Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Edited by Aelryinth
The car drove out of the airport. During the drive back, the pedestrians and cars all seemed to be in a rush.
News of the demonic world’s invasion obviously could not be kept secret. By now, the common citizens already knew about it.
Although the demonic army was held off by the exotic beasts left on Mercury, and they wouldn’t be able to break through the perimeter any time soon, what about in the future?
The number of exotic beasts in Mercury was limited, after all, while the demonic creatures that poured out from the planar gates could only be described as endless.
Once the exotic beasts in those remote areas were slowly reduced to nothing by the demonic army’s overwhelming numbers, the demonic army would surely start attacking human settlements.
Also, that time would certainly not be very far off.
Therefore, the government and the army weren’t the only ones who had started preparing themselves. Even the civilian beastmasters had taken their own initiative to do something, be it raising their own strength, or forming teams with people they knew to prepare for the upcoming great battle.
Not only that, many people were feeling annoyed that the fifth beast swarm would come in only about three years!
If the beast swarm came sooner, although the cities would be subjected to fierce attacks again, the demonic army would similarly be under attack! Who knew? Perhaps the endless swarm of exotic beasts would directly force the demonic army to withdraw!
Moreover, with that, the humans could even borrow the strength of the demonic army to weaken the beast swarm, and push back their attacks sooner.
However, only a fraction of people were hoping for that.
According to past experience, the beast swarm would only come once a decade. There were still more than three years to go before the fifth beast swarm attacked.
——
The car drove on, and finally returned to the villa district Zhang Che lived at.
After learning of Zhang Che’s victory in the arena deathmatch and his immediate return, Xi Muyun and the others closed shop early and everyone had gathered at the main gate, receiving Zhang Che for his triumphant return.
Having won the arena deathmatch, it meant that his and the Zhen family’s feud had been resolved… on the surface, at least.
In the future, if the Zhen family were unresigned to the results and wanted to take revenge, they would have to think twice, and could only do so in the dark.
After all, Zhang Che was no longer the same as before. He was no longer an insignificant man anyone could toy with as they wished.
After Zhang Che got out of the car, he saw his mother standing in the courtyard, smiling. He couldn’t help but feel a complicated mix of emotions. He said, choking on his words a little, “Mom, I’m back! Sorry for worrying you!”
Sun Lan nodded with a faint smile, her eyes slightly reddened. She tried her best to suppress her emotions and replied, “You’re back. That’s all that matters.”
Actually, she came to realize that as her son grew stronger and stronger, how could it be possible to not face all kinds of danger?
Instead of always showing a worried expression, it was better to support him. In any case, she couldn’t change a thing, especially now that the demonic world had invaded Mercury. As a powerful beastmaster, Zhang Che would surely have to step onto the battlefield. This was the responsibility of an expert of humanity.
“Aunt, Great-aunt, let’s not stand around in the courtyard. We should be happy that Zhang Che won.” Huang Tielan quickly smoothed out the situation after getting out of the car, and the group entered the living room of the villa, laughing.
All kinds of delicacies already filled the dining table.
——
After dinner, Zhang Che drove Miss Tienan home.
The truth was, he really didn’t want her to go home, but the circumstances didn’t allow that.
“Right, are you going back to school for lessons tomorrow?”
Huang Tielan found the question a little strange. She had only applied for two days of leave. Of course she had to return to school tomorrow.
“Why not you take another day of leave?” Zhang Che suggested, leaving her feeling odd.
She blanked out for a moment, then her face quickly blushed red and she reprimanded him delicately, “Zhang Xiaoche, what are you thinking? I have to go to class tomorrow!”
Zhang Che cried out his innocence inside. This time, he really wasn’t thinking anything strange. But, the key thing was, it was useless even if he was thinking dirty. Miss Tienan was simply too unmoving in her stance. He had no way to proceed.
He sighed, showing a hurt expression. He turned to look at Huang Tielan, trying to look put upon, asking her, “In your heart, am I someone like that?”
“Mhm, you are!” Miss Tienan answered without hesitation.
Zhang Che: …
“Actually, I wanted to tell you that we’ve struck it rich this time, and are going to collect money tomorrow.”
After hearing that, Huang Tielan was stunned for a moment, then her eyes shone with excitement. She quickly asked, “You’re saying, you bet on the arena deathmatch?”
-Good girl, you’re quick on the uptake!-
Seeing Zhang Che’s lips drawing back into a faint smile, Huang Tielan grew even more excited. She subconsciously suppressed her voice and asked, “Zhang Xiaoche, how much did you bet?”
-Miss, is this necessary? Are you afraid of the pedestrians outside overhearing us? Even if we did some vigorous exercise in this car, no one would notice anything!-
Of course, Zhang Che was only thinking to himself. He would never say that out loud, even if he was beaten to death.
“Hmm, not much. Fifty-five million.”
“Fifty-five million purple crystal points!?”
Naturally Huang Tielan wouldn’t think it would be in dollars. Fifty-five million dollars was only worth about a four-star gold-quality beast card. To the commoners and low-tier beastmasters, it was indeed a huge sum. But to Zhang Che, it was an insignificant sum!
Miss Tienan yelped audibly. She immediately thought of the odds of the arena deathmatch. Without even having to calculate, she knew the final amount.
“So, excluding your capital, you earned over two hundred million purple crystal points!”
This amount truly shocked her. However, she was the sole princess of the third generation of the Huang family, after all. Although it was impossible for her to see such a huge amount in her daily life, she didn’t feel too overwhelmed.
“Not that much. There’s still tax and miscellaneous fees to be deducted. I’ll probably get around two hundred million in the end,” Zhang Che smiled, as if he was talking about something insignificant.
“Two hundred million!” Huang Tielan narrowed her eyes. “Zhang Xiaoche, we won’t have to worry about money for purchasing ingredients for concocting cultivation fluid anymore!”
Mhm, as someone who dreamed of becoming the best beast card cultivator in the world, nothing was more important than being able to purchase all kinds of ingredients without a care to concoct the cultivation fluids.
—–
“Zhang-shao, these are… for us?”
In the main hall of the villa with the laboratory, Liu Gang’s squad looked at the two epic-quality beast cards, so shocked that they were unable to say a word.
What were those two epic-quality beast cards? Of course they had guessed it, but they could never imagine Zhang Che would gift them the cards.
“Mhm, I made quite a few enemies outside. When I’m not at home in the future, I’ll have to rely on you to ensure my mother’s safety.”
After going through this arena deathmatch, Zhang Che was sure that his identity and information would be leaked. The Miyazaki Clan and the mysterious faction from Bei Du would learn about it. The two factions were set up hard by Zhang Che. Who knew when they would come take revenge in the future?
In order to ensure his mother’s safety, Zhang Che had decided this from the start. He’d hand the two beast cards to Liu Gang’s squad after the arena deathmatch.
With that, they’d have the strength to defend against the attacks of the experts that might be sent here.
Liu Gang and the others were shaking with excitement.
Even though Zhang Che only gave them the two epic-quality beast cards to protect his mother, if they weren’t trustworthy, would anyone give them beast cards of such level?
Impossible!
Liu Gang’s squad stuck out their chests and declared loudly, “Rest assured, Zhang-shao. Unless the three of us are dead, we won’t let anything happen to your mother!”
“Good, I believe in you guys!” Seeing he had achieved his objective, Zhang Che nodded, smiling, “But you don’t have to be too uptight about this normally. Just paying a little more attention will do. This is Bei Du, after all. Even if they wanted to do something, they won’t dare to do it openly.”
—
After Zhang Che left, Liu Gang and the others looked at the two epic-quality beast cards on the table. None of them made a move. Afterwards, Yi Chong and Pang Dazhi looked at their squad leader, Liu Gang, and said, “Squad leader, why don’t you hold on to the two beast cards?”
Liu Gang shook his head, however, and suggested his own idea, “No, let’s not have a clear distribution. Whichever two of us are in charge of protecting Zhang-shao’s mother will be holding on to the beast cards.”
Yi Chong and Pang Dazhi immediately nodded in agreement.
After all, they had to take turns to rest. It wasn’t safe to put the two beast cards on any one person. Taking turns to hold onto the cards was the best option!
—–
The next morning, Zhang Che gave a call to Huang Tielan after he woke up, indicating that he would drive to go fetch her, and invited her over for breakfast.
In the end, while on his way to the Huang family’s ancestral house, Zhang Che suddenly received a call from Luo Wenjun.
“Hahahaha, Brother Zhang, this time I really have to thank you properly!”
Luo Wenjun’s signature boisterous laughter could be heard the moment the call went through. Obviously he was in a great mood.
“This brother just went to those lottery companies. Guess how much I earned this time? Hahaha, a total of a hundred and sixty million purple crystal points! Let’s split it fifty-fifty as we agreed on. I have already transferred that eighty million to your account!”
Truthfully speaking, if Zhang Che hadn’t reminded and assured him, Luo Wenjun really wouldn’t have dared to place such a heavy bet. If anything had gone wrong, he’d be left with nothing!
However, after getting Zhang Che’s assurance, Luo Wenjun saw that Zhang Che was fully confident of winning, and trusted him this time, betting his entire fortune. In the end, Zhang Che had indeed obtained the final victory!
“Ugh, this…”
Zhang Che didn’t expect Luo Wenjun to really give him half his winnings. Just as he wanted to reject his kind offer, Luo Wenjun said firmly, “No need to say anything more, Brother Zhang. I’m a man of my word. I won’t go back on it! Moreover, if you hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t have earned a cent! It’s already like a dream for me to receive eighty million purple crystal points!”
Hearing Luo Wenjun saying this, Zhang Che knew it was impossible for him to say no.
Alright then, he got another eighty million purple crystal points, just like that. Zhang Che actually felt a little excited about that.
After receiving his prize, in addition to this huge sum, and his original capital, his total assets would be around three hundred and fifty million purple crystal points!
Speaking in terms of just cash, in the whole of Hua Xia, perhaps even Mercury, he should be one of the richest now, right?
——
After passing the security check, Zhang Che drove into the Huang family’s ancestral house. He greeted Grandpa Huang and the others, then straight away “abducted” Miss Tienan out of the house, going straight to the headquarters of the various lottery companies in Bei Du.
Actually, Zhang Che could totally receive his winnings through his personal terminal on the web.
However, out of bad taste, he’d rather make a trip himself and go collect in person.
Regrettably, there wasn’t any actual currency for purple crystal points. Otherwise, Zhang Che really wanted to ask them to pay out in cash, piling them up. What a grand sight it would have been!
“Zhang Xiaoche, after we got the money, let’s not go anywhere else, but shop for high-grade ingredients in preparation for the future, alright?”
At present, all Miss Tienan was thinking of was to stock up on all kinds of high-grade ingredients. When she became a highly-ranked beast card cultivator in the future, she wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of ingredients.
Of course, those ingredients that couldn’t be bought were not included.
“Sure, we’ll buy as much as you want!”
Money was a man’s courage. Zhang Che waved his hand to promise her without any hesitation.
Moreover, he was planning on that originally. It was time to start stocking up on all kinds of high-grade ingredients. Otherwise, it was likely that many ingredients would be lacking when he wanted to level up his subdued beasts in the future and he went looking for the ingredients at the last minute.
Preparing himself early would make sure there wouldn’t be any future troubles!
Afterwards, the two had breakfast together, and made their way around Bei Du City without rest. They collected their winnings and capital back, and the sum in Zhang Che’s purple crystal account kept going higher and higher. His smile was so wide that his eyes couldn’t be seen.
In the end, after busying himself for half a day, he finally collected all his winnings. Zhang Che’s purple crystal account finally stopped at three hundred forty-something million.
Although he had calculated he would have this much money some time ago, Zhang Che still hugged Miss Tienan tightly, displaying his excitement.
—–
As Zhang Che and Huang Tielan were done collecting their winnings and were going to buy the high-grade ingredients, the various military zones in Hua Xia had called for an urgent meeting.
In the conference room in Qian Wei City’s military zone, all the officers who were ranked Major and above were present.
Huang Juyun, who was in charge of affairs in Qian Wei City’s military, was sitting at the head seat, looking at the imagery on the large screen in the conference room with a dark expression.
In the video, which was showing an unspecified demonic gateway, closely dotted demonic creatures were engaged in a fierce battle with exotic beasts.
Well, that wasn’t the main point. The main point was that the video clearly showed that both sides would leave corpses behind after their death. The exotic beasts didn’t care for the demonic creatures’ corpses, but the demonic army snatched the exotic beasts’ corpses and transported them all into the black fog behind them that shrouded the sky…
