Jinse left with a turn; she couldn’t be bothered further with the Luminous King.
At a loss of what to do, he remained where he was and shuffled with a bit of anxiety. But he quickly noticed that everyone was once more focused on the mountain of Earth Light Magneticus; no one cared about him.
It would seem that the perfect reputation of the Luminous King was rather feeble when compared to a great treasure that stoked a maddened frenzy.
……
The Alchemist, Imagination, and Wild Talisman Kings stood in front of the mountain with grim expressions. They were the true hosts of this Supplemental Convention and now the real jokes at the end of the day.
“This mountain of Earth Light Magneticus didn’t come into the Immortal Pagoda’s hands until half a year ago. The Immortal King refined it during this time,” the Alchemist King intoned. “His grasp of refining items has reached a height of wondrous perfection. It will require the Dao King to counter him!”
The Dao King was the publicly recognized foremost expert of supplemental dao in the Hongmeng.
Whether it was supplemental or cultivation dao, the Dao King had attained flawless excellence in both. No one knew what level he was currently at. They only knew that he preferred a hermit’s life and hadn’t appeared in the Hongmeng for over a hundred million years.
“Not necessarily!” The Wild Talisman King changed the topic. “It’s said that the Immortal King controls the order of time, once releasing ten inches of time to destroy a hundred thousand Colosseum cultivators and the Beast King.”
“If this is true, then it’s very likely he utilized the order of time when refining the mountain. Only time can give rise to a spirit inside a treasure!” the Imagination King added.
Alchemist lowered his head to muse over their words and nodded. “Both of you are right. The Immortal King is very heaven-defying and can create all sorts of supplemental items, including treasures, pills, formations. This is certainly not the work of his hand alone. It’s very likely that he’s been chosen to represent a group!
“His organization counts a large coterie of supplemental grandmasters and possibly even kings among their numbers. He dares be this brazen simply because he grasps the order of time!
“The order of time… heh. Legend says that whoever holds it will be subject to misfortune and turn into a large fish. The Immortal King won’t be long for the world. I’m sure the bad luck will be soon forthcoming if he dares become a titled king through cultivation level.” A slight smile appeared on Alchemist’s face. “What we need to do now is discern how to dismantle the Immortal Pagoda. A day in which it exists is a day in which our Supplemental Dao Alliance will be suppressed!
“The Immortal King is nothing to worry about, the most important task at hand is to defeat the Immortal Pagoda. Otherwise, even if the Immortal King dies, the pagoda will just bring out some sort of God King or a Ghost King to be their new representative. Our sights should be set on the organization itself, not a pathetic Immortal King!
“Granted, since he is their representative, anything that happens to him is also a slight to the Immortal Pagoda!”
The three supplemental kings began discussing their plans. This was of paramount importance given the alliance’s great prestige and Lu Yun being the first to challenge it since its inception. Since he was trying to break its monopoly on supplemental dao in the Hongmeng, it would naturally see him as the number one thorn in their side.
The Immortal Pagoda possessed a seventh step king?
So what? The Supplemental Dao Alliance also had high level kings! In fact, there were several seventh step kings holding down the fort in Multitude City.
“Isn’t the Immortal Pagoda mass refining Eight Treasures Return Pills?” the Alchemist King suddenly cackled. “The most important ingredient for that pill is the crystal core of an arcane beast king! If they continuously refine the Eight Treasures Return Pill, that means they have to keep killing arcane beast kings…”
He exchanged conspiratory grins with the Wild Formation King.
“That’s not enough, we need to have that hypocrite the Luminous King speak up as well. Though not many paid attention to the treasure spirit, what it said will become a stain on his record. He will not go quietly into the night.”
“That’s right, we’ll join hands with the Luminous King and ruin the Immortal Pagoda’s name!”
……
Lu Yun stretched thoroughly in a secret chamber on the ninth floor of the Immortal Pagoda.
“Jinse, how is business these days?” A yawn almost split his face.
“We spread our name far and wide during the Supplemental Convention and our foot traffic over the past couple of days has been thirty percent more than usual. We are sitting solidly at three hundred billion premium purple crystals a day for our top line!” Jinse materialized to report to Lu Yun.
Three hundred billion premium crystals was the equivalent of three small premium crystal veins, and everything that Lu Yun was using came from Qing Yu. He wasn’t incurring any costs for his goods sold.
“Not enough, it’s not enough.” He shook his head. “While these purple crystals are a stunning wealth for regular Hongmeng beings, they’re far from enough for Hopeless Major!”
Jinse swallowed hard. She’d been in charge of financial affairs in Hopeless Major and oversaw its resources, which was how she’d stymied Qing Yu’s plans and caused the latter to want to kill her.
Hopeless Major had established many trading guilds throughout the Hongmeng, but all of their daily revenue combined was only one hundred billion premium crystals. Three hundred billion a day was no small sum. It would shock the entire realm if it was made public knowledge.
“You have to know!” Lu Yun jerked his head up. “I’m using all of Hopeless Major’s resources to make my money! This is pure profit for me, but it’s minuscule for the major and not worth mentioning!
“Although you no longer oppose Little Yu, she’s under great pressure after giving me all of Hopeless Major’s wealth. If I don’t send her large amounts of purple crystals, pills, medicines, and treasures in due time, they’ll come down hard on her.”
Lu Yun rose and walked over to a window overlooking all of Multitude City. He’d ferried countless treasures, pills and medicines, purple crystals, and all sorts of war resources to the Hopeless Major over the past half year. But in his eyes, all of that was just a drop in the bucket.
“Ask the Redbud King for more money? No, that’ll attract attention if I do so again and it’ll land her in dangerous circumstances.” He shook his head.
The Redbud King had gifted him with five million premium crystal veins when the Immortal Pagoda opened for business. That’d caused some change to the Redbud Mountain and elicited notice from certain parties.
Being the foremost dragon of the realm, the Redbud Mountain was under constant surveillance. Though Lu Yun had set up a layout around it and utilized the dragon’s strength, making the Redbud King feel invincible when she stood within it, that was only among sixth step kings. She would still be in danger if seventh, eighth, or ninth step kings moved against her.
“Master, all of the pressure on Mistress Empyrean will be resolved when you send her the puppet army of a hundred thousand half step kings in another six months,” Jinse said quietly as she looked at Lu Yun’s expression. “Mistress Intrance has also transported over many illusory formations. It’s completely changed the layout of the battlefield.”
Lu Yun nodded gently. He’d gotten a clear handle on the war between the Ten Valleys of Evil and the Hongmeng ninth step kings. He wouldn’t be able to make a difference even if he became a ninth step king himself, as the valleys didn’t lack for peak kings.
This was a prolonged war in which the ten valleys needed an unending stream of resources and war treasures the most. One or two additional personnel wouldn’t affect the outcome of the conflict.
Lu Yun wasn’t short on resources anymore; all he had to do was to fully deploy their power and turn them into real treasures and purple crystals.
“If I could recruit some more supplemental grandmasters…” The thought occurred to him unbidden. “But given how I’m directly impacting their profits, they’ll probably openly attack me if I blatantly recruit supplemental grandmasters.”
He stroked his chin. He didn’t want any further clashes with the Supplemental Dao Alliance for the moment, that ran counter to his goals. All he wanted to do now was to quietly make money and refine treasures.
“Hmm?” His expression suddenly changed.
“Young master, young master, help!” Zhuo Bufan’s voice echoed in his mind. He wasn’t one of Lu Yun’s Infernum, but answered to the young man because Lu Qing had planted a restriction deep within his true spirit.
Though Lu Yun hadn’t communicated with Zhuo Bufan since departing from Starcloud City, the two maintained something of a connection.
“What is it? What’s going on?” Lu Yun frowned.
“The Moon, Moon King suddenly turned into a ghost king and is rampaging through Starspace Region with incredible strength! She killed the Starspace King and the entire region’s turned into a ghost region! She’s attacking Scorching Sun right now, so please save us, young master!” Zhuo Bufan was very frantic and worried.
“Is Starspace City gone too?” Lu Yun’s expression darkened.
“It’s gone… Almost all of the region’s cities have been destroyed. Only Scorching Sun and a few others are left…” Despair suffused Zhuo Bufan’s voice.
Lu Yun sent his senses out and discovered that the formations in Starcloud City and others he’d left behind had indeed been destroyed. Miao Qimiao, Luo Shanshan, and the others were all dead.
“Have the Scorch King hold on for a moment, I’ll send people there immediately.” Lu Yun nodded. “Beast King, take your men to reinforce the Scorch King at Scorching Sun City!”
“Understood!” Stationed at the City of Immortals, the Beast King and others immediately set out when they received their orders. Infernum couldn’t stray too far from Lu Yun, but since these kings were all written into the Tome of Life and Death, they could freely move about at will.
“Lu Yun, Lu Yun!” Dusksnow Morningstar suddenly wailed. “Lu Yun, I’m going back to Starspace Region! Vicious ghosts have overrun it and my master, my family—”
“Calm down for a moment, Morningstar.” Lu Yun flashed to where the genius was. “I’ve already sent men to the region, don’t worry. Though the Starspace King is dead, your family may not be in danger.”
Dusksnow Morningstar’s eyes reddened. “I’m not one of the Starspace King’s men, but I owe him a great debt of gratitude. I cannot stay here when he’s been killed by vicious ghosts!”
“Since you’ve decided, I won’t stop you.” Since Dusksnow Morningstar was a half step king, his every decision impacted his dao heart and future achievements. “Take Old Eight with you, I’ll feel much more comfortable that way,” Lu Yun mentioned.
