What Do You Get If You Don't Put Anything In?

"Hey, sis, is this Huang Shang you mentioned any good?"

"Quit fooling around with the jokes. Spend more time studying the history of the dynasties, both Chinese and foreign, and you won't make a fool of yourself with things like calling someone 'sir.'"

"Oh, come on. We're not actually living here, so as long as it rolls off the tongue, who cares?"

"No. When we meet Huang Shang, you need to remember to immerse yourself in the role!"

"I get it! I get it!"

The woman was Xu Yue, and the man was Xu Feng. They were siblings.

At that moment, they sat across from each other at a table, both looking excited.

Huang Shang!

He was one of the most powerful figures in the Golden Book worlds. Only a handful could compare to him.

They said that one Reincarnator, a die-hard Golden Book fan, had deliberately visited every Golden Book world and compiled a list of its five two-star experts.

Sweeping Monk, Xiaoyaozi, Dugu Qiubai, the Yue Maiden Sword's Ah Qing, and Huang Shang.

Of them, Sweeping Monk was the most refined, Xiaoyaozi the most learned, Dugu Qiubai the most extraordinary, Ah Qing the most pure, and Huang Shang the most divine.

Five words summed up the lives of these five peerless experts.

But after his excitement faded, Xu Feng grew puzzled. "Huang Shang is still a scholar right now, with no strength to even truss a chicken. He's nothing like the grandmaster he'll become. Are we really making contracting him our goal?"

Xu Yue rolled her eyes. "A grandmaster who can reach the two-star level in a low-martial world has terrifying potential, even greater than those chosen by fate. By the time Huang Shang creates the Nine Yin Manual, there won't be any room for us to get involved."

Xu Feng nodded. "Got it."

Xu Yue declared firmly, "If Heaven offers it and you don't take it, you'll only bring trouble upon yourself. Kaifeng Prefecture has over a million people, yet I just happened to run into Huang Shang. What kind of luck is that? If I let this chance pass, I won't be able to sleep at night!"

Xu Feng asked, "So what should we do?"

Ever since the siblings had arrived at the Main God Temple, Xu Yue had been responsible for making plans while he carried them out. Their duties were clearly divided.

Xu Yue thought for a moment, then raised her left hand. Light shimmered above it.

A three-dimensional map of Eastern Capital Kaifeng Prefecture appeared.

"Our main mission is to retrieve Zhao Kuangyin's Coiling Dragon Staff from the imperial palace's secret treasury," Xu Yue said.

As she spoke, her slender fingers traced a small circle on the map, marking the grounds of the Great Song palace.

The Song palace wasn't particularly large; it was far smaller than Daming Palace in Chang'an during the Tang dynasty.

The Song emperors had to be said to be the most approachable of all the emperors throughout history.

After Zhao Kuangyin founded the dynasty, he had the palace built without much extravagance. Later, when Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne, he planned to expand it, but gave up after the nearby residents objected.

Imagine being a holdout even when the emperor wanted to expand!

For Xu Yue and Xu Feng, the palace's small size was naturally good news.

Xu Yue added one light after another to the imperial city. "I've already figured out the guards and palace experts in the open. They won't be hard to deal with. The secret treasury is probably in Wuying Hall, though that place will be difficult to approach."

Xu Feng immediately praised her. "That's my sister! You're amazing!"

Xu Yue ignored him and continued, "The key is why the Main God Temple wants the Coiling Dragon Staff. It's just an ordinary weapon, not even worthy of a star rating. It's only been hyped up because Zhao Kuangyin was the founding emperor."

Xu Feng nodded. "Right. It's like Grand Ancestor Long Fist. If Xiao Feng hadn't used it, it would've been nothing more than a rudimentary martial art."

Xu Yue said, "So I suspect the Coiling Dragon Staff is merely a symbol of imperial power. What the Main God Temple really wants is some intangible force like the Great Song's dragon aura of national fortune. That's a whole different matter. If we step in to take it, will some hidden expert like Sweeping Monk try to stop us?"

At the mention of Sweeping Monk, Xu Feng's expression darkened. "The other characters are easy enough to deal with. I'm confident I can hold off even the Three Elders of Xiaoyao. But Sweeping Monk is a two-star expert, and I'm no match for him."

Xu Yue didn't dare let her guard down. "The most frightening dangers are the ones we don't know about. We have plenty of time, anyway. I was planning to use some martial artists to scout the way, but now we can pursue both plans at once!"

Since the space had sent Reincarnators into the Heavens Consciousness worlds, it wouldn't let them leave in a hurry.

If anything, it wished they would stay as long as possible—preferably long enough to dig up every last resource in the world and bring it all back.

So they had plenty of time.

Xu Feng understood what she meant. "Huang Shang can help us get the Coiling Dragon Staff, too."

Xu Yue smiled. "Exactly. This is a new approach!"

Xu Feng thought it over. "Then should we raise Huang Shang's strength by teaching him some martial arts?"

Xu Yue had already considered that on the way. "Huang Shang is a grandmaster who taught himself. If we force martial arts on him, even if his strength improves rapidly at first, we'll be wasting a priceless jade."

"He's a scholar. Hong Yi, the protagonist of Yang God, is a scholar too. We don't have the Sage of Confucianism and Taoism cultivation system, which would be most suited to a Confucian, but you can give him your spirit cultivation method and see if it inspires him to forge his own path."

In the Yang God world, cultivation was divided into two major systems: martial arts and spirit cultivation.

Martial arts involved training the flesh, tendons, membranes, bones, organs, and marrow, then changing one's blood to become a Martial Saint, cultivating the acupoints to become an Immortal, and finally shattering the void.

Spirit cultivation involved stabilizing the spirit, leaving the body, night wandering, day wandering, controlling objects, manifesting, possessing, seizing another's body, and undergoing tribulation. After surviving nine tribulations, one became a Yang God.

If one could become a Yang God and shatter the void, then fulfill a great vow, one could reach the Other Shore.

It was a world with an extraordinarily high ceiling, one that Xu Yue and Xu Feng weren't qualified to enter.

They had paid a steep price to buy cultivation manuals from high-star Reincarnators.

They had bought both paths at the time: martial arts up to the organ-training stage, and spirit cultivation up to the object-controlling stage.

But this buy-one-get-one deal wasn't really a benefit. It was just a way to charge more.

At first, Xu Feng had wanted to cultivate both martial arts and spirit, but then he realized he was dreaming.

Unless you were the protagonist, thinking you could master everything was pure wishful thinking!

Still, the power of spirit cultivation was beyond question. Xu Yue had the foresight to think ahead. Once they contracted Huang Shang, his Character Card would help them on their journey, so they naturally had to lay a solid foundation.

Xu Feng hesitated. "But the spirit cultivation method could sell for at least two thousand Reincarnation Points. Isn't it a waste to just give it to Huang Shang?"

Xu Yue shook her head. "If you don't put anything in, what can you expect to get back? I don't like contracts based on evil deeds, and we can't force Huang Shang either. That would just leave us with a walking corpse, which would be useless."

After a pause, she added, "Of course, there's no story to use as a reference for Huang Shang, so we don't know what he's really like. What if he's ungrateful? A person's martial arts achievements have nothing to do with their moral character. We have to assess him first and see how likely he is to agree to a contract!"

Seeing that his sister had considered every angle, Xu Feng knew her mind was made up. He took the Dao Scripture from his chest and stroked it reluctantly.

After a long while, he sighed and slumped over the table, burying his face in his arms. His muffled voice came out: "My Dream of the Other Shore..."

(I never expected the fan leaderboard to have nearly fifty people in just one day. Thank you all so much for your support! As for extra chapters, since I published this new book right after my last one, I don't have many chapters saved up yet, so you'll have to wait a little. Don't worry, they're definitely coming.)

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