance is the undisputed number one in Qinghe.

It's just that the Tiandi Alliance acts low-key, so outsiders think they are suppressed by the other major sects.

In fact, they have always been making a fortune in silence.

But no matter how Yan Zhongxing talked, Li Rui would never loosen his mouth.

He was an official serving in the Imperial Court.

And he had been a Trade Captain in the Trade Office for a long time; he knew the ropes too well.

People die for wealth, birds die for food.

People died in the Demon Pen for silver.

And even if he increased the share, it would just feed those masters, managers, etc., and wouldn't flow into the hands of those doing the work at all.

Just as it was said in the past life, there is no killing without trading.

What Li Rui could do.

Was to instruct the disciples of the Tiandi Alliance to be more attentive and restrain themselves.

And then pay out of his own pocket; if it were an old person in Qinghe, he would let Yang Yong send it over; there was no other way.

Even if he didn't do the demon beast business, others would do it.

'Blame this world if you want.'

Since it's business, naturally one cannot let go of profit at will.

Otherwise, once you loosen your mouth.

There will be a second time after the first, and the price of the Demon Pen will rise again and again.

The loss is the money in Li Rui's own pocket.

Li Rui took advantage of Yan Zhongxing's dry mouth from talking to drink tea, and only then spoke: "Lord Yan, this Demon Pen is still too imperfect; I heard that many demon beasts died in the Demon Pen; this won't do."

"If this continues, I'll have to build my own Demon Pen."

Yan Zhongxing heard this, and the teacup in his hand was put down immediately.

Build his own?

That would never be agreed to!

"Lord Li, it's all because those subordinates don't know their strength; I'll go talk to them."

"Rest assured."

Smiling apologetically.

Li Rui narrowed his eyes: "Then I'll trouble Lord Yan; you also know that I don't have the final say in the Tiandi Alliance; if the other Alliance Leaders aren't happy, there's nothing I can do."

Yan Zhongxing sneered in his heart.

Don't have the final say?

Don't look at the Tiandi Alliance having a bunch of Alliance Leaders; the only one who truly has the final say now is Li Rui.

The others have become high-level thugs.

'Old fox.'

He cursed secretly in his heart, but his face was still apologetic: "Lord Li, put your heart in your stomach."

Then sighed lightly:

"You also know that these demon beasts are all cruel; just yesterday, a wave of newcomers came, and as a result, another one died."

"Difficult, difficult, difficult."

Yan Zhongxing shook his head.

After wasting half a day of boring time, Li Rui finally found an excuse to leave the Trade Office; otherwise, with Yan Zhongxing's glib tongue, he could have kept talking until dusk, and then he would have to be dragged to drink, which would be another boring, dull, and uninteresting day. 'Still, practicing martial arts is more interesting.'

Late at night.

Li Rui finished his qi circulation, a green lamp, a scroll of ancient books.

Reading with great interest.

The book in his hand was collected by the Imperial Observatory, a notebook left by a great cultivator of a major sect in ancient times.

Most of it was strange anecdotes.

Li Rui read these stories of Immortal Kings and Immortal Maidens with great relish.

There was also a lot of useful information.

Just like this passage before his eyes.

"Nurturing the sinews and marrow with the energy of an Immortal King can increase the perception of the energy of heaven and earth, and improve spirit roots."

【No errors, all content checked!】

Simply put, in ancient times, one could ask an Immortal King to channel energy to improve spirit roots.

But now there are no Immortal Kings at all.

The books of the Imperial Observatory have almost been flipped through, but the methods of improving spirit roots recorded inside are almost impossible to achieve; improving spirit roots was an extremely difficult thing even in ancient times.

Not to mention that he was upgrading from a middle-grade spirit root to a high-grade spirit root, which was even more difficult.

High-grade spirit roots were already considered geniuses even in ancient times when spiritual energy was abundant.

Not to mention now that spiritual energy is exhausted.

'Difficult, difficult, difficult.'

Although Li Rui had expectations in his heart, when things couldn't be done, it was hard to avoid feeling regret.

'Middle-grade spirit roots are already quite good, especially compared to those old demons in the storybooks of the past life who started from low-grade spirit roots.'

Li Rui put down the ancient book.

And fell asleep.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he arrived at the Dreamland Cloud Terrace, where someone was already waiting.

It was precisely Yuan Xiong.

Yuan Xiong wanted to spar with him to improve his martial arts, but now he was being simulated by Li Rui in his dreams.

He was a Primordial martial artist who had suppressed his realm, which was the best practice object for Li Rui.

Practicing with Yuan Xiong, the moves he comprehended could be used in actual combat, checking for gaps and making up for them.

Yuan Xiong could only hit him once.

But he could hit Yuan Xiong a thousand times, ten thousand times.

So actually, Li Rui earned it.

"Come."

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, a long blade appeared in his hand, and in the blink of an eye, two figures collided in mid-air.

Late at night.

In a small alley outside the Anning Guard, in a corner no one cared about, a small fire-red fox was looking at the high city wall of the Anning Guard with bright eyes.

'Jiao aura.'

It muttered in its heart.

'Looks like that little Bai Jiao is inside.'

'Finally found it.'

A human-like cold smile appeared on the fox's face.

Old people living under the mountain all know the saying 'Fox, Yellow, White, Willow, Gray,' which refers to foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes, and rats—animals that understand human nature and should not be provoked at will, otherwise they will bring disaster.

This point actually also applies to demon beasts.

Fox-type demon beasts generally have much higher intelligence than other demon beasts.

It was deliberately caught by the demon hunters of the Wu Kingdom and then sent to Qinghe.

It was ordered by the Demon Lord to come to Qinghe to find the son of the old jiao in the Ten Thousand Mountains, the little Bai Jiao.

Then capture the little Bai Jiao and hand it over to the City Lord of Giant Stone City.

As for why the City Lord didn't act himself.

On one hand, the sensing between demon beasts is sharper, and on the other hand, Qinghe has many experts, and coupled with the previous city-attacking incident, the inspection of Wu Kingdom people is extremely strict, making it too difficult to mix into the city.

That was why the Giant Stone City City Lord used a jiao scale to ask the Demon Lord to send the demon beasts under his command into Qinghe to inquire about the little Bai Jiao's news.

The little fox licked its lips:

'The taste of humans is really not bad.'

Last night.

It couldn't help but eat a human in the Demon Pen; fortunately, it did it secretly enough, so no one could discover it.

'Should go back.'

The little fox looked at the sky and thought.

Then it turned and disappeared into the depths of the alley; a moment later, it returned to the Demon Pen as if nothing had happened.

Backyard.

The room was glowing red, not from firelight, but from Elder Tiekuang's burning Fierce Fire True Qi.

Just like before.

Li Rui placed his hands on Elder Tiekuang's back.

The Military Saint's true intent was frantically injected into Elder Tiekuang's body.

The clanging sound of forging iron rang out continuously.

Today, Elder Tiekuang's state was far better than before, his gaze incomparably focused, and even carried a trace of fanaticism.

A full half-hour passed.

The fire-red true qi spat out from Elder Tiekuang's mouth gradually disappeared.

Li Rui suddenly felt a pain in his heart.

He had seen this scene too many times; whenever Elder Tiekuang's true qi stopped, it meant another piece of divine iron was wasted; this was already the fourth piece of divine iron, and even with Li Rui's family fortune, he couldn't hold on.

Forging an Immortal Weapon doesn't just test a forger's skill, but also their family fortune.

Those without money simply can't afford to forge an Immortal Weapon.

Li Rui's money was all borrowed in advance from the Tiandi Alliance in his capacity as Alliance Leader; truly, half the Tiandi Alliance was supporting one Alliance Leader.

Just when he thought today was over.

Elder Tiekuang reached out his hand behind him and shouted:

"Jiao scale, quick!"

The words clearly carried urgency.

Li Rui and Liu Tiezhu were both startled; so many times, this was the first time Elder Tiekuang had asked for that great jiao's scale.

Liu Tiezhu hurriedly took the jiao scale from a box on the side and ran over to hand it to Elder Tiekuang.

Elder Tiekuang didn't even look at it and threw it directly into the furnace.

Afterwards.

He spat out true qi again, and the room was suddenly filled with firelight.

Calcining the jiao scale.

This process lasted for a full day and night.

Even with the strength of Elder Tiekuang's Primordial martial artist's true qi, he couldn't hold on.

Fatigue was clearly visible on his face.

But his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

He turned to look at Li Rui, excited to the extreme:

"Quick, inject your essence blood into this blade embryo."

"I want to use the Blood Sacrifice Method!"

(End of chapter)