A Southern Heavenly Gate—I'll Eat You Three Times!

Wang He watched as Su Yuan stopped his flying sword,

his heart burning with anxiety.

Su Yuan could tell he was eager to prove himself,

so he pretended to be exhausted and waved a hand.

"Old Wang, I can't go on. Why don't you head over first?"

Delight flashed through Chief Engineer Wang's eyes, but he verbally declined.

"This... wouldn't be right, would it? After all, you're the deputy project manager."

Su Yuan leaned close to Chief Engineer Wang's ear and whispered,

"Once this project is over, the higher-ups will promote a new deputy manager for the Peach Garden expansion project. I've already put your name forward, so make sure you seize this opportunity! I've reached the end of the road in this life. Once you get promoted, don't forget your old brother."

Old Wang froze. He had clearly never expected to hear such heartwarming words from Su Yuan—Su Skinflint himself.

His eyes reddened as he gave Su Yuan a deep bow.

"Lord Su! No words can repay such a great kindness!"

He immediately flipped off his sword, stepped onto his own flying sword, and sped away.

After the time it took to burn an incense stick, a staff shadow that blotted out the sky swept across the direction of the Southern Heavenly Gate,

followed by a savage burst of laughter.

"This Heavenly Court isn't worth staying in!"

Only then did Su Yuan step onto his flying sword and wobble leisurely toward the Southern Heavenly Gate.

When Su Yuan reached the scene,

he saw Growth Heavenly King struggling bitterly amid staff shadows that filled the sky.

"Big idiot, lie down nicely! This old Sun is off!"

In an instant, countless staff shadows merged into one,

and Growth Heavenly King was swatted to the ground like a ball.

He lay amid the rubble, barely clinging to life.

The surrounding heavenly soldiers had suffered even more grievous casualties.

Su Yuan looked around,

but Wang, the chief engineer, was nowhere to be seen.

He had probably already been chopped into mince by the Great Sage.

Seeing a major leader lying like a stray dog in a garbage heap,

what was Su Yuan supposed to do?

Low emotional intelligence: Heavenly King, wake up. You're not allowed to sleep here.

Average emotional intelligence: Call the cops and scream at the top of your lungs, "Oh no! Someone come quickly! The Horse Groomer knocked the Heavenly King unconscious with one blow!"

High emotional intelligence:

Su Yuan cursed furiously in the direction the monkey had gone.

"That damned Horse Groomer! You only dared launch a sneak attack from behind while the Heavenly King was injured! Dare you come back and have a go at me?!"

Then he barked at the heavenly soldiers nearby.

"Are you all blind? Hurry up and chase him!"

With no one around, Su Yuan finally inspected the construction site.

The rebar in the load-bearing pillars had snapped clean through, exposing cross-sections of ordinary iron faintly rusted over.

The ground foundation, which should have been backfilled with Nine-Heavens Breath Soil, was full of construction waste beneath the surface.

The Southern Heavenly Gate's crossbeam lay off to one side as well. Its paint was damaged, and inside was a piece of plywood half-eaten by insects.

Damn it, didn't I say to buy finished birchwood?

Those bastards in the materials department dared embezzle spirit stones behind my back!

Even if the Heavenly Court's formations seal divine sense, there has to be a limit to cutting corners!

There was no time to think. The battle at the Southern Heavenly Gate had caused far too much commotion.

Heavenly Court reinforcements would probably arrive soon.

With so many eyes around, who knew what fresh trouble might arise.

Su Yuan hurried over to Growth Heavenly King, silently flicked an envelope into the Heavenly King's belt pouch, and said in a low voice,

"Heavenly King, wake up. The culprit has already been frightened off by you."

Growth Heavenly King woke at precisely the right moment.

"Mm..."

Before he could speak, Su Yuan beat him to it.

"Heavenly King, that Horse Groomer was utterly detestable! He actually took advantage of your unpreparedness to sneak attack you from behind."

"Fortunately, your divine might towered to the heavens, and you drove the culprit away."

"I've already sent my men after him, but there is one more matter..."

Su Yuan deliberately handed the conversation over to Growth Heavenly King.

The implication was clear: I found an excuse for why you passed out—it was the Horse Groomer's sneak attack.

I also handled the Horse Groomer—you were the one who drove him away.

I sent all your men away too. Only the two of us are left.

Now it was time for you to grant me a small request.

Growth Heavenly King steadied himself with a hand on his belt and slowly rose. After looking around and confirming no one was nearby, he nodded slightly.

"You're Little Su, right? I've heard your master mention you before. We're all on the same side here. Speak freely."

"Heavenly King, please hear me out. The Southern Heavenly Gate has now been ruined by that culprit and lies in utter disrepair. Whether it should be repaired or demolished, I ask that you decide."

Growth Heavenly King had not expected Su Yuan to ask that. He paused, slightly puzzled.

"The materials are all here. Why not repair it?"

Su Yuan explained quietly,

"The Southern Heavenly Gate falls under your jurisdiction. Now that this gate has been damaged, even if it is restored to its original state, anyone with ill intentions who sees it will use it as ammunition against you. In the end, it wouldn't look good for you."

"Especially that servant of the Li family. He's always loved making something out of nothing..."

Su Yuan had long heard that Giant Spirit God and the Four Heavenly Kings often clashed.

Testing it now, he found that he had struck right at Growth Heavenly King's weak spot.

The Heavenly King fell silent for a moment, then stamped his foot.

The Southern Heavenly Gate instantly turned to dust.

Only then did Su Yuan let out a long breath. His legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground, trembling like a leaf and drenched in sweat.

Su Yuan's collapse was half real and half an act,

because he knew exactly how a subordinate should defuse the awkwardness after witnessing a leader's embarrassing moment.

If your leader farted in an elevator,

you just had to shit your pants outright.

Sure enough, when the Heavenly King saw Su Yuan's pathetic state, he said that Su Yuan was useless.

"Ah, Little Su, this tiny scene scared you that badly? Get up already."

Yet his expression looked much better, and he cheerfully helped Su Yuan up.

He patted Su Yuan on the shoulder. Everything was understood without a word.

The next day, court was held at the Hall of Soaring Heavens.

This was also Su Yuan's first time seeing the Jade Emperor.

He had long heard that the Jade Emperor's true body pursued the Great Dao, roaming the primordial chaos all year round.

At this moment, only a wisp of his divided soul remained in the Heavenly Court to handle government affairs.

Even so, the Jade Emperor possessed a majestic heavenly authority that could not be looked upon directly.

He sat high above the Nine Heavens, listening as Growth Heavenly King bitterly denounced the demon monkey.

Beneath the hanging bead curtains of his crown, swirling violet qi concealed his face.

No joy or anger could be discerned.

After Growth Heavenly King had thoroughly shifted the blame from himself,

he did not forget the envelope's contribution, giving Su Yuan a helping hand at the end.

"While battling that demon monkey, this minister inadvertently reduced the nearly completed Southern Heavenly Gate to dust. The person in charge of the Southern Heavenly Gate project has also come before the court..."

"Summon him."

Su Yuan entered the hall. After performing the grand salute, he calmly and methodically presented his report.

"First, after on-site verification, the losses from this incident amount to approximately nine hundred and seventy million spirit stones. Of that, seven hundred and forty million were material costs, with the remainder being labor costs. Since an outstanding balance remains on the materials payment, I request that the Heavenly Court treasury allocate three hundred million spirit stones."

"Granted."

"Second, my brother by oath and beloved friend, the project's chief engineer, Wang He, unfortunately died in the line of duty while defending the Southern Heavenly Gate construction site against the demon monkey. I boldly request that Chief Engineer Wang be posthumously named honorary manager of this project, and that his name be engraved on the completion plaque in remembrance."

"Granted."

"Third, for the Southern Heavenly Gate's follow-up design, the experts and I worked through the night to formulate a new construction plan. I ask Your Majesty to review it. The materials for this project are more carefully selected than before, its scale is grander than before, and its formations are more powerful than before. I believe that once construction of the Southern Heavenly Gate succeeds, it will forever suppress all demonic evils beneath heaven. To accelerate the construction schedule, I respectfully request that Your Majesty first allocate a five-hundred-million-spirit-stone project advance."

"Granted."

Only then did Su Yuan let out a long breath and retreat to the back of the officials' ranks.

All three of his objectives had been achieved.

The harvest had been plentiful indeed.

Although the Southern Heavenly Gate collapsed, not a single spirit stone was lost.

If anything went wrong later, he could pin it on that dead bastard too.

Most importantly, when Sun Wukong caused havoc in Heaven for the second time, he would still descend to the mortal realm through the Southern Heavenly Gate.

He had to rebuild another Southern Heavenly Gate before that havoc in Heaven began.

He couldn't waste the Account-Balancing Great Sage's kind intentions.

If this kept happening, this old Su would eat from one Southern Heavenly Gate three times!