Be the Toughest Man

Watching the three chat, bicker, and talk freely about the future, Meng Xiu felt a wave of loneliness. It seemed he should not have been there—he should have been under the car.

However, Meng Xiu had a good mindset. He was thinking.

Today... it seemed he had failed to protect anything.

Thinking of the Loess Giant and the Silver Demon, Meng Xiu felt an intense sense of crisis. If he was a knight, yet could not even protect his companions—

What kind of knight would that make him? He had to become tougher!

"Tonight, I'll add 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer run!"

Meng Xiu silently made up his mind. He would train his body well, then become tougher and stronger!

The four returned to the royal city, which was still as peaceful and tranquil as when they had left.

Gu Xin was rather moved by this.

The citizens here had no idea that their beloved king had long since been murdered. The one sitting on the throne every day was a demon wearing human skin.

Yet for them, that was perhaps a blessing as well.

Otherwise, given that Silver Demon's cruelty, it would never spare anyone who knew the truth, even if ordinary people were not particularly nutritious to it.

Afterward, the four found an inn and planned to rest in the royal city that night, while also asking around about any well-known monsters in the area.

Late at night.

Gu Xin and Wang Quan infiltrated the royal city together. Using invisibility item cards, the two entered silently and successfully.

Wang Quan then hypnotized a dozing maid and learned the location of the king's treasury from her.

The two encountered no obstacles along the way. The king's guards were no match for them; almost all were ordinary people with somewhat better physical fitness, and there were very few professionals.

Thus, everything went smoothly. After arriving at the king's treasury, Wang Quan repeated the process, hypnotizing the guards and entering the treasure vault.

Huge treasure chests were placed throughout the storeroom, and Gu Xin picked one nearby.

But Gu Xin discovered that most of them were actually empty.

"Where's the treasure?"

Gu Xin opened several closed chests and found that there were not many gold coins inside, either.

"Damn it, don't tell me Silver Demon took everything?"

Wang Quan cursed under his breath. He had come to this treasury with high expectations, only to find it empty.

"Looks like we were overthinking it."

Gu Xin picked up a few scattered gold coins from the bottom of a chest and sighed gloomily.

They should have expected it, really. That Silver Demon had been so humanlike, which meant it understood human society quite well.

Money was not useless to it. Having replaced the king, it was not strange for it to empty the treasury.

But that meant he and Wang Quan had come for nothing.

"Speed Seed, Bronze Horn, Silver Bracelet... they're all worthless junk."

Wang Quan rummaged through another item chest, his expression growing darker and darker.

"The only thing worth looking at is this Chimera Wing."

Finally, Wang Quan picked up a pair of small white wings. They were Chimera Wings; once attached to the body, they allowed the wearer to fly.

They were fairly practical, but they could be bought in the main world. To Wang Quan, they were utterly useless—he already had more than a dozen in his spatial ring.

"Da Gu, looks like we made this trip for nothing."

Wang Quan was speechless. He had truly not expected someone to beat them to it. That damned Silver Demon had ruined everything!

If Silver Demon's corpse had been with him, he would have loved nothing more than to stab it a few times.

The key was that Silver Demon was already dead, and they had no idea where it had put the gold, silver, treasures, and valuables from the treasury.

"Seems like there's one more thing."

Gu Xin suddenly turned thoughtfully toward the wall at the very front of the vault. It looked completely ordinary, but Gu Xin's senses told him there was something wrong with it.

Gu Xin pondered for a moment, carefully examining the entire room without overlooking even the slightest clue.

Finally, his gaze settled on a marble tile near the left side of the entrance. He pressed it in hard.

Click, click.

The sound of gears turning rang out, and part of the ordinary wall immediately sank inward.

Then a golden tray appeared before the two of them. Resting atop it was a black glove.

"Hm?" Wang Quan froze.

"What pure dark energy."

Gu Xin looked at the black glove. It had a jet-black base, wrapped in rings upon rings of red patterns, making it look extremely eerie.

"Impressive, Da Gu. It was hidden so well, yet you still found it." Wang Quan was quite astonished.

"I sensed a trace of its aura. But Old Wang, do you recognize this thing?"

After looking it over and confirming there was no danger, Gu Xin picked up the black glove.

It felt icy cool to the touch. The material was comfortable and soft.

"Don't know it. Never seen it before." Wang Quan honestly shook his head.

"Take a photo. I'll ask around when we get back."

Wang Quan took out his completely signal-less phone, snapped a picture, and spoke.

"Let's go, let's go. What rotten luck. That Silver Demon was utterly inhuman."

Gu Xin and Wang Quan then left the castle.

There was no point in staying in the treasury any longer, because it was empty.

The two spent the night resting at an inn. Early the next morning, they set off at high speed once more to continue their training.

Of course, calling it training was a bit of a stretch. So long as they did not encounter truly threatening monsters, this secret realm world was only Tier 2 in the end.

They spent another morning clearing out several monster hideouts reported by citizens, and their gains were fairly decent.

"Here, Gu Xin, this is yours."

Before returning to the main world, Gu Xin and the other three found a patch of grass to tally up their spoils.

"That much?"

Gu Xin took the bag of crystal cores and raised his brows.

"Old Wang, you guys fought most of the monsters along the way."

"But you took down the Yellow Earth Giant and the Silver Demon by yourself. Those two were the important ones." Wang Quan did not even look up, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Fine, then." Gu Xin did not say anything further. After all, he was the one getting the better deal.

Though most of the crystal cores in this bag were Tier 1, there were simply too many of them. Once the quantity piled up, they could still sell for quite a bit of money.

"Then this is Blue Lotus's, this is Meng Xiu's, and the rest is mine. Okay, distribution complete."

Wang Quan was quite fair. Aside from giving Gu Xin special treatment, he, Blue Lotus, and Meng Xiu split their shares evenly.

"If there are more team activities in the future, make sure to call me." Blue Lotus said with a beaming smile.

"No problem. It's been a pleasure working together." Wang Quan readily agreed.

It was finally over.

Gu Xin was actually feeling quite eager right now. Of course, it was not because of the crystal core distribution, but because—

Once he got home, he could start making cards!

Using the Silver Demon as the main material, barring any surprises, I should be able to make a Demon Summoning Card.

Gu Xin thought to himself. Summoning cards from the demon series were extremely rare.

Of course, that was assuming he did not fail. He only had one Silver Demon material.

Should I make some other cards first as a warm-up? Make a few before using the Silver Demon to make a card.