An Unexpected Windfall

"Boom."

The palace collapsed.

The dark-gold armor formed from the Tier 5 Force Battle Suit was unstained by blood.

Beneath his mask, Li Dui's eyes were cold and indifferent.

The city's lord lay dead amid the palace ruins.

He collected the spoils and flew into the clouds.

Li Dui had been in Xueluo World for more than five and a half years. He had long since grown used to hunting like this.

In fact, it was only during the first two years or so that he descended on a main city every few days to fight its lord.

During that time, he killed nearly two hundred city lords and obtained more than three hundred Xueluo Crystals, along with countless other supplies.

He also used the method of fusing Xueluo Crystals to temper his will.

After only about half a year, he could easily defeat the violent will inside a second Xueluo Crystal.

So he used his cheat and successfully fused a second one.

It took another full year—and more than a hundred forced attempts—before he could just barely overcome the violent will inside a third Xueluo Crystal.

No matter how he tried after that, he made little progress. Li Dui didn't dwell on it. He simply used his cheat and successfully fused a third one.

Over the next three years or so, he only occasionally went out to hunt city lords. He also cut back on forcibly fusing Xueluo Crystals to temper his will, limiting it to no more than twice a month. He no longer went at it as crazily as before, making an attempt every few days.

He boarded the ship and ordered Xiao Le to fly in an arbitrary direction.

Inside the World Ring he carried, the Metal Lifeform Xi was quietly fusing some rare material.

In the distance, Xiao Le controlled a Metal Robot and sorted through the spoils from the recent hunt.

After searching through the Virtual Universe System, Xiao Le carefully set aside every item of value. Xiao Le estimated that the goods were worth around 20 Hunyuan Units.

"Ka—whirr—"

Xiao Le's mechanical arm removed the items from a large box one by one. At the bottom, it lifted out a small metal box.

After opening it and seeing what was inside, Xiao Le's eyes swept up and down over the item several times, twin beams of light scanning it.

"Reporting to master: an unidentified object has been found."

Li Dui received Xiao Le's report aboard the ship.

With a thought, the metal box appeared before him.

The object inside was entirely ochre-yellow and slightly larger than a basketball. Its shape somewhat resembled the heart of a mammal.

The aura it gave off seemed familiar to Li Dui.

What is it? Li Dui stared at the cabin ceiling and thought for a while before remembering.

Its aura was somewhat like the Nutrient Solution supplied in a Nutrient Pod.

In the Virtual Universe, Li Dui entered various descriptive terms to search for what the object was.

He didn't use a photo or holographic scan data to look it up. He didn't even think about why he wasn't using these obviously better methods. It was probably the wariness ingrained in him. No, that was just called being cautious.

What if it turned out to be something extraordinary and attracted the attention of the higher-ups? Right? He couldn't risk even the slightest chance of that happening, not when he was after a Hula Hoop.

After adding more details and ruling out various possibilities, one of the remaining results seemed likely to be correct.

The object was called a Shankang Fruit, formed in a special environment. Its appearance varied: some looked like fruit, some like hearts, and others like lumps of mud.

The Shankang Fruit had two major effects. First, it could accelerate the evolution of a lifeform's genes without any side effects.

Second, it could restore all the divine body of an ordinary Marquis Immortal.

The first effect wasn't anything special. It was like a Nutrient Pod. Core Members of the Five Great Powers could use Nutrient Pods for free.

The second effect was far more impressive. Of course, Li Dui's earlier worry had been unnecessary. This thing wasn't extraordinary enough to attract the attention of the higher-ups.

It could restore all the divine body of an ordinary Marquis Immortal. It could probably restore about ten percent of an Initial King's divine body, too.

Li Dui didn't know its value. The Virtual Universe System hadn't provided an estimate either. If he had to guess, a Marquis Immortal would have to pay dearly for one.

"Tsk, tsk, you can't get rich without a windfall," Li Dui sighed. Killing all those city lords earlier had only earned him 20 Hunyuan Units.

Now his wealth had risen to the level of a million Hunyuan Units. This thing was a reliable hard currency, too. If he wanted to sell it, he could just sell it to the Giant Axe Martial Arena.

He carefully put away the metal box containing the Shankang Fruit.

Although it was an unexpected windfall, Li Dui didn't care all that much about money. Improving his strength was the most important thing right now. If he really wanted money, he could kill ten thousand city lords. Handing over ten thousand Xueluo Crystals to the Giant Axe Martial Arena would earn him at least several million points.

Luo Feng had done just that back in the day. If Li Dui remembered correctly, Luo Feng had stored up around ten thousand Xueluo Crystals.

Of course, killing ten thousand city lords was just talk. At three a day, it would still take more than eighty years of nonstop killing.

Luo Feng had a clone. He couldn't compare.

Li Dui was actually quite frugal. His Law Comprehension advanced too quickly, so he didn't need comprehension secret techniques to accelerate his study of the laws. Nor did he need to rely on powerful, expensive offensive secret techniques to expand the limits of his strength.

Both would cost far too many points. The secret technique Luo Feng bought was called something like Notes. The complete version cost one hundred billion points, and the individual parts were just as outrageously expensive.

He did need to set aside enough points to upgrade Xi to World Lord. It would probably take several hundred thousand. Immortality? That wasn't something he needed to think about now. If he earned points by killing city lords and turning in Xueluo Crystals, he might need to kill ten or twenty million of them. There were certainly enough city lords. The problem was, was he going to spend two hundred thousand years killing them here?

Another thing was to prepare resources to raise his parents, wife, and children from his original body, Li Dui, to Universe Rank. He wanted everything arranged without affecting their foundations.

Li Dui worked out the cost. At most, it would be a thousand points. Easy.

The ship traveled far from Xueluo World and accelerated to 0.7 times the speed of light in a safe area, flying silently. There was no other choice. The dust, fragments, and fog formed from solidified Origin Energy in this secret realm prevented ships from accelerating to the speed of light. To perform a Cosmic Shuttle, they had to go to a specially cleared area.

In the Heavenly Eclipse Palace above,

there was a large hall on the first level. A huge screen inside monitored the movements in Xueluo World at all times.

More than a dozen World Lords each kept an eye on their assigned areas. From time to time, they chatted to pass the time.

One of them spotted Li Dui's ship and said, "That Li Dui really can't sit still. He's always popping out for a look around."

Another World Lord chimed in, "You call this restless? He's only come out once this month. Have you forgotten those first two years, when he went in and out every few days? I really have no idea what he was doing."

"Do you think he might be hunting city lords, like His Highness Luo Feng did ten thousand years ago?" another World Lord asked.

They had been carrying out surveillance duty there ten thousand years ago, too. For a while, Luo Feng's Machine Race ship had gone in and out of Xueluo World extremely frequently. They had concluded that he might have been hunting city lords. Otherwise, it made no sense.

"You've got to be joking."

"How could that be?"

"Come on, now."

Several people immediately objected.

"What kind of strength did His Highness Luo Feng have back then? He could clear the fifth level of the Heavenly Bridge at a minimum, and his upper limit was hard to gauge. Li Dui has only cleared the third level. If you said he had some special method that could let him kill an ordinary city lord, I'd believe you. But hunting them all over the place? That'd be suicide." One of them laid out the facts and reasoned it through.

Everyone nodded in agreement with his analysis.

"Then what is he doing? It doesn't make sense. Could he have discovered something special?" asked the man who had first suspected Li Dui of imitating Luo Feng.

"That's hard to say. Universe Rank cultivation missions do have plenty of hidden benefits. We're not the ones who get to claim them. Everyone, keep your eyes open. Li Dui may only be a member of a fringe secret realm, but as long as he can get out of Xueluo World, we can't let anything happen to him. Otherwise, we'll all be in serious trouble."