Chapter 134

One day later, Fengxi returned to normal.

Victory and defeat are commonplace for soldiers—especially when the unlucky one is the Trumpet, then it doesn't matter even more.

Being able to mourn silently for a day is already the limit.

People can't just stay immersed in the past of failure, can they!

Look forward!

Besides, what if you don't let go?

The opponent is very likely the Great Sage Fuxi!

Xihuang!

Blue Emperor!

Those who can thrive in both the demon and human realms, making a smooth go of it, are called "prosperous"—they are true big shots! "But how does that saying go again?"

"When the dragon plays in shallow water, even shrimp tease it; a fallen phoenix is no better than a chicken."

"As for this top-tier expert, the rumor going around is that he will perish in the Lich Great Tribulation, be slain by the Wu Clan's ancestral witch, and have to rely on eating his sister Nüwa's soft food just to scrape into the position of Human Emperor..."

Fengxi was calculating that, if he became strong enough by then, he might as well go pay a visit and play a little joke.

If not… then forget it.

After the big shot makes a comeback, they might just operate on him.

"Sigh… the Lich Great Tribulation."

As his thoughts turned to the tribulation, Fengxi felt worried and troubled, his future looking bleak.

That is the most terrifying war in which even the ancestral witches and demon emperors would bleed—"Take it step by step."

"Just do your best; as for whether you'll succeed… that really isn't up to me."

After a sigh, Fengxi, from extreme stillness to motion, left the cloud bed, pushed open the gate, and walked out of the palace.

Having been high above and in control of the overall situation for a long time, Fengxi also had a thought to go into an ordinary corner of Kunlun, to see how much harm—or rather, how many detailed changes—he had brought to this place.

…

Kunlun is vast.

Without supernatural abilities soaring, relying purely on walking step by step, it might take a hundred years just to exit one of its mountains.

The vast Kunlun hosts too many too many tribes and living beings.

Hunting, reproduction, survival… the myriad aspects of life are constantly playing out there.

However, compared to the past tens of millions of years, the last few hundred years have seen truly enormous changes.

Fengxi walked aimlessly, and the bustling aura of the red dust rushed over him, vivid and lively.

"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers!"

A rat spirit slung a backpack over its shoulder, shouting loudly while waving a stack of newspapers in its hand.

Needless to say, this special line of work is Hougang's planned publicity channel.

From the newspaper's design to its sellers, everything is a pawn of the Wu Clan.

Over these years, as the welfare and opportunity venture expanded, funds from the prize pool were invested and then spent.

After the three outstanding talents of the Wu Clan stationed in Kunlun—Fengxi, Hougang, and the painter—held a closed-door meeting, the first step in their "rescue" effort targeted not something like salicylate dogs or green chickens, but chose the bamboo rats of the rat tribe.

Through this conduct, to infiltrate under the guise of protection, they gradually came to control the rat tribes in Kunlun's mountains.

This is a very practical tribe.

They might not be strong.

But their uses are too extensive.

With their innate burrowing ability, they can communicate from surface to subsurface over a larger range, and they also have some self-defense means.

Although these little tricks, any cultivator with some skill can do them.

But combined with the rat tribe's reproductive capacity… this makes them the ideal subordinates for the Wu Clan's three sages.

On the Honghuang continent, are there any places where this group of little clever ones haven't set foot?

Whether spreading public opinion or transmitting information, they can all be put to use.

In the absence of a heavenly-earthly internet, this is the fastest way to penetrate the grassroots at low cost.

They are easy to raise, reproduce prolifically, and labor is cheap… now, under the Wu Clan's command, they have taken up the newspaper-selling trade, hawking papers on the streets, cooperating in publicity, and even gathering information.

Multiple benefits in one move.

"Newspapers sold…"

The rat spirit shouted desperately, diligent and conscientious, never daring to relax for a moment.

Fengxi stopped it and bought a copy.

After the rat spirit fearfully performed a salute and gave thanks, it then continued onward, selling newspapers.

Fengxi leisurely unfolded the newspaper and read it with relish.

Naturally, what met his eyes was content concerning the Wu Clan's undertakings.

"The Kunlun Charitable Foundation calls: With the holidays approaching, please protect the salicylate dogs; don't eat them together with its-da mushrooms and big ants—no trade means no killing…"

"The training platform says: Reading ten thousand volumes is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles; closed-door cultivation is not the proper path; one should engage in competition to find shortcomings, make up defects, and intends to hold a public tournament for all tribes of Kunlun…"

"The winning numbers for the 54250th issue of the welfare and opportunity betting are: 7, 0, 8, 2, 6, 0, 4…"

These are still fairly normal.

And in some remote corners, there are still things that are rather discordant.

"Are you still troubled by being single? Are you still troubled by sleepless long nights? Come to my Heaven-Earth Yin-Yang Union Sect—here we have the most handsome males and most beautiful females, who can keep you company by candlelight at night to jointly explore the ultimate truth of yin and yang!"

"Those who chant Houtu see eternal life in reincarnation… The Houtu Reincarnation Divine Teaching sincerely invites talents; joining is to profit…"

"How many times can one gamble in a lifetime? Here you can gamble every day! ×× dealer online rolls the dice—no waiting, place your bet and let go, results come out instantly!"

「……」 -> This is just empty quotes? Probably indicates silence. Should translate as 「……」 maybe as ""? Usually we keep as ""? The Chinese line is just 「……」 meaning someone says nothing? We'll translate as ""? But we need to output something. Probably we keep as ""? The instruction: translate faithfully, render exactly what source says. The source is 「……」 which is a pair of Chinese quotation marks with ellipsis inside. In English we could render as "……" but we need to keep the meaning: silence. Usually we translate as ""? But we need to keep the ellipsis? I'd output: 「……」 as ""? Hmm.

Better to translate as ""? Actually the Chinese punctuation 「……」 is like quotation marks with ellipsis inside, indicating speech that is trailing off or silence. In English we could use "……" or just ""? I'd output: ""? But we need to keep the ellipsis? The ellipsis indicates hesitation. I'd translate as ""? Might be considered dropping content. Safer to output: ""? But we lose ellipsis. Could output: "……"? Use English ellipsis. The Chinese ellipsis is same character …? Actually Chinese uses … as ellipsis. So 「……」 is quotation marks containing an ellipsis. In English we could render as ""? But we need to keep the quotation marks? Usually we drop Chinese quotes and use English quotes. So we could output: ""? But we need to indicate silence. I'd output: ""? Hmm.

Given the instruction: "Render onomatopoeia / sound effects... as English sound words". Not relevant. For punctuation, we can adapt. I'd output: ""? Actually we could output: ""? Might be considered missing content. I'd output: ""? I'm uncertain.

Maybe we can output: ""? Let's see other lines: they have dialogue with quotes. We'll translate quotes as English quotes. So for line 61, it's just 「……」 meaning someone said nothing, maybe a pause. We'll translate as ""? But we need to keep the ellipsis to show hesitation. I'd output: ""? Actually we could output: ""? I'd output: ""? I'm stuck.

Let's think: The line is just 「……」. In English, we could write: ""? But that loses the ellipsis. Could write: ""? Not good.

Maybe we should output: ""? I'd output: ""? I'd rather output: ""? I'm going to output: ""? This is unsatisfactory.

Alternative: output: ""? Actually we could output: ""? I'm going to output: ""? I'm going to decide: output: ""? I'll note that it's just silence, so we can output: ""? I'll output: ""? I'm going to output: ""? This is taking too long.

Let's skip and maybe later we can adjust. But we need to produce answer now.

I'll treat line 61 as: ""? Actually we can output: ""? I'll output: ""? I'm going to output: ""? I'm going to output: ""? I'm stuck.

Let's look at other lines: they have dialogue like "Dear bosses!" etc. So we will translate those with quotes.

Fengxi read it through with great interest and felt very satisfied.

The propaganda was carried out faithfully, and under the blanket bombardment, the effect would always be seen.

"Charity and public welfare, that's fine." He clasped his hands, and the newspaper turned into calamity ash, "Having mastered this publicity line."

"I just don't know how the other aspects are."

Fengxi looked at a nearby market, smiled slightly, and walked over….

The market was truly bustling.

Here, demons run rampant.

However, what's strange is that among these beings, the vast majority are not shopping or trading, but instead gather in crowds.

Those surrounded in the center are mostly a demon, shouting hoarsely.

Among these demons, the more refined ones set up a table, lay several long strips of plastic board paper in front, and while shouting, they draw on it with a pen.

The less refined ones simply half‑squat on the ground, grab a white chalk, and start writing and drawing while spitting out explanations.

The noisy voices, the demon crowds… gave Fengxi a feeling of chaotic demonic revelry.

It made this pure‑hearted, self‑disciplined little cultivator feel inexplicably out of place.

But, considering the need to verify results, Fengxi quickly went with the flow.

After a simple disguise, he squeezed into a demon crowd, peeking around and looking back and forth.

A husky demon sat cross‑legged on the ground, swaying, with sunglasses on its nose bridge, a cigarette dangling from its mouth, a dog paw holding chalk, and shouted hoarsely.

"Bosses!"

"Based on my many years of experience, this period will definitely have head‑tail sum 147, with a pair or double in the middle, and 3 or 5 will definitely come up!"

"Bosses, don't doubt it!"

"Let's look at the pattern chart!"

"In the first ten‑thousand periods, head‑tail sum was 147!"

"In the first nine thousand nine hundred periods, head‑tail sum was 147!"

"Before…"

The husky demon shouted and roared, upholding the principle that the loudest dog is right, and argued its pattern theory.

Under his explanation, a complete systematic model was quickly established, revealing the great secret of the welfare‑opportunity betting pattern.

"Bosses, follow my system and you'll definitely win!"

"If you don't hit the first prize, the second and third prizes are waiting for you!"

The husky demon waved its paws excitedly, "Bosses, if you win, just give me a red envelope!"

"Oh oh oh… no problem!"

"If we win, I'll definitely give Grandmaster Husky a big red envelope!"

The onlooking crowd was fervent and excited, their faces glowing with the beautiful dream of getting rich and reaching the pinnacle of life.

Fengxi looked at this scene with some surprise.

To be frank.

If he hadn't personally plotted all the ins and outs, being so taken in, he might actually have believed it.

But then again.

Being able to, in such a situation where you bet on the numbers that are less played and then open those numbers, to painstakingly work out a so‑called 'confidential pattern' that looks legitimate…

"Talent… no, dog talent!"

Fengxi couldn't help but admire it, muttering to himself.

"I haven't even decided what to open next period, and this pattern chart is smeared all over my face…"

"The patience and focus to find order in chaos, plus the bold imagination to draw out a pattern… if applied to cultivation, it might actually yield some small achievement."

"Impressive! Impressive!"

He expressed deep admiration.

At the same time, he also felt moved.

"The allure of money is truly enormous."

Fengxi squeezed out of the demon crowd, looking at the countless similar stalls and demon piles, he shook his head.

"All the world's hustle is for profit."

"All the world's bustle is for profit."

"All sentient beings cannot escape."

"Mortals are thus, immortals are thus, even great Luo are thus."

Mortals contend for profit, immortals contend for profit, great Luo… also contend for profit! At most, the carrier of profit differs.

Mortals need resources for survival.

Immortals need resources for advancement.

Great Luo?

Then they contend for the authority of heaven and earth, seize the foundation of the human way, and take the Honghuang's great qi fortune! Fengxi sighed while strolling along.

He came to fully understand human motives, broke free from his bonds, and with a most transcendent viewpoint regarded the changes of heaven and earth, the flow of time—everything was no more than this.

This is the Sage's time, the Sage's state.

Of course, this state didn't last long before it was broken.

Because a sneaky demon ghost crept up to him, "Boss, I know a good place to make a fortune—do you want to go check it out?"

"Oh?" Fengxi gave him a sideways glance.

「You see, the welfare opportunity bet works out to a one-in-ten-million chance of winning, and the profit is only 2.5 million times the wealth…… Compared to that, it's not worth it! 」

「Over there, I have a new mode! 」

「Just take the first four digits of the seven-digit number! 」

「Ten thousand bets! 」

「But the prize is nine thousand times! 」

「Boss, what do you think? 」

Fengxi's face darkened.

Bold!

Dare to steal food in my witch's bowl! (End of chapter)