Storm Clouds Gathering

Salt City lay in the eastern provinces of the Jia Ma Empire. Thanks to its natural geographical advantage, it had become an essential route leading from within the empire to its eastern provinces.

Located in such an important position and blessed with this natural advantage, Salt City was one of the foremost cities in the entire Jia Ma Empire.

Within Salt City, aside from the City Lord's Manor, which rarely involved itself in worldly affairs, the strongest force was naturally the Mo Clan, one of the four great families of the east.

Especially in recent years, the Mo Clan's nearly tyrannical rate of expansion had given it the faint momentum to become the foremost of the four great families. Although the other three families were displeased, they did not dare openly join forces against the Mo Clan.

That was because the Mo Clan had the Jia Ma Empire's foremost sect behind it: the Misty Cloud Sect.

In a magnificent hall, an elderly man with grizzled hair and pale gray robes sat in the seat of honor, slowly savoring a steaming cup of tea.

A trusted subordinate knelt on one knee in the hall, reporting with great caution on intelligence sent by informants in Stone Desert City.

Steaming tea and pulverized teacup fragments spilled across the floor. Mo Cheng's face darkened as he snorted coldly. "What useless trash, utter good-for-nothings! Two Five-Star Great Dou Masters couldn't even take down some brat. Better that they died; keeping them alive would only waste the clan's resources.

"My experiment has now reached a critical stage and requires a large number of unusual lifeforms for grafting experiments. I noticed that human-snake hybrid long ago.

"Ordinary human-snake hybrids usually die young due to innate factors, rarely surviving past two or three years old. One who lived to fourteen was practically unheard of!

"There must be some peculiar change developing within that hybrid's body. That change might even allow me to take another step forward and give me hope of becoming a Dou Wang."

When he mentioned the words "Dou Wang," even someone with Mo Cheng's temperament could not hide the blazing desire in his eyes. He had coveted the Dou Wang realm for many years.

Five-Star Dou Ling! That was Mo Cheng's current strength. In truth, his potential was limited. After barely breaking through to the Dou Ling realm back then, he had stagnated completely.

The rapid increase in Mo Cheng's strength that outsiders had witnessed over the years was entirely due to the enhancements gained from grafting strange organs and magical beast limbs onto himself.

However, strength gained through such unorthodox means was ultimately a crooked path. While it had made Mo Cheng stronger, it had also brought tremendous side effects! His appearance was utterly inconsistent with his actual age.

Mo Cheng had secretly calculated it. If he could not break through to Dou Wang within ten years, the things grafted inside his body would drain away his vitality, leaving him to wither and die.

Advancing to Dou Wang was naturally the best solution. Otherwise, as long as he removed everything in his body that did not belong to him and transplanted normal human organs, Mo Cheng could still avoid death.

But the price would be far too great. He would inevitably fall from the Dou Ling realm, perhaps even finding it difficult to retain the strength of a Da Dou Shi.

Over the years, Mo Cheng's arbitrary rule had even reduced the clan head to a mere figurehead. His ruthless, tyrannical nature had offended countless people. If he lost his current Five-Star Dou Ling strength, which was enough to intimidate all directions, the outcome awaiting him would certainly be unimaginably miserable.

He had nowhere left to retreat. Since realizing this terrifying consequence years ago, he had intensified his suppression of dissidents, striving to clutch every bit of power he could in his own hands. The result of such tyranny was that the entire Mo Clan had become a mixed bag, with Mo Cheng as its only Dou Ling expert.

Swift footsteps rang out. A flash of shadow passed, and a black figure darted into the hall.

"First Elder, the 'eyes' on Misty Cloud Mountain have sent urgent intelligence.

"Yun Leng secretly dispatched a team of Dark Hall elites to Stone Desert City. Their leader is an elite deacon at the peak of the Da Dou Shi realm.

"The 'eyes' paid a considerable price and have determined their objective: that boy whose name has been spreading everywhere, the one rumored to possess Heavenly Flames."

After delivering his report, the black figure skillfully withdrew from the hall. Yet his words continued to echo in Mo Cheng's heart.

Crack!

The armrest made from fine wood was crushed into powder beneath Mo Cheng's grip. Rising from his chair, Mo Cheng's eyes glinted with extreme malice, like a venomous snake lurking in a dark gutter, waiting to devour its prey.

At the sight, the trusted subordinate below immediately lowered his head, not daring to look into those terrifying eyes.

"That boy is of no use to me, but that hybrid is by his side. If the Misty Cloud Sect discovers something and takes the hybrid away, wouldn't that cut off my lifeline?

"No. That hybrid is mine. No one will take it from me.

"The entire Mo Clan is full of useless fools who can't get anything done. It seems I must personally make a move.

"So what if they are from the Misty Cloud Sect? Hmph. You had best not cross the line, or Stone Desert City will become your burial ground."

At this moment, Mu Chen had no idea that a storm was about to descend. He was happily taking stock of his gains.

"Pah, two low-grade Profound Tier Dou Techniques. Their power is nothing special, even weaker than Mad Lion's Roar. More useless junk. Sacrifice them all."

He tossed the two differently colored scrolls in his hand. Mu Chen had no spare time to study Dou Techniques with such mediocre power.

Better to lack than to settle. That was Mu Chen's basic requirement for Dou Techniques.

"That's it? The two of them only had a little over eight hundred thousand gold coins combined, and they had the nerve to look down on Luo Million? Two broke bastards."

Mu Chen sacrificed all the miscellaneous items on the floor with a look of disdain. Adding what he had already obtained, he now had more than 2,300 points.

"The next draw requires 3,000 points. I'm still short by seven hundred thousand gold coins. I'll need at least two more Da Dou Shis to reach 3,000 points." Mu Chen muttered to himself. By now, enemies were nothing more than walking wealth in his eyes...

Mu Chen was quite glad that he had not carelessly used those three lottery tickets. At this rate, the points required for the next three draws would definitely exceed ten thousand in total. Converted into gold coins, that would be over ten million! Piled together, that much gold could form a mountain.

Sitting on the battered ground, Mu Chen fiercely pinched his cheek and let out a weak groan. "This is too hard. Ten million gold coins can buy an Earth Tier Dou Technique, yet this basic Purple Wheel already costs this much. What about the ones afterward? Won't they cost me my life?

"Damn it. Wealth, companions, techniques, and territory... sure enough, there's a reason wealth comes first."

Shaking his head, Mu Chen habitually extended his soul perception. To his astonishment, he found that many of the nearby Da Dou Shi auras had disappeared.

Mu Chen froze for a moment before cursing. "What the hell? Don't tell me they were all scared off by me.

"Damn it, when I went out earlier, I should've struck myself and pretended to be seriously injured. At the very least, I should've coughed up some blood... then I could've lured the fish in.

"Dizzying. My little money-makers were scared away. I screwed myself over."

If the people of Stone Desert City learned of Mu Chen's frustration, they would be stunned speechless. So this fiend had been fishing for prey all along and had never taken the dangers outside seriously.

Seeing that the battle had ended, Qing Lin opened the door and walked out. First, she stared with sparkling eyes at Mu Chen, who sat on the ground gloomily drawing circles. Then her watery eyes blinked as she looked at the courtyard, whose surface had been scraped away. Other than the room where she had hidden earlier, even the room where Mu Chen had rested had been reduced to shattered pieces of wood.

"Ah, our home is gone! Young Master, are we moving?"

"Uh, if we leave now, what if some 'guests' come looking for us and can't find us?

"Little Qing Lin, just wait a few more days. Then Young Master will take you to a major city in the heart of the Jia Ma Empire."