A Three Million Bounty? Am I Really Worth That Much?

Linhai City, the old town's shantytown.

The morning sunlight struggled through the narrow alleyways, casting mottled patches of light and shadow against moss-covered walls.

Su Bai pushed open the rust-spotted iron gate and stepped quietly into the dim house.

After a whole night of upheaval, soloing an unfinished building and taking on a peak second-tier Anomaly head-on, he would have been lying if he said he wasn't tired.

Yet he was unusually energized, his black eyes gleaming with a light he couldn't suppress.

He had the huge sum of 150,000 in his pocket and the nine vials of Heart-Clearing Life-Prolonging Powder he had bought from Ghost Hand Old Man tucked close to his chest.

For a high school student who had been too poor to afford special medication just yesterday, it was a dreamlike reversal of fortune.

The house was silent except for the faint, even breathing coming from the inner room.

Su Bai tiptoed to the bed and looked at his sleeping mother.

Her face was still pale and her eye sockets sunken. Years of suffering from illness had turned most of her hair gray.

As Su Bai remembered it, ever since his father disappeared, his mother had shouldered the family's burdens alone. She had taken a grueling job at a spiritual plant processing factory at the very bottom of society, working fifteen hours a day until her health gave out. Then she suffered mild exposure to dark matter radiation, leaving her with an illness that could not be cured at its root.

Su Bai took a deep breath and carefully pulled a glass vial emitting a faint green glow from his clothes.

Heart-Clearing Life-Prolonging Powder, a top-grade second-tier potion.

He broke the seal on the vial and gently dripped a single drop of crystal-clear green liquid into a cup of warm water.

The liquid dissolved as soon as it touched the water, and the whole cup instantly gave off a refreshing fragrance of plants and herbs.

"Mom, wake up and have some water," Su Bai called softly.

His mother slowly woke. Seeing her son standing by the bed, she managed a faint smile. "Xiao Bai, you're home... cough, cough... You've been busy with school training these past few days. Don't wear yourself out."

"I'm not tired. Mom, drink this water first. It's a nutrient solution the school gave us. It's good for your health." Su Bai lied without changing his expression.

He knew that if he told her the water contained a top-grade potion that cost 10,000 a vial, his mother would never bear to drink it.

She suspected nothing and drank the whole cup from Su Bai's hand.

In less than half a minute, a miraculous change occurred.

His mother's previously rapid breathing gradually grew steady, a long-absent hint of color appeared in her cheeks, and even her tightly knitted brows relaxed.

"This... this nutrient solution is amazing. It feels like a lot of that tightness in my chest has gone away, and I have some strength back too." She touched her chest in surprise.

"That's good. Anything the school gives us has to be good. Drink a little every day from now on, and you'll definitely get better." The weight hanging over Su Bai's heart finally lifted completely.

Nine vials were enough to keep his mother's condition from worsening for three months.

But that still wasn't enough.

To completely remove the root of his mother's radiation sickness, a holy light deity of at least the fourth tier would have to personally purify her, or he would have to buy the extremely rare "Spring of Life."

Those two things might not be available even for 15 million, let alone 150,000.

"Money. I'm still short of money, a whole lot of it."

Su Bai sighed inwardly. After settling his mother back to sleep, he went to the outer room and sat down at the battered wooden table.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness instantly sank into the divine kingdom within him.

A gray-black sky stretched over a boundless wasteland, while the air was thick with suffocating dark matter pollution at a concentration of 99.5%.

Originally ten square kilometers in area, it had expanded to fifteen after devouring the peak second-tier rule entity from the unfinished building at Sunshine Waterfront.

Looking out across the wasteland, he saw something else extremely conspicuous at its center, in addition to the bloodstained abandoned school building.

It was a dilapidated staircase standing alone on the wasteland.

Dark green moss covered its steps, and dried black bloodstains lingered on its broken handrail.

The staircase had only twelve steps.

But if you dared to count to thirteen, it would teach you what a true Spatial Labyrinth was.

"Hongdou, come out and receive a customer," Su Bai called out in his divine kingdom.

Whoosh-

A streak of glaring crimson drifted out of the abandoned school building and appeared before Su Bai in an instant.

Hongdou tilted her deathly pale, featureless face slightly, as though asking what orders the boss had for her.

"The three City Appearance Bureau agents' ransom has already come in. You did well last night." Su Bai looked at his own merciless killing machine and nodded in satisfaction.

"But the trouble coming our way could be huge."

Su Bai rubbed his chin, his mind racing.

He had drained Gu Chengfeng's divine kingdom dry. A powerful clan like the Gu Family would never swallow this insult.

In the open, the dual warnings from Principal Chen Tianxing and Bai Lan of the City Appearance Bureau kept the Gu Family from acting recklessly in broad daylight.

But in the shadows, black markets, assassins, mercenaries... Those desperadoes who worked for money would surely swarm in like sharks scenting blood.

"Hongdou, are you happy with this new neighbor I found you?" Su Bai pointed to the Thirteenth Step beside them.

Hongdou turned her head slightly and looked at the staircase, which gave off a strong aura of the Spatial Labyrinth. A humanlike flicker passed through her pitch-black eyes.

Although there was no such thing as "affection" between urban legends, on the same extremely polluted wasteland, they would instinctively resonate with each other at the level of rules.

With The Thirteen Steps serving as a frontline meat shield and a labyrinth to trap enemies, the conditions for an assassin-type rule-based urban legend like Hongdou to survive would improve greatly.

"From today on, if any blind fool dares enter my divine kingdom, let them climb the stairs first. Once they're tired, you can go loosen their bones for them." Su Bai sneered.

Right now, he couldn't wait for the Gu Family to send more assassins.

Assassins were great. They were physically strong, carried plenty of good stuff, and harbored more resentment after death than ordinary people.

They were all first-rate supply channels!

After leaving his divine kingdom, Su Bai took a shower, changed into a clean school uniform, slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, and left home.

It was Monday, the first school day after the mock battle.

When Su Bai swaggered into the classroom of Senior Class Seven at Linhai No. 3 Middle School, the previously noisy room fell so silent that a pin could have been heard dropping.

Everyone's gaze swung toward Su Bai like searchlights.

Awe, curiosity, disbelief, and even a trace of fear.

"Brother Bai! You're finally here!"

The fatty Lin Que rolled over like a ball of flesh and grabbed the strap of Su Bai's schoolbag, his face full of obsequiousness.

"Brother Bai, you're a living legend at our school now! You have no idea, the forum exploded yesterday. Everyone was discussing how you instantly wiped out Gu Chengfeng's ten thousand berserkers!"

Su Bai tossed his schoolbag onto his desk and yawned. "What did they come up with?"

"What else? They split into two camps." Lin Que pulled out a chair for Su Bai and began talking animatedly.

"One side thinks you're a super genius who hid his strength, and that what you awakened wasn't a wasteland at all, but some extremely rare mutated poison-gas divine kingdom. They say you poisoned the berserkers to death."

"The other side are Gu Chengfeng's brain-dead fans. They insist you must have used a banned scroll or a high-tier magical artifact. Some even say you were possessed by an evil god."

Su Bai was thoroughly amused.

Poison gas? Banned scrolls? Possession by an evil god?

These high schoolers' imaginations were still far too limited.

If they found out he was raising a female ghost in red who specialized in snapping necks, along with a broken staircase in his Divine Kingdom that could trap people to death in an alternate dimension, they would probably piss themselves on the spot.

Just then, the class monitor Shen Yueli entered the classroom.

She wore the same blue-and-white school uniform, her hair in a high ponytail, and carried herself with a chill like thousand-year-old dark ice.

When she saw Su Bai, Shen Yueli paused slightly.

She walked up to Su Bai, took a neatly folded note from her pocket, and placed it on Su Bai's desk.

"Don't take the side streets after school. Take the bus straight home. If you run into trouble, you can call the number on it."

Shen Yueli spoke quietly enough that only Su Bai and Lin Que could hear her.

With that, she went straight back to her seat without giving Su Bai another glance.

Su Bai froze for a moment, then opened the note and looked at it.

A mobile number was written on it in graceful handwriting.

Lin Que stared, his eyes wide, and swallowed hard. "Holy shit... Brother Bai, the school beauty gave you her number?! Is she trying to ask you out? This isn't just a comeback, you've gone straight to ascending the throne!"

"Get lost. Stop using that filthy junk filling your head to speculate about a pure relationship between classmates." Su Bai smacked the back of Lin Que's head.

He looked at the note, his brows furrowing slightly.

Shen Yueli wasn't the kind of person who casually gave boys her number.

She had specifically warned him not to take the side streets after school, so she had clearly heard something.

Though the Shen Family couldn't cover the sky with one hand in Linhai City like the Gu Family, they were still a prominent clan, and their intelligence network was naturally no slouch.

It seemed the Gu Family had moved even faster than he had imagined.

The first lesson was "Divine Kingdom Ecology Management," taught by their homeroom teacher, Qin Wan.

Qin Wan walked into the classroom in her high heels, and her gaze landed on Su Bai at once.

Seeing Su Bai looking so carefree and still bent over studying the note, Qin Wan felt anger rise from nowhere.

This brat had caused such a huge mess, yet not only was he unafraid, he was even in the mood to look at a cheat sheet in class?

"Ahem!" Qin Wan coughed heavily twice, and the class immediately fell silent.

"Before class begins, I have an important announcement." Qin Wan adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, her expression serious.

"There are less than three months left until the Great Xia Nation's Provincial Divine Battle Tournament, held once every three years. This tournament will decide who receives the special admission slots for the nation's highest institution of learning, the National Deity Academy."

At the words "National Deity Academy," the whole class's eyes lit up.

That was the holy land every young deity dreamed of! Anyone who got in would have all the resources, cultivation techniques, and expert teachers they could want, and would come out at least a high-tier demigod!

"To prepare for the tournament, the school has decided to hold a school-wide practical assessment in the middle of next month."

Qin Wan swept her gaze across the room.

"This assessment will take place in a moderately polluted secret realm outside Linhai City. Everyone must participate in teams, and rankings will be determined by the points earned from hunting polluted exotic beasts. The ten teams with the most points will represent the school in the city's selection trials."

The class immediately erupted.

"Actual combat in a polluted secret realm? People can die in there!"

"It's a moderately polluted zone. The exotic beasts in there are first tier at the very least. Wouldn't rookies like us who just awakened be delivering ourselves as takeout?"

"What are you afraid of? We can team up! Hurry and latch onto a strong backer! Anyone with powerful followers, please carry me!"

Qin Wan ignored the students' chatter and gave Su Bai a long look instead.

"Su Bai, come to my office after class."

During the ten-minute break, Su Bai strolled over to Qin Wan's office.

"Teacher Qin, you wanted to see me?" Su Bai pushed open the door with a grin.

Qin Wan sat behind her desk and pointed to the chair opposite her, signaling him to sit.

"Close the door."

Once Su Bai was seated, Qin Wan took an unlabeled file envelope from a drawer and pushed it in front of him.

"See for yourself. I asked an old classmate at the City Appearance Bureau to get this information from the underground black market."

Su Bai opened the envelope curiously. Inside was a printed screenshot of a bounty notice.

The notice had a background image of a blood-dripping dagger.

Su Bai's photo and detailed information were printed right on it!

[Target name: Su Bai]

[Identity: Senior student at Linhai No. 3 Middle School]

[Strength assessment: F-rank wasteland divine kingdom, suspected of possessing some kind of miniature spatial killing artifact. No personal combat ability.]

[Bounty: 3 million Great Xia Currency, dead or alive.]

[Posted by: Anonymous.]

"Three million?" Looking at the figure, Su Bai showed no fear. Instead, an extremely strange gleam flashed in his eyes.

"Holy shit, Teacher Qin, am I really worth that much? If I beat myself up and deliver myself to the person who posted it, can I collect the money?" Su Bai said, half joking.

"At a time like this, you're still cracking jokes!" Qin Wan slapped the desk in anger.

"This bounty was posted on the Shadow Guild's internal network. The Shadow Guild is the biggest underground assassin organization in Linhai City. It's full of lunatics who would throw away their lives for money!"

"Although the person who posted it is anonymous, you could figure out who did it with your toes."

Qin Wan took a deep breath and lowered her voice.

"Principal Chen Tianxing can keep the Gu Family's forces in check in the open, but he can't control the rats in the black market. Once you leave the school's protection, those assassins could pounce on you like vicious wolves at any moment!"

"Su Bai, I suggest you stay in the school dormitory for the time being and not go anywhere. Once next month's assessment is over, I'll find a way to apply for a spot for you at a secret training base. You can wait there until this blows over."

Seeing the concern in Qin Wan's eyes, Su Bai felt a trace of warmth flow through his heart.

In this cold school, Qin Wan was genuinely concerned for his safety.

But hide?

That word wasn't in Su Bai's dictionary.

Besides, his divine kingdom had just expanded to fifteen square kilometers, and he was desperately short of high-grade fertilizer and materials.

Ordinary dead rats and the resentment in the unfinished building could no longer satisfy him.

"The Shadow Guild's high-level assassins should be pretty strong, right?" Su Bai murmured, rubbing his chin.

"They're all False Gods of at least the second tier. Some have even reached the threshold of demigodhood, and they're experts in assassination and poisons!" Qin Wan warned sternly. "Your little tricks are nothing in the face of absolute strength!"

"I understand, Teacher Qin. I'll be careful." Su Bai nodded obediently.

The moment he stepped out of the office, Su Bai's lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile.

Second-tier or higher False God assassins? Experts in assassination?

Perfect.

"My The Thirteenth Step happens to need a few high-quality corpses to pave the way."

"Boss Gu, please, send me plenty of free kills!"