Should this make me happy? Bao Jingwu’s talents were utterly unexceptional. He’d won his current position as a squad leader in the Grizzly Bear Society through months and months of arduous work.
He’d been studying at Skyspan Academy for quite some time, but no one had ever treated him like this.
Two grand, wealthy student societies were fighting over him. Although Anti-Upheaval had lost its former glory, it was still nominally one of the top-five student societies.
“Hah? How ridiculous.” Sun Jialing shot Ye Zichen a cool, disdainful look, then looked him over. “You’re trying to tempt members of my Grizzly Bear Society right in front of me? Do you know how stupid that is? Everyone in Skyspan Academy knows what joining the Grizzly Bears means. Practically sixty percent of students would do just about anything to join us. Do you really think that your empty words and hollow promises are enough to make him give up on us and join Anti-Upheaval instead?”
Her confidence and certainly wasn’t baseless. The Grizzly Bear Society was powerful, even without the resources the academy gave them.
Just based on numbers alone, they could collect all sorts of resources from outside. Although most of the benefits went to the society’s leadership, wealthy student societies who offered their ordinary members such excellent benefits were few and far between.
More importantly, there was the matter of prestige.
Even if you were just an ordinary member, so long as you wore the Grizzly Bear Society emblem, few people on the Divine Mountain would dare offend you.
A bigger faction offered individual security.
Benefits meant little compared to your life.
Bao Jingwu, who’d just let Ye Zichen tempt him, thought it over then came to his senses.
It was true that the Grizzly Bears hadn’t treated him well, but if he went to Anti-Upheaval, it wasn’t just the Grizzly Bears’ leadership who’d look down on him; ordinary members might start treating him coldly as well.
Besides, Ye Zichen kept talking about how great the benefits of joining Anti-Upheaval were.
But where were those benefits?
Bao Jingwu hadn’t seen them!
When she noted the change in Bao Jingwu’s expression, Sun Jialing crossed her arms, emphasizing a certain eye-catching feature, and let out a confident laugh. “If you refuse to join us, all I can say is, it’s a pity. But if you want to steal our members, you’d best give up. There’s not that much time until the welcoming ceremony, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to trouble you to go back and tell Xue Mo not to forget: she has to perform naked at the ceremony. I trust that her appearance will liven up the ceremony’s atmosphere, and that many of our peers will be delighted to witness her performance.”
Strip and perform naked?
This must be the bet Xue Mo and Sun Jialing were talking about.
He hadn’t realized that the stakes were so high.
Although Xue Mo had tricked him, and their relationship wasn’t exactly harmonious, he was still a member of her Anti-Upheaval Society. If his Society Head stripped naked and danced in public, that would be way too embarrassing! As her subordinate, how could he hold his head high, or even show his face, at Skyspan Academy after that?
“Platoon Leader Sun, are you really certain I can’t lure your people away?” asked Ye Zichen.
“Why don’t you try it and see?” She pursed her lips. “If you want to tempt them, you’ll have to offer up bargaining chips shocking enough to move them, not just empty promises. No one here was born yesterday. What we care about most are benefits!”
“You’re right.” Ye Zichen nodded.
“See? Even you admit it. Then what do you think your odds are? In terms of benefits, our Grizzly Bear Society is far superior to your Anti-Upheaval Society, don’t you think? Of course, if you split your resources among a mere hundred people, we’re inferior to you. But if you want to recruit more students than us, a mere hundred students isn’t enough to achieve victory. Xue Mo… and your Anti-Upheaval Society… have already lost!”
“Tch tch…” Ye Zichen couldn’t help but rub his hands and cluck his tongue.
It seemed that Sun Jialing wasn’t some brainless woman. Although she was a bit reckless sometimes, she could be rather calculating.
“You’re not exactly wrong.” Ye Zichen didn’t argue with her. He simply smiled and nodded, then scratched his head. He seemed at a loss. It was obvious that he was in distress.
Sun Jialing’s smile broadened. From the moment Xue Mo agreed to their bet, her fate was sealed.
If she wanted to blame herself, she could only blame her short own short temper!
Despite herself, imagines of Xue Mo trying to kill her that day floated into Sun Jialing’s consciousness. Although she hated to admit it, she’d truly been terrified.
“Hmph. You want to compete with me? Just wait; in three days, you’ll have an embarrassing show to look forward to,” said Ye Zichen.
“This this over,” said Sun Jialing, hiding her fear behind a cold smile. “We’ll see whether it’s our Grizzly Bear Society or your Anti-Upheaval Society that gets humiliated. Of course, I won’t make trouble for you over what you just said. I’m the magnanimous type, after all. The gates to our Grizzly Bear Society will always be open to you.”
“I appreciate your good intentions, but there’s no need,” said Ye Zichen. He raised his hand and rubbed his ring, then laughed, “I’m not just not joining you; I’m going to steal away your subordinates!”
Whoosh!
Anti-Upheaval’s little recruitment table suddenly rumbled.
The noise drew everyone’s attention. Bao Jingwu and Sun Jialing, who were right at the heart of it, fell into a daze.
Pills, treasures, talismans…
A full-on mountain of them!
The treasures glittered all the colors of the rainbow, catching the light and making everything else dull by comparison.
The pill bottles opened just a crack, and the dense smell of medicine carried for thousands of miles.
“This is the benefit of our Anti-Upheaval Society.”
After setting all this out, Ye Zichen smiled confidently and took in Sun Jialing’s flabbergasted expression. He then turned back to Bao Jingwu, snapped his finger, and sent a bottle of Supreme Pills into his hands.
The bottle was cool to the touch, startling Bao Jingwu, who was still in a daze at the sight of that veritable mountain of treasure, out of his revelry.
He looked at his hands and saw a whole bottle of Supreme Pills.
Gulp.
The instant he saw the pills, Bao Jingwu gulped.
Supreme Pills.
If an earth supreme expert took them, it would instantly raise their level by a full stage.
Only god-level pill refiners could produce them.
Although they were the lowest of the low among divine medicines, they were still out of reach for ordinary people. At an auction, a single pill could sell for millions of aureus.
Bao Jingwu looked back at that mountain of treasure. There had to be at least ten thousand bottles of Supreme Pills alone.
Just the price of those pills alone surpassed the Grizzly Bear Society’s annual resource allotment. But there weren’t just pills! There were weapons, armors, talismans…
Who said that the Anti-Upheaval Society had gone downhill? Based on the sight of this mountain of treasure alone, Bao Jingwu was ready to fight anyone to made such accusations.
At that moment, Ye Zichen glanced calmly at Bao Jingwu, smiled, and arched his brows. “You coming?”
