Chapter 30
"See that?" Huan Zheng whispered softly to Ling Xu, his chin gesturing toward a female politician from the opposition faction who suddenly stood up and launched a sharp rebuttal against the proposal of the three sects—despite the fact that just yesterday she had sat frozen in the corner of the room like a silent statue.
"She's one of the three I 'touched' this morning. Now she speaks as if all of it came from her own mind."
"I like your methods, Zhao Wei," Ling Xu replied with a faint smile beneath his hood, "but don't forget—we only need 40 percent of the food reserves to take with us. The rest is up to them, whether they want to fight each other to the death."
And as night began to creep in through the tall windows of the city hall, after hours of fierce debate that left some politicians hoarse and others nearly strangling each other in the back corridors, the final result was finally announced.
All the politicians—although the representatives of the three sects looked extremely displeased, their faces pale like those who had just lost their inheritance—chose to proceed with the agricultural cultivation plan that would produce high-quality food for Star Foundation cultivators, but with one condition that made their hearts tremble like drums struck by shaking hands.
Budget efficiency would begin with each representative of the three sects acting as executors of the policy—a small victory for them, as they still retained some power—but each of them would be directly supervised by agents appointed by the mortal authorities who were not from the three sects and had no affiliation with any sect, a compromise that felt like a dagger slowly being driven into their backs.
"And most importantly," declared a government elder in a loud voice that echoed throughout the room, his gaze sweeping across the sect representatives one by one like a judge delivering a death sentence, "each supervisor has been bound by a curse oath. If they betray—if they dare to collude with the executors to steal the people's rights—then the poison within their bodies will activate instantly, and their deaths will be neither swift nor humane."
Huan Zheng, who was sweeping the floor in the corner with his usual lazy movements, smiled faintly—because he knew that the proposal of the curse oath had been his idea, whispered to an easily influenced old politician three days ago, and now it had become reality, binding the hands and feet of the three great sects for years to come.
In the quiet back corridor of Yonglan City Hall, lit only by a single oil lamp whose wick was nearly burnt out, Ling Xu stood frozen—not from the cold, but because in his outstretched palm, tens of billions of Humanity Lintang coins kept pouring in like an endless rain of light, flowing from a leather pouch given by the city treasurer who had gone blind from gratitude toward the two "lowly servants" who had saved his city from starvation.
One hundred billion coins, to be exact—100,000,000,000—a number that made his heart beat faster than usual, made his chest tighten with a strange warmth, and caused his dim eyes to glisten, because he knew that with this addition, he would break past limits that once felt like distant dreams.
"100 billion," he whispered, his voice trembling like the strings of a zither plucked too hard, "plus the 55 million I already have… I'll break into Supernatural Star Level 30. Just two levels below you, Zhao Wei."
Huan Zheng, standing beside him with the broom still in his left hand, simply nodded lazily while yawning—but behind that laziness, his eyes monitored every coin entering Ling Xu's body, ensuring nothing went wrong, ensuring the leveling process proceeded smoothly without interference, because at moments like this, a cultivator was most vulnerable to external attacks.
But the surprise was not over—because just as Ling Xu finished feeling the 30th wave of Qi flowing through his veins, feeling every cell in his body pulse with a strength he had never imagined before, Huan Zheng, with his usual lazy motion, took something out from his chest.
Not from a pouch, not from beneath his robe, but directly from the axis of his cultivation—from the place where 9,888,888,888,888,888 Humanity Lintang coins pulsed like a boundless sea of light—and then tossed it onto Ling Xu's lap without expression, like someone discarding trash into an already overflowing bin.
"What—"
Ling Xu's eyes widened as 677,777,777,777 pieces of light burst into the air around him, spinning like a miniature galaxy dancing in the narrow corridor of the city hall, and before he could even question it, the fragments had already entered his chest on their own, merging with the 100 billion he had just received, exploding into something greater, stronger, deeper—lifting him from the newly achieved Supernatural Star Level 30… to the same level as Huan Zheng.
"Are you insane?!" Ling Xu hissed, half shouting and half whispering, his eyes wide as he stared at Huan Zheng, who now stood with his hands in his pockets, his face as expressionless as a gravestone indifferent to everything.
"Why would you give this to me? You could reach Level 33! You could step into the Bright Sky! Why—"
Huan Zheng raised his hand, stopping Ling Xu's chaotic questions with the same lazy motion he used to halt enemy attacks, then answered in a voice that sounded like someone who had just woken up in the middle of the night, still half asleep.
"My body can generate more than this if I get serious," he said, his half-closed eyes staring at the cracked ceiling of the corridor.
"But I'm half lazy. And I don't want to leave you alone at Level 32. You'd get bullied."
Ling Xu fell silent, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, unsure whether to be angry, to laugh, or to cry at such a… Huan Zheng reason.
Inside his chest, after all the coins had merged and the transformation explosion subsided, Ling Xu could feel a different pulse.
No longer the pulse of Supernatural Lintang Level 23 as before, but the pulse of Level 32, with a total of 777,777,777,777 coins—the exact amount needed to stand shoulder to shoulder with Huan Zheng at the threshold of the Bright Sky gate.
He clenched his fist, feeling the flow of Qi—so vast, so powerful, so… different—like a river that once flowed gently now turned into a waterfall crashing against rocks with immeasurable force.
"777 billion," he whispered, his eyes fixed on his own palm, now faintly glowing with the remnants of transformation light.
"I never imagined… it would be this fast…"
Huan Zheng, standing beside him, only smiled faintly.
Not a proud smile, not a satisfied one, but a strangely gentle smile—like a man watching someone he cherishes successfully climb a tree he once thought unreachable.
"And I," he said softly, pressing his own chest, feeling the pulse of the remaining 9,888,888,888,888,888 coins—still lacking 111,111,111,111,111 coins to reach the limit of Supernatural Star Level 33, "am still at the same level as you, Liu Xin. Just a few more tens of trillions before I can step into the next gate. But for now…"
He yawned widely, then walked out toward the courtyard of the city hall, now beginning to be lit by the light of dawn.
"For now, I want Spirit Poultry Essence Noodles. A large portion. With extra egg."
To be continued…