On the second day of the campaign to earn Contribution by slaying Shengxue Cult members...
Early in the morning, Elder Su, the presiding elder of the General Affairs Hall, rushed to the outside of Bai Yujing's courtyard to cry poverty.
“Chief! Chief! We can't keep handing out Contribution like this! If this goes on, our academy will go bankrupt!”
What do you know? If we don't deal with the ticking time bomb that is the Shengxue Cult, the academy will be wiped out completely...
Zhuang Xun nodded slightly and asked, “How many more days can the academy hold out?”
“At most... at most a week!” Elder Su said. “Chief, we really can't go on like this. The academy truly doesn't have much silver left. If we continue, we won't even be able to afford resources for the newly admitted disciples.”
Who are you trying to fool? How could the academy only last a few days? If worse comes to worst, you can always go out and sell your body... Sigh, fine, fine. Let me use the mind-blowing thinking of a modern person to give you some ideas on how to make money.
Zhuang Xun said, “Elder Su, please have someone deliver one sample of each resource Master previously purchased to the Yujing Courtyard. I will find a way to handle the money issue.”
Soon, Zhuang Xun received the ice soul and celestial meteoric iron that Elder Su had mentioned the day before yesterday.
He first picked up the ice soul, which looked no different from an icy bead.
As soon as he held it, he felt an extremely piercing cold. A thin layer of ice immediately formed on his fingers that made contact with the ice soul.
However, as the blood qi inside Zhuang Xun's body automatically surged, the chill was instantly pushed out, and the layer of ice on his fingers melted away in a flash.
“Hmm, the chill combats the blood qi inside the body, and this opposition has the effect of tempering blood qi. However, it is indeed too cold. I'm fine, but if ordinary disciples were to try it, they would probably be frozen solid.”
Zhuang Xun placed the ice soul back on the table.
The table began to freeze again, the ice spreading outward, and the temperature inside the room visibly and rapidly plummeted.
“If set up properly so that the drop in temperature is controllable, it could also serve to temper the disciples' blood qi. However, the academy doesn't seem to have any masters in this field.”
Zhuang Xun didn't understand it either and couldn't be bothered to waste his mental energy figuring it out, so he immediately abandoned the idea of building training rooms for the disciples.
“So how can this ice soul be used? Air conditioning? Popsicles? That seems too luxurious. Let's see if anyone wants to buy them, and I'll sell them all, leaving just one for myself.”
With that thought, Zhuang Xun picked up the glowing crystal next to it.
"Celestial meteoric iron" was just a general term for stones that fell from the sky; the actual scientific name of this crystal was heavy essence, which made anyone who came close to it feel their body grow heavy.
When Zhuang Xun held it, he did feel his body grow significantly heavier, with varying degrees of weight from his directly touching fingertips to his head, which was the furthest away.
He weighed it and felt that the disciples of the Lower Three Ranks wouldn't be able to handle this weight. If built into a training room, probably only disciples of the Middle Three Ranks would be able to use it.
“Oh? I can have someone use this heavy essence to forge a spear for me.”
The more Zhuang Xun thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. A spear with its own gravity would definitely catch enemies off guard in battle.
He had already thought of a name: the Profound Heavy Spear.
Suddenly, Zhuang Xun felt something was wrong with his body.
He activated his Spiritual Sight to sense himself and the heavy essence. His expression instantly changed, and he immediately threw the heavy essence away.
“Holy shit! Radiation!”
He felt a lingering fear. Thank goodness he had discovered it early. Otherwise, if he had actually used this stuff to build a training room in the academy, the next generation of the academy would have turned into deformed mutants.
If a transmigrator came over a hundred years from now and took a look, they might suspect they had transmigrated into the world of One Piece.
“That old geezer is so unreliable.”
“This heavy essence has absolutely no utility value. Disguising it as a product and selling it would be pure harm. I can only see if anyone wants to buy the raw material as is.”
Zhuang Xun wrapped up the unlucky object, instructed the arriving disciple to store all the heavy essence in a remote area far from human habitation, and then began to change his clothes.
He was going to pay a visit to Jingshui Mountain in a moment to see if he could negotiate and retrieve the goods intercepted by Jingshui Mountain.
...
The strength of Jingshui Mountain was similar to that of Mount Dazhou, also possessing only four Zenith martial artists.
However, unlike the situation on Mount Dazhou, there was only one faction on Jingshui Mountain: the Jingshui Sect.
At this moment, inside the guest hall of the Jingshui Sect, Zhuang Xun was negotiating with the senior management of the Jingshui Sect.
“Sect Master Yu, a batch of goods that our academy previously left in your esteemed territory, I wonder if...”
“We will return them!”
“Sect Master Yu, I wonder if your esteemed sect is in need of ice souls? Our academy has...”
“We are!”
“Sect Master Yu, would you require heavy essence?”
“We want it!”
“Hmm... this heavy essence has some minor side effects...”
“We aren't afraid!”
“Cough, cough! Sect Master!”
Reminded by the Grand Elder beside her, Sect Master Yu, who was over thirty years old but whose eyes and skin were as pure and fair as a young girl's, slightly reined in her gaze which had been staring straight at Bai Yujing, and said with restraint:
“Ahem, what I meant is that our sect is aware of the heavy essence's side effects and has ways to deal with them. Chief Disciple Bai need not worry for us.”
Zhuang Xun stood up and bowed solemnly. “Your esteemed sect's strength is unfathomable. I, Yujing, admire you greatly, and I would also like to thank Sect Master Yu for your magnanimity.”
“No need, no need, hehehe.”
“Cough, cough! Sect Master!”
“Oh!” Sect Master Yu also quickly stood up, smiled slightly, and said, “Chief Disciple Bai is too polite. Our sect and your esteemed academy are neighbors, and helping each other is only natural.”
Afterward, Zhuang Xun and Sect Master Yu agreed on the trade price. At her warm invitation, he attended a banquet and only left the Jingshui Sect the following day.
On the way back to Mount Dazhou, Elder Su kept looking at Bai Yujing, who was quietly drinking tea, with a strange expression.
After holding it in for a long time, he finally couldn't help but say, “Hehe, Chief, I know where there are other sects nearby with female sect masters.”
Are you treating me like a gigolo? Zhuang Xun glanced up at him and ignored him.
Afterward, Zhuang Xun returned to Zechuan City and visited the seven great families, as well as some reputable noble families below them.
Each family expressed strong support for the Wanxing Martial Academy's campaign to eradicate the Shengxue Cult and offered large amounts of wealth and resources as assistance.
Only the City Lord's Manor expressed dissatisfaction, feeling that the Wanxing Martial Academy's actions had crossed the line, and sent an envoy to question them.
Zhuang Xun didn't even meet the envoy before having him thrown out.
He was spending time and effort to purge the Shengxue Cult and bring peace back to Mount Dazhou. Although more than half the reason was for his own sake, judging by deeds rather than motives, his actions were a righteous deed for the people of Mount Dazhou. The idiot City Lord's Manor had ignored the issue in the past, yet now they wanted to act like spoiled brats after benefiting from his actions.
Not satisfied? Then deal with it!
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