A Deal

"A deal?" Xu Xingyu looked at Lie Yan with surprise, then frowned and asked, "As the only God Level expert in the entire Five Elements Continent, I don't think there's much you can't get. Is there anything else you need from me?"

Upon hearing this, Lie Yan sighed and said, "Stop teasing me. Since you know I'm Abyss creature, you also know how strong the restrictions the Divine Realm places on me. Even if I'm invincible in this plane, before the Divine Realm, I'm just a slightly larger grasshopper."

"That's true." Xu Xingyu nodded as if in agreement, then calmly looked at Lie Yan and said slowly, "But are you sure you're here to trade, and not to force a sale?"

As soon as she finished speaking, a nine-colored dragon shadow appeared behind Xu Xingyu, and the oppressive aura of the Dragon God began to spread throughout this Earth Core World. At this moment, Xu Xingyu's body also completed its Dragon Transformation, seemingly ready to fight at any time.

However, in response to Xu Xingyu's accusation, Lie Yan simply shrugged and said, "I just felt bad seeing you secretly checking the Hong Lian Mark on your body and trying to obtain the spatial coordinates of the Earth Core World, so I just granted your wish and teleported you here."

The implication is that Lie Yan was aware of Xu Xingyu's secret scanning of Ji Dong's Hong Lian Mark in an attempt to obtain the coordinates for traveling to the Earth's Earth Core World.

"Oh, thank you very much, Your Majesty the Flame Empress. I was just about to make a deal with Your Majesty, so this is fine. But next time, please give me advance notice if possible."

"I'll pay attention next time. May I now present the details of my transaction?"

"Please go ahead."

After receiving Xu Xingyu's affirmation, Lie Yan breathed a slight sigh of relief. She understood that what she had said before was just an excuse, and that her actions were actually preparations to gain the upper hand in the upcoming negotiations.

She had made deals with others before, such as when she was procuring various rare and precious materials for Ji Dong. She had made deals with Soaring Snake, Vermilion Bird, Frost Dragon, but she was able to take the lead in those deals only because the difference in strength between the two parties was too great. Therefore, even if they did not want to make deals with her, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and do so.

However, Xu Xingyu is different. Judging from his performance on Sacred and Evil Island and now, this boy named Ji Dong definitely has a trump card that can rival his God Level self.

If one were to force another to make a deal with them through sheer force of power, it would definitely cause a huge commotion and eventually make one's existence known to the Divine Realm.

Therefore, she took this action of luring the enemy into a trap. On the one hand, it was to ensure that the Divine Realm would not discover her, since the Divine Realm mostly observes the surface and rarely cares about the development of the earth's core.

On the other hand, if the negotiations between the two break down, she can take advantage of the environment in the Earth's core to gain a battlefield advantage after the negotiations fail. However, it seems that even with these advantages, she may not be able to keep Xu Xingyu and the others.

Little did Xu Xingyu know that she was also somewhat relieved about the upcoming deal. After all, Lie Yan believed that she couldn't keep Xu Xingyu, and even if Xu Xingyu could leave with Gu Qiuxi and Ya Lin'er, things wouldn't be much better for her.

There's nothing we can do; he doesn't belong to this plane of existence. This means that the only spatial coordinates belonging to this plane that Xu Xingyu possesses are those of Sacred and Evil Island.

Once he uses his Power of Space to teleport himself and Gu Qiuxi Ya Lin'er away from the Earth Core World, they will be trapped on Sacred and Evil Island for the next five years.

Although there's no time limit for this Dragon God Third Trial, he's not in the mood to spend a full five years on Sacred and Evil Island! If he remembers correctly, the next Sacred and Evil War is the one where the Dark Heavenly Secret triggers the Myriad Tribulations Thunder Hell. He has no desire to witness the Myriad Tribulations Thunder Hell in its full power; the damage the Core Array suffered last time was enough to give him a headache!

The others listening nearby were somewhat frightened by the conversation between the two. Fortunately, Gu Qiuxi had seen God Level expert before, so she sensed that this was the work of God Level expert the moment she entered this space. At most, she only became somewhat gloomy and disappointed after receiving a positive reply.

Originally, she chose to accompany Xu Xingyu to participate in this Dragon God Trial not only because of her special Golden Dragon First Trial, but also because she wanted to help Xu Xingyu like the other girls.

Unlike the other girls, Gu Qiuxi couldn't guide Xu Xingyu's cultivation like Gu Yuena Xu Xingyu, protect him when he was in danger, or help with matters of power like Xu Jiujiu and Jiang Nannan. She also couldn't help the Spirit Contract Pagoda with Xu Xingyu talent for learning Soul Tool like Xu Yanxue, nor could she dedicate her entire family's power like Wang Dong'er could, and even Xu Xingyu above her in forging.

So when she learned that her test was to accompany Xu Xingyu through the Dragon God Nine Trials, and to use the Blank God Position he had given her to comprehend her own path and achieve her own God Position, she was actually quite happy, thinking that she could finally help Xu Xingyu.

Now look what happened; she's become a burden to Brother Xingyu. The power of God Level expert is ultimately too great, and Gu Qiuxi's spirit, body, and energy haven't reached the God Level at all. She simply can't help Xu Xingyu when facing such a powerful expert.

This caused a seed of extreme resentment to well up in Gu Qiuxi's heart. Little did she know that this resentment resonated with the Golden Dragon King Divine Core within her body. Sooner or later, this seed would sprout, and whether Gu Qiuxi would experience transformation or Destruction at that moment would depend entirely on herself.

As for Ya Lin'er and Ji Dong, they were both so surprised that they couldn't speak.

The former, Ya Lin'er, was surprised that Xu Xingyu could contend with God Level expert, and why, the moment Lie Yan revealed that Xu Xingyu was the inheritor of some Dragon God, his own bloodline became even more subservient to Xu Xingyu.

Ji Dong's feelings were more complicated. Simply put, he had always regarded Lie Yan as his goddess and admired her. Therefore, his main purpose in cultivating was to grow strong enough to protect her and become Lie Yan's lover.

Now you're telling him that Lie Yan is a true goddess, and the strongest person in the entire Five Elements Continent. The enemy she fears is a force called the Divine Realm, which is not part of the Five Elements Continent, and contains more than one god!

Fortunately, this news did not discourage Ji Dong. Instead, it made him understand what Lie Yan had been doing for him all along, and it strengthened his resolve to become a god and protect the Lie Yan he loved!

Returning to the present, at the moment Xu Xingyu said "please go ahead," Lie Yan also proposed the terms of the deal.

"I want to exchange five Earth Core Lotus Seed for detailed information on how the Dragon God became a god and how to create God Position."

"Oh?" Xu Xingyu frowned. He hadn't expected Lie Yan to be after this, knowing that this information was of no use to Lie Yan, a creature from the Abyss.

After all, while the laws of the universe allow the existence of Abyss creatures for the sake of cosmic balance, they absolutely forbid any Abyss creature from becoming God King. If any Abyss creature were to become God King, it would become an enemy of the entire universe.

In the original work, Lie Yan was able to become God King (although the weakest kind) due to multiple factors. First, Lie Yan was not a pure Abyss creature. She did not have the instinct to devour all life or disregard any life that ordinary Abyss creatures possessed. Second, her God Position was inherited from the previous generation of the Godess of Kindness. Third, her divine God Position was only a proxy God Position, which could be taken away by the Godess of Kindness inherited it from her at any time.

As is widely known, the Dragon God's path to godhood was through force. The Dragon God created his own divine Self-Created Godhood and became God King, even the highest-level Supreme God King, based on his own analysis of the laws of the universe.

Even when the Abyss Demon King advanced to God King, he took a different path. This is a path that Abyss creatures, even those that are not pure Abyss creatures, absolutely cannot take. If they do, they will be Destruction due to the hostility of the laws of the universe.

However, at this Xu Xingyu saw Ji Dong beside Lie Yan, and her doubts were immediately resolved. She smiled slightly and said, "I didn't expect Her Majesty the Empress to be so fond of little brother Ji Dong. Is she hoping that little Ji Dong will follow the path of the Dragon God in the future?"

"This has nothing to do with you!" Lie Yan replied with a cold and aloof expression.

Xu Xingyu simply replied nonchalantly, "Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. I'll just state my thoughts."

"I disagree with this deal; it's simply not a good deal."

This made Lie Yan tense up immediately. She knew that Xu Xingyu's words were not a refusal, but rather a request for more money.

Don't let Lie Yan as a God Level powerhouse fool you; she doesn't possess many treasures that could truly impress Xu Xingyu. The most precious item she has is the nine Earth Core Lotus Seed, which she originally intended to use to forge her own Divine Artifact. She's already feeling the pinch trading five for something with questionable value. And now you want more money?!

However, just as Lie Yan was about to express her dissatisfaction, Xu Xingyu continued, "Besides, to be honest, while your Earth Core Lotus Seed is precious, it's not very valuable to me right now. If possible, I'd like something else."

These words immediately reminded Lie Yan Xu Xingyu had previously mentioned wanting to make a deal with him. Did this mean that Xu Xingyu already had a target in mind?

With this question in mind, Lie Yan immediately asked, "Since you don't like my lotus seeds, what do you want?"

Xu Xingyu replied calmly, "I want a Purifying Flame Hong Lian."

Upon hearing this, Lie Yan Yan's face instantly darkened, and he said in a deep voice, "Xu Xingyu, do you know what you're saying?"

As the embodiment of the Earth Core Hong Lian, Lie Yan naturally knew about the Purifying Flame Hong Lian, a variant of the Earth Core Hong Lian, which is precisely why she resisted it so much.

Even if Xu Xingyu said he wanted all the Earth Core Lotus Seed in her possession, Lie Yan wouldn't have shown such an attitude. However, Xu Xingyu's current behavior is, in a sense, no different from her selling her own people.

Such behavior would never be allowed by Lie Yan. As the first Earth Core Hong Lian to develop sentience, she had always taken good care of her people.

Seeing that her other clansmen were unable to develop sentience like her due to the harsh environment of the eighteenth level, she took them away from the eighteenth level and allowed them to grow on the fifteenth level. There, her clansmen quickly developed their own sentience, and when their cultivation reached a certain level, they transformed into human form and established the Fire Lotus Clan, with Blazing Lie Yan as their clan leader.

Therefore, Lie Yan would absolutely never agree to such a deal that involves selling off its own people!!! Even if they are mutated, it's unacceptable!!!

Xu Xingyu knew that this deal would inevitably make Lie Yan resent him, but he had no choice. In order to resolve the anomaly in Wang Dong'er's body, he was determined to obtain the Purifying Flame Hong Lian!

Xu Xingyu said solemnly, "Of course I know what this deal means to you, but I have no choice but to obtain the Purifying Flame Hong Lian. It's like you need to get some information about becoming a god from me for Ji Dong's future, while I need to obtain the Purifying Flame Hong Lian for someone important to me."

As Lie Yan listened to Xu Xingyu's words, she also caught something at that moment. She had seen it in Ji Dong before, which was a person's awareness to save another person.

After a moment's thought, Lie Yan spoke in a deep voice, "I can agree to your deal, but you must promise me that you will never mistreat this member of my tribe!"

"Okay." Xu Xingyu nodded slightly.

Lie Yan added, "Besides that, the information about how the Dragon God became a god isn't enough to exchange for my people. So you must add something else."

"Something else?" Xu Xingyu thought for a moment and then said, "How about giving Ji Dong three chances to save his life? As long as it's not God Level expert, I can immediately use Power of Space to teleport to his side and help him."

After some internal struggle, Lie Yan finally agreed, "This... is fine too."

To be honest, she actually wanted other things, but there was nothing she could do because Xu Xingyu had immediately found her Achilles' heel Ji Dong.

As mentioned before, Lie Yan cannot act in the mortal realm due to the reasons of the Divine Realm. Therefore, if Ji Dong encounters problems in the mortal realm, she will be unable to save him, otherwise her only fate will be death.

"So, was the deal a pleasant one?"

"Yes, happy transaction."