Chapter 53: Too Poor

“Fuck!” Little Pagoda was enraged. “Your ancestor would have to address me as Master Pagoda, but a little ant like you actually dares to look down on me? Trust me, I can sever the Shenge Clan’s destiny right here, right now.”

Lee Yun stared at Master Pagoda and jeered, “Sever my Shenge Clan’s destiny? You are really speaking out of your ass right now, threatening us like that.”

Rumble!

The spacetime above them trembled violently—a True Dragon had arrived.

Little Pagoda abruptly appeared next to Ye Guan, and their figures blurred.

Lee Yun’s face instantly changed. “Trying to escape?”

He reached out with his right hand.

Boom!

A rift in space opened thousands of kilometers away, and his giant hand emerged from the rift.

Rumble!

The space around Ye Guan and Master Pagoda’s illusory figure collapsed, but the distorted space couldn’t stop them at all.

Lee Yun’s face darkened. They actually managed to escape!

The True Dragon transformed into a middle-aged man.

“Ao Meng!” Lee Yun exclaimed, slightly flustered. Ao Meng once represented the True Dragon Clan in the Destiny Contest. In other words, Ao Meng was one of the strongest True Dragons among the True Dragon Clan’s young generation.

Ao Meng stared at the horizon and muttered, “Clan Leader Lee Yun, there’s more to Ye Guan than meets the eye.”

Lee Yun was silent. Indeed, Ye Guan wasn’t a simple individual.

Lee Yun also had to admit that the trash can that had arrogantly referred to itself[1] as Master Pagoda was inscrutable, and it definitely had a few tricks up its sleeve.

Ao Meng said, “Clan Leader Lee Yun, he’s a swordsman, so he definitely has a powerful swordsman as a backer.”

Lee Yun thought about it for quite a while before saying, “I sent someone to investigate him, and we concluded that his backer is a Great Sword Immortal at most!”

Ao Meng was slightly confused. “How did you get to that conclusion?”

Lee Yun replied, “Guesswork.”

Ao Meng frowned.

Lee Yun chuckled and explained, “This world only has a few Sword Sovereigns, and those Sword Sovereigns are in the depths of Guanxuan Universe.

”Sword Sovereign Tingyun often appears among us, but there’s no way that Sword Sovereign Tingyun is Ye Guan’s master. In other words, Ye Guan’s master would only be a Great Sword Immortal at most.”

Ao Meng thought about it for a moment before nodding. “That makes sense.”

Lee Yun continued. “He’s a talented swordsman. However, we have already decided to make an enemy out of him, so we have to kill him to prevent issues down the road.”

Ao Meng nodded in agreement. “Our clan will cooperate. Clan Leader Lee Yun, a group of talented True Dragons has just awakened in our clan. If you’re willing, you can send two people over to our clan and let them pick their partners.”

Jackpot! Lee Yun beamed. “Of course I’m willing!”

If Shenge Clan’s younger generation got together with True Dragons, they would become tremendously powerful. Furthermore, the Shenge Clan and the True Dragon Clan’s relationship had always been stable and amicable.

What Lee Yun had done today was a worthy investment.

Ao Meng stared at the horizon. He chuckled derisively and said, “I’m looking forward to seeing who would dare to protect him here on Zhongtu Divine Continent!”

…

Little Pagoda came to a halt in a sea of clouds.

He immediately became a streak of light that pierced Ye Guan’s glabella.

Ye Guan hurriedly asked, “Master Pagoda, are you okay?”

Ye Guan saw that Master Pagoda had sustained a heavy injury.

Little Pagoda replied, “I can’t manifest anymore until I’ve recovered to a certain extent.”

Ye Guan nodded slightly and felt a little guilty.

“Master Pagoda, I’m sorry for getting you involved in all this…” he said.

Little Pagoda sighed and asked, “Why are you saying that?”

Ye Guan momentarily hesitated before saying, “Master Pagoda, they’re after me. How about you leave me? I mean it.”

Little Pagoda’s reply came a bit late as he said, “I’ve taken so much of your profound energy, so I’ll feel guilty if I just outright abandon you just because you’re in trouble. In other words, let me accompany you for a bit longer. I’ll leave once you’ve become a Great Sword Immortal.”

“I—” Ye Guan wanted to say something.

However, Little Pagoda interrupted him by continuing. “Go to the Shen Clan! The woman who gave you that jade pendant is a good person. This time, I’m confident that there won’t be any more surprises.”

Ye Guan nodded. He had nowhere else to go but the Shen Clan.

He returned to the Teleportation Area.

The old hunchback stared at Ye Guan with raised eyebrows.

Ye Guan said, “I want to go to the Shen Clan!”

He hurriedly passed a storage ring over to the old hunchback. The old hunchback accepted the storage ring and pointed at one of the teleportation arrays on the right.

Ye Guan nodded and started walking toward it.

However, the old hunchback suddenly said, “Are you going to come back?”

Ye Guan came to a halt. He turned around to look at the old hunchback and said, “If there are no more surprises, I won’t be coming back for a while.”

The old hunchback replied, “Surprises are called surprises because they come when you least expect them.”

Ye Guan’s expression froze.

Meanwhile, the teleportation array activated and whisked him away.

Moments later, Ao Meng appeared in the same Teleportation Area as Ye Guan.

The old hunchback wordlessly stared at Ao Meng.

Ao Meng calmly asked, “Where did that young man go?”

The old hunchback replied, “The Chamber of Commerce stipulates that the whereabouts of our customers must not be disclosed. I am a professional with a strong work ethic—”

Ao Meng opened his palm, and a storage ring floated over to the old hunchback.

The storage ring contained thousands of gold spiritual crystals.

The old hunchback pointed at the teleportation array that led to the Shen Clan.

Ao Meng sounded sarcastic as he remarked, “Strong work ethic?”

He then walked toward the teleportation array.

A gloomy light flashed in the old hunchback’s eyes at Ao Meng’s remark.

Ao Meng walked into the teleportation array, but nothing happened. He frowned and stared at the old hunchback.

The old hunchback man exclaimed, “Ai-ya! It’s broken! It’s currently out of order, so you’re out of luck.”

Ao Meng glared at the old hunchback and asked, “Are you pulling tricks on me?”

“What are you going to do about it? Hit me?” taunted the old hunchback.

The old hunchback was not afraid of the True Dragon Clan at all.

The Immortal Treasures Pavilion was not afraid of anyone. They could easily make the True Dragon Clan pay a painful price for their actions. In fact, the Immortal Treasures Pavilion wasn’t afraid of the Guanxuan Academy as well!

Ao Meng glared coldly at the old hunchback, but he didn’t dare to do anything. He was aware that the True Dragon Clan wouldn’t be able to deal with the repercussions if the Immortal Treasures Pavilion decided to attack them.

Ao Meng weighed the pros and cons. Moments later, he decided to retrieve another storage ring and handed it over to the old hunchback.

The storage ring contained twenty thousand gold spiritual crystals, but the old hunchback man hurled the storage ring to the floor and jeered, “Money? Do you really think that I don’t have any money?”

With that, the old hunchback turned around to leave, leaving an ugly-looking, fuming Ao Meng.

…

Ye Guan sat cross-legged while waiting to arrive at his destination.

Within the tiny pagoda, the mysterious voice asked, “How about we take him directly to the Guanxuan Universe?”

Little Pagoda sighed and said, “What’s the point of going there? Do you really think that he’s already strong enough to inherit his family’s business? Take a look at him. If he goes there right now, do you really think that the people there will obey him?”

The mysterious voice chuckled coldly. “So what if they don’t want to obey him? Are they going to kill him? Who would dare to do that? Princess Xin? Emperor Moon? The Great Desolate Clan? The Primordial Clan?”

Little Pagoda muttered, “They wouldn’t dare to kill him, but they could easily turn him into a figurehead. With his current prowess, do you really think that he’s strong enough to manage this vast universe?

”Is there any meaning in becoming a puppet Academy Master of the Guanxuan Academy? Have you already forgotten how they treated our Young Master?”

The mysterious voice went silent.

Little Pagoda continued. “Young Master does not want this little bastard to go through the same thing as he did, which was why he sent him far away to Nanzhou.

“Have you still not realized that cracks have started to appear within the Guanxuan Academy since Young Master’s disappearance many years ago?

”If this little bastard does not slowly climb up the ranks by himself, how would he resolve all those issues by himself?”

The mysterious voice sighed.

Little Pagoda added, “Sister Destiny has also mentioned that one must hone one’s resolve… if we drag him to the Guanxuan Universe right now, he will reach the summit in one fell swoop without being able to hone his resolve by experiencing the difficulties of life.

“If we do that, how is he going to become the strongest swordsman?”

The mysterious voice sucked in a breath of cold air. “The strongest swordsman…”

Little Pagoda sighed.

There was a moment of silence before he added, “There’s one more thing that you have to understand. We’re no longer who we used to be back then. You’re half-dead, and my soul is heavily injured.

”We can’t afford to be as arrogant as we were back then. If we die at the hands of someone unworthy, we will surely become the laughingstock of the world.”

The mysterious voice sighed once again, and it sounded sad as it exclaimed, “I had never imagined that I would end up in such a tragic state, damn it all!”

“If the denizens of the Void World discover his existence… they’ll definitely go crazy and destroy the barrier that Young Master had left behind. They’ll come down here just to get rid of him,” said Little Pagoda.

The mysterious voice finally relented and said, “Then, we should let him go through more hardships! We’ll save the talk about him inheriting his family’s business in the future!”

Meanwhile, Ye Guan was staring at the storage ring in front of him.

He only had 470,000 gold spiritual crystals remaining.

Cultivation was indeed costly!

Ye Guan gripped his storage ring tightly and sighed. He would have to live a frugal life from now on, and it was all because he was too poor!

Ye Guan told himself that he had to find a job sooner or later.

Otherwise, it would be too hard to get by.

1. Because Master Pagoda is in his pagoda form I guess and Lee Yun doesn’t know that. ☜