Chapter 76: Public and Personal

Su Chen’s vision swirled psychedelically as he entered the Dreamrealm.

Su Chen had once again arrived at the Dreamrealm Castle. He had just appeared when Dream Spirit Lulu also appeared next to him.

She said with one hand on her hip, “These are today’s commissions.”

A screen of light appeared in front of Su Chen.

Su Chen received it. They were all knowledge-related questions, and they weren’t very difficult. Most importantly, the rewards they offered were quite substantial.

Su Chen laughed and answered the questions and then returned it to Lulu.

Lulu giggled, “Done.”

She waved her hands, and a trace of light flashed across Su Chen’s body.

Near his wrist, four black streaks formed a pattern near his wrist, displaying that he was now a Tier Four Dream Guest.

The tiers of privilege within the Dreamrealm were the opposite of contemporary Origin Tool tiers. The ranking of Origin Tools imitated the hierarchy of officials in the human race; the smaller the number was, the better the tool was. The tiers of privilege within the Dreamrealm, on the other hand, increased as the number grew larger.

Su Chen was originally a Tier One Dream Guest, but over a period of time he had finally increased his privilege tier to Tier Four.

This increase was not to be looked down on.

Within the Dreamrealm, a large price needed to be paid to raise one’s privilege tier by even a single tier.

Su Chen only reached Tier Four in the past few days not because of his own efforts but because of Meng Lan’s help.

This was part of the deal that Su Chen had struck with Meng Lan.

Meng Lan really didn’t like the fact that someone had concealed Su Chen’s notice. After all, the dissemination of Kaihuang’s Heaven implied a large profit.

But she was forbidden from interfering because of the rules, which was why she had requested that Su Chen raise his privilege tier. The higher Su Chen’s privilege tier was, the more the other party would need to pay to conceal Su Chen’s notice. If Su Chen also reached the Dream Monarch tier, then the other party would no longer have any way of preventing Su Chen from broadcasting his notices.

It was under these circumstances that they had started their alliance.

Su Chen would go to the Dream Castle everyday. As long as he came, there would be a list of commissions that were easy to resolve, yet had high rewards, waiting for him.

All of these commissions were given to him by Meng Lan, but only Su Chen could see them. Because of this, he was able to earn large amounts of Dream Droplets.

However, these Dream Droplets did not belong to him because they were instantly taken by Meng Lan to raise his privilege tier.

From this aspect, Meng Lan hadn’t paid any price, but Su Chen did not suffer any losses either. At the very least, he was constantly raising his privilege tier.

Unfortunately, if they were too extravagant with this method, it would be easily detected, and someone might lodge a complaint against her to the Lord of the Dreamrealm. Thus, Meng Lan didn’t dare be too audacious, and she only helped Su Chen increase his status bit by bit.

“Great!” Upon seeing that Su Chen’s privilege tier had increased once again, Lulu giggled, “From this point on, the person that wants to conceal your notice will need to spend even more money to suppress it. Hehe, I hope this guy will give up soon.”

“What privilege tier do you think I need to reach before the other party is forced to give in?”

“That’s hard to say.” Lulu rubbed her chin. “The Castle Lady says that it depends on the other party’s strength. If they are very powerful, they could probably continue to suppress you even if you reach Dream Officer level. Thus, she has already arranged things so that you can reach the Dream Monarch level eventually. Even if we are just increasing the amount of money your opposer is spending right now, Meng Lan is still benefitting from it.”

As Lulu spoke, her large head bobbed up and down.

Su Chen was not surprised. If there was no benefit for her, why would Meng Lan be willing to help him?

“What if I reach the Dream Officer stage earlier?” Su Chen asked.

Lulu shook her head. “The Castle Lady cannot give you more aid than she has the authority to.”

“I’m saying by relying on myself.”

“Relying on yourself?” Lulu repeatedly shook her head. “That’s too difficult.”

“That may not be.” Su Chen laughed. He tapped his forehead, and a streak of light flew forth, entering Lulu’s body.

As the light entered Lulu’s body, she stopped moving, freezing in place.

An instant later, the world around Su Chen began to whirl. When he reappeared, he was standing in Meng Lan’s large hall.

Meng Lan was sitting atop the hall’s throne.

“Su Chen pays his respects to the Castle Lady.” Su Chen cupped his hands and bowed.

“Please, there’s no need to be so formal.” Meng Lan waved her hands and a screen of light appeared in front of her. Characters of light began to shine on the screen, and at the very top three1 large words were written: Adamantine Battle Body.

Meng Lan said, “Were you the one that created this Adamantine Battle Body Origin Skill?”

“That’s right!” Su Chen replied. He had just given Lulu the Adamantine Battle Body technique’s cultivation method.

“I have looked over the contents already, and it’s quite an impressive Origin Skill. To low-tier Origin Qi Scholars, it might even be considered an Absolute Technique. However, you are willing to disseminate it to the public?” Meng Lan clicked her tongue in admiration and with a certain degree of surprise.

“No matter how much of an Absolute Technique it is, can it compare to Kaihuang’s Heaven?” Su Chen asked.

“That’s true,” Meng Lan laughed. “Since you were willing to publically sell a secret technique like Kaihuang’s Heaven for only a hundred Dream Droplets, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you are willing to sell this Adamantine Battle Body technique. What are you thinking of pricing it at?”

Su Chen thought for a moment before he replied, “How about a thousand Dream Droplets?”

Meng Lan was caught off-guard.

“What? Is that not a fair price?” Su Chen asked.

“That’s not it,” Meng Lan laughed. “I just don’t understand why you would sell Kaihuang’s Heaven for only one hundred Dream Droplets and then sell the Adamantine Battle Body for a thousand.”

Truthfully, asking for a thousand Dream Droplets for an Origin Skill like the Adamantine Battle Body was not much at all. Meng Lan was only surprised because Su Chen had asked for much less when selling Kaihuang’s Heaven earlier.

There were people who would even be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of Dream Droplets for a skill that would allow someone without a bloodline to reach the Blood Boiling Realm.

Su Chen had only asked for a hundred simply to facilitate its dissemination.

If he wanted to spread it as far as he could, he would have to lower the cost. From the very beginning, Su Chen did not intend to profit much off of it.

Because of this, Meng Lan viewed Su Chen as “grand” and “selfless”, so upon hearing that Su Chen wanted a thousand Dream Droplets for the Adamantine Battle body, this completely ordinary price caught Lan a bit off guard.

Su Chen laughed. “I can understand your confusion. In your eyes, a person who carries with them a dream of bringing the entire human race to prominence should be extremely selfless, right?”

“Is that not the case?” Meng Lan asked.

“Of course not. That’s just what many people think,” Su Chen replied. “I do not deny that I have a heart for bringing the human race to prominence, but this doesn’t mean that I need to sacrifice myself completely for the greater good.”

He glanced at Meng Lan and said sincerely, “Many things are not actually mutually exclusive. Why must ‘I’ and ‘the greater good’ always be at odds? Why must someone with grand dreams be selfless? As human beings and as individual entities, it is impossible to avoid a certain amount of selfish desires. If we lose even these selfish desires and do not attempt to satisfy them, can we really be considered human?”

Meng Lan gazed at him with curiosity. “You mean......”

“I am willing to dedicate myself to the human race’s rise to prominence, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own pursuits and goals, nor does it mean that I do not have any selfish desires or my own thoughts and ideas. Kaihuang’s Heaven will give humans without bloodlines the ability to reach the Blood Boiling Realm and raise the cultivation foundation of the entire human race. It is incredibly important, and I cannot use something like that to satisfy my own selfish desires. The price of one hundred Dream Droplets was so that people wouldn’t take it too lightly and to also earn some resources for the next step. The Adamantine Battle Body is an Origin Skill that I created. Whether it actually exists is not that important to the human race as a whole, but to me it carries a deep significance. Even so, I have hidden my selfishness. The true Adamantine Battle Body requires the combination of both a kind of medicine along with the cultivation method for success, but I have only provided the cultivation method here, not the medicine.”

“If I am doing something for the greater good, then I will focus all my attention on it.”

“If I am doing something selfish, then I will choose the path that will bring me the most benefit.”

“I don’t care about what others think. To me, public and personal matters don’t necessarily need to conflict. I can harbor great ambition for the human race, but I also need to know when to do things for myself!”

1. Actually four Chinese characters, but I changed it to three for the sake of maintaining English accuracy.