Book 10: Chapter 8 – You Overestimated Me
Xue Ying nodded. “Truly admirable. Indeed, just as Young Master Wu Ma Hai said, my True Meaning of Mirage has reached the stage two realm.”
Xue Ying’s True Meaning of Mirage had reached the peak of the stage two realm.
He had originally thought that none of the Demigods would be able to discover his actions. Clearly, however, there were some experts even among experts! An existence who could surpass an era failed to discover him, yet the even stronger commander of the team, Wu Ma Hai, was able to.
“Despite suffering from the Six Ghosts Resentment hexing poison, your True Meaning of Mirage has actually reached the stage two realm within a hundred years?” Bo Bo did not believe it—it would just be too disgraceful for him to lose. The True Meaning of Mirage had a frightening reputation, but he felt that having attained the third rank Deity Heart realm, he would be sure to obstruct the first stage realm of the True Meaning of Mirage. Who would have thought that Xue Ying would be on a whole different level than he expected.
The golden-armored young man, Wu Ma Hai, said, “Such a pity that you’ve been afflicted with a hexing poison, leaving you without a single strand of Transcendent Qi inside your body and rendering you unable to become a Demigod, much less use a Deity weapon. While your True Meaning of Mirage is really mysterious, your offensive power is simply too weak. When the time comes for us to enter the Crimson Rock Mountain, even if a terrifying enemy were to just stand there for you to hit him, you couldn’t injure him in the least.”
Bo Bo immediately nodded. “Indeed. Scouting ahead with your True Meaning of Mirage might be useful, but your individual offensive ability is puny.”
Xue Ying listened on without uttering a word.
“We wouldn’t gain any real advantage by bringing you along in the Crimson Rock Mountain, and we’d even have to defend you from harm! We came truly prepared for this mission, and we’ve decided to stake our lives on this mountain, after some arrangements by a powerful existence from the Deity World,” the tall and thin Ba Han said. “The world as we know it is a fair one, and it would not be impossible for us to bring you along, but… you will have to show how sincere you are.”
“Oh, I do wonder what you all will require me to give up?” Xue Ying asked.
“Of course, all of the information the Xia Clan has on the Crimson Rock Mountain is the simplest of the conditions. Palace Head Chen has already agreed that as long as we take you along, he will certainly pass it on to us. In truth, however, we’ve obtained plenty of information prior to coming here, and this additional intelligence the Xia Clan has might not be too huge of a boon.” The tall, thin man, Ba Han, squinted his eyes. “We’ll also need you to be the scout of our team! You’ll be going ahead of us, scouting the paths ahead fearlessly. That…is the only benefit you can provide us as a scout.”
Xue Ying frowned. “Scout?” If you want me to proceed, I have to do it no matter what? If you three gentlemen clearly know that the path forward is extremely dangerous, I’ll still have move ahead? Isn’t that just sending me to my death?
“As a scout, you won’t have to move too close to the source of danger. You’ll only have to be able to see what’s ahead.” The tall and thin man, Ba Han, laughed.
Bo Bo coldly snorted. “If you don’t dare be our scout, of what use would you even be to us?”
Xue Ying’s expression changed slightly.
This Bo Bo was truly overbearing.
“The Crimson Rock Mountain is a legacy left behind by a powerful existence from the Deity World. You should have received the relevant information beforehand, so you’re probably aware that there aren’t many areas that we would require you to scout,” said the golden-armored young man. “We won’t demand too much of you, but you’ll have to invest your energy since we’ll be the ones fighting along the way.”
“Alright.” Xue Ying nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
Throwing himself to certain death was certainly not something he would accept doing.
“The final request.” The golden-armored young man smiled. “We require ten Deity-grade scrolls.”
“What?!” Xue Ying’s expression took a sudden turn. There were even faint signs of the fire of fury burning in his eyes. “Do you three gentlemen not find this request incredibly excessive?”
The red-haired man, Bo Bo, snorted. “We absolutely need these ten Deity-grade scrolls from you! That’s our final request. Hand them over, and we’ll be sure to take you along to the Crimson Rock Mountain. Don’t…and you can forget it.”
The truth was finally revealed!
Xue Ying finally returned to reality. He had thought that this team from the Temple of the Earth God would bring him along since he had his True Meaning of Mirage and so he wouldn’t encumber them. The information on the Crimson Rock Mountain as well as acting as a scout should may have been enough for them to agree to take him along. But he had truly been too optimistic. In truth, they were aiming for the Deity-grade scrolls!
“Impossible!” Xue Ying became gloomy. “I don’t possess even a single Deity-grade scroll.”
“You might not have any, but the Xia Clan does,” the thin, tall man wrapped in thick clothing, Ba Han, softly said. “Perhaps your Xia Clan hasn’t had that many Transcendents who became Deities, but throughout the entire history, there should have still been quite a few. Those who were mages before among them should have left behind a hefty amount of Deity-grade scrolls. Taking out ten of them should not be such a big deal for the Xia Clan. I’ve heard that they’ve already paid quite the price for the sake of saving you, so taking out ten Deity-grade scrolls…”
Xue Ying angrily retorted, “Impossible. You can forget having this request fulfilled.”
These three Demigods from the Deity World communicated among themselves through their eyes.
In truth, their biggest aim was getting those Deity-grade scrolls!
The reason why they didn’t mention anything to Palace Head Chen from the start was that they were afraid of scaring him away; they decided to keep it hidden before alluring Xue Ying and making him collect the bait himself! According to their analysis, Xue Ying was very important to the Xia Clan, having brought about great contributions! Getting a few Deity-grade scrolls should not have been too hard for him.
One had to know…an extremely terrifying price had to be paid in order to send Deity-grade scrolls over from the Deity world via the Temporal Temple.
The situation of the Xia Clan was different, however, since those in the history of the clan who became Deities could remain in this world for a total of ten thousand years. During that long period of time, they could provide the clan with many things, such as refining Deity-grade scrolls. As they did not need the Temporal Temple to send them down and could refine them locally instead, the overall price of production was significantly lower. Of course, refining each of those Deity-grade scrolls was not easy to do, and the Xia Clan had also used plenty of them during difficult times.
Every one of those scrolls was part of the Xia Clan’s foundation.
“How about this—ten scrolls might be indeed too many, so how about five?” suggested the golden-armored young man, Wu Ma Hai. “Five Deity-grade scrolls. I heard that the Xia Clan has used up quite a few scrolls for the sake of saving you when breaking down those 12 sets of arrays put up by the Beast Clan. Five…should be an amount that they could easily take out.”
“Five, and not a single one fewer,” added Bo Bo. “Bring them out, and we’re allies. Refuse, and you can leave first.”
Xue Ying suppressed his anger.
He was merely gambling on a sliver of hope for survival by going to the Crimson Rock Mountain. On top of that, the Xia Clan had the looming threat of the Great Demonic God and the Sorcerer God over their heads. How could he ask for five Deity-grade scrolls from them at such a time?
Forget five, even one would be too much!
“Farewell!” Xue Ying said and immediately turned to leave.
The expressions of Wu Ma Hai, Ba Han and Bo Bo slightly changed.
“Dong Bo Xue Ying, there’s no team which will just casually take you along. Us being willing to take you along is something you should be happy with,” Wu Ma Hai said in a frosty tone.
“Then I’ll go by myself,” Xue Ying said.
“You’ll go alone?” Wu Ma Hai sneered, “Hmph, hmph, even someone like Bo Bo would only have a one in ten chance of success if he goes alone. As for you? You’ll die beyond a shadow of a doubt. Going there just means sending yourself to your own death. I encourage you to think carefully, or else, when you’re facing your doom in the Crimson Rock Mountain, there won’t be anyone there to save you. By then, it’ll be too late for regrets!”
Xue Ying walked directly towards the exit while laughing. “Many thanks to Young Master Wu Ma Hai for your concern.”
Ba Han shouted, “Brat, is your life not worth five Deity-grade scrolls? As long as you accept this deal, we’ll do our very best to protect you.”
“Haha…someone on death’s door like me to be worth five Deity-grade scrolls? You’ve grossly overestimated me.” Xue Ying’s figure had already reached the distant door to the courtyard. Soon, he was already outside the range of vision of the three Demigods.
……
The gold-armored man, Wu Ma Hai, took a seat inside the pavilion before beginning to eat some desserts with a frown. “I truly did not imagine that this Dong Bo Xue Ying would fear death so little. The moment we mentioned the Deity grade scrolls, he immediately rejected us without even giving us a chance to negotiate! The Xia Clan would have certainly forked out three to five scrolls for the sake of such an existence who can suppress an era, but that brat wasn’t willing to cooperate.”
“Such a waste of effort!” Bo Bo sat back on the rock by the side. He was quite infuriated.
“Whatever, just let that brat go meet his death!” said the thin, tall man, Ba Han. “What use is there for the True Meaning of Mirage? There aren’t that many places which require scouting in the Crimson Rock Mountain; it’s still mainly a path filled with battles, and his combat power is so much weaker than ours.”
“Mn, quietly continue your preparations. Pay him no more heed,” said Wu Ma Hai.
From the beginning, their sights weren’t even set on Xue Ying’s combat strength.
They had asked Xue Ying to take that apple merely to display their strength and make him spend a bit of effort to take it away. They did not consider, however, that Xue Ying’s True Meaning of Mirage would be so much stronger than they expected.
Even then, their sights were still not set on him.
After all, Xue Ying’s individual offensive power was too weak, and without a Deity weapon, he was even weaker than Bo Bo by a large margin.
The only thing they cared for…was Xue Ying’s worth in the eyes of the Xia Clan! Therefore, they sought to obtain some Deity-grade scrolls from the Xia Clan.
Unfortunately, it had been a failure.
……
“Take care, Sir Dong Bo Xue Ying.” The guards at the entrance of the Temple of the Earth God remained respectful to him.
Xue Ying had just walked outside the entrance of the Temple of the Earth God when he turned his vision up to the vast sky above. He let out a laugh. It’s not a big deal for me to not join this team. In the worst case, I’ll just enter the Crimson Rock Mountain alone!
Hong.
Within moments, he had already shot up into the sky. A crack appeared in space as it was torn apart. Xue Ying stepped through it and disappeared.
