Zero-cost shopping in the secret realm, undercurrents in the outside world

Mist Canyon, central region.

Thick, gray-black mist rolled between the trees, and the air reeked of blood.

The bodies of Wang Meng and the other four second-tier experts had been swallowed whole by Su Bai's Divine Kingdom rift.

Aside from a few pools of darkened blood, not even a hair remained at the scene.

Lin Que swallowed hard and struggled to pull his gaze away from the void behind Su Bai, which had already closed.

"Brother Bai..." Lin Que's voice wavered. "Where did you... send them just now?"

Su Bai dusted off his hands, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"The recycling center, of course. Dumping corpses everywhere damages the secret realm's ecosystem. I'm protecting the environment."

Protecting the environment?

The corner of Lin Que's eye twitched.

Protecting the fucking environment, my ass! You were destroying the bodies to cover your tracks!

Shen Yueli stood to the side, a complicated light flickering in her cool eyes.

She looked at Su Bai and took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Su Bai, what you just used wasn't an ordinary dependent's power. That method of ignoring Wang Meng's defenses and twisting his neck directly... was it a rule?"

Shen Yueli was, after all, a core member of the Shen Family, and her knowledge was far beyond that of an ordinary student.

She knew full well that only those legendary, exceedingly rare and dangerous rule-type creatures could ignore the difference in tiers and kill instantly through causality.

Su Bai gave Shen Yueli an appreciative look.

"Sharp eyes, class rep. But none of that matters. What matters is that we're grasshoppers tied to the same rope now. Since I dared to show you my hand, I don't consider you outsiders."

Su Bai walked over and patted Lin Que on the shoulder, then smiled at Shen Yueli.

"Since the Gu Family spent ten million on my head, Wang Meng's group can't be the only one in this secret realm. From here on, we need to change tactics."

"Change tactics? How?" Lin Que tightened his grip on his iron shield.

Su Bai rubbed his chin, his eyes blazing with the fervor of someone who had spotted a prize fat sheep.

"Before, they came looking for us."

"Now, we're turning the tables. We'll uproot every last card the Gu Family has planted in this secret realm."

"Don't they like hunting? Then we'll give them a taste of 'reverse robbery.'"

Su Bai's words stunned both Lin Que and Shen Yueli.

Reverse-robbing the Gu Family's mercenaries?

Had this guy gone mad?

Those were desperadoes who licked blood off their blades!

But seeing how calm and unruffled Su Bai looked, even a little eager, neither of them argued, surprisingly enough.

After all, the fate of those five second-tier experts was still fresh in their minds.

"Let's go, class rep. Lead the way. Head for wherever the exotic beasts are thickest and the spiritual energy fluctuations are strongest. Since those mercenaries came in, they definitely won't be keeping their eyes on me alone. They'll absolutely take the chance to grab some other benefits."

Su Bai waved a hand and swaggered off in front, as if he were strolling through his own back garden rather than a polluted secret realm full of hidden dangers.

Meanwhile.

On the enormous field at Linhai No. 3 Middle School.

The teleportation array's light had dimmed, and all the students had entered Mist Canyon.

Inside a hastily erected monitoring hall beside the field, several enormous holographic screens displayed the secret realm's points rankings and the energy fluctuations in each area in real time.

Principal Chen Tianxing sat in the main seat, his brow slightly furrowed.

Qin Wan stood behind him, clutching a list tightly in her hand, her eyes full of worry.

"Principal, the Gu Family has gone too far this time!" Qin Wan said through gritted teeth, keeping her voice low. "I just checked the teleportation records. The vital signs data of a full thirty people from the senior-year elite class fluctuated abnormally the moment they entered the teleportation array!"

"Those weren't our students at all! Someone used high-tier disguise scrolls to take the students' places and sneak in!"

Chen Tianxing picked up his teacup and gently blew the tea leaves floating on top, his gaze deep.

"I know."

"You know? Then why didn't you stop them?" Qin Wan grew anxious.

"Stop them? How?" Chen Tianxing sighed. "Gu Qingshan, the Gu Family's great elder, personally stepped forward and put pressure on the municipal education bureau. Those disguise scrolls are high-grade goods retired from military use. Even the detection array at the entrance couldn't pick them up. Without hard evidence, if I forcibly detained them, the Gu Family would have grounds to report me to the higher-ups."

"But Su Bai..."

"Qin Wan, you're underestimating that boy." Chen Tianxing cut her off, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

"Do you think a mere few dozen mercenaries can kill a brat who managed to toy that third-tier old monster at Benevolent Heart Hospital to death?"

"I let those people in because I want to see exactly where that boy's limits are. Since the Gu Family wants to be his whetstone, let them sharpen him."

Chen Tianxing set down his teacup, his gaze fixed on the dot on the holographic screen that represented Su Bai's team.

"I just hope the Gu Family's whetstone doesn't end up breaking."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the monitoring hall.

Wang Hai, a safety assessment committee member from the municipal education bureau, sat with a middle-aged man in a black suit.

The middle-aged man was none other than Gu Qingshan, the Gu Family's great elder.

"Great elder, everything has been arranged," Wang Hai said in a low voice, smiling obsequiously.

"Poison Wolf, the Blood Wolf Mercenary Corps' deputy commander, is leading the team personally. All thirty experts, second tier and above, have infiltrated Mist Canyon. They brought the Gu Family's custom-made God-Sealing Lock. Once they lock onto the coordinates of Su Bai's Divine Kingdom, they can seal off his Divine Kingdom passage in an instant!"

"Then, no matter how capable he is, he won't be able to release those bizarre dependents. He'll be chopped into mincemeat like a dead dog!"

Gu Qingshan nodded in satisfaction, a vicious gleam flashing in his eyes.

"Well done. That boy destroyed Chengfeng's foundation. I'll make him suffer every torment in that secret realm, unable to live and unable to die!"

"Tell Poison Wolf I want more than Su Bai's life. I want him to dig out the secrets in his Divine Kingdom too. I'd like to see what an F-rank wasteland could be hiding!"

Gu Qingshan raised his glass and took a small sip of red wine, as if he could already see Su Bai dying a gruesome death in the secret realm.

But what he didn't know was this.

At that very moment, a one-sided slaughter targeting the Blood Wolf Mercenary Corps had quietly begun in Mist Canyon.

Mist Canyon, the edge of the core region.

The dark matter contamination here had reached an astonishing forty percent.

The surrounding trees had turned completely black. Twisted human faces had even grown on their trunks, letting out shrill, mournful wails.

Foul-smelling swamps and poisonous gas pits covered the ground.

Ordinary senior-year students didn't dare approach this area at all.

But at that moment, the sounds of fierce battle were erupting from a valley at the edge of the core region.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Five men in Linhai No. 3 Middle School uniforms, all as burly as bears, were attacking an enormous mutant bear in a frenzy.

Those five were members of the Blood Wolf Mercenary Corps who had sneaked in.

The giant mutant bear was a peak second-tier polluted exotic beast, the Berserk Black Bear. Its hide was tough, its flesh thick, and its strength boundless.

But surrounded and attacked by five experienced mercenaries, the black bear was covered in wounds and roared in despair.

"Put some muscle into it! This beast's magic core is good stuff. It'll fetch a fortune on the black market!"

The bald mercenary in the lead shouted, and his greatsword erupted with dazzling flames as he hacked it viciously into the black bear's back.

Squelch!

Blood sprayed wildly. The black bear wailed and crashed to the ground. It twitched a few times, then went completely still.

The bald mercenary stepped forward and expertly dug the magic core out of the black bear's head with a dagger. It gave off a dense aura of dark matter. He wiped it on his clothes and grinned.

"That hit the spot! The exotic beasts in this secret realm may be heavily polluted, but the pickings are rich."

"Captain, aren't we here to kill that kid called Su Bai? The deputy commander gave us strict orders to find the target as soon as possible," a mercenary as skinny as a monkey said as he came over.

"What's the rush?" The bald captain spat disdainfully.

"A high school kid who hasn't even grown all his hair yet is probably cowering in some corner of the outer area by now. We brothers finally got a chance to come in here, so of course we should make enough to cover our costs first. When we run into that kid, we'll just kill him while we're at it."

The mercenaries nodded in agreement and burst into unrestrained laughter.

However.

Just as they were about to divide up the black bear's corpse.

A burst of crisp applause suddenly came from the mist above the valley.

Clap, clap, clap.

"Well said. 'Kill him while we're at it'-I like the sound of that."

The bald captain's expression changed, and he jerked his head up.

A young man in a school uniform and a baseball cap stood at the edge of the cliff above the valley. No one knew when he had arrived.

His hands were in his pockets as he looked down at them, his eyes full of undisguised mockery.

Behind him stood a fat young man and a stunningly beautiful girl holding a staff.

"Su Bai?!"

The bald captain recognized the target on the bounty notice at a glance. He froze for a moment, then burst into elation.

"Hahaha! I wore out my iron shoes searching everywhere, and here you are without any effort at all! I was just wondering where to find you, and you actually delivered yourself to my door!"

The bald captain immediately drew his greatsword and pointed it at Su Bai on the cliff.

"Brothers! The ten-million bounty is right in front of us! Get him, dead or alive!"

The four mercenaries immediately summoned their respective dependents and prepared to charge up the cliff, brimming with murderous intent.

On the cliff.

Lin Que swallowed as he looked at the five vicious-looking mercenaries below.

"Brother Bai, all five of them are tough customers at the middle of the second tier. And judging by that murderous aura, they're a lot stronger than Wang Meng and his men."

Shen Yueli tightened her grip on her staff as well, ready to provide support at any moment.

Su Bai, however, didn't even move. He simply yawned.

"Fatty, class rep. Do you know what the most important thing is for a qualified god?"

Su Bai suddenly asked a completely unrelated question.

Lin Que paused. "Is... is it the purity of divine power?"

Shen Yueli frowned slightly. "Comprehension of laws?"

"Wrong."

Su Bai shook his head, then raised a finger and wagged it.

"The most important thing is to never do something yourself if you can possibly avoid it."

"If you do everything yourself, you're a wage slave, not a god."

With that, Su Bai stirred his thoughts and opened a two-meter-wide Divine Kingdom rift right in front of him.

"Forbidden Hospital, let our brand-new employees out and give these guests who've come from afar a proper demonstration of our medical services."

Boom!

As Su Bai's words fell.

A strong, pungent smell of formalin, mixed with a nauseating stench of blood, poured out of the Divine Kingdom rift.

Immediately afterward.

Before the horrified eyes of the bald captain and the other four mercenaries.

More than a dozen monsters in bloodstained orderly uniforms staggered out of the rift, carrying rusty chainsaws, hemostats, and enormous syringes.

Their bodies had been pieced together with extreme crudity. Some had arms longer than their legs, while others had two faces sewn onto their heads.

But the mindless madness and pure dark matter contamination they radiated made everyone present feel their scalps tingle.

The bald captain in particular stared fixedly at one of the orderlies carrying a chainsaw, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

Although that orderly's head had been sewn into a mess, he recognized him at once!

That was Wang Meng!

Wang Meng, the Gu Family's hidden operative who had entered the secret realm ahead of them!

"What... what the fuck are those things?! How did Wang Meng end up looking like that?!"

The bald captain's voice changed pitch with fright.

On the cliff, Su Bai snapped his fingers with a smile.

"Patients, please don't hide your ailments and avoid treatment."

"Go on. Get them admitted to emergency."

"Roar-!!!"

The dozen or so mutant orderlies, remade on the Forbidden Hospital's assembly line, let out bestial howls and leaped straight off the cliff. Like a horde of crazed zombies, they pounced on the five mercenaries below!