Chapter 1657: Blood Brothers!

Whenever you die, we pay out.

That line kept echoing in Ye Guan's head.

It was only valid inside the Forbidden Divine Tombs, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like... a pretty good deal.

Buy once, and it lasts a lifetime.

Seriously, Mother's ways of making money are outrageous. The only people who can even begin to compete with her might be Erya and Little White.

Just then, Xiao Yuanqi handed over a hefty pouch of Ancestral Spiritual Crystals with a pained expression. The young woman at the booth beamed and quickly produced a contract she'd clearly prepared in advance. Xiao Yuanqi dripped a bit of his own blood onto it, and just like that, the deal was sealed.

There were two copies of the contract, one for Xiao Yuanqi and one stored in the Immortal Treasures Pavilion's archive. Even if Xiao Yuanqi were forcibly erased from existence, his family could still claim compensation, because the contract required him to list an emergency contact.

Mu Xinghe and Mu Xingchen clearly wanted to buy policies too, but... they were broke. So they just looked at Ye Guan with pitiful eyes.

Faced with their sad little faces, Ye Guan felt a headache coming on. If he didn't buy the policies for them, they might just sit here and refuse to leave.

He had to admit, his mother was a damn genius. Somehow, she'd managed to make people willingly pay her for dying. Of course, this "life insurance" was actually pretty reasonable, as long as they actually paid out instead of screwing people over, of course.

Fortunately, when it came to trust, his mother had built an ironclad reputation.

With a deep sigh, Ye Guan bought three policies. One for himself, and one each for the Mu siblings. The two of them lit up like fireworks. Grinning from ear to ear, they eagerly signed their contracts.

Once that was done, the sweet-looking young woman pulled out three orb-shaped devices as if performing a magic trick.

"Handsome young masters and beautiful young lady, here's our brand-new product from the Pavilion: the Heaven's Eye Recorder!" she announced proudly.

"These recorders send everything they capture in real time back to the headquarters of the Immortal Treasures Pavilion. If someone kills you for your loot, we'll have video evidence. And your families can take revenge with proof!"

She turned to Ye Guan, expression deadly serious. "Handsome young master, you absolutely need to buy this."

Ye Guan was silent.

"Buy it!" Mu Xinghe said immediately, nodding hard. "Brother, we have to get this. The ruins are full of backstabbers. If we die without one of these, our families will never know who did it. But with Heaven's Eye Recorder? There'll be video receipts! The Immortal Treasures Pavilion is a righteous business; this is a must-buy."

Ye Guan was speechless.

Xiao Yuanqi chimed in as well. "Yeah, we really should... but..."

He turned to the young woman. "Miss, we've already bought quite a lot. Is there any chance... of a discount?"

The young woman still had that professional smile plastered on her face. "Each Heaven's Eye Recorder costs 6,000 crystals. For the four of you, that's 24,000 crystals. Add in the 112,000 for the life insurance, and that brings us to 136,000."

She paused, then gave them an apologetic look.

"I'm really sorry. Immortal Treasures Pavilion policy says discounts only apply when purchases reach 150,000 crystals. You're just 14,000 short. How about... buying a bit more?"

All four were dumbfounded.

In the end, after some bargaining from Xiao Yuanqi, they bought a few teleportation talismans to hit the mark. Total: 150,000 crystals. Discount—7,000.

With that, they finally set off.

Ye Guan turned to the young woman and asked, "Miss, how much commission do you earn?"

The young woman blinked and smiled sweetly. "Five percent. If I sell 100,000 crystals worth of goods, I earn 5,000. If I hit 2 million in a day, my commission rate goes up to 7%. At 5 million, it jumps to 10%! The more I sell, the more I make!"

Ye Guan asked, "And how much do you usually sell in a day?"

The young woman smiled and replied, "Depends on my luck. Some days are great, some not so much."

Ye Guan nodded and didn't ask more.

They turned and began their move toward the Forbidden Divine Tombs.

Along the way, Mu Xinghe grinned. "Brother, the Immortal Treasures Pavilion is pretty amazing, isn't it?"

Ye Guan chuckled and nodded.

Mu Xinghe continued, "Honestly, they're not bad. Thought of everything, and super trustworthy. Makes you feel like your money's being well spent."

Ye Guan nodded again.

Then Mu Xinghe turned to Xiao Yuanqi, eyeing him curiously. "Hey, didn't you say you and that Ye Guan guy were bros? Why do you seem so broke?"

Xiao Yuanqi smiled calmly. "Brother Ye and I share a gentleman's friendship. He's rich, sure, but that has nothing to do with me. Plus, since he's been left to live by himself all this time, he might actually be poorer than me."

Ye Guan had no idea what to say.

Mu Xinghe laughed. "What do you think that Ye Guan guy will do with all that money once he inherits his family's business?"

Xiao Yuanqi said seriously, "Brother Ye told me he'd take care of his old brothers first. Of course, I refused. I'm not that kind of person."

Ye Guan was at a loss for words.

Mu Xinghe gave him a sideways look. He didn't believe a word of it. This guy was even poorer than he was before getting robbed; no way he knew Ye Guan.

Soon, the four reached a shimmering barrier of light. Once through, they found themselves in a barren wasteland, scattered with the crumbling remains of ancient buildings.

There was an eerie energy lingering in the air that were from faint fluctuations from old arrays. They weren't especially harmful, but enough to be annoying. Thankfully, everyone had purchased talismans to resist the array's influence. Once activated, the interference dropped significantly.

Ye Guan scanned the area. The ruins were surprisingly lively. Many people were moving in and out, and they all looked quite capable.

Mu Xinghe explained, "This is just the outer region. The deeper we go, the fewer people we'll see."

Ye Guan asked, "What exactly is this place?"

Mu Xinghe shook his head. "No one knows for sure. If anyone does, it's probably the five Supreme Divine Civilizations. They're working together to excavate it."

Ye Guan raised a brow. "The five Supreme Divine Civilizations are digging it up together?"

Mu Xinghe nodded. "Yeah, but they didn't seal it off. It's open to everyone. I heard that was the Immortal Treasures Pavilion's suggestion."

Ye Guan looked up. Strange energy filled the sky, enough to block spiritual senses. But not his.

His gaze pierced through layers of spacetime and landed on something deep within the ruins: a massive Blood Monument, a hundred meters tall and completely red, as if forged from pure blood. Strange ancient characters were etched into its surface.

Ye Guan narrowed his eyes. That thing... was worth checking out.

He turned and said, "Let's move."

As they walked, they passed countless ruins that were barren and crumbling with age.

So far, they hadn't seen anything valuable. The outer region had already been picked clean.

If they wanted real treasure, they'd have to go deeper, into places no one had ever reached.

Ye Guan decided to head toward that Blood Monument. His spiritual sense couldn't penetrate past it, which meant something was definitely up.

The deeper they went, the fewer people they saw. The Mu siblings began to get serious. Mu Xingchen even pulled out her divine bow, eyes gleaming with excitement. This was her first real adventure into ruins of this level, she was ready for all the stories she'd heard: murder, treasure, ancient inheritances, all-out brawls...

She was hyped. The three guys could charge in front, she'd stay back and fire arrows:

pew pew pew.

As they passed a crumbled hall, they came across a group mid-fight. There were over twenty people clashing violently.

Mu Xingchen immediately drew her bow, ready to dive in. Her brother grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?"

Mu Xingchen's eyes sparkled. "A fight!"

Mu Xinghe's face darkened. "What fight? This has nothing to do with us!"

She looked disappointed. "Come on, just two arrows... I won't kill anyone, I swear."

Ye Guan was at a loss for words.

Xiao Yuanqi stared at her, stunned. "Lady, that's a dangerous mindset..."

Mu Xinghe quickly dragged his little sister away. Yeah, his sister was a bit too eager to pick fights. But before they got far, a voice echoed from behind. "Brother Xiao? You're here, too?"

They turned and saw a man in black robes running toward them. He was one of the fighters, and he was clearly wounded. His face was pale, and blood stained the corner of his lips.

Ye Guan and Xiao Yuanqi both froze in surprise.

It was Tuogu Yuan.

Xiao Yuanqi smiled. "Brother Tuogu! What a coincidence."

Tuogu Yuan looked at Ye Guan. "You're here too, huh?"

Ye Guan nodded with a polite smile.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Tuogu Yuan muttered, "Damn lunatics... It's just a civilization artifact, why go all out like that?"

Then he looked at the group. "You heading deeper? Great, I'll tag along if that's okay?"

Xiao Yuanqi glanced at Ye Guan.

Ye Guan said, "Sure."

And just like that, their team grew by one.

On the way, Tuogu Yuan chatted with Xiao Yuanqi. "Hey, when was the last time you saw Brother Ye?"

Xiao Yuanqi replied without missing a beat, "Years ago. He was getting ganged up on really badly. I couldn't just stand by, so I jumped in to help. Got my leg broken in the process."

Ye Guan was rendered speechless.

Xiao Yuanqi turned the question around, asking, "What about you, Brother Tuogu? When was the last time you saw him?"

Tuogu Yuan looked off into the horizon, eyes misty as he said, "It was a sunny afternoon. The wind was perfect. When I saw him, his leg had just been broken..."

Ye Guan had no idea what to say.