Shared Heavens from Douluo Continent Chapter 49

Squelch!

While Old Master Ren was unable to move, Dai Changsheng swiftly drew the peachwood sword from his waist and mercilessly pierced its heart.

Now that Ren Tingting had already been won over by him, Old Master Ren had no value left in existing. It was time for it to exit the stage!

Thud!

As Dai Changsheng pulled out the peachwood sword, Old Master Ren, stripped of all life, fell stiffly to the ground like a wooden puppet.

Seeing this, Uncle Nine took out a Yang Fire Talisman and tossed it onto Old Master Ren's corpse.

Whoosh!

The instant the Yang Fire Talisman touched Old Master Ren, it ignited without flame, turning the corpse into a humanoid torch.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Old Master Ren's body was soon reduced to ashes, and Ren Tingting finally no longer had to live in fear.

"All right, it's over now. Changsheng, take Tingting back to the Ren residence!"

"Yes, Master."

After helping Ren Tingting pack up her daily necessities, Dai Changsheng rode her back to the Ren residence on his bicycle that very night.

Dai Changsheng had originally planned to ride back to the mortuary after sending Ren Tingting home, but he could not withstand her enthusiastic insistence and could only stay the night at the Ren residence.

The next morning.

As warm sunlight filtered through the window and fell across the pink-and-white princess bed, Dai Changsheng slowly opened his eyes.

"Mmh~"

Feeling the silky smoothness beneath his palm, Dai Changsheng instinctively gave it a squeeze, making the still-sleeping Ren Tingting let out a soft moan.

Looking at Ren Tingting, naked from head to toe and sleeping soundly in his arms, Dai Changsheng could not help revealing a smug, wicked smile.

Although Dai Changsheng had shown some restraint last night, Ren Tingting had still been thoroughly exhausted after half a night of his ravaging. She probably would not be getting out of bed today.

Dragon Beard Needle

Smack!

After staring at Ren Tingting's delicate, flawless pretty face for a while, Dai Changsheng had no intention of tormenting her further. He quietly slipped away and climbed out of bed on tiptoe.

"Good morning, Master~"

The moment Dai Changsheng stepped out of Ren Tingting's bedroom, the maid sweeping outside respectfully bowed to him.

Since Ren Fa had been killed by the zombie, Ren Tingting had become the new mistress of the Ren residence. And since Dai Changsheng had made her submit in bed, he naturally became the new master of the household.

"Mhm!"

Dai Changsheng gave a slight nod, then asked the nearest maid, "Is breakfast ready?"

"Reporting to Master, it is ready."

"Good. Lead the way!"

Dai Changsheng nodded in satisfaction, then added, "Oh, and have the kitchen stew a pot of ginseng chicken soup. Madam was quite exhausted last night and needs to nourish herself properly."

(ω)

The maid's pretty face flushed slightly. "Yes, Master~"

After enjoying a lavish breakfast under the maids' attentive service, Dai Changsheng had the steward bring over the household account books and began reviewing the Ren family's properties and businesses.

Since Ren Tingting had no interest in business, Dai Changsheng, as her husband, had to put in more effort to keep the Ren family from collapsing.

After carefully going through the account books, Dai Changsheng finally understood why the Ren family's business had been getting worse and worse over the years.

The main reason was that the Ren family's businesses covered too many different and miscellaneous industries, while their shops were also spread far too widely apart.

Besides the dozen or so shops in Renjia Town, Ren Fa had opened many stores in several nearby towns and even in the provincial capital.

On the surface, the Ren family's business territory seemed to have expanded considerably, but this scattershot approach to business only made management more difficult.

The shopkeepers managing stores in other towns and the provincial capital only needed to make a few covert moves to line their own pockets unnoticed, creating the illusion of reduced profits or even losses.

That was precisely why Ren Fa had felt that business was getting worse and worse, yet could never find the exact cause.

Solving these problems was simple: all he had to do was find evidence of those shopkeepers' embezzlement and make them pay it back with interest.

This might have been difficult for Ren Fa, but for Dai Changsheng, it was as easy as turning his hand over.

Dai Changsheng only needed to secretly send Dong Xiaoyu to have a heart-to-heart talk with those shopkeepers in the middle of the night and make them hand over the evidence themselves.

After all, illusion arts were what Dong Xiaoyu did best!

In the original story, in order to indulge in romance with Qiu Sheng, Dong Xiaoyu not only used illusions to conjure a luxurious mansion, but also created the illusion of torrential rain outside.

Even a cultivator like Qiu Sheng could not see through Dong Xiaoyu's illusions, much less those shopkeepers, who were merely ordinary people.

Even if Dong Xiaoyu failed by accident, Dai Changsheng could take action himself.

If those shopkeepers could endure the torment of the Life and Death Talisman, Dai Changsheng would not mind sparing them.

Douluo Continent

Balak Kingdom, Suotuo City.

The Balak Kingdom was located south of the Heaven Dou Empire and bordered Fasinuo Province. It was one of the four major kingdoms within the Heaven Dou Empire.

Because the Balak Kingdom bordered the Star Luo Empire, it possessed the strongest military force among the four kingdoms. It could also be said to be the gateway to the Heaven Dou Empire.

There were two most important cities within the Balak Kingdom. One was Barak City, where the King of Barak resided, while the other was Suotuo City, known as the "Granary of Barak."

"Whoosh—"

Accompanied by a streak of light descending from the sky, Dai Changsheng, riding the Ten Thousand Year Light Swan, landed in the woods outside Suotuo City.

Dai Changsheng wore a white robe, stood around 1.9 meters tall, and had short golden hair. He was strikingly handsome!

Dai Changsheng was now eight years old. After nearly half a year of arduous cultivation, his Soul Power had finally broken through from level sixty-seven to level seventy.

Ever since Dai Changsheng's Soul Power had reached level seventy, his height had finally stopped growing further.

Although absorbing soul rings and soul bones accelerated a Soul Master's physical development, they did not break the limits of the Soul Master's natural growth.

The reason Dai Changsheng could grow to around 1.9 meters tall was because he was naturally capable of reaching that height.

Otherwise, Bibi Dong, who had become a Title Douluo in her thirties and possessed a complete set of soul bones, would not have been only around 1.7 meters tall.

Dai Changsheng had not come to Suotuo City for leisure, but to snatch an item that could help him hunt Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

That treasure was the renowned Dragon Beard Needle!

The Dragon Beard Needle ranked eighth on the Tang Sect's hidden weapon list and was a naturally formed hidden weapon.

Under certain conditions, when natural crystal was affected by external forces, golden thread-like substances would form inside it.

Those golden threads were also called "crystal hair." Once they lost the protection of the crystal, they naturally curled up into golden pellets the size of grains of rice.

By injecting Soul Power into the golden pellets, they could be restored to their crystal-hair form, resembling sharp golden needles.

If those crystal hairs were shot into a person's body, they would twist the surrounding muscles and tendons into a tangled mess.

Unless they were extracted using a special method, the only option was to dig them out along with the surrounding flesh and muscle.

After the Tang Sect discovered the properties of crystal hair, they used it as a hidden weapon and gave it a pleasant-sounding name—the Dragon Beard Needle!

The Dragon Beard Needle's greatest strength lay in its extreme sharpness. It could easily pierce through a battle Soul Sage's skin defense.

In the original story, Tang San had relied on the Dragon Beard Needle's innate sharpness to injure Zhao Wuji despite having only level twenty-nine Soul Power, forcibly crossing five major realms.

One had to know that for a power-attack battle Soul Sage like Zhao Wuji, even without specifically tempering his physique, his skin defense was comparable to steel. Ordinary hidden weapons could not harm him at all.

During Shrek Academy's entrance examination, Tang San had used many different types of hidden weapons in addition to the Dragon Beard Needle. Yet when those weapons landed on Zhao Wuji, they were little more than a drizzle.

Therefore, it was not that Zhao Wuji's defense was weak. The Dragon Beard Needle was simply too sharp!

Since the Dragon Beard Needle could easily break through Zhao Wuji's skin defense, it should also have a good chance of breaking through the skin defense of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

Even if the Dragon Beard Needle could not pierce a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's skin, it should still be able to injure their relatively fragile eyes and eardrums.

Thanks to reader Shangguan Rongzhi for the gift of 404 Qidian Coins, and thanks as well to the other readers for their support.

Dishonest Merchant Flender

Most importantly, the Dragon Beard Needle was small enough that Dai Changsheng could use Mental Power to control it and make it burrow into a target's nose or mouth, directly tearing through the target's internal organs and brain.

After all, not everyone was like Dai Changsheng, capable of strengthening every part of their body by sharing the physical attributes of their counterparts from other worlds.

For the vast majority of Soul Masters and soul beasts, their internal organs' defenses were far inferior to their skin defenses.

After putting away the Ten Thousand Year Light Swan, Dai Changsheng unhurriedly walked into Suotuo City.

Since Flender was a well-known dishonest merchant in Suotuo City, Dai Changsheng quickly learned the location of his shop from passersby.

It was a relatively small storefront. The sign hanging outside bore a circular emblem with three unusual symbols in its center.

Ordinary people might not understand what those symbols meant, but Dai Changsheng knew very well that they represented the Seven Kill Sword, the Clear Sky Hammer, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

Shops with such signs were generally known as "Soul Master shops."

After entering the somewhat dim shop, the first thing he saw was a wooden rocking chair with a figure reclining on it.

He was a middle-aged man in his fifties with a horse-like face, wearing square black-framed crystal glasses. His eyes were closed as he rested, showing no intention of paying attention to Dai Changsheng, his customer.

After glancing at Flender, Dai Changsheng looked around the shop. Before long, his gaze settled on a piece of yellow crystal in the corner.

The head-sized crystal was transparent in itself, but it was mixed with large patches of dark-yellow impurities. It was precisely the Plank Crystal Dai Changsheng had been longing for.

Having found what he wanted, Dai Changsheng could not be bothered to beat around the bush. He asked directly, "Boss, how much is this crystal?"

"Not expensive. Just one hundred Gold Soul Coins!"

Hearing this, Flender could not even be bothered to lift his eyelids as he replied indifferently in a somewhat hoarse voice.

After all, the items in his shop were all junk Flender had picked up cheaply. Even added together, they were not worth one hundred Gold Soul Coins, so he had no need to worry about taking a loss.

"Here!"

Dai Changsheng did not bother haggling either. He took out a money pouch containing one hundred Gold Soul Coins and casually tossed it to Flender.

"Your money isn't enough!"

After catching the pouch Dai Changsheng had thrown over, Flender lightly weighed it twice in his hand and shook his head without opening his eyes.

"There are indeed one hundred Gold Soul Coins in that pouch!"

Flender ignored Dai Changsheng's darkened expression and shamelessly said, "But this crystal of mine is now selling for two hundred Gold Soul Coins."

"You're playing me?"

Seeing that Dai Changsheng was starting to lose his temper, Flender showed no fear. Instead, he raised the price with a sleazy grin. "Now it's five hundred Gold Soul Coins!"

It was obvious that Flender had taken Dai Changsheng for a sucker and wanted to extort him viciously.

If Dai Changsheng obediently handed over five hundred Gold Soul Coins, that would be that. But if he grew angry from humiliation and tried to resist, Flender would reveal his Soul Sage-level strength and use the excuse that he had dared offend a powerful expert to extort several thousand more Gold Soul Coins from him.

"Hahaha..."

Looking at Flender's shameless appearance, Dai Changsheng laughed in extreme anger. "Now I finally understand why Liu Erlong would rather like that useless Yu Xiaogang than someone like you, whose strength is about the same as hers. If I were Liu Erlong, I definitely wouldn't like a shameless bastard like you—ugly and miserly!"

"Boom!!!"

Having been struck where it hurt most, Flender suddenly opened his eyes. A powerful aura swept out at once, and seven soul rings appeared beneath his feet.

"Brat, I don't care where you came from. If you don't hand over ten thousand Gold Soul Coins today, don't even think about leaving here in one piece."

Feeling the killing intent emanating from Flender, Dai Changsheng sneered. "I told you, you're just a poor loser. You actually dared to ask for a mere ten thousand Gold Soul Coins? Every time my imperial father gives me spending money, it's at least one million Gold Soul Coins."

"Imperial father?"

Flender's pupils contracted slightly as he frowned. "Just who are you?"

After all, not just anyone was qualified to use the title "imperial father." Only princes or princesses of the two great empires had the right to address someone that way.