"No rush yet. Let's look around some more~"
Since Luo Feng had a fallback, Xiao Zi decided to use that advantage to get a few things done. His voice rose playfully at the end, as though he could barely contain his delight-and perhaps his impatience.
And so, a series of supernatural incidents began occurring in the town.
The town's banks were repeatedly robbed. Their staff rushed around investigating, while Mental-Type Soul Masters became human surveillance cameras, scanning day and night, yet they still could not find the culprit.
After collecting protection money from the street vendors, the local thugs stacked gold, silver, and copper coins into little mountains, counting until their hands cramped. Soon, a cool breeze swept past, and every money pouch vanished in the blink of an eye. They thought they had run into a ghost in broad daylight!
Elsewhere.
The town's poor families woke to find something new on their tables. Upon opening it, they discovered it was filled with money. The gleam of gold, silver, and copper dazzled their eyes. Most of their remaining lives were now provided for!
Outside town, refugees too poor to pay the entrance fee were starving beside the walls, waiting to die, when money pouches and food suddenly appeared beside them. Not only could they afford entry, but the money left over could buy them homes, giving the poor a patch of ground to call their own.
Yet however widely these strange tales spread, the true protagonist never showed his face. More precisely, he had appeared, but no one had seen him.
Returning to our protagonist, Xiao Zi, his true purpose was hardly honorable. In the end, it boiled down to two words: "raising money."
With money, one could travel a thousand miles; without it, one could hardly take a single step. As he immersed himself in people's lives, that saying only gained more weight!
Helping the poor was merely incidental. It could not conceal Xiao Zi's own nature: cold and selfish, willing to use any means to achieve his ends.
That was partly due to the innate influence of his destruction godhood, but also to the harsh clarity he had gained after Tang San stabbed him in the back and he endured the world's treachery.
Only when there was no more wool left to shear from the town did Xiao Zi shift his target, heading to the next city to continue making his fortune. With the laws concealing him, he traveled unhindered, treating imperial law as thin air. Money filled his coffers to overflowing, and his wealth soared.
After entering the capital, Star Luo City, Xiao Zi counted his assets and discovered he had over a million Gold Soul Coins-as good as an Earthling winning the lottery!
To launder those assets, he went to an underground bank to exchange them. After paying a commission, he successfully obtained a specially made bank card, bringing his dirty money into the light. That did not even include Qian Renxue's savings. If he deposited those as well, the total would only grow.
As though their minds were linked, Qian Renxue spoke up just then. "Xiao Zi, your assets already make you well-off by this continent's standards. Surely you don't need to keep sneaking around?"
She had quietly observed him throughout their journey and had quite a few objections to his behavior. Even another glance threatened to damage her heart of cultivation!
But Xiao Zi had his own plans in response to that gentle admonition. "Don't underestimate the power of money. With enough of it, you can buy Soul Tools or Soul Bones... but since you've reminded me, I'll stop!"
She had expected a lecture, but his response was nothing like she had imagined. A trace of sweetness stole through Qian Renxue's heart.
Meanwhile, Xiao Zi was also quietly considering things.
Of all the treasures that had appeared in Douluo II-the Ice Jade Scorpion Soul Bone, the Snow Empress Embryo, Level 9 Soul Tools-which had not been a rarity beyond compare?
The Snow Empress Embryo in particular had been bid up by the major powers until its price reached over a hundred million Gold Soul Coins!
As a person, one could not merely keep one's head down and walk; one also had to raise one's head and look at the road ahead. Enduring hardship alone achieved nothing. Otherwise, every ox in the countryside would have made a fortune.
During their travels, he had cultivated according to the laws of the Douluo World. Setting aside his nonfunctional Second Martial Soul, the Destruction Scepter, he could already wield his First Martial Soul, the Golden Horned Beast, freely. Combined with the power of the Angel God's ring, his cultivation advanced a thousand miles a day.
Yet this could not happen overnight. If he cultivated step by step, he would certainly become a Titled Douluo within thirty years. But Tang San from Douluo I and Huo Yuhao, Douluo II's original protagonist, had both become gods by twenty-five or twenty-six!
In this age where the strong devoured the weak, talent was only part of the equation. The hidden opportunities scattered across the land were the true treasures that could defy heaven and rewrite fate.
Recalling Qian Renxue's earlier question about where they were going, he decided it was time to plan their real business!
The White Tiger Duke's Mansion.
This was the residence of Dai Hao, a member of the former imperial family and the empire's current grand marshal. Its towering gates and walls enclosed all sides, separating the interior from the outside world to form a sealed domain.
The duke's second son, Dai Huabin, was practicing his punches. His face remained somewhat gloomy, as though he was nursing a grudge.
After throwing another punch, he stopped to rest and muttered resentfully, "Damn Huo Yuhao. School is starting soon. I'll make you taste the most excruciating pain!"
As the Duke's Mansion's second legitimate son and its only male heir betrothed to the Zhu Family, his standing might not have matched his elder brother Dai Yueheng's, but he had grown up surrounded by admirers, like the moon amid a host of stars. He had never suffered a setback.
Yet that smooth sailing had come to an abrupt halt after he entered Shrek Academy.
First, he lost to Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's Martial Soul Fusion Skill during the freshman assessment. That indirectly led to his expulsion by his homeroom teacher, Zhou Yi. Transferred out beneath the entire class's strange gazes, he utterly disgraced himself as the White Tiger Duke's son.
If Shrek's rules had not been so strict, and if it had not taken such special care of the disciples it valued, he would have killed them long ago!
No matter what, he could not lose again in this second-year advancement assessment. Otherwise, how could he show his face in the world? Did he still want his standing as the duke's legitimate son?
Just then, his elder brother, Dai Yueheng, who shared the same mother, approached. Seeing his younger brother so consumed by obsession, he could not help feeling deeply concerned. "Huabin, I hear you either spend all day in your room or practice your punches like this. A man is born to stand tall between heaven and earth, not merely fight over a moment's wounded pride. Focusing all your energy on one person puts the branches before the roots!"
Dai Huabin replied indignantly, "Big brother, I'm a proud White Tiger Duke Descendant, your own younger brother by the same mother. You enjoy boundless glory in the Shrek Inner Court, while I lost to a piece of trash barely above rank ten. How am I supposed to swallow that humiliation?"
Dai Yueheng tried persuading him a little longer, but when his brother remained unmoved, he sighed helplessly. "Huabin, you aren't bad by nature. Mother and the comfortable life at the Duke's Mansion have simply spoiled you. You should have someone sensible beside you to remind you of things."
At the mention of finding a study companion, Dai Huabin waved his hands repeatedly, rejecting the idea down to the last strand of his hair. "Please, no. It's not like we haven't tried before. Not one of them satisfied me!"
It was exactly as Dai Yueheng said. The attendants sent by the Duke's Mansion did not get along with Dai Huabin. During the school term, he sent them back for all manner of reasons, and not one lasted a full month. As a result, Dai Huabin had no one beside him-not even someone to help when trouble arose.
Dai Yueheng was a disciple of the Shrek Inner Court. Apart from preparing for the next Soul Master Tournament, he spent his time carrying out missions for the Inspection Corps. He could do nothing about this younger brother of his and could not watch him every moment.
Yet neither brother expected that this casually mentioned idea would become reality so soon!